Chapter 9 - The Challenger
The morning started early for the king and the knight Bhalrom, they where in a balcony on a higher story of the castle, while Riou kept on dreaming, enjoying his so anticipated sleep of the just, no march early in the morning, or long discussions of magic in the night... it was the first time he could indeed rest.
The king was looking into the horizon, it was another beautiful summer day with a few clouds in the sky.
The last night he had met a strange boy, who was strangely praised by his old friend, who kept intentionally diverting or giving half answers... they remained there for a bit more but the rest of the night didn't bring him much information, so he decided to try another source... the boy had intrigued him that much...
- "Say Bhalrom, you also had some time with the boy didn't you? I heard the details of how you found him last night. And now that Max and the boy are not around, I wanted you to tell me your personal impression of him..." - Said the king very curious on the knights opinion
- "Well my lord... I did spent some time with the boy... I must admit, he grew on me the more I got to know him... I dare say he shown me so far nothing but courage and honor..." The knight was smiling proudly, as if a proud father praising his son qualities - "Do you believe my lord he wanted to learn the sword? And the whole group of the First Army there taught the boy? Every single day at noon... he struggled a lot at first, he was a boy against veteran soldiers, but eventually he could pull off a win in the duel... of course the men probably were easy on him, but still..."
- "Wait..." interrupted the king - "Are you saying the boy trained with the First army for a month and was able to duel with the veterans? Not only dueling but winning as well?" asked an skeptic king...
- "Yes, quite unbelievable story, he started not so well, but quickly shown a natural talent the men said... after a while he was very good, I can safely say today he could easily join the First in a year or two, just so he meet the minimum age... I can assure he is far better than the average soldier"
The king didn't know how to react to that... he asked seeking answers but the mysteries only grew bigger...
----------------- couple hours later
Riou woke up well rested... He slowly got up and looked at his clothes, he decided to put on his old clothes as the one for the night seemed expensive, so he didn't want to get them dirty or sweaty.
He put on his old outfit, it was a bit smelly but so was he... that dirt and old sweat was bothering him a lot, it was days since his last bath... and it was not a great one either, it was on a small river that the army camped by during the march... "Ahh... I really could you a warm shower...." he thought remembering the simple pleasures of warm watter, he missed the comfort of a warm bath the most at that moment...where all he could do, was to use the water in the bowl to was wash his face and parts of his body...
He walked out of the room and started to explore the castle... he was only summoned for the evening, and seemed too early for lunch, so he intended to pass the time by getting to know the castle a bit more...
It didn't take long to find the garden...
It was massively big... he could see the walls surrounding the garden, it had green all over, it was leveled to be flat, but every now and then there was a step down, the castle was constructed on a plateau and was very irregular, the very end of the garden, at the start of the plateau it was much lower than where the castle was localized at the other side so it was leveled this way to have some flat surface, and each of the steps of this big stair could easily fit a very big house in...
He also noted some commotion, lots of noises going on not too far from where he was, very near to the castle... and curious he approached... and by turning a corner he could see what seemed to be an arena with stone bleachers, filled with people, people all over the place around the arena.
Some of them were soldiers, he recognize a few from the First Army, but there were a lot of different people, they seemed to be in the majority men and between 15 and 30, some of them were blond, some had dark and brown hair, but all of them seemed to be using a similar kind of vestment to the one he was given. They were all cheering and shouting...
The arena was a few steps higher than the ground, and was made of a flat round stone, there were no holds or cords, just a plain round flat rock above ground. Riou subtended that the one who felled would loose.
On top of the arena there was a man, around 30 years old, he was using a full armor very similar to the one the knight was using, holding a real two edged sword... he seemed very tired already...
On the other side of the arena, there was a woman, had a blond that almost seemed white, it seemed long but it was well tied up, eyes were of a crystal blue... her face was extremely beautiful despite the dead serious look towards her opponent... she was wearing a leather armor that protected her arms and chest, underneath it she was using what seemed to be a training outfit, very fit to her body and seemed made of a stronger cloth, similar to Riou pants. Her body was very nimble and proportional, Riou found her attributes very, very appealing... and compared her to be at the same level of many gorgeous models of his world.
She was holding a sword a bit thinner than the opponent with a much sharper point...
Even so she was able to deflect and redirect the opponent attacks with ease...
"I see, she opted for movement and agility, while he opted for defense... too bad her weapon can easily kill him... that armor is too flawed in the joints... with a bit of accuracy her sword can easily puncture them" he thought to himself..
