"He sure has surpa.s.sed me, and at such a pace…the kid has a good career as knight ahead of him, that"s for sure." Mekros muttered to himself. Once, he too was young, skilled, and strong. Now, after that accursed Demon Invasion, he was reduced to this. His strength was less than half of what it used to be, gone was his speed, he was mere sh.e.l.l of his former self. Back then, he fought against one of the stronger demons, one that looked like a humanoid serpent coated in flames.He managed to subdue it, but not before the serpent demon managed to inflict a wound upon his leg with its final strike. The poison rendered his right leg limp and useless. The healers tried their best to extract the poison and mend him, but it was too late, the damage was done. Not only did his leg lose most of its muscle memory, his entire body was affected by the poison as well. As he is now, he can barely use mana to coat his body for body strengthening, usage of higher level elemental magic was out of question. His body simply was too weak.
The poison apparently managed to damage not only the nerves in his right leg but it did some damage to his entire body as well, his mana lines were damaged. Mana lines were what allowed a living being to use enhancement based abilities, martial arts, or magic. With having his mana lines damages, Mekros had harder time using mana than he did before, his overall abilities were weakened. He no longer was a man worthy of bearing the t.i.tle of Ninth seat of the Holy Swords.
The Holy swords were in a sense the kingdom"s heroes, the strongest of the strong; ten swordsmen with unparalleled power. They were the ones who have reached the realm of heroes, an unimaginable existence for many.
The sword Maisters, the Aristan household"s candidates to being the Sword Saint were among them as well. The only one above them was the Sword Lord, a man who has reached the peak of his craft. Mekros once challenged the Sword Lord to a duel, thinking that he could beat him. He was too arrogant. Sword Lord beat him without even brandishing his sword. The distance between them was far too great, Mekros since then gave up trying to surpa.s.s the Sword Lord after his single humiliating defeat. Now, as an invalid, he had no hope of ever catching up to the peak of humanity.
Now, even youngsters like Bakit can beat him, he has become the stepping stone for the next generation of knights, the fact which he was forced to reluctantly accept.
"How long are you going to keep watching, I might be getting weaker, but my senses are still as sharp as ever." He told the person hiding, trying to erase any hint of presence in the area.
"Apologies" a black haired maid seemed to appear out of nowhere. She was hiding behind a tree, watching everything that was going on so far. "I thought it would be rude to interrupt your sparring session, Lord Mekros."
"Well, then, what are you here for? Did young master have other matters for me to take care of? More paperwork? I will have you know, I am not as young as I used to be, so my capabilities are rather limited…"
"It is nothing like that. Prince Sala is currently resting. I came here by my own will."
"Oh, is that so? Well that is rather unusual." Mekros couldn"t believe that Aurelia actually was capable of taking independent action; in his eyes she was too much of an order taker, following each order to a tee without any complaint, a perfect va.s.sal, but as a person….
"Even I have times when I wish to see the truth for myself. Speaking of which, your apprentice, he has become very strong."
"My former apprentice, and yes, he has surpa.s.sed me in every way imaginable."
"If he were up against, say, a member of Holy Swords, how well do you think he would fare against them?" Aurelia was being awfully specific for some reason, but Mekros chose to answer truthfully.
"As he is now, he stands no chance against them."
"But he did beat you, a former member of Holy Swords."
"Give me a break, I was only the ninth seat, the second weakest, besides I have lost much of my strength, and those youngsters have far more talent than I ever did."
"Is that so. Then I guess it would be foolish to believe that someone at his level could possibly defeat the Unbeatable Maiden."
"The heiress of the Aristan Household? Do you mean her? Did someone finally manage to beat her?" Mekros was now a little curious. He heard of Aristan Household"s tradition, women would only wed a man who could defeat them in one on one battle. The family was a family of Sword saints, with worthy members training as Sword Maisters, with the strongest one earning the t.i.tle of the Sword Saint. They valued strength above all.
"Please pay it no heed, it is of no importance." The maid quickly bowed and proceeded to walk away.
"What a weird conversation~" Mekros remarked. It almost seemed like she only talked to him to obtain information, most likely in order to see the disparity between the strengths of people. The Unbeatable Maiden…even in his prime, Mekros knew he stood no chance against her. There was no way anyone was powerful enough to beat her…there was just no way.
As the maid hurried away, she thought to herself. "The heiress of Aristan must have made a mistake; he is nowhere near strong enough to beat her. To think that the shock made the Prince pa.s.s out, the fool just had to choose that moment to come in! If he ever endangers prince"s life I will make sure to dispose of him!" She manifested her ax and slashed it in an arc. One blow to the neck, that"s all it would take.