Lionheart

Rival

It had been 2 months since Linley had been practicing magic and swordplay with Maud, he had grown exceptionally strong. His magic was now stronger and he had learnt several spells. He was wonderful with the sword, he now gave a hard time winning even to Maud. Maud had even gone far enough so as to call him a rare talent with a sword.

Since he had been training vigorously, he had now become strong and muscular, his arms were now hard as metal and his face had grown quiet spiffy.

They had given up wooden swords and Maud considered Linley skilled enough that he had started practicing with metal swords, although they were blunt, a good blow on the neck or head could be fatal, and they were much heavier than wooden swords, thus Linley's arms had grown muscular and strong just by practicing with them.

It was just one month left for the entrance ceremony to begin, a lot of new people had entered the village to train and wait until the entrance ceremony began. Mostly were rich lords, ladies and their children.

Linley would often sit near one of the children as they trained, he would see their strengths and weaknesses, the weapons they chose and the elements they had a chance of gaining. He did it because he knew that at some point he could end up fighting them.

Some of them were rude and simply ignored him and tried to show off, showing their moves and spells. This just delighted Linley as he could now read their moves easily. Some of the children were kind and friendly and often spoke to him when they saw him.

One of the children, a boy named Klint caught his attention, he was rude and hated Linley watching him, he usually went away when he saw him or showed an angry expression as if he wanted him to go.

Although him despising Linley, he admired his skill with the double sided spear, he seemed as if he were dancing when he practiced and his moves often shocked Linley.

One day, Maud had gone to get his sword mended and had left Linley to practice by himself. Linley practiced alone, he assumed there to be an enemy in front of him, he would bend, jump and swirl and then thrust his sword at the imaginary target, while he was at it, he felt someone approach.

He turned and saw that it was Klint. Linley went ahead, raised an arm as if to shake hands but, Klint looked dead at him and said "I want to spar with you, I have heard a lot about you Linley" Linley looked at him with a surprised face and said "Ok, then".

They both took their stances, Linley was a bit scared as he had seen Klint spar, his moves were both fast and strong. Linley did not let his fear show but instead looked right at Klint, he saw that he seemed confident as if he already knew the outcome of the match.

The wind blew cold over their faces as they peered at each other waiting for the other one to strike, then suddenly Klint spun his double sided spear and stabbed right at Linley's chest which Linley deflected with his sword, the intensity of the blow shook Linley's sword in his hand.

Klint laughed as he saw Linley tremble, seeing this Linley grew uneasy, he tried attacking Klint, But his defense was too strong to pierce through. Linley tried desperately to land even a single blow on him, but all his attempts failed.

Tired he started to grow sloppy, it became tougher for him to even hold his sword upright, Klint often attacked with an elegant series of blows, the metal of his spear tips clanging against Linley's sword creating a loud resonating sound.

Their battle was furious and tiresome, none of them ready to give up. To Klint it seemed that he had been underestimating Linley far too much. Linley was strong as well, Klint had not even landed a single blow on Linley.

Both of them were tired, a languid expression clearly visible on their faces. A small crowd of people had surrounded them, watching them as they fought, Klint again launched a series of blows but this time he also used a small amount of magic to use fire with his blows.

Linley was taken aback, the blows were now even more dangerous, he could not allow Klint to even close up to him as the heat could burn him badly, the spear tips were engulfed in flames as Klint spun them around, it looked as if it were a ring of fire descending towards Linley.

He barely escaped and was nearly at his limit when he heard a voice "Do not give up Linley" Linley recognized the voice as Maud's but did not turn to look as he concentrated on Klint. "Show him what I taught you Lin".

Linley gained a wee amount of confidence from this, he engaded and lunged towards Klint landing blow after blow and suddenly he missed, Klint smiled as he knew he had won.

He spun his spear and with his full might attacked Linley's back, but suddenly Linley jumped and shouted "Water, come forth and help me" as he said so a sudden gush of water descended from the river and started revolving around Linley.

Klint was shocked the water healed a few of Linley's wounds and he started attacking Klint barely kept to his feet, it seemed as if Linley had gained new powers, Klint as a last attempt attacked Linley on the chest but Linley jumped and landed a furious blow on Klints back.

Somehow Klint survived the blow and stood up but as he did Linley started a pattern of attacks and unable to defend Klint used his spear to defend, Linley hit hard and smashed his spear into two.

He had won.

Klint stood up retrieved his spear and cursed, then looked at Linley and said "I will get you back Linley, you will not get away with this", he stood up and pushed his way through the crowd. Linley stood their smiling as he heard people cheer at him two of which were Maud and Sasha, Sasha winked at him and Linley smiled In return but his gaze turned towards Klint.

He knew that he had found his Rival.

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