When I finish speaking Baha looks at me as if he saw the worst of monsters, nothing new.
I'm even surprised that he didn't guess that I was going to make him and Mingten fight again, despite being an airhead he should be able to put the pieces together to understand that as someone who has never used a weapon he will need to familiarize himself with the differences of having or not having a weapon does in combat.
And as we are leaving the Tower soon we have to do everything we can to speed up this process, obviously, nothing fulfills this function better than a battle. And as a bonus, this can also serve as a pressure test for both of them.
While Baha comes to terms with reality I open the doors to the warehouse, which takes up three of the floor's quadrants and is surprisingly normal, if you ignore the checkerboard-looking things on the walls. The same type that is used to index things in the library.
Other than that, things like spears, swords, axes and armor are arranged on a shelf with the appropriate supports forming rows of blades and armor.
"I already know I don't have much of a choice other than to be dragged into your two crazy antics, but can you at least give me some advice before we start?" Baha speaks with surprising indifference to the situation.
Or perhaps it is the natural result when someone realizes that they are unable to change the situation they find themselves in.
"There aren't many to be honest, just choose something that isn't difficult to handle and that you feel comfortable using." Mingten responds in my place. She's not wrong.
"That's it? No recommendations?" Baha asks looking at me.
"No. It's just that." Unfortunately.
With this little discussion over, Baha walks through the warehouse and picks up some weapons, which he will later test in practice against Mingten.
After a little less than half an hour Baha finally chose the potential weapons: a short sword and round shield, a bastard sword, a pair of daggers, tonfas and a katar.
All of them laid out on the table while Banha looks at us anxiously as if expecting some kind of comment on his choices. Wait as long as you want.
Using my second dantian I make the weapons and my hand magnetically charged so that they attract each other, thus 'sticking' the weapons to a roll that I carry over my shoulder without any problems.
"Let's go." And without another word I leave the warehouse and start climbing towards the exit of the tower, at a pace that the brats hope to follow, this time.
We soon arrive outside the tower, where you can still see marks from the battle against the horde of beasts, most of the said marks being what the old star burned, but there is also the occasional out-of-place root stained in blood. The only ones who didn't leave a scar on the earth were the sloppy guard and the brats.
As for me, there is the ring of unnatural dry land separating what was affected by the Tower Synchroners' attacks and which maintains its naural state.
We moved to this area for the simple reasons of: it's close and there aren't enough crazy creatures to approach the area anytime soon.
"Choose your weapon Baha." And so begins the second round between the brats.
This time, both armed and with some pieces of light armor such as shin guards, protection for the arms and shoulders and pieces of leather above vital points such as the heart. Neither of them opted for full armor since we are going to be in constant movement, mobility and resistance need to be kept at their peak.
Baha approaches the weapons I made float around me, as if it were a game selection screen, and picks up the short sword and the round shield.
And he positions himself in front of Mingten a little more than ten meters away.
"Ready or not, I don't care, so... start"
*******
And once again the drunkard makes me face Baha in a training match, but this time he didn't tell us to cover our blades with something.
'Hurrg, this could go very wrong.' After coming to terms with this fact, I don't think it should be possible to come to terms with this, I adjust my posture holding the saber with both hands directing the tip of the saber upwards, while I place my right foot forward, aligning with the blade of the saber.
On my opposite side Baha puts his feet in a similar position to mine while holding the short sword so that it almost points at me and the shield on his left arm keeping it close to his body.
We measure each other for a few moments, taking diagonal steps in a clockwise direction while keeping our distance, upon realizing that Baha won't run up like last time no matter how impatient he gets, a slight smile escapes my lips.
'He learns quickly.'
Since he refuses to go on the offensive I go myself, I alter my breathing to resemble the rhythm of the nearby air currents, I change the position of the saber so that the side of the blade is facing Baha's face and I send my ki to one of the rings with an artificial lapis embedded in it.
And a flash of light spreads with the saber as its center.
Knowing what was going to happen, I was able to close my eyes before the flash and avoid momentary blindness and regain my vision before Baha regains his.
And with two steps I arrive close to Baha with the saber ready to attack. Even before he regained his vision, Baha took a step back, courtesy of having learned how to use filters, he must have noticed me approaching and moved away before he even regained his vision.
