The morning sea breeze blew Flare's hair from the front as the ship departed from the harbor. The morning sky colors the surroundings, making it feel heartwarming, but the same cannot be said about the other contenders journeying to the Knights' Mausoleum. Most are simple murderers, thieves, assassins, brawlers, bounty hunters.
Only a select few looked honorable. Flare's presence is making the other male contenders slightly irritated. However, none of them dared enough to come forward and mock her attempt upfront because of the fully armored bodyguard always standing next to her, Boyd. Weiss lagged in the back, but without a doubt, he was on guard since his hand was already holding his sword. Despite this, some contenders are bad-mouthing her from behind, whispering to each other.
"You're joking."
"Did somebody call a mistress?"
"This season's contender will be a piece of cake."
"You shouldn't entertain the audience. You should entertain me."
Flare ignored all the insults and booked her place in the deck below, along with Boyd and Weiss. A man watches Flare from afar in the lower deck, observing her like a predator as he licks his lips.
"A fantasist girl…" the man smirks.
"There he goes again. Cross, the rookie crusher," another contender to another one far away from him.
"…He plays the nice guy, despite being the nastiest among everyone here."
"I heard he drugged a contender and used her for pleasure in the previous session."
"Get away from him. That kind of man is the least trusted here."
"Huh, all these people with their high horses. We are in the open sea; it doesn't matter what I do here. Even the captain doesn't care. I can do whatever I like here," Cross utters before disappearing.
Suddenly, Cross felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around, and the first thing he saw was a helmet.
"Excuse me, sir, but would you kindly follow me for a second," Boyd said with a light tone.
"What rainbow bought you here? I'm busy, get…" Cross cussed.
Suddenly, Cross just stopped talking. For some reason, his words couldn't reach his throat. All Boyd did was just pressed his hands slightly tighter on his shoulder.
"I insist," Boyd said.
…..
"Are you holding back today?" Flare asks as she gasps for air.
She and Weiss are sparring in the cargo deck. Boyd had asked permission from the captain to remove some of the crates to the side to create a small arena for the two of them to train. Flare is lying on the ground with sweat drenching her face. Weiss is more composed compared to her. He is sweating less and sitting down properly as he takes short breaths.
"What do you mean?" Weiss asks.
"You didn't fight as hard on me as you did these few days," Flare gasps.
"That's because your abilities have slightly improved," Weiss states.
Flare quickly got up and looked at Weiss.
"They have?"
"Specifically, your stance has less wasted movements, which made you preserve your stamina to fight longer," Weiss answers.
"What did you do besides the normal press-ups, swings and running?" he asked.
"You know that hill not far from the harbor, next to the field where I train?" Flare asks.
Weiss nods.
"I had to play cops and robbers with him for two hours on that hill, and I didn't manage to tap him. I remained a cop to the end of the game," Flare replies, slightly frustrated.
"Sounds childish," Weiss cuts it short.
"By using her whole body to run over uneven ground, they'll improve their overall fitness," Weiss thought.
"So, you've seen her improve physically, so you decided to overcome her stiffness."
"Building only muscle won't be enough. Acclimating to use those muscles can be overcome by running on the uneven terrain of the hills."
"That old man's training schedule never ceases to amaze me," Weiss chuckles.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Well, you were useless back when we fought the Executioner. You took back that usefulness - so don't get complacent," Weiss smears her with the past.
"Why must you say things like that?" Flare pouts.
"Should we go for round three?" she adds, changing the subject.
"You want to lose again. I'm more than happy to," Weiss smirks.
The two of them stood up and faced each other with a wooden sword at hand. Flare took short breaths before entering her stance.
"Keep up, and maybe one day, Uncle Boyd will teach you how to create your fighting style," Weiss said while in his stance.
"My style?"
"Yeah, he will tell you to stop trying to grow stronger by imitating his swordplay. That's how I ended up having my own."
Flare mumbled a bit, trying to remember how Weiss fought.
"You mean, using a dagger and a great sword?"
"Yes, but I won't show it to you yet. Don't want you to uncover how to counter it," Weiss replies cheekily.
"Now, enough chit-chat. We'll begin."
Instantly, the two of them clash their wooden swords with each other. The wooden swords tremble, showing the amount of force each of them is putting into it. Eventually, Weiss managed to get the best of Flare's wooden sword and pushed it to the floor. He immediately stepped on it and quickly thrust his wooden sword. However, Flare managed to counter hits by rapidly closing into Weiss, grabbing his arm from the side, and dodging the thrust simultaneously. Quickly, she slides her right leg behind Weiss's left leg and, somehow, slams him down after managing to trip him backward.
