Velariah did one last check to see if her helmet was properly fastened before she carefully approached the lizardman with her sword drawn. This wasn’t anything like the first time they’d met where Velariah charged in blindly. Perhaps she’d learned from that?

However, back then, Draco didn’t use any weapons. I knew he was strong, but Velariah had improved considerably. This time, she also had much better equipment to go with it. Then again, so did the lizardman.

It was still odd to me these duels were done with real weapons instead of something like wood. Who was I to question how things worked here, though?

Draco focused on defense as the elf approached and finally swung her sword when she got in range. It was easily deflected. She then stepped back as Draco attempted to stab her with the top of one of his axes. After that, she circled the lizardman, looking for an opening. Draco kept facing her, not allowing her that one opportunity.

Another lunge followed. Once again, Draco easily deflected it with a shield and counterattacked with a strike from his elbow in the middle of the evasive maneuver, but Velariah was ready and ducked under the lizardman’s arm, throwing a kick his way.

She hit the back of his knee, causing him to lose balance, albeit very temporarily. It wasn’t enough for her to strike.

“Very good,” He said as he recovered his stance.

The elf didn’t reply. Her eyes were focused and she seemed to be in some sort of trance, completely filtering out the comment that could be seen as a taunt.

She struck once more, aiming for Draco’s weapons in an attempt to disarm him. Unfortunately for her, his raw strength was far superior to hers. His weapons would not budge.

Velariah quickly jumped backward as the lizardman swung one of his axes. A second one followed but was blocked by her sword. The force almost made her lose her blade, but she stabilized quickly, dodged another blow, and used her gauntlet to punch Draco’s chest.

Draco groaned, but almost immediately recovered and landed a punch of his own on Velariah’s armor, who groaned significantly louder. She jumped back and assumed a fighting stance, ignoring the pain.

She stepped forward and attempted to bypass Draco’s defenses with a flurry of blows, dodging some of his own in the process. The reptilian, however, blocked each and every attempt of an attack. This went on for a while until Draco was the first one to land a significant hit. He swung his shield when the elf didn’t expect it, and she was unable to dodge.

The impact sent her sword flying, causing it to stab the grass and remain where it landed a meter or two away from the fight.

“Damnit!” Velariah let out, clearly frustrated. She kicked the ground in her anger and then stood still, watching the sky before sighing. “Well fought,” She said.

“As did you, Miss Velariah,” Draco replied politely. “You’ve improved significantly.”

Seralyn clapped. She’d more than enjoyed the show before her. Nira then walked to the two and cast her healing magic on either one of them in turn. There were no considerable injuries suffered during the spar, but it couldn’t hurt to take care of the bruises that had undoubtedly occurred.

“I don’t know if it’s my place to say this,” I started as I approached the two. “But despite the awesome fight that you put up, it seems Draco has a bit of a natural advantage when it comes to strength.”

“I know,” Velariah said as Nira finished healing her. “Technically it’s not entirely fair, but you can’t expect fights to be fair in the outdoors now, can you?”

“True…”

“Hopefully, I’ll be able to make up for our differences with my inherity when it evolves. I have good hopes as the little magic that I can make flow through my sword seems to be eerily similar to my father’s. If I could learn his spells…” She said dreamily.

“That’s gonna take a while from what I can see.”

The elf nodded. “Unfortunately, yes. It took him long enough. The good news is, we have you.”

“Corium Enhancement,” I said softly. “One of the most ludicrous inherities ever heard of, I’m sure.”

“Yup,” She said. “Most definitely.”

“That was neat,” Seralyn said excitedly as she approached. “Who’s next?”

“You two can go,” Velariah said, looking at me, and then Draco. “We can practice after that.”

“Uh, sure, but how should I fight? I can’t really charge at him with my polearm now, can I?”

“Just use your bladed gauntlets and your legs. That should be enough to put him in his place.”

Well, someone was salty.

I looked at Draco, who nodded in earnest.

“Okay. Let’s do that then,” I said as I took a few steps back and unsheathed my blades. I laid my polearm in the grass and prepared myself. 

I still wasn’t comfortable fighting like this. I lacked a good amount of experience going up against other humanoids with weapons at short range. Fortunately, this was but a spar and the goal was to disarm my opponent.

If only I knew how to. Draco was unlikely to let go of his armament, as was I to be honest. The fact that my weaponry was built around my gauntlets would make losing them impossible.

Well, on the other hand, I did have a bunch of legs that seemed to possess immense strength. I reckoned my best shot was to knock him down. I concocted some plan in my head to achieve that goal.

“I’m ready,” I said after taking a deep breath, assuming the same kind of defensive formation that Draco had earlier.

He nodded in response and did the same.

