Chapter Six: The Dual Part Two

The walk to the guild didn’t decrease my anxiety, but I continued anyway till I got before the glass double doors. I took a deep look at my reflection in the glass, at my deep set blue-black eyes and stared, looking deep into myself. I am about to fight against my strongest opponent yet, aside from dad but he wouldn’t kill me...I think, and we are going to be using real weapons, the thought suddenly made my sword and gauntlets feel heavy, there is a very real chance that one of us could die today.

I didn’t want to kill Mars by accident, and I doubted he wanted to kill me anyway and I don’t think I’ve done anything pelt skinning worthy... yet. I’ve had fun with our spars up till the suspension, the way my blood flowed and the thrill of it compared to nothing I’ve experienced and aside from Julian I have no one else to spar with, and comparing sparring with a mage vs a fellow warrior is like comparing raw meat and cooked meat they’re just two different to compare and two different pleasure’s I like.

But, today I would finally get to spar again with a fellow warrior after two weeks of training and a week of sparring with a mage, which I still have a couple of light burns from. As fun as it is to spar with Julian, I wanted to fight with an equal, or very likely stronger opponent, one to clash my blade against instead of barrier or dodging magic, despite that being fun in of itself, then feeling over triumphing over arcane might through raw strength.

Then the thought hit me Mars wanted to do this as much as me. I mean if I was in his shoes, we probably wore a similar size now that I think about it but I don’t like shoes so I wouldn’t wear them anyway, training weakling novices six days out of the week and for the only one that could give you a challenge to not be allowed to show up for two weeks and then return and your allowed to go all out against him I would probably ecstatic about fighting some without holding back. I grinned fiercely in the reflection. I didn’t want to disappoint him did I? I mean he would probably wouldn’t want it any other way but to die to a skilled warrior.

I then noticed the person staring at through glass at me, and almost jumped back at the surprise but stopped myself from doing so, I feel a little embarrassed at not noticing the presences. I took looked at who’s staring at me and it’s the pretty clerk- I mean Vanessa. She stood mere inches away from the glass but from the look on her face said she would kill to be closer, and has a slight look of disappointment in her eyes. She looked seemingly mesmerized staring at me and blushing deeper than freshly spilled blood and I didn’t even know that is possible, but what really freaked me out is had she been watching me since I got here? I really need to work on my presence sensing.

A couple of moment after I noticed her she noticed my attention, and in less than a millisecond her face shifted back to that cold mask and stink eye she had been giving me for the past two weeks. She politely opens the door for me and walked towards the arena, I followed letting silence fill the between us. The silence is the uncomfortable type unlike the one that would fill the air when I was around Damon, but I choose not to say anything because Vanessa is angry at me and I know it. Anytime I tried to talk with her over the past couple of weeks, she kept it short, polite, and very cold. I decided to follow Damon's advice that she’ll come talk to me when she is ready.

And followed his advice I did, I stopped going around the guild entirely, for the past week I just foraged for food around the lot or threatened somebody who had some at the lot... Hey, it’s not my fault that they're too weak to defend their food, If they really wanted to keep it they would have fought me for it and loss but at least they would have tried and not been a coward. On an unrelated note, most of the lot has lost a couple pounds. Except for Damon, he gave me his food willing and I didn’t see him after dark.

Once I arrive at the door to the arena and was about to enter quickly as a whip she shot her arm across the door before I entered. She looked me up and down before biting her lip hard enough to draw blood that ran down her lovely chin, and said levelly “You can still back out Atlas, you don’t have to fight that brute Mars and go along with his fucking idiocy,” she paused and looked me in the eyes and spoke again but this time her voice cracking a little “P-please just back out, just wait until the end of training, we can hold him back till then,” she started crying a little, when she saw I wasn’t backing down “His battlelust is too strong once he get’s going he doesn’t stop till one of you falls, if you start this fight you could die!” Wait a minute..... I knew he was holding back!

