For the first time, a tinge of fear appeared on the face of Ian and his eyes went wide.

“STOP!” The guard that was overseeing the spar shouted.

~Whoosh~

The arms of Ron stopped just inches before they were about to hit the body of Ian.

~Phew~

“Ron is the winner!” The referee declared.

“Aw! No fair!” Ian protested.

“Look who’s now crying like a baby. You weren’t like that a minute ago when you were taunting me, perhaps you should have used that brain of yours to put more effort into training and fighting me.” Ron said in a smug tone.

“Enough! Both of you get off the stage. The next two walk in,” The referee ordered.

“YES, CAPTAIN!” Ian and Ron hurriedly replied.

‘So these are the ‘gifts’ and they the gifted…’ Lucius understood.

Both Ian and Ron knew better than to protest before the captain and that if they pissed him off, then their days would not be good after that.

“Are these the new recruits, Captain Donald?” Kiana asked out loud.

It was now that the man who had been acting as a referee till now realized that someone had come to visit them.

“Oh? Miss Kiana, what brings you here…” Captain Donald asked before noticing the person in the wheelchair. “What a pleasant surprise! Lord Asher is here too.” He hurriedly added.

“What are you all imbeciles doing? Come greet lord Asher!” Caption Donald yelled at the guards who had been watching them.

‘Seems like these guards either do not know about me or that Asher didn’t see them that often, or they should have recognized hi faster.’ Lucius thought.

“Good morning, Lord Asher!” All the guards greeted while giving him a closed fist salute.

Their right fist was placed at the position of the heart while the left hand was placed to the back of their waist. This was the formal salute a soldier or a guard would give to a nobleman or a lord. If it were a king, they would kneel instead.

The guard did not seem to look Lucius directly in the eye, which was rather interesting to him.

‘Is this the normal etiquette or are they avoiding it?’ Lucius wondered.

He blinked at them and looked at all of the guards. There were both men and women in the guards but it was mostly just men and the women were a minority. But looking at their physiques, Lucius could tell that they were no less than men and a couple of them were even more buff than most men here.

“It’s been a while since lord Asher went out, thus we came out to take a walk. We will also be leaving the mansion thus the madam asked us to take some guards with us.” Kiana replied.

“Oh is that so? Well that is no problem, are you leaving right? If so, then I’ll accompany you myself.” Captain Donald spoke.

“Well, let me ask lord Asher,” Kiana said before looking towards Lucius.

Lucius blinked his eyes twice to say no to her. He wanted to see more of their battles and wanted to know what these ‘gifts’ were. There were far too many variables and he wanted to know them all or his curiosity would not let him rest.

“Seems like lord Asher would like you to finish your practice first,” Kiana stated.

“Alright, that will be good. We only have one last fight left, anyway.” Captain Donald said before turning back to look at hate guards.

“Nick and Alex step up,” Captain Donald ordered.

“YES, CAPTAIN!” The two people said.

Nick was a lanky looking man with short hair while Alex was an athletic looking woman that had her hair in a tight braid. Both of them walked to the fighting ring and stood in the opposite ends.

“FIGHT!” Captain Donald ordered.

As soon as that was said, the fight initiated with Alex taking the first attack. Unlike the previous two guards Ian and Ron, she was using a sword as her weapon and did not use a gift right from the start. She lunged ahead and slashed at Nick, who dodged it by bending his body in an awkward angle which should have not been possible for any normal human.

He bent his waist to the right, all the way to the ground. If any other normal human did this, they would snap their spine. Yet Nick seemed to be able to do it with no problems.

~Slash~

Alex flicked the sword to the side and did a feint before kicking with her legs. But Nick dodged it at the right moment by kneeling to the ground and twisting his torso.

Kiana looked at Lucius and saw that he was watching the battle with quite an interest.

“You like them, don’t you. They do seem better than the previous batch of guards, I heard that we got a lot of gifted this time.” Kiana spoke.

Lucius heard her words and noted them in his mind.

~Sling~

A reverberating sound was heard as if someone had plucked a stretched-out rubber band. Lucius looked at its source and found that it was none other than Nick who had made that wound. His torso was twisted to his back, and he snapped back with a sound.

~Thwack~

“Take this Whip Slap!” Nick yelled before his palm hit the side of Alex.

The force in the palm was quite strong and knocked Alex back, leaving a red palm print on her skin.

“Damn you! I’m not holding back anymore, I don’t care if you have a low-ranked gift than me.” Alex said in a pissed off tone before holding her sword straight, the tip pointed at Nick. She placed her other hand at her waist before moving fast.

“Dash thrust!” She shouted.

~Zoom~

Her body moved like a blur as the sword was stabbed into the hand of Nick in the next second.

“Aargh!” Nick shouted in pain. “Did you really have to be so serious… now it’s gonna take me three days to get it healed.”

“Oh, don’t be a pussy. Healer Delia will do it quickly if you go to her.” Alex said before turning to Captain Donald.

Seeing that Nick was out of commission, he declared, “Alex wins!”