Our spar started and I skittered over with some ideas. I stabbed with my swords, which were unsurprisingly, easily deflected. I kept paying attention to any attacks of his own, and when he did finally swing, I was prepared and blocked it.

I knew about it and yet I was surprised by the force behind the blow. I managed to keep my shield steady, but at the same time, Draco swung his other axe. I parried with the necessary effort before I made a move of my own.

I swung my right blade at him, which he easily blocked, followed by a left swing, which required just slightly more effort. At the same time, I stabbed his stomach area with my pedipalps, which caught him by surprise.

I followed it up by a sword swing and then another, both of them were blocked. Thanks to my pedipalps, I was able to keep up the pressure and assault him with a flurry of attacks. It didn’t matter that they were all blocked. I just needed him to focus on defense.

My attacks intensified when my second set of legs joined in, aiming for his weapons. I figured that if I did that, he’d consider them a threat. As long as I could make him believe that, I could work on my plan.

This fight wasn’t too difficult for me. My defense, or rather, my fear of defending properly was probably my weak point, but if I could attack freely like this, I didn’t have to defend. Draco was unable to find the time to swing his weapons and was now starting to struggle to keep up with all the attacks coming his way. If I had my spear to join in too, I felt I would have won at this time already.

Seralyn was watching with excitement, and Velariah was simply staring, likely unable to grasp that I didn’t seem to have the hard time she and I both were expecting.

I gave Draco just enough of an opening for him to try to attack me with both axes at once. I parried the attacks and kept my swords locked with his axes as I pounced on him with my front six legs, knocking him towards the grass.

He landed with a thud, and when he did, he found that I had two legs on his shoulders and chest, and two more keeping his hands down. My blades were next to his head as I leaned over him.

Draco looked at me and a smile grew on his lips. “Well fought.”

“Go Elania!” Seralyn said, cheering from the sideline. “I bet you just made Velariah crazy jealous!”

“Shut it!” Velariah replied.

I grinned as I let go of the lizardman.

“Yup. The natural advantage is certainly a thing,” I said. “That just felt unfair.”

“It was certainly a challenge,” Draco said as I helped him up. “I have to admit I didn’t see that coming.”

“Can I surrender already?” Velariah asked.

“Nope!” Seralyn said with a wicked grin. “It’s time to get your ass kicked!”

I chuckled. “My advantage might be too great for you to overcome in a sparring setting, to be honest.” I paused for a second as I crossed my set of arms not wielding weapons. “Fine, I’ll accept surrender, but I’ll still need to practice.”

“Awww,” Seralyn said pouting.

“It’s pointless,” Velariah said. “We all know how things will end if I challenge Elania.”

“That’s the fun part,” Seralyn said.

Poor Seralyn. She had so been looking forward to this.

I walked back to my weapon and removed the scabbard. Velariah, in the meantime, unsheathed her weapon as well and created some distance between us.

It certainly helped calm my nerves to know that I was wielding excellent armor and that I had two shields to offer even more protection. Having four arms was such a blessing when I lacked the experience.

I tried to calm down my breathing as I prepared to parry the strikes that would be directed at me. I wasn’t sure how well a polearm would do, but I felt obliged to know how to do it. I imagined it would be somewhat similar to using a spear, except that I had a much bigger blade area.

There probably wouldn’t be too many uses for this. The only thing I could think of were mounted lancers and then perhaps monster species that were still unknown to me at this point.

I remained stationary as Velariah charged with her weapon sideways. I aimed the steel of my blade to intercept it at the last moment. It interrupted her charge and almost made her drop her weapon.

I was right. This wasn’t too different compared to a spear. If anything, the confidence that the elf had given me during our practice back then seemed to be the most important factor. I knew I could block with both blade and pole.

Velariah then directed a few strikes in the air, which I successfully parried. Sometimes I missed as I was too slow, but I felt myself gradually getting better. This was an excellent way to learn how to handle the blade at range.

We sparred like that for the good part of an hour before we decided to take a break.

“Not sure how much this will help you,” Velariah said. “But you’re doing a good job so far.”

“Thanks,” I replied with a warm smile. “And I know this is most likely pointless, but you know?”

She nodded. “At the very least, you’re learning how to use a weapon like that. We should definitely do this sometime where you focus on doing damage with it from a stationary position. Though…”

The look in her eyes unsettled me.

“Though what…?” I asked, fearing for the answer.

She laughed maniacally. I certainly wasn’t going to like this answer.

“We’ll be doing some weightlifting later. A lot of your weapon expertise will revolve around that.”
Shit.

It wasn’t until she said it that I noticed my muscles had gone sore from all that practice. “Fuck,” I let out. “After all that? You plan to put me through even more?”

“Tee-hee.”

Seralyn grinned. Of course, she did.

“Want me to try some healing?” Nira asked softly.

