The leader had challenged the father to a fight, which came as a surprise not only to me but the rest of the audience, including my family.

The father looked a bit angry at the notion but nonetheless, he still walked inside of the ring.

Neither person had brought a weapon to fight with due to the spontaneousness of the situation so after some talking, two of the previous participants of the tournament volunteered their weapons to them.

I already knew that the father would be using a spear, after all, that's the only weapon I've seen him take along when he goes out, and on the other side, the leader was using a simple sword.

I expected him to use a heavier weapon with his great stature, but at the same time I saw no one using anything like a greatsword here that he could borrow, which left the possibility that his true weapon of choice was something different.

After receiving their weapons, the father just stood there in his spot while the leader swung his sword around a few times, likely to get a handle for the weight.

With every one of his swings, the sound of wind being loudly separated rang out, displaying a hint of the power behind the casual swings.

I surmised that a direct hit from him would likely end in several broken bones and cause heavy internal damage to anybody unprepared.

All things considered, it wasn't looking too good for the father, yet he stood fast with a completely calm expression drawn on his face.

Moments later, the referee of the tournament walked in between them and signed the start of the duel in a similar fashion.

Unlike many of the other fights however, the two of them didn't move an inch from their starting positions.

They had taken up different combat stances and simply observed the other's actions, or more accurately, the other’s lack of action.

It wasn't long before the standstill broke with the father throwing a jab using the spear at the leader's lower torso with blurring speeds.

The leader immediately responded by smacking away the tip of the spear while it was still in motion, demonstrating that the speed posed no threat to him.

Unfortunately for him though, the rebound of the spear seemed to be planned as the opposite end of the spear came in even quicker with the extra force added by the leader, hitting him in the shoulder.

He didn't look very hurt from the exchange, but it did make him slightly angry.

The leader started counter attacking with a flurry of slashes, each one faster and more powerful than the one before it.

I expected the father to be in a tough spot after seeing that, but I was thoroughly mistaken, as he either expertly parried every attack of the leader leading to a strike back or narrowly dodged it, all with the same stoic expression on his face.

The winner of this fight was becoming clear to me at this point, not only was the father winning the physical fight but also the mental one.

The father's calmness never left him for a moment, never getting overly confident even while he had the advantage while on the other hand, the leader was furious and getting more agitated with each hit he took even though it didn't affect him in the slightest.

While he was losing at the moment, just one direct hit from him would’ve drastically upset the balance of the fight in his favor to the point that none of the prior events would even matter, however he was too busy with his anger to realize that.

His fighting style lost every hint of technique as his anger made him fight more like a wild animal than a human, something that made him get hit more, and consequently more angry.

Eventually, he reached a snapping point and something supernatural occurred.

His attacks became so fast that I could barely keep up with my eyes.

Every so often an orange hue could be spotted coating his body until his whole figure started to glow with an orange hue.

'What is that?!' I thought to myself.

I was completely hooked watching the fight by this point, giving every ounce of focus and concentration to find out more about the phenomenon I was witnessing.

The father, although still calm, was now being heavily pushed back by this change to the fight.

His counter attacks had aptly stopped, only being able to hurriedly block or dodge the oncoming attacks by a thin margin.

These attacks were also taking their toll on his spear, which I would remind you was made entirely of wood, with cracks forming on the areas that were used to block.

It didn't take too long until it snapped in half with an extra powerful blow from the leader on a spot that had already endured too many hits.

I thought they would stop here with victory going to the leader, but much to my surprise the father threw the broken spear away and took a fighting stance again.

This time he started to glow, but in a bright shade of purple.

'He can do that too?!'

The leader tightened his grip on his sword and charged in once again, however the difference in skill became apparent once more, in fact even more so than before, because as soon as he swung his sword the father maneuvered around the slash and disarmed him.

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With the leader's sword now in his hand, the father springboarded off the leader with a flashy kick, creating some distance between the two.

Now he had a weapon while the leader didn't, the winner was clear as day.

However in another twist of events, instead of using the sword, he threw it behind him.

'...'

'WHAT?'

'He hadn't displayed any arrogance since the start of the fight but now when he had such a big advantage, he threw it away just like that!?'

While I was left confused by his actions, he took on a different stance.

His feet rooted into the ground shoulder width apart, his front completely exposed, and his arms besides him pointed outwardly.

The purple glow around him started becoming brighter and more concentrated on his body’s outline.

Not wanting him to finish whatever he was doing; the leader restarted his barrage of attacks only this time with his bare hands while the father surprisingly showed no sign of defending.

It didn't take long for the first punch to connect, and then the next, and so on with every hit the leader threw making direct contact to the father, however even more bizarrely he seemed not to be fazed in the slightest by the powerful punches being thrown at him.

