"Why do I have to fight with them?" Warren said in a low voice as he eye'd Alumira and Serli across from the clearing.
"Would you rather spar with me?" Agashi replied calmly, "Or perhaps your aiming for my wife?"
"No! But still! You know fighting isn't my strength, so why do you make me spar?" Warren complained, "I'm talented at leading, not fighting!"
"Exactly," Agashi grabbed Warren's shoulder and spun him around to face Alumira and Serli who were chatting between themselves, "As a strategist, you make plans and you have them executed. Your a leader, so you should know what happens to weakness', right?"
Warren took in a sharp breath of air as his pupils dilated, he naturally knew what happened to weakness' on the battlefield.
They get exploited.
He'd seen Agashi do it so many times, and he himself after briefly studying in the library at Kitar understood that fundamental part of battle.
Any weakness can become a fatal weakness.
He drew a long cavalry saber, not quite the long saber that Agashi has but still, a saber nonetheless.
Alumira and Serli's eyes turned to slits as their attention centered onto Warren who was now sweating bullets.
He'd made plans and lead before in some smaller engagements, as well as acting as a commander for one larger battle during the bloodiest day, but, that was it and it wasn't exactly a real commanding role as all he had to do was charge into their flanks.
His heart raced.
He'd seen blood and bodies but in the heat of battle it was nothing but another hill to pass and he had the group behind him which gave him the strength of mind to proceed.
He felt unsure of himself before Alumira and Serli who had received combat lessons since young in their home nations and were refined by Shion over the last month or so.
"Warren Locost... prepared for death." Warren's saber cut through the air in a timid arc, light from between the tree's bounced off his blade.
Alumira and Serli looked at him skeptically.
"Are you two afraid of the boy?" Shion said from behind them with a fiery gaze.
"Why wouldn't they be?" Agashi returned her fiercesome gaze.
Alumira and Serli drew their rapiers, a woman's weapon is what they call the rapier.
"Alumira Lancard, prepared for death." Alumira's hair unraveled as her rapier drew a beautiful arc upward into a stabbing position, her off-hand bending behind her.
"Serli Tensent, prepared for death." Serli's shorter hair moved slightly as she held her rapier with it's point towards the ground and her off hand hidden away at her side.
Warren felt his heart sink into his chest seeing their vengeful gazes directed at him and he secretly cursed at Agashi for stoking the flames.
Alumira made her move crossing the five meter gap between them quickly with only a few dashes necessary and minimal useless movements.
Warren's eyes reflected the point of her rapier, his pupils dilated.
His saber arced upwards aiming to break the lunging strike by breaking the rapier in two.
However, as his saber made contact with the rapier it felt as though his strength had completely failed to land despite it clearly connecting.
This was when he realized that the rapier had followed his strength down to the ground.
Alumira flicked the tip of her rapier and dirt flew up into his eyes.
In the next moment, her rapier stopped dead just before his adam's apple, drawing a tiny amount of blood like a pin prick showcasing extreme control over the weapon.
"Hey! That's cheating!" Warren rolled back and took the dirt from his eyes angrily.
Wack!
"Ow!" He turned around to find Agashi looking at him calmly.
"There is no cheating in a fight, nor in war, nor in commanding," Agashi said lightly, "There is only the goal and the methods to reach it, though, don't use desperate means unless required by a desperate situation."
This was Agashi's way of telling Warren that Alumira had only thrown dirt in his eyes to assure her victory without any margin for error as a prolonged fight would be disadvantageous for her.
However, Warren heard it as, 'You underestimated your opponent and got slapped for it.'
Serli smiled deeply and spoke, "Too easy, too easy, hurry up and prepare yourself, I'm next."
Warren stood straight as a spear and glared at Serli.
His saber glinted violently against the cool summer sunlight.
Serli smiled aggressively.
Alumira stepped out from between them and in the shade hugging her rapier before opening her mouth, "Your footwork sucks."
Warren briefly turned his gaze to her and was about to retort when Serli closed the gap arriving before him almost immediately.
Her rapier rose from the earth like a gale attempting to pierce through his lower chest and at his heart.
Warren stepped back and the rapier missed.
His eyes narrowed and he came down with a heavy saber strike.
