After Roy had concluded the meeting, Alfonse and Marth led their groups out on a hunt. As per his instructions, the mood had become more serious and tense. They knew that today was going to be a long and harsh one.
“You sure about what you told them? If they overwork themselves, they might get injured, or worse…”
Robb’s words were not without merits. The way Roy pushed the two groups added more risk to their hunt and could result in a tragedy.
“If they fight too many goblins and they’re not ready, they might get wounded or even die. But if they face the red bear without having brushed with danger, they would definitely die.”
Robb tilted his head and scratched his chin at Roy’s words. “Can’t we just take care of the red bear on our own? I know we can’t do it right now, but after a week we should be strong enough.”
Roy looked at his friend and smiled. “That might be true. We could probably kill the bear by ourselves if we just focus on hunting with our friends and the strong knights.” He then took a deep breath before continuing, “But what about after? We will kill the red bear, and we become stronger, but they would stay the same. Stronger monsters will come and we will have to fight them by ourselves since we’re the strongest. The gap will continue to grow, but at some point, we might face something that we can’t handle with just us.”
Robb listened intently to Roy’s speech before asking, “Something like what? Monsters? Or the empire?”
“Who knows?” Rou shrugged his shoulders. “For now, it could be just John’s men and we might be in trouble. We two might be stronger than any of their knights, but their army is much bigger and each of them is stronger than our villager-volunteers.”
Robb nodded his head. “Yeah, you’re right; we need to become stronger. But still, don’t get too hasty and end up messing up everything.”
“I will try not to be,” Roy replied. “But at the end of the day, there is no right time to battle an ogre or a red bear. You just need to clench your teeth and charge through it.”
Robb chuckled at Roy’s answer. “You know, you were always mature beyond your age, but you really pushed it up a notch since this whole thing started. I’m proud of you, man.”
“Thank you.” Roy smiled at Robb’s compliment. “Well, I guess being almost burned to death and then killing goblins and ogres all day does that to a man.”
“I guess it does,” Robb let out a hearty laugh. “Say, wanna go and keep hunting ogres?”
Roy put on his thinking face, staring blankly at the dirt road. “We can do that, but I think we should go and check around the forest. I wanna know what kind of monsters are there, especially the strong ones.”
Robb tilted his head and nodded. “Sure, why not. I got bored of ogres too, so it would be good if we could find some other strong monsters in the woods.” He then looked at Roy and asked, “So, wanna go right now?”
The latter sighed and looked in the direction of the marketplace. “Before that, I need to go check on Lorenz and Jack. His group will need to guard the little kid while he is working. You can go to the forest before me if you want.”
“No, there is no need for that.” Robb shook his head. “If it’s not going to take long, we don’t need to split up and look for each other later.”
After finishing their discussion, the duo made their way toward Lorenz. With their high agility, it didn’t take them more than five minutes to run through the streets of the marketplace and reach the blacksmith’s house.
As they approached Lorenz’s house, they found Jack sitting on a small chair next to Hassan who was smoking his pipe.
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After they exchanged some greetings, Roy asked Jack, “So, how was the night?”
“Pretty good actually, we got quite strong,” Jack replied while grinning broadly.
“Oh really, how strong?” Roy raised his eyebrow in interest.
“Wanna see by yourself,” Jack signaled with his head for a spar.
Roy stared in surprise at his friend’s confidence. While he might not be the strongest in sword combat, his stats were still high enough that he could beat almost anyone in the village.
“Sure, but let’s do it with just wooden sticks. No need for a real sword in a spar.”
Jack shrugged his shoulders, “Sure, why not.”
The two then searched around on the dirt ground for branches or pieces of wood that could be used as mock swords. Once they found two sticks with relatively similar lengths, they went back next to Lorenz’s house and took a sword stance.
“Who do you think is gonna win?” Hassan stopped smoking his pipe and asked Robb.
Robb looked at his two friends for a bit before answering, “Hmm, I’m not sure how strong Jack had become, but Roy is definitely not easy. There shouldn’t be many in the whole village that can defeat him with a sword.”
Hearing Robb’s praise, Hassan looked at him with an interested look. “What about you, can you defeat him?”
“If it’s just a sword fight, then yes, I can defeat him.” Robb’s reply was short and certain.
While Hassan and Robb were talking at the side, Jack pounced at his opponent with a flurry of strikes. Roy blocked and stepped back, but he could not find an opportunity to counter-attack. Each of Jack’s stabs connected perfectly with his next slash, leaving his opponent no opportunity or time to react.
Seeing that he was getting overwhelmed, Roy dashed to the side to create some distance. He then rushed back with a diagonal slash. Just as he was about to make that last step, Roy stopped dead in his tracks with the intention of throwing off Jack’s rhythm.
However, just as Roy’s feet stopped, his opponent immediately dashed in and stabbed his unprotected chest, pushing him to the ground. As Roy looked up at Jack his eyes were wide in surprise. But soon, a smile covered his face as a warm feeling spread from his heart and throughout his chest.
“Good job, that was an amazing fight.”
Jack grinned and offered his hand. “You too, that was a lovely feint.”
Roy took Jack’s hand and stood up before shaking his head. “It wasn’t good enough, though. You saw right through it.”
Jack scratched his head and weakly smiled. “That’s because of my skill. I don’t know how to explain it, but it’s like I have been practicing the sword for years and my movements became an instinct. Your feint too, when I saw you coming I just immediately knew what you were going to do.”
“That’s quite a strong skill, I’m happy for you.” Roy looked at Jack with a warm smile, making the latter turn his head in embarrassment.
“Anyways, let’s go in. We need to wake up the others.” Jack changed the subject and made his way toward the front door.
Roy followed after him and they both entered Lorenz’s house. Hawk, Lorenz, and the three other volunteers were still asleep on the carpet full of cushions.
Jack clapped his hands. “Wake up, wake up. It’s been an hour since dawn broke.”
Hawk and the three volunteers woke up with little problems, but Lorenz grumbled and cursed. “Damnit, I got it, I’m gonna wake up. No need to be so loud this early in the morning.”
Lorenz scratched his eyes and looked at the two figures standing in front of the door. “Roy, why are you here this early?”
“I was just worried about you guys so I came to check,” The young man replied with a slight smile.
“You worry too much, you know that? You’re gonna end up with grey hair by the time you’re twenty-two if you continue like that.” Lorenz teased Roy, while the latter just laughed.
In the meantime, as Roy was talking with Lorenz, Hassan and Robb were standing outside waiting.
“After you saw the two fight, what do you think? You can beat Jack?” The knight asked as a way to relieve some of his boredom.
Robb thought for a second before responding, “I guess it depends. Unless Jack has some other skill, my speed would just be too much for him and I would win that way.”
Hassan raised his eyebrow in surprise, “Wow, that’s quite the confidence. Then wouldn’t that make you the strongest person here?”
“Not really, I’m far from that.”
The knight's surprise morphed into confusion and doubt. “But you said you can beat both Jack and Roy, who can beat you then?”
“I only said that I would beat Roy if it was a sword fight,” Robb replied calmly. He then looked at his friend who was joking around with Lorenz. “If he uses all of his power, then I don’t think there is anyone in this village who can defeat him.”