Duel

It was not until breakfast that the man who had been strung up was finally let down. He was trembling all over, whether from rage or because the rain had carried away what little body heat he had left, no one knew.

The instant his companions tried to support him, the man shook off their arms and charged at Heka, who was swinging a wooden sword beneath the sunlight.

The person who had been meant to help him up wanted to step forward and stop that hothead, but Deko, who had appeared there at some unknown time, blocked him.

"Let him vent, then pull them apart."

Deko turned to leave, but before he had fully turned around, he heard a cry of pain. Then nearly everyone in the square turned to look over.

The tall, brawny young man no longer carried his earlier fierce momentum. Now, he could only limp after the boy ahead of him, who darted and dodged with nimble ease.

Heka lowered his center of gravity slightly and swung his sword the instant the inside of the man's elbow entered his sight.

Though it was only a wooden sword and had no edge, its 20% damage bonus remained. A red welt instantly appeared where Kaso had been struck, then immediately began to swell.

Heka swiftly jumped back, avoiding the arm the other man swung at him.

Kaso had completely lost his head by now. The voices around him had all turned into mockery.

They seemed to have grown drills, relentlessly boring into his skull, as if they meant to squeeze his eyeballs out and snap his jawbone apart.

His body, once light and agile, had become as heavy as if filled with lead after a night of wind and rain, while the boy in front of him remained impossible to catch no matter how he tried.

After his arm was struck again, the interference of pain made Kaso's movements falter. The momentum he carried then dragged him toward the ground.

Originally, he could have steadied himself, even in his severely weakened state.

But not long ago, that little brat had taken advantage of his inattention and chopped him across the thigh with his sword. Even now, he was still limping.

Seeing that his opponent was about to fall, Heka immediately stepped forward and grabbed the man's sleeve with one hand. Then, beneath the man's slightly startled yet expectant gaze, he viciously yanked him forward.

Kaso immediately crashed to the ground and ate a mouthful of dirt. Heka swiftly retreated beyond the reach of his arms, then looked innocently at Deko, who had settled back into place to watch this comical spectacle.

By now, Heka had roughly figured out that an ordinary adult man's various attributes should hover around 1.000, with slight fluctuations due to training, nutrition, and race.

Over the past few days, he had also watched some Black Mountain people spar with one another here. Most of them were less agile than him, but their strength and speed far surpassed his own.

Using them as a standard, Heka felt that the strength and speed of that so-called First-Level Adventurer he had killed before were probably around 1.5, perhaps even higher.

"He started trouble with me first."

Heka returned the wooden sword to the groom responsible for keeping it. As he passed through the crowd, quite a few people shed their usual indifference and became much friendlier toward him.

Before Heka even reached him, the groom took two steps forward and proactively held out his hand to receive Heka's wooden shortsword.

The Black Mountain people revered strength. Having watched plenty of duels and sparring matches these days, Heka had already learned that much.

They seemed to take one-on-one duels very seriously, sometimes even using them to settle conflicts. That was why Heka had chosen to fight back when Kaso attacked him instead of directly running behind Deko, who was right nearby.

"I know."

Deko looked Heka up and down. The child had clearly been toying with his opponent just now; he could see that much.

But even after Kaso had been strung up for an entire day, he was still an adult Black Mountain warrior who had undergone training.

Any Black Mountain warrior they brought out from their homeland was at least a Near First-Level Adventurer. Even weakened, he should not have been reduced to such a sorry state against a child.

"According to our agreement, you have to guarantee the personal safety of me and my little brother. Can you send this guy away?"

"Yes."

Deko's decisive answer caught Heka off guard. His openly stated demand had been intended as a bargaining chip.

He had merely wanted to secure a little room to move around and, while he was at it, probe the bottom line of the Black Mountain Merchants. He had not expected them to swallow this price raised on the spot without hesitation.

"He'll be sent out on assignment afterward. The people following you will be switched to those few."

Deko gave the people at the side a look, and two men with cloaks draped over their breastplates stepped out from the crowd.

As for Kaso, who was struggling to crawl up from the ground and preparing to keep pestering Heka, several people simply hoisted him up.

Just as Heka was hesitating over whether, after the other side had agreed to such an excessive request, continuing to bring up reimbursement funds would make him seem like he was given an inch and wanted a mile—

An old man with graying temples but a still-broad, upright frame came to the suspended Kaso's side. He reached out and removed a pendant from the young man's neck, then walked over to Heka.

Heka shifted his gaze slightly, only to see that scar-faced Deko had already gone far away. He could only face this burly man himself, a man who completely blocked out the sunlight before him.

"Black Mountain rules: the victor of a duel may choose one piece of spoils from the loser."

"I haven't lost yet. Let me go..."

Kaso struggled with all his strength, only to receive a cold glance from the old man.

The old man loosened the pendant, and the thumb-sized silver wolf fang dropped into Heka's hand.

"He has one more chance to challenge you. If he fails, we will pay a sum to redeem him. Of course, you may also refuse, kill him outright, or make him a slave."

The old man turned away. The edge of his cloak, fashioned from a single piece of worked leather, carried a faint smell of blood.

Heka pressed his lips together and tucked the pendant into his clothes.

If he skipped over now, hung the pendant back around Kaso's neck, and then said, "Uncle, uncle, my mother told me not to accept things from strangers," the man would probably explode on the spot.