Giving up

"Hehe, it looks like you have at least fifty challengers today," Georges said. "Since the fee is two times higher, you can earn up to ten gold coins if you win all the fights."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves… I will have to pace myself really well to be able to fight for that long," Aion said.

Aion had to start sooner or later, so he went to one of the fields and readied himself. It didn't take long for the first target to come… It seemed that they didn't determine a line or sequence since most of them were going to wait for Aion to get tired, and then they were going to challenge him.

The first target was another boy that was almost older than fifty, and he came equipped with two short swords. That was an unusual style… One that everyone would befit as well from watching.

After tossing the bag with the coins, the swordsman didn't even ask about the rules. He just charged toward Aion and then tried to hit both sides of his neck. Aion lowered his stance and dodged. Before he could prepare his kick, the enemy jumped backward and escaped.

"This one has good reflexes and control over his weapons… he is probably ambidextrous…" Aion thought.

The enemy hesitated and slowly moved to the sides in order to find some sort of opening, but Aion didn't feel things went the way he wanted. He began to thrust his spear quite fast, and while he moved backward, he soon reached one of the groups that was watching the spar, and then he was forced to move to the side. When the enemy's weight shifted to the side, Aion approached and then used Sonic Thrust. The target blocked the attack with his swords, but he lost his balance and then fell.

At that point in time, it became clear to everyone who watched Aion this time and on the previous time that he targeted those moments to make the enemy fall. It was hard to tell if he would win a real battle against them. Still, when the fight was on his terms, he was more skilled.

After not so long, a girl armed with two spears showed up to duel. It was the first time he saw a girl that young dual-wielding anything.

When the girl assumed her stance, Aion frowned a bit. Since she had the advantage of reach, she could afford to grab the weapons close to the middle, but aside from that, she still wasted the butt of one of them above her right arm while the other was almost being pointed in another direction…

Gaining experience from that would be good, but Aion decided to end things as fast as possible. Her combination of attacks was probably pretty large, and while they might not knock him down, he couldn't afford to get hit, either. Otherwise, his mother would get worried.

The girl noticed that Aion's mind was somewhere else, and then she stepped in to attack. With a large but fast swing, she swung her left spear, and Aion lowered his stance to dodge it. When he tried to prepare an attack, he saw the other spear moving to his head. He used his weapon to block the attack, and while that succeeded, Aion lost enough time, and the enemy was back to her original stance…

"Sharp middle-ranged attacks that are easy to recover from by using both weapons in a sequence to keep the enemy at a distance…" Aion furrowed his eyebrows.

The girl approached and then began to attack again. Even though Aion was short, the spears still moved around his head with insane precision. Aion could even feel the wind moving fast above his head whenever he dodged… the power of those swings was the real deal. Still, after doing nothing but dodging for a while, Aion noticed the weaknesses of that combination.

As soon as she finished a combo, the girl stopped and then fixed her posture before starting the motion of the next. She always had to do that, apparently to increase the accuracy, speed, and power of her attacks. After she finished her combo, the girl was surprised when she saw Aion throwing his spear at her. Unfortunately for her, her usual stance wasn't appropriate for blocking attacks like that, and she ended up getting hit in the stomach. In the brief moment that she flinched due to the pain, Aion approached and kicked her legs in a sweep, making her fall.

The girl clicked her tongue in annoyance and then left… things started to get heated in the area as Aion began to win in a sequence. That didn't happen before, but it was surprising that the people around would get that excited over the duels of kids.

"I don't like this… even though I have been here for six years, I am still a man of a modern world that can't approve of the idea of kids fighting," Aion thought. "Still, even I don't approve, most people that fight don't have much of a choice."

While Aion was thinking about that, a certain kid stepped forward to challenge him. He has a weird aura that makes Aion frown… instead of grabbing his long sword, he begins to circle around Aion and makes him frown. Aion began to follow him with his eyes, but then he noticed something weird in the corner of his vision. While everyone was excited and focused on the matches, some suspicious individuals surrounded Aion's brothers and then captured Elio.

Aion charged toward the enemy after enhancing Sonic Thrust with his improvement points. The boy underestimated his attack and tried to block the attack… the strike broke the sword and then hit the stomach of that guy, making his body bent forward. Soon after, Aion threw the guy toward Henri, and he began to chase the kidnappers…