Chapter Ten: Nariko, Gazef, Spar And Awe

Nariko blinked as a blinding light filled her sight. But it went away soon after, but before her eyes had even opened she knew her surroundings had changed.

There was a constant chanting around her. A slight cold breeze and she was now standing instead of sitting.

Nariko opened her eyes, her hands going to her arms to warm herself up, as her school uniform wasn't that good for keeping out the cold.

When she looked around she saw about twenty people in the room on higher platforms than her. All of them were wearing cloaks that hid their faces. Each cloak had a different colour and design.

Nariko looked around a bit confused and nervous, but not scared. Itysus had already told her about everything after all, she knew what to expect, it was just her nerves now.

She waited for someone to talk to her, as the chanting had now stopped and the people in cloaks were now staring at her. Some in hope, some in confusion, some in a bit of envy. Some were talking to each in hushed voices that Nariko couldn't hear.

The door then opened and Nariko only now realised that it was a door. It was tall enough to fit some of the biggest trucks through it, and so Nariko didn't think it was a door. After all, nobody could be that tall.

Six people walked through the door and Nariko looked shocked at the sight of some of them.

Two of them had animal features. One was a cat and the other was a… fox? If Nariko guessed right. Nariko's eyes subconsciously started to stare at the animal features on them. She couldn't help it, okay?! This was something she didn't even think was possible, yet here she was and here it was happening in front of her.

A man with big muscles on him, a beard and dirty blonde hair that was pushed back looked at Nariko with a pleased look. He was happy that she was here.

"Greetings hero, my name is Gervais von Einzburg. I am king of the Nuflana Kingdom." He said introducing himself in a formal respectful manner. "I would like to know the heroes name." He asked her.

Nariko took in that the man she was talking to was a king and her body froze for a second, but when it moved again she tried to move into a kneeling position, but didn't and ended up in the awkward position being an senrei bow while standing up but being at almost ninth degrees.

"Yes! My name is Nariko Kamata, sir! Eh- my liege? … Your highness?" Nariko said, getting less and less confident in herself, fearing she had somehow already offended him.

Although that was only because she couldn't see his face. He actually thought it was pretty funny how much she was trying to act like this was natural. It was obvious she didn't come from a similar world like this, which was normal for heroes.

"You're okay, Nariko." Gervais said, speaking to Nariko by her first name. And Nariko realised that it must be normal in this world to address people by their first name. "You can stand up now." He said eventually, seeing as she wasn't moving.

Nariko relcunty stood up straight and looked back at the king and others with him, and then she noticed that one of the women there had long pointy ears. Nariko looked fascinated by that.

One of them, the woman with brown hair and cat ears and tail, skipped happily up to her. "Look at this cutie, nya~!" She exclaimed. Grabbing Nariko's face and squishing it, in a playful way that didn't hurt Nariko.

Nariko could only hold her arms out in shock while her eyes were wide with shock at what was happening. She didn't want to stop the cat woman because Nariko knew that she was most likely important if she was hanging around with the king.

Gervais could only look on at the interaction with sympathy at the interaction between the hero Nariko and Susumu. Susumu had done that to him before once, but she wasn't as kind and had actually been doing it to hurt and annoy him. It worked, until the royal guards had forced her off him, although that was years ago now.

"Poor girl. I pity her for being at Susumu's mercy." Lythienne mumbled to herself, holding her head as she shook it.

Ozamauk let out a groan of annoyance as he watched the interaction, before finally speaking up. "Can we see what this 'hero' is capable of? I want to get back to my forge as soon as possible." Of course that wasn't the only reason. Just being near a hero made his skin tingle in discomfort.

Gervais glared slightly at Ozamauk. Of course he knew why Ozamauk would feel that way even if he didn't say the true reason. "There is no rush, Nariko… but if you are feeling up to it, would you be willing to spar with one of my soldiers?" Gervais asked her, not forcing her to do anything. He wasn't like that bastard Zerad who would probably force his hero to train constantly. If anything, right now they were probably training.

Nariko's face was now free from Susumu's grasp, although Nariko didn't know her name yet. She thought about what the king was saying. There was no point in delaying something that was going to happen anyways, and besides she wasn't exhausted or tired, she actually felt wide awake.

"Sure. There's no use in delaying something that's going to happen anyways, especially if that delay will cause more harm than good." Nariko knew that the further she delayed it, although she didn't have any intention to, the gap between her and the other hero would grow. And that would cause more harm. But if she trained then the gap in strength would close, or at least not grow bigger.

Gervais smiled at those words, glad that she knew that putting it off would cause harm. Although he doubted one day would cause a massive difference, he didn't really want to take any risks. "Good! Brillant, in fact! Follow me. I'll lead you to the training area." Gervais said in a boisterous manner.

