Fox was completely caught off guard by Zaia's request. They were her guests, right? Why would she want to duel with him all of a sudden? He stared blankly at the girl holding his arms and as she smiles brightly at him.
"Why would you want to duel with me? Did I do something wrong?" Fox said, his mind was spinning.
"No, it's not like that. It's not a real duel. Just a play duel." Zaia said as she nudged him forward.
Fox looked around and saw Alieya following them with an amused smile on her face. Real duel, Play duel? What does it even mean?
"We are going around the back, there is a small dueling platform there. It's not as big as the real one used for official duels but I always go there when I want to train. You see, It's always Raru that gets to be challenged and dueled but no one duels with me because I'm a girl. How can I prove my personal strength if no one gives me a chance, It's frustrating." Zaia said as she dragged him towards the back of the mansion.
"Are we going to fight? But you're a girl." Fox said, looking weakly at the small girl leading the way.
" You see? we are friends but you too are already looking down on me. I have killed lots of bandits and dangerous beasts on the past already, But my father and everyone else thinks that Raru made all those kills. How can I prove myself like that?"
"Okey, But we are just doing what you said a play duel right? You will not actually kill me?" Fox asked nervously.
The girl in front of him seemed bubbly and sweet but he believed her when she said that she already killed someone else before. He felt it her serious aura when they were back in the forest when she rescued him and Alieya.
Soon, Zaia led him to a wooden, oval shaped platform around 20 meters in length and 15 meters width. The platform was raised for about one meter above the ground with thick grass covering the entire ground bellow.
"We will exchange some punches and kicks. Whoever gets knocked off outside the platform three times would lose." Zaia said while gesturing her arms around.
"But how could I punch or kick you? Can we do something else?" Fox said, he felt really uncomfortable at the moment.
"Don't worry, I have trained a lot with Raru for a long time. And like you, I have a good resistance to pain. But you have to land a hit on me first. Don't hold back or I will be really mad at you." Zaia pouted and put her arms on her hips.
He stared blankly around. It was a good thing that only few people are around. The butler and two servants were standing on the side. Raru was curled up with its eyes closed, seemingly relaxed and uninterested of what was happening. And there was Alieya who gave him a thumbs up while giggling to herself.
Fox sighed loudly, He figured that he has no choice but to entertain this friend of his. He would just try not to embarrass himself too much as he know that the girl in front of him was a good fighter.
Zaia tossed a coin in the air and said that their fight would begin when the coin hit the floor. He braced himself and focused his attention forward.
As soon as the coin hit the ground, Zaia quickly charged forward. All the cheerfulness in her face was gone and replaced with determination.
She paused just a step away from him, spinned her body and sent a high kick towards his face. His eyes went wide in surprise. The girl was really serious in this 'play duel.'
He leaped out of the way to avoid her kick but he just barely planted his foot back, when she saw Zaia jumped above him and kicked her stretched leg downwards.
'This is dangerous.' He muttered and hurriedly raised his arms to shield his face from the kick.
Fox felt the wooden platform cracked under his feet as her kick connected with his arms. The force of her kick made a dull thud and he felt his entire body flinched a little.
Zaia continued with a series of high and low kicks, steadily making him take a step backwards each time. It's a good thing that he could see all her advances. He always manages to dodge or block it, though he started to feel a little numbness in his arms already.
Zaia kicked forcefully downward to the already cracked part of the wooden platform, sending broken pieces of wood into the air. Fox was full of awe and he was about to compliment her when she suddenly kicked the broken pieces in the air and sent it flying towards him. He quickly jumped out of the way, almost tripping over himself.
"What are you doing? You are really looking down on me, don't you?" Zaia suddenly stopped attacking and did an acrobatic flip backwards. She was looked displeased right now.
"It's just that you're too fast. I can't find my opening to make an attack." He answered as he rubbed is sore arms.
"I'm too fast but none of my attacks made a hit yet. You're just on the defensive. Arrgh!" Zaia wailed in frustration.
"Okey, Okey. I will try to attack too." Fox said helplessly.
"You better. I've been fighting in my full strength since we started." She said, as she resumed her fighting stance again.
Fox was about to say something good to Zaia when she charged towards him again. She swung her outstretched arms like an upward-diagonal slash. Fox braced to deflect her hand but Zaia stopped halfway and grabbed the front of his shirt. He was so surprised that he was not able to react when Zaia turned her body and crashed her small shoulder to his chest. She then twisted and flipped him to the platform with a forceful crash.
Fox was stunned for a moment as lie down on the floor. He saw all of Zaia's movement but was was unable to react to it after she crashed her shoulder into his chest. He slowly raised to his feet to dust himself down when he saw Zaia from the corner in his eye, sending another sweeping kick to his face.