I shook my head. “Won’t do anything.” I sighed. “If we’re going to do that later, can we call it quits for now?”

“Let’s do that,” Velariah said. “Can’t wear you out too much or you’ll be sleeping through the festival tomorrow.”

“It’d be nice to finally figure out what all this fuss is about,” I stated, stretching my arms. I looked at the sky and noticed the first hints of red light starting near the horizon. The day was almost at an end.

“We should probably head back, soon,” I said. “But I’d first like to take a look at the fields. I simply can’t put it off any longer.”

“I was wondering when you were gonna say that,” Velariah said, smirking. “You need to have your fix of coffee, after all.”

“Soon…” I said as I sheathed my weapons and started slowly moving towards the coffee fields, allowing the others to catch up quickly.

When we got there, my eyes (all four of them) couldn’t believe what they saw. Rows upon rows of coffee plants with bright-red, ripe berries stretched out before me. I couldn’t believe they already bore fruit. I skittered to the closest bush and plucked one of the berries, observed it, and opened it. Everything was the exact same as the wild ones we’d harvested, meaning, they could be harvested whenever.

I could already see the gold streaming into my pockets. I felt pity for those who were going to have to peel such an enormous amount of cherries.

“Unreal,” I let out.

“Is that a good or a bad thing?” Velariah asked.

“I can’t believe all this was grown in such a short time. Those treemenders really live up to their name.”

“It’s useful, for sure,” Velariah said. “That elven wood we talked about before is also grown in the same manner, at least until the saplings are of decent size. After a certain point, it doesn’t seem worth the energy required anymore. I think my father thought otherwise when it came to these plants.”

“Deep down, he is the curious type,” I let out with a chuckle. “But he and I seem to be on the same page, very much so, when it comes to… well, ‘fixing’ some of Dawnleaf’s problems. I bet this new trade good is part of the reason why he was able to get that many soldiers to assist us with the goblin problem.”

“Certainly,” She said. “Anyway, that’s enough drooling from you. Let’s go home.”

“I don’t drool!” I retorted.

“But you would if I left you here any longer,” She said slyly.

She giggled as we turned around and made our way to the village. It was clear that Nira, Draco, and Seralyn would stay in the mansion for a while longer. No one knew exactly how much, but I had little objections. If anything, it made the evenings more interesting. Perhaps we should look for some more activities we could do?

It felt good to relieve myself of my armor when we got home. I may have pushed myself a bit far with handling a weapon for so long without the muscle that was normally associated with people who wielded such an instrument.

After briefly greeting us, Elly made a beeline for the kitchen, apparently not wanting to burn whatever was cooking. The smell was delicious so I couldn’t blame her.

When we entered the dining area, Valtheril was sitting at the head of the table, a few pieces of paper laid out before him. However, he didn’t have his usual expression on his face. Rather, he seemed to be quite relaxed as he sipped on a cup of tea, his eyes darting over the papers.

“Good evening,” He greeted us before he finished reading one of the sheets and laid it on top of another.

“Evening father,” Velariah said. “How are you doing?”

“Excellent, actually. Everything’s in place for tomorrow and then the day after. I’ve had some talks with the guild and issued new quests and despite how desolate the place is now, we still had some adventurers sign on to join the goblin extermination efforts.”

He nodded, his eyes full of confidence. “Yes. I’ve hardly felt better than now. Come to think of it… Elania?”

“Yes?”

“How are the coffee plants? Are they ready to be harvested?”

I nodded. “As far as I can see, they are.”

“Excellent,” The general said again. “I hope you don’t mind me running the story of me learning the secrets of coffee from a deceased adventurer.”

“That’s fine.”

“I’ll work on setting up a bit of infrastructure to process them in the coming days as well, and prepare some for transport to Duskleaf and Goldleaf. Perhaps I’ll send some to the village-beyond-the-mountains too. How are all of you doing?”

“Fine,” Velariah spoke for all of us. “We’ve done a bit of training and explored one of Elania’s ideas. All in all, a pretty productive day all things considered. It seems we’ve arrived just in time too.” Velariah’s eyes traveled to the kitchen door.

“It’s a simple soup,” Valtheril said, smiling. “Your timing wouldn’t have mattered much.”

Velariah chuckled.

“Any other news?” I asked as the others took a seat.

“Nothing,” Valtheril said. “I’ve told you what I know. I hope to know more in the coming days, but tomorrow is an important day for our village. Let’s try not to spoil the mood with more serious talk, shall we?”

I smiled. I liked the general’s current mood. He was somewhat serious, yet showed deep care for traditions and the happiness of Dawnleaf’s people. I still had no idea what it was, but this festival seemed to be very important to the elves.

I considered asking him, but maybe Velariah and Seralyn were right.

Maybe I had to see for myself.