Ark One: Fate of Eostia Part Thirteen
(Third Person POV)
It was currently later in the afternoon, and both Lunarians were sparring against one another. King was impressed with Crow's progression with a blade.
The teen's movements were more fluid, less telegraphed, and his form was far less rigid than the last time they sparred.
The older Lunarian had to admit he was proud and slightly envious of the raven-haired teen's ability to learn at an accelerated rate.
When he was Crow's age, he was nowhere near this skilled or talented with a blade.
Honestly, it's to be expected, considering who the boy's father was.
While the man was no Dracule Mihawk, he was undoubtedly one of the best swordsmen in the world when he was still around.
It's unfortunate he's not here to see his boy's progression, but if there's an afterlife, King had no doubt the man would be watching above with a proud smile. King knew he would've been if he were in that man's place.
King was lightly panting as the two had been sparring for about six hours without taking any breaks and were fighting at an intense pace. He wasn't tired, anything, maybe slightly winded, but that was about it. It's been a few years since he had to put effort into anything physical.
"Are you getting tired already, old man?" Crow taunted, smirking at the older Lunarian.
The teen thrust his blade toward King's chest, but the older man easily blocked the attack with the flat side of his gigantic sword.
A tick mark formed on the side of King's forehead. "Who the fuck are you calling old, you little shit! I'm only forty-one!" He growled.
Under most circumstances, King wouldn't fall for such obvious provocations, but there was something about Crow's tone and an annoying smirk that made him want to put the teen in his place.
"Wow, you're even older than I thought. Looks like I'll have to plan your retirement sooner than I expected," Crow continue to taunt.
Growling, the older Lunarian kicks at the teen, but the boy jumps back, narrowly avoiding the attack. King blitzed toward Crow, slashing horizontally at him.
Crow skillfully parried the attack and went for a thrust toward the older Lunarian's head. However, King tilted his head and grabbed Crow's sword arm.
With little effort, he picked up and slammed the teen to the ground with enough force to create a spiderweb-like crack underneath the teen.
King twisted his arm, earning a grunt from the raven-head, and caused his hand to go off his sword. The older man planted his foot on Crow's chest and had his sword centimeters away from the teen's neck.
"So what was that comment about my age again?" King asked, looking down and smirking at the teen.
"Your still old as shit," Crow replied before chuckling but soon winced when King put more pressure on his chest. "But you still have a good couple of decades left in you."
King rolled his eyes and lightly chuckled. "I guess that's as good as I'm gonna get," he took his foot off the teen and helped him. "You've gotten a lot better."
"You can thank Mikasa for that," Crow smiled. "Me and her sparred worked on it a lot when we were sailing towards here."
King nodded in approval. "Good. I would've been pissed if you slacked off."
"Me slacking off?" Crow looked at the older man in mock offense. "I would never!" He said dramatically, earning an amused eye roll from King. "Besides, I know you'd increase the intensity of my training tenfold if I did," the teen held back a shudder of terror at the thought of King making his already difficult training regiment even harder.
Crow really appreciates everything the older Lunarian did for him, but he wishes the man would hold back in their spars just a bit more and make the training regiments less agonizingly painful.
If only...
King smirked. "Damn right, I would."
The two Lunarians continued to spar for the next hour or so. Eventually, they stopped when they sensed Celestine nearing their location.
When they could visibly see the high elf, they took notice of the small group of people behind her. Four of them were carrying their swords, while one was holding a large box in their arms.
"Hey Celestine," Crow greeted his fiance when he got close enough and went up to her to place a kiss on her head.
"Hello, my love," Celestine gave the teen a beautiful smile. "I've finished enchanting your and King's blades."
After King's arrival and filling him in on everything that happened, Celestine offered to enchant his and Crow's sword. She said it would only take a day or two for her to do it. Both Lunarians instantly accepted her offer and patiently waited for her to finish enchanting their swords.
The wait ended as four men carrying their weapons approached them and gave them their swords. Both Lunarians took their swords and were surprised at how light they were.
Once their initial surprise was gone, they inspected the runes engraved into the flat sides of the blades. Each of the swords had a total of seven runes.
Celestine explained what each of the runes on their swords did. Crow and King swords had the basic runes that increased the sharpness of their blades, ensured they would never degrade, were nearly indestructible, were incredibly light, could be used by them or people related to them, and not so shockingly were lethal toward anything demonic.
However, they also had a special rune that made their swords unique.
Crow's cutlass rune allowed him to absorb, redirect, or convert energy of any kind and utilize the energy to either temporarily increase his physical power or speed.
Crow's double-edged sword rune allows him to conduct and project his fire into condensed, supercharged, omnidirectional beams.
King's sword rune was essentially a combination of the runes on Crow's weapons, with the only difference being that he couldn't project his fire but could instead increase the intensity of his flames every ten seconds.
It was safe to say both Lunarians were incredibly pleased with their enchantments.
"Wow, Celestine, that's fucking awesome!" Crow said excitedly after the high elf finished explaining the effects of their runes. He gave the high elf a quick kiss on the lips and then leaned toward her ear and huskily whispered. "I'll be sure to show you how appreciative I am when I get back."
Despite whispering into the high elf's ear, King could still hear what Crow said and rolled his eyes in amusement.
"Teenagers," King uttered under his breath in amusement.
Once Crow pulled back, Celestine looked at King. "Before you two leave, I have one thing for you," she said, making the Lunarian quirk a brow in curiosity. She walked up to the man carrying the large box, took out a massive circular item, and then approached King with it. "This bracelet will allow you to alter your size at will."
King's eyes widen slightly before smiling and nodding. "Thank you," he took the bracket and put it on.
Not a second later, King went from twenty feet tall to the exact height of Crow.
"Holy shit, that was fast!" Crow exclaimed in surprise and excitement.
King, quickly got use to the height adjustment and looked at Celestine.
"It feels strange being this short, but I can get used to it. Again, thank you for the gift," King smiled at the high, who smiled in return.
"No need to thank me, lord King, it was my pleasure," Celestine replied. She looked at Crow. "Will the both of you be heading off now?"
Crow nodded. "Yeah, the sooner we get this done, the better. Could you let the others know?"
Celestine nodded. "Of course," she grabbed Crow's larger hand with her smaller one and looked at him lovingly. "Be safe."
"I will," he leaned down and kissed her.
Once their goodbyes were said, both Lunarians ascended into the sky and headed toward their destination at high speeds.
End.