Apparently, there was some more politicking to be had, but I did not need to stick around for that part, so the ship we arrived on was called for us again, and my Infernals and I began our journey back to the estates we were currently calling home.

  "So, what did you think about the fight? Did you learn anything beneficial?"

  Sendoira, who was sitting next to me, observed me for a moment, her head once again tilting this way and that before she finally responded.

  "Before I answer that, can you tell me why you held back? You are both stronger and faster than what you showed today, and those special flames that you and your people love so much were nowhere to be seen. Why?"

  "It would be too easy if I did that. Since this is not a fight to the death, I wanted a proper battle, one with nothing but my ability with the spear on display."

  "Really? Would it not be better to end the battle swiftly?"

  "Perhaps if there were great stakes at play then yes, ending the battle swiftly would be a more logical decision. But this has nothing to do with logic and everything to do with my enjoyment. I love fighting, and a good fight is a fun fight, especially one with the lives of my people having nothing to do with the outcome.

  “So, I can fight without worry, without care, and just enjoy the nature of the fight itself. Of course, while I do enjoy this, it does not compare to being able to go one hundred ten percent in a battle versus an opponent also going one hundred ten percent and fighting with all that we both have to the death. But I do not mind the one we did today and the ones that are still to come."

  "I see. Thank you for answering. And to answer your first question, I did in fact learn something about the wide array of abilities that exist in the Multiverse. There is not a single person on my planet who would have moved the way you did or used water the way your opponent did.

  “We were people of war, yes, but not necessarily for one-on-one battles, and we were not a people who moved with any abundant grace or fluidity in any of our battles.

  “So, watching you fight and respond to the movements of the opponent was definitely interesting, and I think I have a long way to go before I can make our own sparring sessions a bit more fun for you."

  "I think our spars are fun enough. You are the first person I have ever fought against who has a second set of arms, and not only that, but you fight with maces in all four arms.

  “That is not something I get to experience often, and I am sure that if I ever face an opponent with a similar skill set in the future, I will have you to thank for making sure I was prepared to face them."

  "Well, if you say so, then I will not disagree. In fact, we should spar every day. That way you are as prepared as you can possibly be to face whomever or whatever comes your way. I do not think you will mind. Now the question is, can you keep up? You should know from our spars that I do not pull punches, as I don’t really believe that is good training."

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  She stopped, tilting her head and looking at me seriously, all four of her arms flexing with power as she narrowed her eyes at me.

  "You do not have to worry about me keeping up, Lord Raizen. I will be ready. Eventually, I will win."

  "Oh? And what makes you so confident?"

  "You will just have to find out now, won’t you?"

  I could see Lirian and Frian shaking their heads at Sendoira’s comments but hey I like her confidence. I just hope that it stays that high even after 1000 spars. Well like she said I’ll just have to find out.

  …

  Time passed and I suppose one could say that I indeed did not find out.

  It’s been around 3 weeks since that last battle, and well technically I’ve found out a few different things.

  First and foremost, Sendoira and I have sparred at least twice a day, every day over that timeframe. She has not beaten me a single time, but that isn’t the point.

  I think I like this woman.

  Her beautiful orange hair, her well-toned arms, the ferocity in which she swings all her maces that doesn’t match the grace and sophistication in which she speaks at all.

  And actually, even that confused me. The way she describes her people sounds like they are a bunch of uncivilized savages, not that I care but that’s the type of image she portrays when she speaks of them.

  I even asked her about it once, and I got to learn a bit more lore about their culture.

  Turns out only victors had the right to truly let loose and give in to their more ‘feral’ instincts. Those who were treated as servants had to act as such.

  So, the servants were far more ‘civilized’ than the people who ruled. And for Sendoira who lived most of her life as such, it’s basically ingrained in her personality now to talk like that.

  Anyway, we’ve grown closer and closer since she left Earth with me and even now Frian especially looks at me with a slight smirk that he removes the second he thinks I’m looking at him.

  Kids these days.

  But that’s another thing that I like.

  I’ve gotten a lot closer to both of them, and while I can’t say the same for the rest of the clan, it’s still good that most of the walls between myself and Liran and Frian have kinda gone away.

  Now if only I could do the same with Vrusha it would be great.

  Unfortunately, he’s still as stuck up as ever.

  Matters of my relationships aside, my second fight finally got chosen.

  And I was even more excited about this one than the others. Apparently, with the Princess winning this battle using an ‘outsider’ as her champion, there were a lot of requests sent to her to ‘rectify’ the stain.

  Or at least that was how it was described to me.

  Which I hoped surely meant that the next battle would truly be one that pushed me to the brink.

  They should all have knowledge against me and the ability I displayed from my first battle now, so I expected a far more prepared opponent.

  Boy, was I wrong.

  So disappointingly wrong.

  The day of the fight came, and I once again tuned out all the noise until it was time for me to get into the arena. This time it was on the planet I was currently on and located about a 5-minute flight away from the estates.

  The opponent was another male, but with light purple scales and a rapier for a weapon.

  And once the fight finally started, I made a very annoying mistake.

  I assumed since they would have knowledge about me, that they would be ready for my initial burst of speed, and I decided to change up my tactics.

  They raised their rapier towards me and probably hundreds of water droplets formed in the air, but before anything at all else happened, I used every bit of power I had in my body and just launched my spear at him.

  Of course, I didn’t expect that to hit him at all, and I was already taking off hoping to catch him off the rebound of him dodging the spear and entering something of a fist fight to really spice things up.

  Imagine my shock when some random person just appeared in front of the man and grabbed my spear out of the air.

  I paused my steps abruptly and anger threatened to rise within me.

  “Why the fuck did you do that?”