Nariko nodded as she walked along with the king and the people that he came in with.

It was a fairly long walk, but Nariko enjoyed every second of it. She got to look out some windows and saw the outside world, or more specifically, the city that surrounded what Nariko assumed to be, a castle. More specifically the king's castle. So that would probably make the city around it the capital city.

And not only that, but the castle itself was beautiful. She might not know much about architecture, but she quite enjoyed the aesthetic of the castle.

Although the walk was long, it didn't feel like it. Nariko enjoyed sightseeing, even if it was only through a window the view was still amazing.

They eventually reached a training ground. Multiple people in light armour were training with swords, spears, bows, while some lifted weights.

"Come on, you won't be getting any stronger if you put in any effort!" A man shouted encouragingly as he fought against someone clearly weaker than him.

The man had a muscular body that would fit well in a bodybuilding competition, although Nariko wasn't one hundred percent on that because the man was wearing some armour and clothes. He had trimmed black hair, and stubble on his face.

"Man, the captain really doesn't hold back."

"Looks like someone got over confident again."

"No, I heard that Hideo was trying to get into the Order of the Dragon."

"Really? That idiot, he can't even get into the Lion Order."

"Never mind the Lion Order. I heard he barely got into the Templars of Balance."

Nariko was about to interfere, even if she knew she couldn't do anything. She knew she was far weaker than that man.

But before she could one strike from the wooden sword the man was holding and his opponent went flying back into the ground. Doing a starfish while catching his breath.

He eventually smiled and stood up with a little trouble before smiling and bowing a little, but not all the way in fear of falling over. "Thank you! Captain! I'll remember this lesson! Then the next time I challenge you, I can actually prove to be a worthy opponent!" The weaker man said with confidence in his voice that proved he would keep his promise.

The more bulky man just laughed and patted the smaller mans shoulder in good nature. "Hahahaha, I'm sure you will, Hideo. But you have a ways to go. Besides, you are a worthy opponent, anyone with that much determination in them will definitely reach their goal. I look forward to battling alongside you in the future." The taller man said boisterously.

The smaller man got crocodile tears but nodded smiling excitedly. "Yes, sir! Thank you once again!"

The stronger man nodded, and made his way over to the king, noticing him a while ago.

While the weaker mans friends that were talking about him earlier came up to him. Each was happy for him that even the captain believed in him. Each of them embarrassing him until he turned red.

The man stopped infront of the king, both of them being about the same height. "It's good to see you again, my King." The man said respectfully, but loud to inform the others that were training that the king was there.

He, along with everyone else in the room that didn't enter with the king, kneeled down in respect. While not moving from that position until they were relieved by the king to do so.

"Please, no need to bow. It's better for you all to act like I'm not here. Train all you can, I see a lot of potential in all of you." Gervais said. His charismatic character made everyone take what he said to heart and train harder, now relieved from their kneeling position.

The man looked at Nariko, making her tense under his gaze. His gaze seemed to radiate power that Nariko didn't know if she was ever going to achieve. She also noticed that he subtly moved his hand nearer to his sword.

Gervais noticed as well and shook his head in exasperation. "No need, she is an ally." Gervais began. "Nariko I would like you to meet Gazef Loggins, the captain of the Order of the Dragon." Gervais said to her.

Now that Nariko could put a name to a face, it seemed that everything about the man, now known to her as Gazef, was intimidating or had power behind it.

Gervais turned his attention to Gazef with a mischievous glint in his eyes that made Gazef want to gulp nervously. "And this, Gazef, is Nariko Kamata, the-."

The king was cut off by Susumu suddenly jumping on Nariko's back, making her lose balance but regain it and not fall over, and loudly declaring who Nariko was or what Nariko was. "She is the hero, nya~!" Susumu loudly declared.

Everyone stopped what they were doing, one person even dropped a weight on his foot and had to hold in a scream of pain while Nariko winced at the phantom pain that generated in her foot.

Gazef snapped out of his shock and looked at Nariko closer. Now that he took a better look, he could see hidden power inside of her. Although, it wasn't actually hidden, just not developed or that strong at the moment, but it was getting strong although slowly.

"So, you're the hero? How about a spar?" Gazef asked, but his gaze wasn't directed at her but at the king. It made sense, if they had a spar and she got permanently injured then at least with the king's permission he could get in less trouble.

"That's the reason we came here actually." Gervais said. Although that wasn't exactly true, he knew that Susumu would want to shout out that Nariko was the hero. And doing so would create the rumour that a hero was there, and with eye witnesses as proof that would start to create hope within the kingdom and whoever heard the news. It would also increase recruitment rates with more people wanting to fight alongside the hero.

