The tutors began watching the clash between the two boys with curiosity when they heard Kane's screams. Some of the recruits stopped their fighting and looked in their direction to see what was going on.

Landis, out of fear and with shaky hands, was striking weakly and carelessly, shedding more and more tears from his eyes as he watched Kane deflect each of his attacks with Stoic calm and blank stare.

Until Kane deflected all five attacks in this duel, he slowly got up from his stance, with sweat drops running down his forehead from exhaustion, and steam from deep breaths coming out of his mouth.

As Kane moved to an attack stance, finally the boys duel saw the tutor Nilon, seeing the state of Landis, furiously shouted to the whole square.

"KANE STOP THE DUEL IMMEDIATELY! THAT'S AN ORDER!"

Everyone on the training ground momentarily went through chills and fear. They interrupted their duels, looking at the enraged tutor, Nilon walking towards Kane.

"Landis you're free to go, and your Kane will get a new opponent."

The boy snarled under his breath, knowing that he had probably lost his chances of getting into the third stance, which only further enraged Nilon.

"Do you have anything to say?!"

"No."

He looked away from the tutor, annoyed by his intervention.

Happy Landis, feeling as if tutor Nilon had saved his life, with tears in his eyes, threw down his sword and ran to his room.

Both the tutors, who had not seen such an angry Nilon for a long time, and the recruits on the training ground watched the whole situation in silence and curiosity.

"You're supposed to practice swordsmanship here, not beat the crap out of others!" 

" I was practicing the second stance."

Without a hint of showing emotion, he replied, seeing no problem in the fact that he had traumatized Landis.

"Horen! Assign him a new opponent!"

He shouted to the tutor, departing back to his group.

"Oi, everyone, to your sparring matches! What are you looking at!"

Tutor Horen admonished the recruits for walking over to Kane.

"Well, you made a fuss..."

He sighed, looking at the boy

"I saw that you've already blocked 10 attacks, admittedly, looking at the technique, it can hardly be called an attack, but I can't just not give you credit for it. I'll give you someone strong, but to give you a chance if you have learned the technique properly."

"Okay."

He replied, hiding his concern.

"I beg not Jin."

Kane thought in his mind, knowing that his chances were diminishing more and more.

Tutor Horen was looking around at the recruits in his group, wondering who to choose, when he finally called out.

"Marko! Come here!"

Hearing the boy's unfamiliar name, he sighed in relief.

He saw a boy silhouetted like Daren walking toward him. Seeing him, he knew it wouldn't be easy but that it was possible.

"This is Marko, he will be your opponent for the next duel, where you will be on defense. All clear?"

Kane took a moment to think about it and said that if he was going to risk fighting against a stranger, he needed to prepare.

"Can we fight two duels? The first I'll be on offense and the second on defense."

"If you want, you can do it that way, it makes no difference to me."

"Then I'll start with the attack."

Kane, attacking first, wanted to specifically attack Marko's sword to test his strength.

The two recruits moved to their respective stances, with the entire duel being supervised by tutor Horen.

The boy, knowing that he did not need this victory but only information about his opponent, decided to forget about speed or technique and use his full strength.

Kane positioned himself in the first stance, grabbing the sword with all his strength, and making a single, powerful strike. 

Marko was able to hit Kane's sword, but did not deflect it, there was a clash of blades. Kane seized the opportunity and pressed with all his strength. Marko, although he was able to stop Kane's sword from hitting his body, could do nothing in this position except defend himself.

"Kane, retract the sword, you have four strikes left."

Tutor Horen reminded the boy about the rules of sparring.

"He didn't deflect my sword, and on top of that, he wasn't able to repel the pressure, most likely, in a normal clash, he would have pressed harder than me, but he wouldn't have been able to beat me.... 

Hmmm... Okay, I guess that's enough, with further attacks, I will tire myself out more than him."

In his mind, Kane analyzed the clash, drawing the conclusions and information he needed.

"That's enough for me, I can move on to defense."

Tutor Horen looked at Kane with surprise.

"But you still have four strikes left."

"I know what I needed, I can move on to defense".

Horen understood why Kane wanted to start with the attack, and with a slight smile, he agreed to switch sides.

"Okay, set up in the second stance".

Again, the boy's attitude from the duel with Landis was evident as soon as he switched to defense. Focus and a lust to win at all costs, along with eyes staring straight at his opponent without blinking.

Marko, positioning himself in the first stance, saw Kane feel as if he were fighting an animal, a slight shiver went through him, and without a second thought, he attacked.

