Ch 13: A Duel

Zzzzzzz

"Oy! Wake up already! You're the last one to get up!" Said Mihikolo as he shook someone.

"H-Huh? What?" The person Mihikolo was shaking suddenly got up.

"Finally! You're awake! You sleep too damn long, Lequiss!" Said Mihikolo.

Lequiss lets out a large yawn and begins to look around and sees Fylo standing behind Mihikolo, Jildelmn sitting in a lotus position with his eyes closed, and Eilda just sitting close to them, eating something.

"Is Jildelmn still asleep?" Asked Lequiss.

"No, he was the last one to keep watch, he woke us up." Answered Eilda

Lequiss's stomach suddenly growls in hunger.

"You just woke up and you're hungry already?" Asked Mihikolo.

"Haha, Of course! I need food for energy!" Said Lequiss.

"Here." Eilda tosses him something, Lequiss catches it and it is a piece of bread.

"Thanks!" Said Lequiss as he instantly took a bite. Lequiss stands up and keeps the bread on his teeth while he stretches.

Mihikolo watches him and notices something. "Huh, Lequiss don't your things ever bother you?" Asked Mihikolo.

"Hm? Whach uyu in?(What do you mean)" Asked Lequiss with the bread still in his mouth.

"Well, the crown doesn't fall off on its own which is weird but doesn't your sword being on you all the time bother you? Also, take the bread off your mouth." Asked Mihikolo.

Lequiss finishes stretching and takes the bread. "Nope, not at all. I won't ever separate my sword from me. It's too important for me." Said Lequiss.

"I see... Well, that explains it a bit."

Lequiss takes the final bite of the bread and finishes eating it, he wipes his hands on his shirt.

"Alright, I'm done, we should get going then!" Said Lequiss.

"I agree, we should get moving or else we might be here till noon with the scorching heat." Said Eilda as she stood up.

"I have no complaint as well." Said Mihikolo.

"Then how about y-" Eilda tried to ask him but was immediately interrupted.

"Lequiss." Jildelmn calls out to Lequiss.

Jildelmn opens his eyes.

"Hm? What?" Asked Lequiss.

Jildelmn stands up and faces Lequiss.

"I know what I said yesterday and I'd like to keep it but I'm sorry... Lequiss, I cannot stand following a leader weaker than myself or worse, a leader without ambition."

Eilda with a worried look asks "Where are you getting with this Jildelmn..?"

"What I'm trying to say is, I wouldn't follow Lequiss unless... He can prove he has one of the things I mentioned." Said Jildelmn

"W-What the hell are you getting on about Jildelmn?! You won't follow Lequiss unless he's stronger than you or he has ambition?! Didn't you promise you would follow him till the end?!" Worriedly asked Mihikolo.

"Precisely. That is why I am giving Lequiss a chance to prove himself to be a leader. So, which one will it be, Lequiss?" Asked Jildelmn with a serious look on him.

Lequiss stands there staring at Jildelmn.

"I can't prove that I have ambition." Said Lequiss.

Jildelmn's begins to look agitated.

Lequiss smirks "But I can definitely say that I'm not weaker than anyone! Hehe!"

This surprises Jildelmn, he couldn't say anything and just chuckles.

"Then, Lequiss! I challenged you to a duel!" Said Jildelmn.

!!!

This surprises all of them.

"W-What?! A duel all of a sudden?!" Asked Mihikolo.

"Jildelmn... Why are you doing this all of a sudden...?" Asked Eilda with an aggravated look

Jildelmn looks at Eilda.

...

He just stares at her. Until he finally decides to speak.

"Because I don't see Lequiss fit to be a leader until he proves himself one of the things I mentioned... The strong cannot be a leader without an ambition and an ambitious leader must be strong to achieve those ambitions. A group with a leader without either of these traits would inevitably crumble so I cannot follow someone like that." Explained Jildelmn.

