Orb Guardians [Volume 1: Fire]

Chapter 8.3: A Different Strategy

Chapter 8: Handling the Sword of Fire

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"An idea has popped. What is it this time?" Zephania thought.

    Blaise ran towards Zephania, holding his sword with both of his hands from his right side. Just as they were merely a few meters away, Blaise suddenly jumped up in the air. His sword now placed in front of him, he let out a cry.

    Zephania brought his wooden stick-up, prepared to defend himself. Blaise had collided his sword with Zephania's wooden stick, which left a deep slash.

    Blaise smirked and kicked Zephania's stomach. Zephania dodged, realizing Blaise's tactic-- Blaise was attempting to distract him by continuing to sword fight, which failed, and was actually attempting to physically fight Zephania.

    "I suppose kicking and punching wouldn't be bad. Blaise does need experience in hand-to-hand combat skills." Zephania thought.

    Dropping his wooden stick, Zephania punched Blaise's chin. Blaise, unable to dodge in time, took the hit and stumbled back. Spitting out the blood that had made its way into his mouth, Blaise ran towards Zephania.

    The two threw punches and kicks at each other constantly. They would dodge from each other's attacks and take each other's hits.

    Just before Zephania could land a punch on Blaise's cheek, Blaise dodged his punch and kicked Zephania's ankles. Zephania fell off of his feet and fell onto his back. Before Blaise could cheer in victory, Zephania had jumped back up onto his feet.

    Blaise groaned and raised both of his hands up. "I give up in this round."

    "Why give up? You're doing pretty good this round." Zephania said.

    "I agree, Guardian Hayessss. What you're both doing isss alssso important for you. The Overworld isssn't jussst about usssing ssswordssss, but it alssso hasss areasss where fighting without weaponsss or itemsss isss required." Autumn explained.

    "Do you still wish to continue this round or do you want to begin another round?" Nix asked.

    Blaise remained quiet before groaning and messing with his black hair. "Fine. If this helps me become stronger, then let's continue the round."

    Zephania smiled and nodded in approval. "Good to hear. Now, let's continue shall we?"

    "Yeah, yeah..." Blaise replied, lazily shooing his hand to Zephania.

    Blaise walked over to pick up his sword. Zephania, too, went over to pick up the wooden stick he had dropped.

    "Other than that, continue round three," Nix said.

    In the end, Blaise had failed to handle the way of the Sword of Fire. On the bright side, he did gain physical combat experience and begin thinking of different tactics.

Zephania: 10

Blaise: 5

Day 4

"Day four... day four... day four... day four..." Blaise murmured.

    Blaise's once energetic aura that was ready for training had dropped. The black circles under his eyes were visible and showing that he hadn't slept.

    "What happened to him?" Autumn asked Zephania.

    "He's been training every night."

    "And you didn't ssstop him?"