At the other corner of the stage, Lazarus's disciples were cackling as they enjoyed the fight.
"Not so talk-active anymore are you, Durin?" The man laughed. "Pay close attention, our lord is about to wrap things up!"
On the stage, Lazarus ducked behind Eliron's first counter attack with ease and closed the distance between them.
"You fought well for a kid, but it's over now!"
He struck, driving his blade right towards Eliron's side. But before it could graze his skin, the young lord vanished.
"What the—"
Slash!
Eliorn's sword left a narrow mark on his cloth, the sword grazing his back lightly.
The crowd was ecstatic.
— Did you see that?!
— How did he move so fast?
— He actually cut chief Lazarus!
Eliron glanced at his students and smiled.
"Listen up kids! Like I said, in a battle against a strong opponent, you must learn to manipulate them in one way or the other."
Lazarus ran his hand through his back, drawing blood. He stared at it in disbelief before taking his stance, his expression fraught with rage.
"Are you going to have a class while we fight? What insolence!"
Whoosh!
He charged forward, bringing his rapier down
In a heavy vertical slash.
"Now there is more than one way to manipulate a foe."
Eliron easily sidestepped him and knocked his swords to the side.
Then he placed his leg in between Lazarus's, driving his shoulder into his chest and knocking him to the ground.
The crowd grew silent.
'How is this possible?' Lazarus thought, taking a moment to assess the situation.
'I got knocked down?' He quickly got to his feet.
Just a few seconds ago, Eliron had completely been on the defensive. But now, he was like a completely different person.
And that darn lesson! It was the biggest insult of them all.
"You can manipulate with your words." Eliron continued as his students roared with excitement, poking fun at Lazarus's disciples.
"But manipulation with words is not always effective…." He said, years of anime and webnovel speeches flooding his head as he spoke.
The chief delivered the strongest blow he had launched since the start of the fight, but Eliron changed his position, striking at the center of the blade.
Bang!
The air cut past them, the booming sound of the clash sounding through the entire village.
Eliron glanced at his students. "That is why you have to manipulate them with your actions!"
"Your subtle gestures, your facial expression, even the way you breathe! You subtly program the mind of your opponent."
Lazarus turned back and then struck like lightning, his blade creating sparks as it screeched on the elven steel of Eliron's blade.
Eliron smiled at the chief.
"As you can see…"
Bang!
One heavy move sent the chief staggering back, his legs almost buckling from the force of the strike.
He lifted his sword to defend himself, but with one singular manoeuvre, Eliron sent the sword flying out of his hands.
"… I have manipulated this old man into thinking he was the superior foe, when in reality."
Eliron's gaze darkened as he stared at Lazarus, his look bearing a silent warning.
"We were never even on the same level…"
Lazarus smiled, letting out a light chuckle.
'I see…' he thought as he rose to his feet.
"This is your victory."
The crowd burst out in cheers and applause. And somewhere in the crowd, Artie who had been watching the match, caught up in the excitement, also began to clap.
Then when she realised it, she stopped and turned to leave.
But there was still a small smile on her face as she walked back towards her hut.
•••
Eliron sheathed his blade and was about to leave when Lazarus tapped his shoulder.
The old man smirked. "You did well, boy. Who would have known you would grow so strong so fast?"
He stroked his chin.
"Must be that divine ascension huh? Hehehe, maybe we elves finally have an equalizer." He said thoughtfully.
"Before the confluence next week… visit my hut at the edge of the forest."
'Hmm? He isn't even mad?'
Due to Eliron's first encounter with an elder, he had expected most of them to be like him.
'Maybe I shouldn't have called him an old man then…'
Eliron nodded in respect. "Thank you sir, I'll make sure I do."
If things played well, not only would he have the support of Artie, he would have the support of one of the elders as well.
The moment Chief Lazarus left, the hunters suddenly stormed towards him.
"You did it my lord!"
"You defended our honour!"
"Hahaha, you should have seen the looks on their faces!"
They said as they celebrated his victory.
'Huh, defended who's honour?' Eliron thought as he broke free of their gathering.
Ash was standing behind them with a smug smile on his face as he watched him.
Eliron smiled. "Alright, alright, settle down. We have more important things to do right now."
He had not only called the hunters just to test their skills. The hunt was in a day's time after all, there were preparations that had to be made.
They all relocated to Eliron's hut, where they sat in a circle on the lush grass.
He had a wooden slate on his hand and was drawing something on it with a block of charcoal.
The wood elves always lost someone during hunts because of how dangerous the monsters were.
But that was not the only problem they had. 'The elves are poorly armed…'
In order to suppress any rebellion, the high elves had barred the purchase of weapons in the village.
They did have a local blacksmith, but the village could not even afford the ore needed to craft weapons.
The only decent weapons the wood elves had were bows and arrows.
All they needed to make them were bountifully offered in nature, they had improved on it over the years, and now, some of the elves were stellar archers.
But when face to face with a beast, you only had so much time before you could draw and fire.
And if you missed a shot, well, God save your soul.
That was why…
He raised the slate for all of them to see. "We are going to build fifteen of these weapons and arm the hunters with them."
They were going to go a step above the regular arrow and bow.
It was time the elves experienced the joys of a crossbow!