BANG!BANG!BANG!BANG
In an empty training room, loud bangs were heard which echoed across the empty desolate training room.
Except for Lucas, no one was training for such late hours. It was already 1 AM and everyone would be in their bed having sweet dreams.
But Lucas stood before a dummy and punched again and again giving many ferocious punches one after another.
He kept on hammering and punching with all his might as if this dummy was his natural enemy and had pissed him off.
Lucas's body was drenched in sweat and looked as if he just come out of his bath after taking a shower.
The training room suddenly opened and Harris walked in and seeing Lucas punching the dummy, he dashed towards him and placed his hand on his forehead.
"Hein!Sir Harris, what happened?" Lucas asked with a surprised expression seeing Harris rushing towards him.
"Lucas are you alright?" He asked with a questioning gaze.
"Do you have a fever or did you take the wrong medicine?" Harris asked in a worried tone.
"No, but why do you think that something is wrong with me," Lucas asked.
"Because you are practising boxing instead of swordsmanship."
"For a sword maniac like you, it is quite unusual."
"Ohh!"Lucas exclaimed as he understood from where Harris was coming and laughed.
Lucas chucked on hearing Harris's words and spoke"I am not training in real sense."
Harris blinked a couple of times and observed Lucas from head to toe.
He was panting heavily and his body was drenched in sweat.
His knuckles were red with a bruise and seemed to be in bad shape.
While the metals on a training dummy which was plain before appeared to have many small dents on it.
Seeing it, Harris can see that Lucas might have punched it more than ten thousand times today.
No in fact he had lost the track of time and would have kept on punching for only God knows how much time.
Lucas observed Harris's expression which changed from time to time and understood what was going on and explained.
He went towards the seat at the end of the room and drank some little water and spoke"Actually, I am feeling quite nervous and can't sleep so I decide to practice something."
"Swinging sword would put too much pressure on the shoulder blades and muscles so I decided to do a short punch but I lost the track of time while doing it and instead of light punch kept on punching with my full strength.," Lucas spoke and smiled bitterly.
Harris chuckled on hearing Lucas's words.
"I agree with your words."
"Fighting in the final is a different thing and it is worse when you are up against the person who seems to lead the current generation in the First Year Of Horizon."
"Every year there will be many geniuses who will come to Horizon every year but a monster like generally appear in the decade"
"Even I have gone through certain fights where there are no chances of winning and became nervous, so I understand how you feel.'
Lucas's lips twitched uncontrollably on hearing Harris's words.
'Is he motivating me or demotivating me by saying indirectly that I have no chance against Frederick.'Lucas muttered inwardly.
Lucas shook away the thought and pondering for a moment asked Harris"Did you reach the semi-final when you were im Horizon?"
Harris's eyeball widened at the sudden question and he started at Lucas for a moment.
Lucas asked this question to know more about the person who was known as a blood fiend.
Since he was a minor side character who just exists to power up the protagonists or to save him in one or two scenarios they weren't any mention of him.
That was what makes a novel different from real life.
In the novel, though there are countless characters only 1 per cent of them had a background detail while in real life like this each person has his own story, has his hardships, have his problems and fight.
Just as his future self said, "Everyone is the protagonist of their own story, hero of their struggle fight, champion of their battle."
A person like Charles who was going to become a Villain changes his character and conquered his inner desires and finds rays of light to become good is no different from the protagonist like Fredrick from Lucas's point of view.
That's what Lucas like in the new world.
Different strands of stories and fate intertwine to create a new heroic and epic story.
While Lucas looked at Harris thinking about things deeply, Harris mistakes his gaze as if the boy was really curious about it.
Harris scratched his head and spoke, "I am not from Cyprus."
"Ohhh!" Lucas exclaimed with a surprised look as he got vital information that the legendary blood fiend is not from Cyprus.
"Then from which Kingdom are you from?" Lucas asked with a curiosity
"I am from Ralph."
"Woah!Ralph." Lucas spoke with surprise.
There is one thing that no one can deny about Ralph, which is the real powerhouse of the human continent.
A continent with rich ancestral history having tons of powerhouse. That's the Kingdom of Ralph for you.
"Let's leave it. So where are we?" Harris shook the thought and spoke.
"As you see it's not about winning that matters, it's
about giving out your all."
"I am sure you used to spare with Fredrick before and knew how much gap exists between both of you. Now, if you can narrow the gap, even if for a little bit, you should think as a victory." Harris spoke.
Lucas heard Harris's words and pondered carefully. Listening to advice and feeling the things are entirely different matters.
If speeches could change the perspective easily then the world would have been already a better place from the begin it.
Still, he was thankful that Harris decided to take some time for him.
"By the way, Lucas what are you going to do about the sword now that it got destroyed. Do you have any spare swords?"
On hearing Harris's question, Lucas laughed bitterly and shook his head.
"I don't. I will borrow a sword for tomorrow from someone and purchase a sword after the tournament."Lucas spoke with grief.
His sword had suffered too much abuse that finally, it was unable to tolerate any more abuse.
" I have a spare sword. You can borrow it."Harris spoke.
Lucas's eyes sparkled as he thought about the value of the sword Harris will give.
'It must be a B ranked sword. Fighting with a B ranked sword will surely give me an edge.'
While Lucas was lost in his thoughts, fantasizing about his new sword.Since the blood fiend carried it must be a good sword.
But contrary to his expectations, as soon as Harris pulled out the sword from the storage ring, Lucas felt as if the world had lost its colour and spun around.
Looking at the sword, Lucas wanted to scream"What kind of shit is this?"
"Wait! Why are you going me this stick instead of this stick?"
BANG!
Before Lucas could complain more, Harris have a chop on his forehead and spoke"Listen to me first."
The blade of the sword didn't seem to be sharp at all and it was full of rust, the hilt of the sword seemed to be in tatters.
The sword looked as if it had been abused for centuries. It was just begging for himself to stop using it.
Lucas was sure that the sword can't even be used for chopping vegetables.
Lucas looked at the sword and then Harris and then his gaze rotated between the two and he asked"Mr Harris are you kidding me."
Harris smiled bitterly after seeing Lucas's exaggerated reaction" Lucas, don't go by its appearance. It's used to be a good sword."
Lucas's lips twitched uncontrollably on hearing Harris's words and as he said, it used to be a good sword.
Yes.....used to be...But Not right now.
Harris raised his sword and moved toward Lucas and said"Although this sword had become a little dull and old. But believe me, in terms of hardness it is comparable to A ranked sword."
Lucas's burrows furrowed and he clenched the hilt of the sword.
But as soon as he touched the hilt of the sword, a current passed through him.
"Ouch!" Lucas exclaimed and dropped the sword.
"What wa that!"Lucas asked curiously as he felt his hands going numb due to shock and a small cut appeared on his palm
" That's maybe the remaining mana of mine. I will remove it."Harris spoke and took out the sword which glowed for an instant.
"Here!"
Lucas took the sword and as he slid his finger, true to Harris's words the metal was quite tough.
The blade may be dull but Lucas can use his mana and semi aura to sharpen it. Moreover, its hardness would help a lot.
Lucas put back the sword in his ring and went back after thanking Harris.
Harris wiped off the sweat from his forehead seeing Lucas back.
Ami appeared beside Harris and spoke with a smile"I didn't think that you would let go of that sword."
Harris smiled, bitterly and spoke, "It was going to be his one day, it doesn't matter if he gets it a little before."
"I am just excited to see how he will perform tomorrow. Maybe with the blessing of God, he can waken the true power of the sword." Harris spoke with a smile.