I looked at Vanessa, she’s on the verge of breaking down and I did what I think is a good idea. I bent down and wrapped her soft, lithe, and full body in a big ol’ hug. She was startled at first but quickly responded and I felt her body pressed against me, I kinda liked it, I haven’t hugged many people in my life, but this seemed to help other people when they’re feeling down. Once I felt she was ok I let her down, she looked a little disappointed when I did, but quickly broke out into a smile that I didn’t know I missed till I saw it. She rubbed her eyes with her sleeve, and said quietly “Please don’t get killed Atlas, I think I will kill Mars if he does.” That sent a slight shiver down my spine, but I just smiled.

Then she gave me a quick peck on the cheek and quickly walks away before I can say anything. But only after she's gone do I realize how strained and forced the smile she gave was. It was nothing like the ones she gave me before the announcement of the duel between me and Mars, those were genuine and pleased to see me. It makes me feel something, that I haven't felt in a long time... A desire, no, a hunger, to see her happy again.

With renewed vigor I entered the arena, I made sure to take a deep breath once I got in here. I missed the smell in here, and I looked it over and It looks the same, but nobody’s here except Mars, huh thought that there would be a judge or something to watch the fight, well guess It doesn’t matter. I walked over to Mars, who’s sitting cross-legged with closed eyes and barely contained aura rolling around him.

I choose to shout at him from a safe distance

“Mars get your lazy ass up, I came here for a workout, not a nap!” Mars sprang up faster than when Morgan saw Julian, and his unrestrained aura came at me like a physical force almost pushing me back I grinned and unrestrained mine. Mars looked surprised as soon as my aura collided with his but started grinning like a snarling troll.

Mar boomed over arena “Atlas so you finally got the guts to come see me, you little upstart! Well do you think you can take me on?, Well do you?! Come on!” Mars jabbed at me before adding with a whisper “No offense to you lad, just trying to make a good show to those busy bodys up there” Subtly gesturing to a window on top of the arena, wait Mars can do something subtlety?! The window seemed to the kind that’s blurred to only be seen through one way, and they’re spread across the arena probably with others watching us.

I decide to play along and boomed across the arena “Well I am here to fight a veteran, not a blabbering old man, do tell me if you see one!” I made sure to throw in a good sneer.

Mars boomed again “Well, well, well, looks like this little lambs got teeth, but let's see if he’s got fangs!

“I only need teeth to gut a dying wolf like you!”

“Oh, but-”

One of the male clerks voice then buzzed on through the arena, “Mars please get on with it, I didn’t use my lunch break to watch trash talk instead of judging a fight and I’m sure that the others who paid to watch this didn’t either. Now both fighters stand at the edge of the dotted lines on either side.” I then noticed that there are indeed dotted lines on the floor, about thirty feet away from each other. Huh, guess this isn’t the first dual they have here, now that I think about it whenever dad stole somebody's girl, they usually went to guild afterward… dad was always the one who came back out. Now that I think about it some more that’s how I met stepmom 48... Dad had to take me away from her said she liked little boys or something.

The clerk whose name I never learned spoke again “Now take a stance, and begin after fifteen seconds I shall now countdown, fifteen”

I quickly got into a stance holding my sword parallel to the ground and my left arm in position to block.

“Fourteen”

I took a good look at Mar’s and his gear. He’s wearing top-class gear, with black metal covering his chest and back, leather with chainmail going through it defending his neck and arms and legs. With black metal plated gauntlets, greaves, and boots. Also, he put on a black metal helm to complete the look. And picked up his greatsword off the ground, that’s about as long as Damon but shorter than his practice greatsword and looked much lighter with a bright white blade, I notice that it looks oddly familiar before realizing that's the sword he had on the first day. He took a stance with the blade in a defensive position, that I had no doubt about it being a ploy, and it would change as soon as the timer stopped.

“Five” Rang out, and I looked at Mars Looking for any weakness.

“Three” I found none but kept looking.

“One” He didn’t have any weakness... good this would be a fair fight, not a slaughter.

“Start!” And so began my frist real fight with Mars, with both of us rushing towards each other both eager not to lose the first blow.