Chapter 29—Passive Used

"Care to continue the sparring?" Valor asked Archie.

"The challenger doesn't back down agaisnt his duel, it is the highest disgrace he can bring to himself," Archie quickly answered with his knightly beliefs. Surprisingly, he still has them.

"Okay then, let's continue the sparring," Valor answered and walked away three meters with hands laid on the blade's handle, he breathed with eyes closed and stood straight with an overbearing aura, before he opened his eyes once again with a serious glance.

Archie seeing that complied and stood three meters away Valor, with hands also settled on his sword's handle, he looked at him straight in the eyes. One of the spectators then stepped forward and stood between them to be their arbitrator, he looked at the two separately first and saw them gawking at each other's eyes; Serious as they ponder, he can say they are calculating where's the best spot to strike.

'Those bastards gave me false information, this blade-maniac didn't lose his edge, He's still the same... I don't what happened to him but I can't lose after that loud announcement. I must defeat him this time if I want my dignity back.' the arrogance left Archie's body as the defeat before was his wake-up call, all he could think of is how he can defeat this maniac with his sword. Valor's very trademark.

He instantly regretted not taking the first phase of the sparring seriously, that was his chance to win. As he knows Valor is scary when given the chance to wield a blade, he bears the blood of the generals after all. The family who belongs to wars.

'If I can't defeat him with speed and techniques, Pure strength would be my only option!' he added in his mind and decided what to do. "Vital source open, first stage—Earthly Salamander!" He shouted before a red aura came out and enshrouded his body, with the texture of fire, heat is also emitted by it.

"With his reckless personality, seems like talent still lies inside him."

"To be able to open the first stage of his Vital source in this early youth, he's quite talented as well."

"Now what will his opponent do?"

Seeing the other young giving his all, they looked at Valor and waited for his card. But their wait was futile as he only stood there looking at Archie, contemplating. 'If I were to have the title of a blade bearer, how many points could I have already opened?'. Thinking about it, he continued to stand still. 'In 128 points, six are called the vital source. Opening one will grant great boost, if I can open one manually without the help of the system, I can achieve greater power with my magic body.'

He would love to ponder more by looking at Archie's enhanced mode, when he finally noticed the crowds' gaze. They looked at him waiting for something to happen, and he quickly guessed they're waiting for his version of the enhanced mode. 'Should I use my steam foundation? Nah, that's too much energy consuming'. So he just stood with a stance and signed the man in the middle to start the count.

Disappointed as the others, the man raised his right hand vertically and shouted, "ready!" With a pause, he gave the two the time to prepare themselves for the swing, but they didn't need to as both are already prepared. Though it gave them time to further ponder their strategies.

'I'll close the distance with quick-step and swing my sword with heavy-slash, it may be slow but it can push his knife deeper if he dares to defend. Well, he needs to defend or a burnt skin awaits him.' Archie contemplated as he looked at his burning sword, the edges glinted with red light as they reflected his curve-ended lips. It boosted his hopeful confident more when he saw Valor in normal mode.

"Draw!" the man finally said as ten seconds already passed. With the loud signal coming from his lungs, the two clutched their sword tightly and settled their first step with swinging blades. A firing sword and a glinting knife, they traveled with different speeds and different momentum: light and heavy, fast and slow, but seems to be equal in the crowd's eyes.

As their sword traveled fast, Archie with his sword being neared by Valor's knife suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs. "Let's see what can your tempered knife do to my brute strength! This is the epitome of a second-path knight can produce!" he smiled more when their blade inched their distance and would soon collapse with a blast he expects to happen, and so is that what the crowd also believes.

In this matter of second, they can't see how can Valor win with his light hunting knife, it may be fast but what they would contest with is their strength the time those blades touch. They call it The clash of dominance, as whoever's stronger would force the other to retreat his sword—which results to death in real battles.

But this kid for sure has a card hidden in his weak figure, so they forbid their brain to quickly create a conclusion base on what they see alone. And they're right—what they saw next caused astonishment to be drawn out their face.

"It went through?"

Surprisingly, their expected clash of dominance didn't come, but they witnessed something much amazing.

The knife that was supposed to collide against the flaming sword just passed through—it didn't mind it at all. Like a matter-less projection, it wasn't burnt nor crippled, it just went through.

Baffled as the crowd, Archie can see Valor's knife accelerating to his neck. At this point, he doesn't know whether he should dodge or continue, because he doesn't know if the blade nearing him would cut his neck or pass through it again. But in this quick situation, Archie wagered his choice to the latter. He gritted his determination and continued the ferocious swing, not minding Valor's knife anymore.

