Chapter 90

My second match was easier than my first. I faced off against a nine-year-old boy wielding a solid-looking, wooden club that had been wrapped in some wool to make it marginally safer. He seemed pretty strong, but that didn’t matter much when I just used footwork and spacing to avoid his first few swings before stabbing him in the stomach when he overcommitted.

The third match pitted me against Victor, and I could see the banked fury in his eyes before the fight had even started. I guessed it wasn’t his lucky day. Like me, he had a shield in one hand and a sword in the other. Given his size, he had gone for a slightly longer blade, which meant he would have additional reach on me from both his weapon and his size. Still, I wasn’t too worried.

As the match began, I tuned out the sounds of the crowd and focused on Victor’s shoulders, just like I had been taught. When he rushed at me, I was ready, giving ground as I backed up and circled to my right. Three swings in a row whistled by, none even coming close as I waited for him to expose himself. Instead, he surprised me, calming down and tightening up his form.

He tried a lunge and, when I parried it, attempted to rush me with his shield. I quickly stepped out of the way, using my own shield to catch his and push myself off. The height and strength difference saw me taking a few steps backward as I regained my balance, but even that small mistake wasn’t enough to let Victor gain an advantage. It was, however, enough for me to see an easy path to victory.

I squared my stance up and finally went on the offensive. Quick, short slashes put Victor on the back foot immediately. The first time I used the Warden’s Lunge, he tried to block it with his shield. While there was a strength difference between us because of his age, it wasn’t enough for him to keep his footing when I extended my blade out with my entire body's weight behind it. Victor managed to get his shield up but all that meant was that he fell on his ass. Before he could recover, I was standing in the gap with my sword at his throat.

He looked away sullenly rather than meet my gaze. A moment later, we were being escorted out while the crowds cheered on from the stands. This time, I did chance a look at Gramps and saw the Baron chatting amiably beside him, both of their eyes on me. Gramps looked proud. I couldn’t have said how the Baron felt about my showing. All I could do was hope I wasn’t making problems for myself.

The final match saw me pitted against the boy from the first match I had seen. With his wooden spear in hand, he waited patiently for the Baron to stand up and say a few words before the final match for the Unclassed bracket. I tuned them out, watching my opponent. Unlike the others I had faced, his movements seemed a little smoother and more confident. The Baron finished his short speech, and the soldier watching over us asked us both if we were ready.

“Callum,” said my opponent as he lowered his spear in preparation.

“Bastian,” I replied, lifting my shield and sword.

Callum snorted in response. “I know who you are.”

I didn’t get a chance to reply as the soldier called for the fight to begin. I sensed a faint buzz which was my only warning before Callum moved forward far too fast. My shield arm reacted on instinct, shifting up to protect me. The impact from the spear sent a jolt through my arm and tossed me backwards across the dusty arena. I rolled as I hit the ground, coming back to my feet with my shield raised and sword out to the side.

“I thought I would get you with that,” Callum called as he examined the damage to the end of his spear where a wooden fracture ran down from the tip.

“You thought wrong,” I replied in a tone that was far calmer than I felt. That sudden movement had looked like the Quick Step Skill. Not as fast as Griselda had been, but faster than I could manage. The question I had was, how many more of those did he have in him?

Callum finished his inspection of his damaged weapon — clearly deciding it was fine — and started marching towards me. What followed was a different kind of pressure than I was used to. I had almost exclusively trained against swords and axes. Callum wielded his spear like it was a staff. Attacks could come from either end of the wooden pole. He constantly had me on the back foot as he used his superior reach to prevent me from attacking him. When he cracked me across my shin with the butt of the spear, he chanced a glance at the soldier to see if he would end the fight.

I fought through the throbbing pain, backing Callum up as I tried to get inside his range, he accepted that he would need to do more than leave a bruise on me to take the victory. As the fight continued, I found Callum’s rhythm. He liked to use two swings to try and set up his real attack. The next time he made the attempt, I dodged rather than deflect then lunged at him. I felt the tip of my wooden blade graze his leather jerkin as he backed away. The look of surprise on his face was priceless and I knew, had we been fighting with real weapons, I would have cut him then. Not a killing strike, but there would have been blood.

Still, that counter had been moving at my fastest, and I still hadn’t managed to land a finishing strike. Callum, with his four extra years, and what I suspected was some actual training, was the physically superior of the pair of us. Even so, I had a plan. A risky one, but a plan nonetheless.

It took three more exchanges before I felt the familiar buzzing of aether from my opponent. I doubled down on my plan and took the risk as I dodged rather than blocked the spear thrust. The tip grazed my upper arm, my speed not enough to fully get me out of the way of the aether-enhanced Skill. Then, before Callum could recover, my hand flashed out and grabbed the haft of the spear.

The soldier watching said nothing about the grazing touch, and Callum yanked hard at his spear using his superior strength to try and break my grip. Aether flowed through my channels as my hand clamped around the wooden haft of his weapon. Controlled Grip let me add Callum’s strength to my own as I leapt forward with the weapon. He realised his mistake too late, trying to let go of his spear as I crashed sword first into his chest. We went down in a tangle of limbs, but as I scrambled to my feet, he was still on the ground, holding his chest and coughing.