"As I said, you are getting easier to spar these days," Flare boasts.
"You're getting ahead of yourself," Weiss scoffs and quickly swings his wooden sword, targeting Flare's stomach.
Flare quickly backed up, grabbed her sword, and instantly got into her stance.
"If someone doesn't want to die, they'll have to get stronger," Weiss smirks as he gets into his stance.
This time, Flare, for some reason, held back a bit. Weiss noticed this and stopped, puzzled by her actions.
"Weiss…" Flare called.
The man just looked at her silently.
"I will become stronger and take back the throne. Stronger than you! Stronger than Ragnar!"
"I already promised to never stop on my tracks again back then…"
"I'm going to catch up with everyone else."
Weiss chuckles awkwardly, still puzzled.
"What in the world are you mumbling about?" he chuckles.
"S-So, you can also become stronger!" Flare states.
Those words shook Weiss for some reason.
"Your brother doesn't hate you…"
Weiss's body tensed up the instant he heard that, and his stance changed as he stared at Flare.
"I'm sure…that he misses you! After all, you did everything that you could to protect your brother! Your brother did everything he could to protect you! The two of you are TRUE brothers!"
"I envy you…so please, don't run away from your p-…"
Before Flare could finish her sentence, Weiss suddenly appeared with his wooden sword prepared to strike. Instinctively, Flare quickly raises her sword and hits Weiss before he can. However, Weiss quickly dodges and taps her sword with his. Before Flare could do anything, Weiss struck his sword upwards, disarming Flare by loosening her grip by the first strike and smacking it away by the second. Flare blinked, and when she opened her eyes, Weiss had already pointed the tip of his wooden sword at her throat. His eyes turned angry-looking, and veins bulged beneath his right arm, which held the wooden sword.
____________________________________________
--Image--
https://ibb.co/4PwhjBc - Weiss Lunges at Flare During their Sparring Session
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"Man, that idiot opened his fat mouth!" he muttered.
His hand is shaking.
"Listen up, you ever speak about that, ever again…and I will personally kill you by violating bear pelts," Weiss threatens.
Despite his lack of proper reasoning, Flare could see that Weiss means his threat, so she stops, despite being angry at Weiss for not telling her about him.
"It's not…" Flare tries to confront Weiss until suddenly, a body trips down the stairs at the end of the deck and drops face-first on the ground.
"Heh?"
"What?"
They heard footsteps coming towards them from their small arena, along with something being dragged. They quickly postponed their squabble and focused on the incoming unknown. After a few seconds, as the sound of something being carried is getting stronger, Weiss is already prepared for the kill, grabbing his real sword. On the other hand, Flare caught a crate lid and held it on her left hand.
Weiss looks at her, puzzled.
"It's…a shield," Flare explains awkwardly.
The two of them focused on the sound until the silhouette they sought appeared. Weiss prepares himself to lunge if not for the silhouette's playful demeanor. The shape slowly reveals his head from behind a crate and quickly pulls it back behind. The profile continues to do this multiple times until it finally just appears.
"Boo!" Boyd pops his head out of the crate to scare the two of them.
Weiss immediately grabs Boyd's armor and stares at him.
"Don't you ever do that again!"
"I see you're still a scaredy-cat, Weiss…"
"Ahahaha….Ahahaha…."
After a good laugh, Boyd noticed Flare was there with him.
"Hmm…Mmm…"
"Mmm…Mmm…"
"Ah…Oh!"
"Forgive me; I was absorbed in thought."
"Well, it hasn't been too long, isn't it, Your Highness?" Boyd greets Flare.
"W-Wha? What?" Flare bumbled.
"I've had an epiphany on how to continue this training method," Boyd states.
"We've managed to accommodate you with the muscles you've built over these days. The journey to the Knight's Mausoleum will take around a week, depending on the weather, so…I've decided how to continue your training method," Boyd utters.
Boyd remained silent, leaving the moment in suspense.
"So…what is it, Uncle Boyd?" Flare asks.
She could see him puff his chest in pride before suddenly dragging an unconscious man to the ring she and Weiss made.
"…"
"…?!"
"W-W-Wha?"
"Are you ready?" Boyd asks Flare nonchalantly.
"…Uncle Boyd…wha…what is…that?" Flare points at the unconscious body.
