"What is the Quillintine" Tate asked.
No one answered him but instead, they all waited for Bazhar's orders.
"Alright let's start with the twins."
The twins stepped forward and one of them, he didn't know which one stepped up to him until they were toe to toe. His look was full of mischief and Tate got a very bad feeling about this.
"So human, do you know how to use a talon?"
"A talon?" Tate questioned. He thought he might know what they meant but he didn't want to assume and make a fool out of himself. Sure enough, the dragon drew a long object from a sheath at his waist that although completely different from a sword, was also so similar. The talon looked to be literally that, a talon from a dragon, it was fashioned into a pommel creating what Tate would call a sword, just not one made of steel.
"Ah, yes what we use is a little different but we'd call that a sword."
Still with a smile on his face, the dragon said. "I don't care." He looked back at the other twin. "How long do you think this will take Onen?" He asked, this made the one in front of him Oben.
Onen smiled lightly. "I'd give it ten seconds."
Oben scowled. "Fine, but I bet it won't take more than five."
"What will you bet?"
"My gold earring." He said over his shoulder stepping close to Tate.
He held the "talon" up until the point was touching Tate's chest.
"I don't care what humans call anything, all I care about is if you, human, can even last five seconds." His twin chuckled and crossed his arms. The two of them seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely. The other six just stood back looking either bored or disapproving.
"Here." Captian Bazhar held out a talon in front of him suddenly. He must have gone to get one while his attention was on Oben.
Tate took it in his hand and tried to get a feel for it. The weight was surprisingly similar to what he was used to, apparently, dragon talons had a similar density to steel. The pommel was uncomfortable but that was only for the reason that it wasn't his. His sword had been locked in his new home since he'd moved into it. As an advisor he'd had no reason to carry a weapon, he deeply regretted leaving it behind now. Not that it would have been likely that his captors would have let him keep it, but as he had bemoaned before if he'd had his sword he might not be in this situation at all.
Shaking off such useless thoughts he took the talon and faced Oben.
"So am I to take it that you know how to use this.?"
"I've been extensively trained in sword fighting so if your way of using the talon is anything like that then yes I know how to use it."
Bazhar hummed in his throat and looked between the two of them. "Let's start with trying to see how long you can last against the twins in turn. Please keep in mind that intent to kill is not allowed. You can wound but do not dismember or strike the vitapints. By the way, human where is your vital point?"
Startled at the question he automatically pointed to the left side of his breastbone.
The others marked where he pointed and nodded. Oben moved backwards to ready himself but Tate called out.
"Wait, where is your vital point then?"
Captain Bazhar answered. "It is here." He ended up pointing to the opposite side of the chest and Tate nodded.
Tate got into his stance and got ready. He was not used to doing sparring this way. Sparring was supposed to be different than a battle. In battle, time was not something you could rely on. You had to jump into action at a moment's notice. In sparring he'd been taught since a child that skipping any kind of warm-up was a recipe for disaster, but it seemed the dragons didn't follow this rule.
He tried to move each part of his body subtly to check for stiffness and was discouraged to find that his muscles were slow to respond. He felt cold and tight. He was about to ask if he could have a moment to stretch and run a few laps when Oben lunged at him.
The dragons seemed to be under a mistaken impression of him. He didn't know why they were so confident that he was going to be thrashed easily. They didn't know a thing about him, and the most important thing they were unaware of at this moment was the fact that he was a very seasoned fighter.
He'd dodged at the last second. Oben's moves had been lightning quick, but Tate saw the subtle movement in his body just in time.
Oben laughed as his talon missed Tate by an inch. "Wow, you dodged that? How about this?"
Tate's opinion of Oben was quickly formed. He was skilled there was no doubt about it. It was apparent immediately why he would have been included in an honor guard of the elite. However, he had one defect in Tate's eyes.
He talked too much.
As Oben reversed his momentum from the first move and stepped backward. Tate was almost caught in the space made between Oben's body and the talon on its reverse trajectory.
Tate easily avoided this by dropping to the ground and rolling forward and out of the situation. He popped back to his feet immediately at the ready
Oben's face began to change. He'd not been taking this very seriously but now the human had dodged him twice. He'd never in a million years have guessed that the human would be able to read his attacks and evade them. This meant that ten seconds had passed and now he had to give his treasure to his brother. He grew angry.
Tate dodged, parried, and thrust on what felt like a never-ending loop. Oben talked non-stop. He was insulted and he complained as Tate kept up with him easily. Tate wasn't gaining over him but the match remained on equal grounds.
Tate quickly became board, he'd done this so often growing up, he'd even done this extensively working with a dragon in dragon form. He had to wonder as they sparred if the dragons spent as much time on this due to the fact it was probably not as widely used. Why use a talon in human form when you could use a real talon on your giant flying, fire breathing, body?
He supposed it would have some applications, probably falling in the lines of what the Elder had mentioned before about human bodies being more convent for delicate movements and such.
To the other seven dragons watching the oblivious fighters, tension was high.
They'd not expected humans to be able to do this task. He hadn't won yet but nor was he losing. It stung their pride that a lowly human was embarrassing a member of their honored guard. They were a part of this unit for a reason, and that reason was they were considered the top talents among all dragons. They were a select few who had managed to complete all the Tasks this human was about to embark on.
The first task was called the Quillintine. It was a series of close-quarter fighting challenges. The first being a fight with the talon. The young dragon could only call the task a success when he could get ten hits in two categories against a fully ascended dragon.
"Okay, enough!" Bazhar interrupeted. Both combatants stopped. Tate dripped sweat but looked bored. Oben on the other hand had not sweat at all but it was his face that was twisted in frustration. His brother didn't help with his chuckling from the sidelines.
Bazhar looked at Tate for a long moment and then at Onen. "I think we will not do the second challenger today. The human seems worn out already. We will pick back up with the talon tomorrow. Let us give him a moment's break and then move on to hand to hand fighting. We've seen that he can handle a talon but how does he fare against brute strength?
Tate sighed as they all looked at him, their grins reappearing. He may have been able to hold his own with a talon but a talon allowed him to take his opponent's momentum and redirect it. The same could be said with fighting a man hand to hand but it was not something he'd ever excelled at and now add on to the fact that a dragon, even in human form they had the advantage.
Their "moment" really was a moment. Tate was still panting and recovering from dancing around with Oben when Bazhar called over "Yokan!"
The burly dragon stepped forward with a confident look in his eyes.
They gave Tate no direction, no warning, nor did they ask if he knew anything about this style of fighting. One moment Tate heard "Start!" and the next he was flying through the air.
He honestly couldn't tell you how he had come to be in this state. Just like with Oben he'd seen the move coming and had started to dodge, but then he'd found himself hurtling through the air.
His back slammed into something hard and his head cracked back against the stone. He'd been thrown almost a hundred feet against the wall. His eyes dimmed from the blow to the head and he fell to the ground.