Chapter 13: Duel

After accepting the contract that required him to protect the famous resident, the young mercenary wasted no time getting the job done.

For the next few days, he took care of business and kept it professional while also proving to be an amiable sense of company for the other individual before him.

The young man quickly grew fond of the wealthy resident. There were a few close calls along the road with some bandits that snuck up on him, but he had been on guard the entire time and incapacitated them without hesitation.

Despite their differences, the wealthy fellow was anything but malicious. However, he thought of the mercenary as maybe a little gentler than he was expecting, which was not necessarily bad, as he pointed out.

Arriving at the kingdom was almost an effortless feat. The resident offered the young boy food and comfort in return. He even provided a few other things, like better armor than the one he already had as well as the Kingdom's best weapons, but the young boy had no intention of using or selling any of them, so he gladly refused his tempting offers.

None of them suited his style either, as the armors were all a bit too heavy, and none of the weapons captured his attention. Nothing could ever replace his old and trusty shortswords, anyway.

The job had been too rewarding for something that was this effortless, so even if the items proved valuable, he couldn't afford to be too spoiled. He had already gotten this far without needing fancy weaponry or armor, and he could always make more money doing other jobs for his guild rather than selling the items.

A day after escorting the rich denizen, or the Prince of the Kingdom of Iowa, who had appeared to be a few years older than him, the young mercenary would later leave the Kingdom and find his way back home by his lonesome, refusing almost everything from him aside from what he already wanted and needed.

And it was from there did he grow suspicious for the first time. Money wasn't on his mind anymore, and now he had been left to dwell on the easiness of his mission.

Left with nothing but an abundance of gold and a borrowed horse, he quickly began to miss his family, but he had also been distracted by his suspicions. For something to be this easy but this rewarding, there had to be some sort of catch, right? And right he was. When he found out how correct he had been in trusting his guts, he almost instantly regretted feeling that way in the first place.

Too many unexpected situations and past experiences pointed out the absolute truth of the world-- nothing in life worth having would ever come easy. If he wanted something, he had to work for it, even if it cost him a limb or two.

Amidst his journey back home during a busy afternoon, he encountered a few shadowy figures, specifically mercenaries, who attacked him without warning.

Although he had ample time to prepare, he did not actually make any preparations. He hadn't expected a few fellow mercenaries he had already encountered and worked with countless times to show themselves in front of him suddenly.

Nevertheless, he avoided the full brunt of their coordinated attacks and drew his two shortswords, which were famous for never being showered in the smell and the color of blood.

He knew it was true. That he was even better than they were at doing their jobs. But unlike the young man, they had all killed before. Some of them were unfit to just be mere mercenaries, and he was right in not trusting anyone he was working with or for.

But what would happen if someone with exceptionally prodigious skills were to take on three highly trained mercenaries, all of them ganging up on him with a minimal margin of error to defend himself? Well, for starters... the young man would have suffered only a few minor scratches and still have enough working limbs to fight back without a hitch.

He had fought well, so well in fact, that he did not even have to retaliate and be on the offense, as he was constantly deflecting their attacks, dodging and weaving a few times, as well as distancing himself and fighting them from mid range.

He did not attempt to kill any of them. As he was pushing all three of them back with only his defensive capabilities, one of them couldn't help but feel a sense of inferiority, a familiar feeling that had sprouted plenty of times in the past before this meeting.

But that feeling of inferiority didn't last for long, as it was quickly repressed when a fourth individual silently showed up, halting their fight in the process.

And it wasn't just him, as he was also leading a group of ten other mercenaries with him, ready to strike at the young man any moment.

With an odd and perplexing mask on his face, the fourth man said nothing until he decided to remove his mask and reveal what was hidden underneath.

It was a very familiar face-- the face of a certain individual that the young mercenary had accompanied for a few days, greatly shocking him.

***

"Prince Daniel!? What in the..." The young mercenary voiced aloud, shocked by the stunning turn of events.

"It's Sir Daniel to you, boy. But you might also know me as the leader of your little guild," Sir Daniel responded.

"Don't tell me... You mean YOU were Edward!??" Asked the young mercenary, still in a stupor over the sudden revelation.

"Edward is just my alias for the time being. But my real name is indeed Prince Daniel, heir to the Kingdom of Iowa. I never truly enjoyed my boring duties as a youngling. It was always much more fun pretending to be someone outside the Kingdom, doing other things. One of them being leading your ever-growing guild. My guild," Sir Daniel answered.

"Cut the crap, Edward! Aren't you here to kill me? Your best mercenary? After all the time I've spent being one of your top members!?" The young man yelled.

"You will not call me by anything other than Sir Daniel!"

The Prince's calm exterior changed abruptly, almost losing his cool. But he quickly cooled down while still in the heat of the moment.

"Now, I always found it rather strange that you would join a simple little guild that I happened to create and take charge of just for the fun of it, a guild known famously for "killing" every one of its chosen targets while you were busy taking all the ones that required the targets to be alive. You were instrumental in that regard, but we had to make an exception for you."

