Sighing in relief, his sword fell down together with the stream of sweat around his body, promptly pointing the sword at the ground, beside his left leg.

  Although much easier, the stress of the previous stance lingered around, intensified more so by the shimmering sun from above.

  Regardless, they couldn’t complain. Standing in the same place repeatedly, they watched the shadows come and go, gradually changing as the radiance from the skies turned wholeheartedly.

  Still, after what seemed like an eternity, the majority of soldiers dropped to their butts, panting away for the faintest bit of air more. Suddenly however, they looked up with their heavy heads, a voice leading them to do so.

  “Since you’re all gathered here, it’s a good time to reveal something. You may have noticed an increasing amount of elves inside the empire’s rankings. That is not a coincidence,” she said, making the knights lower their brows slightly.

  “Their absence today is not one either. They have not come to attack us on this day because they are most likely preparing new soldiers. If this continues for more days, I fear we won’t fight with swords only, but magic as well,” she said, bringing a plethora of emotions to the men.

  Most listened with a deep solemnity written across their faces, while some looked up with delight at the information. At the same time, there were those wearing dread around their eyes, burying them to the ground because of the information.

  “I know what this entails to all you, however, I can only ask you to fight on for the sake of our Kingdom back home. Although we’re not certain of the artifact stuck in these lands, we know it’s a deeply powerful one. We can’t allow the aal to gather their grasp on it,” she said aloud, bringing their faces straight at her yet again.

  Though, as she let the words simmer in their heads, the girl already continued. “That’s all for today, go away now.”

  Slowly starting to leave the wooden stage though, a voice caught her attention, concerning a certain matter.

  “Commander, what about Stone? He’s clearly favored by you, but he’s a human. Will you let him not fight?” Suddenly, Hagyn turned to the source of the voice, directly beside him. Lantas speaking away with a smirk around his face, he easily garnered a deep stern on Folvana’s expression.

  “What did you just say?” The commander spoke with a somewhat astounded tone, swiftly traversing through the whole space with a sweep.

  “I mean, isn’t it true? Everyone can see it, no?” He asked with brought out arms, scouring the space at the soldiers looking away from him. Despite that, there were some nodding at his words, easily caught in the ferocious, golden lights of Folvana.

  “Are you wishing for a beating? I could bring you to the front of the battlefield if that’s what you want,” Folvana asked, only to witness Lantas shaking his head.

  “No, no, no, commander, I definitely don’t want that. I’m just curious about him. I mean, has anyone from here ever seen him fight?” He asked, promptly looking at the soldiers, some of which shook their heads. “How can we agree if he’s going to stay out of battles when we don’t know if he deserves it?”

  Keeping her eyes at the man, Folvana swiftly turned calm. Instead of bursting out at him, she followed in on the debate. “What would make him deserve something like that? Being weak? How could he survive the front lines, then?”

  “I don’t know, commander,” Lantas quickly shrugged his shoulders, following within the same breath. “All I’m saying is that we don’t know anything about him, despite him being here for three months already.”

  Raising an eyebrow softly, Folvana stared at the man for a few, tense breaths. “What are you proposing?” She asked eventually, murmurs starting to resurface through the resting crowd.

  “How about a spar against me? I’m the strongest out of any demon here, so I would like to see if the rumors about the sole human here are true. Frankly, I can’t really believe something like that, especially from a creature that can’t use magic,” he said with a broad smile on his face, making the commander breathe a bit deeper before she glanced down at the ground.

  Looking at the man with brightly white hair, she wondered for a while, only to finally speak out loudly. “Stone, are you ready to fight?” She asked in the human tongue, making the soldiers raise their eyebrows. Even Hagyn looked a bit shocked at the event, briskly glancing at the proud demon next to him.

  The man feared his friend would be beaten black and blue before anything could happen, yet, he was about to fight the human. Naturally, he glanced at the black-haired man with an astounded expression, even harsher as Stone nodded his face lightly.

  Turning a bit rowdy, the crowd swiftly gathered up on their legs, glancing between Lantas and Lutiel whilst Folvana briskly declared.

  “Move out. Give them some space to fight,” she said, making the demons slowly head towards the verge of the sparring space. Meanwhile, Folvana simply continued to gaze at the center of the space, standing on top of her platform with crossed arms.

  Watching all of the soldiers move out before settling their still gazes on the two in the very center of the sparring grounds, as well as where the human’s footsteps should have lingered from the night before, she swiftly spoke out once more.

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  “The rules are simple. No killing or elemental magic is allowed. Feel free to use any tricks up your sleeves,” Her voice hailed over the people, Lantas’ composed face looking at her for a while before glancing at the man ahead of him.

  “Did you think you would be kept a secret forever?” He suddenly asked the one still looking up at the lady, retrieving his attention slowly, but steadily. “Don’t worry, I won’t embarrass you too much,” the demon added, his fully formed grin shining in the bright sun.

  Finally, a ten or so steps away from him, Lantas brought the glimmering metal out, purely grey with a meek tint of white. Lowering his torso before raising the sword near his left shoulder and pointing the tip at Lutiel, his contrasted face stared at the relaxed man. “Are you giving up already?” He spoke out in the human tongue yet again, raising his eyebrow at the utter lack of a response from him.

