Chapter 14: the King's Tone

Fang stood thirty meters from the prince ready to start their spar, holding his training sword that had been reformed by his father to be so what longer than an average short sword. The king had called over a special Royal guard who would be acting as the referee.

The Royal guard was at the break level and would be able to stop either one of the participants from suffering an injury due to an accident.

“Fang let's see if you have the strength to back up your arrogant attitude.”

The prince muttered this to himself fully confident that he would not be beaten by a first level ki refiner. It was common knowledge that for the first five years of training a ki refiner would be only slightly stronger than an average person, this wasn’t even counting the fact that Fang didn’t have the full innate strength of a dwarf.

The prince believed that if the two were compared he would still win in a contest of physical strength despite not being a ki refiner. Fang on the other hand had no extra thoughts and focused solely on the spar.

From what his father had briefly told him fighting the prince at a distance would put him in a disadvantage, so the best thing to do was close the distance quickly. The referee looked at both children noticing the intensity in the eyes of the prince and the focus in Fang, nodding he began the spar.

“Start.”

With a wave of his hand that signaled the start of the spar, Fang dashed towards the prince like a bullet. The prince also made his move as soon as the referee gave the signal, he back peddled and began to cast his first spell.

While the prince made his attempt to move away Fang ran at his fastest speed forward quickly closing the gap between the two. Once he was only five meters away the prince completed his spell.

“Earth Cage!”

With a loud yell the prince unleashed his first spell, earth cage. Normally this was one of the weakest level two spells that could be cast without much effort, unfortunately it also consumed more than half the prince’s mana.

Earth cage as the name implies would create a cage similar to a bird cage made of the stone or ground one was standing on, the prince did not however aim his spell at Fang. Instead he trapped himself making a protective barrier around himself. With a somewhat worn out look the prince still managed to smile thinking he was safe from anything that fang could do.

The earth cage did have gaps between the bars but they were not enough for fang to get through or slow him any sort of advantage. One he thought he was safe from harm he closed his eyes and began to prepare his strongest stack spell in order to win the sparring match. The prince however underestimated Fang far too much.

When fang saw the prince surrounded by the cage his thoughts whirled and immediately came up with a solution, in this situation someone might have given the victory to the prince but fang was different. Although he knew in his mind that he was no longer in the arena, the notion that defeat meant death never left him.

Fang quickly removed his shirt and tied one end of the sleeves to the handle of his sword while holding the other end.

Both Tal and the king were confused by Fang’s actions as they seemed pointless. The prince not knowing what was happening was close to completing his spell, unfortunately his concentration was destroyed when he suddenly felt the pain of being bashed in the head by Fang’s wooden sword.

He opened his eyes in a panic wondering how Fang had managed to enter into the earth cage. To his surprise he found Fang shirtless brandishing his sword at the end of a cloth as if it were a whip.

Just as he was thinking about the strange sight the sword came down on his head a second time, with no time to dodge the prince once more felt his head being bashed by the wooden sword.

Because the referee had not stopped the match Fang continued his attacks while the prince made a desperate attempt to dodge around in his cage. Realizing that being stuck in the cage had been his greatest mistake the prince was just waiting for the referee to end the match as his dignity would not allow him to forfeit.

“... Stop!... Winner of the sparring match Fang Fae.”

When the referee came to his senses and stopped the match the prince had already taken quite a beating but luckily for him fang stopped as soon as he yelled out.

Although the referee knew it was his fault for not stopping the match earlier he couldn’t help but glare at Fang, the one he was mercilessly beating wasn’t just anyone he was the prince.

Normally one would either give a good fight and then lose allowing one to receive a favorable impression but this half dwarf/elf didn’t give any consideration to his opponent’s position. If it wasn’t for the fact that the king and high general were standing to the side with indifferent looks the guard would have already given the boy a solid beating.

Contrary to the guards thought the two were not indifferent but dumbfounded, who would have thought that in the fraction of a second Fang would have come up with that kind of strategy, it was so fluid that it almost seemed that he had anticipated the prince’s strategy and prepared his counter beforehand. Around the prince the earth cage began to crumple as he glared at Fang.

“... You… what would you practice that kind of thing?”

This was the only thing he could think of saying. Fang who had already put his shirt back on looked at the prince.

“I never practiced that in particular it was just done because it was necessary.” Fang had practically mastered all weapons and a whip was one of those weapon, naturally he would be able to use a makeshift whip as well. Everyone in the room couldn’t help but stare at Fang as if what he said in the most natural of ways was nonsense.

“...Well it doesn’t matter that you can beat me in close range combat. If I had used an offensive spell instead of a defencive one I would have won!”

