Giving up

Turning to their left, the pair leave the drone to his musings. They head towards the training area, as written on the walls of the hallway, with an arrow drawn below the text.

While walking, they start to hear cheering coming from the direction they are headed to, as they pass through an arch, they are greeted with a large 100 square meter arena, surrounded by metal seats and couches placed all around the outer ring of the arena. The arena itself is a big circle, covered by a translucent dome. Seeing as how the people currently fighting in the area keep bouncing off of it, it looks like the dome is doing its job in containing the fight, not letting the spectators get harmed by a stray arrow or spell.

In the surrounding seats, which were made to fit at least a couple hundred spectators, half of them already full. Recruits sat all around the arena, cheering on the opposing fighters. Cedric looks towards the source of their excitement. In the middle of the arena he sees a grey-haired muscular armored dwarf, standing at 1.50 meters tall, equipped with what could only be described as a massive shield split in half, both halves held respectively in both his hands. The bottom part of the shield gleaming, sharpened to deal cutting or thrusting damage. Cedric is intrigued by the unique concept of having two giant slabs of metal somewhat resembling katars when held apart, yet are able to be combined into a large shield covering the entire dwarf.

As the dwarf moves to perform a right-handed slash at his opponent, they deftly jump over his strike. Landing behind the dwarf is a slim dark-skinned elf with ash-colored hair, his height seeming around Cedric's 1.80 meters. The elf was currently using a pair of curved fang-like daggers, trying to cut into the dwarf's neck.

As the elf frustratingly scrapes the armored neck of his opponent, the dwarf makes a high-speed turn, performing a slashing motion with his left arm, using the sharpened edge of his shield-half to cut the elf's knees. As the elf is now forced to back off, he attempts to take a step back but is unable to move his other leg. Seeing the grisly wound, the white-haired elf seems to accept his fate.

Closing his eyes, he allows the dwarf to pierce his heart, and as a loud declaration of victory is announced by the familiar female melodic voice, they both vanish. Reappearing in the spots where they were most likely standing before agreeing to fight and getting teleported.

Siegward, looking over at Cedric staring at the dark-skinned elf, decides to explain:

"That elf right there is from one of the drow villages on my planet. We used to train together during our annual village gathering events. A pretty swell guy, I believe you'll get along fine, if you like fighting, that is."

Cedric nods in silence, confirming he heard what Siegward just said, and continues staring at the now-approaching drow, seeming like he recognizes Siegward.

Seeing that Cedric clearly has something on his mind, the elf asks, "What's up with you, bro? Why are you staring so hard?" Wildly swinging his arms in front of Cedric's face, the human boy turns his way. Siegward's expression changes to fear, and he points at Cedric's face, saying, "Oh no! one of your eyes is about to pop out!"

Cedric blinked, ruminating about the fight. He had seen at least a dozen ways for the elf to avoid getting hit instead of just standing there in a daze, allowing himself to get distracted. More than that, Cedric was disappointed with the lack of any attempts at winning. Instead, the elf just gave up.

Cedric remembered the massive amounts of beggars he had seen while roaming the recaptured planets. He was there on a trip with his father to provide medical relief and help the military spread supplies to those unfortunate enough to have their families killed and homes destroyed. He remembered seeing the look of resignation on the faces of those people, accepting their fates and not doing anything about their current position. It made him sick to see the same face he himself used to make during his early days training with his father.

The amount of times he told himself to just give up and stop training, until one day, after taking a proper beating from one of the soldiers his father brought to train him due to his lack of attention, he ended up getting jabbed with a wooden pole right in his stomach. He heaved and struggled in keeping his stomach juices from coming out of his mouth as he trudged down to a nearby river. He remembers seeing his defeated face. That was when he saw the faces of those refugees flashing by in his reflection. That's when a switch flipped inside of him. He would never give up or back away from a losing fight. For if there was the slightest chance of victory, he would grab it. He would make sure there would never again be people resigned to their fate. Wherever he tread, he would protect, and he would cut down anyone who stood in his path. He would-

He was snapped out of his reverie by a sharp pain in his foot. He looked down to see Siegward's foot stomping on his.

Letting out a long, drawn-out sigh, Cedric stated, "Sorry, seeing him give up like that brought up some bad memories, that's all."