Chapter 29 : The first spar

They instantly rushed, zooming through the field. He was incredibly fast. His body was low, it was as if he was gliding across the floor. From the ground up, Alex had struck upwards, in a circular crescent sword path. Kind of like an uppercut but with a sword. Kieran dodged this, but Alex continued his attack. He kept swinging at Kieran, mocking him to strike back and to prove he wasn’t all talk. Kieran could only dodge and block his attacks, it was incredibly quick. Kieran was being pushed back little by little, slowly nearing the edge of the arena.

“Is that all you’ve got?!” Alex mocked

Kieran stayed silent and focused on the fight. With each block, Kieran slowly started to understand Alex’s pattern. Alex’s sword path was incredibly sharp. It didn’t flow, but rather kept striking.

“Alexander Tris, an 11 year old boy from Tudo Village. I remember him from last year. He was quite skilled for his age. If I remember correctly, he was trained by a mercenary group for a while, it will most likely be him who will take the spot,” the Examiner thought to himself.

“As for this one, let me see, his name was Kieran Morrison, a 12 year old boy from Brindle Village, he was an orphan before being taken in by the Smith fam-”

“The Smiths? Is he perhaps the adoptive brother of Ren Smith? I remember that boy. He was incredibly talented.. Hm... I’ll keep an eye on this one.”

As the battle continued, Kieran began blocking more and more of his attacks, relying less on dodging. He started to fight back, little by little.

“You talk all that, but you can’t even land a single hit on me,” Kieran mocked.

Alex was visibly angered, his attacks getting heavier, but also less accurate. He was putting strength before technique now, which was exactly what Kieran had hoped for. Children were extremely easy to manipulate, and Kieran took advantage of this. Not only in fights, but in everyday life back at the Village as well. As Alex’s rage continued, his openings only grew larger. As Alex went for an overhead strike, Kieran quickly parried it, letting it glide against his sword. Alex saw this, and immediately dodged to avoid Kieran’s counterstrike.

“You’re a sneaky one, but it’s no use!”

He turned his body, delivering an instant return strike. Due to the momentum, it was incredibly strong, Kieran using everything to block it. His sword started to chip from the immense stress. Kieran’s arms started to shake. Though he trained effortlessly for the past few years, against someone who obviously received proper training. Despite this, Kieran stood firm, gripping his sword with confidence. The boy continued his attack. With only one hand, he was able to twist and turn his body more easily. With incredible footwork and agility, Alex simply dodged any attack Kieran went for and counterattacked. As they backed away from each other, they regained their stamina. Though Alex’s technique far surpassed Kieran’s, it took a heavier toll on his body. Alex had the technique, but his body wasn’t able to keep up. He didn’t train his body the same way Kieran did.

Kieran grinned. “Tired already, you damn clown?”

“You haven’t even landed a proper clean hit, all you can do is block and parry,” Alex said. “Who’s really the clown he-”

Before Alex could quickly regain his footing and stance, Kieran rushed towards him. Alex was still recuperating, but Kieran was ready to strike the whole time. Kieran knew that this was probably the only chance he would have since Alex was tired from all the moving. Kieran noticed something about Alex’s style. It was very flashy, but there were many openings. It relied heavily on the user’s reaction time and ability to dodge. But what would happen if the user was too tired to dodge or react? Then they would lose. Kieran thrusted his sword towards Alex, but he swiftly avoided it. Just as Alex regained his footing, another attack came, this time a slash targeting his lower body. He dodged this as well, but every time he dodged and regained his footing, another attack came.

As Kieran threw another thrust, Alex counterattacked. He slipped to the side with the sword gliding across Kieran’s, so that Kieran couldn’t attack him from the side. Using the momentum, Alex’s sword pointed towards Kieran, a counterthrust. Kieran saw this and twisted around to avoid the attack, barely scratching his neck. As he turned around he slashed at Alex. Alex saw this and was just about to dodge when suddenly, he felt a small twitch in his leg. His body was starting to give out. Though he saw the attack coming, his body started to slow down, taking its toll from all the fancy movements. His body was still stuck in its thrust, unable to slow down or stop midway. Just as he was about to be struck, he forcefully tripped himself, and did a front roll to reset. He was out of the situation now, but Kieran simply gave chase.

“Why are you running now?” Kieran teased.

Tsk!

Alex clicked his tongue in frustration, visibly worked up and frustrated. He couldn’t do anything about the situation. He wasn’t stupid, he knew that his body was close to its limit and couldn’t keep attacking forever. He was forced on the defensive. He was now parrying more often instead of simply dodging attacks. Kieran’s strikes were not only fast, but incredibly heavy. Sure, it wasn’t as fast as Alex’s, and maybe it wasn’t as fancy as Alex’s either. But Kieran had a solid foundation. Kieran continued with his massive arc slashes and heavy thrusts. Alex’s arms started to face the recoil of blocking them full on, shaking with each attack he blocked.

“You damn orc! You’re just brute strength with no technique!” Alex whined. “Even if you beat me, it’s only because of your body!”

Kieran paid no attention to his taunts. Kieran was hyper focused on finding Alex’s openings, and he found one. Kieran had a pattern he would stick to from time to time, and Alex caught onto it. Kieran would do a horizontal slash, followed by an overhead slash, then finished with a rising cut. Because Alex started to grow accustomed to it, he had a plan to feint. As a few more exchanges went by, with Kieran using the same pattern, Alex started preemptively parrying it. It was set in motion now, and there was no way out for Alex.

He did a horizontal cut, which Alex dodged. When Kieran went for the overhead, Alex also had a plan to take advantage of the pattern. He used the technique Kieran used earlier, letting the sword glide down to the ground, then doing an overhead strike himself. As Kieran loaded his overhead strike, Alex started to push in and got into his defensive position.

“It’s over! You lost, Kieran Morrison!”

Kieran threw his strike down, but for some reason, it didn’t reach Alex. He had brought his sword down to his side in a thrusting stance. “Crap,” Alex could only think. He was already starting to throw his overhead strike, but it was too slow. A straight line will always be faster than a curve. Kieran's blade, now pointed at Alex’s throat, yet Alex’s blade was only halfway there. People from Tudo village were gasping and murmuring, while the children of Brindle were cheering.

“The winner of this match is Kieran Morrison from Brindle village,” the Examiner said as he walked off the field and back into the facilities.

A few children watching from the other groups were whispering to each other, talking about the match. It was exciting, and it also boosted the morale of the other children. They started to pick up weapons and train themselves, not wanting to fall back behind any more. Some Examiners who were present took down notes of the match, discussing together.

Watching from a window, the Head Examiner was eating a pastry and drinking tea.
He chuckled and laughed, talking about how the young ones had so much energy and life.

Knock

Knock

“Yes?”

“It’s Examiner Jos, sir.”

“Come in,” the Head Examiner said while he sipped on his tea.

The Examiner walked in, with a single file in his hand. On the top it wrote “Kieran Morrison.”

“Here you go sir, the file you requested.”

“Thank you,” The Head Examiner said, taking the file and dismissing the Examiner.

As he read the file, he stopped at a certain line.

“Mason Smith’s adopted son..?”

“How interesting.”