The crowd turned to face the latest speaker. Derek didn’t know when Karl Windreach had returned, but he was now standing with the group that had come with Alicia. Ovid and Derek’s grandfathers were with him and were discussing something among themselves.

‘Young Master’ Reynald didn’t take Karl’s words very well and his face grew flushed, “Has Windreach Academy declined so much that you feel the need to lie to maintain face?”

Derek frowned hearing that. What would motivate this guy to speak ill of the Academy? Was this young man not a student here as well?

The Dean did not seem bothered by the young man’s outburst. “I have no need to lie young man. Our school is doing as well as it always has. If I wasn’t confident in the students here, I wouldn’t allow enterprising young dojo busters like yourself onto the grounds. Your presence here certainly isn’t part of the curriculum and your motives definitely aren’t noble. Perhaps you intend to convince some of my students to come train under your master but how will that benefit them?

“Every single member of my faculty is as good or better than your Master. I even have a few that could teach your Grand Master a thing or two. As for students, I have enough that can beat you. I assume that is why you have been targeting my newly enrolled freshmen. I am telling you right now that the young man you just challenged is far superior to you and is a Weapons Master who has personally taught the Crown Prince of Serris. If you insist on challenging him after hearing that, only you will lose face. You have been warned.”

The young man was clearly displeased at what he heard and the group that had formed around him seemed to have soured. Many attempted to put space between them as realization dawned on them as to what this man’s purpose here was. Even Desmond seemed off-put, a look of doubt crossing his face. Reynald’s face contorted in anger before he finally responded, “I doubt that. You are bluffing. If a Weapons Master this young had arrived in town, he would already be well known and why would he come to this derelict school? You are both lying. Boy, will you or will you not prove your claims.”

Derek looked at the guy quietly for a moment. Sure, he was obnoxious, but Derek had nothing to gain from beating him. It was considered bullying for a Weapons Master to beat up someone of a much lower skill in a situation like this. On the other hand, when the challenger crosses certain lines by being offensive and calling the Weapons Master’s integrity into doubt, things don’t tend to go well for the challenger. A duel to the death with someone clearly superior to you usually ends with unpleasant results.

Derek supposed this was the fault of masking his status. If the high tier one acolyte in front of him knew Derek was well into tier two and could see the qualitative gap between the two of them, he might have been more cautious. As things stood though, he was going to have to embarrass this young man and he was going to have to do it quickly and leave no doubt that the defeat was not a fluke.

“Very well,” Derek said as he turned to the weapons rack, “But don’t say we didn’t warn you.”

Derek quickly strapped on a training set. These were higher quality than the ones he had used in Redwyrm. They could withstand much stronger blows and they felt lighter on the body. After fastening the last piece he selected a sword and buckler.

As he faced off against his opponent, he saw that the young man had once again chosen a longsword. Derek shook his head, he had already seen Reynald fight with this weapon and had not been overly impressed. Perhaps the young acolyte had been holding back? There was only one way to find out.

Reynald initiated combat quickly, seeking to catch Derek off guard. He lunged forward, utilizing wind mana to gain a burst of speed bringing his weapon down in an overhead strike. Derek used a similar spell to meet him, bringing his buckler and sword up to achieve an advantageous bind.

The duel was over in a second. With his sword hand he drove his opponent’s sword to the outside and down while he rotated his left wrist. This brought his left hand next to the blade while his right hand continued to drive it downwards. In a smooth motion his gloved hand firmly clasped his opponent’s blade and he twisted his hips.

The surprised acolyte was not prepared to release his blade and was dragged forward and onto his opponent's thrust which was accurately aimed at his exposed throat. His armor flared white, signaling his defeat. Only then did he release his blade as he was deposited onto the ground by the force of the thrust and the seizing armor.

The crowd which had been noisy before was quiet now as the onlookers processed what they had seen. Some hadn’t even caught the action. The whole process, from the meeting of the blades to the killing blow, occurred in the blink of an eye. Finally the silence was broken by clapping. Karl spoke up, “Bravo, excellent demonstration of a basic blade grab. Students, take note of how little control Reynald had in the moment that Derek gripped his blade. The loss of the bind and the outward force from Derek’s blade drove him into a position where Derek was able to pull him completely off balance when he got a hold on his blade.

“Though, in a dueling situation it is better to release the weapon when this happens. If you can drop the weapon and withdraw out of reach before a killing blow is landed you will be allowed to reclaim your weapon and restart the duel. It is unfortunate that young master Reynald was unaware of that during this duel though as it is usually quite shameful to lose because your opponent had more control over your weapon than you did.”

There were sounds of affirmation from the various students, while a dry, mirthless laughter could be heard from a few of the professors in attendance. The young acolyte didn’t miss this and was sputtering in rage when he stood up. He was staring daggers at everyone involved, especially Derek, who had already placed their weapons on the weapons rack and was almost done removing his armor as if the whole situation was routine for him.

