Aran was sitting in the arena, waiting for captain reinfred's fight to start. He hadn't seen Elissa, since yesterday after her father visited. As he was wondering about that, the next round of sword fighting began.
As captain Reinfred climbed the stage, the opponent also arrived there and both looked similarly strong. Soon the battle started and aran watched it with amazement.
That battle was one of the best sword fights he had ever seen in his life. Although he knew many swordfighters in his family were stronger than them, no one had fought a duel like that with all their strength.
After twenty minutes, the duel ended with Captain Reinfred winning the battle. All the people who were watching started to cheer for him and by the time the battle ended, the captain had been severely wounded. Immediately the medics arrived and took both of the contestants for treatment.
***
After finishing lunch Aran's teammates went to see the captain who was taking a rest after his battle but aran said he will meet them later. As they left, aran headed towards a place that was behind the memorial building he had once visited and as he got there, he sat down on the bench facing the memorial building.
The scenery from there was beautiful, with the ground filled with grass, and him sitting on a bench that was close to a tree.
Aran was sitting there and looking at the wall of the memorial building, which was almost a hundred feet in front of him. As he was wondering about something, Arrax, who was sitting beside him asked,
" Are you sure about this? "
" Yes! " Aran replied without any hesitation.
" But why? You already risked your life once. Do you want to do this again? "
Arrax asked because Aran wanted to steal the sword re gnu we from the memorial chamber and stealing something from the heavily guarded building seemed a bit risky to him. But aran still didn't have any hesitations and said,
" It won't be like the last time. "
" You are saying it. But haven't you still learned that everything doesn't go as you planned? "
" I do. But this time, things will be different "
" Yes. Off course. But what I can't understand is, what exactly is in that book that you want to risk all this for? Isn't it just another one of your technique thing? "
" Do you want to know? " Aran asked since he knew it will be a long story. But arrax replied differently.
" The memorial chamber you said, where the book is, is filled with different tools attached to the wall. And it is guarded by a total of thirty-three guards outside.
There is that room, on top of that building, where, two people are looking at some kind of flat crystal in front of them, which is showing the scenery of the chamber below.
And also dozens of people are regularly visiting that chamber and looking at all the things there.
Even after all that odds, I am sure you can find a way to copy that book, that's in the centre of that chamber.
But now that you have decided to do it, even after knowing how risky that is, I just want to know what is it in that book, that you are willing to risk your life for again! "
" Are you sure you want to know? Because it's a long story! " Aran asked one last time.
" Just tell me and be done with it already! "
" Fine then. So, what's in that book is a seventh-ranked sword technique, called the absolute defence of the thousand shields. If you want to know why that's important, you have to know its history.
Before the second great calamity, there was a great swordsman called, Rayner Windfall. He was one of the eighteen legendary cultivators who died in the second great calamity.
Rayner was better known for creating new sword techniques and he had created almost a dozen ninth-ranked sword techniques. One of the techniques was called the technique of thousand swords and shields.
By performing this technique, he could have created almost a thousand strong invisible mana shields around him, creating absolute defence and also attacking the enemies with nearly a thousand mana swords at the same time.
Due to its immense power, this technique was considered one of the greatest sword techniques and everyone wanted to learn it. But Rayner was only interested in teaching this technique to two children who were his only disciples.
Those two disciples were the first ancestors of the Bryde and the Cardinal family! When Rayner tried to teach that technique to them, they couldn't learn it since it was too complicated and they were too young to learn it.
Since the jade slips didn't exist then, he had no other way, except directly teaching them and he was also too lazy to write down the techniques he had created.
So Rayner made a stupid plan and split the technique into two seventh-ranked techniques. One was the thousand swords technique and the other one was the thousand shields technique!
He taught those techniques to each of his disciples and told them to learn them first before learning the whole technique for a better understanding.
Soon both started learning these techniques, but these techniques were broken. Unlike the real technique, They had to perform too many forms before they could activate it. So they both did their best to master the techniques in no time and learn the real technique.
After mastering them, before the disciples could ask their master for the original technique, the second great calamity happened and Rayner died!
Although the disciples tried their best to merge both of those techniques to create the real one, Since they had only learned then and weren't skilled in creating new techniques, they couldn't do it.
Although they could have found someone skilled in mana points and sword techniques and merged those techniques, they didn't want others to get their hands in the special techniques that the great Rayner himself taught them. So they both wrote down those techniques in two books and passes them on to their families as their legacies.
After that, both Bryde and Cardinal family protected the techniques for hundreds of years, only teaching the members of their family.
That book in there is the thousand-shied technique written by the ancestor of the Cardinal family himself. The Bryde family has the other half. If I can get both techniques, and merge them, then it will become my greatest asset. "
After hearing that arrax immediately said,
" That story was too long! "
He was really bored to hear that long story.
" I already told you but you insisted."
" Whatever. So? What exactly is your plan to get that? "
" Well, we have a week until the final battles of the tournament. Until then, we can observe everything and soon I will plan something! "
" Fine. But there is something I have to say. After all the help I have done to you in this mission, don't you think you should give me at least a pill? "
" We can talk about that later, " Aran said with a smile as he got up. After that aran continued to walk around the memorial building with arrax and continued to observe.
Soon after two days, there was another battle captain reinfred had to fight but he lost that fight. Even after losing, he had secured third place in the tournament for the Phoenix academy and everyone was satisfied with that.
With that, the only remaining battles were the final battles and everyone was hoping to see a hell of a battle in the finals.
****
It was the day of the final battles of the tournament!
As aran got to the arena, he saw, it was filled with every remaining participant. Everyone who was wandering around the mansion for days had come to see the final battles.
The battle was between the Swordgod academy and the Windblade academy, which specialised in sword fighting.
These two academies were from two of the most powerful nations of the heavenly continent. Since these two were the swordsmanship academies, they had been taking first and second places for a long time.
As everyone arrived at the arena and took their seats, aran also sat down close to his teammates. As he was looking around, he saw Elissa!
It had been a week since the last time he saw her and she was sitting in the seating area of the royal family members. Her father and the Bryde family's representatives were also close to her.
After waiting for a while, the announcement of the final battle started and Aran immediately got up from his seat.
" What happened? " Alexia who was sitting beside him asked looking at aran trying to leave from there.
" Nothing, I am feeling a little uncomfortable from this angle, so I'm gonna go and sit there. " Aran replied pointing to a seat far from them.
"What's wrong with this place? "
" Nothing. It's just the angle thing. " He said as he started to walk away. Since the battle was about start in less than ten minutes, Alexia also ignored him and focused on the arena.
After leaving the arena, aran met with arrax who was waiting outside the arena. When arrax saw him, he immediately got on aran's shoulder and arn started to move towards the memorial building.