Chapter 18: Another spar with Vivian

Boran observed that as Eldrian exited the store, Vivian was giving him a death stare. Seeing her reaction to Eldrian's interest in polearms, Boran was quite amused. Still he decided to give her some advice so he walked up to her.

"You shouldn't just stare at him like that. Unless you want him to know he hit a nerve, and let me tell you that he didn't even try, he was completely oblivious. You don't want to give him ammo for later right?" Boran teased her, feeling very happy about their entire visit. He had gotten a promising apprentice and a lot of entertainment.

By now Eldrian had started to head back to the training fields, since there was still daytime left and he felt he could try to master one more weapon to rank 1.

Eldrian had assumed Vivian would follow him as he started walking, which caused Vivian to become even angrier. She even ignored Boran's advice, causing Boran to prompt her again.

"See, that right there. He isn't even aware that you are upset." This sentence caused Vivian to gnash her teeth.

"The idiot! How could he claim that spears are better than swords!?" Vivian complained loudly to Boran, luckily Eldrian was too far to hear her.

"Haha, you can't say swords are better either."

"You too Boran!"

"No, I am not getting into the middle of this. But just remember that in most cases the best weapon depends on the situation rather than the weapon being universally good." Boran tried to appease her.

"But swords are so much cooler." Vivian desperately defended her wounded pride.

"Maybe, but that can also change with culture. Now go on and catch up to him, you don't want him to find out you were sulking right?"

Hearing this Vivian quickly said goodbye to Boran before running after Eldrian, as she really didn't want to appear weak.

'What an interesting young man, or rather an elf. He got The Valkyrie following him so obediently, she even showed him around town, bringing him here in the end. I wonder how he got through her outer shell?' Boran asked himself as he went back to his smithy to continue making armaments.

Even after Vivian had caught up to Eldrian he was still reeling in shock from the last price he saw.

It was a very fancy-looking sword. Eldrian even thought it might be a magic sword at first, but he soon discredited this when he observed it closer. It actually had a tag indicating its price and tier.

It was a Tier 6 normal sword called Prudence. The thing which shocked Eldrian though was the cost, with it being 2 gold and 86 silvers for this one sword.

From this Eldrian learned an important lesson and that was that the spear he got was worth more than 3 gold at the very least. Scaring him into hoping that Boran wouldn't come after him for it later.

...

Back at the training field, both Vivian and Eldrian were surprised to see two other players busy training. The reason they knew it was players, was because this field was prepared for the players.

Curious Eldrian observed them as they trained. He was soon astonished to see that the players were practicing the basics and not some fancy moves or skills.

Realizing what this meant, Eldrian decided to post the things he had learned about weapon proficiencies tonight, since if he didn't then he would lose his opportunity. The forum had a tipping system and he hoped to gain some pocket cash from his knowledge.

"Why did we come back here?" Vivian asked after she also observed the players. She was just as surprised that they were actually training and not just playing.

"Oh, I want to try and complete another weapon's rank challenge," Eldrian replied as he headed to the weapon racks.

"Which weapon?" Vivian asked as she followed after Eldrian.

"Why don't we try a sword and shield. It is a relatively safe and common fighting style, so I believe I should learn it."

"Really!? You don't want to try a double headed spear?" Vivian asked greatly surprised by his choice. She had believed he would totally forsake swords after he had gotten a really good polearm.

"Well, I actually have to master four weapons for your dad's challenge. But even if this wasn't the fact I would still want to be proficient in as many as possible."

"Certainly I will decide on core weapons and their styles to focus on. But knowing how other weapons work and their common styles will help me fight better against that weapon, or change to it if I need what that specific weapon specializes in."

After voicing this Eldrian complained to himself, 'Why is it that no-one understands the need to be versatile. Everyone sees it as such a waste of time.'

Hearing his reply Vivian was placed into a better mood. But she was still a bit pissed, so she decided to give him a taste of why a sword is so good.

As they faced each other Eldrian got a sinking feeling, 'Why does she have such a silly grin?'

After a few seconds of facing each other, they suddenly sprang into action.

Vivian rushed Eldrian, attacking him with relentless quick slashes. Forcing Eldrian to have to focus on dodging, or rather running around and trying not to get hit.

In just a few seconds Eldrian started feeling despair. Even his best effort had only resulted in him not getting hit four times out of ten.

'Is she even holding back?' he screamed internally, wishing he had a way to observe her stats and compare if she was or not. Unfortunately, he still needed to learn the skill, and for that, he needed to learn how to use mana first.

After having fallen down two time from exhaustion, Eldrian finally managed to move his shield fast enough to block. 'Yes, third time's the charm' Eldrian hyped himself after his success. From this one came more and soon he managed to dodge five attacks, block three, and only get hit twice.

Still, he had no time to try and counterattack. When he tried it resulted in him getting a quick slap followed by a few more, and then him lying on the ground again.

