Glarica stood opposite Vidlena, both of their weapons were drawn and they were in battle stances, wating for the other to make a move. As Glarica stood their ready to strike Vidlena he recalled the events leading up to this.
Vanrk had told Glarica that they need a gauge of strength for upcoming events. Glarica had been forewarned that he would their opponent would be the strongest in the village but was in no way expecting it to be Vidlena assuming she was simply a guard. Vidlena held an ornate rapier seemingly carved out of wood. The handle was painted Black with gold accents and jewels carved into it.
Glarica's blade in comparison was awfully dull and plain with no ornaments to make it stand out as Glarica had never seen the point in it. He stood ready and closed his eyes before opening them again causing them to glow purple. for most nothing had changed however for Glarica the world was tinted a deep purple. The world slowed to a crawl as birds seemed still in the air and a fly moved past at a nonchalant pace and the crowd was frozen.
This however was not the strangest thing that happened in Glarica's vision. Purple doppelgängers flew out at break-neck speeds and halted, lowing to speeds similar to their non-purple counterparts. they seemed to carve a path through time, leading their true self's through the passage of time like a guide, a two-faced one.
Glarica ignored most of them, having only eyes for Vidlena's. it was running directly at him with blade raised. Glarica was unflinching and just stood, watching as both the real Vidlena and her purple image rushed toward her as if they where struggling through a sea of treacle. As the purple clone's blade went through Glarica's neck he made his move. The purple blade made no mark on Glarica's skin but as the blade went through the purple duplicate shimmered and faded to nothingness, however it was no longer needed as it had already served its purpose. Glarica moved his head deftly to the side and moved his sword so the opening between the two blade was right in the path of Vidlena's rapier so it would go right the gap, he did this all at the same exaggerated pace as the rest of the seemingly frozen world. Vidlena had already prepared herself to strike, curling her Arm towards her chest so her hand was resting under her chin and her right leg was in front of her at a 90 degree angle.
Vidlena's eyes widened in surprise as she used her back leg extended behind her launching her forward toward Glarica so she could no longer pull away and stop the attack, she was now fully committed to it. As her sword and hand went through the gap in Glarica's blade, Glarica twisted the handle violently so the two blades would close on Vidlena's hand and sword. Vidlena quickly drew her hand back, smacking the hilt with the palm of her hand while withdrawing it, using the the movement to rotate her body gracefully reaching out with her other hand, moving around Glarica's blade to grab her own. Glarica realized her plans and brought the blunt end of the blade facing Vidlena's arm.
The blade fell quickly towards Vidlena's arm but she was too quick, she grabbed the hilt and quickly pivoted on her right foot. She spun in a graceful pirouette only letting Glarica out of her sight for a split second as she prepared to deliver the final blow. She brought the blade down towards Glarica's neck swiftly, the blade glinting hungrily in the mid-day sun, it was brought to a jarring halt as it seemed to bounce of something. Vidlena searched wildly for the source of sudden halt to her attack and saw that Glarica was holding a ring shaped projectile with a aerated edge, a chakram.
The chakram had moved so that Vidlena's blade had gone right through the hole in the center and now he pulled against the opposing when preventing it from advancing any further. Glarica used all of his strength and wrenched the blade from Vidlena's hands throwing it behind him causing Vidlena to stumble momentarily. Glarica did not want to waste any form of advantage in this fight and took this momentary window to use his sword and staved towards Vidlena's chest. Vidlena quickly jumped, easily clearing the blade aimed toward her heart. She used the gap in Glarica's blade as a foot hold and leapt toward Glarica.
Glarica released his blade, seeing it as a lost cause, but just a little too late. He stumbled forward slightly and almost lost his footing. Vidlena leapfrogged over his back and and while falling down used Glarica's body as a spring board and launched herself toward her blade which was slowly falling through the air.
Vidlena quickly reached the sword and snatched it out of the air in a swift motion and rolled in the air bringing herself to face Glarica. She hit the ground on her feet and skidded back a bit before launching herself toward Glarica at High speed hoping he would still be dazed from the last attack. After getting halfway toward Glarica she suddenly stopped and raised her blade in a defensive position as a chakram hit her sword at High speed. She deflected it deftly and hit it back toward Glarica's feet.
Glarica was now standing in place with two chakrams in his hand, the chakram he had thrown was now embedded into the ground in front of him. Glarica swiftly moved throwing both chakrams toward Vidlena, he then reached into his garments and produced another chakram. He moved forward only hesitating for a second to retrieve his other chakram by putting his foot in the ring and kicking it up and catching it in his free hand. The two thrown chakrams flew threw the air like birds and collided with Vidlena's blade and pushed against is threatening to bend the the fragile looking blade but it held on, Vidlena however was not to focused on the chakrams in the air, she was more worried about the chakrams in Glarica's hands.
Glarica rushed toward Vidlena in a calm and simplistic manner, Vidlena deflected the other Chakrams and prepared to counter Glarica but as she raised her arm and pointed the tip towards Glarica's heart Glarica slipped one of the chakrams over her blade and moved it down her arm to just in front of her elbow. Vidlenas mouth formed a O of surprise as Glarica put his foot in the gap below her arm and stamped down hard causing Vidlena to fall to knees and drop her weapon. Vidlena made a move to try and reach her weapon but Glarica placed one his chakrams to her throat.
"I yield" she said in a defeated tone.
