Chapter 13

The Night Hunters stood before the huge man-made arena in the middle of the forest. In front of them was a protruding stage shaped like an uneven circle made of a carved stone. They were surrounded with trees, which made the place quite eerie and uncanny.

"I asked Day to orient our newbie a while ago," Ronim stated. "I hope you're aware of what's going to happen this afternoon, then?" Finn only nodded. "Since you're now an odd number, I was thinking of a way on how to do our afternoon training, and this is what I thought."

"You're still free to choose the opponent you'd like to fight against, and I'm still going to choose for those who are undecided. As for our newbie…" Ronim stared at Finn and continued, "You're going to be fighting against me."

Everyone gasped, especially Finn, who was conflicted for a moment. The first thing that entered his mind was how ridiculous the idea was. He looked at the instructor's seve.red leg, and he thought it wouldn't be fair for the latter.

Finn was aware that he was only a newbie, but the other was missing a leg. How was he supposed to fight seriously with a guy like this?

Day tapped his shoulder, sending him back to reality. "You're going to be okay."

Before Finn could ask what she meant, the instructor already called the first two. It was the woman Day was always with, and the other man who was always smiling at everyone.

"As usual," Day said, "it's going to be those two."

"What do you mean?"

"Honey and Justine always do this together. They always fight each other during training, counting their losses and wins. They have this internal competition between them that I don't understand."

Honey and Justine were both knights, using swords to fight and catch crimi.nals. They were childhood best friends, and they joined the group together for different reasons. They liked having duels ever since they were kids, and didn't realize that they had been doing this until now. It was already a written rule between them.

When Ronim motioned the fight to start, Honey and Justine were fast enough to cast a spell on their swords before attacking each other. Their swords clang upon colliding, sparks glimmering. Instead of stepping back, they continued attacking each other at close proximities.

No one bothered to defend themselves. They were just striking, like they intended to sl-it each other's throat.

"Are they going to be okay?" Finn asked, worried that the two might end up k-lling each other if they continued to fight like this.

Day chuckled. "They're doing just fine. What are you so worried about?"

"Aren't you? They charge at each other like they are enemies. What if something happens, and they injure each other more than necessary?"

"They won't, okay? They might be enemies inside the circle, but they are childhood best friends. They won't k-ll each other just because of this."

"They are childhood best friends?"

Day nodded. "They grew up together, so there's no way they'll k-ll each other because of this, okay?"

That changed Finn's view towards the two. That was when he noticed the smile on their faces while fighting each other. Setting aside their bar-baric way of fighting, they seemed to be enjoying the duel.

They could avoid each other's attacks like they knew how they fought, which was not surprising since they were fighting since they were kids. But if this continued, the duel would be a draw, and both of them would receive their punishment.

The last time someone was punished, it was Rina. Finn wondered how these two would end their fight if they could tell how each other moved by now. When one of them attacked, the other would defend just fine, and vice versa.

"It's almost an hour," Day said beside him. "Someone's going to win any minute now." She said that, like she already knew the outcome, like she knew who was going to win. 

But just like what Day said, Finn started to notice something. Different circles glowed on the floor, but the two continued clashing their swords, ignoring the circles that were starting to glow one by one.

Both of them jumped from one spot to another, avoiding the circles on the floor. And when the whole stage was filled with circles, the two stopped fighting and focused on their landing. Honey swung her sword towards Justine, and the latter did the same.

Justine threw the sword towards Honey, but was surprised to see that her sword wasn't going in his direction. And when he realized what was happening, he just let himself fall on the floor as Honey's sword touched the circle right at the spot where Justine was falling. 

An explosion erupted, blinding everyone.

Coughing, Finn asked, "What just happened?"

Day was also coughing as she answered, "Honey won. She caught Justine's sword with her bare hands."

"I didn't see it. I was focused on the sword towards Justine's direction. I thought Honey missed hitting him."

"It was on purpose. She was aiming at the circle she created below Justine's landing. It's a magic circle that triggers when stabbed by a sword. There's no way he could have reacted faster than that explosion."

When the smoke and dust dissipated, Finn saw what Day meant. Justine was struggling to breathe due to the impact of the explosion, with her face nearly obscured by dark dirt. Meanwhile, Honey clutched Justine's sword in her left hand, which was bleeding, yet her right hand firmly gripped her own sword, directed away from Justine's throat.

"101 wins, 100 losses," Honey said before handing him his sword.

Justine chuckled, and accepted it. "That was a nice fight."

"Honey wins," Ronim declared as the magic circles started to disappear one after another. 

"So," Finn said, "while they were busy clashing swords, they were also drawing magic circles on the floor, am I right?"

Day nodded. "Each magic circle has different colors, so they have different purposes as well. That circle Honey hit was an explosion circle triggered by metals. If I'm right, the other circles are meant to cage whoever steps on it."

"They weren't simply fighting aggressively. They were calculating each other's attacks while making their next moves. They're several steps ahead. This is just like a chess game."

"That's a good way to put it!" Day said, but her smile faded when her name was called, together with Rina. "And here goes nothing."

"Good luck, Day!" Finn beamed and tried to boost her confidence, but she didn't look back to answer him. She was already on her way inside the stage, heart thumping like crazy.