Yet as it came down, Serli caught his wrist with her off hand and control the strike making it land on the ground, her rapier appearing with it's point at his jugular, just slightly off.
Shion clenched her fist and raised it triumphantly at Agashi who sighed and stepped in.
"Another loss." He picked Warren up as he had fallen to the ground, "You let your mind wander too easily in combat. When fighting always remember why are you fighting, as in combat there must be nothing but the goal and what your willing to do to achieve it."
Agashi let Warren stand on his own and then took his saber into his own hand pointing it at Shion who promptly took out a spare rapier of equivalent quality to Warren's saber.
"Watch closely. See how you feel." Agashi's saber gleamed and the saber sang without moving at all.
"Girls," Shion said to Alumira and Serli who were off to the side with wide eyes, "Focus."
The tip of her rapier moved ever so slightly and the light bounced off it's edge shining at Agashi's eyes.
The winds blew and the light flickered.
In that brief moment of blindness, Shion had closed the gap, her rapier now shining with extreme coldness an instant before Agashi's eyes.
Warren felt his heart skip a beat as he realized it was the exact same setup as the battle with Alumira.
Worry sprouted in his heart like a young oak tree taking root quickly and remaining sturdy.
Yet, what he thought was to come to pass did not.
Agashi did not lose an eye.
In the blink of time that it took Shion to cross the gap and the rapier to appear in his vision, his weight had already shifted and the rapier in the latter half of that blink in time missed leaving a small scratch on his cheek.
His saber twitched and Shion immediately backed away, her gaze low like a violent wolf hunting innocent prey.
Agashi raised his saber and spoke calmly, "Agashi D. Drashi, prepared for death."
Shion raised a brow and smiled, "Shion D. Drashi, prepared for death."
As the two faced one another, Shion changed her stance to that of a Serli, who held a strong but low grip allowing the rapier to hover ever so slightly above the ground.
Agashi remained motionless, his eyes empty save for the two small suns that seemed to rotate far within releasing a primal aura like that of a wild beast.
Shion approached slowly, her rapier perfectly still with only it's edge moving slightly.
A near perfectly still hand.
The girls gasped excitedly as even their instructors had not been able to reproduce such an effect with the rapier.
No one practiced the rapier to such an extent to begin with.
Warren closely watched the dance like two wild animals sizing each other up.
Before his eyes were two very powerful beasts prepared to go to war at the drop of a hat, his heart filled with anxiety.
"I-" Warren wished to make them stop as he felt responsible but was cut off, his eyes flashing as light passed through them.
In a single brief instant, Shion had moved forward and her rapier dragged a wave of dust and dirt forward.
Whilst the dust was still in the air, she pierced through the cloud.
Yet, as she did so there came a howl from beyond the cloud of dust accompanied by the shimmering saber which arrived a finger from her throat.
As the dust settled, it revealed that Shion's rapier was longer and that her strike had drawn a very minuscule amount of blood.
In other words, Shion had won.
"Master!" The girls ran up and cheered while Warren slumped his shoulders and walked to Agashi's side taking back his saber.
"I'm sorry." Warren said lowly, "Because of me you lost."
Agashi shook his head, "It was my own lack of skill. But, don't take my loss to heart. There is great use in a saber if wielded by an expert."
Taking back her rapier Shion pouted which made the girls eyes go round.
She opened her mouth with crossed arms with a slight glare, "Tch."
"You won though?" Agashi smiled back with open arms intending to hug her.
Despite her anger she didn't dodge and took the hug feeling his arms wrap around her with little strength.
Immediately she felt awful for going overboard earlier just to win a little spar, but didn't show it so as not to reveal his condition to the children.
"Hmph. Anyway, we should be arriving at the Fairy Ring's innermost ring, the Fairy Mountain, by the end of today." Shion left his embrace and looked around at the fairies who had gathered to watch the spar as they had done for a few days now.
The fairies had also been acting as their guides.
With the Fairy Ring of the Durlivanian Fairies, it was split into three rings.
The Outer Ring, which is where most humans go into, the Inner Ring, which is where the stronger fairies reside and live during the year, and the Innermost Ring, which is the central portion of the Fairy Ring and where Lirik Khan resides as well as where the new batch of fairies is born each year.
Only the strongest fairies of this Fairy Ring are allowed to stay within.