Arriving at the training grounds, Kassius could see knights being trained by the captain of the castle guards. His voice loudly sounded as the soldiers adhered to his every command.
Each and everyone of the twenty knights possessed an agros. But the captain was different, aside from the viscount himself no one in the south held enough power to oppose the 'Silver Knight' known as Indra.
Silas approached the captain sending his little sister towards the sidelines. Ophia stared happily at the knights as her eyes shore with a look of excitement.
Although she was viscounts daughter, she did not possess an agros talk less of producing ammas. It wasn't unusual though, roughly eighty percent of the known population of the world couldn't use ammas.
Although most of them might have originated from someone who could utilize ammas, the gene responsible for generating it in the body wasn't often dominate in most people.
That is why people like Silas and Kassius were considered valuable assets to the empire and were sent to the academy to be able to learn and control their powers in a secured environment.
"Old man indra, I need you to do something for me," Silas said gesturing for the captain comeover.
A tall knight faced Silas as the sun reflected into his vibrant jade eyes making them resemble embers, taking a step he knelt forward on one knee asking "Of what use may I be to you, young master Silas"
"Nothing much, I would like you to conduct a match between me and Kassius"
Indra nodded in understanding as he commanded the knights to create space around the training ground for the young masters.
Kassius couldn't help but reminisce when he heard their interaction, it was almost the same way he interacted with granus. The only difference was the captain looked well early in his thirties while been over sixty.
Silas looked attentively at the display of command given by the captain; the stage was built in well over a minute. It was quite satisfactory has Silas looked pleased.
"The stage is set young master, you may begin whenever you see fit," Indra stated moving to the side.
Kassius walked over to the side of the training ground as he picked up a wooden sword, because of the nature of there spar they wouldn't be using real swords.
Stepping up onto the stage Kassius stared at Silas as he entered his view of vision. Possessing a relaxed posture and wooden sword placed above his shoulder he entered the space exhorting confidence.
Taking up a defensive stance I locked eyes with Silas as Indra dropped his hands indicating the beginning of the spar.
Kicking of the floor Silas wasted no time darting towards me, swinging his sword aiming for my ribs. Positioning my sword to the left of my side I managed to block his advance while using the chance with his reduced momentum to thrust my sword forward.
The sword passed though the side of his head as he easily side stepped, kicking square in my stomach.
'Shit…' a piercing pain in my invaded my body ignoring the urge to vomit.
Staggering a bit, I regained composure looking forward. Already in front of me Silas launched a horizontal swing smiling. Luckily, I ducked avoiding it as I used my legs trying to sweep him off his feet.
He jumped into the air moving backwards increasing the distance between us. For me to change the current flow of the fight I need to switch our roles.
Not wasting any moment I dashed closing the gap, unleashing a barrage of attacks I assaulted him,
Downward slash
Forward thrust
Reverse kick, etc.
Nothing worked as he either blocked or evaded, that chicky smile never left his face as he remained calm even on the face of my onslaught. He started advancing little by little through my assault.
Frustration willed up within me deciding to up the tempo of the spar. I baited him with larger swings and unnecessary movements hoping he'd take advantage of the gaps in my attack.
You'd thinking training with the same person would give you an edge, and for the most part it did.
Silas liked to attack with quickness and precision putting him on a whole league of its own when it came to swords.
Due to his high level of mastery of his skills he mostly preyed at the openings and small cracks in his opponent's defense, this was why I was sure he'd fall for my bait.
And just as predicted Silas after countering a slash to his side decided to step closer in to my range has he aimed to end the spar with a thrust to my neck.
I quickly switch my hold on my sword into a reverse grip as I grinned seeing the sword approach,
"I caught you bastard"
Using all my strength to launch my wooden sword against Silas's neck I twisted my other hand to intercept the sword going from my throat.
The goal of my attack was to counter the movement he stepped closer into my range but knowing Silas I knew he would have launch a near unavoidable attack, and that was fine because I never had the thought of evading in the first place.
The plan was created for a sure way to end the fight as efficiently as possible, and the only way to do that was directly the scene that was about to unfold or atleast that was what I thought...
Grabbing the sword infront of my neck, blood trickled down my left hand as I proceeded to swing the sword on my other hand directly at Silas's neck.
Uhhh…
But to my surprise he let go of his sword ducking down before delivering a kick to my chin.
I staggered backwards hearing his cold voice as he approached, "That was a close one, but if you thought that was going to work. I truly am disappointed".
I steeled myself for the next coming moments, he seemed to have gotten serious. Although for some weird reason a grind slowly crept upwards on my face.
"It was worth a shot, although if you really believe this is the limit to my abilities. Then you really do underestimate me too much"
Silas laughed seeing the comeback Kassius had given him saying, "And am I wrong to do so, after all isn't your greatest accomplishment is leaving a scratch on me"
From the short talk they had it would appear the tension of the fight had been relieved a little, but the outward look couldn't be more wrong because not only did Kassius and Silas know that the next part of the spar would determine the victor. All the knights on the training ground also knew as they anticipated the outcome.
Kassius holding two swords released a heavy sigh looking towards the sky, throwing Silas weapon over to the side he mouthed, 'Ahhh, here I go again'.
Putting strength into his soles of his feet, he pushed against the floor as he accelerated towards Silas.
I launched a downward strike, before turning it into a verticals slash mid-way. He moved back looking to evade but was met with a jab to his jaw.
He lost his balance as thrusted my sword towards his heart. Even when disoriented his body twisted to evade, unfortunately for him I wanted to end this fight as quick as possible.
A sword appeared in front of his face aiming at his eyes, he barely had any moment to dodge as he relied on instinct shifting his neck to the side.
Fortunately for me that was all I needed as I came through his blind spot delivering a clean blow at his abdomen.
Falling to the ground Silas had lost his balanced shocked by the current flow of the fight, but Kassius wasn't done yet see as another sword came falling directly towards his head.
Silas had a look of admiration as he thought to himself, 'he planned it all from the beginning. From sacrificing his left arm to making he let down my guard, he seems to have finally grown'.
"But that doesn't mean I'll give up so easily", Silas said as the sword falling towards him combusted into flames turning into ashes.
Kassius had a worried look on his face jumping back, "So I finally pushed you far enough to use it"
Silas stood as the sclera of his eyes was dyed black while his iris turned radiant gold. He looked up has he ran his hands through his hair, the taste of iron had accumulated in his mouth as he spat onto his side.
"I think it's time of round two, don't you think," Silas uttered sending a piercing gaze towards his brother. If looks could kill Kassius would have died a thousand times over.
"He really is going to kill me"