Blind? Zachariah thought. That I didn’t expect. But... does it matter? There is no way a blind boy blocked my kado. No, this boy can see even without eyes. Then, as if reading the Sacer’s mind, Musa spoke again.

“But... I don’t need eyes to know you’re pulling a frighting amount of Vigor.” Musa smiled as if revealing a grand secret.

Zachariah laughed!

I knew it, he thought, this boy has Shade Sight! The Sacer could barely contain his excitement. And if he has the First, then what else does he have? Am I right; does he possess the Fourth? Impossibilities were stacking upon impossibilities, yet Zachariah had to believe what was standing before him.

“Child of Tri-star,” said the General. “You called yourself Musa, did you not?” The hooded boy nodded. “Son of Joshua?” Musa nodded again. “I will remember that name...” Zachariah peered into the child’s sightless blue eyes. “As I promised earlier, I accept your challenge. But I warn you; I will not be fighting you like the others. I can not guarantee your safety.”

Musa’s master had told him this would happen. The blind boy had prepared for this fight for seven years, yet he was not ready. Perspiration formed under his hood and ran into his unseeing eyes. Though it stung, it did not bother him. However, the stirring sensation in the pit of his stomach threatened to rob him of his concentration.

The amount of Vigor the Sacer was pulling was terrifying. Musa could sense it with every fiber of his body. He could not see the magnificent, vibrant threads of other-worldly energy, but he felt them. He always felt them, but never like this. Musa began to tremble.

“Trust our master,” said Caleb, his deep voice startled Musa. The hooded boy was so fixated on the Sacer General that he almost forgot he was not alone. “Don’t tell me the great Musa of the Falling River is scared?” Even without sight, Musa knew Caleb was grinning from ear to ear. “Just go already, show him something amazing, and then we get something to eat.” Long ago, Musa had learned that there was no greater comfort than the words of a good friend. The trembling stopped.

“Sounds good,” replied the hooded boy before raising his eathel wood sword to his forehead and addressing the Sacer. “Thank you, Champion, for your concern. But as I said before... the way the warrior is found in immediacy. So, I guess I’ll start.”

There was no prelude. No buildup of Vigor. No warning of any kind.

The ground under Musa’s feet quaked!

Like a black and white comet, the hooded boy propelled forward! The wind whistled and shrilled as it streamed around him. The concussion of the Musa’s body, breaking the sound barrier, caused Caleb to stumble and shield his face with one giant arm. In one-sixtieth of a second, twice the speed of a beat of a dragonfly’s wing, Musa attacked the Sacer General!

Without Shade Sight, it would have been impossible to track the blind boy’s movements. But with it, it was child’s play... very dangerous child’s play. Zachariah studied the lad’s figure as it flew towards him. No Commons, he analyzed, no armor, or Shade tech. And only a minute level of Vigor. So there was only one explanation for the boy’s inhuman speed, and again, it was impossible.

The General’s kado glowed red with Reinforcement as he waited for the boy’s blow. Zachariah could dodge if he wanted, but he needed to feel it—the boy’s strength.

White eathel wood collided with Vigor infused oak!

CRACK!

Both opponents felt the reverberance shoot up their arms, but neither caved to the other. Then, in a flurry, the blind boy unleashed a tapestry of techniques coveted by the Great Hall. First, Musa cut down with Cleaving Judgement before reversing his grip and slashing upward with Purging Thunder! A yellow flash and audible clap followed the strike, but before it had time to fade, Musa had already thrust with Impaling Darkness, which merged into Splitting Shadows! The sounds of each attack struggled to keep up with the boy’s movements. But no matter how fast Musa’s sword was, Zachariah’s kado was there to oppose it.

How long has it been since I last felt wood on wood? The Sacer pondered. Albert Zander was the last man to block my kado, but when was the last time I had to block? Zachariah could not remember. As a general, he usually trained alone or with others of his status. And like all warriors of his caliber, he did not spar with false weapons. Still, there was something organic and strangely profound about the clashing of wooden swords. Something else he had long forgotten.

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“If a kado is the record of a warrior’s training,” Zachariah recalled the words of his master, “then there is no better way to know a warrior than to cross kados with him.” At this moment, those words were even more true. As the General went blow for blow with this strange, blind boy from Tri-star, he knew another secret Musa was hiding. This boy possesses not only the First Kanzian Art but also the Second.