Leaving the blade's range by inches, but breaking anything resembling an effective fighting stance, Baha regains his vision and attacks me with his short sword in a diagonal cut from top to bottom.
'He learned quickly... but not fast enough, yet'
Because of the momentum caused by his own movements, Baha ends up moving his shield away from the rest of his body, a common mistake for beginners made by a so-called beginner, leaving most of his chest open for a counter attack, especially considering that I have greater reach because of the saber.
Obviously I take advantage of these facts, I do my best to reestablish my posture, which ended up a little clumsy due to the rush, and I make a thrust with the saber towards Baha's heart.
He hurriedly blocks the saber with the round shield losing momentum in the process and retreats before I can mount a counter attack.
And so we return to the situation at the beginning of the match, or almost since this time there is a smaller distance between us.
Baha still hesitates to be the first to go on the offensive, so I go again.
I quickly advance towards him, heading straight towards his center and as soon as Baha raises the shield I reposition myself next to him with a side step, before Baha has time to react I make a horizontal cut with the saber.
Well, I was hoping Baha wouldn't have time to react, but it turns out he did.
Before the saber reaches his clothes Baha makes a downward blow with the short sword, using it more as if it were a hammer than a sword, breaking the momentum of the saber and making me have to rebalance myself, at that moment Baha raises the shield and pushes him against my face.
Seeing this, I give up on reestablishing my posture completely, instead I prioritize raising the saber so that it collides with the shields, which I can do but I don't use it to perform a block or counter attack.
I simply use the saber to guide and dampen some of the shield's momentum while I do something very risky for any type of fight, I abandon my base by taking my feet off the ground, leaving the remaining force of Baha's blow to fuel my retreat.
A feat that could have cost me almost the entire fight if I ended up falling because of this bet.
But I don't fall and I'm out of Baha's reach, or I thought I was until he threw his flaming shield my way.
'Damn, he's really getting better through all the craziness Kaz put us through.'
Technically, I was the one who dragged him into this mess, but dealing with the flaming shield comes before dealing with the remnants of guilt I have for it.
I send my Ki to the wind lapis that is in the ring closest to the base of the saber and with a cut in the air itself I change the air currents in front of me, altering the trajectory of the shield that passes to my left, only leaving sparks in the air.
Unfortunately, while dealing with the threat that the shield represented, Baha quickly approached with his left fist overlapping in flames.
In a moment I rule out the possibility of me being able to block both the fist and the sword, I'm not used to the saber enough to try something like that, so I move the saber horizontally towards Baha's throat.
Using the sword in his right hand he manages to block my saber above his shoulder but I still keep pressing the saber against his sword which leaves only the burning fist to worry about. Which I unfortunately cannot block at the moment.
So I decide to bet all my Ki on one last card, sending it to the electricity lapis less than seconds before the fist makes contact with me.
But before I can see the result of any of the actions Baha and I take in these moments a force of repulsion is created between the two blades, at the same time our Ki dissipates, extinguishing the flames in Baha's hand and the electrical sparks newly formed along my saber, the repulsion soon grows exponentially, taking our balance and causing both the weapons and their users to fall backwards.
"Great!" I hear Kaz speak while giving light applause to our performance.
********
"How are our friends in the south, Kelek?" I ask my most loyal servant as I go through the tedious paperwork expected of the city lord.
"They will arrive tomorrow or the next day." Kelek responds, still guarding the entrance to my room.
"Excellent." So in two days at most I will have Leviathan's eye in my hands.
I can finally go beyond being blessed by god.
I want to be on the same level as the one who gives the blessings.
"How are you going to distract the servants of other envoys while you search for the corpse?" Kelek asks.
"First let's lure them all here and give them a reason to stay here." With a big event and a public appearance most spies will have to keep their focus on this city.
And those who are not focused here will soon be lost.
The event format: a tournament, with some of my followers as participants.
So these old foxes will wonder why I'm revealing my cards and even though they know I would never reveal all my secrets, none of my rivals would fail to check how much I'm willing to show.
After all, even if it's not everything, I'm exposing my strengths without gaining anything in return.