Chapter 13- Hero's of the day

Pink and purple skies were slowly fading into orange with yellow and blue as the sun became closer and closer to cresting the horizon. The earlier colors were much more beautiful and were the primary reason Duke Aaden had risen to do his sword practice and exercises so early. He was surprised to find that he was not the first one in the courtyard.

A new recruit of the Temple Guardians was there before him, and was already practicing his forms. So , Duke thought to himself, this young recruit was either shirking his exercises, or was getting up incredibly early for extra practice. He decided to find out which one it was.

Duke called out to the new recruit. "Xanthos, present please." The action was not immediate. Xanthos finished his form and returned to the rest position, then straightened up and walked directly over to Duke Aaden. He bowed at the waist and presented his practice sword to Duke. It was the sign of recognition of a superior swordsman. Duke in turn bowed at the waist and presented the same. Duke was one of the best swordsmen in the Temple Guardians, and was often in charge of training the recruits while Gunter was away, but he had never had the opportunity to fight Xanthos, so he gave him the benefit of the doubt and recognized him as an equal, by immitating the recognition of a superior back to him. It was a convoluted custom of the Temple Guardians.

"I noticed you are already working on your forms this morning, while I have just arrived. How could you have completed your exercises so soon?" Despite his suspicions Duke liked this Xanthos, he has a quiet confidence about him that Duke liked to think was similar to his own. He wanted to give Xanthos an opportunity to explain himself. Xanthos spoke quickly and to the point " I have begun my exercises early this week in order to practice the required forms for the testing I will request when Gunter returns". slightly surprised that Xanthos would be ready to test in anything so soon, Duke asked him "And what test will you perform?" Xanthos visibly swallowed before replying, "Breaking the stick". Duke was at a loss for words. He himself had only passed that test just weeks before. "Passing that test would certainly place you high among the Temple Guardians". Duke finally said. Indeed it would place him no less than fifth among the Guardians if he passed it. Only four had so far.

Curious now.. Duke could not resist. Duke placed his foot forward slightly lowering his shoulder and took his sword pommel in both hands, tip pointed at the sky with hands held low. It was the sign of challenge. Xanthos noted the challenge and turned away, walking a few feet before turning back to face Duke, and responding with the same stance. The challenge accepted. As they relaxed the challenge stance, the fight began, each one flowing into their preferred attack form.

As the two started to circle eath other, news of the contest spread from the earliest arriving Guardians, until nearly the entire Temple was surrounding the two sweat soaked warriors on the practice yard. Neither one had scored a clean hit, each attack meeting a defense, each defense morphing into a counterattack. The battle had been raging on and off for almost half an hour. Xanthos was starting to feel the effects of fatigue, and could see that Duke was in slightly better physical shape. He decided he had to score now, or he would lose to him from exhaustion. Xanthos gave a full flurry, pushing hard against the defense to score.. stretching and reaching farther with each attack, straining for every ounce of speed that was left. The wall would not break. Duke seemed to have an answer for everything. Then, as he made one last desperate lunge, Duke stepped back and held his sword flat out against his own palm. He was offering a draw.

Xanthos barely had the energy to accept. Somehow he made the correct stance and the draw was complete.. as they stood there, Xanthos started to notice a noise, it was coming from the crowd.. as he looked up he could see.. they were applauding and cheering every one of them. The noise was loud enough that he could not hear what Duke was saying to him, the crowd was picking them both up and carrying them on their shoulders. Somewhere
someone had opened a keg of Ogre stout Ale, and was passing mugs around.. Ale? before breakfast? Xanthos and Duke exchanged puzzled glances, and eventually were let down off of the shoulders of those that carried them. They shook hands then and congratualated each other on a good fight. Then humbly retired to the breakfast table.. neither had the energy to finish their forms, and they were famished.


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The man in black clothing sat at the edge of the yard. The two warriors had been fighting for a few minutes and he challenged himself to pick out and name each attack and defense style they used, as well as the mistakes they made and what attack would be successful against the forms they used.. he was sure he could have cut either one to the bone in less than a minute, but these were younger students.. surely this group of Cherubim Knights had deadlier opponents than these two.. but where were they hiding..The man in black decided he would wait and see.. walking over to the streambed, he glanced at where his reflection should be.. and saw only air.. and a moment later.. the air was all there was..

The crowd was cheering.. and had not even noticed the man in black..