The two disciples stood in front of each other. Claire was clam and composed, she even equipped her full set battle armour – Valkyrie chained steel and leather armour. Although it covered lesser of her skin compared to regular armour, the armour protected her vital body spots and offered excellent flexibility and mobility. The armour hugged her body tightly upping her sexy charm.

Tulda on the other hand, appeared quite pale and disturbed. Unlike Claire who was wearing one of her best armour sets, Tulda appeared to have been stripped of his armour. He was dressed in light regular clothes – 100% cotton. There was nothing magical or special about his clothes. They were just every day regular clothes that he wore under his regular armour. Furthermore, he was not carrying his usual grand steel axe but one ice dagger and one ice sword.

Seeing Tulda dressed so lightly and carrying ice daggers, surprised both Claire and Crayford.

What is that skeleton warrior thinking? Claire wondered as she stared at Tulda. Is he aiming for speed? How much faster can he possibly be without armour? Also what’s with the sword and dagger….Tulda is no assassin or swordsman…but compared to the great axe which would have weighed him down …then he must be aiming for speed… that means he wants to finish this quickly….Sorry skeleton warrior if that is your best plan, then it won’t work against me or my Master!

Sora now walked to the side of both the disciples, who were facing each other.

“Remember, the conditions for victory are first to strike.” Sora reminded everyone. “Don’t get caught up in the moment and then end up killing each other…”

Sora particularly stressed on the last part which was enough to alert Claire and Crayford.

Sh*t! Don’t tell me this is what he was aiming for! If I don’t hold back, I will end up killing Tulda. F*ck! This skeleton…is so twisted and evil. He knows that we can’t kill each other…even the most simple of my attacks will injure Tulda if he fails to defend it properly….if Master wins, Tulda is injured. But if Master loses, the skeleton proves that his training ways are better…either way it isn’t a clean victory….this f*cking skeleton is no genius, he just hitting Master below the belt. This is nothing more than mind games….fine then, if you want to fight dirty then I will show you what true skills are!

“START!” Sora shouted.

Claire jumped six feet back and loaded her bow but before she could fire…

Tulda dismembered whatever little he was wearing with a single flick of his dagger. In an instant, he stripped down to his innerwear and thereafter with some hesitation he shredded that.

“Wh..whh..WHAAAATT!!! ARE YOU DOING!!!” Claire screamed as her face turned red.

The eyes of the other two warrior brothers popped out of their sockets, and rolled on to the ground, in shock. What the hell was their younger brother doing?

Claire began protesting wildly – “AT LEAST COVER THAT THING UP!!!!”

Tulda was red like a tomato – one could even see tears on the corners of his eyes. He would have never agreed to do something like this …but he had no other option. Tulda didn’t even bother covering his dangling dongle.

“Sensei!” Crayford finally interrupted. “This is just wrong!!”

“Wrong?” Sora asked as he turned back to look at Crayford. “What’s wrong?”

“You can’t have Tulda fight naked!”

Sora asked as though he didn’t see a problem with fighting naked. “Why can’t he fight naked?”

“This..this..” Crayford was at a loss of words. This was not what he imagined – he did not have an inkling of the battle turning out like this.

“OH ALZUHAM!!! I WILL HAVE NIGHTMARES FOR LIFE!!!” Claire cried as she covered her eyes in embarrassment.

But that was the opportunity the poor Tulda was looking for. Tulda charged forward leaving a trail of wind shockwaves. Before Claire could even react the ice cold sword Tulda was holding was pressing against her neck.

***

The atmosphere that hovered around the warriors was gloomy. Everyone was wearing a depressed expression with the exception of Sora, who didn’t have facial expressions.

Tulda was too embarrassed to face anyone. Even though he was wearing clothes now, he now had a constant feeling he was exposed. He was crouched in a corner – but his mood was definitely better than Claire; at least he defeated her. He could have never imagined that he would defeat Claire one day. However, it did bother him how the victory was obtained.

Claire was devastated by her defeat – her pride as the strongest warrior of the group took a beating. She was ashamed for losing to such a simple strategy. Currently she was crouched in a corner, hugging her knees and sulking.

The other two warrior brothers were filled with dread. The fact that their youngest brother agreed to fight Claire naked, sent shivers down their spine. What brainwash technique did the skeleton use on their brother to get him to agree to something so embarrassing? The two warriors could only ponder in fright – the skeleton warrior was not someone to be trifled with.

.

The one to be worst affected by the defeat was, surprisingly, Crayford. Crayford originally wanted to be defeated in the challenge however he had never imagined such a battle. It was a victory for his Sensei but he was unable to accept the means through which it was obtained. But no matter how he looked at it, he could not find a suitable counter argument. There was no rule that said a warrior cannot fight naked. It wasn’t cheating either. Nonetheless, Crayford was unable to accept the outcome – he had expected something grand. He had imagined Tulda executing a powerful martial arts technique or a battle strategy that tore through his own plan. Albeit, Sora’s battle strategy was unconventional it was, truthfully, anticlimactic.