Eilda just kept staring at him with an aggravated look and suddenly she sighed.

*Haah* Eilda averted her gaze "I understand. Do as you please."

"W-What?! Are you serious Eilda?! What if Leq-"

"I accept!" Said Lequiss seemingly far away, suddenly interrupting Mihikolo.

Everybody instantly turns to Lequiss, already far away enough on the right of the field to start, even looking excited.

"He's already ready..." Said Mihikolo not even looking surprised anymore.

"At least he seems eager to it." Said Eilda.

"Good!" Said Jildelmn as he walked towards where Lequiss was. He stops in front of him and then walks towards the left. After 10 steps he stops and faces Lequiss again.

"Are you going to fight me with your hands?" Asked Lequiss.

"No. I'll fight you seriously." Said Jildelmn as he opened his satchel and pulled out a diamond-shaped metallic sharp tip of something, as the bottom of it seemed to be able to attach to something. The size of it was quite big as it covered Jildelmn's whole hand.

"What is that...?" Confusedly asked Mihikolo.

"I don't know either. I haven't seen something like that before." Answer Eilda.

Jildelmn then reaches into his satchel again and pulls out a thin cylinder shaped wood, the top of it had a hole and the bottom of it was a screw thread. The wood was the size of his palm and he attached the tip to the wood and it fits perfectly.

He reaches for his satchel again and pulls out the same cylinder wood with bottom thread and attaches the top of the second wood to the bottom of the first one and it fits perfectly.

Jildelmn does this 7 more times till he stops. He holds it in the middle and slams the bottom on the ground. It stands as tall as him.

"Is that a spear?!" Said Lequiss, surprised.

"Yeah." Answered Jildelmn.

"Woah!! I've never seen a portable spear before! Haha!" Said Lequiss in an excited tone.

"Lequiss! Are you ready?" Suddenly asked Jildelmn.

"Ah! Oh yeah, I forgot" Lequiss stops being mesmerized by the spear and stands straight with his hand on his sword's handle. "Ready!"

"Then let's get started right away. Eilda!" Jildelmn suddenly calls out to Eilda. She turns to him.

"Mind doing the countdown?" Asked Jildelmn.

"Alright then."

"3..."

"2..."

"1..."

"Commence..."

Jildelmn instantly rushes in as he has the advantage with length and he holds the spear with one hand in the middle and readies to swing horizontally on the left of Lequiss.

Jildelmn swings at him and slips his hand to the bottom of the spear to get more force, Lequiss easily dodges by crouching.

"Woah, that was close." Said Lequiss.

Jildelmn, after his swing, suddenly jumps and aims to land a kick on Lequiss. Jildelmn was very quick and Lequiss couldn't dodge so he places both his arms above his head, crossing his arms.

Jildelmn lands the kick on Lequiss's arms, and Lequiss immediately breaks out by pushing Jildelmn, Jildelmn is knocked into the air by the push.

"Amazing... Your strength alone..." Jildelmn remarks.

Jildelmn safely lands on both his feet but Lequiss is already on the move, Lequiss is running towards Jildelmn at amazing speed with his hand on the hilt of his sword.

Jildelmn immediately reacted and swing his spear once more horizontally but Lequiss slid below the spear and stopped right below Jildelmn. Lequiss takes out his sword and swings at him but Jildelmn immediately jumps up high in the air and begins to thrust below towards Lequiss multiple times, Lequiss is able to dodge and block most of it but one of the thrusts Lequiss tries to block with his sword, slips and continues to make a cut on Lequiss's arm.

Lequiss was unfazed by this and continued to dodge and block all of the thrust.

Jildelmn is about to fall so he stops the thrusting and uses his spear to redirect where he's going to fall. Jildelmn lands quite far from Lequiss and right in front of a tree but he lands turned away from Lequiss. As he turned around there was a rock flying towards him, Jildelmn immediately blocked this with his spear and saw behind the rock, Lequiss was already close to him ready to thrust his sword.