  Glancing away at his readied figure for a few seconds, Lutiel didn’t reply in the slightest. At least verbally. Gradually taking his sword from the scabbard, Lutiel brought it out with a laughable carefreeness. Grasped plainly in his right hand, he kept it pointed at the ground, not preparing his stance in particular.

  Seeing the disregard given to him, Lantas immediately let out a scoff, clenching his jaw and gripping tighter before his legs dug through the ground harsher.

  Scouring his eyes through the man, Lutiel still made no attempt to hide his lack of efforts, even as the demon’s feet made a faint amount of dust gather behind him.

  Running straight at him with quite the vigour, half of their distance had been cut off within a sole breath.

  Gritting his teeth roughly, the demon aimed his blade straight at the human’s head, despite the clearly stated rules. Feeling his feet step through the tough ground with enough vim to break bones, Lantas never lost sight of the man.

  A quick breath left his nostrils, seeing the blade arrive closer and closer at the pale face of violet eyes.

  All it needed was an arm’s length. A single, quick thrust and the man would have gone to the afterlife. However, Lantas’ vision suddenly staggered. Almost dropping in speed completely, he watched the human accelerate instead.

  Dropping down to his knees slightly, the sword readied itself into a brisk, yet proper position. Watching with widened eyes as the blade slashed up, veering his own weapon off-course, the man suddenly closed his eyes, grunting internally at a sudden sensation washing over him.

  “UGH! AHGH!” The demon released quite a few squeals, rolling through the ground whilst covering himself in the dust, a sudden kick to the stomach having sent him all the way back to his initial position.

  Immured in the sprawling silence reverberating all around the sparring area, Lutiel kept his eyes down at the grunting demon, watching him awkwardly collect himself back up. Keeping an arm around his stomach, he displayed a disgruntled expression underneath the panting.

  A deep glare scattered out towards Lutiel, albeit too weak for the human to care. Standing freely with his sword hovering lightly above the ground, he watched Lantas’ eyebrows furrow down, barely not touching his nose.

  “You damn human, let’s see if you can handle this,” muttering whilst glancing down, the demon promptly took on a new stance. However, there was something fundamentally different about it.

  ‘So you decided to power yourself up, huh?’ Lutiel mused, seeing the wind around him flow in opposite ways. Making the blade shake as he put too much strength into the grip, Lantas crumbled parts of the ground underneath his shoes, although weakly.

  The crowd began to boil up at his actions, briskly glancing towards the wooden platform. Yet, despite the definitive use of mana from Lantas, the commander didn’t do anything other than watch the events unfold.

  Breaking his feet from the ground immediately, the demon ran, incomparably faster than before. In less than the breath he released, he was already in front of him, the blade beginning to descend right at his head.

  Once again however, Lantas’ eyes widened. Glancing up from the glare, he felt something pressing on the blade, restricting him from splitting his head into two.

  Lutiel’s sword brought up, the blades crossed paths, Simultaneously making the demon’s arms shake horribly, despite only one of the human’s holding him back. Lantas’ eyes quivering in fright at the images before him, he suddenly took the left arm away, fearing another kick around his figure.

  From the sheer panic, a bundle of rocks formed around the empty palm, Lutiel’s eyes briskly appearing over their approach.

  Quickly, he pushed his sword further up, opening the man’s stance completely. At the same time, Lutiel continued slashing down, scattering the rocks away from his path before leaning forward, no longer with a sword in hand.

  A puff of dust flowed together with the light breeze, right underneath his feet as the man appeared before the demon again. Before Lantas could think of a reply, his right hand garnered on top of his head, pulling on the long hairs and making him stumble down towards his right knee.

  Immediately, his black scleras clouded up, a brisk, crimson stream flowing down the reddened and skewed nose. Letting him stumble on his feet momentarily, Lutiel stepped back.

  Seeing him start to fall down however, his right foot arrived at the base of the chin, raising the figure in the air. Though, he was unable to fall peacefully again. Stone immediately brought his foot back down, promptly spinning in place and gathering force on the same leg.

  Within the same breath, underneath the stagger of the crowd, his foot landed on his hair-veiled cheek, sending the demon to skim through the ground, his consciousness long since long.

  Remaining on the ground steadily, Lutiel no longer approached him, glancing instead at the source of a voice engulfing the camp.

  “Is there anyone that wishes to follow in his fate? If you’re still doubting Stone’s strengths, you can come forward,” Folvana uttered, staring at her men before adding briskly. “And just so you know, he was going to keep fighting regardless of his birth.”

  A growing silence seeped through the grounds, albeit only for a moment. Immediately turning into curious murmurs, the crowd kept entertained by themselves as Lutiel gradually ventured away from Lantas’ figure.

  Taking his sword before smearing the dust on top of it against his shirt, he promptly headed towards the food stands, all sheathed up. Ignoring the people glancing at him periodically, he simply walked through them as they made a way for him.

  With fidgety eyebrows on the other hand, Hagyn watched the center of the sparring field, exhaling deeply before running towards the man lying in his messy, black hairs.

  -