Alexander VS Arthur

Chapter 3 - Alexander VS Arthur

By theMadLad

Philip and Uther along with the rest of their family sat together on the stands located in one of the Pendragon Castle's training rooms.

Glancing down towards the small arena set up for fights, they watched as both their sons walked to opposite ends of the room.

"Who do you think will win?" Philip asked towards Uther with a questioning glance.

They looked at each other with a smirk ready to brag about the heirs of their families.

"Hmph, Arthur of course. His talent is no less than our ancestor's." Uther responded with a prideful arrogance.

"Really?" Philip questioned in surprise, as he knew the tales of the King of Knights' power and talent.

King Arthur at his peak while wielding the original Excalibur could be considered the strongest human to ever live.

'To think this child may match him....' Philip thought as he glance down towards Arthur.

As they watched the two children about to begin their spar, Philip smirked before speaking, "Well I suppose it's a good thing then....."

"Hm..?" Uther responded in confusion.

"....That Alexander's talent surpasses his ancestor."

"...!"

———————

"You ready yet?" I asked towards Arthur as he gave me a nod.

I nodded back while glancing towards the side of the training room. I saw my parents on some stands alongside Arthur's, there was also Le Fay and Elaine sitting on them as well.

I made eye contact with Le Fay who turned beet red as I gave her a smirk and wink before turning towards Arthur who grit his teeth in irritation.

In his hands he held a high-quality regular steel sword, it wasn't comparable to a magic sword such as Caliburn but it was more than enough for a spar.

I held a similar quality sword but with a curved blade in the style of a Greek Kopis.

Spoiler: Greek Kopis

We stared at each other as the air became tense, both of us gave one last nod to begin before instantly closing the distance between us.

A small boom followed our movements as the floor buckled and cracked from the force of our momentum.

Within a split second our swords clashed as we locked eyes before dozens of moves were exchanged in an instant.

As streaks of air rebuffed from our clashes, I had to admit that he was good, definitely a prodigy that rarely appears in history.

I could see how by the time canon came around he was considered a contender for the strongest human alive.

But….unfortunately for him, it wasn't enough.

As our swords clashed I could see the frustration growing on his face as every slash and strike he made towards me was either blocked or deflected with ease.

While he was admittedly good, I was a living cheat. His years of discipline and training made from his own blood, sweat, and tears—was only about equal to me putting in a moderate effort over a period of a month or two.

But, it was to be expected as my Essences gave me the foundation to become the greatest CQC fighter to ever live. I simply needed to ingrain my techniques into my muscle memory with practice and actual combat experience and that was all.

It was a gap in sheer skill that could only be overcome by sheer strength.

——Strength that he simply didn't have.

'....Honestly, it's a bit pitiful....' I thought inwardly as my facial expression remained blank.

I let the match continue on a bit while pretending to tire, I could have ended the match in an instant by utilizing Touki to just overpower him directly, but I wasn't a dickhead.

He was obviously trained as a knight, so things such as honor were crucial to his ideology and I would prefer not to show him such disrespect upon our first meeting.

'…Or is it more disrespectful to hold back?'

I could tell he wanted to impress the maid Elaine and I wasn't going to humiliate him in front of her just to show my superiority in a friendly spar and honestly Arthur isn't really even a bad guy.

I was holding back a massive amount, objectively anyone near my level of power would not be able to stand against me unless they pulled out a trump card such as a Longinus or some kind of special ability.

If it was someone like Cao Cao in front of me I would have bullied him, maybe use a few mental partitions for calculating and multicasting spells or something, but nah, it was Arthur. He could be a good ally in the future as well.

I figured the match had gone on long enough as Arthur came at me with an overhead swing of the sword. I was prepared to deflect his blade with my own when suddenly his leg raised up with a knee straight for my liver.

I raised a brow in surprise at the deceptive technique before smiling at the move. My left arm moved up to intercept the knee he raised towards me as my right arm continued to carry my sword in order to deflect his blade.

As soon as his knee was caught in my hand, I squeezed. I suppose he expected me to flinch from his attack but he was unable to surpass my own strength and throw me off balance, but unfortunately for him, I had no such issue.

With his body unable to move free from my grip he quickly tried to punch me with his free hand. I had already gone into action the instant he gripped his hand into a fist as a devastating knee bulldozed into his body.

"—KkuH!"

He choked out spit as the air was forced from his lungs before collapsing on the floor.

Recovering from his daze, the next thing Arthur knew was my sword at his throat.

