Chapter 191: City hinterlands / No holds barred

Looking at the city still a distance away, Eldrian marveled at its size and wondered just how the inside would look. The city was built atop a large, flat hill that spanned as far as the eye could see. The incline of which was not much, only elevating the visible walls by twenty or so meters over a kilometer. To the left of the city, a small river escaped from its walls. Two large gatehouses, to each side of the river, were all that could be made out from the distance.

The entire incline of the hill seemed to consist only of well-maintained grass. Kept short probably through the grazing of animals kept within, as none were within sight of the division. Below, or rather a ways from the walls, farms spread into the distance. Houses dotted between and small figures moving on the farms to maintain them.

Upon reaching one of the large gatehouses, everyone in the division was quickly told to wait. Old Sword headed forward to talk with the centaurs standing at the front of the gate. Like all commonly seen centaurs in fiction, these in front of them had the lower body of a horse, with a human upper half growing from the front where a horse's head would normally be.

They were not naked as often depicted though, their entire body was covered, including the horse half. Though only barely visible to Eldrian, he could see the shine of their armor. From hooves to head, causing them to look like a mechanical beings, instead of one made from flesh and bones.

One of the centaurs removed his helmet as Old Sword approached. Deep black hair quickly escaping its confines, flowing out and free in the wind. This one stepped forwards and shook Old Sword's hand, after which they seemed to start talking.

Sometime later, Old Sword returned and told everyone to start moving again. They were quickly led through the gatehouse which was surprisingly easy to get through. The ramp was not too steep, having a nice incline and wavy patterns to give one proper footing. While the gatehouse itself was extremely wide, six carriages were able to fit side by side if they wished.

Upon passing the gatehouse and entering the city, Eldrian was shocked by the lack of buildings. He had wondered how a city ruled by centaurs would look, and this in front of him was not how he imagined it. Even with the added ten meters of the wall, as he was at the top, all Eldrain could see were fields.

Some clusters of buildings could be seen spread between all the fields, though they would never amount to more than ten in a cluster. Fields of grass, wheat, and other types of plants filling his vision. Eldrian looked around in wonder as he let his horse follow the group, allowing him to not waste any focus from the strangeness of the place.

He had expected a massive city-like complex similar to Agosstead, this instead clashed heavily with his expectation. Eldrian turned his attention to the gatehouse, and more specifically the barrack. Hoping to find some manner of housing he could inspect.

The doors of the barracks were very large, more like gates than doors. The floor size of the building also seemed to be extremely large compared to what Eldrian was used to. Especially when he considered how few guards there seemed to be on duty. It was not just much wider than he expected, but the floors seemed to take much more space too. Each between three and four meters, stretching up behind the gatehouse.

The division did not travel far into this city, setting camp in one of the nearby grass fields, only a kilometer from the walls. After setting up camp most everyone in the division was curious about the place they had come to. Their discipline stopped them from randomly walking around and leaving the area. However, this did not stop their curious gazes that spread all over the area. Though all that entered their sights were either the fields, buildings, or some distant figures working in the fields.

"So what now?" Eldrian asked Vivian as they finished helping with setting up the command tent. Her auburn hair flowing in the gentle wind as she wiped the sweat from her brow.

"We are going to wait for the other divisions to arrive, naturally. Also, negotiations are about to start." Vivian replied, herself not too sure what all was going to happen from here on. She only knew what would normally happen when an army arrived as reinforcements in another city. This case was special though, as this was a different kingdom, not just another city.

"So are we stuck inside out camp, or can we go explore?" Eldrian asked, his curiosity burning. He had never realized just how different a kingdom would be when it was governed by a different race. He really wanted to head past these hinterlands and towards the center of the city. Where he assumed a proper city would be established, one similar to what he was used to.

"Let's wait for things to settle first," Vivian replied, which Eldrian accepted. He understood that going out too soon would cause problems. They were also not here as guests, but rather as help. Though he did not really know what this meant for them in the long run. He hoped he would not be forced to work the entire time, it was still a game. Even with this thought almost removed from Eldrian, he still thought in such aspects on the larger scale.

