Jurao went about his usual duties for the rest of the morning - and met with his grandmother after the midday meal for a duel. Hearing his pns, Ayelma and Mesaes chose to come watch the match as well - though Aya asked if Jurao would wait for her to try and find Petty Prince Kylse, which Jurao agreed to.

  “Shame your aunt doesn’t make weapons by request,” Raoyl stated, eyeing her grandson’s swords as he entered the training ring.

  “My best friend Feyl is her apprentice,” Jurao replied, “He would likely be happy to make you something.”

  “Ena says his crossbows and daggers are damn good quality, so I certainly wouldn’t be opposed!” Raoyl ughed. Then she turned with a zy grin to say, “And good afternoon, Mesaes.”

  Jurao’s uncle chuckled nervously, tucking some stray hair behind his ear before replying, “Good afternoon, Raoyl. It’s… been some time.”

  “Don’t get flustered before you even see me in action again, kid,” Raoyl snorted.

  Mesaes’s face darkened with a blush as he chuckled again.

  Devae - Jurao’s young cousin who had been waiting with Raoyl - gave the older man an unimpressed look. Like their mother, they were a trollish demon with bck hair, which they wore cropped short and shaved on the sides; common of Beast Hunters. Unlike Ena, they had jade green skin, and while they had banded markings like Ena and Raoyl, theirs were lic to Ena’s red and Raoyl’s pink.

  Raoyl shook her head in amusement as she and Jurao walked further into the field, unsheathing her own swords.

  “I heard from Omarri that our sword style may have human origins,” the Demon King said, the motion reminding him.

  “It does,” Raoyl replied, “It’s from a pre-Imperial nation that was called Valkhine. One of the ones the False Kings conquered - the st royal in the line ended up as one of the First Champion’s Nine Reborn.”

  “I am not familiar with the Nine Reborn,” Jurao said, tilting his head.

  “You look like your vaokis,” Raoyl snorted, then said, “We can have a history lesson after the match, yeah?”

  “I have been teaching the Mafokuraes style to my partner’s sister,” Jurao said, “She asked if we would wait for her to collect another young man that could benefit from watching the match.”

  “Ah, yeah, fair enough,” Raoyl shrugged, sticking her swords into the dusty ground before continuing, “In that case - the Nine Reborn in Holy Fme were the deposed human royals who summoned the First Champion to expel the Seven False Kings - he granted them all a portion of his power to fight with. Artidoros Valkhine was one of them - except he didn’t really agree with the idea that demons are evil. Probably because he had a demon wife and all - Uja Mafokuraes.”

  “How do you know all this,” Jurao asked.

  “We’ve been passing down the story through the Mafokuraes line,” Raoyl replied, “Not really a secret, just not important to other Beast Hunters, you know? You saw the Mafokuraes swords Ena has, right?”

  “Yes,” Jurao replied.

  His grandmother nodded and said, “Old Artie had two wives - Uja and a human woman named Thedora. By the time Artidoros realized the First Champion was going to push things much further than reciming lost kingdoms, it was too te for him to back out. So he thought it would be better to stay close instead. The Champion performed a ritual to time lock the Nine Reborn with him until ‘Judgement Day’ for the Demon Realm,” she rolled her eyes, “and Uja and Thedora came back here with the kids that would join them.

  “Uja appealed to Soken to seal her and Thedora’s souls into swords,” Raoyl said, “So that when their husband was finally unsealed, they could be around to greet him. Soken was pretty clear that the swords would need continued use to keep their souls alive, and Uja and Thedora trusted their family to pass them down.”

  “They did feel strangely alive when I held them,” Jurao said.

  His grandmother nodded, “Use them long enough, and you start to feel little nudges. You’ll never be able to directly communicate, but they’ve probably kept our sword style exactly the same as it was fifty thousand years ago, guiding the hands of the Mafokuraes Heads through the millennia.”

  “So I have to take lessons from old dead dies and the live ones?” Devae asked loudly.

  Raoyl ughed, “Sure do, kid! At least the dead ones can’t smack you when you get your guard wrong.”

  “Sorry to keep you waiting!” Ayelma said, joining Mesaes and Devae while dragging Kylse behind her - his beastly demon guard not far behind with Aya’s guard.

  “I never mind waiting for someone who wants to learn,” Raoyl chuckled, pulling her swords up. She added, “You and Devae could spar when we’re done - I’m sure the boy has King shit to do, but I was going to train them anyway.”

  “I would love that!” Aya grinned, jumping onto the bottom rung of the cy fence marking the training ring to better see over the top. She leaned forward to look at Devae around Mesaes and added, “I’m Ayelma, by the way.”

  “Nice to beat you,” Devae said, then smirked as they added, “I mean, meet you.”

  “We’ll see about that!” Aya replied, turning her attention back to Jurao and Raoyl.

  “She has spirit,” Raoyl said, stepping back and into a starting stance, “Good.”

  Jurao drew his swords and did the same.

  Beast Hunters did not use a count to start a duel. While beasts were not unpredictable, as many thought, they could still surprise hunters for any number of reasons. To keep themselves sharp for subtle signs of attack, Beast Hunters considered a spar started once all parties had drawn their weapons.

  Raoyl moved first - faster than Jurao expected, though still well within his capabilities to respond. He waited to do so until the st possible moment - and his grandmother still dodged his ssh with a jumping spin that sent her tail club aiming for his head.

  Jurao dropped one of his swords to a lower hand to catch the club and was rewarded with a kick to the face.