Kane reacted without a moment's hesitation, not making the same mistake as in the fight with Jin. 

With a quick swing, he deflected the opponent's attack, and although the impact was not strong, it was still enough to stop the attack.

Without taking his eyes off his opponent, Kane positioned himself back in the second stance, staring at Marko like a lion at its prey, patiently and effectively.

Although Kane hadn't gained any strength over the past few days of training, his hands had managed to get used to the sword and strikes, so he was able to effectively execute stances with it.

"You have four attacks left to block."

Marko, after hearing tutor Horen, attacked again, this time with speed rather than force.

Kane again deflected the attack even more easily than before, clashing his sword into the very center of his opponent's blade, beginning to understand that strength, not speed, is the most important thing in the first stance.

From the force of the strike, Marko had to shift his sword to his left hand and shake out his right hand, where he lost feeling for a few moments from the impact.

"3 attacks."

Horen counted down.

When the surrounding recruits heard the tutor's countdown, they again, despite their earlier admonition, stopped fighting and began watching Kane.

Jin looked around the training ground with surprise, wondering where the commotion among everyone was coming from. He walked closer to all the commotion, where he saw Kane fighting. Only after hearing the countdown did he realize that he was close to getting into the third stance.

After seeing this Jin's sudden excitement passed, he bared a smile, watching the duel.

More and more onlookers began to approach the duel, eager to see if he could get to the third stance first.

Isolated from the world, Kane focused only on his own breathing and his opponent's sword, anticipating the attack.

"Since speed didn't do anything, now strength."

Marko thought, planning how to defeat Kane before getting into the third stance.

He tensed his muscles, which drew Kane's attention, saw Marko's muscular arms and felt that this time the attack would be stronger. He decided to support his deflection with his whole body to make up for the difference in strength.

Kane corrected his stance to make it easier for him to turn his body during the attack.

The entire duel was also watched by the tutors, who saw the boy's talent.

Marko directed the sword at Kane with a firm strike, to which he responded by making a swing with the sword, his whole body including the sword, causing the blades to clash. 

He barely managed to stop the attack, and although the deflection failed, he was still able to block the strike. Marko pressed against the boy as Kane clenched his teeth and, with all his strength, in an uncomfortable position through the rotation of his body, tried to stop the attack until the tutor stopped him.

"That's enough, Marko, retract the sword. Kane, you have 2 attacks left to block."

Among the crowd watching, one could hear the sounds of excitement and conversation after each blocked attack. On the sidelines, unobtrusively, the duel was watched by recruits considered talents of the academy.

Marko wasted his penultimate attack to no avail due to Kane's successful deflection by hitting the tip of his sword.

"One more! One more! One more!"

The crowd of recruits began to shout, cheering.

"It's been a long time since it's been so lively here."

"True, I think the last time it was this loud was when the first recruit took the knight's test."

The tutors laughed, looking at all the commotion.

Kane was focused to the point that he didn't hear the recruits' cheers, he fell into a trance, seeing only the sword, hearing a muffled sound, as if it were lying deep underwater.

The shouts and cheers began to quiet down, and everyone stared at the sword, waiting to attack.

Marko was upset that he didn't hit once against the inferior and weaker, Kane, who attacked one last time. 

Kane reacted by again aiming at the tip of the sword to deflect the attack more effectively.

The two blades moved closer together. The empty sound of wooden swords clashing echoed throughout the training ground.

The crowd gathered still stared in silence for a moment before suddenly resuming with a shout of excitement.

A wooden sword lay on the ground. 

In front of it stood two recruits, Marko and Kane, with the wooden sword in their hands. The heartbroken Marko did not know how it could have happened that he had lost to Kane.

Everyone started shouting, looking at the first recruit who managed to get to the third stance.

But some began to notice that Kane continued to stand in the second stance, staring at Marko. Out of surprise and lack of understanding, the screams quieted down. Tutor Horen, not knowing what was going on, approached the boy and grabbed him by the arm.

"Kane? It's over, you passed."

Only after feeling the tutor's touch did the boy come out of his fighting trance and come back to his senses, looking at Marko and then looking around, noticing the other recruits. Realizing he had finished the fight.

"I passed?"

"Yes, starting tomorrow, you start the third stance."

The boy sighed in relief, shaking off all the stress and anxiety, knowing that now he could focus on exercising his body. 

Taking one last look at the crowd of recruits scattering to their destinations, Kane proud of himself, headed toward the dormitory.