Not having much else to do, the two moved a bit out of the camp, which was slightly crowded with all the tents and campfires springing up. Quickly finding that the entire field was nice and even, they did not need to search for an appropriate place to spar.

Eldrian quickly took out the training weapons he had stored in his inventory, two longswords for now. Getting into stance, longsword held with both hands, hilt to the right of his head and blade pointing forwards. Eldrian waited for Vivian to start her attack.

"Normal rules or no holds barred?" Vivian asked after getting into her stance, holding the sword in a downward diagonal.

"It has been some time since we fought without restrictions. Let's go no holds barred, except for deadly attacks." Eldrian replied, wishing to try some tricks this time. Having gone a long time with only normal training.

By now, his spear proficiency rank was nearly at rank two. Needing only around a thousand more proper attacks to upgrade. He was looking constantly at his proficiencies, curious if something would come of it. He had mostly forgotten about it with time, but now that he was so close to a major breakthrough, he had started paying attention again.

"Alright, then prepare well," Vivian said, reforming her stance into a lunge position to cover the ten meters separating them quicker.

Eldrian did just that, with time he had found that keeping Observe active no longer took much effort. Once he found this out, he had started practicing it and as such he used it right now again. Making sure to add his hidden bonus to it for the first activation, then letting it fall off after. For some reason, this made keeping it active easier.

[Vivian, NPC]

[Class: Melee, Tier 4]

[Level: 25]

[HP: 404]

[Mana: 178]

[Stamina: 293]

[Attack: 1-2]

Seeing her stats, Eldrian felt the low attack to be really funny. He knew it was a magical trait of training weapons, but it still looked bizarre, especially with her high stats.

Suddenly her attack jumped to 3-4, giving Eldrian a split-second more to react. The information, not something he needed to read, but rather something which simply appeared in his mind.

Eldrian affirmed his foothold and gripped his sword tightly. Vivian almost disappearing from sight as she charged at him. Not one to be left behind, Eldrian quickly used Accelerate with the hidden class bonus, bringing her clearly back into his sights. Just as her strike was about to thrust into his chest. Having crossed the ten meters they had separated in the blink of an eye.

Eldrian reacted through instinct, his blade moving to divert her blade. He thrust his own sword downward. Causing hers to slid onto it and away from him as he also moved to his right.

Knowing that her attack was blocked, Vivian did not continue the action. She quickly retracted the blade and brought it only around Eldrian's. Stopping him from both blocking and attacking, her sword now already between him and his blade. Making an attempt at both really difficult.

Eldrian had expected her to react swiftly, though her speed still astonished him. Causing him to realize that she must have certainly held back when they sparred before. Usually, he would manage to come out on top two to three times in ten or so matches. He had a feeling that if she tried as hard as she was doing now, then that would be zero or one at most.

Not having any other options, Eldrian brought his sword back to divert her blow. This pushed her blade away, but it was already too close to him. In the action of pushing it away, he sped up its approach. While he changed it from a full thrust to only a sweeping attack, it still ended in a good hit. A real sword would have sliced into his sides, and maybe even take a rib with it.

Feeling the attack land Eldrian realized that the first match was already done. Vivian quickly backing up.

"How much did you hold back this past week?" Eldrian asked, feeling the stinging pain from the attack. While the weapon did little damage, the pain it delivered was still there. This was not much, but enough to tell him a real blade would have gutted him.

"Actually not much. The bonus speed is because I am not controlling my strength anymore. Hence I can reach my top speed faster and do not have to split my focus." Vivian replied, actually surprised that Eldrian had managed to survive the first attack and even divert the second too.

She would have needed another to end him in real combat. At that time he could have decided on a suicide attack, which Vivian realized was truly not a bad option for Chosen. She had come to realize they would normally go for this if they saw no way of surviving. A despicable and truly dangerous last act that might result in her even receiving a deathblow, if she was caught unprepared.