Tale Of A Knight 41 Volume 3: Chapter 6: Dojo Challenger?

Apprentice Swordsman Rule #1: Do everything to survive.

Since Bakit became Sword Lord's apprentice, Zenjuro drilled in many essential rules into Bakit's brain through constant repet.i.tion.

To survive, food, water, and shelter were necessary.

Bakit had money, so he could take care of the first two, but the third one would be a little tricky.

On his way into the city, he ended up stumbling across a certain dojo, which according the people in the streets was run by a veteran warrior, a former knight who now taught swordsmans.h.i.+p to anyone willing to learn.

The name of the master of the Dojo was Raul Greyhound.

He taught regardless of social cla.s.s, not charging anything to poor people and even offering them food and shelter.

But because of this, most of the upper cla.s.s folk thought of his dojo as a waste of time and were actively trying to oppress it.

Many n.o.blemen have challenged the dojo. If they won in a duel, the dojo would end up being destroyed. But thanks to the daughter of the master, the dojo had remained safe until now.

Nearly all of his students were children of peasants or villagers that simply wanted to have a chance to survive in this dangerous world.

The best student in the dojo, by far, was the daughter of the master, Armina Greyhound.

She was a tomboy by all definitions of the word. She had short dark blue hair and brown eyes. And much to her annoyance, she was blessed with beauty that captured the eyes of many men.

There were many men who proposed to her, she kept rejecting them, but like bees drawn to honey, they kept persisting.

Due to this, she declared that she will never marry a man who cannot best her in a one on one combat.

Ever since then, every week someone would come into the dojo, intent on challenging her, but so far, not a single man managed to defeat her.

'Can these stuck up n.o.bles give it a rest already? Nearly every single day, they keep challenging me to a duel…I am not some prize! I am a human being!'

'Even father is telling me I should settle down soon. I just hate this. I simply want to become a great swordsman. That has was always my dream. My true purpose'

'I wish I had been born a man'

Armina couldn't help but think.

Just like that, yet another day had come. It was time for her to face her latest opponent.

Yet another son of a n.o.bleman tried in vain to challenge her.

As per the rules of the dojo, the duel was done with wooden swords.

This son of n.o.bleman claimed that he could best her and make her his concubine, by force if necessary.

And the result?

She wiped the floor with him and threw him out of the dojo.

With his body mangled and bruised, he ended up p.i.s.sing himself. A truly disgraceful sight for all eyes to see.

It was a rather humiliating experience for the n.o.bleman's son.

He swore that he would come back for revenge.

Sadly enough, this routine became an everyday thing for Armina.

Each time, a different one showed up, and so far, every single one left disappointed in their inability to defeat a 'mere girl'.

'I will shape my own destiny. None else shall decide my fate.'

'I will not let any man defeat me'

As the students sat down, she noticed that among them was a strange looking young man.

He had an eyepatch on his right eye, a headband wrapped around his forehead, and a gauntlet on his right hand.

Overall, he looked like a man with childish delusions or maybe just some weirdo.

'He could be yet another challenger. With ridiculous fas.h.i.+on like that, he must be some overconfident fool. If that's the case, I need to make my message loud and clear.'

"You!" she pointed her wooden sword at him.

"Yes?" Bakit was a little confused why she suddenly pointed her weapon at him.

"Stand up!"

Bakit did exactly as he was told.

"We might as well get this over sooner than later."

She tossed him a wooden sword. It fell near his feet.

Seeing that he was not grabbing his weapon, she declared.

"Take that sword and face me!"

'What is her problem? The only reason I came into this dojo is because they were offering free soup'

Nevertheless, Bakit proceeded to grab the wooden sword with his left hand.

"Wielding your sword left handed? Are you mocking me?!"

"Not sure what to say to that. By the way, is this a fight?"

"Of course, it's a fight! After I beat you, make sure to tell all your masters to stay the h.e.l.l away from this dojo!" she a.s.sumed Bakit was working on behalf of n.o.blemen in a vain attempt to get back at her.

"Uhm, whatever you say. By the way, should I hold back?"

"Holding back? Are you joking? I shall not hold back and neither should you!"

"Good to know" Still, Bakit decided not to use his full strength, otherwise, this fight would be over before it even began.

At the very least, he now knew that this crazy chick challenged him to a sword fight for some weird reason.

What she couldn't have known was that she picked the worst possible opponent.

"Begin!" the master of the dojo declared.

With a war cry, she proceeded to attack him.

