Barak and Amon began to trade blows, neither one of them really giving an inch to the other, each missed attack was barely by a hair's length, and all of their attacks seemed lethal, but strangely enough they both had smiles on their faces, Amon had stepped back causing Barak to press in, increasing the ferocity of his attacks, but with every swing, barak's sword had struck air or was parried by Amon,
"didn't I tell you that being overly excited would cost you", Amon stated, turning his sword downwards to block on incoming strike from Barak's, the clashing metal rang through the air, followed by bright sparks and a bit of lightning,
"oh I don't see how it's costing me, do you ?", Barak asked, with an arrogant grin painted across his face,
"sadly I do", Amon quickly replied,
"wha...", barak began to say, but then amon quickly, parried one of his attacks, but this time he guided his sword down the edge of Barak's own all the way down to the hilt, both of them were now face to face,
"i've been watching you as our little match went on, and I must say you are amazing when it comes to swordplay and almost just as good at hand-to-hand, but you have one vital weakness", Amon stated, as soon as he said that Barak, felt his feet shift from under him, he was now sideways in the air, with amon kicking him again sending him flying backwards, and before he even realized, Amon was over him mid swing with his sword about to come down on him,
"okay I've seen enough', Levant shouted,
"LUNAR NOVA: ERUPT", he called out, a stream of blue fire rushed towards Amon, however he didn't move, amon simply braced himself placing his sword in front of him, the sheer force of the fire pushing him off of barak and back a couple of feet,
"ohh that move packs a lot of power, sadly not enough though", Amon criticized, swiping his sword through the air to shake off the remainder of fire, from his blade,
levant stood there dumbfounded, at the fact that Amon shook off his attack so casually, but before he could even gather the rest of his thoughts, Yumi appeared in front of him,
"hope you didn't forget about me", she said teasingly,
the next thing levant knew she had spun around in front of him landing a kick directly on his shoulder, and shortly after landing another one sending him flying into the wall behind him,
'oh god junorra bless me, that armor has made her a lot harder to handle', levant thought to himself,
"well let's end things here, why don't we", Amon proposed,
"sure I'm fine with that, I got to really test this armor out, so I'm fine", Yumi said in agreement, Amon trotted over to where Barak was, he was still partially laying on the ground, Amon held out his hand gesturing for barak to take it,
barak looked up at Amon, the blazing sun partially obstructing his view of him, he could feel the sweat running down his back, and the heat hitting part of his arm, he didn't want to, but he had just been shown a weakness, a weakness that he never knew he had, Barak thought to himself that he had no choice but to humble himself, and though reluctantly barak took his hand and got to his feet,
"you calm enough to figure out that glaring weakness of yours", Amon asked,
"no, so why don't you enlighten me", barak said, with a bit of vitriol behind it,
Amon held down his head, hitting it with his palm, and slowly shaking it,"all I'm going to tell you is you have to learn to strengthen and rely on your foundations", he said, walking away after without saying another word, on his way exiting the training area he looked over at Levant who was climbing out of the small hole that yumi helped him create,
"And you, Levant, stop holding back, you need to push those flames of yours to their breaking point, from what yumi has told me, she did a good job of raising all of our bases, and I mean that about all four of you, but, you in particular don't push your powers to their upmost limit, though this war didn't originally involve you I'm sure that 'prince' has already deemed you guys a significant threat, and now you all will have targets on your backs when the day of the war comes", Amon lectured to Levant,
"since when did you become a teacher", A voice called out to Amon, he hadn't realized it but everyone in the training area had stopped and began spectating the fight between the five of them, soon a young woman walked out of the crowd, her sharp yellow dwarven eyes were familiar,
"Savera, what are you doing here, Last I heard you were fighting off Dracht's forces at the Lake of thunder", Amon said,
"I was, but my father arrived with reinforcements and told me to go where I'm needed, and I figured that I'm needed here", she said, walking off with Amon into the hallway,
"well I can't complain about having one extra fighter", Amon said,
Later That Night
Amon sat in his office, one hand holding a cigar on the table, it cedar scented smoke rising into the air as he held his hand idly on the table, his other hand covered his eyes, he was slumped back into his chair, head facing the ceiling, he pulled his arm away staring at the old grey ceiling.
' is all of this really for the best, maybe I'm fighting against them because I'm just not good with change, despite the subjugation of the other kingdoms, is there really anything wrong with what they're doing', Amon thought to himself, he felt a presence in his office, his hand quickly reached for his sword that sat next to him leaning on the desk, with one swift motion he drew his sword, swinging it instantly in the direction of the presence he felt,
" I hope that I'm right, everything about the way that my brother and that prince have been going about this war has felt off, maybe it's because I'm not good with change, I never have been, everyone knows that, ahh those days in the guild hall were much simpler, now I'm defending kingdoms who I have no allegiance to from my little brother, my brother who I had sworn to myself to protect, is he really wrong though". A heavy presence pulled him from his thoughts, drawing his sword from next to him, he pushed he chair back, swiftly, he had his sword pointed to what seemed like nothing but the bookshelf in front of him, but he was sure someone was there.
"If I were you I would show myself, or I'll finish pushing my sword through your neck", Amon said,
"that I do not doubt", the person said, the air around the tip of Amon's blade began to distort, and shortly after the messenger appeared, in the warm golden light that illuminated Amon's office, the golden four pointed star on the dark purple mask caught Amon's eye, the masked messenger gave a short bow and produced a square paper with a red seal on it, Amon took a half step backwards, looking this unknown messenger up and down, the red cloth with the golden markings wrapped around one his leg with the pants leg cut short and the golden tribal tattoo running just below his collar bone told him all he need to know,
"those markings, what is a dog of the Korsana family doing here", Amon asked,
"As of now I am a mere servant to his royal highness, Ea Dracht, my name is not of importance, I was merely tasked with delivering this letter to you from your brother", the servant answered. Amon looked at the letter in his hands, withdrawing his sword, taking the letter out of the servant's hand he gave pause, looking into the servant's eye that was visible, he once again sat in his chair.
"LEAVE NOW", Amon said, his voice deep and unnervingly intimidating, Kazak bowed his head, he could feel the unbridled rage and bloodlust mixed in with the divine energy being directed at him,
"you and you're brother are quite similar", Kazak said, slowly departing into the shadows from where he came,
Amon looked at the letter pondering on what his brother could possibly want or say, as far as he was concerned they had both said what needed to be said to each other.
The Letter sat on his, Amon took a short pull from his cigar, then glanced back at the letter, then another short pull and again his focus went back to the letter, as the seconds passed his curiosity just grew stronger, he put down his cigar, taking a small knife from one the desk drawers, and again he went back to staring at the letter, turning the knife in between his fingers, he soon took the letter up, inspecting the seal, it wasn't the seal of the Artemis guild, no their important letters were sealed with a yellow wax with a fancy written A, this wax was a Dark deep red, and the letter D in was engraved in it, the letter was stamped with the approval of a royal family member. Amon sliced open the letter, unfolding the paper inside, to which he quickly read through.
"those two, they're trying to force our hand into finishing this early", Amon said to himself, getting up from his desk and rushing through the door with the letter in his hand