Three men of the First that were near recognized Riou and approached him... - "Hey Riou, came to see the duel?" asked the soldier of the First
- "I didn't even know there was a duel... whats this about?" he asked curiously
- "Well, every now and then a crazy noble challenges her, and we never miss a chance to see her wiping the floor with them!" Said proudly
- "Many of us came in even on our off duty day, just to see this" complemented the other one admiring the fight...
- "Ho, so this happens with frequency?" Asked Riou watching the duel as well...
- "It's getting more frequent now, seems like the nobles are getting impatient lately... but say Riou, what do you think of her?" Said the soldier pointing to the woman fighter in the arena...
- "She is smart and agile, she got the edge over the armored man, he is already tired for moving inside that armor and swinging against her... I bet she didn't even break a sweat yet... and she seems to be taking her time to finish in a single blow..." Analyzed Riou, the soldier was impressed by the spot on description of her way of fighting even more that the boy was seeing it for the first time.
- "Say Riou, do you think you can win against her?" Asked the same soldier...
- "Maybe..." Promptly answered Riou without thinking much... the soldier knew right then, Riou was confident enough that he could win... and said those words just to not boast himself... "truly a humble boy..." the soldier thought..
The fight was quickly over, with the man in armor kneeling on the arena floor, heads down and sword to the face... she forced him on an overextend and then precisely wounding him on the shoulder of the arm that was holding the sword... the pain forced him to release it and so he fell exhausted and defeated... the wound was bleeding, but not so much that would indicate that the man suffered a vital strike, seemed liked the girl was very precise on her trusts indeed.
Some young men came to the rescue and removed the armored man from the arena, probably taken him inside for treatment... the girl remained in the arena... and another blond figure appeared... it was Kasius the prince... and he quickly claimed everyones attention...
- "And another contender had fallen... seems like this young lady does not want to concede to anybody" - Laughter came out from the nobles, he continued - "A shame that the duel was so quick... or perhaps we have another contender? Just for fun of course since it would not be fair with the lady if we forced another real match..." said the smiling and humorous prince... but suddenly the facade went down when he complemented coldly - "don't you agree, Eileen?"
Her eyes were cold as ice, her face didn't even flinch, she stood there elegantly, but Riou could feel the animosity between them...
The blond woman calmly and very gracefully brought the sword up posing with it as a ready stance, signaling she would take on any kind of challenge... as if unable to refuse...
- "Very well then, she agrees! Is there any new contender?" Said the prince looking around...
- "Here!" Shouted a voice near Riou... - "This boy here will fight!" shouted the soldier of the First...
Riou looked around, but he quickly realized they were putting him up to it... he tried to walk away but they made sure he was not able to...
The prince quickly looked in the direction - "The commoner..." he said in a low tone... and continued with his enthusiastic voice - "Commoners cannot present themselves as a challenger I'm afraid..." Said him loudly looking for the audience reaction... they wanted to see another fight, despite who was up there against her, they knew he would most likely lose, and if doing so he could do the commoner bleed, he instigated - "But it is not me who must decide... Eileen... do you accept this one as a challenger?"
Again, with a coldly yet elegant gesture she nodded. Riou felt as if that was not her will, and that she was unable to deny a challenge...
- "It is settled then... come up commoner and ready yourself.." - Said the Prince getting out of the arena...
The soldiers were forcefully bringing Riou who was putting a small resistance to ti, towards the arena...
- "Guys, I don't think this is wise... she will kill me" Complained Riou... trying to get out of the situation... but seemed like he was too deep in it already to back down...
From the balcony, away of the commotion noise, the King was also watching with his wife the fight below, she was a beautiful blond with almost white hair and crystal blue eyes, very similar to the girl in the arena in every feature...
The king widened his eyes in surprise when he saw who entered the arena... he sustained his head with his arms beneath his chin... and attentively watched. The wife noticed her husband reaction and found curious... and also started to give even more attention to the arena.
The other soldiers from the First when saw Riou on top of the arena went berserk chanting his name!
- "RIOU! RIOU! RIOU!"
One of the soldier gave him a sword and them all three left the arena... only the fighters remained on the arena...
The blond woman took poise... while Riou was still smiling awkwardly and waving around to the soldiers, with the sword still down to his side... he was not sure how he should act in the situation... should he fight a little and concede, or should he just concede right then and admit defeat... he didn't want the attention at that point that winning an undisputed champion would give him...
