Thousand Fathers

"If you have to give One time to catch their breath, you might as well invite them for a meal"

These words rang through the head of young Elmah as he plunged his daggers again at his highness, not allowing him a breathing space or time to catch his footing properly.

This time his aim said 'your eyes needed removing'

Seeing the tip of Elmah's wielded weapon coming straight for his eyes, Ajab used the dagger he was wielding to block this strike.

"Why have two hands if they can't even be used independently?"

These words also found their way through Elmah's head as his other hand moved at full speed for the chest of his highness.

Noticing the danger his exposed chest was about to be in, Ajab reacted instinctively with another block, and with their weapons colliding, the clacking sound of wood on wood rang out.

Everyone watching at this moment had their own thoughts on the sparing happening in front of them.

Firstly, it barely bore any resemblance to a spar, with the only convincing factor being that the both of them were wielding wooden weapon lookalikes, used in friendly spars, as –kid's glove, as some would call it. Aside that, it looked more like two longed enemies finally reuniting in a fit to the death, with each strike aiming for the kill.

Looking at the two individuals at the center of this floor, the generals shared knowing gazes at each other. Firstly, was this considered normal? because the one thing they all did during this spar was to look at the Queen in hopes of getting any sort of information from her face, but they bore no expression, not surprise, nor anything.

Looking at their faces, anyone could see lots of questions in their eyes. And amongst them would probably be "Since when did young ones under puberty became this extra-ordinary?" Or were they the ones getting too old, that the new generation were running ahead of them by that much?

They had thought the news of the first and second young ones of the Duke, being the stars of their generations, hitting high proficiency in battle techniques and the ways of fighting at ages 14 were already something to be reckoned with, but who ever said anything about being this proficient at ages 7 and 5? Now what were they to tell their own children exactly? Who could compete with this?

Well, on the bright side, the Ecnes was an anomaly, and was the reason they were here, to see for themselves what to expect from a genius of once in a thousand years –literaly, so some level of abnormality was expected.

But what did anyone had to say about the Prince?

Looking at the spar in front of her, while her warrior's instinct screamed excitement to her, her motherly instincts countered them with worries. At earlier years, when her son had started playing with weapons, he had excellent proficiency in them all, just like his father, the royal bloodline had such attribute –natural proficiency in all handled and unhandled weapons. A bloodline of the Thousand fathers, awakening the ability to use all weapons, but it normally laid dormant till puberty, to have awakened it at age three, even gave the king a shocker, and his obvious bubbling excitement each time probably came from her side of the bloodline, the Axel clan, known for their wild enjoyment for battles.

Looking at the fight ahead, as much as each strike from the Ecnes looked deadly, she could clearly see, he wasn't aiming for the kill, as there were mostly feints, probably he had no intention of injuring the prince, just probing and creating openings.

Being the one in the fight, Ajab could tell this much, he didn't know weather to laugh or cry.

Blocking off the aims that came for his eyes and chest, he left his sparing daggers right in mid air, and went for the arms of Elmah. Pulling him in, he gave him a ram to the head using his, turned instantly as Elmah lost his balance giving him a striking kick to the guts, sending him few steps backwards.

"I would beat you to a pulp if you dare hold back again" His voice were not loud but it clearly radiated through the entire grounds, and left the generals in eyes widening shock. He was holding back?

Oh no, their sons. They thought.

After hearing the words of his Highness, a wild smile etched onto Elmah's face, and truly he wondered why he was smiling, it seemed being around the prince had left him with some fetishes.

His smile was greeted back with his Highness's. Then in a moment's breath he charged at him again, this time, his movements became more refined and his attacks more precise, all either gunning for vital spots or critical hits. And with a smile his Highness either parried, evaded or blocked, filling the entire place with clack sounds, enough to start a fire if it were real weapons.

Two things were bond to happen if the generals deterred from holding themselves back, their eyes would either burge out, or they pull out their entire beards out of amazement. These battle goons were really something, almost losing their minds over a fierce sparing, despite being experts themselves, perhaps, it took an expert to really appreciate this sort of sight.

The Queen continued looking, partly amazed at her son and his attendant, and partly worried, it took a lot to keep her thoughts and turmoil off her face.

Also looking from his seat, his hands crossed, was Duke Ecnes, his expression stern, and his charcoal eyes, dark and mysterious, devoid of warmth, and unwavering were fixed on this spar.

He chuckled as he watched. The boy had built his techniques around his daggers, wherever he picked them from– he thought.

Not far away from their father, Anya could see the expression his face made, she could tell what he was thinking. Any technique not from the family, he considered trash, the only technique he acknowledged was the Thousand fathers, and that was only because it was the only one the Ecnes family's techniques could not topple, and it lied in their bloodline. And watching the sparing, her brother was using a technique she was sure no one in the floor had a clue about. Thinking about her brother, her face turned sad, as her eyes were torn, between concern and frustration.

Ajab remained ecstatic as he continued to exchange clacks with Elmah, and the root of this ecstacy wasn't his weird fetish or anything but that he genuinely was amused, to think Elmah was implementing his lessons on him.

'Not giving him moments of rest and using his body parts separately as if they belonged to someone else', these were clearly father's instructions.

To think Elmah was the one paying attention.

But then, this had better not be all, where were Elmah's eyes?

Well, he had an ace. In the middle of their intense clashes, since he wasn't going to be given a breather, then he could use that too he thought, as he left his weapons again mid air. Seeing them leave his higness's hands and going for the floor, Elmah found his eyes following them down, losing focus for a moment, allowing his highness an opening he knew his Highness wasn't going to miss, but before he could react he got three kicks, hip, side and then face, sending him backwards.

Looking at this whole scenario, Elmah now wondered why the Ecnes family were ever needed as swords, the Royal family were vividly tough enough, with all his rambling he hadn't got any hit in, but had been sent back twice already with direct hits.

Seizing the moment, Ajab charged at him.

Seeing his Highness charging at him, Elmah took in deep breaths, and immediately the aura around him changed, causing halt in Ajab's charge as he quickly noticed, and just by instinct he took a step back – ugh..., father was going to kill him. But then the next sight took him by surprise, Elmah vanished – at least from his view– and the next thing he knew he could feel the approach of something coming for his neck from behind, he barely turned to block, before it came again, this time for his sides, and he found himself retreating again.

Looking at his Highness now, his movements seemed frozen to Elmah, but in bits, it was big progress from the first time he tried using this power, since he could now move accordingly, even though before he strikes, he seems to have breaks.

After being caused to step back the third time, Ajab thought of how to now react, his eyes couldn't keep up, but his body did the work for him, but as if caught off from thinking, Elmah stopped the plenty movements and now concentrated on frontal attacks instead of sneak attacks with the first one getting the prince in his guts, and following was one to his side, as if vulnerablely open, all his strikes landed perfectly, then it caught his eyes –blood from the mouth of his Highness. Immediately he discovered he had lost control of his strikes, and might have injured His Highness, he tried to halt, but before he could, everything turned–Blank...