A Quick Spar

A few days after Regulus was crowned, since then things have passed by quite smoothly. Eadic and Rosaria were informed and they too moved to Lucius' manor, of course they had no choice but to sell the house. Which gave them a good amount of gold coins. Both of them were happy for Regulus, especially Rosaria since she was technically a "princess" now.

Regulus' only job was to watch over the village, greet the villagers, and entertain visitors from other villages. He also received guidance from Lucius who taught him how to handle diplomatic visits, how to improve diplomatic relations with nearby kingdoms and most importantly how to govern over his people. 

It was now the sixth day of the week and the second week over Regulus' reign. He was walking around with a simple tunic, a long robe and cloth pants. He walked over to an area where he had never gone. As he ventured further he heard the sound of shouting, he thought maybe there was a fight so he quickly ran to the source. It turned out to be a training ground of some sort. There were a lot of people there, they had simple leather and fur tunics and pants.

On one side some held wooden swords and spears. On the other side there were archers firing arrows at their targets. 

The trainer, who had a tall frame, braided blond hair and looked to be from the north showed excellent form, was currently sparring against three people at the same time. They had awful form compared to their opponent who showed what seems to be years of experience.

Regulus watched from a distance as the tall man quickly attacked and pierced the shoulders of one of his opponents who dropped his sword and fell down in pain. The others took this opportunity to attack as one slashed down but was easily parried by the trainer who used his open hand and pushed the latter as he swept the leg of the other. Finally with one final slash he hit what looked to be the ribs of one of his opponents, making him fall down to one knee.

As they finished the trainer noticed Regulus watching from afar. 

"Attention everyone! Our majesty is here!" He shouted as everyone in the training ground dropped everything and knelt down on one knee facing Regulus. 

'I can never get used to this.' He thought as he was embarrassed that everyone was kneeling down to him.

"S-Stand up everyone, thank you for greeting me." He spoke as everyone stood up and bowed before returning to their training.

The trainer meanwhile approached Regulus. "Good morning my majesty. It's a surprise to see you here as we were not informed you would be visiting us." 

"Ah, I was just walking around exploring the village. I happened to just stumble upon you and the other….." He stopped as he had no idea what to call the trainees.

"Recruits, the main militia, are currently on patrol duty." 

"Ah yes, the recruits. I'm happy seeing them so…. Focused on their training." Regulus replied.

The tall man then looked at the trainees then went back to Regulus.

"Do you want to train them perhaps? Maybe even spar a few of them to teach them how to fight?" The tall man suggested.

"A spar?" Regulus questioned him as he didn't expect those to come out of his mouth.

"Ah! Forgive me, I was insensitive to say that!" He replied as he thought he offended Regulus.

"A spar isn't such a bad idea….. How about you? Would you like to spar with me? Seeing their king spar could motivate and inspire them to train harder." Regulus said as he suggested his idea.

"Against you….? Are you sure? Since a spar is no small mat-" 

Cutting him off, Regulus took off his robe and placed it on a nearby bench.

"Don't worry, I know how to use a sword." He smiled as he grabbed two metal swords. Seeing this the recruits cleared out of the area as they had no idea what was happening. The only thing they were certain of was that they were going to watch their king use a sword. 

"Here!" He said, throwing the other sword to the tall man. 

"Don't be afraid to hold back. The rules will be simple, no using of mana or any type of magic and the winner will be decided when either of us falls down or by first blood." He said as he started to stretch his body.

"Alright, I won't go all out since I don't expect you to go all out as well. I will try to be serious and not hesitate when fighting." He replied as he took on an unorthodox form, the tip of his sword facing the side, his legs spread quite far apart and his body in a low position.

"Also before I forget, what's your name?" 

"Leif, my name is Leif your majesty." He said in a calm tone.

Regulus nodded in reply, but what he couldn't get off his mind was that the way he held his sword seemed almost alien to him. 

'That… does not look familiar, I've never seen a sword style like this before. He looks like he was born in the North, but he doesn't hold a sword like a Dane does.'

 Regulus' thought in his mind as he was intrigued and curious by the man in front of him.

"Here I come.." 

With a quick step he dashed inside the sword's range as he slashed 4 times in a single second. But everything was cleanly blocked by Leif who attempted an upward strike which Regulus avoided.

'He blocked everything? Not only that, he's pretty fast.' Regulus noted in his mind. He waited for a second but it seems Leif is completely focused on defending. 

'If I can't take him by surprise then I guess I have to overwhelm him.' He noted once more as he leaped to the air and striked down at Leif who blocked it easily. 

Using his supposed advantage in speed Regulus kept on striking him. From above, from below, a parry, a pierce and even aiming for the legs. Still he couldn't break through his guard no matter what he tried, eventually after seconds of relentlessly attacking him, Leif started to back up, as he was visibly fatigued from constantly blocking. But so was Regulus, attack after attack, metal against metal, their bodies shaking from the vibration of the blades. Eventually Leif saw an opening and parried, now it was him who went on the offensive. 

His strikes were not as fast but they packed power and precision, knowing where and when to strike. A supposed downward slash turned out to be a feint to an upward slash which slightly sent Regulus sliding down the sandy ground. 

'He's a monster, I can't even tell if he's holding back or not. He's even worse than Sir Eadic, I've lost quite a bit but it wasn't as bad as this.' Regulus said as he began to panic, thinking through his mind of ways to possibly catch him off guard. But eventually he decided on one, a risky one that might result in him losing.

Once more he dashed forward, this time the strikes were much faster, a much much faster flurry of slashes and pierces. Just like before Leif was able to block everything with ease, but he couldn't stop but think that something felt different. 

After almost a hundred slashes in just seconds, Regulus' arms gave up. He let the sword drop down which made Leif strike down, but all of a sudden Regulus' side stepped and hit the middle of his opponent's sword, completely breaking it in half.

This stunned everyone watching, though Leif wasn't as surprised as he was expecting something to happen, just not this.

"You're…. Amazing, I didn't expect you to have a high fight iq. It seems I underestimated you, your majesty." Leif said as he threw his sword down in defeat.

"I could say the same to you, in fact I could say more. Your defense was amazing, your guard was completely unbreakable." He said as he knelt down on one knee, visibly gassed and fatigued. 

"I'm grateful for that, your majesty."

"Please, call me Regulus." He said as he was annoyed by everyone calling him "your majesty".

"If you wish Regulus…. Now, if you would excuse me. I should go back to teaching them." Leif pointed behind him as the recruits had begun to mutter about the fight they just watched. 

"Alright everyone! Back to training, now that you've seen a real fight between real swordsmen, you should envision yourselves doing just that." Leif said as he clapped his hands, getting everyone's attention.

'Funny how I nearly went all out, while he didn't even look like he was trying his best' 

Regulus said as he went out of the training grounds and began walking back to the castle.