Shade Touch, Zachariah confirmed. Over and over, the same word kept entering the Sacer’s mind—impossible! Ever since the boy blocked his kado, the General had reached out with Shade Sight, but he could not sense a real weapon. This should not be possible, Zachariah argued with himself. He does not have a kidokane! How is he doing this? Just to make sure, Zachariah poured more Vigor into his sight and searched again. With that much Vigor, he could identify every kidokane within ten miles. He counted hundreds of them, marking all the champions scattered throughout the Sacer headquarters, but none on the boy he was fighting. Impossible!

The skirmish continued as Musa struck at the General’s head with Crown of Light, but the Sacer pivoted to the boy’s left and countered with Twisting Radiance. A regular opponent who relied on sight would have shifted his stance to face his adversary, but Musa did not. The direction he faced was irrelevant. Being blind, the boy had no blind spots. While looking the opposite way, Musa brushed off the attack with his kado like an annoyed ox would swat a fly with his tail. When the boy did turn, it was not to gain perspective but to create momentum.

Musa rotated toward the General while cutting horizontally! The strike had no name, but the velocity and power forced Zachariah to recoil away from the boy. But Musa followed the Sacer and attacked with Piercing Ray! The boy’s swiftness caught the Sacer and forced him to block!

“Excellent!” Zachariah could not help but be excited. The boy’s speed and strength are staggering for someone his age. No, Zachariah corrected, his Shade Touch is comparable to a third-level champion! But has he achieved the Third Art? How do I even test that during a fight? A wicked smile spread across the Sacer’s face. Maybe I should just ask him.

“Tell me, boy,” Zachariah whispered into the Shade. “Why do you cover your head?”

Musa did not respond. Instead, he launched into another series of intricate cuts, slashes, and thrusts. Without missing a step, Zachariah thwarted each one and continued taunting his opponent. Again, he spoke into the Shade.

“Are you bald, perhaps?”

Nothing. Musa attacks persisted.

“Maybe you’re hiding an ugly scar where your mother dropped you on your head as a baby?”

Still Nothing.

“Or perhaps you never had a mother. Did she leave you at birth? Did she discard poor blind Musa in a basket somewhere?”

Unfazed, Musa’s barrage of techniques was unrelenting! One after another, they flowed from his kado with the grace and poise of a veteran.

“So, that’s your story,” Zachariah whispered again, “you’re nothing more than a poor, blind, hairless orphan abandoned on a backwater planet.” No matter how the Sacer prodded, Musa gave no sign he heard a word of the insults. Instead, the hooded boy fought with the same unimpeded cadence he had from the start.

Nothing? Zachariah thought. Does he truly not possess the Third? Or is his temperament really this disciplined? “Fine,” he said once more into the Shade. “I guess you’re both blind and deaf.”

“Or—” Even while half-expecting it, the sudden voice from the Shade both startled and thrilled Zachariah. I KNEW IT! He has Shade Speech! The Sacer was so overcome with the discovery that he almost missed what Musa whispered to him. “—maybe I just wanted to distract you as much as you wanted to distract me.”

A hulking and ominous shadow passed overhead.

Caleb descended like a falling star! His massive kado glowed crimson and crashed into the preoccupied Sacer General!

BOOM!

The earth shook where they stood! A shock wave sent dirt and debris into the air, obscuring the scene. But before the dust even began to settle, Musa could hear Zachariah laughing. With Shade Sight, the blind boy could see the commotion. The Sacer stood facing him with one hand on his weapon and the other reaching high above him. In that hand, Zachariah held Caleb’s massive kado. The young giant kneeled on one knee behind the General. The boy’s muscular arms hung loose and mangled, dislocated from his shoulders. Agony and anguish riddled his features, but he held back any cries of pain with clenched teeth.

“OUTSTANDING!” proclaimed Zachariah. “Absolutely wonderful!” The General talked over his shoulder to the broken boy. “You used Cloak, didn’t you? You escaped my Shade Sight right up to the last second.” Caleb could not reply. It took every ounce of willpower to stay upright. “You pass!” Zachariah decreed before he back-kicked the injured boy in the chest! All four hundred pounds of Caleb tumbled and skipped across the Trial Ground before he came to rest next to the equally unconscious Saul.

“Now, that leaves just you and me.” The General addressed Musa. “No more distractions. No more games.” The Sacer disappeared into the Shade and instantly emerged behind the blind boy. “Show me what I already know... Show me the Fourth Kanzian Art!”

As the Sacer attacked the hooded boy, the hairs on his neck stood up.

Musa vanished.