Marth

{Ordos' POV}

-Five hours ago-

'Attention! Day 4 of the exam has now ended.'

I was awoken by the sound of an annoying voice. Damn, why do they gotta blast that in our ears?

'Currently, out of the 9 of you, only 6 of you remain and only a few monsters are left.'

Wow, I couldn't have guessed. After what Seiya did, I didn't think there would still be any monsters left.

'That concludes day 4. This is the last day, I wish those that still remain good luck. That is all.'

Yay, I can finally sleep again. Ugh… I feel like shit…

But as I was about to sleep again, a voice made me wake up.

"Hey… wake up you idiot."

"Huh?"

When I opened my eyes, the morning light brightly shined into my eyes, blinding me. It took me a while to adjust to the light and when I did, standing in front of me was Seiya.

"Oh, what is it, Seiya? Make it quick, I still want to sleep."

"Where are my weapons?" Seiya said eagerly.

"Oh, they are right here."

I would reach into my sand storage and pull out his weapons.

"But Seiya, why are you acting like you are gonna be late for a prom date?" I said, teasing Seiya because of what happened last night.

Seiya glanced at me and then turned away.

"I'm gonna go fight Marth."

"Huh? Right now?! Are you sure you don't need any preparations?"

"I am already prepared."

Seiya finished strapping his daggers, Katana, and his smaller one on his waist and back.

That's weird. Why does Seiya suddenly feel so different? He has the regular dark aura that he always has when he's ready to fight, but there is also another one. This one was much darker and also has a feeling of overwhelming malevolence.

"Ordos."

"Y-yes?"

"Don't follow me. If you do, I'll send you back to the camp earlier than you realize."

His voice sounded even scarier. There was another voice overlapping his. The voice sounded like that of a kid.

"I think Aurelia will be fine now," he said as he looked at his wrist. That's when I noticed he didn't have his bracelet on. Wait, he isn't actually going to-

"Are you crazy? You're really gonna go fight Marth without a bracelet?"

"I'm prepared for whatever comes next. I've thrown my life to accomplish many tasks in the past. This is nothing new to me."

"But Seiya, this isn't like earth. There weren't any monsters or powers, only normal people."

"Ordos, I was never normal from the start. What makes you think there is a difference?"

"But-"

Suddenly the air became heavy and it became hard to breathe. Wait a minute, Seiya isn't using-

"Don't worry, the mana I'm poisoning you with right now is non-lethal. It'll just make you take a quick nap. Nothing to worry about."

Damn it, I need to stop him before he gets himself killed.

I attempted to make a mana barrier but when it was finished, I was still breathing in the toxic mana.

"Wha-?"

Then I noticed that there was a black blade that had made a hole in my mana barrier. I then realize that the black blade came from Seiya. The weirdest thing was it was a part of his arm.

"What? H-how?"

"Rest Ordos. My safety is the least of my and your priorities. You should protect yourself… from her."

"From… who?"

Seiya didn't answer my question. Instead, he shifted his bladed arm upwards and my barrier shattered. My vision blurred and the strength in my body left.

"I'm leaving her to you, Ordos," Seiya said as he began to walk away.

"No… c-come back…"

But he didn't listen and left. Then everything went black.

***

-Present-

I leaped forward and landed in front of Marth who had his hand rested on his sword.

"So then, shall we start?"

"Wait."

I looked at him, confused. Marth looked like he was inspecting me, and then I noticed he was looking at my wrist.

"You are truly an idiot. Let me guess, you either broke it because of what you did or you gave it to someone else because you broke theirs."

"The second guess is correct."

"And that someone was her highness, Aurelia Lucifis?"

"Correct again."

Marth shook his head as he crossed his arms. Then he took his bracelet off and jingled them at me like a set of keys. Then he threw it away into the lake.

"What are you doing?"

"Well, it's obvious, I'm playing fair. This'll make our fight even and more life-threatening."

"You are one crazy bastard."

"I could say the same for you."

"At least, I had a reason to get rid of mine."

"Relax, we both know we have super-regenerative abilities. You have your shadow magic and since I'm a Lycan, I can heal much quicker than a human can."

Hmm, he is correct. I've been researching about his kind and Lycan's have an interesting healing factor that's like a lizard's, except that it is about 10x faster. Then when he becomes a Lycan, it becomes 100x.

Comparing shadow mending to his regenerative skills, I can only heal 20x faster. So even if it was dark, he'd still have the advantage. But for now, I have the advantage since it's still day. Talking about the day, it's around 5 if I'm correct. The sunsets in an hour.

"Though I should tell you, it was pointless to give your bracelet to Aurelia," Marth suddenly mentioned and I tilted my head.

"And what do you mean by that?"

Marth shook his head and crossed his arms.

"Seiya, do you really think women really need our help when it comes to battle? As much as I don't want to say this, I think you should know."

What is he on about?

"Remember, I said that I'd train with Katelin whenever we have the time to? Also, remember that she is stronger than me?"

"Yeah, you already told me that days ago. Just get to the point," I'd rush him as I was already getting tired of hearing him talk.

"The point is that I've tried topping her. Whenever it hits dusk, I secretly train with my great grandfather."

"Great grandfather? That doesn't sound like someone you could train with at equal footing."

"Don't be so blind. Lycans have a larger life span than humans do. While humans can live up to 100 years, we Lycans can live over 10 centuries. Of course, we age the same as humans until we become 30. From then on we keep our appearances until we become 800 years old or older."

With their healing factor and life span, they are practically immortal.

"Anyway, I've learned secret family techniques that my father never taught me. Out of all my siblings, I am the first to know of this."

"And you are going to use this in our fight?"

"Maybe, if I have to. Now, as I was saying, even though I trained with him and learned of these techniques, I used these techniques on Katelin."

"And the point is?"

"I still lost."

"Hmph, not surprising."

"Katelin and Aurelia are rivals. Meaning they are on equal footing. I think you've had a little fight with Aurelia when you went out of control, right?"

"You were there?"

"Yes, just out of sight though."

Hmm, looking back into Kage's memories, I don't think I recall ever seeing him.

"Now, do you think Aurelia was fighting you at full strength?"

"..."

"She wasn't even trying, they just had to find a way to get you back to normal, they didn't want to hurt you."

"...so-"

"Yes, if she were to have gone full power, she would've beaten you in less than a minute. That is how low we stand to Katelin and her highness."

I gulped. I can't imagine what Aurelia would've done if I pissed her off. I never even seen her fight at full power. I don't think the demonstration she showed during the entrance exam would count since it was just a test.

"But anyway, the point is that she could probably withstand the onslaught Katelin is planning to do. I'm pretty sure your friend is with her, am I right?"

I stood still and stayed silent, but I nodded as he was correct. I just hope Ordos will survive, I did warn him about Katelin. Whatever, I bet he could handle himself.

"You know, I think that's about enough talking."

I got into a stance and drew my Katana and Ninjato.

Marth smirked and also got into a stance. He drew his sword which glimmered strangely. I realized that Marth had another sword on his back and that the one he was wielding right now was not the weapon he used when we first fought. It gave off this atavistic aura which gave me chills.

"New sword?"

"You could say that. This one belonged to my ancestors. Thing is, it's made for killing demons, but it can also deal quite a blow to dragons as well. After all, it is made of dragon bones."

So that was what that aura was. If this was made of dragon bones, it would probably have belonged to an ancient one. If only I had a weapon like that...

"Now then, shall we begin?" Marth got into a pose where he was going to lunge forward.

"Took the words right out of my mouth."

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