Duel

I fully expected to lose from the moment I grabbed the sword. I could see his discipline and strength from the way he shot the bow and even if he had never wielded a sword before in his life, the strength difference would be hard to overcome.

There was a little bit of hope though. 'Maybe I can win…' There was a chance, however slim. I wanted desperately to prove myself again, to hear words of admiration. To prove that I wasn't weak anymore. No matter how hopeless it was, or how stupid it was for me to pick the fight, I wanted to win.

  'Since it's a wooden sword I can actually move it around fairly well despite its size. It's the same type of blade I've trained with for years. Maybe I do have some chance…'

Before I had any more time to think he took my challenge head-on and charged me. In the blink of an eye, he had closed the distance, relentlessly swinging his sword. Each strike was carefully placed with the intent to knock me off balance and create an opening in my guard.

I had no choice but to try and parry each attack, deflecting his blows instead of absorbing the weight of his strikes. After several attempts, I finally knocked his sword to the side deflecting its tip strength into the ground. With his guard down I thrusted my sword's pommel straight into his chest, but he only had to take one step back before quickly regaining his posture.

'Come on, when Mara does that I can't even stand afterward…'

He took another step back, focusing himself again and adopting a more traditional stance, opposed to just recklessly swinging. His eyes were not cold anymore, instead, they were filled with fire. It was even more terrifying.

Coming at me again, his strikes were becoming more and more deadly and precise, each one flowing after the next. It was hard to find even a small opening in his stance, meanwhile, my defense was crumbling, and my arms were beginning to ache. Each attempt to block his powerful attacks rattled my bones.

He readied a heavy overhead blow and I moved to the side just narrowly dodging. My sword was down so the only thing I could do with the opening I had created was a shoulder charge. Again he took a single step back.

Without even being phased he immediately transitioned into a diagonal slash from below. I managed to duck just in time, kicking him in the knee.

It didn't even cause him to move an inch.

He readied the full weight of an overhead slash again and I had no choice but to block it head-on. The swords clashed against each other as my arms caved under the force and I had to push against it with my shoulder just to stay on my feet.

I managed to slide his blade down my own before swinging in a wide arc. 'This is my last chance.'

With all the force and momentum I had I swung my sword at his left shoulder, but before my strike hit he had already moved to block it. 'Are my arms already this tired?'

He unleashed a brutal onslaught of overhead slashes that made me feel like I was fighting a rabid beast. There was no technique or form from either of us. It was just one brutal overhead slash after another in such quick succession while I tried desperately to block.

  that all I could do was absorb the weight of the attack and try my best to brace for the next one. "Stop." I tried to stop the duel but the clashing of our heavy wooden blades was too loud for my meager voice to reach him.

My sword snapped around my left arm and I fell to the ground, but he had already started his next swing. I covered my head with my arm, bracing myself. His eyes looked like they were on fire. It was like he was trying to kill something.

His final swing connected with my bare arm and before he finally pulled back. He stood over me with a terrifying anger showing through his scowl. 

My left arm stung, and my shoulders ached from taking so many blows head-on, but overall it was nothing compared to the beatings I had taken in the past, so it didn't even bother me. I was far more worried about him.

I was terrified by his overwhelming strength, but he threw the sword to the ground. It was over. The adrenaline hadn't left my system yet, and I was still shaking, but my mind was able to calm down the moment I saw him freeze up after hitting me.

I let out a sigh to try and hide the terror I had felt just moments ago and fell onto my back. "That's gonna leave a mark," I said, lifting my arm to the light.

"I-I'll get the medicine kit!" He rushed over to the cabinets, quickly searching through them to grab one.

"But it's just a bruise though?" It was nice that he was worried, but there was no blood to clean up, so I didn't see what good bandaging it would do. 

He rushed to my side. "Give me your arm."

Sitting back up I went along with it. "Sure, whatever." I lifted it up and he quickly grabbed it, coating it in an ointment we used to prevent joint and bone damage from intense training.

Every time he touched it it felt worse. My bones ached, crying out in pain. My arm had already swollen from the blow. It was the same arm that had been bruised from Callum. The discoloration from the two injuries overlapped to make for a gruesome-looking injury before long.

"This is serious, the medicine in this kit helps prevent swelling and numb the pain, doesn't it hurt?"

I looked down. Of course it hurt, it felt like my bones were shattered. I guess I just want to show it.

"Well… Sure, I guess it does. It's just, usually, it's considered a waste to use medicine on anything that isn't broken or bleeding. Things that help with healing sure, but things that numb the pain? I wouldn't even get that if I lost an arm. I'm surprised we even have any."

He was quickly wrapping a bandage around my arm but paused for a moment as I spoke. 'Is it really that shocking? That feels like one of the less abusive things I have to go through. After all, wouldn't numbing the pain just be the same as pretending it isn't there… the issue is what causes it.'

'At any rate, that should have made my point.' "See… Even with all that legendary blood in my veins, I'm still weak and useless."

He tied off the bandage and sat down next to me. "How could you say that, your technique was far superior to mine. You got in almost four solid attacks."

"Exactly… Do you think Mara, or Catherine, or any one of my siblings would lose a fight where they have four openings to attack… It doesn't matter how skilled I am. I'm not strong enough for it to matter…"

He sat in silence, Probably feeling uncomfortable at his lack of ability to comfort me. Even he could easily see it was true.

'That wasn't the point though. I didn't just do this so I could wallow in self-pity…' "I've been training every day since I was 5 years old, you know…"

Still, he said nothing.

"I'm not allowed to take a hot bath, so I wash myself in the freezing cave spring a few hundred yards from the castle. That's because it helps with training. I spend over 5 hours a day training to make my body stronger, and another 5 hours training to make my body tougher…" 

It was hard to say it all out loud without getting emotional. I could tell I was starting to slip so I paused and just cut to the chase. "If my parents are who they are, and I can go through all of that and still be this weak… Then how can you sit there and tell me you're cursed to go mad just like your parents…"

His eyes widened and the glow completely vanished, along with the intensity I felt surrounding him.

He stood up without a word. I was expecting him to yell, to act out, maybe to even hit me again screaming about how I knew nothing about him. Instead, he simply bowed, gently apologized for hurting me, and walked away. 

"I'll never understand how people think…"

Some time later. I overheard him talking to Catherine at the barrack. She agreed to take him on as her official pupil, saying she would teach him how to kill the demon inside, and now that he wasn't running from it anymore he could fight it.

To be honest it was all beyond me. As far as I knew she was already teaching him. Instead, it seemed something inside of him had changed for the better. I liked to think it was because of me, but ultimately all I did was throw a temper tantrum and force him to fight me, ultimately losing.