While everyone but Fang and East thought that to be true, they also couldn’t help but remember the fact that a loss was a loss and the words of the prince began to sound like the whining of a weak person.

“While that is a possibility the truth is that you lost, as a dignified prince complaining won’t do you any good.”

The king didn’t want his son to go down the wrong path and believe that he was some sort of invincible Mage even when he lost so he reminded him of the fact that he had lost, in a way the king hoped that his son would benefit from the loss.

‘Master you would have won anyway right and if anything really happens I can stop level two spells easily.’

Fang looked at the prince and then at East who had stood with his father during the match and replied.

“Yes, I would have still won regardless.”

Everyone’s attention turned to him at that point. The first to speak was the prince.

“HA you think you could have won? You're only halfway into completing your first level of ki refinement while I'll be able to consider myself a second level magician after my mana pool grows a bit more.”

While the prince was talking East had already made her way to Fang’s shoulder.

“If you’re really that confident then take my strongest attack. What do you say?”

Fang was still in the mood to test his strength so he promptly agreed and the two went back to the sparring area. This time however they only stood seven meters away from each other and Fang made no movements while the prince began to prepare his spell.

As the prince grew close to completing his spell the king could only sigh, the time he had taken to complete the spell had been well over twice the time that it would have taken for Fang to catch him and step into a range where he could use his sword.

But no one would comment on the prince’s actions until after they witnessed what the outcome would be. Unbeknownst to anyone East who would normally be in her ferret like animal form had already turned into a tome and waited for her chance to act from behind Fang.

“Lava Lance!”

With the prince’s cry a spear made from molten rock rocketed toward Fang, with little time and distance Fang used his body to it’s fullest. With his sword in one hand and East in the other Fang moved to his left while attempting to parry the magic lance.

Despite not having the strength necessary to parry the lance Fang was able to borrow it’s force to propel himself away from it by borrowing a bit of mana from East and infusing it into the sword.

The fact that he was able to escape from the lava lance surprised the three adults in the room but the prince had not underestimate Fang this time, the reason he had taken so long in his preparation was the fact that he didn’t prepare on lance but two.

He knew that if Fang managed to get away from the first one he had lost but despite this he still wanted to give him something to be scared of. When the second lava lance launched the three, including the referee who was suppose to protect the children from harming each other, failed to react.

Luckily for Fang East had already prepared, with the opening of the tome the pages seemed to move on their own at an unnatural speed stopping at a certain page. Because the referee was a brake level ki refiner he still had the chance to stop the lava lance even now but he decided to let it hit Fang a little before rescuing him as a lesson on why royalty should not be disrespected.

While he was thinking that out of the east came a similar magic spell except this one was not made of lava but ice, without question the ice should have melted but it pierced through and dissipate do the prince’s spell landing right next to the prince.

Seeing the two meter lace sticking out from the ground next to the prince everyone present looked to where the spear had originated from, Fang’s tome.

‘Hahaha, Although I don’t normally like using water mana it’s worth it to see their faces so confused. Ha those so called leaders and elites look the funniest when distraught.’

Fang could only shake his head listening to East.

“Fang… At this moment I speak not as the friend of your father but as the king of the Dwarven Kingdom. What is that book and how did it cast such a powerful level two spell so fast?”

Facing the king’s inquiry that contained all the power and dignity a king should have, Fang didn’t flinch one bit and stood looking tall and proud.

“This is my blood tome, it’s something only I have. It allows my to cast spells immediately and with greater strength by using it as a medium.”

because the people in this life seemed not to know how to make blood tomes Fang was sure he was the only one with one.

“Then Fang, citizen of my kingdom, you shall give us the information regarding how to obtain one, create one, or part with yours if possible.”

Because of the way the king had worded his request Fang had already decided to decline to give them anything, the king had not only told him that he would have to do something he also said the word “give”.

Fang would never give anything to others, aside from those closest to him, trade or selling was fine but he would never allow anyone to take from him or simply give his things away to someone else just because they said so.

This was the compromise he came up with East regarding his possessions because she insisted that at some point in his life he would need to either buy something and there fore he would lose his money or sell something in order to gain something else. Looking at the king with a fierce gaze Fang said one simple word.

“No.”

His voice was neither soft nor loud but the determination and resolution was evident. Tal was sweating recently he had forgotten how stubborn his son could be regarding his possessions so he had let his guard down and didn’t stop his son from speaking impolitely to the king and outright denying his request.

(Author's note: So this might be the last one for this week, I'll see if I can do one or two this weekend but idk. Other than this I have nothing. So thanks for reading.)

:)