29 Fight Between the Strongest warrior and the Rookie

Jermaine was angry, He had expected a diamond, but all he got was brass. Samuel did not look that strong, but as the first author had said, Never judge a book by it's cover. He wanted to test Samuel in some way. Therefore, when the carriages reached the Royal Palace,

Princess had left to see her family after a long time.

He asked Samuel,"Will you care to have a bout with me?"

"I am tired right now. Maybe I can fight with you tomorrow if you like?" Samuel tried to turn him down. He was very well aware that Jermaine was not a simple man. If he wanted to fight him, there must be some ulterior motive behind the request. If the reason for this bout was to release that killing intent, then Samuel had no way of making it out alive from the arena.

"Let me add something to this bout. If you win, Princess Sarah will be immediately crowned as the ruler of this Kingdom. Even you would be provided with the post of commander if you win. If you lose, you lose nothing. I will be a sword duel, which does not permit killing the opponent."

Samuel was at a loss of words. He did not expect that he would be rewarded in such a way. There was no way he could turn down the offer, because if the princess got to know about it, She will be angry.

"Let me change my statement. I accept your challenge." Samuel said.

He was not confident, But till the time it was a sword duel, he could be sure about his life, It was because a person who dishonors the Sword duel dies in 10 days. This was a curse which was laid upon the people of Sabith from a warrior who had been betrayed by a person from Sabith in a duel. This information was given to him by Brian during his journey.

"Do you have a weapon? If not I can order a servant to bring you one, But It will be a sword by default."

"No, I have my own weapon." He said while removing the sword from his scabbard.

Jermaine was unimpressed. It was a wooden sword." Silas, bring me a wooden training sword from the royal arena." He ordered a man who was named Silas and was Much older than Jermaine.

Silas brought the sword. He was going to be the judge of this match.

"Rules. There will be 5 rounds in which the person who is able to strike at a vital point of the opponent before the opponent can do the same wins a round. The first person to win three rounds wins. But your sword should not injure the body of your opponent and leave a fatal wound ."

This set of rules was different than the previous duel Samuel had fought. Striking at any point of the body was allowed.

"Are you two ready?" he asked.

"Ready." Both answered.

"Commence!" Silas said.

Samuel was the one to attack first. He aimed at the right leg with his sword. He was pretty confident that he would not be able to strike at upper part of Jermaine's body.

He used chop, and the moment his hit connected, he was happy. But there was something wrong. Samuel had not felt his strike touching flesh. It turned out to be the after Image left by Jermaine.

Jermaine was not in front of him.

He was behind. He aimed towards the back of Samuel and It was a clean strike. A strike which stopped before hitting his back.

"This round goes to Jermaine. The score is 1-nil."

Samuel felt weak. He was not even able to feel Jermaine's presence behind him, Let alone dodge his attack.

Round two, start!

This time, Samuel used all the strength and combat expertise he had for this move, He knew that the fight was pointless. But he still had to measure Jermaine's capability. He swiftly used his footwork to close the distance between the two, while pretending to use chop, When Jermaine Dodged in the same way again, He stopped his chop halfway and used 3 slashes simultaneously in the directions in which Jermaine could have dodged and went. All attacks had a difference of 0.1 seconds between them.

"Clever, But weak." Jermaine said. He was in the same position in which he started, He used his sword to strike at Samuel's abdomen.

"This round goes to Jermaine. Score is 2-nil."

Samuel was clueless about the movements Jermaine had executed when he defeated him in the last round. Out of the 30 seconds that the fight had lasted, Samuel had only seen Jermaine for 4 seconds!