  Raoyl hit the ground with a grunt when Jurao did not release her tail, then ughed and said, “Not even a flinch, huh?”

  “I think your tail strike would have nded before I Ascended,” Jurao replied, releasing the appendage.

  His grandmother gave his shin a kick to try and unbance him - to equal unsuccess. With a snort, Raoyl got to her feet and called out, “Devae, to me. You can help if you want to, girl.”

  Aya grinned as she unched herself over the fence, drawing her fae metal swords as she reached Raoyl.

  Devae jumped the fence more sedately, lower hands on the hilts of their swords as they asked, “You’re asking for help already, old dy?”

  “It can’t be fun for Jurao if it’s that one-sided,” Raoyl replied. She grinned at the King before asking, “Unless you mind, boy.”

  “I do not,” Jurao replied, tail swaying as he retook his stance. He did prefer group spars for that reason, and knew it would help his Beast Hunter cousin learn to work as a team against a stronger opponent.

  “Use the meteor hammer,” Raoyl said to her great-grandchild.

  “Nevve said that was Vaokis’s favorite,” Jurao said.

  “Sure was,” Raoyl agreed, “Erei sure came up with a weapon that packs a fucking punch. Gd she brought it into the bands; it’s a fine addition to our stores.”

  Devae pulled an iron ivy rope - which had the strength of a metal chain - with weights attached to either end from their belt. They gave the weights a few test swings before nodding to their great-grandmother.

  “We don’t do counts in Beast Hunter spars,” Raoyl told Ayelma, “When I go, you go.”

  “Understood!” Ayelma said, still grinning as she settled into the Mafokuraes starting stance. She’d already encased the edges of her bdes in ice, and Jurao knew from the way they were letting off fog that she was maintaining an aura of cold. Eweylona had joined a few of their morning training sessions and told Aya that doing so would make ice appear faster - and fights were often won by the fastest reaction time.

  Jurao took several steps back before facing his now three opponents, mirroring Aya’s stance. While others might have taken the time to work out a rudimentary strategy, Raoyl likely wanted to see if Devae’s lessons in how not to run into others during a fight had been taken to heart without alerting his cousin to her intent. As well as seeing if they would be able to assess Ayelma’s abilities in the midst of the fight before the two sparred each other - another ability necessary for beast hunting.

  As before, Raoyl charged first. Devae closed the distance from the side to get in range of their weapon while Aya hung back, a ball of ice forming at the tip of one of her bdes.

  Except, the moment Jurao went to dodge his grandmother’s strike, one of his legs was encased in ice.

  Jurao dug the cws of his free leg into the dirt and raised his bdes in a block, feeling the meteor hammer nd on his back before he could repel Raoyl and pull his frozen leg free.

  Devae nded another strike on his arm as Ayelma charged from the other side, sending out bdes of ice from her strikes without closing the distance. Raoyl focused on the close combat - keeping Jurao distracted from the younger pair with more direct strikes before backing off to charge in again.

  This is fun, Jurao thought, enjoying the back and forth of the exchanges.

  It was Devae who gave him an opportunity first - they miscalcuted a swing of their weapon and hit themself, grunting in surprise and pain.

  Jurao turned as he struck at his grandmother and aimed his tail club at their head - connecting with a thunk. He broke from Raoyl to charge Aya next, as the other ranged combatant.

  As her mentor, he was rather proud of the way she didn’t even flinch, though they had not sparred seriously before. Ayelma id a sheet of ice over the ground, coating her feet in the same as she breathed out and let her frost aura radiate more strongly from her.

  Jurao dodged to the side as she sshed an ice bde at him and struck the ice with one of his swords - cracking the too-smooth surface so that he could gain purchase as he closed the distance. If this were a serious fight, he would have let his momentum carry him forward into his opponent - but he did not wish to cause Aya actual harm that way.

  They traded a few blows - the frost aura slowing Jurao by some as ice crawled over his skin before breaking at his movement - before Raoyl crashed into his side. She had used her momentum across a still smooth portion of the ice and managed to send them both rolling across the field.

  Jurao and his grandmother got to their feet at roughly the same time - Raoyl charging again to try and get under his guard. Ayelma changed her support strategy - freezing Jurao’s joints at inopportune moments to prevent him from blocking or striking. It was rather effective, allowing Raoyl to nd a few blows herself before she called, “Hold!”

  Jurao did, rexing from his stance and looking across the field to Devae, concerned he had hit them harder than he intended.

  His cousin sat on the ground, looking a bit dazed.

  Raoyl sheathed her bdes before jogging across and leaning in front of them. She held up a finger and said, “Devae.”

  “I don’t have a concussion,” Devae replied, eyes tracking the movement of Raoyl’s finger anyway. They sighed and added, “It’s one finger, old dy.”

  Raoyl snorted, “You still might have a concussion, kid. He probably hit you with as much force as that hammer can.”

  “Did you even feel it?” Devae asked, looking past their great-grandmother to Jurao.

  “I did,” Jurao replied, sheathing his bdes as well, “It may even bruise.”

  Raoyl shook her head with a chuckle, “Remember, your cousin has faced beastly powerful opponents of his own even before he became King - working through pain to stay alive in a real fight is important, but so is resting in practice.”

  “Yeah, I know; you’ve only told me a thousand times,” Devae replied, rolling their eyes.

  “Anyway - thanks for the match, boy, but I think that’s enough fun for today,” Raoyl said.

  Jurao nodded, “Yes - thank you for the exercise.”

  sbdrag