Clang. Thunk.
"Yeeaah! Get him girl!"
Many soldiers in the fortress had gathered around the training grounds to watch the sparring match between Chronos and Lyla.
So far Lyla was holding her own, but it was clear to her that Chronos wasn't using his full strength. In terms of physique, she couldn't match Chronos. Instead, she was relying on holy spells trying to keep him at a distance and bombard him with [Holy Gavel]'s.
It was working to some extent and against another werewolf it might lead to defeat but with Chronos' mastery of the sword none of her attacks were able to land a clear hit.
Just to give herself a better chance of beating her enemies she had learned a long-range arrow spell and a pillar type holy spell as a part of the four spells she had previously learned but even those were knocked aside or avoided by Chronos.
Thunk.
Dodging another pillar Chronos closed the distance with Lyla engaging her in close combat.
"How do you keep dodging those? My pillars descend within one second!" She shouted in frustration as Chronos leapt backwards to avoid the flying gavels.
"Who knows~ These spars won't be any fun if I told you everything." He said with a smirk.
He hadn't told Lyla about his [Spatial Awareness] yet and she hadn't found a way around it either.
By sensing his immediate surroundings, he could dodge or block nearly everything. No matter where his opponents attacked him from, he would always feel it coming, it really was an unfair ability.
She had tried surrounding him with her attacks or surprising him with delayed spells, but he had felt them coming and dodged them too.
"By the way, what's your weapon mastery at now?" Chronos asked as he deflected her mace.
"Intermediate, why?"
"Oh nothing, your right sides open." He struck her waist with the side of his blade as he stepped past her again.
From the way her holy power was interacting with her mace she was close to reaching the master level, she just needed a little push. Increasing the aura on his sword Chronos pressed the attack.
"Gnununu."
She grunted as she did her best to block his sword. The sparring match was getting more and more intense, but she refused to stop as she felt her skills improving the longer the battle went on.
After a few more minutes her aura burst outward before settling on her mace allowing her to suddenly slip past Chronos' guard landing a solid blow to his chest.
"Yeess! Finally, I got past that ridiculous defense!"
"Hahaha, congratulations Lyla. You've reached the master rank of weapon mastery." Chronos said with a big smile on his face.
"Hm, hm. That's right, I'm improving with every day." She put both her hands on her waist and stuck her head in the air as she spoke with an arrogant tone.
"Way to go missy! Now step out of the ring, the rest of us want a chance to fight him."
"Whaat? Already?"
"Yeah."
"Let the rest of us have a chance!"
"It's our turn."
Under the enthusiastic cheers of the soldiers Lyla stepped out of the ring while a werewolf with twin swords took her place and the next match began.
Chronos grinned, he got to fight multiple times against several different opponents in one day? Today was a good day.
They kept changing fighters until the kitchen staff came to get Chronos for the dinner service. He expected that it would be pretty bad as the rest of the army had arrived mid-afternoon, but he wasn't prepared for the rush of starving soldiers that just kept coming.
As the soldiers filed in Chronos started dishing out fried mushrooms and croc steaks as fast as he could. The only good thing about starving soldiers was that they were a little more willing to gossip about what they had heard.
"How was the march? Not too bad I hope." He called out as soldiers walked past.
"Oh, not bad. Just a few groups of goblins and fishmen, the dark beasts seem to have disappeared since the tear the merfolk were guarding was closed."
That was some good information, if dark beasts only appeared when the tears were active it would be very easy to locate the tears. He just hoped that nothing was hiding the dark beasts for a later offensive.
Duke Darrius would be capable of doing that but trying to hide multiple large armies from the lizardfolk within Dracon Fen was next to impossible. Hiding the troll's second army had already been surprising enough and, from what the scouts were reporting, had only been possible after the lizardfolk had left the area.
Now that the lizardfolk were back they were finding rituals from the black robed men and traces of the troll's army passing through all over the southeastern side of the swamps. There weren't very many traces in the central eastern section of the swamps but that didn't mean the black robed men weren't there.
Or at least that was what the lizardfolk were saying when they came in for dinner.
Unfortunately, they hadn't found the enemy camps or any major trails just yet. The traces left behind showed that they had been traveling in large groups originally but after their defeat only the troll's army was moving together now. They were going back to the wasteland while remaining on the southeastern side of the swamp.
Chronos couldn't help but wonder why they were avoiding the northern sections of the swamp. Was there some powerful beast up there or were creatures coming down from Averest forest? Maybe something in the Averest forest would hunt them if they got too close.
The only other gossip that interested the lizardfolk were rumors that Sathrya was bringing an army to retake the eastern edge of the swamp. However, she wouldn't arrive until next week.
Apparently, she had to persuade the Eldest Matriarchs council that reclaiming the eastern edge of the swamp was a good idea. Some believed it would be better to use the ruined fortress to keep the monsters out of the main swamp and leave the eastern edge alone, turning it into a training ground instead.
Regardless of what the Matriarchs decided to do the dragon paladins, and the incoming leybound crucible knights would be moving to the edge of the wasteland to build a crucible castle.
Chronos was excited to see them as it would be the first time he had seen a specialist unit.
If they tried to fight a war in the swamps they would have a very difficult time as they were unfamiliar with combat in such environments. But by building the crucible castle on the edge of the wasteland they could change the battlefield to an open plain.
That was assuming the lizardfolk and nagas didn't assist them in the war, which was highly unlikely.
And if rumors about the leybound crucible knights were true there was a chance they could manipulate the terrain to their advantage.
As the evening wore on Chronos' vision was blocked by a wall, no, not a wall, a werewolf that stood nearly a meter taller than him. Chronos was already tall for a werewolf but the man in front of him made Chronos look small.
He was more than 3 meters tall, had thick shoulders and waist, with a shorter thicker muzzle and amber eyes. He was wearing a partial war harness that was reinforced but still flexible enough for aggressive movements.
"Chronos, I heard you ran away. Do you even realize how much trouble you've caused me?" He growled in Chronos' face.
"Bjarke, good to see you. I can imagine it wasn't easy to keep the other pups in line once I escaped." Chronos smiled back at him.
Bjarke was the child of Aunt Freydis and Uncle Bruar and possessed the appearance of a werewolf but the size of a bear.
Unlike most werewolves who utilized weapons and speed in combat Bjarke preferred to use his fists and claws instead. His large size and immense strength, that even surpassed Chronos's, allowed him to pummel most opponents into the ground before they could do any real harm to him.
Unfortunately for Chronos this cousin of his had always viewed him as a rival and took every opportunity to try and aggravate Chronos.
"Three times, three times in the first week I had to chase down pups trying to imitate you. If it wasn't for the dark beasts giving them a new target, I'd still be trying to stop their escape attempts. If it wasn't for the emergency request from the nagas I wouldn't have been allowed to join the black fangs this year." He glared at Chronos like it was his problem.
To be fair it was partially Chronos' fault.
"I can't be held responsible for the choices of other pups, not entirely at least." Chronos couldn't look in his cousin's eyes as he spoke.
"You owe me for the trouble you've caused." Bjarke growled at him.
"Alright, I'll pay you back when I have time." Chronos conceded as he piled more croc steaks onto his tray.