Chapter 97 - One vs Many

“What kind of weapons are we going to use?”

“You can use your sword. They will come with real weapons as well. I wish you good luck.”

Reina wasn’t someone who would lie and despite her calm demeanor that she usually shows, it was quite obvious that she meant what she said. That put Zelos on a bad spot, but in the end, there wasn’t much that he could do aside from being thankful for the chance to gain a lot of battle experience pretty fast. To make things more worth the while, he even unequipped his glove and his amulet, and that made Reina realize that Zelos truly wanted to make the challenge even more interesting.

It didn’t take long for some guys to appear, and they are pretty tough. It looks like they didn’t like Zelos and came to kick his ass. He got up with his sword in hand waiting to fight all of them at the same time, but only one of them stepped forward. He was a fall warrior with a weird spear that was green and was curved in many parts. He should be around twenty years old, so he should have more experience than Zelos.

Zelos thought that he had to pace himself and try to learn as much as possible, but he didn’t think that the other guy would charge at him as soon as he assumed his fighting stance.

Without hesitation, he thrusted his spear at Zelos’s neck, but he blocked it with his sword. The opponent didn’t show much surprise by the fact that Zelos held his ground while holding the sword with a single hand… in the end, he jumped backward for a bit and studied Zelos.

Unlike the others, that guy looked pretty calm… he was probably using that technique that Zelos just learned, but applying it for the first time in a battle probably would take a bit of effort from Zelos. Training was one thing, fighting while letting on his instincts take over was pretty different.

In the end, just as expected, the opponent charged in and then launched a flurry of thrusts at Zelos’s head. He blocked them with his sword, but he was slowly being pushed backward in order to block them without fail.

All of a sudden, Zelos jumped backward with all his might and then the opponent stopped, only for him to raise his guard with all his might when Zelos landed and then he used his charging technique. The opponent thought that Zelos would swing his sword, but he just hit the opponent’s stomach with the handle of the sword, making him lose his lunch.

Zelos stepped away and then waited for the next opponent, expecting anything less from those guys would be stupid, after all. Still, they waited until the first guy cleaned the mess that he had caused.

“I don’t think that he used his trait… maybe Reina told them to hold back on that for a bit, or maybe she just wants me to get used to fighting using that technique and against it.”

Before the next opponent could show up, Zelos focused his senses and then entered that state of deep focus. Weirdly enough, even though he was acting out of instinct, he still assumed his usual fighting stance.

The opponent Zelos faced this time was armed with two swords, an unusual style that presented the perfect counter to Zelos’s fighting style. Zelos typically wielded a single one-handed sword, keeping his left arm free for balance, maneuverability, or to surprise the enemies. This allowed him a blend of agility and versatility in combat. However, facing an adversary with dual swords posed a significant challenge, as it required Zelos to defend against attacks from multiple directions simultaneously.

Despite this tactical disadvantage, Zelos had managed to buy himself a crucial moment to focus and steady his mind. His opponent, now looking slightly annoyed, had underestimated him by allowing him this opportunity. Zelos’s intense meditation and recent sharpened instincts had enhanced his awareness and reaction time, giving him an edge even in this unfavorable matchup.

The opponent’s frustration was evident as they realized the gravity of their mistake. They had hoped to catch Zelos off guard, leveraging their dual swords to overwhelm him quickly, but Zelos’s brief moment of concentration had readied him for the impending attack, sharpening his reflexes and mental clarity.

This time around, as soon as the opponent assumed his fighting stance, Zelos charged with all his might and then swung his sword vertically. The opponent had the chance to block the attack with his two swords, but the impact pushed him backward for dozens of meters, and his arms began to shake thanks to the pain during the impact.

Before the opponent could recover, Zelos charged again and then hit the opponent’s chest with his left shoulder, making him lose the air in his lungs and paralyzing him for a moment until Zelos kicked both of his legs and knocked him down while pointing his sword at his face.

Instead of looking at the opponent, Zelos kept looking at the other guys, his expression back to normal. Staying focused all the time in a battle was quite difficult. His kick hurt him a bit as well and made him wake up from that state.

At that point in time, the opponents realized that they wouldn’t catch Zelos off guard. He had more experience than them on the battlefield. As such, he developed a sharp sense of awareness to make sure that he wouldn’t be attacked from the sides without noticing anything.

In the end, Zelos soon realized that those guys were all under twenty with almost zero real combat experience. They trained against each other using real weapons, but they had no idea what it was to fight someone who truly wanted to cut them down.

Zelos decided to test one of them, emitting some bloodlust and a real desire to cut him down, but he only made all the other people in the room grab their weapons, and the current opponent didn’t even move from the spot.

“I didn’t expect this, but I guess I have a strong bloodlust as well when I truly think of cutting down someone. It is probably because of all the enemies I killed…”

Once the first group of ten was done, Zelos had half an hour to rest. The others didn’t seem ready, and they probably didn’t imagine that Zelose would have won against those guys while remaining unscathed. 

During the rest of the day, those opponents kept coming in groups of five. Some of them came more than once and studied Zelos with a serious gaze. Some others felt pressured to use their traits, but they never did since they never saw Zelos using his. Moreover, they could tell that he was slowly getting more tired, so they would have felt ashamed of doing that.

Eventually, night came, and Zelos thought that he would have a break. Only one opponent came to challenge him, but soon after that one left, another one came… it seemed that they were planning to use mind games, too.

Zelos faced an extraordinary trial that tested his endurance and resolve to their limits. For an entire week, he had to keep fighting nonstop, a very difficult challenge that left no room for rest or reprieve. Even during meals, he had to defend himself, barely managing to eat while fending off attacks. His opponent or opponents came at him tirelessly, ensuring that he remained in a constant state of vigilance.

The demands of this combat experience extended to every aspect of his life. Zelos found himself struggling to find moments to attend to even the most basic needs. Trips to the bathroom became brief and hurried, with no guarantee that he wouldn’t be ambushed at any moment. This unceasing pressure pushed Zelos to the brink of his physical and mental limits.

As the days wore on, fatigue began to set in deeply. His muscles ached, his reflexes slowed, and his mind grew weary. By the end of the week, Zelos was operating on pure instinct. The training he had undergone and the battles he had fought all merged into a primal, almost subconscious mode of survival. His movements became automatic responses, guided more by his ingrained combat skills and sharpened instincts than by conscious thought. He got hit a few times, but by the end of that week, those kids were unable to face his primal instincts.

Once the kids were done coming and challenging Zelos, some people a bit older came. It didn’t surprise Zelos that his first challenger above twenty years old was Eldor, the tall guy that kicked him in the back when they were surrounded by the natives, and then he made him fall with his butt on the ground as well as revenge.

At least the guy didn’t look like he came just to punish Zelos for the last time. He looked focused from the very beginning. He came equipped with a one-handed sword as well, so Zelos was expecting to learn a lot from him since his trait allowed him to control water, but there was no water around.