Lequiss was already too close and was able to thrust at him and Jildelmn couldn't back away since there were trees behind him so he tried to block it by spinning his spear but as soon as the first spin started and the bottom of the spear hit the sword, it immediately cut the bottom of the spear, Jildelmn instantly notices this and realizes it wouldn't work.

Jildelmn drops down on his back and tries to bicycle kick Lequiss's chin but Lequiss dodges this by throwing his head back, the kick continues and hits Lequiss's hand, launching the sword in the air.

Lequiss immediately recovers and instantly tries to stomp Jildelmn but Jildelmn easily dodges by rolling to the side. After getting far enough Jildelmn stood up.

"Lost your lovely sword?" Jildelmn says.

"It'll come back, hehe." Replied Lequiss.

Jildelmn takes out the bottom wood that has been cut and replaces it with a new one and even more, extends it by 4 more woods. It's now as tall as the tree Eilda was hitting yesterday.

"Woah! You're making it longer?!" Surprisedly asked Lequiss.

"Yeah, I go by a saying." Said Jildelmn.

"What saying?" Asked Lequiss.

Jildelmn grins "The Bigger the Better, The Longer the Stronger!" Said Jildelmn.

"Hahahaha! That's pretty good!" Said Lequiss.

"Then shall we start again?" Asked Jildelmn.

"Yeah. I'm ready again." Lequiss stretches his hand to his left and his sword falls just beside his hand and Lequiss is able to grab the hilt.

"Then, Let's go!" Said Jildelmn as he made another horizontal swing at Lequiss, Lequiss easily dodged by jumping this time but behind Lequiss were the trees and Jildelmn didn't stop the swing and just continued his swing. The swing continued on and cut 3 trees in half.

"What?!?! 3 trees in one swing?!?!" Said Mihikolo, shocked.

As the swing finishes, Jildelmn pulls back his spear and holds it close to the tip, Jildelmn holds it as if he were going to throw it. Lequiss sees this and readies himself to block it. Jildelmn anticipates his falls and throws the spear just below him and it is perfect but he misses Lequiss completely.

?!?!

Jildelmn threw it too far on the right.

"Hahaha! You missed!" Said Lequiss as he let his guard down.

Jildelmn uses this opportunity, the spear is so long that it's long enough to reach Lequiss and long enough for Jildelmn to hold it at the bottom.

Jildelmn smirks and grabs the bottom of the spear with both of his hand and stops the momentum of the throw and swings it to the left.

Lequiss doesn't anticipate this and tries to block the swing with his sword and his shoulder but he can't fully block it and he gets knocked away by the blow. Lequiss flew to the left and hits and broke 2 trees which stops him from going any further. Dust covers the area around Lequiss.

"Lequiss!!" Called out Mihikolo as he tried to go over to him but Eilda stretched out her hand and blocked him from going.

"What? Eilda!"

"Don't interrupt. This is a duel and... Believe in our Leader." Said Eilda.

"Ah- fine but if Leq-"

"PUAAAH! What the?!" The dust cleared up and Lequiss stood there with just little minor bruises.

"What the hell was that?! I thought you threw your spear?!" Said angrily Lequiss.

"Amazing, you're almost unscathed from that." Said Jildelmn.

"You're getting me really pumped up now!" Said Lequiss.

Lequiss immediately rushes towards Jildelmn and Jildelmn rushes towards him as well. As they get close to each other, Jildelmn disassembles his spear into two by half. Now shorter but still long. Jildelmn goes into dual wield, one with a sharp tip and the other just a wooden pole

Lequiss was surprised but continued to rush toward him, now without the length advantage, Lequiss was able to get closer easier. As they are both in reach of each other, Lequiss first swings diagonally upwards at him. It almost hits Jildelmn's right arm but he was still able to dodge.