It was at this time that Eldrian noticed that Vivian had been only using her sword. She had not used her shield for a bash once. Eldrian wasn't sure if this was due to her style, or just how she was holding herself back against him.

By this time the two players had come over to spectate the fight, hoping to learn something from these seemingly pro fighters.

"Jesus that guy is good. How can he even see her attacks?" One commented

"She is clearly holding back dude." The other replied.

"Ha, and do you think you would even survive 10 seconds under that onslaught. She might be holding back, but she is not giving him any mercy. She is clearly very strong and…" The player's voice faded. He had wanted to comment more about her, but he feared having such a strong NPC pissed at him would be very bad for him.

A few more rounds of Eldrian exhausting himself and half an hour had already passed.

'He really learns quickly. I had thought that it was due to him being a Chosen. But from comparing him to the other two Chosen who had been training on the field it is clear that he seems to be a special case, much like I was.' Vivian thought as she continued her onslaught.

"How is he still going through, we have only been watching for a while but they have been fighting for really long now."

"I have no idea. This guy is insane, and the girl even more. The guy at least seems exhausted, every now and then."

At this time Eldrian again experienced a weird hyper state. He saw Vivian's sword moving in slow motion for his shoulder and mentally called to himself, 'Duck, shield bash up, thrust into the gap!'

As Eldrian heard himself he followed these instructions, ducking under the slash. followed with a shield bash aimed at Vivian's shield while keeping her sword between their shields. Soon he heard a clashing sound determining a successful bash onto her shield. Leaving Vivian in an awkward position with her sword over her shield, yet in front of Eldrian's shield.

After Eldrian heard the clashing sound he had immediately followed his sword bash with a thrust aimed at Vivian's stomach. Right at the positions, she would be unable to defend without a complete withdrawal.

'This little…' Vivian thought as she was forced to withdraw her sword overhead, forcing her to lose the precious time she needed to counter. In the process, she saw his sneaking thrust forcing her to abandon her thoughts.

She then decisively slashed downward to deliver a death blow, while also receiving a fatal injury in the process. She felt defeated when she was forced into this action, as she believed she should have been able to only receive a modest injury during this fight.

Still for any warrior it is far more important to kill your enemy first. Since you can always seek help after, if the enemy didn't outnumber you by too much that is.

Their attacks connected at almost the same time, with less than half a second between the two. Eldrian also got a message as his attack landed.

{Player has managed to unlock Rank 1 of one-handed sword and small shield}

Vivian felts a strong hit onto her stomach knocking her breath out. If Eldrian's sword wasn't a training one she was certain she would be bleeding out right now.

While Eldrian felt a solid hit onto his head, forcing him onto the ground. This would have certainly killed him on the spot if it wasn't a training sword in Vivian's hand.

After their trade, Vivian retreated and knelt down struggling to breathe. While Eldrian just lied on the ground face down, trying to gather his stamina.

As Vivian struggled to breathe she went over to the final attack. She was upset with herself, since she hadn't considered a 'final strike' from Eldrian.

Due to never having been in real combat she still lacked the instincts to protect her when her opponent decided on mutual death.

Before their last trade, a few NPCs had also come over to observe them, only to see them striking each other at almost the same time.

"Isn't that The Valkyrie. Who on earth can stand up to her?" One of the new arrivals asked.

"I have no idea, so he can't be one of the well-known soldiers or adventurers." Another replied.

"Isn't this training field for the Chosen to train on. Can it be?" The last arrival asked in disbelief.

They were all three in disbelief since they hadn't heard of any competent Chosen before.

"That guy is a Chosen, me and him are also Chosen. We didn't know the female he was fighting was called The Valkyrie." The friendlier player said.

"What, how is that possible! He traded almost even with her just now." The last arrival almost screamed from his shock.

It was commonly known that The Valkyrie could even beat up veteran soldiers. She was one of the strongest figures in the city, especially when looking at the younger generation.

Her potential was just unimaginable. Everyone felt she had a strong likelihood to become a commander of the nation when she matured as a fighter. Maybe even a High commander.

After a few seconds Vivian finally managed to stand up, having caught her breath. Eldrian on the other hand just rolled over, so as to not lie on his nose any longer.

At this time he realized that they had a crowd around them.

"You were amazing man. What's your name, lets add each other as friends," The friendlier player offered, crouching down so that only Eldrian would hear him.

"Sorry, but I don't want to just yet. I remember there being a friend limit, thus I don't want to add just anyone." Eldrian replied feeling a bit bad about declining the guy.

"No problem, I understand. In any case that was an awesome fight, you did great." As he said this the player left with the other player to continue their training. The NPCs also left at this time.

"Did you succeed?" Vivian asked after waiting for Eldrian to breathe normally again.

"Yeah, I did thanks." A tired Eldrian replied after taking a look at his system message. He also saw that his fatigue level was now at level 3, leaving him with only 72 stamina points after resting, of his 105 total.

Happy to hear about his success, Vivian lied down next to Eldrian.