Kapitel 82: Dueling Grounds

Ezra made the preparations for the bank notes, he commissioned a custom plate that had the Blackfyre Crest. He had sorted the bills from copper, silver to gold. 100 imperial coppers to an imperial silver coin and one thousand imperial silvers to a gold imperial coin. He arranged the denominations for one, five, ten, fifty, while he added a denomination of one hundred and five-hundred for the silver notes. For the gold notes, he made one, five, ten, twenty, fifty and a hundred bill notes.

As for the designs of these notes, he let his mother decide on what they would feature. He suggested to use animals but Aerwyna wanted to use Ezra's baby portrait for some of the denominations. Ezra wanted to oppose but he saw the determined look of his mother and didn't want to argue.

The next day he went to the training grounds like he promised his father. Two years ago he was taught how to fight, it was strange because the fighting style his father taught him did not resemble any European martial arts he had observed over the internet. Instead, the fighting style that he was indoctrinated with was closer to Silat and some South East Asian martial arts.

He was first taught to wield short swords and did repetitive motions with them, at first he looked down on the training as he could just use AMP to quickly identify weak points in the body during combat. However, in actual practice the repetitive motions gave him muscle memory, sometimes he didn't even have to think to execute a swing, stab or kick.

The martial art was very brutal, there was no concept of honour when fighting, it was very practical after all the martial art was said to be sharpened by war. Strikes were often aimed at weak spots like the groin, carotid artery and thighs. The art focused on utilizing places where people felt the most pain or bleed to death.

He drew his wooden swords to which he was accustomed to. His stance was of dual swords, quick and snappy. His strokes were raging like fire, while his footwork kept on pacing at 45-degree angles. The philosophy of the Blackfyre arts was offence, there was no total defensive movement such as shielding everything was countered. The main idea was trying to make your opponent strike where you want him to so that you could use it to your advantage.

With Ezra's memorization abilities it was easy. But when he utilized it in combat it became difficult to execute, for example, a knight could make a strike that would land two possibilities. Actual martial arts when this occurred became more of a chess match if the two were evenly matched. Ezra decided that when he was training he would not use AMP.

He used magic to augment his strikes and time them just in time and the result was: motions were fluid when transitioning but explosive when coming in contact with the opponent. Duelling with less seasoned fighters were child's play to him. He asked Maester Grimfire for more adept opponents but he was turned away constantly.

But today he was to duel a battle-hardened squire, he had finally gotten a go signal from his father when he asked.

"Go easy on him milord," Hearth slightly chuckled.

"Yeah, the last opponent you had slept for four days," Caspian added.

"Well, He was quite stubborn, I told him not to cast that last [Stone Bullet], I told him that he would totally deplete his magic if he did," replied Ezra honestly.

"Milord, that kid was supposed to be the top of his batch, it was a total shame to be beaten by a seven-year-old, Haha," Rycharde commented.

Evered was silent however as he eyed Ezra's opponent. He seemed to be sixteen years old, with a muscular build, his rough features and high chick bones accented his face, while his white hair draped on the side and was tied in a ponytail.

Laughter ensued as Hearth and Caspian talked about Ezra's former opponent.

"What's wrong Evered?" Rycharde asked,

"There is something different about that person," Evered replied.

"Hmm? Why'd you say so?"

"Nothing, It's just a gut feeling, it's like I've seen that kid before. Just tell Lord Ezra to be wary."

Maester Grimfire oversaw the field again.

Ezra entered and so did the youth.

"Well met, Milord," the youth bowed.

"Well met, by the way, what is your name?" Ezra asked, if anything was used to describe the youth before him it would be Elvish, even though he had rough features his effeminate face would definitely ingrain in one's mind coupled with his white hair.

"Voxis, Lord Ezra, " answered the youth

"Very well Voxis, Let's have a good match," Ezra remained humble despite the numerous victories under his belt, he knew that one small misstep in battle such as underestimating your opponent could be the end of you, he tried to keep this in mind constantly.

The two combatants went to their neutral positions.

Ezra was patient, he waited for Voxis to strike first but instead he was met with a calm voice.

"Milord, I heard that you can't cast spells, is that true?" Voxis asked.

He and Ezra were circling each other, trying to get a feel of each other's movements.

"Let's just put it this way, I don't need spells to defeat you," Ezra smiled.

After a few seconds of circling.

"Hm, shall we keep on circling around each other milord or will we just end this duel with a draw?"

"Well, you are new here so I think It's proper if you attack first." Ezra stood and showed his openings to entice Voxis to attack.

"Very well, milord, I shall oblige," answered Voxis in a gentle tone.

As soon as he said this Voxis stomped his foot on the ground, he launched towards Ezra. His speed shocked him, he didn't have AMP on so he couldn't measure his speed. Ezra barely parried his blow and he lurched backwards, he didn't time his magic augment correctly.

But before Ezra could react Voxis was already high in the air, launching another attack, Ezra rolled to avoid the incoming blow from the wooden sword. As the sword landed on the ground he kicked Ezra which flung him five meters back.

Everyone gasped, this was the first time Ezra was in such a dire situation. Evered had a determined look as he watched the fight, while the two younger guards had their mouths open up like gaping holes.

"I think right now would be a good time to use spells, milord," said Voxis gently. He waited for Ezra to get up.

Ezra recovered and dusted his armour a bit.

"So, you can use voiceless incantations, impressive." Ezra looked at him nonchalantly." Are you really a squire?" Ezra asked with his eyebrow raised,

"Haha, you observed well Lord Ezra," Voxis replied with a bow while still speaking in a gentle tone," I hope you get serious now milord, I am putting my best foot forward." He paused. " I hope you deign me with your actual skill"

"Very well then, I shall oblige. " Ezra said with a commanding voice, during the past years the noble training and etiquette rubbed off on him.

Ezra then activated AMP.