34 Stopped in the middle of duel?

The enclosed garden, where you can only get sunlight from the hole that was left because of the leaves of trees that covered the entire secret place, became dark. It has always not been too bright, but it became even darker and emphasized the mood of the people inside.

The atmosphere was tense as animosity filled the air. Sherin was still standing still, with a sword in her hand that was ready to get a taste of the Antares knight's blood.

Alec just stared at the woman who was six feet away in front of him, challenging him in a battle of swords.

"Miss---" Alec uttered but was immediately cut off when Sherin raised her sword an inch close to his face, almost touching his skin.

"Good sir," she uttered and tilted her head slightly to the left, "Surely you would not decline a fight out of consideration for my gender." 

In spite of her emotionless face, her eyes were blazing red, trying to engulf Alec in the flames of her gaze. Alec looked at the sharp blade that was in front of him then looked back at Sherin, returning her stare.

"Nothing of the sort," he responded and slid the weapon away from his face using his hand. "I was just going to ask if you were sure of this challenge you were requesting." he stated.

Sherin slid her fingers on the blade of her sword to its tip and looked at Alec from the corner of her eyes, "I would not ask you to fight me if I was not sure of it." she said.

"If you say so," Alec grabbed his sword by the scabbard that was on his side, pushing his thumb upwards onto the guard, he did not draw it out and just gripped it as he did when he and Niro fought. 

"This duel I accept."

A gush of wind was clearly seen behind Sherin as she kicked the ground to dash forward to where Alec was. The Valorian knight took a huge step backwards to get away from the female knight.

"Fast." he muttered while continuously dodging her attacks, 'She is faster than the male knight now, but the man can go faster if he tried.' he thought and took a glimpse of the other aide.

Sherin gave a full swing from up above. Alec was fortunate to have noticed it and blocked it with his scabbard.

Pushing the blade even deeper, Sherin got nearer to Alec, "If you are having a duel with me, focus only on me." 

They both backed away from each other and Alec glanced at his scabbard that suddenly had an engravement due to the cut that Sherin gave from the swing. 'Be in peace, my favorite scabbard.' he thought.

He was not joking at all, those were his sincere words. Oh, poor scabbard, what did it do to deserve those cuts?

Louis was dumbfounded by what his eyes were witnessing, the fight was something he had not expected. He thought that the battle would end with Niro but Alec proved him wrong.

He glanced at Tristan who was chill despite the situation, he had a proud expression on his face that irritated Louis. 

"Where on earth did you recruit this knight?" he could not help but ask, he has no idea who that knight of Antares was. From his wide knowledge of the neighboring kingdom, how come he never heard of this captain?

"I see that even a smart young prince like you has no idea of who he is." Tristan said.

"Exactly why I was asking you." Louis said in return with sarcasm.

The knight sighed and scratched his head, "A lot of rumors spread about this Valorian, none has ever known the real past of this knight." he said.

Tristan looked at his captain who was seriously focused on the fight. "I was scared of him the first time I got in the First Squad. Many knights were scared of him, but no one really knows where he was picked up."

He looked at the young prince and smiled, "All we know was that His Royal Highness, Charles, was the one that got him out of hell."

Louis stared at the crimson knight and remembered Chance, 'I believe this knight is more frightening back then, but Chance was great enough to get him.' he thought. 

There was more to it, he thought. Curious, but he has no need to know about it. He just returned to watching Alec and the female aide as the battle became even more fierce. 

Sherin was not fighting him in an aggressive way like Niro did. Both of them were calm and observing each other's movements.

'I have never seen anyone fight so calmly." Louis thought. 

Niro saw his surroundings spiraling around and he touched his forehead, 'Dizzy..?' he thought.

He could not see the two knights fighting anymore, the ground swayed at his feet and when he looked at the two, he felt his head become more in pain.

The two of them were fast and fighting like liquid. They were chill but at every attack they do, observe each other and predict their next movements. 

It was always a draw and their skills and speed matched each other. Niro thought that they were quite similar. Emotionless and monsters, similarities between the two. The only possible difference was that Sherin was not always cold as she changed her mood a lot.

Another swing dodged by Alec. All the male knight did was to avoid her attacks. Instead of using his sword to hit her blade, he just kept using his scabbard to deflect it.

He pushed her sword away again with force that made her fly backwards. Sherin spun in the air and landed safely. Before Alec could notice it, Sherin disappeared.

When Alec turned around, Sherin was already too close behind him. She caught him off-guard and immediately swung her sword to him.

It was already too late to take a step back so he bent down and used his left hand to grab his scabbard to block it again. He has the disadvantage since Sherin is stronger in terms of their position.

Sherin pushed her sword down even more which made Alec bend again, it almost looked like he was lying down on the ground. A slight wince showed upon his face as he did not like his position.

He noticed the cut in the scabbard going deeper, he had no choice but to draw his sword. Or else it will surely be cut into half.

He pulled out the sword from the scabbard with his right hand, replacing the scabbard with his sword of blocking Sherin's blade before the scabbard became sliced in two.

Having more strength of using his sword, he slowly stood up from the bend by pushing Sherin's sword upwards until both of them are standing, staring at each other. The two swords were inseparable, none would give up or back away.

Alec pushed her away by putting force on his sword, he grabbed his scabbard while Sherin was being pushed away and swung it to hit Sherin's back.

Niro jerked from his spot when he saw Alec hit Sherin, he gritted his teeth but he kept still as he knew that Sherin would get mad if he interfered.

Sherin felt the pain from her lower back, it did not look like Alec put much strength but it was actually a strong hit. She ignored it and did not react so that they would not notice. "Tch." 

Alec raised his sword and looked at the female knight, "You made me draw my sword." he stated.

Sherin turned and there was a fierce look in her eyes, "Congratulations to me then." she said in return.

They both kicked the ground and dashed towards each other at the same time and the clashing of swords began again. They kept attacking each other after so long but they were still not tired and none of them gave up unless one would admit defeat.

While in the midst of the duel, based on Alec's continuous observations, he noticed something from her skills. "A spider?" he uttered and dashed backwards to make a gap between them, "You are a spider?" he asked again.

Sherin's usual calm face changed as annoyance started to appear on her face, "Why does it matter?" she asked.

"I am afraid I have to stop this duel."

Louis, Tristan, Niro and even Sherin turned to him, perplexed by the sudden ending of duel, "Ridiculous, you dare stop in the middle of a duel?" she stated with a bit of disgust in her tone.

It was not his will to stop but he had to, "I do not wish to fight with an Aranean, forgive me for this." he responded.

"Why?"

"Personal reasons."

Silence once again conquered the entire place. Sherin narrowed her eyes at the Valorian knight with a bit of dismay inside her. "What a waste, I shall end this as you say so." she uttered. She was curious as to why the knight changed his mind after finding out that she was a spider. 'What reasons could that be?' she thought.

'There must come a time where we will fight to death.' 

Alec felt a sharp pain in his arm and side of the body but he ignored it and pulled his shoulder cape to hide it from getting noticed by others.

It ended with a draw.

Although they both know that they had hidden wounds in their body.

It looked as if no one got hurt, but those attacks where they dodged and avoided it, the audience's eyes were not fast enough to see some of the attacks that hit the two knights.

Two of them stood still even though they were also hurt. It ended with Alec's surrender.

Although it was a draw and none were hurt more than enough to say that one lost or one won.

If they showed the pain they felt, wonder which one really lost?

For now they would not fight as to whatever Alec's reason was. 

'Strong indeed,' they both thought inside their heads.