He immediately blocked her kick with his arms. Her kick knocked him more than a meter away backwards. He was unhurt nonetheless.
"You will get beaten up if you don't fight back. C'mon Fox." Zaia encouraged. Tiny beads of sweat were already forming on her forehead as she slowly folded the sleeves of her shirt upwards, preparing for another attack.
"You are indeed surprisingly very strong, Zaia." Fox sighed as he straightened himself up.
"Let's go at it again!" Zaia said and charged at him once more.
Fox observed closely all of Zaia's movement. Her attacks were too fast, but seemed too straightforward.
Zaia rushed forward, closing their gap then spinned her body to send in a few kicks. Fox has already saw this troublesome technique earlier so he quickly grabbed Zaia's waist and held her steady with a strong hug..
The little girl was so surprised that she stared blankly at him for a second before struggling wildly.
"Hey' This is not right. Let go of me." She said in panicked voice.
Fox released her at once and smiled at her.
"I got you there." He said, already feeling good about the counter move that he did.
"Hmph! Moves like that is not appropriate in places like this. Geez, I'm all sweaty now, let's duel again some other time." Zaia said, sounding upset.
"I guess I won, Right? You surrendered." Fox said, as they stepped down from the dueling platform.
"No, Nobody was knocked off from the platform and I didn't surrender, I just suddenly felt unwell and sweaty." Zaia said almost aggressively.
Zaia hurriedly run towards Raru and together they left the area silently. Fox just scratched his hair as the little girl murmured something to herself as she rode on Raru's back. He then walked towards Alieya with a helpless smile.
"What's the matter with her, I don't think that I grabbed her with too much force that I hurt her. Do you think that I actually hurt her?" Fox said as soon as he reached Alieya, who was watching from the side.
"I have an idea of what you actually did to her. But I won't tell you." Alieya said flatly, as if she was suddenly annoyed with him too.
"What do you mean by that? Hey." He asked as Alieya turned her back to him and walked back towards the mansion.
Fox was so confused that he just chose to keep quiet as he followed Alieya back inside. The beautiful woman would look at him from time to time and give him an angry glare before marching forward again.
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Suryu Da'anar was covered in sweat as he practices his sword skills with four other of his personal guards on his Clan's courtyard.
Honing his sword skill was one of his way to pass his time when he don't have anything else to do. He is also exceptional in using rifles but swords is more artistic for him. He has been practicing with his personal guards all morning, simulating a four against one confrontation. Of course they were just using wooden swords or his loyal guards would have already been dead many times over.
He briefly took a rest and watched his guards train with themselves when he saw Grei Da'anar walking towards him.
"I have a news for you sir that I think you would be interested in." Grei said casually when he reached his side.
"What's it about?" Suryu asked, still focused on observing his guards train.
"Lady Zaia's guest, the male one, dueled her in the their clan mansion." Grei answered.
"Is that what happened? So I guess I was correct that Zaia's dogs killed the poor man's contracted beast. Then he dueled her to avenge his dead beast, I suppose." Suryu said with a smirk on his face.
"I'm not sure yet about the purpose of the duel, I just heard about it from one of our servant spies in their household. But I guess you are correct with your guess, sir." Grei said.
"There's no other reason for the duel. Zaia's dogs killed his contracted beast, then Zaia tried to offer some compensation by inviting the man to their village. The man was not satisfied by the offer so he challenged her to a duel." Suryu concluded with a soft chuckle.
"Shall we go on with our plans to visit her mansion, sir? Do we go ahead to propose to Lady Zaia today?" Grei asked.
"No, we will do it in the next few days. No need to rush." Suryu answered before standing up and walk back to the training guars.
Suryu temporarily pushed the matter with Zaia out of his mind as he resumed his training. His contracted beast was under treatment at the moment so he needed to raise his fighting skills just in case something unexpected happened.
Their village has a special training place that will increase the warrior's fighting ability within the shortest time possible. The training was to go to the underwater caves and train in self isolation. The place has all kinds of dangerous beasts that the death rate of warriors who trained there is rather high. Around one warrior for every one thousand will only come back alive after the training. The caves will only show itself at every first full moon of the year, and can only stay open for a few hours. When someone enters the cave, he can only return back when the cave show itself again the next year. A year inside the caves was worth ten years of training on the outside. The caves has long been part of their legends, but only few go there. Some foreign adventures would enter but they have never returned.
The last well known warrior to enter the underwater caves was the older brother of Zaia Lunera. He entered the cave almost 5 years ago.
Suryu once thought of himself training in one of those underwater caves. But at each passing year and more and more warriors failed to return, He slowly lost the will to go there. Therefore he had to train his mind and body every day to improve himself. He doesn't a legendary cave to help him get strong. He will do it himself.
Suryu instructed the four guards in front of him to fight as a team, and attack him all at once.