[Bonus chapter] The day of reckoning

Cedric concluded his review of the fight he had just lost and stood back up, approaching Siegward who was sitting next to Dhan. As he raised his hand to speak, he was interrupted.

"Hey gu-"

"Excuse me, do you mind if we speak for a few moments?" said a melodic voice.

Looking at the source of the voice, Cedric recognized a familiar face.

"Oh, it's you. The peeping tom," he said.

Meifeng felt her face flush with embarrassment and quickly countered, "I was just heading back to my room. Seeing a door open wide, I decided to investigate in case someone needed help. It was never my intention to make you feel uncomfortable. I sincerely apologize."

Cedric smiled and put his arm on her shoulder, lifting her up from her 90-degree bow. "It's alright. Now, what do you say we meet in about three hours in the lounge area in front of the floor entrance? For now, I would like to go talk to my friends."

"Certainly. Wai-" Meifeng started to say, but Cedric was already walking towards his friends. Feeling disappointed in herself for forgetting to introduce herself, she decided to wait until the promised meeting. She remembered that she was about to buy the bottomless canteen and quickly left the arena.

"Hey guys, how's it going?" Cedric greeted his two elf friends.

Siegward grinned broadly while Dhan seemed to be brooding. Siegward called out:

"That was an awesome match, man. You've got me sweating bricks. Did you take drugs or something? I swear, you didn't even flinch when getting stabbed by my saber," Siegward exclaimed.

Cedric chuckled. "Ah, that. It was something I picked up some time ago while I was training with my father. He would suddenly adopt a very relaxed stance. Confused, I always tried to look at his face to find out what he was thinking. That, in turn, made me fall for a sneak attack every time. If you think too hard during a battle, you're much easier to knock off balance with a well-timed gaze as a distraction. My father says that the technique becomes better once we advance to the next tier, where we can directly expel pressure from our bodies to suppress our opponents, hindering their senses."

"I did feel pain after getting stabbed, but that pain was nothing I wasn't used to from my father's beatings," Cedric added.

Widening their eyes, the elves looked at Cedric with incredulity. Gulping, Siegward asked, "Why would your father go to such extremes to train you? Surely there were other ways to train?"

"He believed in the saying 'to strike the iron while it is hot'. He said that while I am young, I am more sensitive to training and it's more effective," Cedric explained.

Seeing that he did not manage to calm down his elven buddies, he sighed while stating, "Make no mistake, I was the one who asked him to train me as hard as he did in the first place. When he heard about me wanting to walk the path of the sword, he was opposed to it in the beginning. Yet I believe he came around with his decision because deep down we both knew that our peaceful lives are only permanent. Someday a stray devourer scout will land, and my father wanted me to be prepared."

Upon hearing a snippet of familiar news, Siegward's interest was piqued. With a stoic expression, he asked, "What is a devourer scout? Do they appear from large space rocks being dropped onto planets?"

Cedric was shocked at the elf's knowledge and countered, "Yes! Exactly! How did you know? My father told me about it because he was a lieutenant back in his military days and was privy to such information. He told me it was a closely guarded secret not to be leaked to the masses in order to avoid panic."

Confirming his suspicion, Siegward was about to answer before being interrupted by Dhan's raised hand. "Umm, does this have to do with that massive earthquake back in, you know when? Our elders called it the Day of Reckoning, but I've never heard an actual explanation of it."

Siegward sighed, remembering his pact with the village chief to not leak the news of what happened to other elves. However, he decides to reveal the information, considering they might not even make it out of The Forge. "Yes, the Day of Reckoning was a while back. While chilling back at my secret spot, a sudden shockwave knocked me off my feet. When I went-" As Siegward began recounting the memories from that day, Dhan's expression turned grave.

He always knew of the threat the devourers posed, yet their planet was far from the frontier. So far, in fact, that it was deemed one of the safer planets, if you don't count the overly aggressive beasts roaming the forested planet.

Yet to think that an actual devourer had landed on their backwater planet. He now understood why he had never heard of the news in the first place. Feeling his own beating heart and seeing the panicked expression mirrored by Cedric, he knew mass panic was never good for elves. They would never consider abandoning their planet because of their culture and the duty bound to them to defend their homes.

It was a well documented point in history that the elves had abandoned their home planets once before. After the federation was established, and they managed to come back to claim their rightful homes, they swore an oath to protect their homes or die fighting.