The aura around him got so bright to the point that I could hardly even look at the fight without hurting my eyes.

The leader, likely sensing the dangerous amount of power that would be behind the next attack, instantly stopped his barrage and got into a defensive position.

What followed was an ear-shattering boom combined with a bright flash of purple light.

My curiosity burned, wanting to see what had happened, yet a large cloud of dust had covered the entire field where the two men had previously been standing.

When it all subsided, the glow was gone and the two were frozen in position.

The leader was still in his defensive posture with his eyes clenched shut, meanwhile the father had an outstretched fist hanging right in front of the leader’s face.

Strangely enough though, the fist wasn't touching him.

It was only a bit later that I realized that he had actually pulled his punch at the last second.

He said a few words, seemingly addressing no one in particular, before walking right back to his position next to the mother where he was stationed prior to being challenged.

Instead of the mother being ecstatic about her husband's victory though, she just gave an uneasy smile and patted him on the shoulder with her free hand.

The brother on the other hand was grinning from ear to ear, yet he stayed quiet as well, knowing well that then was not the time to break out into celebration.

Expectedly though, the rest of the crowd was very dispirited, clearly because they were rooting for the leader who had undoubtedly lost the fight.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that should that last attack have hit him, the results would not have been pretty, either leading to his death or a horrible injury.

This fact was further evidenced by taking a look at the leader, who hadn’t taken a step from the location of his defeat with his head hung low and a disappointed look on his face.

A few minutes went by in silence before his wife came over to comfort him, and not long after his daughter also joined in.

Slowly the whole village banded together to help console the leader with a spur of encouraging words being tossed at him.

Soon enough, the leader was done mourning his loss and back to his old serious self.

He announced something that in a moment's notice brought back all the festivity as people started shuffling around with a renewed excitement.

Eventually, the area where the fighting had taken place was cleared as some villagers took positions around the clearing and began to play some wacky instruments that I couldn't even begin to describe properly.

Slowly people began cluttering the space again while dancing to the music, some in pairs and others by themselves.

Those who weren't dancing were watching from the sidelines while sipping on a drink made from the vine berries, something I had learned was very popular amongst the villagers.

It was as if all the past activity had never even happened in the first place, giving me a bit of deja- vu to the dining table event.

During this time my mind was going a million miles a second, thinking about what that strange power they used was, and more importantly if I could I perhaps use it as well.

In the case that I could, I had already decided that I would completely forget my previous plans of becoming a scholar in order to seek out this power.

No matter who it is, everyone has at one point had thoughts about magic powers, and me especially as someone who used to train for combat every day on modern-day Earth.

Life can be very fragile, and death can be moments away in any situation, the fact that just about everyone I would've had to deal with in my field of work would be equipped with machines that could end the life of someone with the pull of a finger didn't help.

I sometimes dreamed of having the power to overcome this dangerous weaponry of Earth with magical abilities that one would only see in a work of fiction, a thought that greatly excited me at the time but also one I knew was unlikely to ever come into fruition.

However, with everything I had just observed, things were different now and there was a real chance of something like that being possible.

I decided that before making any more long-term plans, I would first have to learn more of this supernatural power.

With those thoughts still passively circulating my mind, I went back to watching the festival in case there were more supernatural elements in this world that I still hadn't seen.

The dancing and songs continued with the leader and his wife joining in at some point too, causing the crowd to start wildly cheering.

The father refrained from dancing but that didn't stop the mother as she pulled the brother with her to dance.

After a few songs, everyone cleared the dance floor except for the young men, many of whom were participants in the previous event.

A new song was started being played which was much more calmer and slower.

The men on the field looked really nervous, staying in one place and glancing at each other almost like they were waiting for someone else to do something first.

Finally, one man, the winner of the tournament, took the initiative as he walked over to where the leader and his family were.

He bowed to the leader with his right hand over his left shoulder before speaking to his daughter in a sophisticated manner and holding out his hand.

She took a look towards her family before taking his hand and joining him in dance.

People applauded and cheered for them as other newly motivated men emulated his actions with the other young women.

At the end of it all, mostly everyone got a partner, except for a few who were rejected and opted to leave the dancing with heartbroken faces.

From what I gathered; this part of the festival seemed to be a courtship ceremony which kind of also explained the tournament's purpose.

Those who were more successful got more favorable matchups while those who did badly or didn't participate got the “less favorable” matchups.

As the dancing continued, I took a glance over at the giant log which had been lit on fire at the beginning of the festival, now only one-fourth of what it used to be.

'Weird' I thought, being familiar with trees that would have burned down in minutes, but this obviously wasn't the type of trees I was familiar with.

After a few more songs the people began moving to the last area that was set up.

It was the platform with the red carpet.