The young barbarian stepped into the center of the clearing with a confident grin, rolling his shoulders as he unslung a massive broadaxe. The head was forged from rough iron, heavy enough to shatter bone through chainmail with a single blow. Unlike the giant who had laid the challenge, the youth wore only a light leather harness and wolf-pelt pauldrons, leaving his thick, corded arms entirely exposed.
His stance was wide and rooted, showing none of the hesitation Caius expected from someone facing a two-bladed wielder.
"You are smaller than I expected," the young warrior sneered, testing the weight of his axe with a swift, quarter-circle spin. "Let's see if a soft city-dweller can hold a blade without his servants around, or if you're just another frail sheep from the southern stone huts."
Caius said nothing. He lowered his center of gravity, gripping the dark steel hilt of Nightdancer in his right hand and the sleek elven short sword in his left.
Sereth stood several paces back, leaning casually against the trunk of an ancient oak, his dark eyes unreadable.
The older barbarian raised one calloused hand, then dropped it. "Begin!"
The young warrior exploded forward. For a man of his build, his speed was terrifying. He closed the gap in two lunging strides, raising the heavy axe overhead and bringing it down in a vertical strike meant to split Caius from crown to groin.
Caius did not attempt to block the heavy iron. He triggered the Flow Step, circulating a thread of mana from his black core through his legs. The air hissed beneath his boots as he pivoted sharply to the left.
The axe blade sheared through the air and slammed into the earth, spraying dirt and frozen gravel across the clearing.
Capitalizing on the miss, Caius darted inward. His left blade flicked toward the barbarian’s exposed armpit, but the youth reacted with brutal instinct. Rather than pulling the axe back, he shoved the wooden shaft sideways, using the butt of the weapon as a shield to slap Caius’s elven blade aside.
The impact reverberated up Caius's arm.
Before Caius could reset, the barbarian whipped the axe head back around in a low, vicious horizontal hook aimed at his ribs.
Caius dropped beneath the sweeping iron. Crossing his blades in an X-guard, he caught the wooden haft just beneath the axe head with Nightdancer while thrusting his left blade directly at the warrior’s throat.
The young barbarian twisted his torso back, the tip of Caius's short sword grazing his neck, drawing a thin line of red.
The barbarian growled, disengaging with a swift kick aimed at Caius’s chest. Caius took the blow on his forearm, absorbing the momentum to leap backward three paces, his boots sliding through the crisp leaves.
The youth wiped the smear of blood from his throat, his arrogant grin melting into a snarling sneer. He was far more skilled than Caius had anticipated. His footwork was grounded, and he knew precisely how to leverage the weight and reach of his weapon to control the space between them.
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"Not bad for a civilized dog," the barbarian muttered.
He surged forward again, but this time he altered his rhythm. He executed a whirlwind sequence of rapid, alternating diagonal slashes, the broad axe humming as it cut the cold air.
Left, right, high, low.
Caius was forced onto the retreat. The heavy blows carried immense force; parrying them directly was impossible without shattering his own wrists. Caius relied entirely on lightness and precision, using the elven short sword to deflect the flat of the axe head just enough to throw off its trajectory, while using Nightdancer to threaten counter-thrusts into any open gap.
Steel clashed against iron in a rhythmic cadence of sparks.
Clang! Clang-clang!
The barbarian swung a low, sweeping strike aimed at Caius’s knees. Caius leaped over the blade, activating Flow Step mid-air to alter his descent. He landed lightly behind the warrior, his shadow merging with the gloom of the canopy.
For a fraction of a second, the young barbarian lost track of him.
Caius reappeared at his flank. His right blade, Nightdancer, thrust toward the warrior's shoulder, binding the axe haft as the barbarian desperately raised it to defend.
That was the trap.
With the barbarian's main guard bound by Nightdancer, Caius’s left blade glided beneath the axe shaft. Using a quick wrist snap, Caius reversed his grip on the elven short sword and brought the edge slashing upward across the barbarian's forearms before pressing the cold tip firmly against the youth's exposed throat.
The clearing went dead silent.
The young warrior froze, the broadaxe suspended uselessly in his grip. He stared down at the dark metal pressed against his windpipe, his chest heaving.
Caius held the stance for two quiet heartbeats, then smoothly stepped back and lowered both blades.
The older barbarian raised a thick arm. "Enough!"
The young warrior looked down at his arm, where blood was welling from a shallow slash, dripping onto his fur-trimmed boots. His hands trembled slightly with a mix of shock and frustration.
"You could have opened my throat," the youth muttered, looking at Caius with disbelief.
"I had no reason to kill you," Caius said, stepping back to sheath his twin swords.
The older barbarian stepped forward, examining the wound on the youth's arm before giving a single, approving nod. "He will live to swing his axe another day."
He turned his gaze toward Caius, the earlier mockery completely gone from his eyes, replaced by stern scrutiny. "You do not move like a soft city-dweller. You move like a shadow." He glanced at Sereth. "You taught him dark elf forms?"
Sereth offered a rare, faint smirk. "Only the basics."
The giant grunted, crossing his massive arms. He had expected a weak boy from the stone cities; instead, he had watched a disciplined fighter combine supernatural footwork with the fluid, deadly leverage of dual blades.
Reaching into a pouch at his belt, the older barbarian pulled out a narrow bracelet made of braided rawhide, threaded with a single, carved stone bead. He tossed it toward Caius.
Caius caught it easily, inspecting the smooth, white bead. "What is this?"
"A mark of passage," the giant said. "Each warrior you survive earns you a bead."
"Why white?" Caius asked.
The older barbarian looked back toward the defeated youth, who was wrapping a strip of linen around his wounded arm. "The white stone marks a Blooded warrior. One who has spent a full year in real battle, who has shed blood, suffered wounds, and survived. You fought a proven fighter today, boy."
Caius looked down at the single white bead resting in his palm. He had known the young warrior was fast, but he had not realized he was facing a veteran of the northern skirmishes. The victory suddenly carried far more weight.
Caius slid the rawhide band around his left wrist, pulling the knot tight.
The giant warrior turned back toward the tree line, his heavy cloak swishing against the brush. "Rest while you can, human. Tomorrow, we test you again."
Caius watched the barbarians vanish into the shadow of the canopy. Four days remained, four more Blooded warriors stood between him and the frozen north, and deep within his chest, the black core pulsed in quiet anticipation.