The soldier looking on walked over and helped Callum to his feet before turning to face the Baron.

Joss stood, raising his arms as he called out, “We have our Unclassed Champion! Let’s hear another cheer for Sebastian Hawthorn, grandson of Factor Hawthorn!”

The crowd responded with a raucous cheer, but I once more tuned them out, instead whispering to Callum.

“You alright?”

“Think you cracked one of my ribs,” Callum muttered, wincing at his own words before pushing on. “You should come by the Keep to train some time. My dad’s the Captain of the Baron’s Guards, and he would probably give you a few tips if you wanted.”

“Maybe,” I answered noncommittally, not really wanting to owe anything to one of Baron Joss’s men. My attention instead was drawn to a flashing notification in the corner of my vision.

Achievement Acquired! Minor Victory - Place first in a small tournament.

Reward: 50 steps on any Basic combat Path. +2 steps on the Path of Exceptionalism.

The achievement was welcome even if the reward was small, likely providing the same number of steps I could have gained in under a week. Still, progress was progress, and I added the steps to my Path of Hatchets. With Gifted improving the reward, eighty-seven steps were added to the Path.

The soldier overseeing our match led me towards the Baron’s table. Behind me, I heard the sound of wood being lifted out of the ground. Glancing back, I saw a few men moving the fences to combine the two arenas into one longer one.

Baron Joss was drinking something from a silver cup as I approached. Whatever it was, he spilled none of it into his blond beard. Setting down his cup but remaining sitting, he motioned to a seat next to Gramps.

“Join us, young Bastian. That was an excellent showing, especially considering your age. Not even eight yet and already beating boys like Callum. That one will end up in my guard if his father has anything to say about it. I hope there were no hard feelings between the two of you?”

I shook my head. “No, my Lord. No hard feelings. He was very skilled with the spear and invited me to come practice some time at your Keep. Though… I am not sure he was allowed to do that?”

“That wouldn’t be an issue. I don’t know if you know, but Callum is the son of the Captain of my Guards. I’ll make sure he knows that you’re welcome to come and practice with Callum if you want. We’ll do the rewards once the other two tournaments have completed. Watch closely, young Bastian. I think you could learn a thing or two from what you’re about to see.”

While I was incredibly wary of visiting the Baron’s keep, he wasn’t wrong about being able to learn from the next two tournaments. The first was for those who were progressing through their Basic Class Paths. Almost thirty members of the community came forth, including, I noted, the new Warden’s daughter. With Hornpeak now a Meravian village, Warden Thomas had never returned after venturing east to warn of the Necromancer attack. The new Warden, a woman by the name of Thalia, had taken his place. Thalia had a daughter in her late teens — whose name escaped me — and I kept a close eye on her amongst those that gathered to compete. There were also two younger members of the Baron’s guard that caught my eye.

Baron Joss largely ignored me, instead engaging Dorothy in talk about the silver mine and her efforts to expand it. More than once, he pushed her to have prospectors venture north to see if there was more to be found on the mountains. Gramps patted my leg as I watched the fights, and I whispered to him as Thalia’s daughter won the finals for her bracket.

“What Skill was that?” I asked quietly, leaning into the old codger.

“Aether Shield. She’s probably got a lesser aether core though if she has taken that Skill. Good defensive Skill, but it costs a little.”

I nodded appreciatively. The Warden’s daughter had used it to deflect a sword strike at the last second and stabbed the guardsman in the ribs in response. They had been fast but, since I had seen Nazim, Griselda, and George fight, I wasn’t that impressed.

The same could not be said of the final bracket of the tournament. While it was mostly the Baron’s guards competing, a few of the older miners and one hunter tried their luck. They were each rewarded with some silver for giving it a go even if none of them came close to beating the best among the guards. I witnessed a few more Skills used which caught my interest. There were Wind Blade, which let them strike their opponent from a distance, and Double Cut, which created a secondary blade in the air. Another combatant made their armour flash in a blinding display of light.

I felt a few other Skills used as well, my Path of Aethersensitivity gaining another step as a couple of the guards moved quicker than I expected or held their ground when I thought they should’ve been pushed back.

“Self-enhancement Skills”, Gramps explained. “Less explosive than Quick Step and Empowered Strike, while lasting slightly longer.”

Still, none of them were able to keep it up for long, their small aether cores limiting how much they could utilise their Skills. Even with that, it was clear that they moved with a speed and strength that my fragmented memories said should be impossible. Their extra Stats — and possibly Advanced Attributes — turning them into minor superhumans. These were only the Adepts. How much stronger were the Advanced Class users like Joss and his Captain of the Guard?

It was a stark reminder that, despite my victory, I still had a long way to go. I smiled at the thought. What might the peak look like?

Name - Sebastian

Skills (8/12)

Class - Locked

Muffled Aura (Lesser) - 8

Basic Attributes

Royal Cloak of Shadows (Greater) - 56

Body Features

Aether Core - Lesser (107)

Aether Channels - Moderate (113)

Affinity (1/1)

Advanced Attributes (2/2)

Shadow (Potent) - 113

Boons

Paths (10/10)

Dormant Paths (5)

Path of Brewing IV

Path of Shieldwork VI

Path of Daggers VI

Path of Long-knives VI

Path of Axes VI