Sir Daniel paused a bit and sighed out loud before continuing.

"Even as I spent time walking with you and helping you for a few days, I never could figure out how you tolerated your guild mates or how we carried ourselves. Quite strange for someone as soft-hearted as you."

"So is that why you had me escort you back to your Kingdom? To guide you so you could get to know even more about me?" the young man asked.

"It's surprising. I got the wrong impression of you all this time. At first, I thought you may have had ulterior motives by deliberately choosing not to kill anyone when everyone else here has already done so, but I can always tell what makes a man act and what their true colors are."

Sir Daniel walked gradually towards where the young mercenary was standing, eyeing him nonchalantly and with his hands resting behind his back.

The mercenaries did nothing crazy but stare at their leader's actions, at least not without having their weapons drawn and held more tightly than ever, as he approached the one standing before him.

As the young man had his weapons slightly lowered and still in a fighting stance, Sir Daniel held out his own sheathed sword and immediately proposed a duel.

"My long and "bloodied" sword against your little shortswords. I will show you why I plan on upholding my guild's reputation. It has come to our attention that our little Gentle Shadow over here wants to continue tarnishing my guild," Sir Daniel mockingly said.

"To think you'd plan on getting rid of me. You could've chosen a more peaceful option. No. I'm sure it would've been better had you--"

"YOU are not someone who has any control over MY guild, and you are not someone who ever will!" Sir Daniel spat, his voice packed with a menacing rage that threatened everyone in his presence.

"Mark my words. I'm going to kill you here, Gentle Shadow. Our guild won't tolerate naive fools like you. And while I beat you until you're no longer standing, you're going to regret ever joining me," Sir Daniel said, firmly gripping his sword with both hands while getting into a proper fighting stance.

"If anyone interferes, I'll make sure you die an even more painful death than he does," Sir Daniel grunted, pointing the tip of his sword towards the young mercenary.

"I guess we're doing this again. You remember the time when you lost, didn't you? You don't have to fight me, Sir Daniel."

The young mercenary tried to calm him down with his remarks, seemingly hoping to find a way to stop him from doing what was to come next, but it only had the opposite effect of what he had expected.

"As usual, naive and stupid. Do you seriously think your backhanded remarks are enough to stop me? You... you make me laugh. Hahahahahahaha."

"You've really lost it, Sir Daniel," the young mercenary muttered.

"DIE!"

Sir Daniel lunged at the mercenary with bloodshot eyes and an astonishing speed that almost caught him off guard.

Thankfully, the man's reflexes were just as extraordinary, and he swiftly blocked Sir Daniel's strike.

The Prince's glare further intensified, not stopping after his initial swing, as he did not hesitate to continue hacking at the prodigious mercenary with ferocity as wild as a beast's.

Clang!

Clang!

Clang!

Being on the defensive side was even more challenging than he had anticipated upon fighting him; as he was doing so, the young man could not help but respect the power coming from his strikes. For each swing reverberating in the distance, he could feel them only getting heavier and more dangerous.

This was a massive improvement over their last duel. He didn't know what the Prince did to get this much stronger suddenly.

Clang!

While the Prince was rather busy slashing at his opponent, his voice suddenly added to their exchanges of sharp iron clashes.

"I'll pay you back. I'll pay you for the humiliation I suffered at your hands. You bastard!"

However, to his dismay, the young mercenary was not striking back. Instead, he was busy blocking and occasionally dodging most of his attacks. This was especially strange since the Prince's attacks were being swung at an almost inhuman tempo, the likes of which not even a great swordsman could dodge without some degree of effort.

Yet here he was, treating his swordplay as if it were coming from a mere brute. Anger continually boiled up from within the Prince, and as he struggled to harm the young mercenary, a wicked thought sprung to mind.

The Prince suddenly backed away after clashing with his opponent plenty of times within the last minute or two. He hadn't grown too tired, but he had been breathing heavily and could tell that time was already running out. The young mercenary stood still and remained in his stance, waiting for Sir Daniel to strike again.

The Prince's mercenaries were still doing nothing, but even he could tell from a mere glance just how tense they all were from standing.

The three mercenaries from before faded into the background and had long since joined the others, but while the thought of using them did cross his mind, the Prince thought of something even better.

Without saying a word, he once again rushed at his opponent and swung at him with the same inhuman force from earlier, only this time, it had been swung with slightly less might than before, just enough for it to be felt equally from the two swordsmen in their clash.

Clang!

Clang!

A similar scene played out, but something had slowly changed in this duel.

The Prince started implementing a few tricks into his swordplay, almost fooling his opponent a few times. Instead of striking mindlessly and letting all his anger do the work, he decided to utilize feints empowered by his seemingly inhuman speed.

As for the speed of the Prince's feints, the prodigious mercenary could do nothing but think about just how fast he had been hacking at him.

He had never once faced opponents this blindingly fast, though the Prince was renowned for his incredible speed before this duel. And now he was somehow a whole lot faster.