Gazef nodded his head, already having an idea of another motivation for coming here, and he could see it was working with three trainees already leaving, going to spread the news.

Eventually both Nariko and Gazef ended up in the center of the training ring. By this point the witnesses had increased, with the rumour spreading like wildfire in the castle with soldiers, servants, maids, butlers, even some nobles that were going to visit the king that day, coming to watch the spar.

"The rules of the fight are simple. If one of us loses our sword that's a loss for that person. You get the sword at your neck and that's a loss." Gazef explained the basics, and Nariko nodded, it was like some of those completions her team had within the school except that they wouldn't have to stop their hits at the last second. "And a rule for myself is that I'm not allowed to hit you in a way that could hinder your near future training."

Nariko nodded her head at that. It made sense, you wouldn't want to delay training of someone who was going to help you win a war. War, the word made her nervous, and she would think about it later, but she would focus on the present right now. "I understand."

Nariko held her sword with both hands and did a quick downward swing and diagonal swing to get used to the weight and shape. She nodded her head and got into a stance.

Gazef looked at the girl with a bit of respect. She knew how to hold a sword properly, her stance wasn't bad, and the fire in her eyes told him that she didn't plan on going down easily.

"Begin!" Gervais shouted and the match began.

Gazef went onto the offensive and did a basic downwards strike. He didn't plan on going for the neck until he had seen what she had to offer.

Nariko, of course, blocked the attack properly, her form only wavering slightly from the strength he put behind it. And Nariko had to remind herself that Gazef was still holding back, how much she didn't know, but judging from the look of ease on his face as he did the attack, this was probably barely anything for him.

Nariko pushed his sword back with hers, although only because his level of strength was now at her otherwise he wouldn't have moved, before doing a piercing attack with the tip of her sword to his chest.

Gazef moved his sword down into hers, making her attack not hit.

Nariko moved back a few steps, reading herself again. Although she did not attack, that wasn't the style she was taught at her dojo, it was mostly just blocks and how to counterattack.

Gazef looked at her, waiting for an attack, but not seeing one coming, he started his attack. This time it wasn't just one attack but a chain of them.

Nariko wasn't expecting this and although she defended against it well enough, she got hit a few times and had no chance to counter attack. Each blow that she blocked was followed with her taking a step back, trying to get space but Gazef stayed on top of her and kept up this chain.

It was eventually broken by Gazef himself as he went back this time, casually holding his sword down on one side in his hand.

He wasn't in a stance, Nariko realised, so what was he doing?

He answered her question by speaking to her. "I've got a good idea for your style. It's mostly defence and counter attacking, and although that might be good in spars you will be fighting in wars in the future. But you can't kill someone by defending." Gazef pointed out to her, and she knew it to be true. "But I want you to abandon what you were taught this one time, just follow your instinct and attack."

Nariko was hesitant, but did as he said. He seemed to be a master at the sword, so maybe he knew something she didn't.

Nariko let out a breath and closed her eyes, just focused on what she could hear and her heart beat.

Gazef looked on, waiting for her to attack. He had no intention of attack until she did, in fact he decided he would just defend, see what she would do.

Nariko then opened her eyes and rushed him, her form abandoned and now on the full offensive.

She swung at his shoulder, which he blocked, before jumped back. Gazef was about to give out, with her going back to the defensive.

But surprising him she jumped right back at him, with her going for a strike from the ground up.

This kept going on, with Nariko attacking and Gazef blocking until one time they got caught in a clash.

Neither of them were backing out and everyone around them knew that this clash between them would be the final for this spar.

Then in a surprising turn of events Nariko used her sword in such a way that let hers get out the clash on top of Gazef's with his now going down from the strength of his attack from before and the force he was putting into the clash.

And she made the flat side of her sword flow up his, her blade heading straight towards his neck.

It only stopped a few centimetres from Gazef's neck.

Gazef stared shocked that he lost, but with a constantly growing respect for the new hero, Nariko.

While Nariko was sweating and breathing heavily. That was the toughest fight she had been in. And she just ran on pure instinct for the final half, holding and using the sword in a way unfamiliar to her.

"Good job, Nariko. You have my undying respect." Gazef admitted to her.

And all Nariko could do was nod, before she passed out. Exhausted from today's events, getting abducted from her world, meeting a god, becoming a hero, meeting a king, and then fighting a captain that was a master swordsman. It was all a bit much for her.

Gazef of course caught her, making sure she didn't fall down.

Gervais and the rest of the leaders watched the final exchange in awe. Gazef was one of the strongest in the kingdom, and he wouldn't lose on purpose. And although he held back in strength, he didn't in skill. That meant currently, Nariko had more potential in skill with the sword then others. This was good for them. Hopefully this war would end soon.