Their swords clashed against each other, but in that moment, Armina felt her sword break in the place it was struck at.

She barely avoided being struck by his wooden sword by ducking down.

'It was just a fluke; the wood must have rotted away'

She grabbed another wooden sword and rushed forward to attack again.

But much to her surprise, he blocked her attack by making minimal amount of movement.

What was strange was the fact that he only wielded his sword with his left hand.

He was holding his right hand behind his back.

"Don't underestimate me!"

She couldn't have known that his right hand was actually just an enchanted gauntlet placed on a stump and that he opponent was a cripple.

She attacked his legs, his torso, and his head with multiple attacks, but each time, her sword strike would be stopped by a solid impact upon a wooden sword.

This dance of their continued on for a couple of minutes, with Armina relentlessly pressing on him with her attacks, but this man…he kept blocking her attacks.

'She is fast. But compared to wind spirits, she is far slower'

Bakit, who got used to the unnatural speed of wind spirits, found his opponent to be much easier to handle.

She was far stronger than a knight, roughly at the level of a Holy Knight.

What Bakit did not realize, however, was the fact that his teacher, Sword Lord was a Legendary Hero level warrior.

If the levels of warriors could be measured, they would be Knight, Holy Knight, and Hero. Each level divided into sub levels: low tier, mid-tier, and high tier.

But Legendary Hero was a level higher than the high tier hero.

Each of the members of the 10 Holy Swords were at the level of a hero. So, overall, Tazak Kingdom had ten heroes protecting it.

Due to the fact that Sword Lord trained him, Bakit was now roughly a low tier hero level warrior, even with just one hand.

His skills were literally a level higher than that of Armina's.

Because of this, he found himself rather bored with their 'duel'.

'I might as well finish this'

With a single swipe of his sword, he disarmed her.

"Are we done here?"

Her expression was bitter.

"One more time!"

She grabbed her sword and challenged him again.

"As you wish" Bakit was not sure where this fight was going, but at the very least, he was getting his daily dose of exercise.

Not wis.h.i.+ng to prolong their duel, after a few minutes of sparring, Bakit made a decisive move.

The second round ended with Bakit sending her flying with a small air slash.

He made sure that it would only make a rough impact rather than cut her in half.

But he must have put in too much force, because she was now struggling to stand up.

"Checkmate" He walked up to her and pointed his sword at her throat.

Reluctantly she acknowledged her loss.

"I give"

"In that case, I better get going. I got held up here long enough"

As Bakit was about to leave, the master of the dojo called out to him.

"Young man! Could you please wait? Please have some tea before you go"

"Please don't tell me you are going to challenge me too?"

"Worry not, I have no such intention"

"In that case, I shall gladly oblige" Bakit changed his mind rather quickly.

Free food and drinks are always welcome.

The master of the dojo, his daughter, and Bakit sat down at the table.

"Here you go" Dojo master offered the cup of tea to Bakit.

"Thank you" Bakit took a sip of the tea, and much to his surprise, he found the taste to be rather calming and enjoyable.

"Jasmine blossom tea. It sure is nice, is it not?"

"It truly is. Thank you"

Now that everyone calmed down while drinking tea, Dojo Master asked.

"Young man, my name is Raul Greyhound, I am the master of this dojo. What would your name be?"

"I am Bakit, just Bakit. I am kind of new in this city"

"Oh, so you are a newcomer, huh? On what business have you come to this city of Loren?"

"I came here to become an adventurer, at least I hope so"

"Interesting choice for an occupation. But may I ask…What style of swordsmans.h.i.+p have you been practicing?"

"Style? What is that?"

"For example, my dojo teaches the basics of swordsmans.h.i.+p, following the style of Water."

"I see. Sorry, I was not even aware there was such thing as the Swordsmans.h.i.+p style before you told me. I only know what my master had taught me. If I had to guess, I would say it would be style of Wind."

"Is that so? Then, if it is not a secret, what is the name of your honorable teacher?"

"His name is Zen, I mean Zenjuro"

At the moment, the tea cup the master of the dojo was holding ended up falling on the floor.

"C-c-could it be….Z-z-zenjuro T-t-tamaraki?" He hesitantly asked.

"Yep, that's him."

"No way….You are his apprentice?!"

"Uhm, yeah. What the big deal? Aah!"

The face of the dojo master had gone really pale all of a sudden, and he was s.h.i.+vering uncontrollably.

'I wonder why whenever I mention Master Zen's name, everyone has such weird reactions?'