Ajax barely dodged the incoming sword slash. Much as he preferred his hammer and axe to his sword he did have to admit that swords were the preferential choice for the tournament. Despite his preference to the other weapon type he most often ended up using a sword in his main or off-hand simply because of how versatile it was.

“Almost…” His opponent hissed out in a breath as he charged again.

Ajax could feel his stamina and mana both reaching their limit, he barely had anything left. He couldn’t drop [Mana Syphon] or he would be overwhelmed by the sheer difference in physical movement. This next exchange will determine the fight.

Ajax used the last of his mana to shoot out a wave of ice looking to freeze his opponent's feet as well as a bolt of lightning in hopes that the small paralysis would buy him enough time. With the spells thrown out he dashed to the left looking to dodge the tower shield.

Ajax brought down his sword only to have it parried after a small cut to his opponent's arm. His hammer was fully neutralized as the tower shield was back in position just in time. Ajax pulled out his final ace as he dropped [Mana Syphon] and threw out a holy purification wave hoping the cursed slash he landed earlier would be debilitating enough.

“AGRHHHH” Ajax’s opponent fell to one knee from the spike of pain radiating from his right arm. Despite the pain however the tower shield in his left arm fully blocked off any opening Ajax might have had.

As the wave of holy mana faded so did the pain it generated and Ajax’s opponent was on the move again. Without his augmented stats Ajax could barely deflect the incoming longsword, not daring to attempt a parry out of fear it would overpower him and cut straight through. Three swing was all it took for Ajax to find himself with a sword at his exposed throat.

“That makes it four to three for you.” Ajax let out an exhausted breath as he collapsed where he was from the lack of mana and stamina.

Despite technically winning the bout Richard Steelblade knew it was simply a false victory. This was training for the upcoming tournament and despite winning four rounds to Ajax’s three he knew it wouldn’t matter in the tournament.

All Richard could do in the first bout of the training session was try and hold out against the onslaught that Ajax brought out, the sheer number of types and their applications left him simply trying to buy time. The second round had felt much better but that was simply because Ajax had started to conserve his resources.

In the third round Richard had managed his first victory. He had spent year training his fighting style and his opponent was clearly more used to fighting monsters than humanoid opponents. The fourth round had been the exact opposite of the third where Richard had the lead only to be surprised by Ajax as he took the win. The final three fights were a slow repeat of Ajax bleeding down his resources until he had nothing left.

“I hope I don’t meet you in the tournament.” Richard said as he offered Ajax a hand to get up from where he all but collapsed once the spar ended. “I couldn’t do anything against you at the start.”

Ajax just showed a polite smile as he thought of the 1500 mana he had used in that first bout. Physical fighters were simply at a disadvantage in the tournament format, with only one fight a day mages could always recharge their mana and spent their entire pool every single fight.

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“That was very well done, from both of you.” the oldest prince clapped as he had been watching the fight. “There are a few things we need to go over but overall a very solid performance.”

As Richard helped Ajax walk off the field he couldn’t help but be amazed. Richard had spent the last decade of his life before the tournament both training and overseeing the kingdom's open border. During this time he had faced a variety of different monsters that approached from the untamed lands but he had also heard stories about the talented prince that was born and as of late the baron prodigy.

At first he had believed it all to be an exaggeration but now he thought if anything they had underestimated Ajax. They were both set to delve both of the Republic's main dungeons but as where he could at best hope to gain +7 in all stats from both Ajax was looking at more than double that.

The prince gave both of them some general feedback on their fighting style. Despite neither Ajax or Richard using the same style as the prince he was experienced enough to at least see their flaws and point them out.

“Alright, level with me here, what is going on?” the prince asked Ajax as he pulled him aside after they left the sparring area.

“What do you mean?” Ajax asked.

“I’ve seen you in the dungeons, you don’t get tired that quick so what is going on?” the prince asked. “Are you taking it easy on Richard, because you shouldn’t be.”

“I’m not.” Ajax said as he noticed the disconnect. “There simply isn’t any other mana than my own to fuel [Mana Syphon] out here. In the dungeon the concentration is high enough that I can mostly just pull it from the air, even after that I can take it away from the monsters on the floor, he doesn’t have any mana for me to syphon.”

Ajax had been pretty open with what he could do, the only trump card he was keeping up his sleeve right now was Void mana, that said he hadn’t given anyone but the king a breakdown on how his Legendary skill worked and even that had been a brief overview.

“Wait, so you can just take your physical power from your opponent?” The prince was surprised as he pulled out his sword and started channeling mana through a rune that caused the edge to heat up until it was red hot.

Ajax had figured out what the prince wanted to check so he cooperated and started siphoning his mana directly from the runic spell that was working on the sword. He could feel his body strengthen as his skill drank the mana coming from the spell, it was still harder to syphon from an active spell than a mana rich environment but he still could draw quite a lot.

“He he he” the prince chuckled as he released the spell. “Those elves are going to hate you so much.”

“Why is that?” Ajax asked.

“Because none of the ones they have competing against you use Earth.” the prince said with a malicious grin. “Elves love using their high mana affinity to conjure up large shields when dealing with physical fighters or spellblades like us. From what I can see however you siphon can draw in more the larger the area the spell covers. You’ll bleed their mages dry just running around their shields.”

Ajax couldn’t help but smirk in return. Ever since he headed out for this tournament he had heard that the elves were the ones to beat and that he would be hard pressed to beat their ice princess as he was now. Ajax had intimate knowledge of how ice magic worked and knew he could syphon the mana from conjured ice without issue.

“This does raise a few issues about the beastkin however.” The prince brought Ajax back down as quickly as he raised him up. “I took a look at him and he focused on a number of boosting skills, mana and stamina based. I had thought you’d have no problem outlasting him but that might prove to be an issue so you need to look into another way of beating him just in case.”

Ajax couldn’t stop the frown that appeared on his face. He had tried for the last few years to get himself a stamina based boosting skill but none of them had seemed compatible with him. The only explanation the professors could come up with was that they all overlapped too much with his Legendary skill, despite using a different resource, and that made gaining them impossible. If he was to gain a stamina based boosting skill it would have to be a Legendary one.

“Anyway off you go, you have to suffer through tonight, and tomorrow you get to enjoy yourself all day on your date.” the prince patted him on the back as he led him towards the exit. “The day after that however you get to delve the first dungeon in the capital.”

It was all Ajax could do to stop himself from cursing aloud. He had managed to avoid any large noble gatherings since arriving at the capital by always using his training for the tournament as a deflection. That wasn’t to say he hadn’t interacted with foreign nobility but it was always in small groups with Lexi at his side when they went out and to visit.

Unfortunately this upcoming feast was in welcoming the kingdom's tournament competitors and he couldn’t just skip out on a dinner in his honor, much to his chagrin this wouldn’t be the only one he would be expected to attend as another would be held once the elven participants arrived.