"Ahhhhh!" he continued to shout with strength.

He accelerated his sword while valor's knife didn't slow down, "You're trick won't work on me!" he shouted again, causing the scene to intensify. Believed that it's a mere trick to fool him again, he gambled his neck for his dignity.

But with the knife inching his neck, their blade was abruptly stopped; His flaming arm was grabbed by a hand, while Valor's knife was caught by another one. It was the man in the middle and Thomson who luckily arrived on time.

The crowd who saw that also sighed in relief, as a head may be rolling on the red carpet now.

"Phew!" That was close.

Confused by the sudden interference of the two adults, he asked, "What are you two worried for? That was another trick!" he said to Thomson, but Thomson just responded with a sigh and let go of Valor's knife. With that, Archie quickly noticed Thomson's palm, dripping with blood, a centimeter deep cut can be seen across his palm.

He sweated when he saw the cut, that could have gone through his neck if not for the guardian's hand. Thomson's level should be a pugilist above the main path, yet Valor made a cut through his rough hands and made it bleed.

"You know I could stop the blade before his neck right?" Valor who just sheathed his knife asked Thomson.

"Just to be sure," he answered while he started to bandaged his palm.

"Risking your hand was worth it?" he asked again.

"It's our duty, after all, it was needed." he answered again when his palm was fully wrapped, "but you got some made skill there kid, that scared the shit out of me. Thought this guy was gonna die." He commended while he patted Archie's head, he who was just saved couldn't act grumpy anymore so he let the hand be.

"That attack..."

"We don't know either, but I felt spatial movement."

"Seems like the new generation is mad-talented huh, what could this mean."

Below the hand, Archie was still dazed by the outcome, so he asked, "But that attack... How can it pass through my blade?" already accepting his defeat, he tried to inquire Valor what happened and learn some info from him, the blade-maniac. But he just smiled and replied, "just some trick of mine."

"Passive skill:(Six-pact spatial lock) activated on the opponent.

(5/6 uses left.)"

With all that done, Valor bowed and the other also did. With his words not forgotten, Archie swallowed his gut and was about to bend his knee when Valor started walking away, "No need to bow knighty, but I hope this taught you lessons. Don't be a dick to someone you don't know."

Rein who just stopped her recording smiled and waved her goodbye to the group before she joined Valor and said, "you taught him good Val, knighty for sure learnt his lessons."

Valor smiled and answered with a question, "so why were you filming it?"

"For data, of course, I got to make something that I can call anti-Val. For that I need data coming from you yourself," she answered with an explanation, determined to defeat Valor and his blade.

Valor while talking with her contemplated about stuff. All he knows is that his plans after this are already set, he got to claim the rewards first before proceeding to his level up for his third path, then check the growth of his seed and see if it can benefit him now or still suck him dry. Thinking about it again, He can't help but notice how fast his ascend is. Remembering it, he just got his first path yesterday, and now he is having his third level up—though he knows it comes with the exchange: to rest wholeheartedly the time he hit the bed, he's exhausted to the bones after all, it's so bad he might fall asleep within the next steps.

Back to the team, Thomson patted Archie's shoulder and said, "no need to sweat the defeat, it comes with experience kid." he then started to walk away and went to the group, he sat on the sofa before asking the other guardian, "so what do you think?" but Rad was also clueless, he shook his head and replied, "that's something I had never seen.". Disappointed as the other, he shook his head and gazed over the silhouettes of the far youngs, before he smiled for an unknown reason.

---

Dimmed as the night, the room was tightly shut with no light to enter.

"I'm really sorry... We planned to come back for you. But we were too scared to report to the officials as it will lead back to us," a wimpy voice of a male echoed within the room, sorry and afraid with hiccups he said it once again, "Now please spare me, I don't want to die." he pleaded on his knees, as he looked at the girl in front of her.

She held a green skull with fires in their eyes, looking down at the boy, she said, "You've betrayed us, you've betrayed my feelings, and used them for your benefit, not even caring for what would happen to us." Eyes filled with hate, it glowed red, like the fury she's feeling now. Below her left foot, a body lied lifeless—with a fresh cut across the neck.

"Now, Trevor. In accord with the master's wishes, our mission should be completed now with the retrieval of his skull. But we can't use the tunnels we exited anymore because soldiers patrols them—so we will be here for a while," she then neared her face to his terrified one with an evil grin, "I'm gonna enjoy every piece of you like how we went through, and you know what? We got a lot of time before the mission ends. I hope you will enjoy it."