At the sound of my signal, the fight had begun. I had expected Mordred to throw the first move, to my surprise he stood in defense, waiting for Damian to make the first move.

  The Beastman noticed this so began by punching a burst of energy towards Mordred. It must have been the [Pulse] skill I saw from his status menu. The energy he sent was rather weak though, he must have sent it more for testing out the Minotaur. Instinctively, Mordred blocked the blast with the flat end of his axe.

  As he does Damian began to rush in, using the moment to close the distance between them. Mordred expected him to throw a punch so kept his axe up to protect his upper body. Unfortunately for him, that was what Damian wanted. He readied his foot, concentrating some power into it as he delivered a strong kick at his exposed lower body.

  A small jolt of pain can be seen going through Mordred’s body, but he endured. He released his grip on his axe with one of his hands as readies a fist, preparing to counter with a punch.

  The black bear seemed to have noticed and blocked it with his arm. The force of the punch was strong, staggering Damian, who was forced to back out as he let his arm to recover. Seizing the moment Mordred began to charge back, his speed and power starting to spike. Having gotten to know his abilities the most, I knew he was using his [Bull Stampede] skill, not much could stop him at that moment, but I was curious to see how Damian would handle it.

  Damian took his stance, showing his desire not to dodge it. Instead, he began to concentrate to help him to quickly build up a collection of energy around his body before releasing it all around him, activating his [Shockwave]. Unfortunately for him, it seemed to only slow him down. His stampede wasn’t showing any signs of stopping at all!

  This took Damian by surprise, but his shocked expression quickly changed into focus as he quickly adapted to it. He decided to use Mordred’s slowed stampede to give him time to just barely dodge his charge, and before quickly sending a concentrated punch to his side, slightly altering his direction.

  Not wanting to let him take control of the fight, Mordred crashed his axe down to the ground. This caused him to stop himself in his tracks while causing the ground to crack and break around him, forcing Damian to lose his footing and stance.

  As he pulled his weapon from the ground, Mordred decided to try a bold tactic. With all his might he throws his heavy axe toward the bear. The strong momentum of his axe started to cause it to spin, which in turn created a turbulence of wind to pick up and circle the spinning metal. I wasn’t quite sure myself, but I think he created a new skill for himself, impressive to say the least.

  The force of the wind was starting to affect its surroundings, causing us spectators to barely keep our footing. Cheers can be heard from the orcs, impressed by the display of power Mordred was showing. It didn’t seem anything could stop the axe’s assault!

  Instinctively, Damian began to react by activating [Shockwave]. But having just regained his footing, he was too slow to act and couldn’t charge a strong enough force to completely stop the spinning weapon, which had picked up quite the storm, practically making a tornado. The [Shockwave] only managed to reduce the size of the wind. As the ax was still coming towards him, Damian had no choice but to catch it with his bare hands, and just barely so with the sharp edges slicing at his palms, causing blood to drip from it.

  He tossed the axe to the side, not wanting to let his opponent near his weapon. Blood was still flowing from his hands, but that didn’t seem to bother the bear one bit as he returned to his fighting stance, despite the pain of gripping his hands clearly shown through the expression on his face.

  And just like the last fight it devolved into a fist fight. Both adversaries faced each other as they charged forward, ready to have their fists connected. With Damian’s experience in using his fisticuffs, he should have the advantage. And Mordred should have known this as well from his last tussle, but yet onward he went.

  They began to trade blows and just like before, Damian was showing his skills as he avoids many of Mordred’s attacks, though Mordred’s earlier attack was making it difficult as his concentration was faltering. Each time his attacks connect, there is a show of strong impact on the bear’s body. Seeing this, Damian began to switch tactics and focused on using kicks instead, putting his focus on the areas he already landed a hit, combined with sending several pulses of energy through his hands weaker than he would usually use.

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  This seemed to be enough to push Mordred back, which further angered the Minotaur.

  “I’m…. not going to…. let you win!!” Mordred’s body starts emanating a burst of power, his expression changing from anger to unbridled rage. ….. No, he couldn’t be planning to use that!

  As if to verify my prediction, my [Game Screen] began to give me a familiar notice.

  Damn it, this was not the time and place to use that skill! Without delay I began to reinforce the log borders with [Rock] and [Iron].

  “Everyone, out of the way! Mordred’s going to go out of control!!” I loudly ordered to my minions.

  The orcs seemed rather confused but complied, while the weaker races had already begun to panic and ran off far away. Meanwhile I came inside the border, damn it I didn’t want to interrupt their fight, but it was far too risky to let this continue with [Bloody Rage] activated considering this was supposed to be a simple sparring match!

  I readied myself to stop Mordred in his place until Damian called out to me.

  “…. Hold on…. I got this…” as if to prove his point, Damian began to activate both his skills. Causing a shockwave that starts to push back the enraged Mordred all the while sending one strong pulse of energy after another, never stopping.

  It seems it’s all it can do to keep him at bay, who was already beginning to brute forcing through the barrage with his focus purely on his target, his enhanced power proving to be too much for even the Quiet Black Beast. The repeated use of his skills on top of his already exhausted state was starting to show its strain on his body, his breathing shortening and his movements starting to grow sluggish.

  It didn’t take long before Mordred grabbed his hands, squeezing them tightly as he started to push him to his knees. The blood on his hands seemed to have increased and it seemed like Damian had already reached his limit, barely able to hold his own.

  I decided that was enough and jumped in. “Alright Mordred you won!! You can stop!!”

  Pulling out my [Silver Short Sword] I pointed it at his arms and expanded the point of the blade to pierce his arms, forcing Mordred to loosen his grip on Damian. Taking the opportunity, I caused the ground on him to split making him lose his footing and slip. As he falls, I cause the ground to then reshape and wrap itself around his body.

  I knew it wouldn’t be enough to hold him down as he began to thrash around within his restraints, cracking and breaking them apart. I had to repeatedly reforge them to keep their shape, barely keeping up with its damage until Mordred finally started to show signs of his anger calming down.

  His eyes were still fixated on Damian, who was barely keeping himself conscious. Finally, after what felt like forever, Mordred finally stopped squirming. I was out of breath, it felt like I used nearly all my mana just to keep him at bay…

  He starts to come to his senses, noticing that he was currently restrained as he noticed me looking at him. He seemed to get the message that he went too far again and looked away in shame. I pulled out the extra [Healing Powder] from my [Dimensional Box] and used it on their more critical wounds. As I started off with Damian first, he began to speak to me.

  “…Don’t be too hard on him. Seems he’s going through something.”

  Hearing this, I started to wonder what he meant. But after seeing how that sparring match went it was plain to see he was right. I was planning to call him out on his usual reckless behavior, but it was obvious he already understood it. I took a deep sigh; I can probably let it slide this time.

  Once I was done, I then went to help Mordred to recover after releasing him from his binds. He looked like he wanted to say something but was struggling to do so.

  “B-boss I…-” But before he could finish his sentence, I interrupted him.

  “Good job on winning Mordred, you are my first henchman for a reason.” I stated, with a melancholy smile.

  He seemed to be taken aback a bit by my comment and was silent as I continued. “Now once you recovered, I’ll need you to carry me. I need to check up on the rest of my minions and I’m too exhausted to move right now.”

  “O-oh ok boss sure!” He looked at Damian, who was currently resting on the ground. He looked back and simply nodded, not saying another word.

  Once Mordred recovered, he put me on his shoulder while I just lay there. I noticed he seemed rather gentler with me than he usually is. That extra energy he usually exhibits was subdued and tamed at the moment as I directed him around to check up on everyone.