"Oh, this. He is your new sparring partner that will replace Weiss," Boyd explains.
Before Flare could say anything, Boyd quickly added;
"You've gained full usage of your muscles. Now, the only thing left is to train your fighting style. So, I brought…a random stranger to do just that."
Suddenly, the unconscious body coughed, and his eyes slowly open. The previously unconscious man pushes himself back up. While doing that, he turned to look around, only to see a hunk of armor in front of him. Flare could hear him squeak a bit.
"I'll give you a chance, kind sir. All you have to do is evade her attacks until we reach the Knight's Mausoleum. If you are successful, I'll pay no heed to what you said before me, and I'll let you live. If you're knocked unconscious or cannot stand…"
"I'll kill you," Boyd casually explains the rules to the man.
The explanation was enough to make Flare serious.
"I just have to avoid her attacks, right?" the man asks, looking at Flare with hostile eyes.
"It doesn't matter what I do to her?" he adds with a nasty tone.
Flare backed up a bit, sensing massive hostility from the man.
"Yes, but there's one rule. You aren't allowed to leave this ring. You lose if you break this rule, and I'll kill you."
"What…what about me?" Flare asks, slightly afraid.
"The same rules apply to you. If you leave or fail to defeat him before our arrival, you'll be punished," Boyd states.
The old knight walked away and sat on one of the crates surrounding the ring.
"You…You're Bounty Hunter Cross, correct?" Boyd asks the man.
"Yeah…"
"The man's a brutal murderer, known to give heads of his bounties to the collection center," Boyd warns Flare as he sits down.
Flare quickly raises her sword and the crate lid, which she now uses as a shield. This caught Boyd's interest, but he remained silent. Cross pulls out a knife from his waist, pointing it at Flare. He looks at her with this dirty look, which Flare quickly interprets as threatening her life and pride. Weiss walks out of the ring when Boyd tells him to train himself until Flare's training is sorted out. Flare and Cross entered their stance.
"Begin!"
The deck turned silent. Flare can hear the crashing waves outside the ship's walls. Despite Boyd already commencing the match, they have yet to make a move. Cross is just standing in the middle, observing Flare, who's been circling him since the sparring session started. Suddenly, Cross kneels, holding his stomach and closes his eyes. This puzzled Flare as her legs were trembling and pinned to the floor. She has the wooden sword tighter, but her hesitation costs her time, which Boyd quickly comments on.
"What are you doing? He's trying to heal himself up. Are you going to let him?" Boyd asks Flare.
"…Looks like Uncle Boyd had turned this into a handicap match. That's just dirty…" Flare thought inside her head as she quickly lunged towards the opponent.
However, Cross quickly reacts to her charge and swings his knife, aiming for her head. Flare managed to dodge that in a split second by bending her body backward. Cross quickly attempts to swing his knife a second time, trying to stab Flare's leg, but Flare quickly pushes her legs downward. The force from her legs made her flip backward, landing on the floor. She managed to avoid a lethal blow, but…
"I take that back!" Flare responds to her thoughts.
"If he were not injured, I would've lost my life," she says.
A scratch can be seen on the right side of her lower jaw. The tip of the knife managed to scratch her face. Flare attempts to attack him again. She quickly dashes towards Cross, and Cross again attempts to slash her face. This time, Flare stopped, with the knife nearly reaching her face. She quickly jumps back again, fearing for her life. She turns to look at Boyd, but the armored man has already started to doze off.
"Of all times…I need some help here!" Flare shouts in her head, swinging her left arm.
"Wait..." she mumbled.
While Flare is bumbling to herself, Cross is steadily resting at the center.
"This is exactly what I need. If I can rest like this for two days, I'll be more or less recovered. Once I recover, I can finish her off!" he thought.
"…But…it will be a shame to leave such a fine body untouched…" he smirks, cackling alone in the center.
"I forgot I had this," Flare murmurs, looking at the crate-shield she had all this time on her left arm.
Then, an idea struck inside her head. She turns to look at Cross, kneeling on the floor, trying to rest and heal his injuries. In his hand is a standard hunting knife that Flare had seen countless times during her journey with Weiss and Boyd. On her left arm is a one-inch-thick crate lid. At that time, she noticed that the cover, which was supposed to be heavy, was relatively light on her left arm. Flare chuckles for a second and faces Cross again, who's still kneeling.
