Gentle moonlight shone upon his figure as Sundrin made his way back to the cottage.
Right now, Sundrin walked with a dazed expression. The scene of the third elder destroying the boulder with just one arrow kept replaying in his mind.
To say that he was impressed would be an understatement, he had never thought something like that was possible to achieve with the bow.
Survath had said afterwards that the astra was called the flaming sabretooth arrow, and that it was mostly used to hunt Alpha beasts by advanced warrior archers.
*sigh~*
"There is still a long path ahead."
Sundrin said with a sigh, not at all demotivated; on the contrary, he was quite enthusiastic about chasing after his next goal,
"It wouldn't be any fun if it were easy."
He said with a smile as light returned in his eyes and he stepped forward with newfound zeal.
Hastening his steps, he approached the cottage.
But then suddenly he stopped, a frown appearing on his face. He looked towards a place near the cottage and saw Torvyn lying down on the grass field.
He had many small scratches and wounds on him, while his figure was also battered up. His eyes had red veins popping out of them and were swollen.
Sundrin's frown deepened as he changed directions and started walking towards him.
Upon hearing the approaching footsteps, Torvyn looked up and saw Sundrin getting near him.
His eyes widened as he quickly got up, even though his body hurt a lot. He put on a strained smile as he looked at Sundrin,
"Yo! What's up?"
Sundrin just looked at him quietly with an expressionless face. He was smart enough to understand what was going on.
Although fights were not allowed except for in duels, the kids still managed to find ways to bully the weak ones, such as tripping them or stealing their clothes.
Not to mention that if someone challenged you to a duel, you have to accept unless you are seriously injured or have dueled recently.
A frown couldn't help but appear on Sundrin's face. He knew that Torvyn was a good kid who made lots of friends, and although he wasn't one of the strongest in the tutelage grounds he was still quite average, so it was unexpected that he was being bullied,
"Who was it?"
Sundrin asked with a chilly tone as his eyes grew colder by the second.
Torvyn gulped down his saliva as he averted his gaze and said with a forced smile,
"W-what do you mean, w-what are you t-talking about?"
But he knew deep down that this friend of his wasn't buying any of it,
"Torvyn, you are my first friend, but more than that, you are like my brother, and if someone has been messing with my brother….. Then I need to have a talk with them."
Sundrin said with the same chilly tone, but seeing hesitation in Torvyn's eyes, he softened his voice and continued,
"Trust me bro, we will just have a little talk. do you not consider me as your little brother?"
Torvyn's eyes widened, and he could only chew on his lower lip as tears started forming in his eyes.
Sundrin smiled at him gently. Ever since he came here, Torvyn had been the only one who was close to him, so he didn't want this brother of his to suffer,
"It's Lioren."
Upon hearing the name, Sundrin frowned, but soon he remembered that Lioren was one of the kids who had been staring venomously at him earlier today when the third elder called him.
He didn't know many of the kids here, but he did know this Lioren, his elder brother, was a henchman of Thalvior, one of the strongest four kids.
It seemed that as Sundrin had joined no group and was still making a name for himself, this made Lioren jealous, but rather than targeting him who was a bow student, he challenged Torvyn who was like him, a spear student.
Sundrin got the gist of it as soon as the name was mentioned. He had been provoked by Lioren a few times, but just thought of him as a small fry.
Sundrin nodded and started walking towards the cottage. Torvyn grew nervous and was about to call out to him when he saw that he had stopped before the gates.
Taking in a deep breath, Sundrin with a furious face, kicked open the door, making a loud banging noise,
"Lioren, you dog fucker! Come out and duel me! Let's see if you have the balls!"
Sundrin's voice echoed out through the cottage as everyone present in it looked in his direction.
They were surprised when they heard the loud banging noise of the door, and the words that came after were even more puzzling.
As far as they knew Sundrin never screamed and was always polite so this was a surprising site to behold for them.
Lioren, who was just talking and laughing with his friends, was also jolted out of his conversation as he heard his name being called.
But when he looked back and saw that it was Sundrin, a condescending smirk appeared on his face.
Lioren was the same age as Sundrin, and never once did he think that a boy from outside the central regions or with any kind of status should deserve any attention.
According to him, the people who had status in the tribe, meaning the kids from the central regions, were the true elites of the tribe.
So even though his elder brother advised him not to mess with Sundrin, he still did it anyway,
"Well well well, if it isn't the almighty lord Sundrin, tell me what can this humble person do for you?"
He said with a condescending tone and laughed. His friends also started to laugh and some of the people who didn't like Sundrin and thought he was unworthy of the attention he got from the third elder also laughed.
By now, Sundrin's expression had returned to normal, and Trovyn was behind him, panicking,
"Are your ears just for decoration? Didn't you hear me? I said, Let's duel!"
Sundrin said, magnifying the power in his voice with the help of the inner flame, this was a neat little trick he had learned while hunting to intimidate his prey.
The hall that was brimming with a few people's laughter soon became silent as Lioren looked at Sundrin with irritation,
"Fine, it will be a good match."
He said with a sinister smirk and walked towards him,
"So do you wanna do it today or do you want to postpone your embarrassment to tomorrow?"
"Today is a very good day, let's just go ask for a guard to supervise, and also….."
Sundrin said as his eyes followed Lioren, who had by now come close to him and was passing by him,
"This won't be a 'good match', it will be a one-sided beatdown."
He said with a malicious grin as he also turned around and started walking.
Meanwhile, Torvyn, who was sweating buckets, was now cursing himself for telling Sundrin about this.
.
.
.
.
The moon was high up in the sky and shone upon the figures of Sundrin and Lioren as both of them stood before each other on the practice fields.
A huge crowd had formed around them, and the one supervising was the head guard, Valior.
The chilly night winds blew through the fields as all the spectating kids stood in anticipation of the upcoming battle.
Sundrin had taken up his bow while Lioren had taken up a spear. Both of them stood a little bit away from each other.
Staring at each other with a serious expression, both of them got into a fighting position.
Valior looked on as he finally opened his mouth to break the silence,
"Are both the warriors ready?"
He said with a solemn expression and saw both the kids nod, not even looking towards him.
He raised his hand and spoke,
"The fight will begin on the count of three."
Everyone looked on in anticipation as Valior started the countdown,
"Three!"
Sundrin tightened his body and increased the pressure on his footing as he took out a stone arrow from his quiver,
"Two!"
Lioren exhaled a bit and looked at his opponent seriously, he would not underestimate Sundrin even if he looked down on him. He grabbed his spear with both of his hands and tightened his grip.
"One!"
All the kids looked on, and Torvyn was so nervous he was even biting his own nails, although he was confident in Sundrin's skills he knew that in a duel an archer was always at a disadvantage.
And as everyone looked on with different emotions Valior finally screamed,
"Go!"
The duel between Sundrin and Lioren had officially begun.