Chapter 444: A Sword Dancer and His Partner

Based on accepted knowledge, normal humans who are Two-star and below have an average lifespan of 65 years. Naturally, this number assumes a time of peace, seeing as war introduces too many unmeasurable factors.

In contrast, an ordinary Elf’s lifespan is a lot longer. A healthy Elf could expect to live past 500, with stronger members of their clan enjoying an even longer lifespan.

In terms of a normal human’s lifespan, an average human spends a significant portion of his life growing up, taking at least sixteen years to mature from infanthood to adulthood. Most children have their marriage arranged before their sixteenth birthday so as not to waste any time at all.

The Elves, being a long-lived race, actually did not require as long of a development phase as one would think. Up to twelve years of age, an Elf develops at the same age as a normal human being. It is from twelve onwards that an Elf experiences significantly reduced development.

A normal human could be considered mature at sixteen, while an Elf would only be considered matured at forty.

This disparity in development speeds has a major impact on each race’s development as a whole.

Using the same comparison of a human versus an Elf, a human at the age of sixteen could already be a fully fledged member of the army. The Elf, on the other hand, would have barely started puberty. The Elf’s mental age would roughly be that of a twelve year old’s as well. Such a slow development could be considered a fatal weakness in their race.

Perhaps that is why an Elf’s development speed is much faster at the start; in order to adapt to the lifespans of the other short lived races in this world.

Assuming, of course, that Elves really took as long as I hypothesised to mature.

—- From | Elves and Humans: Their Developmental Stages |

Once a pair of gladiators were put into the ring, they were like crickets put into a box, neither was allowed to leave until a winner was decided.

As a race, the Dark Elves employed a wide variety of fighting occupations, but they mostly lined up with a human’s. A Warrior, an Assassin and a Mage; the usual occupations you would expect in a human society were present in Dark Elven society as well. Under the banner of these three main occupations, there were different branching specialisations as well. For example, there were Warriors that specialised in sword and shield tactics, Shieldbearers. Then there were the hybrid Warriors who combined magic and martial arts, the Magisters. Archers who were also masters of swordplay were known as Rangers. Archers who were able to imbue magic onto their arrows were known as Arcane Archers. Mages who relied on summoning magic to fight were known as Summoners, and those who specialised further in summoning Devils were known as Occultists. Mages who studied death were known as Necromancers. Finally, there were those who specialised in lockpicking and thievery, the Thieves. Branching further out, those amongst them who specialised in assassinations were naturally known as Assassins.

There were many, many more variations and combinations, but there was a certain specialised occupation unique to the Elves, these were the dual sword wielding Warriors known as Sword Dancers.

Sword Dancer as an occupation had existed since the ancient times. Given that, it wasn’t at all surprising that the Dark Elves still preserved this occupation after the schism that created the Wood Elves and the Dark Elves. If there had to be a difference between the two factions of Elves, it was that Dark Elven Sword Dancers were mostly beautiful females. Sword Dancers mostly took on non-combat roles, only performing their sword dance during special occasions to please the gods. It was believed that the gods above would bestow their blessings if they found the dance to their liking. Because of this, Sword Dancers had traditionally been considered a non-combat occupation.

In light of all that, it was strange to ever see a male Sword Dancer, especially in a matriarchal society like the Dark Elves… Perhaps that Dark Elf down there is from a special background?

Yet even as my mind began to consider all the possible explanations for this phenomenon, the fight had started.

It was the human female who made the first move. She raised her shield to her front and pointed her longsword forward: the typical starting stance of a sword and shield fighter.

Being a very balanced style of fighting, this combination of shield and sword was also the style of choice for a lot of fighters thanks to the lack of an obvious weakness.

In contrast, the Sword Dancer’s dual sword style was a highly aggressive, highly mobile style. Its defences were lacking, but that was made up for by its swift sword strikes.

Unless there was an obvious gap in power between the two, the Sword Dancer should be the one who had the advantage.

Yet a Sword Dancer’s attacks had to be flashy and intricate, seeing as their main purpose was to please the gods. Their combat strength might have been high, but they were also restricted by their occupational need to be flashy.

