It felt like years passed since Edwin went to play last, surely it had been at least half a year since it occurred to him to do anything but to train his magic, study, read adventure books in the library, helping Lan with her traps, or just laze around the house, it had been eventful months.

Thanks to the fruit of his labor now, in the last weeks of summer, he was capable of casting two spells.

[Water Ball] and [Stone Cannon] were basically different versions of the same spell, and two more versions remained to be learned before he could move on to new spells.

But right now, there were other, more important things on his mind, like evading the sword slash directed straight at him. He did so in a practiced manner; the strike was crude and slow, heavily telegraphed, compared to what he was used to. It was years behind even the worst of Lucius strikes.

He backed off to a more manageable distance, so this way he could have a better view of his adversary, he was a bit taller than him, his face rounder and puffier with full satisfied cheeks and breadcrumbs on the corners of his mouth.

Lucky dumb bumb, he was eating something yummy!

The assailant’s hair was short and brown as were his eyes, despite there not being much of an age gap between them, the difference in body structure was noticeable, Ran was on the leaner, smaller side, he didn’t have much strength to talk about, his speed wasn’t anything special either.

But he was the better swordsman among the group. And even among all the kids in town.

It had been a long time since Edwin had participated in one of these bouts, normally; he hates sparring with Alden and his older brother, but that’s because he has no chances of winning.

Here, on the hidden fight pit, he wasn’t half bad, no other children in the village had swordsmanship training, which gave him the edge in most situations, he has proven that against someone of his same age and size; he was unbeatable, even against some of the older kids he was still a fair match despite losing almost every time.

The guys must be in the arena. Been so long since I went last, I’m going to show them how strong I’ve gotten

That’s what Ran thought while roaming the cobblestone main street descending to the pier. The last squid attack remained nothing but a memory with nothing to prove it. Once reaching the docks, he turned left, walked straight for ten minutes, and found himself on the forest entrance. After a short walk through a rough path over crushed branches and leaf’s he stood on the “boys club”

In a process that took weeks of work, they had remodeled an open space, cleared all obstructions, made an improvised arena for fights, a few small cabins, some of them filled with handmade toys, the most used among them being wooden sticks they found lying on the floor, every kid had on, carefully selected to fit their tastes, after all, they were “weapons” to be used in “fights to the death” that usually ended when someone surrendered or when the combatants got too tired to continue. No one ever got hurt beyond a few bruises or a tiny cut.

“Edwin the great is here!” he proclaimed his new title.

Six heads turned to face him; all eyes centered on him.

“Well look who decided to thow hith face,”

The first one to speak was Aari Kirstan, a young boy on the short side, recently turned ten, his father, Bon works the fields day in and day out and soon Aari too will start learning from him, his skin is tanned by the sun and his body lean, his hair light brown and despite several attempts to fix it he speaks with a heavy lisp, needless to say, it makes him the target of jokes, fortunately, here, in the arena, no one could say anything to him since he was infamous for not holding back when he is angry.

“Long time no see, boss” This time the one to speak is a kid with unruly shoulder-length dark hair and grey eyes, Niles, a nine-year-old whose family has been serving the Aynor household since the founding of Hillside.

“Please don’t call me boss. I’m still not the village Head,”

“Not yet, boss, but one day you will, just making sure you know me,”

“it’s hard not to know you, especially given I live with your grandmother,”

And now, I want to be Edwin the magician, not Edwin the future village chief.

“So, what brings the mighty young Lord to this lowly arena to grace us, filthy peasants, with his special presence?” Another kid spoke. This time it was Van, the lone son of Vilis.

Vilis is the town priest, a stoic man who puts great importance on knowledge and devotion. His son Van was raised to be a faithful subject of Yarla.

Ran was about to speak before, but was cut by someone.

“For being the son of the only Yarla Speaker in town you sure are mean Van. One would think your circumstances would make you kinder,” he said in a sardonic, almost mocking tone.

The one speaking is Quin, the oldest of the group at thirteen winters old, a fisherman’s kid, born and raised on the waters around Hillside, an adept swimmer and the strongest among them.

“First, Yarla doesn’t preach about being peaceful and kind, haven’t you read the scripts?... Of course, not," Despite Quin’s attempt at intimidation, Van wasn’t known for getting the hint and shutting up.

The future fisherman closed in on Van who had taken sit on a tree trunk, making it so he had to look up to Quin, but despite this, his eyes remained unwavering.

“Why don’t you say it to my face? Do you feel superior just because you know how to read a book? Does Yarla say anything about murder?”

If it’s against non-humans, then it’s ok, I think

The situation had rapidly accelerated, the unstoppable force was about to hit the unmovable object, all bets were off.

The mood had transformed. Everyone was silent, waiting to see who would make the first move.