"I....lost?" Arthur murmured to himself in disappointment.

I took the blade from his throat before offering him an arm. He took my arm as I pulled him off the ground.

I gave him a pat on the shoulder to cheer him up before lying to him with an encouraging smile, "You were great, probably will catch up with me soon."

My words seemed to placate him as he shook his head, it may have been a lie but it was put to good use as my sheer charisma forced down any argument.

It's always better to have an ally than an enemy, and a good impression is rather simple when talking to a fellow who was humble after defeating you, especially when said fellow had enough charisma to put world leaders to shame.

He looked up at me with a smile which I responded with my own, "Let's join the others."

—————————

What welcomed Arthur and me as we arrived at the stands was the smug look of my father over a dumbfounded Uther.

Arthur looked towards his father with slight shame before nervously glancing towards Elaine who responded with a reassuring smile before speaking, "I'm sure you'll do better next time."

Arthur's face seemed to contort between comfort and embarrassment before ultimately stuttering out a quiet, "T-thanks."

I noticed his father take on a distant look as he gazed at the interaction but my observation was thrown off as my father placed his arm over my shoulder with a hearty laugh, "Haha! That's my boy!"

I gave him a smirk with a pat on the back, "Heh, damn right I am." Which only caused him to smile wider.

I turned over towards my mother and noticed her beside Arthur's mother as they seemed to tease a blushing Le Fay who would occasionally glance over me with a red face.

When she noticed me look at her she seemed to somehow blush brighter with an atomic red face as our mother's laughter invaded her ears.

I gave her a reassuring smile before turning back towards my father and continuing a conversation between us and the Pendragon father and son.

——————————

The day passed quickly as our parents seemed to spend some time together as old friends, eventually leaving me and the others alone together.

I and Arthur were having a discussion about the various functions around his mansion and the management of the Avalon Estate as well the Pendragon Family.

As the heir to the Pendragon Family, Arthur was well versed in the politics around supernatural 'noble' families and how to run them, namely those descended from heroes and the like.

I had asked him about it in order to gain reference from his family as I only had my own to go off.

While I had countless different ways to manage a kingdom from economics, politics, and logistics, I still wanted to know how the Pendragon Family ran their own.

Arthur went on to describe how their ties to the Heaven Faction had seemed to fade as the Pendragon Family stepped back from the limelight after the fall of King Arthur and the destruction of Excalibur.

With Arthur and Mordred dying together in the Battle of Camlann while dragging most of the kingdom to the grave with them due to internal fighting, the Saxons were free to invade and slowly take over England within the next few decades.

Meanwhile, the remaining Pendragon family members went into hiding as the Heaven faction watched on, satisfied that Christianity had firmly taken root in England regardless of the outcome.

As the story of King Arthur eventually became more prominent as time passed on due to its tales of drama and knights along with powerful and influential figures from that era such as the legendary wizard, Merlin.

The story had become an English inspiration along with the eventual defeat of the Saxons a couple of centuries down the line, the story had cemented itself within the cultural history of England.

Using the prestige brought from the name Pendragon, the remnants of the family were able to establish themselves their own slice of wealth within the country although long fading from royalty.

Nowadays, the Pendragon Family had a wealth of resources as well as close ties to various magical communities within Great Britain. This gave them large amounts of 'soft' power within the country as well as various talents pining to join them.

As he was about to go on to describe how the knights within the family were procured, we were interrupted by Elaine speaking to Le Fay from across the room.

"You ready to leave?" Elaine asked Le Fay from the side as she perked up in response.

"Really?! Can I finally go?!" Le Fay yelled out in excitement.

"Indeed, your lessons have moved along far enough. We simply need to submit an application which along with your family name and my recommendation, guarantees your membership." Elaine replied to Le Fay with a soft smile.

Le Fay started bouncing around in excitement as Elaine turned towards us and spoke, "Arthur, Alexander, would you like to come with us? We will be headed towards the headquarters of the Order of the Golden Dawn. We could also explore the city along the way."

Arthur agreed seemingly eager to interact more with Elaine and me. While I also agreed, I wanted to check out the Golden Dawn organization and see if there was anything there I could use to progress my studies in magic. I also wanted to scope out London and see the interactions with the magical side of things.

I had not really seen much of how the supernatural interferes with the mundane as most of my life so far was spent in intense study and training due to my paranoia which had mellow down with time.

Hopefully things weren't as bad as I had originally speculated when I first arrived in this world.

"Then let's set off." She spoke with a smile as the various servants around the mansion finished arrangements for our leave.