Their destination was the training grounds for soldiers. There was an elevated platform where soldiers were encouraged to challenge others in a mock battle.

As Kihet browsed a selection of weapons, Miyabe confidently chose a glaive. She stepped onto the arena practicing two quick swings waiting for Kihet.

Kihet was proficient with a shortsword and other weapons of similar size. He was tempted to use one against Miyabe, but it would be an uphill battle. His opponent had reach. An axe was too heavy for his liking, a longsword reminded him of the bastard, Irvan. The spear had too long of a handle, but there was a set of polearms that piqued his interest. He fished the one into his hands that had a longer double-edged blade compared to the others.

“A spear? Have you used one before?” Lily asked. “I was certain you were going to choose a sword.”

Kihet nodded his head and strapped on a small shield. Before he climbed onto the ring, he snapped the spear’s wooden handle to the size to his liking. He tossed the broken shaft aside and held the shortened spear like a sword.

“So that’s the weapon you prefer. Interesting.” Miyabe studied his stance.

His improvised weapon loosely swayed side to side, his shield was at chest height. He was full of openings, but she noticed his wary eyes were watching her with utmost caution.

“Ready?” Lily asked. “Three, two, one, begin!”

In an instant, an after image of three blades folded towards Kihet. He felt a singular powerful impact from supposedly three strikes hit his shield. Kihet managed to keep his posture, but he was moved from where he braced against it.  When he lowered his guard, he noticed the surface of his shield gained a rose curve pattern with loops in form of three petals. Even though the blades on mock equipment were dulled, Miyabe managed to carve a pattern on his shield in a blink of an eye.

There was no killing intent. Kihet guessed she purposely aimed for his shield to test him while her next attack will not be as forgiving.

“My skills might have gone dull, but still impressive, no? If you will not take the initiative, I shall continue.”

Saying that, she shifted to a high guard and dropped her knees slightly. Her grip slid to the bottom of her glaive as she brandished it with continuous strikes. Her weapon relentlessly struck Kihet’s shield and gradually numbing his arm.

Polearms such as glaives were dangerous when their targets were within its effective range. Kihet faced the incoming blade, putting his weapon on an angle and positioning his shield to deflect the onslaught. One managed to slip by and missed his face by a hair’s breadth as he seized his opportunity to slip by her reach and put her in his range.

Miyabe’s image blurred then vanished. Realizing she got around by using Xu’s renown footwork, the [Crescent Moon Dance], Kihet kicked forward and dodged another strike. He felt a tremor and spotted a deep crack split behind him.

The Empress lacked physical strength but compensated by building up momentum between swings. As long as she had time and distance to wind up, the offensive power behind her attack would multiply.

That was a method Malth, a friend from his village, also a polearm user, used to maximize the power of his attacks. By swinging and spinning in one direction, the momentum could be used to chain attacks and store power until the user landed a devastating blow.

“When will you decide to attack?”

To answer her, he tapped his shield and took the most direct path facing the incoming strike again. Mimicking the Empress’ footwork, he slithered past her glaive and lunged forward. His shortened spear managed to scrape against the shaft.

He pushed forward with his weight behind his shield trying to tackle the Empress off the ring, but she shoved his spear off and spun away gracefully like a dancer.

“I see.” The Empress’ horns suddenly glowed scarlet bright as a magic circle formed underneath her. “But how well do you handle against magic?”

Kihet felt the pressure above him changed. The air grew denser and shook. Something was about to crash down on him. There wasn’t enough room in the ring to escape from the wind’s clutches.

“O’Wind Elemental, hear me. Untameable, yet gentle, grace us with your presence. Let my foe be clouded by your roar and fury. Rise up and blow over my opponent in an endless storm. Furl, Ulos, Jeltz, Val, Exlas, Ashent.”

A dust devil stirred up dust and petals around him. He was only able to look less than a meter ahead. When he tried to move out of the area, the wall travelled with him, trapping him within a vortex of petals.

Kihet suddenly saw a glint in the corner of his eye. The tip of the glaive tore through the curtain of petals and arced down on him. He bashed his shield against it using both hands and bounced the attack back only to be faced against six flashes spiralling at his chest. He needed to move, but his position of awkwardly shielding against the first strike made him vulnerable.

He instinctively swung his weapon towards one of the blades and lazily jumped backwards with the intention of falling. The strength of his opponent’s attack spun him midair in the same direction as the six blades moved and managed to land on his feet.

Other than his breathing and the soft hum by his sensitive ears to detect magic, the sound of rustling leaves and voices outside the ring went silent. The absence of sound began to annoy him. At this rate, the Empress had free reign to choose her next attack as she reduced his vision and deafen him.

To disperse the magical wind barrier, Kihet decided to call for the Oracle’s flames. His arms flared up as the ground below him pulsed with radiant light. A brilliant explosion of silver embers crackled from below and dispelled the wind surrounding him.

“How about we end this?” Miyabe declared as she lunged forward.

