Fort Ygrad, the place where dreams were made for those in desperate phases of life. The walls of azure stones were standing tall, discouraging any invaders that dared to breach it. Just from the ground, it was impossible for anyone to see the scenery behind the walls. In normal circumstances, Fort Ygrad was impenetrable with its gate always closed tightly unless there was a special occasion. Today such an occasion just happened. Annually, the knight order would recruit new candidates and on this day, the gate of Fort Ygrad was opened for those who had death wishes.
“State your name and business,” said the knight guarding the opened gate.
The man in front of the knight was a man of brute strength. He slicked his hair back then scratched his cheeks, that man was genuinely confused by the question. “Is it really that important? Surely you’ve heard of me. The Uther Velasquez. The Giant of the East.”
“Is that so? Let me check the list,” the knight pulled out a long scroll and he squinted his eyes as he checked every name on its surface. “You must have been mistaken. I don’t think we’ve ever listed you here before. If this is a mistake from our part then we sincerely apologize and you can send a letter of complaint to the official. If not then we sincerely ask you to leave.”
Uther who at glance look no more than a barbarian who knew naught of academics was smiling, a scheme was running inside his head. “No wonder Dragnail Empire is losing her territories fast this last decade. The officials must have made a mistake when they trained the knights.”
The knight before him was shaken. Mocking the military institution was punishable by death so it was the first time for the knight to have met someone so pretentious. “I’m not sure I understand what you have said sir. Would you mind clarifying it? I’m sure these old ears of mine must have been mistaken when they heard you uttering such blasphemy,” the knight was speaking in humorous tones yet his actions said he had no intent to play along with the humor with his hand planted on the hilt of steel sword which was sheathed in his hip.
“Are you deaf? I mean everything that I said. I mean just look at you; old, feeble, and speaking politely like a noble even though you are no more than the empire dog. Why don’t you just become a poet? I bet you can make more money with your honeyed words that way.”
“That’s it boy! I will skin you and all of your relatives alive!” The knight took out his sword swiftly and with incredible speed swung it to the shoulder of the black haired young man.
The black haired man was unarmed so fighting a fully armored and fully armed knight was something irrational to the other candidates lining up in front of Fort Ygrad. As the other knights inside the fort ran up to settle the chaos, the other candidates were scattered like a flock of chickens on fire. The knight brutally mutilating the pretentious young man was the result everyone expected and so they unconsciously closed their eyes, hoping to spare their sight from watching the reprehensible act.
As the knight swung his sword to the left torso of the blasphemous man, Uther took a quick step to the right, the young man was barely able to avoid it. His right arm was grazed by the silver sword inflicting a small wound that kept sprouting blood.
“I see now why the empire steel sword is said to be the best sword that can be mass produced. To inflict such a severe wound with only a quick touch, the sword’s sharpness must be several times better than an iron sword,” he was not distraught by the loss of his blood. Calmly he looked at his wound without caring about the angry knight. “Sorry old poet. I need to take this fight a bit seriously.”
The knight was taking full caution against Uther who even though he is unarmed, with his barbarian body could potentially end the fight with just one decisive move. Fighting an opponent who had much stronger physical specs, the knight was anticipating one move, he was getting ready for a tackle. A punch or a kick was no danger to him as the moment he got hit, he could immediately swing for a decisive counter either by immediately going for the head or by stabbing the heart of the enemy.
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With a dash of brute strength, Uther went forward, he flung his body toward the knight.
“Good, it was as I anticipated. The moment he went for the tackle, I would use my sword to stab his posterior while he hunched!” The knight thought as the charging bull went straight to the target. It was a well thought plan, after all tackling mean you forfeited all defense above in exchange for straight explosive power. However, the knight gulped for his experiences were telling him that if he missed, it would be his death.
If done by a barbarian then surely a tackle while not enough to make a hole in the armor, however it might be enough to left a big dent on it, it might break some of his ribs, his ribs could be broken like a twig in a typhoon. If so then the knight abandoned his stance, choosing flexibility over stability.
The huge giant before him disappeared from his eyesight as the motion had been done. Reflexively, the knight changed his grip to that of stabbing instead of slicing. As he plunged the sword, he could feel a sensation of flesh.
Sweats ran down from his forehead. He survived, he was ultimately victorious. “I… I win. I win! Take that you stupid child! It should be obvious a brat like you has no chance against the might of the order!” The old knight declared his victory. He was the one who predicted the ultimate result of the battle.
However, the celebration won't last long as the knight heard a whisper. “Look at your weapon. “
The steel sword was indeed doing its job of stabbing the flesh of the young man however what it stabbed was not the posterior but rather… “You're crazy! You change your stance at the last seconds to defend against the sword to use your arms as a shield against my attack!”
“That was close. If you had swung the sword instead of choosing to stab with it, my arms would have been severed. Instead…”
“Instead your arms were now sealed by my sword. You can't remove the sword by yourself. So…” The knight took his fist, he had enough power in his hand to crack open a person's skull. “I would beat you to death! Pity your mother for having made a stupid barbarian like you born!”
“A poet until the very end. Too bad you misjudged one thing.”
In the middle of his attack, he saw a purple spark, and the knight finally realized his mistake.
“I'm a magician.”
“Envoy of tempest
Spread your terror upon my sight
Lightning bolt!”
A ball of purple lightning flew from the palm of Uther's hands toward the knight frying his flesh inside while his proud armor became a misfortune as the iron armor spread the lightning evenly toward every part of his body.
“It was a close call. You might be unconscious right now but I must admit that you're strong enough to push me into using my magic,” Uther bowed in respect for his opponent, disregarding the other candidates who looked at him with fear. “I'm not using the strong version of the lightning so you should wake up in a few hours. Now to stop the rogue knight from ever coming to the town, I need to beat up the…”
“The head of the knight I assume?” Uther couldn't sense the presence of the voice behind him. As he looked back, every instinct in his body was telling him to run. What was behind him was death personified.
“Wh-who are you!” It was a foolish question for Uther even in his ginormous ignorance knew the legend of the knight who worse the purple cape.
“The head of the knight Felgrand,” upon hearing that name, Uther tried to cast the second spell. As Uther tried to cite his spell, Felgrand disappeared from his sight.
Heat. His legs were in heat. The Invisible Felgrand had torn the knee of the young man. Blood flew from the severed connection and finally his legs gave out as even all the nerves that moved it had been cut out.
His legs and hands were rendered useless. As he looked up, all Uther could see was the indifferent eyes of death.