The Prince was currently overpowering him slowly, and while the Prince previously believed that the young mercenary had been dodging and blocking his attacks like they were nothing, that was far from the truth.

The young mercenary could almost feel his arms breaking from each and every clash against his longsword. It was only very recently that he began to switch from reverting most of the momentum away from the strikes with perfectly timed and well-positioned blocks to all of a sudden dodging them.

He could feel that a terrible fate would befall him if he did not begin to dodge more. So for the next minute or two, the young man remained on the defense as the Prince continued to clobber at him with his sword.

For the moment, he was looking for an opening he could use to strike back. He knew just how dire the situation was and thought he was defending better than he had imagined against Sir Daniel's ridiculous attacks.

Time was a wasting, and as the two swordsmen decided on their finishing blows, one of them did something the other hadn't expected.

Bang!

A sharp and deafening sound resounded within the environment. A sound that would put even their earlier sword clashes to shame.

"What in the hell was that? Was that a... Wait. No way. Sir Daniel used a pistol!?"

"A pistol? But then is he..."

Two mercenaries from a distance could be heard after the sound of what seemed to be gunfire, their voices audible for everyone to hear.

Time came to a standstill as Sir Daniel looked at his opponent who was standing still.

But what happened next greatly shocked everyone who had been watching their duel from the beginning, including the Prince himself.

The young mercenary immediately snatched the pistol from the Prince's hand, knowing that it would've taken time to reload, and tossed it away, next to the tree from which they were meters apart from.

The Prince had only a little time to react, but instead of retaliating, a look of utter shock was implanted on his face.

"H-how? How did... How did you--

"I don't fully know myself. I can only say that I've had it since before I started working for you."

"Then are you..."

"I have a proposal for you. Promise me you'll never come and find me again. I made a mistake working for your guild and was right from the start. I should have never done something like this. But I can only thank you again for the gold you've provided me."

"I... I..."

Prince Daniel was left utterly baffled. He wanted to continue speaking despite seeing what he just saw, but no other words came out of his mouth at the moment.

"Goodbye, Prince Daniel."

As soon as his words faded, the young mercenary disappeared from the spot, leaving behind an afterimage that only the Prince could have seen.

The Prince then fell on his knees, shocked to the core and with his mouth gaping. His mercenaries quickly rushed to him as a result.

Though they were confused about the young mercenary's disappearance, they were even more worried for their leader. Moreover, they were all used to seeing the young mercenary disappear abruptly, and even if he had never vanished in such a way before, none of them stopped to question it.

"Boss, are you okay?" One of them asked.

But Prince Daniel said nothing. He just stared in disbelief over the situation.

The trio from before eyed each other, standing away from the rest of the group, unbeknownst to them.

In a soft voice, they each muttered individually.

"So, he's the one, right?"

"No doubt."

"Indeed."

"To think The Great One would show his latent abilities now of all times. I still can't believe how good of a fight he had against all three of us. I wasn't necessarily trying against him, but damn it. I'm jealous of his abilities."

"You're just saying that to make yourself feel better, haha."

"No fighting, you two. Now go and help our Prince before he loses faith in himself."

"Yes, Madam."

"Alright then."

***

"So... old man. You not gonna tell me exactly what happened between the masked guy and the mercenary?" I asked in a slightly irritated mood.

I wanted to know more about what happened regarding their story, especially about the other mercenaries.

"Hehehe. I kinda went and messed up. My bad," the old man chuckled.

"Sigh. You can be truly annoying, you know?"

"Sorry, boy. But that was as far as I'll go with his backstory. Though if yer that curious, then you could say that things went well for our young mercenary, and he successfully defended himself. He got away as well, all safe and sound, and it was from there did he decide that he was gon' return to living a peaceful life, quitting his days as a mercenary. I wasn't gonna spill the beans about his backstory at first, but boy. That was a bad decision. Ahahahaha."

"Alright, fine. I did say it was useless at first, remember? But I'm not gonna lie. I got really curious. Then again, we have been going off track a little too much, haven't we?"

"Hahahaha. Off track? You can tell jokes, boy. I'll give ya that one."

"Yeah, yeah. It's because of The Silent Train... whatever! Anyways, mind telling me about that Massacre from earlier? You know, the one about Spirit Creek?"

"Ahh, yes. That. I think it's time I stopped wasting time for real."

"Yes. It is," I blankly said.

"Then pay close attention 'cause this is gon' be the very last piece about his story."

"Very last piece... You know, I can't tell if you're a historian or a storyteller. Or both. Either way, you can put it in a way that sounds really fucking compelling. You have my respect, grandpa."

"A new name this time, huh? I'm starting to like ya, boy."

"Yeah, yeah. Now get on with it. Please?"

"Sure. Then get ready for what I'm about to say. This is gon' be the best part. I promise ya."

I refused to check the time on my phone, and the young boy to my right was still sleeping. I paid little attention to my surroundings, as I had been highly invested in his story.

I knew that this was gonna be good.