He wondered about the maximum number of blades of her skill as an afterimage of ten blades instead of six simultaneously spiralled towards him. After experiencing the similar attack twice, and noting the pattern on his shield, he knew the attack must move across the mid point.

He proceeded to charge head on and kept his eyes on Miyabe’s hands instead of the glaive. At the last moment before the blade touched him, silver flames erupted from below. Miyabe knew the flames were harmless to the shadowless but hadn’t thought Kihet would use them to block her view. Regardless, her flurry of attacks could not be stopped.

Suddenly, two blades travelling in opposite movement parted the flames. When both attacks collided, their weapons flung out of their hands. Then the edge of his shield flew towards Miyabe’s face.

Two guards from the crowd suddenly sprung onto the ring and ambushed Kihet.

In response, he stopped his attack on Miyabe then slammed his fist into the ground. The platform quaked as spectators watched the ring split in quadrants.  While everyone was bewildered by his sudden spurt of strength, Kihet launched himself at the two guard and claw grabbed their faces.

“Wait!”

In a fraction of a second, Kihet stopped mid-swing before he slammed the guards into the arena. Both had white foam frothing from their mouths while they were being lifted by their heads.

“I’m terribly sorry, Kihet. The Palace guards are a bit overprotective. At very least, with the strength you have displayed, it is ultimately my lost.” Satisfied, Miyabe raised her hands and announced her defeat. “Well done, Kihet. Not only were you able to defend against my [Blooming Petal], but also used my own technique against me.”

-So that’s what it’s called. I could only strike two times with that sword technique, but Miyabe was able to use up to ten.

“I told you he was strong!”

Kihet asked himself why Lily boasted his victory in his stead as he picked up the broken spear. He noticed his spear was bent about twenty degrees from forming the letter ‘L’ while there was a huge chip in the glaive’s dull cutting edge.

“Indeed.” Miyabe smiled. “By the way, my husband was able to unleash an advanced version called [Blooming Petal Storm] with twenty blades in any direction. That bladework was something he taught me.”

“Shiba’s…?”

-And I thought seeing ten blades was already absurd.

“At least I understand your strengths. You should have no problems doing your duty as the Oracle. I shall prepare everything you two need to travel to Vivrus.”

“While you’re doing that, I’ll take him back.” Lily seized Kihet by the wrist. “If we’re going to meet with Vivrus’ ruler, we can’t have him looking like this. I’m going to have Martha fix your appearance.”

Naturally, he thought it was bothersome, but it would leave a bad impression if he were to meet Vivrus’ ruler with his unkept appearance. Even if he tried escaping, he had nowhere to hide.

He was being dragged against his will regardless and soon made it back to his dorm.

“Martha, we’re back!”

“Welcome back. Did the Empress decided what action to take?”

“We’ll be going to Vivrus and ask for support.”

“I see. We’ll be going to Vivrus.”

“We? Wait, no. Big Sister Miyabe said only Kihet and I are going.”

“Huh? What about me?”

“Don’t know, but I need you to give Kihet a haircut. I’m still in my ceremonial outfit so I’m going to go change.”

With that, Lily quickly fled the scene as Martha was left hanging with her hand halfway reached out.

“That Lily…” She exchanged look with Kihet then giggled. “She looks happier than before, though I wish she’d stop pushing her responsibilities onto others.”

“What now?”

“Come over here. I’m going to start by cutting your hair.”

Martha’s eyes sparked a terrifying glint as she pushed him on a stool, holding scissors and a comb in her hands. Kihet hoped the result won’t be embarrassing. His hair was so long, it looked like a mop.

“Do you have any preference how to do your hair?”

“No.”

“Then I’m going to cut it how I want to.”

She ran her comb to straighten his hair and get an idea what needed to come off. Once she decided how to cut his hair, she began snipping.

After watching strands of his hair fall, he finally saw his face in a mirror’s reflection. He was impressed the style wasn’t too different than how his hair was twelve years ago. It retained its scruffiness but that’s the style he always kept it.

“There we go. I did my best, but it seems a bit off… Maybe if I cut more on this side?”

He felt her cold fingers forking the hair by his sides. They were feeling around for something.

“My ears?” He guided her hands to where the feathers once grew around his ears.

“W-what do you mean? I was seriously thinking about cutting your hair! Honest! But… I w-would like to touch them, again. Hm? They’re not there.”

“Lost tail and ear. What… am I?”

Suddenly, the tip of the comb poked the back of his head. From her reflection, Martha pouted.

“It doesn’t matter what you are. What matters is who you are. Whether you suddenly grew fairy wings, beastman’s ears, scaleman’s scales, or became the Oracle. To me, you are always Kihet. You were the Hero who saved Lily and me where everyone at that time shunned us.”

There was nothing Kihet could say to refute her words. He sat in silence while Martha brushed his hair.

“Alright, stay seated. I still need to trim some places. We’ll get you some new clothes after and I’ll take you sightseeing around Xu.”