Tynesday, 9th of Aprillia, 470th Year of the Fifth Era

  The midday sun was bearing down hard upon the young warriors training in the clearing located next to an elevated spring a short distance away from the village of Goria. The spring itself was surrounded by some trees and had a quaint little waterfall flowing into it. The spring had some creeks and streams flowing away from it and headed into the Arus river.

  The villagers of Goria - especially the womenfolk - would usually use the spring and it's streams as a place to bathe and wash themselves especially because of its relatively warm water as contrasted to its elevated position. But despite its more picturesque properties, the young warriors led by Parulian there to train had not even dipped their feet into the spring despite having been there since the early morning. Some of the young warriors - Josias in particular - had tried to reason with Parulian to try and make an allowance for them to relax before training but Parulian was having none of his son's coaxing. They came there to train, and so train they shall.

  It was in the middle of all that training, heat, and exhaustion, was Josias standing holding his training saber, panting heavily as he stared down the three other young warriors who were training with him in a mock sparring duel.

  The five warriors who would represent Goria in the upcoming festival tournament were currently being divided by Parulian into two groups. They had started their training at around the hour of tarbakta, around four hours before midday (Hos). The first couple of hours was spent with Parulian’s usual personal training regiment which consisted of mana training as well as regular exercises to train the core of the warrior’s body. After those exercises, Parulian had directed for the young warriors to engage in more practical training of sparring. After individual one-on-one matches, Parulian finally divided the group of five warriors in duel sets of three versus two using their training weapons as well as their aura. The catch being that Josias would always be in the group with two warriors considering he was the only one among them to be of the third star.

  And so it was already the third of these matches and Josias had been partnered with his cousin Sadrach against Johannes, Hesekiel, and Mateus. The match had been intense especially with the added fact that Sadrach was barred from using his magic alongside his sword-aura which left Josias to do a lot of heavy lifting when their opponents chose to focus on relentlessly attacking Sadrach whom they considered to be the weaker of the two.

  Auras of energy blew out left and right from the young warriors’ weapons as they fought each other, trading blows with such an intensity that the ground of the clearing felt like it would quake. They had fought to almost a standstill as Josias had just fended off a combined attack from Johannes and Matius while Sadrach was being bogged down to his side by Hesekiel.

  The two young warriors who were assaulting Josias were undeniably the largest of all their peers when it came to size and stature. But don’t let that fact fool anyone, as they weren’t all that much slower in their attacks even when it came to the nimble Josias. Just as he was able to fend off a devastating blow from Johannes, not a second after that in considerably well-synchronised attack, Mateus had appeared to land a solid blow onto Josias’ side. Seeing this, Josias had managed to just barely block the attack but he was sent a few feet back as a result of the blow.

  When Josias gave a quick sideways glance to see how Sadrach was fairing, it seemed like he was doing marginally better as even though Hesekiel’s expression remained cold and serious as always, he was slowly but surely starting to be pushed back by Sadrach’s own relentless onslaught.

  “Jojo, quickly help Hese while I deal with this annoying eel!” Mateus began to coordinate without letting up the attack on Josias who was still busy evading the incoming attacks left and right. Johannes merely gave a quick nod before he immediately set out to land an attack on Sadrach.

  “As if I’m just going to sit on my ass and let you do that!” Josias grit his teeth before he stopped his weaving around and quickly concentrated mana into his sabre and pushed him back by a few steps. Not wasting this opportunity, Josias quickly redirected his aura into the soles of his feet before he leapt off to dash towards Sadrach’s direction, managing to interfere with Johannes’ planned attack on Sadrach.

  The two immediately started to trade blows with one another, each aiming for a vital spot on one another’s body. While they were busy fighting with each other, Sadrach had now been pinned by Mateus who had left Johannes to deal with Josias. Noticing what was happening, Josias decided to pull off all the breaks as his aura intensified and he cared not for his own safety or stance when he continued to attack Johannes. At this turn of events, Johannes had grit his own teeth as he did his best to fend off the maddened Josias.

  With the training battle considerably increasing in its intensity, Johannes too fought on with equal intensity, so much so that the air around the two grew even more fierce. The two were now so focused on fighting each other, they didn’t even notice that on the other side of the clearing, Sadrach had already been incapacitated. While the exhausted Hesekiel and Mateus was about to interfere with Josias and Johannes’ intense match, Parulian had given them the signal to hold off on it and just observer the match. The two complied as they immediately dropped to the ground in heavy pants next to the sprawled out Sadrach.