Jildelmn instantly recovers and begins to barrage Lequiss with attacks which Lequiss starts to block and deflect all of it. The two of them were in a deadlock from the barrages until Jildelmn was able to deflect Lequiss's sword, this takes Lequiss aback.

With this opportunity, Jildelmn thrusts the one with the sharp tip at Lequiss's stomach but Lequiss is able to recover fast enough and kicks Jildelmn's right knee which makes Jildelmn kneel down, Lequiss slashes downward but Jildelmn was able to dodge by rolling but Lequiss was quick and already anticipated this so he quickly runs towards the rolling Jildelmn.

As Jildelmn finished rolling, he saw Lequiss already running towards him, he wasn't fast enough to be able to dodge so he tried to block it but he wasn't fast enough either and Lequiss was able to kick him right in the stomach.

This knocks Jildelmn away similar to earlier with Lequiss and Jildelmn flies far off and hits and breaks 3 trees which stops his momentum. Dust covers the area where he landed.

Mihikolo continues watching the two conflicting emotions. "I can't decide if I should be astonished or be scared..." said Mihikolo.

...

Eilda stood there not talking.

The dust clears up and there we see Jildelmn on one knee and one hand on his stomach. The bandage around Jildelmn's stomach was torn apart from the impact.

"Holy hell! What kind of kick was that?!" Exclaimed Jildelmn.

"Hahaha! That was get back!" Said Lequiss.

Jildelmn stands up with the help of his spear while his other hand is still pressing his stomach.

"Lequiss! Let's end this!" Yelled Jildelmn.

"Ahahaha! Fine by me!" Replied Lequiss.

Jildelmn starts walking towards Lequiss and Lequiss does the same.

Jildelmn connects the two spears back together and takes out two more pieces of wood to connect in the spear.

Lequiss twirls his sword around readying himself.

Suddenly they began rushing towards each other. As they get closer and closer, Jildelmn jumps in the air and swings down at Lequiss while holding the spear at the bottom creating more power.

Lequiss stops and holds his sword like a baseball bat and swings up with all his might.

The two of them smiled at each other, in the face of each other's attack, both of them were having fun and gave it their all.

"Who do you think will win, Eilda?" Asked Mihikolo.

...

"Eilda?" 

As Eilda didn't answer Mihikolo turned to her but she wasn't there.

"Huh? Where did Eilda go? Did you see her Fylo?" Asked Mihikolo.

"No, boss, Eilda's too fast for me to even see." Answered Fylo.

"Where did she go when it's about to end?" Wondered Mihikolo.

Both Lequiss and Jildelmn's attacks are about to hit each other but...

"WHAT?!" Exclaimed Lequiss.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" Exclaimed Jildelmn.

*BOOM*

Dust covered the whole area, the air pressure was so great that the and trees were getting pushed around. Some of the grass in the field were getting blown away leaving just dirt, even the trees in the skirts of the area were getting rooted out from the ground just from the air.

Moreover, Mihikolo was blown away and almost flew just from the air pressure but Fylo was able to catch Mihikolo before he flew too far.

"W-What the hell just happened?!?!" Exclaim Mihikolo.

The air pressure slowly faded but the dust was left behind.

"Fylo, did you see what just happened?!" Asked Mihikolo.

"Yeah, boss! Those two's attack landed and then all of this happened." Answered Fylo.

"T-Then where are they?" Asked Mihikolo as he began to look around for them as the dust slowly started clearing up.

"A-Ah there!" Fylo pointed towards the left and there stood three silhouettes in the dust.

As the dust ultimately faded away, Mihikolo and Fylo saw Eilda standing there looking down on the ground while in between the two with her hands clenched up into a fist and her fist was right in front of both of their weapons, it seemed that both of their attacks were stopped by her fist.

"Do you two..." Eilda softly mumbles.

Eilda raised her head, showing her furious expression.

"INTEND TO KILL EACH OTHER?!" Furiously asked Eilda.