But before he could do anything, in the blink of an eye she closed the gap and quick as lightning threw a thrust, she aimed for his right shoulder, the same tactic as the fight before...
Riou reflexively dodged it and looked her seriously in the eye... he could notice she did not expect him to dodge... he kept the strong gaze until she decided to move again... left and right he was dodging every swing and trust she threw at him... eventually he used the sword to deflect her sword that was coming in a more incisive angle...
But Riou noticed she was still holding herself, she was only aiming for non vital points...
The crowd went crazy by the spectacle...
The soldiers of the First went crazy... they knew Riou fighting, he was just messing with her and they couldn't believe it... didn't take long for them to start to shout:
- "Put your hip on it Riou! You can do it!" - Shouted the soldier almost laughing his heart out afterwards...
- "Don't overextend! Don't overextend!" - Shouted the other two...
Riou was close enough to listen to them... "you rascals..." he thought smiling... while she kept cold and intense eyes on him... Attending to the Soldiers plea... he began with his usual theatrics the soldiers were so familiar with... Riou was now at the eyes of the public struggling in the fight, his theatricality was that extraordinary...
It didn't take long... the cold crystal eyes started to heat up... he knew she was getting angry through her eyes, and he noticed that the strikes held more power behind them... but he continued to barely dodging the attacks in the last second with clumsy moves... sometimes it looked liked to the audience he without realizing dodged a certain death by sheer luck... it didn't take long for things to escalate.
Was then he noticed he went too far when he realized she was mad... her crystal eyes flared with hate, she was unable to hit while yet so close... she was now targeting vital points, "no more games hum?" he thought to himself as she was now trying to kill him with all her might... it was way past the time to end the duel... if he drag that out everyone would start to get suspicious... Aside from the soldiers, he didn't knew but a couple of eyes in a very special balcony were well aware of what was happening in the arena...
Riou defended and dodged towards the center of the arena, he then started to feint fatigue by dropping his sword a bit more and faking a heavily breathing... he wanted to bait her into an overextend with a big forward attack... but she didn't fall for it, despite being mad, she was able to control herself to attack only when she wouldn't exposed herself counters... "She is good! Even this mad she still thinking rationally..." he complimented her mentally "But I doubt she saw through my bluff or she would have given up by now... lets try to force her hand then"
He then began to attack for the first time in the whole fight, strong enough to make her get back, pushed little by little, and his swings were big and clumsy enough to let her time to recover from each strike..."Now!" he planed as he saw her in position, she was shifting her weight to the back leg, he then gave a big swing to her right, obviously forcing her to the left, he followed up with a smaller and weaker swing to the upper body, she could take a step back to avoid it, but he knew she was mad and well rooted with the back leg, she would want to end it, so he faked he was out of strength and that miser swing was his last strength, she could parry and easily redirected his sword to her left side, exposing him completely to an attack.
And so she did... But it did not went as she expected...
The swords entangled and twisted around, as those movie scenes where the expert sword fighter removes the opponents with a few movements... she strongly held into her sword without much idea of how she reached that point, she focused her attention on the entangled swords, focusing all her attention so she would not lose her sword that was trying to escape her hand, and as unexpectedly it started, it suddenly stopped, and she heard the boy saying
- "I give up!"...
She looked up to see a smiling boy with messy brown hair and joyous dark blue eyes... raising his both hands... was then she noticed he was not holding a sword... She quickly looked around searching for and then heard the sound of metal hitting the stone... it was the boys sword... falling near the edge of the arena... Seemed like the sword went flying from that last interaction... causing him to be unarmed and therefore conceding the duel...
At least that's what it seemed to the unsuspecting spectator... Riou had used the opportunity to look like she was the one who removed his sword... when actually he just made sure she would not attack him and thrown it masterfully to the side... It was so strange to her that she could not shake off the feeling that something was amiss...
Riou smiled to her and quickly left the arena and joined the Soldiers... She looked towards him, and he was still smiling, laughing with the soldiers who were extremely happy... strangely enough... she felt as if they were too happy... and the strange feeling only grew stronger...
Kasius quickly got on the Arena once again... - "Well it was a marvelous demonstration, it was another crushing defeat for the suitor... truly outstanding Eileen!" spoke the host.
She was still a bit out of herself... without uttering a word she quickly left the arena and went inside the castle.
At the balcony where the prying eyes intensely watched the fight... a wife looked to her husband...
- "Who is that boy Elrik?" asked promptly and intensively
The husband just looked to his wife with unsure eyes...