Chapter 356 The Strength Of Lords (1/2)

Kadun came at Rannoc in a furious rush, raising the Living Shadow sword as if he wanted to finish his opponent in a single blow.

Yet where Kadun seemed overtaken with anger, Rannoc showed not even the slightest sign of excitement. Instead, his movements were steady and deliberate as he took a defensive position and braced himself for the attack.

Then, Kadun was upon Rannoc. Or rather, upon his weapon — because while Kadun held a sword, Rannoc wielded an eight-foot glaive with a reach far greater than his opponent's weapon.

Eager though Kadun might be to strike down his foe, to do so he would first need to get past the glaive's long blade — and that put him in range of Rannoc's attacks.

For well over a minute, the two Lords exchanged blows, with Kadun fighting ferociously to break through Rannoc's guard. He attacked again and again, his sword clashing with the glaive as he struggled to create an opening.

Rannoc's superior reach was no small advantage, however. The tall Lord met his opponent's furious offensive with calm and precision, the blade of his weapon constantly moving and denying Kadun even the slightest opening.

Whenever Kadun attacked, it wasn't long before he found himself in range of the massive glaive. And before Rannoc's powerful strikes, he was inevitably forced to retreat.

It was obvious that the two were expert warriors. Both had a level of skill that could only be earned through a lifetime of practice and experience, and although their styles were wholly different, neither seemed the least bit weaker than the other.

Still, as Arran observed the two, he could not stop a frown from appearing on his face.

While the Lords fought with a level of skill that was far beyond his own, what he saw was somehow less than he'd expected.

They clearly were stronger than the Knight he'd faced with Kaleesh, but the difference only appeared to be a modest one. And while their movements held the power of insights, Arran saw no sign of anything resembling true insights.

They were a bit stronger and faster than the Knight had been, but that hardly seemed to justify their differences in status.

Yet as the fight continued, Arran gradually began to feel that something was off about it. There was something subtly unnatural about the Lords' movements, a subtle shimmering in the air around them that was unlike anything Arran had ever seen before.

Suddenly, his eyes went wide, as he finally understood what he was witnessing.

"This isn't possible," he said softly, shock written across his face.

"But it's real," Kaleesh replied in a tense voice. "Watch closely."

Arran nodded silently, eyes fixed on the two fighting Lords before them as he tried to find an explanation for what he saw.

When the Lords moved, shimmering images of their weapons flickered in the air for a fraction of a second, briefly appearing in numerous places before disappearing again an instant later.

Each time they matched blades, it was as if, for a moment, a dozen different exchanges teetered on the edge of becoming real. And each time, only one of those became reality.

Yet in the two Lords movements, Arran saw that they reacted not just to the other's actual actions, but also to all the blurry movements that never fully materialized. With each attack, they assaulted a dozen defenses, and with each defense, they blocked a dozen attacks.

The blurry flickers were so brief as to be all but invisible, but now that Arran knew they were there, he had no doubt that they were real.

The sight left him completely dumbfounded.

Even with magic, what he saw should be all but impossible. Yet somehow, the Lords accomplished it — and without magic, since there wasn't the slightest trace of Essence to be Sensed.

He suspected that it was somehow related to their insights, but how, he could not say.

There was no time to give it more thought, either, because while he watched in astonishment, he saw that the tide of battle was shifting — and not in a good way.

At first, the change was a subtle one. While the reach on Rannoc's weapon had given him a slight advantage at the start of the fight, it wasn't long before that advantage disappeared.

While neither Kadun nor Rannoc scored any hits on the other, it seemed that each exchange eroded some of Rannoc's previous advantage, leaving him in a worse position every time the two crossed blades.

Kadun, meanwhile, clearly sensed his shifting fortunes. And as he saw victory looming on the horizon, he attacked with even greater fury than before, increasing the pressure on his opponent with vicious glee.

Arran understood that Rannoc had intentionally provoked Kadun earlier, but now, he began to wonder if that had been a mistake.

Although Kadun was still red-faced with rage, it was becoming increasingly clear that his anger had not made him the least bit careless.

He attacked furiously and viciously, but even so, his attacks were careful and deliberate. If Rannoc's provocation had achieved anything, it was to give Kadun a burning rage to draw upon for energy.