Cavvi, the head warrior of the Akavi Warriors, charged at Emery with fury in his eyes. He struck the ground where Emery was standing, causing the soil to explode.
"Come on brother Emery! Do not lose against that big buffoon!" Glita once again cheered Emery, making the huge man chase him harder.
Emery landed a few paces away while taking in more of the crisp air to at least get some of his energy back. He wanted to counter or block it with the swords but as he felt the heavy weight behind the wind splitting two-handed attacks from Cavvi, Emery decided to dodge instead at the narrowest margins in order to conserve his strength.
The spectators let out various expressions, some even closed their eyes, while the attacks barely missed Emery.
"Cavvi! Are you trying to kill him!" Morgana shouted.
Emery noticed Cavvi's expression turned even uglier and once more rushed with a great heavy slash. This time Emery's leg failed to abide his will so he raised both swords to at least protect himself. The axe fell down on him and broke one of them as it continued downward and managed to cut his left shoulder and throw him on the ground.
Emery laid on the ground with his left shoulder bleeding. And as he expected, it wasn't a deep cut because he felt that Cavvi purposefully pulled back the axe at the last second.
"I won," said Cavvi, and again he shouted out his victory to the crowds "I won!!". He turned to Emery and added, "Outsider, your skills in battle are admirable. Last night, I noticed you did not kill anyone. Although some of my brothers fell because of you I do not hold you in contempt. Hence, I deem you worthy of our trust and welcome you in our ranks as an Akavi Warrior."
Cavvi then turned around with his arms high in the air. The crowd roared in delight.
Morgana moved to try and help Emery but before she could do anything, Emery was already back on his feet and said, "Wait... I haven't given up yet."
Gasps of awe resounded from the crowd as Emery held his bleeding left shoulder. He could still move and this meant he hadn't reached his limit yet. Somehow, he felt like grinning, there was a fine line between determination and stupidity. Which of was he, it was up for other people to decide.
He raised his right sword and said, "We cannot disappoint the spectators just yet, come on my bald friend, let us continue."
"Hahaha! You're really a terrific warrior worthy of respect. Alright, take this!" shouted Cavvi as he delivered another huge swing coming from the side.
Emery held the sword with both hands and shouted as he used all his strength to shove away the axe.
A fierce explosive clank filled the surrounding as the sword met the axe, stopping an inch away from both warriors. This proved Emery was at least as strong as Cavvi with his current physical prowess for the battle power.
However, it still didn't disprove the fact that he was on his last stand, so Emery let go of the sword, surprising Cavvi, tackled the large man down and got on top of him.
"Urrgg! Git owf me!" Cavvi screamed muffled but Emery already started punching the akavi warrior.
Then, Emery noticed the black markings on Cavvi's body started glowing. Suddenly, Cavvi was able to grab hold of Emery's fist and threw him across the crowd of people.
Cavvi finally uses the power of his bloodline and both his speed and strength increases. With emerys current condition, there's no way emery could match him
"What are you doing Cavvi!" shouted Morgana as she stepped forward but the chief stopped her making any movements.
Cavvi ran at a great speed but when he reached Emery, Emery shouted at the top of his lungs, sending a wave of air with him as the eye, and used his bloodline power and transformed into half-man, half-beast.
[Fey bloodline activated]
As much as Emery hates to break his word for not using his bloodline transformation, he hates to lose even more, and seeing his opponent use his bloodline power, Emery doesn't feel the need to not use his. Emery then slowly started to change his form and this is the first time the villagers see Emery's form, a male fey wolf form.
"Go get him brother Emery!" scream Geita
First, Emery disappeared from Cavvi's sight. Cavvi darted his eyes around, trying to follow Emery's speed.
Even though Emery had used his bloodline power, he still refused to use any spell. So, Emery decided to use his greatest advantage while he was in this form, speed.
Emery ran in circles with Cavvi as his focal point. Dust from the ground was starting to rise and he darted forward to punch Cavvi. Cavvi, however, caught it, rendering his punch ineffective. Still, Emery did the same action.
Every time he threw a punch, Cavvi was able to catch it, luckily, Emery was able to pull back his punches, not allowing to grab hold of him.
"Stop running and fight me!," challenged Cavvi.
Emery stopped his tracks as he stared at Cavvi. He then raised his arms and got ready for a brawl.
Cavvi rushed at Emery and exchanged punches, some were dodged, some were blocked. However, because Emery had a greater reaction time in this form, all of Cavvi's punches didn't come close to Emery.
After dodging about a dozen blow, Emery started fighting back. He landed a hit on Cavvi's stomach, which made the warrior curl in pain, only to be met with Emery's knee already waiting. He then sent a flurry of punches, which Cavvi blocked by turtling his whole body. With each and every punch Emery threw, he could feel the defenses of Cavvi were slowly weakening, so Emery pulled back and gathered all his strength into one last punch.
Emery once again screamed and landed his punch, which slipped through the narrow opening of Cavvi's guard. Cavvi flew a couple of paces away, barely breathing. At this moment though, Emery was also spent, he could no longer feel his body as he fell down.
Even though he had fallen as well, no one else dared to step forward.
After a few moments of no movements coming from both warriors, Cavvi's body rustled as he rose from the ground. He walked up to Emery, and offered a hand to Emery who was awake the whole time. Cavvi smiled and said, "Welcome, brother."
Emery reached out for Cavvi's hand and got pulled up. Once they were both standing, the crowd erupted with roars and cheers.
Back in the large tent where Emery had eaten breakfast with the five sisters, he was being attended by Tyra who was taking care of his wound on the left shoulder.
Glita was sitting by the table, her head on top of it and said, "Brother Emery, you do realize why he was fighting you, right?"
"Yeah, I know I'm still an outsider, so I understand that trust is yet to be gained," answered Emery.
"You don't have to worry about that, the High Priestess's will is absolute, if she says your one of us, then you are," replied Glita. "The real reason for that fight is because of sister Morgana."
"What do you mean?" asked Emery.
"The strongest male gets to mate with the strongest female," interjected Tyra while cleaning his wound. The twins who were sitting beside Glita nodded in agreement. Morgana though was silently watching the crackling fire by the oven as if she hadn't heard anything.
"It's no secret that Cavvi is fond of sister Morgana. The trial was just an excuse to prove himself he's stronger than you, so he could be again worthy for her. Actually, Chief Brennus talked about preparing the wedding, but I've heard that you defeated sister Morgana last night, and since Cavvi had never defeated her, that places you as the strongest, therefore, you have the right to mate with sister Morgana then," explained Glita.
Emery was speechless as he turned his gaze to Morgana staring at the fire. He didn't know what to say or even wanted to continue the conversation. So after having his wound cleaned and eating dinner in deep thought in this tent, he got up and excused himself back to his tent to rest.
Once he noticed that only the noise of the campfire could be heard, he got out of his tent and was once again mesmerized by the varying colored glow of the fauna.
The moon was shining brightly even though its light barely touched the soil of the Forbidden Forest, he could still see his surroundings and proceeded to quietly head east to where that mighty rock formation was.
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