Kaylus's Decision

Kaylus woke up the next day and got himself ready. Just as he finished washing up and dressed, Maya came over.

She knocked on the door, and Kaylus invited her in. "Come in."

Maya opened the door and let herself in. Kaylus was sitting at the table drinking some morning tea. A breeze came through the window, causing his hair to flutter in the wind.

He turned to face Maya. In her eyes, Kaylus appeared to have a heavenly glow around him as his handsome face smiled.

"Good morning Maya."

"Good morning Kaylus," Maya replied, her ears turning red.

"Have you made your decision yet?" She inquired meekly.

"I think so, but I have some questions first. If that's no problem."

"Yes, that's fine," Maya beamed and sat opposite Kaylus.

Kaylus poured her a cup of tea and started to ask his questions.

"Firstly, I'd like you to tell me the tournament rules."

Maya tasted the fragrant tea, notes of peach and orange made their way up her nose.

"The rules are simple. Anyone between 18-25 can enter the tournament regardless of status. They will have to battle random opponents that had also entered the tournament. As people enter, the length of the tournament will lengthen slightly, but because there are only a handful of people left, yours would be the final extension."

"Aha, I see. That's an interesting tournament format."

"And what about the rules for the fight themselves?"

Maya pouted and grumbled, "I was about to tell you if you didn't interrupt me."

"Hahaha, sorry, sorry. Please go on," Kaylus chuckled.

Maya continued to pout, but the corners of her lips became slightly raised.

"There is only one rule. The last man standing wins. It's only over when one of the combatants is incapacitated and unable to continue to fight, surrenders or, in the worst case scenario, dies."

"Haaa," closing his eyes, Kaylus let out a long sigh while scratching his head.

Maya waited expectantly for what Kaylus would say next. She had still hoped that he would give her a positive reply. But the long sigh made her heart feel like it was sinking.

"I think I can agree to take part."

Maya almost jumped at him with joy. However, his following words stopped her in her tracks.

"But I'm not confident in my abilities, so if I feel like I might die or get seriously injured, I will forfeit the fight."

"I see…" Maya replied, her face becoming gloomy, but what Kaylus said afterwards brought her loveable smile back.

"That's why I will need your help. If possible, I'd like you to take me to a place where I could practice away from prying eyes. Also, if you could have various weapons brought there, and something or someone I could train with or on."

Maya instantly jumped up, bobbing her head up and down. "Yes, of course. That will be very simple to do. I will go to my mother right now so she can get everything ready asap."

She started to rush out of the room, but before she could cross the threshold, Kaylus asked one last thing.

"Before I forget, you mentioned something about a tournament extension. How long will I have before I need to fight?"

"It would typically be a day or two, but because you've saved my life, my mother can pull some strings. So if we enter you today, it can be extended by a week at most. Meaning that at the latest, you'd have to fight this time next week."'

"I see… It's not perfect, but it's better than nothing."

With that, Maya left to prepare everything with the help of her mother. Meanwhile, Kaylus spent his time leisurely, waiting for Maya to return.

Later that afternoon, Maya returned with some great news.

"Everything was sorted out. As I've told you at the latest, you must compete within the week."

"Were there any issues with that?"

Shaking her head, she answered, "No, because you saved me, my mother told the elders that you were here to join the tournament, but because you got injured, you need some time to recover."

"That's good. What about a place for me to train?"

"That has also been arranged. If you'd like, we can go there now." Maya offered.

Kaylus swiftly stood up and agreed. "That's perfect. I've been feeling a bit bored."

The pair made their way through the grounds into an isolated area. It was off to the side of the palace. There was a hedge wall that would block the vision of anyone who tried to take a peek.

Within the hedge-protected zone was a square cement platform roughly 10 meters by 10 meters. The tournament platform is five times the size, but this should be enough for Kaylus to train. In the centre of the arena was an intricate-looking dummy. It reminded Kaylus of art mannequins from his previous life.

Along the edges were a few benches, and racks filled with various weapons. Kaylus walked towards the weapons while Maya went to sit down on a bench and watch Kaylus train.

Kaylus browsed a bit before settling on a sword with a straight double-sided blade. The blade was thin and long but looked sturdy enough for Kaylus.

Earlier in the day, while waiting for Maya to return, Kaylus thought about how his combat style should look. He thought about his fight with the owlbear and how he used the tree branches and sticks.

As if lightning struck, it came to him. He recalled watching a show where a character used a rapier sword and used telekinesis on his sword, letting him drop the blade and make otherwise impossible movements.

With that in mind, Kaylus also grabbed a dozen daggers. He then strolled towards the centre of the arena. When he reached the dummy, Maya recalled something and shouted at him.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot. It's your first time seeing one of these, right?

"What, a training dummy? Of course, I've seen training dummies before. They stand there waiting for you to hit them, masochists, all of them if you ask me." Kaylus winked jokingly.

Maya laughed at the joke, and when she finished, she said, "Hehe, no. It's a unique dummy. You're able to pick a combat difficulty level. When you inject it with mana, it begins to target you ten seconds later."

"How many difficulty levels are there?" He inquired.

"Officially, there are three. On the first level, it will fight barehanded. On the second level, with a weapon and on the third, using both a weapon and magic."

"And unofficially?"

"Unofficially, there is a fourth setting. When set to it, the dummy will fight to kill." We use it to train our warriors to fight life-and-death battles."

This statement didn't make much sense to Kaylus, so he needed clarification. "Huh? What's the point of that? Won't they die if they are unprepared?"

She shook her head. "The dummy is bound to an instructor with their mana. While trainee needs to insert either their blood or hair into a special slot. The instructor can stop the training dummy anytime. Of course, they are still some accidents, but it's much safer than a real life-and-death battle."

"Aha, I see. I should get a grasp on things before I begin my training with the dummy."

Kaylus closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths to focus and calm himself. He took his sword in his hand and thought back to the night in the forest, shortly after the weapon started to levitate.

He opened his eyes while maintaining focus and started to move it around in the air. At first, he focused on simple movement, moving it up and down, left and right, forward and backwards.

As he became more confident, he tried out some more complicated moves. He would spin it, slash with it and zigzag, among various other movements.

Kaylus's concern for the tournament wasn't that he would have to fight or use weapons. Back on earth, he trained in diverse martial arts, including Judo, Taekwondo, and boxing. He also trained in swordsmanship, archery and dagger/axe throwing for fun.

What he was worried about was that this was a world of magic, a world where magic exists and rules supreme.

Kaylus believed he had to learn as much as possible about his ability. He also wanted to try and see if he possessed any other magical powers. He'd be at a complete disadvantage without any magic, but even what he has may not be enough.

Kaylus would train like this late into the night, slowly introducing regular sword fighting into his practice as he went on.

Eventually, due to Maya's insistence, he stopped for the night. As someone from a non-magical world, he wanted to have more fun playing with magic, but he knew that she was right.

That night, Kaylus had the best night of sleep in his life. His excitement and enthusiasm seeped into his dreams. As a result, he dreamt about fighting using his makeshift combat style and refined it even further, giving birth to fresh new ideas.

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A/N: I've left a teaser for what will happen in the future, let me know in the comments if you have a guess as to what that teaser is and what will happen!

Thank you for reading this chapter. I hoped you enjoyed it. If you did make sure to add it to your collection and vote with your power stones to help motivate me and support the novel.

In the previous chapters A/N I spoke about power stone goals for character art. It would be a one-time thing and when done it's done. I think the goal of 100 is very doable. So if you'd like to see a bigger and unedited version of Maya's cover art then make sure to vote! And if you want to see other art of her or other characters then it's an even bigger reason to vote!