He didn’t even look in the direction of the young acolyte. He knew he had made an enemy this day and knew it was better to not add fuel to the fire. He didn’t know who the older boy’s backers were and he wasn’t ready to make any real enemies in the city. He hoped the kid wouldn’t be so petty that he would start anything in the future, not that he was uncertain that he could handle himself if Reynald started anything, but because he did not want the hassle of having to deal with people out to start trouble with him like Jacob and his family used to.

The young acolyte quickly realized he wasn’t going to get another rise out of Derek so he stripped the armor he was wearing off and left it on the ground of the training field, leaving it so that a staff member would have to collect it. No one moved to stop him. Even those fawning over him were no longer interested, instead they listened to Dean Karl’s impromptu lecture on blade binds, grabs, and counters.

Derek hopped across the fence again to hear his mother teasing, “Oh my hero, you looked so gallant out there.”

“Mo- Professor, is it really ok to tease your students like this.”

“Ufufu, if I could have a student as handsome and adroit as you I would be very happy. Look girls, I hear this one just moved here and hasn’t met any nice girls yet. It would be a shame if you let someone else snatch him up first. You should act quick.”

As Eona turned her attention to the students behind her, Derek’s face turned red as an apple. He quickly scuttled away from the now giggling group of mages to where Desmond and Garrett were waiting for him. Desmond sheepishly spoke up first, “I am sorry for what I said back there. I didn’t know you were actually a Weapons Master. I have never heard of someone our age being one.”

Derek nodded in agreement, “It’s not common to acquire the skill to be a Weapons Master at our age, but quite a few do, especially those with outstanding Masters themselves. It’s much less common that someone our age has the skill and has had the opportunity to use it and earn the title. You need to remember that the title is just that, a title. A Weapons Master is someone who teaches weapons. That Weapons Master can be great with the weapons he teaches or he can be just good enough that others would be willing to pay him to teach.

“So when someone tells you they are a Weapons Master, that really shouldn’t be the only indicator of skill that you are relying on. It is usually a good idea to observe someone claiming to be a Weapons Master to see how good they are, but it’s also important to know who is around when they make that claim. If I was just some fool who had taken coin to teach some village militia how to fight, it would be very bold of me to claim to be a Weapon’s Master in a place where there are easily a dozen high tier Weapons Masters within hearing.”

Garrett’s face scrunched up in concentration when he heard that, “What do you mean ‘easily a dozen high tier Weapons Masters’? I see Dean Karl, but who else are you referring to?”

Derek laughed and patted him on the back, “Don’t hurt yourself thinking too hard. Look around you. Look at all those other training yards where students are being instructed. Each one of those instructors has mastered what they are teaching. Watch them; their forms are near flawless. The few snippets of teaching I have heard on the wind have been insightful and well thought out; as if what they are teaching was a part of them and they had been teaching it for years.

“Each of those men and women are way stronger than me and I don’t dare claim that my mastery is greater than theirs. It would be bold indeed if just anyone was to come here and claim to be a Weapons Master when there are so many within earshot. It is already amazing to me that this Reynald we just met was bold enough to say what he did when I can easily see a couple dozen students in those other training yards who are much closer to mastery than him.”

Desmond looked around, the defeated look from earlier improving to one of determination. He turned to Derek, “I really am sorry. I have worked so hard to learn what I did that I took your criticism as an insult and lashed out at you for it. It was inappropriate and I really do apologize.”

Derek nodded, “Don’t worry about it man. I have already forgotten about it. Just realize that when people criticize things it is up to you how you take it. If you take it as valid criticism and work on it to improve then it’s a blessing. If you take it as invalid criticism and do nothing then it is just passing wind. If you take it as an insult, then really the fact that you are insulted is your failing, because it was you that made the opinion you disagree with so important to you that it became insulting.”

Garrett’s face screwed up again, “Wow, that’s really smart. How did you come up with that?”

Derek laughed at him, “I didn’t, my mom told me that when I used to get bullied as a kid.”

Desmond looked puzzled at that, “You used to get bullied. I don’t believe it. You are so damned good at fighting I would never have considered that.”

Derek just smiled at him, “I just considered it motivation to get better. No one comes from nothing, man. I always felt like I had to use every little bit of motivation to wring out just a little bit more improvement. Getting good at fighting is mostly about hard work and good teachers. The rest is being clever enough to learn from the mistakes you make instead of continually repeating them.”

The two other boys looked at each other for a moment before Garrett spoke what was on both of their minds, “Do you think you could teach us how to fight like that?”

Derek had expected this so he laughed when they finally admitted it, “Sure, you can join me when I practice. Let’s talk about it later when we know our class schedules.”