Preparation

2 days later:

"My lord, my men are ready" Victor entered Theo's room wearing his Imperial light armor. The Imperial seals were scratched off from the Armor as per Theo's instructions.

The silver colored chainmail was covered with metalic arm and shoulder guards. Theo could see that there was some dents in the chest areas indicating Victor's previous battles.

"Okay, let's go downstairs". Theo nodded while fixing his newly acquired gloves. He was wearing a leather armor made with Orcs hide. Orc hide leather armor is one of the best leather armor anyone could get. Edmund used 50% of their whole savings to buy it from the trader.

He took the sheathed sword in his right hand and started climbing down the stairs. This is the 2nd product Edmund bought from the trader which cost the rest of 50% of their savings.

The trader called it 'Falcata'. He said it was a failed product made by a nameless dwarf from the east. The swords metal became poisonous after mixing different kinds of alloys together. Which made the sword unable to conduct mana.

This sword had a unique shape. So it was supposed to handled by a awakened person who was skilled enough to use it freely. Otherwise a normal person would accidentally cut and poison himself, Which led 2 idiots to death. But no awakened person bought it as it didn't allow them to use sword aura. Edmund bought it in a relatively cheap price because even a failed product made by dwarfs would sell for hundreds of gold coins.

Theo was satisfied with the products as the armor allowed him to move freely without any restrictions. Specially the sword. It was like a short sword with a uniquely curved blade. Theo had never seen any sword shaped like this before. It suited him well as it had a natural poison attribute.

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For the past 2 days he was sparring with Victor to check the development he had during his slumber. On the first day, To his surprise, basic sword moves like stabbing or thrusting was so accurate that, Victor was having hard time defending against them without using mana.

Theo could feel that he had already learned Victor's attack pattern from the previous sparrings. And his body was moving almost immediately to counter the attack, focusing solely on the vital spots.

On the next day, Theo told Victor to use Aura so that he can learn how to Dodge the mana added sword styles. As he was sure to face against awakened opponents in the future. And dodging them was the only thing he could do to counter them.

While mana boosts a humans capability of swinging the weapon with more force, even a attack with 100x attack power would be in vain if it doesn't hit the target.

Two of them sparred nonstop. Victor was using imperial guards Aura sword techniques. His bluish glowing sword was indicating that his movement speed, and attack speed had increased at least 10 fold.

Victor was surprised that Theo was able to dodge and parry with minimal movements of his body. He was even able to easily counter Victor with deadly precision.

"Can you use mana sword on me Victor?" Theo asked Victor after some time.

"My lord are you sure?" Victor exchanged a concerned look with Theo ."While I am already surprised with your capability, I am still hesitant to use something from the elite rank against you!"

"It is alright. I am only going to practice dodging. Just trust me." Theo reassured victor with a focused look."I need to experience it Victor. So that I can learn to fight against it in my dreams."

"Alright my lord " Victor took a deep breath while his whole body started emitting in bluish glow. His Sword was glowing vividly. Victor rushed to Theo with a frightening speed. His Sword came down creating a small hole on the ground.

Theo barely dodged it on the first time. It took a while for him to get accustomed to Victor's 50x attack power. After a while, Theo was dodging Victor's attack better than before. He even managed to found some blind spots in Victor's attack but could not counter it with attack.

"Let's call it a day." Theo stopped while panting heavily. His stamina and physique had definitely improved but still it could not compete with a guy who is literally breathing mana.

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So after Learning to dodge an Imperial knights mana sword, Theo was already better than any awakened person of raven Cross who did not had proper sword foundation.

Moreover after crossing swords with Theo, Victor was sure that Theo's unique sword style of copying and countering was par with Elite knights. Victor assured Theo that Theo could easily defeat him if he continues to grow like this.

"I hope you didn't reveal that you are an Elite ranked knight." Theo chuckled while looking at Victor. " No my lord. Capable of using Aura had already made me a talk of the village. So, I did not want to attract more attention."Victor added" I have only used mana sword while hunting alone in the night."

" Good job. Keeping our powers secret will give us advantage against our opponents." Theo replied complimenting Victor's presence of mind.

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He came down from the stairs in the eating area. where he saw Mirella and Edmund were standing near the counter area and Victor was standing Infront of 5 poorly dressed hunters.

"My lord! These are my men . We hunted together for the last month." Victor introduced everyone after noticing Theo.

"Good to know that you are awake lord Theodore. We have heard a lot about you from Captain." The bald man named Jack spoke from the back." We would be delighted to follow the man captain calls his liege."

" Because of captains guidelines,we can feed our families now."

"We trust captains choice."

Theo saw none of them had proper armors, not even leather ones. Two of them were carrying chipped swords with rugged tunic. One of them had a bow with barely some bows in his quiver. He was wearing a rugged cloak. The last two person wear carrying rusty spears and wooden shields made from barrel lid. Both of them were wearing rusted chainmails beneath their rugged tunic.

Theo took a quick glance at Mirella asking for the permission to speak," I thank you for your trust in me, a person you don't know very well." Theo took pause and started speaking again," However, I assure you, from today none of you will live in fear. Fear of feeding your family for another day, fear to die while no one is there to save you."

The hunters were mesmerized by Theodore's voice. He continued, " You have trusted Victor. Now you are willing to put your faith in me. I shall honor this loyalty with my capability." His voice echoed on the empty inn. " Today we will kill the bandits who are occupying the eastern road !"

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