Time to Train

For the next few months we four decided to dedicate ourselves to training for the tourney, it was announced over time that the tourney was to take place as a series of one on one matches, and then it was announced that the sign ups would be taking place soon, in preparation for the coming Spring. Hard at work we took turn sparring each other, in a round robin like format keeping tally on who had won against who and giving each other feedback on our skillsets and ideas on how to improve. At first I struggled to keep up with the other three, mainly due to me being out for a long time with no place to practice. Yet slowly but surely I regained my skills with the sword and began to improve and iron out my inconsistencies.

I was told by Phyora that I played too defensive at times and spend too long searching for an opening when I should try to make one myself. Ash would come and tell me that my stance would make my balance weaker and showed me different ways to pivot in and out of situations when it came to them. Finally Mak would instruct me on which sort of attack to use at given times, and also began to teach me how to do half-swording and the murder stroke. Showing me how to position my hands in order not to cut them on the blade. With all this I put into practice as much as I possibly could.

At night I would sit and meditate on my magic, keeping in mind what I had been taught by that traitor of mine, and began to try and improve my use of it. It wasn't long before Phyora, Mak and Ash came to me to learn how to control magic and then how to wield it. It felt strange becoming a teacher to them as I thought that they themselves would've had a better hold of it than I did. Nonetheless I taught them what I could about control, and how you should feel the mana out and understand its flow to control it. Over time they would begin to understand what I meant and began forming mana mist for themselves, I felt happy in these moments as it felt that I was truly beginning to understand them.

A few days before the tourney we decided to get together and spar again. The first match was me against Mak. As we began I decided to take a faster approach and keep him on his heels, so I quickly lunged forwards aiming for a weak spot I had noticed in his stance and tried to slash multiple times in order to keep his defence up. During this time though he had been formulating his counter strategy and began to put it into effect. He spun out of my way when I went in for another quick slash and got behind me, and quickly he knocked me to the ground.

"A bit too hasty to win are we?" He remarked, a smirk growing on his face.

"Thought I'd catch you off guard." I retorted back, pushing myself to my feet and beginning to knock the dust off my attire.

"You did... but you didn't think past that. So you ended up losing, anyways lets move out the way and let the ladies fight one out eh?" He said making his way over to me and quickly dragging me out of the way.

Both Ash and Phyora had a sort of disdain for each other, but yet when working together they went along fine. The fight began, Phyora quickly lunging in with a feint, Ash picking up on it and their sword began to bind together as one and the other began pushing their strength and technique to break the bind in a better position. Ash won the bind breaking free with a clear strike open on Phyora's left side, yet Phyora stepped out of the way, dodging the attack. Both me and Mak sat at the side in astonishment beginning to feel a little underwhelmed at our own fight.

Both of them began to block each others attacks one after the other, each of them more ferocious than the other. Then by the time the dust settled around them and both were still standing, exhausted beyond belief, slowly they mustered the will to carry on before Ash finally got the upper hand and knocked Phyora to the ground. Then slowly Ash slinked to the ground also, both clearly exhausted and unable to move.

During this moment Mak and I hadn't realised the growing crowd around us, and as the fight ended a loud cheer echoed the room, spectators that seemed to have came out of nowhere had began to watch the fight mid way through and stayed till its conclusion. As they shouted Ash quickly pushed herself up and hobbled over to Phyora and helped her up. It was hard to make out what they were saying but from what I could tell it was something like "Well fought."

Slowly the crowd began to disperse and it soon came to me and Mak's realization that it would be the last fight as the pair of them had tired themselves out beyond belief. We all slowly exited the room to see a crowd of people in the centre of the meeting hall. They were extremely silent and were listening to a herald that had came in to the hall with a letter from the Royal court. He spoke clearly and loudly with determination in his eyes.

"As of today the Holmfeld Empire has signed a peace treaty with the Coalition! All lands in Drelvor are to be ceded back to the Drelvori. All lands taken are to be held under neutral banner by the Coalition! That is all!" he quickly stepped down and made his way out of the hall, leaving behind him an eerie silence. The quickly it turned into elation for most of the people there, they jumped with joy at the news of peace and quickly headed out to taverns to begin drinking. For us we didn't know what to feel, all this time we had been training to fight our own war against the Coalition, and now it was done. It felt strange, as if everything had fallen from our grasp.

We all sat at a table in the hall in silence, in a moment of pure disbelief, but for some reason we began to get happier and more cheery. As soon as we realised we wouldn't need to fight anymore battles for a while we began to be more chipper and started drinking and eating through the night as the people outside screamed and shouted with elation that it was over, and with little reparations.

Then after a few more days of training it had arrived, tourney day.