Flare changes her stance. This time, her left arm is positioned in front of her, placing the shield in front to cover her charge. The instant Cross sees this, he immediately stands up, slightly worried. Flare quickly charges forward like before, but this time, when Cross tries to swing his knife, Flare uses the crate to block his attack. Cross didn't get enough time to control his swing and knocked his hand to the lid. Flare instantly adds more power to her wooden shield and bashes it on Cross's face.
"Correct! You cannot beat him in a drawn-out fight, not on your current level," the sleeping Boyd suddenly snores.
"Makes sense," Flare smirks.
"Damn it!" Cross curses as Flare charges forward.
Flare continuously charges Cross with her shield as the fight progresses for two hours. She hasn't faltered or shown any signs of exhaustion, but she is undoubtedly tired. Again, Flare charges forward and bashes her shield. Cross tries to extend his arm around the shield, attempting to stab Flare's arm, but Flare quickly pushes the arm away by using the side of the lid and leaves Cross open for an attack.
Instantly, she swings her wooden sword and smacks Cross before backing away from him. Cross's nose is bleeding due to getting continuously bashed by a wooden lid on his nose, added by Flare's sword smacks.
"Dang it! This can't continue like this! I don't have any time to rest!" Cross cursed.
"Cross may be injured, but making a bounty hunter uncomfortable after 2 hours is quite impressive. No, what's more impressive is that my little potato still stands tall. She's conscious that her life is on the line in this fight."
"Not bad…not bad at all," Boyd murmurs.
Flare's continuous charge and shield bashes eventually tire the man until he finally stumbles and trips backward. Flare quickly took the chance and lunged towards him with her shield at the front. Immediately, as the man's tripping, she bashes her shield downwards, pummeling Cross to the floor. Before Cross could break free, Flare steps on his knee and raises her sword upwards, preparing to knock the man unconscious with one hit.
"I win, freaky pervert!" Flare mocks Cross.
Flare immediately swings her sword, aiming for Cross's forehead.
"Stop, Your Highness!" Boyd suddenly shouts.
Flare immediately stops, and Cross tries to use that to his advantage. He instantly tries to swing his knife to wound her face, but Flare manages to dodge it easily by jumping backward. She turned to face Boyd, who was still dozing off.
"Why'd you tell me to stop?" she asks.
"You still have plenty of time, Your Highness. Why not continue until you can take him alone with your bare hands?" Boyd suggests.
"Huh?"
"Don't you think that stopping right now would be a waste of time because you are fired up," Boyd adds.
Flare remained silent, considering the idea in her mind.
"Damn it, that old man!" Cross curses inside his head.
"All I said was she would make a good whore…and this is what I get! Utter humiliation!"
"I think…that's a good idea!" Flare expresses.
"Huh, idiot. You think you can win. Girl's like you should stick to pleasuring!" Cross mocks Flare's attempt.
"…A misogynist. How rude!" Flare retorts.
"Uncle Boyd, I think for now, we can rest," Flare suggests, trying to postpone her training.
"It's my turn to cut you!" Cross mocks.
"Sure, whatever. But let's wait until tomorrow," Flare responds, despite being angry at the man.
"Huh?"
"You should get some rest. You've been slowing down," Flare adds.
Standing behind a stack of crates, Weiss chuckles when he hears this.
"True. If it takes this long to beat a single, injured, exhausted man, you won't stand a chance against any other contenders," he smirks.
* * * * *
Two days have passed since Boyd assigned Flare to start sparring against Cross. After a night's rest, Flare and Cross spar again after breakfast. Their spar is observed by Boyd from the sidelines, similar to the days before, but today, Flare is taking the lead against Cross.
"Day three…" Boyd snores.
Flare became more observant of her enemy's movements because she could now dodge it without much effort and not blocking. She leans and sidesteps everything; she manages to avoid it all. Instead of using her shield to block, she continuously bashes the shield on Cross's face like a weapon. Cross quickly swings his knife upwards, and again, Flare effortlessly dodges to the side like it was nothing.
"Is it just me, or is he getting slower?" Flare murmurs inside her head.
"No, I'm just getting faster!"
Flare took a glance at Boyd, smiling.
"I guess practice pays off much more when you are fighting an equal for your life," she concludes.
Again, she dodges to the left and bashes Cross's face even harder, slamming him to the ground.
"Damn it!"
"Damn!"
"Damn it!" Cross curses.
"I know…I know…"
"This brat…!"
"You should just stick at home cooking!" Cross yells inside his head, looking at Flare with enraged eyes.