The male Sword Dancer below started circling the female human at blinding speeds. Each strike he threw out was executed with an unpredictable, even unusual set of footwork that allowed him to reposition himself easily. Sometimes, he would stab at the warrior’s left flank, and upon being blocked by the warrior’s shield, he would suddenly slide to her back for a slash.

Right off the bat, the female warrior had fallen for the Sword Dancer’s unending chain of attacks, completely unable to counter attack at all.

Such an oppressive style of attacks was what the Sword Dancer specialised in. With two swords in hand, a Sword Dancer could easily overwhelm another melee occupation, the exception being the heavily armored Shieldbearers. At higher tiers, a Shieldbearer’s shield could easily weigh over fifty kilograms and bestowed an almost impenetrable level of defense to its wielder.

In a melee fight, there were only two ways to overcome a Sword Dancer. One: possess a level of defense that allowed you to ignore the Sword Dancer’s attacks. Two: possess a speed that was even greater than the Sword Dancer’s. Unfortunately, the female warrior below satisfied neither of these categories. Her speed wasn’t as fast as the Sword Dancer’s and her buckler clearly wasn’t a fifty kilograms tower shield.

As time wore on, the Sword Dancer’s attacks only grew faster and faster. Her balanced style of combat which ordinarily would have allowed her to stand a chance against any other occupation was now her undoing. The Sword Dancer’s extreme style of fighting had countered her completely. By now, her left shoulder was covered in cuts while the right side of her face was a spider web of thin slices.

The Sword Dancer’s every attack was always followed up by a swift repositioning at an awkward angle for her. With her tiny buckler, she was barely even able to turn around in time to block, let alone strike back.

However, just defending wasn’t going to get her anywhere. Standing in this ring, there were only two acceptable outcomes: defeat or victory. The victor earned the right to mate with the loser while the loser either accepted their fate or killed themselves.

In truth, the appearance of a female slave gladiator was a surprise to me. According to my previous evaluation of the colosseums, this was supposed to be a breeding stock selection ground for females, not really for males. After all, while males might not have enjoyed a very high status in Dark Elf society, the fact of the matter was that there were too many females compared to males. With their overall openness to procreation-related activities, males shouldn’t have a lack of mates.

Long story short, they shouldn’t have to come to the colosseum at all, at most as an audience member if they really wanted to. Therefore, it stood to reason that he shouldn’t have any requests to make of a non-Dark Elf female. In that case, why was he here? In fact, why was the colosseum even keeping female slave gladiators then?

Having asked myself that question, I realised another issue as well.

Compared to the long-lived Dark Elves, your typical human had a very short lifespan. The sense of time between these two races couldn’t be any more different in that regard.

Perhaps the humans were being kept as livestock then? Well, something akin to livestock anyway. Just like how humans reared animals that were comparatively short-lived, the Dark Elves probably had the same idea as well. In the time it took for one Dark Elf to mature, a human could have already sired a mature second generation and was on the way to a third.

So if the colosseum was rearing its own stock of slave gladiators, and these new generation slaves had all grown up in Dark Elf society… didn’t that mean they all grew up being indoctrinated with the idea that Dark Elves were their masters? The moment I realised that, a chill ran down my spine.

Are they trying to raise a human army of slaves that are completely loyal to them?

“Your holiness?” Realising that my gaze had changed somewhat, Paliseth turned away from the match and faced me with a smile. “Is there any matter that Paliseth can assist with?”

“No, not for now.” I shook my head then looked at the match below. “Let’s continue watching the match.”

Back down below, this was the umpteenth time that the female human had narrowly escaped with her life. She was beginning to realise that wearing her opponent down through defense wasn’t viable at all. If she wanted to win now, she had to risk it all. Unfortunately, this bit of resolve was more like a prey’s last struggle in the eyes of that Sword Dancer.

The Sword Dancer up till now had always switched his angle of attack after each strike. His aim was to tire his opponent out from the constant movements. By unleashing an unending flurry of attacks on her, he would severely restrict her movements while his diabolical plan slowly closed in like a vice.

All that was about to change however. Now that she knew that victory was about to slip out of her grasp, the female human finally decided to embark on a risky gamble. She blocked one of his strikes again, but this time, she did not wait for the Sword Dancer to make his second attack. Instead, she tossed her round buckler behind her… in the direction where that Sword Dancer just so happened to appear at…