  As the heat of the battle continued, Josias finally managed to hit a breakthrough as he landed a solid blow unto Johannes’ left chest which caused the bigger man to spit out. However just as Josias was about to connect the hit with another attack to properly deal with Johannes, an intense burst of energy could all of a sudden be felt as Johannes had managed to tank Josias’ blow.

  Josias’ eyes widened as he recognised the sudden burst of energy. It was simply remarkable, but it bode poorly for Josias who was already feeling the full brunt of his exhaustion. As Johannes was about to gear up for another attack with his renewed energy, Josias - who was now mentally calculating how to best deal with the attack - could only gulp as he had felt both his aura and energy reserves drop to their lowest points. Just as the attack was about to hit and Josias had already prepared himself to enter into a world of pain, Parulian had appeared in front of him and held Johannes’ sword hand, stopping the attack with the full-power of a fifth-star pinnacle warrior.

  “And with that, I declare this spar to be over with the victory going to Young Master Johannes and his team.” Parulian said as he let Johannes’ hand go and gave him an applause “Let me also take this moment to congratulate the young master on his ascension to the third star of a warrior. I assure you, your father and Elder Marasi would be most proud of such an achievement.” As Parulian gave his applause, the other young warriors there couldn’t help but cheer as well for their friend’s accomplishment.

  “I thank you, amang.” Johannes gave Parulian a slight bow. Though he tried to keep a serious and straight face, the pure joy and acclamation in his eyes could not very well be hidden at all.

  “It was a good show, I’ll give you that, lae. Had me on the ropes there too though I could’ve-...” Josias was quickly caught off by a glare from his father.

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  “You could’ve what?” Parulian asked Josias sternly.

  “I could’ve… done nothing as I’d probably still have my ass beat.” Josias sighed in resignation before he approached close to Johannes to give his friend a bear hug “I’m very happy for you, lae. That was a great match.”

  “Yea, you gave me a real hard time, you little monkey!” Johannes laughed out loud. Soon enough, the other guys had gotten up as they each congratulated Johannes on his achievement.

  “It’s always an honour, abang.” Mateus embraced Johannes as he gave the man a huge smile “But don’t get too comfortable cause I’ll be right there with the rest of you, just you wait.”

  “I’m counting on it, brother.”

  Hesekiel merely acknowledged Johannes’ achievement with an affirmative nod and a thumbs up along with a slight tap on his shoulder. Josias could only shake his head and laugh at the absurdity of his most stoic friend. Finally it was the exhausted and half-dead Sadrach’s turn to give his future older brother-in-law some congratulatory words.

  “If you could pray that I achieve even half the amount of your success, lae. I would be more than happy.” Sadrach said with a slight bow and awe to his tone.

  “You better watch yourself out there, lae.” Johannes said with a big grin as he looked his younger sister’s fiance in the eyes “As things stand now, I have enough power to legitimately kill you now, so…”

  Josias and the rest of the guys could only laugh out loud at the exchange while Sadrach only gave a tired sigh. Mateus had decided to chime in as well and gave his own thoughts regarding Johannes’ comments. “Honestly, brother, you don’t even need to be a third star warrior to kill that pretty boy!” Mateus shouted with laughter.

  “Hey, I thought the two of you had made up with each other already?” Parulian raised his eyebrow at Mateus’ comments.

  “It’s just playful banter between brothers, tulang.” Mateus shrugged it off “Right, brother Sadrach?”

  “Honestly, Mateus, with you, I don’t even know what to think sometimes.” Sadrach shook his head before he looked at Parulian “But I have to ask, amangboru. For the love of everything that is dear and holy, can we at least have a drink now?... Please??”

  “Bwahahahah!! Oh little Sadrach!” Parulian bellowed out in laughter as he slapped Sadrach on the back “You remind me a lot of that one time when your father dropped you and your sister off at our house because he wanted to travel with your mother to the hot springs, hah! You were always so meek compared to her. Always asking permission for even the smallest of things. In fact, I think it was in the hots prings when your brother Mesach was conceived…”

  “Amangboru, please…” Sadrach said as he assumed the somba position, pleading to his uncle “...water…”

  “...No.” Parulian said curtly which elicited Sadrach to just stare blankly with his jaw dropped “Pfffft, hahahahah! Honestly, paraman (nephew, more specifically the son of a man’s brother-in-law), you’re far too serious. Lighten up! Of course you can go and drink!”

