The rising sun signaled the end of a night of misunderstandings and a purification of the events of the day now gone. Their room became emblazed with the morning shine as well as its glare through the window. It shined directly into Ajax’s eyes which caused him to be the first to awaken. He gently brought himself from the bed, as not to disturb his sleeping companions, and looked around the room. When his eyes glimpsed Nathaniel he flashed back onto what happened between them the previous night.

This became overshadowed by the fact that Nathaniel had his arms around the children as if he was protecting newborns. He ensured that the door was locked and then silently left the room via the window. He didn’t fly too high as he remembered the warning Nathaniel gave him, so he decided to remain just slightly above the roofs of the building.

The gentle kiss of a passing breeze graced his cheeks and refreshed his senses after a good nap. Below him were persons; sweeping the streets, readying their shops and stalls, and knights beginning their morning patrols. The city wasn’t as lively as it was last night, given that it was the capital, its morning and night comparison took him by surprise. He eventually flew above a rather decent sized, square shaped, dirt clearing hidden within the forest of buildings. Within it were some knights that were battling and others watching from the sidelines.

It reminded him of how he and Angil would train at the stroke of dawn. As a result, he gave into his curiosity and started to descend from directly above them. This was not only to get their attention but also to ensure that he would see any attacks that were launched at him. The wind kicked up by his wings most certainly caught the knights’ attention and placed them on the defensive, interrupting their battles. He was surrounded the moment he landed and was met with a greeting of readied weapons.

“Hey, hey, none of that please, I mean you no harm.” Ajax quickly said with a nervous smile, his hands waving around as he showed them the crest mark, “I was just curious about what you all were doing and wanted to maybe take part.”

“You wanted to train with us?” asked one of the knights in confusion.

“Yes, you see, I am used to training in the morning with an old friend but he is gone now.” Ajax replied, “I promise I won’t use any skills that would cause too much damage.”

The knights looked at him and then formed a circle, they started to whisper amongst themselves and took periodic glimpses at Ajax. While they conversed, Ajax took the liberty of counting their numbers and reached up to ten. The first thing he noticed was that they were all young men that looked no older than himself or Nathaniel. Maybe they were new recruits he thought to himself. When their discussion finally ended, a single knight stepped forward as their messenger while the others placed their weapons away.

“Phew.” Ajax sighed in relief.

“We decided that you can train with us before we go on patrol.” said the messenger knight, “Do you need like armor or anything or do you intend to fight shirtless?”

“I will be fine don’t worry.” Ajax replied and the knight nodded, “So how are we going to do this, like two on one or all at once or what?”

“We were doing one on one duels, so to be fair, we believe the strongest of us should spare with you.” the knight said, “The rest of us will watch and keep any misfires from damaging the surrounding buildings with a protective barrier.”

From the remaining nine a second knight stepped towards Ajax, one whose weapon appeared to be only a staff and whose face remained hidden behind a mask and a large triangular hat. The mage raised his staff and it emitted a yellow light. A matching yellow glass like barrier constructed itself along the parameter of the square, rising from the ground up into the air. It stopped just shy of being the same height as the surrounding buildings.

The mage and the messenger returned to the group once the spell was complete and stepped to the sidelines along with their companions. Ajax was left with a teen boy that looked no older than himself. The boy’s eyes and hair were a deep and striking black, contrasting his white and light caramel mixed skin. The only distinct marks he had on his expressionless face were black freckles scattered along his cheeks. His body was slender but muscular, especially his arms. In one hand he held a kite shield and in the other a metal chain whip.

“Greetings, my name is Ajax, it is a pleasure to meet you.” Ajax said.

“You have a name it seems!” the knight silently laughed, “Apologies, I just have never seen a monster that introduces themselves so formally, my name is Alex.”

“Alex huh, I will make this fun for you!” Ajax excitedly exclaimed and flew up as high as he could.

“I will try to accomplish the same for you Ajax.” Alex said, he swung his whip and the chains wrapped themselves around Ajax’s leg.

Alex grabbed onto the chain and forcefully swung Ajax to the ground, this forceful ejection from the sky caught Ajax of guard, especially at how swift it was. It sent him hurdling and slamming to the ground. The only reflex he could react with was activating his Resilient Scales skill the moment before impact. It lessened the amount of damage he received.

A plume of dust was kicked up and obscured the battlefield, concealing Ajax from sight outside of a silhouette. The dust was quickly parted by a line of flames that directly targeted Alex. Alex protected himself using his shield, which deflected the flames in every direction, and when they made impact with the barrier, it rippled like water and absorbed the fire. With Alex’s attention focused on defense, Ajax used the opportunity to yank on the whip and pulled Alex towards him.

Alex gasped the moment he was pulled, causing him to drop his shield, and entered the settling dust. The moment that Ajax came clearly into view he was thrown back by a gust of wind created by Ajax’s wings. However, he twisted his body and lashed the chains upward, causing them to slash Ajax up the cheek before flying away with Alex.

“Shit, he’s good.” said Ajax, he wiped his bleeding cheek and licked the blood from his fingers, “You’re no cake walk I see.”

“I can say the same, I wouldn’t mind seeing you without the restrictions.” Alex replied, to stop himself from going further he grabbed onto his shield and planted it and the soles of his feet into the ground.

When Alex eventually came to a screeching halt the ground was torn by three separate trenches. The knights in the background cheered on their match as Alex’s smirked and wiped the dirt off his own cheek similar to how Ajax wiped away his blood. The two of them smirked at each other and then charged, Ajax blocking the lashes of the whip’s chains with his scaled arms while flying around to get an opening to attack, meanwhile, Alex didn’t allow his whip to be caught again by constantly jumping and spinning around, not giving Ajax that opening that was being searched for and since he didn’t have is shield he did his best to avoid Ajax’s strikes.

With every impact of Ajax’s scales and Alex’s chains, the air seemed to be crackle with the sound of thunder and lighting. It was obvious that each was putting a lot of power behind their strikes, both clearly enjoying the duel. Soon they stood back to back as the dust spiraled around them.

“You’re very fast, and your agility seems to be your best defense.” Ajax said.

“Thank you, I can see you’re rather good at recovery in combat.” Alex replied, “You were searching for an opening to attack, you have good instincts.”

“I fought one hell of a beast daily so I better have decent instincts.” Ajax said, within both his palms a blue magical circle appeared and small vapors of steam came out of them, “Mind if I crank things up a bit?”

“With pleasure.” Alex replied, “Decipher creation and give me power, Serpentine Aura.”