Both Glarica's and Vidlena's breath was ragged, each gulping air like a fish gulps water, Vidlena was sweating profusely but Glarica seamed to only be perspiring lightly, most likely due to his desert heritage. He offered a hand to Vidlena which she willingly accepted. Glarica heaved her up off the ground and both stood for a minute just catching their breath. The crowd on the sidelines erupted in cheers and whoops of glee. Though it had seemed like hours for Vidlena and Glarica in truth it had only been a little over two minutes.
In the stands many people where avidly talking about what they had just witnessed. On the sidelines Vidaln was complaining loudly.
"how could you lose to him sis? Come on you said you would beat him easily."
Vidlena walked over to Vidaln and patted her on the shoulder in a caring manner.
"sorry sis, he got the better of me. Still its not like he did it effortlessly"
Vanrk appeared seemingly out of nowhere at Glarica's shoulder. Glarica was unfazed by the sudden and mysterious appearance of his boss which seemed to disheartened Vanrk. Glarica turned to him with a cold expression.
"oh no what a shock, that was so unexpected and surprising. I almost had a heart attack and died on the spot, what would you have done then? You almost killed your new vassal". Glarica talked in a long drawn out monotone displaying no emotions and made a swooning motion with the barest of effort.
"don't patronize me" Vanrk spat in an annoyed tone.
Glarica suddenly put on an innocent look under his face coverings and made his way to one into one of apology "I swear I meant nothing by it"
Vanrk looked at Glarica with an amused expression "you may put on a tough lone wolf act but seems like you still have a soft side in you"
"look who's patronizing now, double standards, double standards" Glarica clicked his tongue in mock shame "but do you think someone's sense of humor just vanishes after some time spent alone? It just becomes a bit harder to use"
"can't be that hard if it only takes a day for it to be fully revitalized. Or is it that being in my aura of pure charisma mad you a new person" Vanrk said these words with mock pride so potent that even the worst of narcists would say that he was way too into himself.
Glarica gave a small chuckle before asking "I don't imagine our glorious leader coming here just to brag about his inflated ego?".
"You would be correct my desert dwelling denizen. We are going to have a war council so I thought I would introduce you to my last vassal."
Glarica followed Vanrk as he sauntered off towards a large building connected to one of the larger trees. Inside around twenty kids sat at small desks all facing towards the front, at the front a petite woman with long flowing robes that covered her entire figure so the only thing Glarica could see was her stature, face and hands.
She was small for what Glarica could only assume was a Young adult due to her position as a vassal, and she did not seem muscular as if she was the muscles could be seen through the robe but she was not unfit as the same could be said about fat.
Her face was pale which would suggest she did not go out in the sun much, her lips where smooth unlike Vidaln's which where chapped so he could assume she put effort into her appearance, her eyes had bags under them which where rather hard to see but where still visible so in her job it was probably not uncommon to have to pull an all nighter, her hair was long and well combed so that made Glarica positive she was someone who cared about appearances.
Her hands looked smooth and their was not a single callous on them so it was clear she was not a fighter, a job of importance that required knowledge would suite her, she was clearly intelligent as she was teaching the kids, possibly a record keeper of strategist.
As they looked in the teacher turned to her class and said in a caring almost motherly voice "so class can anyone tell me what a diviner is? Anyone? Yes Deltes can you tell us" she pointed toward a boy near the back who had his hand raised.
"Y-yes miss" the boy stuttered nervously "A diviner is someone who can see the future aren't they"
A few of the Boys at the front snickered and Deltes face flushed with embarrassment. The woman gave a cold glare to the at the boys "you are not wrong Deltes, however you are not right either. A diviner is not confined to just the future" as the woman began to explain Glarica and Vanrk moved silently to the back of the class and stood their without anyone seeming to notice "A diviner is someone who sees the truth" the woman continued "They can find it in the present past or the future. Some may also have the ability to obscure the truth from others. Diviners come in many different form but can we divide them into two main groups: Specialized and non-specialized"
"Specialized diviners are the rarest, they are born with a divining technique and can use it when they become of age, these techniques can be passed to others but the technique will have never appeared before. Due to this many scholars theorize that at a certain point in time their will be no more specialized diviners and they will go extinct"
"Non- specialized diviners can only gain techniques by learning them, these diviners usually pick a special role such as scholars who learn techniques about the past and future and have a wide range but low clarity, they are valued for many reasons but mostly for keeping history. Then there are strategist diviner who have a mid range and low clarity, they are mostly used to find the conditions of the weather on the days of battle or the enemy's formation. Lastly there are warrior diviners..."
At this a lot of the class started to groan and complain "Teacher why did you not let us see the fight?"
"I wanted to see two diviners fight"
"It would have helped our learning"
"Why are you so strict?"
"I have to say the fight was amazing"
After these words where uttered everyone froze, who was the idiot with a death wish that had openly admitted to skipping one of teachers lessons. The woman at the front had turned around during the entire outburst and was still facing the chalk board but now her calm composure had disappeared and she was now fuming.
"As you decided to skip the hard work all the others where doing it" she whispered with a dangerous tone "I hope you don't mind writing me a five hundred thousand word essay on warrior diviners now do you".
She wiped around suddenly and shouted "NOW WHICH ONE OF YOU SAI... Eeep"
The woman froze and then bowed low "I am sorry for disrespecting you my lord"
At these words all of the class turned around and there was a collective gasp of amazement as they did not expect the lord of their village to appear in their lord to appear in their class. Their was a hushed murmur around the class as the students speculated what would he be doing in this class.
The more astute among them reminded the rest of the class that their teacher was a vassal. Vanrk smiled wryly, soaking in the attention. He suddenly Moved forward toward the woman at the front of the class.
"Tetarin we are having a war council, your presence is required"
The woman nodded quickly. "Yes my lord"