  “Oh thank the Lord!” Sadrach immediately rushed towards the spring after getting the say so from Parulian. He leapt off towards it like a gazelle after a long drought. It was quite the amusing thing to see.

  While the others were laughing at Sadrach’s display, Parulian merely turned his gaze towards his unruly students before barking at them. “Are you just going to let your brother warrior make a fool of himself alone? Anyone who doesn’t make it to the spring in five seconds will have to make a roundtrip to the village then back here in half an hour!”

  As soon as Parulian had said that, the other young men wasted no time infusing their aura into the soles of their feet before they made their way to the spring. Josias and Sadrach were so thirsty that they didn’t bother with pretenses and drank straight from the stream on their knees while the other warriors laughed before lapping the waters to their mouths.

  Josias felt so refreshed by the water that he drank that it felt surreal. Something about the spring must’ve been special as he even felt subtle traces of mana from the pool. But regardless he had felt far better than he did mere moments ago. However, something didn’t feel right as he could feel a presence behind him as a shadow loomed over, reflected by the water. When Josias turned around, he saw an irate expression plastered upon his father’s face.

  “...Is something wrong, father?” Josias asked sheepishly.

  “You absolute idiot!” Without warning, Parulian had kicked Josias to the side, causing him to stumble a little “And you too, Sadrach!”

  “Oy, what did I do-...!” Josias was about to launch a protest against his father but one stern look was enough to get him to shut up.

  “Look at how the others are drinking the water and think back on how you were doing it.” Parulian continued to say as he motioned towards the other three. When Josias saw that, it finally dawned on him what his father was talking about before he palmed his forehead.

  “Come on, father. You can’t actually be serious…” Josias gave his father a tired expression but Parulian was having none of it.

  “My son, you have to realise, not only were you and Sadrach exhibiting something that even the Holy Scriptures pointed as being stupid, in a true battle setting, a warrior must always be ready!” Parulian explained once more “When Gideon was directed by God to weed out the soldiers he didn’t need from his army, there was a reason God chose the ones who lapped the water!”

  Josias could only give his father an exasperated sigh before rolling his eyes but nonetheless, both he and Shadrach had fixed their posture as they too eventually lapped the water to drink.

  “You see now that’s more like it! Calm, collected, and always alert!” Parulian finally nodded in approval.

  “You know, now that my thirst is quenched, I really do feel a little famished-..owww!!” As Sadrach was about to say something else, Josias was quick to elbow his cousin from the sides “Oy! Lae, what was that for?!”

  “To stop you from saying other stupid things!” Josias retorted in a harsh whisper “If father hears that, he’ll have us hunt our own food after this!”

  “My son, I am honestly so disappointed.” As if his worst nightmares had come to fruition, his father had once more appeared next to them with the biggest, most mischievous grin plastered on his face “It hurts this old man to think that my own son would think so little of his five-star warrior father that he’d think just because he whispered his words that I wouldn’t be able to hear it. Tsk. Tsk.”

  “Nice going, genius…” Sadrach said with a slide sulk.

  “Fathe, please, just this once, have mercy on your son!” Josias pleaded as he threw away all pretext, practically clinging to his father’s legs.

  “Bwahahahaha! This is actually bloody embarrassing, Josi!” Parulian said “You’re not three anymore, get off my leg! Pfft!”

  “Father, I beg you!” Josias did his best puppy-dog eye impression to plead with his father, but Parulian only gave him a disgusted look before laughing.

  “Maybe if you were Julia, I’d fold, but considering you’re my eldest son…”

  Just as his father was about to say something dreadful, as if it was divine providence itself, all of a sudden a group of women had arrived at the spring led by Ompung Ester. With the Elder at front walking with her cane, behind her was a group composed of Serena, Maria, Safira, Helena, and Arta. And each of the women looked like they were holding baskets.

  “Tch. You got lucky this time.” Parulian said as Josias let go of his hold on him.

  It would seem to Josias that it was indeed a case of divine providence. The young women had brought with them delicious food for their starving lovers! And for Josias especially, it couldn’t have been better timing.