It turned out; it was neither one of those two.

“C'mon guys, we haven’t seen Edwin for months now and we fight each other like this when he comes back? We’re all friends here and look at him. Finnan’s getting cold feet now”

And so, the last two who still had to appear made their appearance, Zach Blois, a slim long-legged blonde kid with soft round eyes, and big Finnan, these two were in a duel when Ed arrived but quickly stopped to join the conversation.

“You’re a wizard Edwin, right? That’s what I heard at least. Made anything explode yet?” Zach said.

Everyone focused on him, waiting for his answer. Ed felt the heat rise on his cheeks, and his nose growing pointier in pride.

“Yes, I’m learning magic from Master Silver

“Whoth that?” asked Aari

“He’s the new one in town. I heard it from mom. He is from the capital,” Neils answered.

Quin also gave his two cents “My uncle said he often goes to the tavern, he’s a drunkard”

“Don’t say mean things about master,” Ran shouted. “he’s taught me tons of stuff. I even know how to cast spells,”

“Really? How long have you been learning?… you sure you can do magic? Father said to me it takes a long time before one can practice magic,” Van asked him.

“Now you are an expert magician, Van? Didn’t know your father could teach magic too,”

Van turned towards Quin with tired eyes. The routine was getting old on him.

“He does possess knowledge of the arcane arts. Yes, my father is a respectable man, unlike others. He said once that magic was a hard path and took many years to even begin training in a practical form,”

“It only means he’s full of it,”

“Do not dare insult my father!”

“Wenth the wedding guyth? I'm getting bored with you two, what a pain the ath, we gonna fight or not?” It was Aari, the one who broke the fight this time. He went to a small wooden shack on the side of the arena, opened the crude door and pulled out a ceramic bowl as well as a few twigs. He threw almost all of them, leaving only eight on the bowl.

He moved back to the center of the group and spoke loudly.

“Here, everyone close your eyeth, don’t cheat. I’ll be looking,”

The custom was, everyone participating in the “tournament” picks up a stick from the bowl. They all have marks on them, those who pick the sticks with the same marks are paired up.

Everyone does it with their eyes closed and only the one holding the bowl has to check out that no one is cheating.

“I don’t partake in such boorish activities; I won’t fight. I only came here to watch,” Van declared.

“Since when are the speakers above fighting? Are you too scared?”

“No… but you know? I’ll bite, I don’t need these sticks, you and me Quin”

The results were as such:

Neils vs Aari

Van vs Quin,

Ed vs Finnan,

Zach wouldn’t participate.

For the first round, Neils stood proudly against his opponent, his weird off-putting perpetual grin plastered on his face. For some reason, Neils was almost always smiling.

“C'mere thily gooth im gonna beat yer ath tho hard you will never thtand again,”

Making him laugh wasn’t a hard thing to do, Aari knew this, so he used his lisp as a weapon, sharper than any sword and blunter than any club, a lisp so strong not even the most serious of wills could stand it if he took it seriously.

“Hahaha- sto haha- stop you asshole hahaha,"

“What you gonna cry? Thcrotum face if you can’t thand the force of my lithp you thouldn't fight me,”

Neils wasn’t standing anymore. The bout lasted just a few seconds and ended with the frizzy-haired boy on the ground getting whacked lightly on the head with a short stick, losing his mind over a speech defect.

For all the airs Van puts on, the second fight wasn’t anything to talk about, maybe even more one-side than the first, even if it was slightly longer.

Aari, the referee, gave the signal and the combatants closed in on one another. Quin is both faster and stronger than the Yarla kid. Quin’s attacks connected on Van’s arms and legs.

But the kid took the punishment head-on, pushing through it, he launched several attacks but all of them were deflected with ease, in the end, he didn’t stand a chance and after all, was said and done, his legs got bruised and battered, he could barely stand.

“Quin, you win, thtop” Aari put an end to the beating, since he knew neither of them was going to give in

“thubborn people are a pain in the ath,"

The final fight was Ed against Finnan, the town’s barker son and one of his best friends, it was all in good fun for them, but once the duel started, the gloves were out.

The reality was when the adults were far away, the kids started to swear like drunken sailors, cussing and taunting one another. This was one of Ed’s favorite things about the hideout. Here, he could say all the bad words Gabrielle warned him about.

Both of them took it a bit too seriously, and now we're attacking each other with all that they had, for Ed, this wasn’t good, Finnan was two years older than him, half a head taller and a lot stronger he knew this, so he decided to avoid clashing “swords” with him.

I can’t get hit. He’s got a heavy hand and is able to put a lot of weight behind it. If I pierce him, he should go down eventually.

Decided to play the long game, the bout started.

It didn’t last for long since they were interrupted by a starving and scared monster with sharp rows of teeth and filled with dangerous intent.