After a few minutes of waiting his opponent finally arrived, the soldiers making a path for him as he walked to the front. “I hope you have a good reason for calling me here,” announced the man, though he seemed irritated his voice was calm.

“G-Gazef. I’ve found a worthy training partner for you, he says h-“ but before Monty could finish his sentence the old man interrupted.

“Worthy? Pfft, look at the way he holds his sword. He hasn’t used one for more than a few months at most, and you say worthy?” scoffed Gazef as he inspected Gray. Gray did the same and was not impressed, but to be fair what stood in front of him looked to be a feeble old man. Though Gray was aware that the older warriors were the ones he had to be most wary of. He wasn’t so arrogant as to think that the old man was still in the military by luck.

“So shall we get on with this, or do you still have more comments to make?” asked Gray, impatient with the old man’s judgemental gaze. The old man scoffed in response, walking towards the sparring arena ahead of him. Once they got in, one of the soldiers began explaining the rules of the competition.

“Projectile abilities are not allowed, that means anything that does not require you to be within striking range to deal damage is restricted. The match will go on until one side concedes or is unable to continue. Apart from that, all forms of combat are allowed,” announced the soldier, before stepping out of the arena.

“This won’t even be educational. To make it more interesting, I will only fight you with one arm and I will not move from this spot,” said the old man, drawing an x on the ground with his sword.

“Do what you want old man, I’m not going to stop you. Though I have to say, I will be disappointed if you won't be able to act as even a testing dummy because of your stupid pride,” commented Gray, before their match began.

Gray began by walking around Gazef in a circle, trying to look for any openings. Gazef turned as Gray walked around him, keeping his hind foot on the x that he had marked out.

“Hmmph,” scoffed Gray, thinking the old man dumb for taking this fight lightly. In what seemed like an instant to the other officers, Gray appeared behind Gazef, his sword already swinging towards his head. Without so much as turning to look, Gazef parried the attack effortlessly, sending sparks flying into the air.

Gray didn’t relent, not giving Gazef even a moment of respite. He let out a fury of attacks, slicing, slashing, and thrusting his sword at the old man’s head, yet without so much as looking at the attacks, Gazef blocked them all.

Though Gray hadn’t been putting his full force behind those attacks, he was still surprised by how outmatched he was. Never for one second was he under the delusion that he was at all skilled at swordsmanship, but the thought of the old man keeping up with him at this speed even with such a handy cap angered him.

“Enough playing around boy. All your probing won’t reveal anything if it isn’t threatening enough,” said Gazef coldly, as he turned to face Gray.

“You talk too much.” With that Gray turned into a black blur, pushing himself to the absolute limits of his body. This time he appeared at Gazef’s side, his sword mere inches away from the old man’s face. Gazef put up his sword, though the blade was mere millimeters away from slicing his face in two. In fact, Gray’s blade had managed – just barely so- to cut Gazef’s cheek, drawing a thin line of blood.

“Look who’s of his little x,” laughed Gray, enjoying the surprised look on the Gazef’s face. The old man wasn’t alone, most of the officers were still confused about what was going on, as to them it seemed as if Gray were teleporting.

“It seems it was my mistake for not treating you as a threat. Though you have no skill in the sword, your speed and strength are at least at the starting line,” said the old man, wiping the blood off his cheek.

“There you go again, spouting all that high and mighty bull shit,” growled Gray, before taking another swing with his sword. The two blades slammed into each other, sending out an ear-piercing sound.

“Perhaps I should show you why I can spout all that' high and mighty bull shit’,” smiled the Gazef, before thrusting his sword at Gray. The attack wasn’t at all fast, in fact, it was just slow enough for all the officers to follow it. But what made the attack dangerous wasn’t its speed, it was the way it moved.

Gray tried moving his blade to parry it, but as his blade came to block it slithered past his defense, almost as if the steel had a mind of its own. In fact, even as Gray looked at it approach his neck, he couldn’t believe that the blade was really a straight piece of metal. Using what little time he had left, Gray moved back at the last second avoiding the attack by mere inches.

“Do you see now, the gap between us?” asked Gazef, before -and this time it seemed even more unbelievable- his sword arm disappeared along with his sword. For three seconds, it seemed as if Gazef had lost his arm to thin air. By the time Gazef’s arm returned, Gray realized what had happened.

“I concede,” scoffed Gray, the multiple pinpoint stab wounds on his face making him painfully aware that had that been a real battle, he would've been dead before he even knew it.

“What happened?” asked a few of the officers. Though they were happy for the win, none of them could figure out what exactly had happened. To them, Gray had merely forfeited after staring at Gazef for a few seconds.

“Master, are you okay?” asked Tesse, running towards Gray as he walked out of the arena.

“Heal,” was all that Gray said, pissed off at his own weakness. After being healed and handing over the steel sword, a few soldiers confronted Gray about the [T-1 anti-tank rifle] and how exactly he snuck it into the base. Though they had kept quiet during the competition, it was a security threat that they couldn’t ignore.

Gray wasn’t in the mood for dealing with their bullshit, so after shouting out a stream of curse words at them he told Tesse she could keep it.

“If you have a problem with it, speak to Ailre,” he said, before withdrawing to his quarters, leaving Tesse behind to practice.

{I’ve never wanted to gut an old man any more than I do right now,} thought Gray, before slumping on his bed.

{If I want to fully enjoy myself in this world, I have to become stronger. And that means learning how to fight properly too.}