Dead silence.

Then there was the shuffling of feet. The drawing of swords. He could hear them quite acutely, as if he could see them as well. But of course he couldn't. He knew he would win this one. Because in darkness you had everything to lose. The darkness taught him patience. The darkness made him better.

He heard Montero's voice "Begin!"

Rami could detect the slight pleasure in the Captain's voice. No doubt Montero thought that Rami was going to fail miserably.

His ears were acutely aware of everything around him.

That was when he heard grunts and the whistling of swords. He waited. Soon he could hear all men charging at him. He panicked for a second, but calmed himself. The first blow came near his torso. In his nervousness he didn't realise at first, resulting in the re-opening of on of his lash marks. But he pulled himself to his senses.

The next flurry of blows came and Rami fended them off easily. A blow came near his knees, he leapt and pinned a man to the ground with his feet. One down, seven to go.

Then there came whistling near his neck. He raised his shield and blocked. He then spun to face the attacking man and brought the hilt of his sword to the man's side. The man landed with a thump.

Five more left.

Another spell of attacks ensued. Rami earned a large cut to his back.

Okay Rami concentrate you can do this! He told himself.

He hear a blow come to his head. He ducked swiftly then lunged knocking down two men.

Three more to go.

I can do this.

More blows came. The three men surrounded him. But this time Rami could feel that these men were tired or even scared. Using this to his advantage he leapt up and out of the tight circle they had cornered him in. Quickly he knocked out a man with the hilt of his sword and knocked over another man with his shield.

Just one more. He and the man were engaged in a fierce battle. Rami felt a cut on his wrist. Instead of weakening him, he responded more furiously and eventually the other man lost his sword. Rami kicked him in what he hoped was the gut, but realised from the agonising scream that it was actually another part of the male anatomy.

Thinking he was done. He let his guard down.

But then he felt a sharp kick to his back.

He lost his balance.

What? Weren't there seven? Who was the eighth man?

Seriously he had issues counting the number of his enemies. Maybe he should stop counting all together.

Regaining his balance he waiting for footsteps. He heard ever so soft footsteps behind him. He turned swiftly and attacked. Their swords clashed. He felt the weight of the other sword. It was light.

He pulled away and attacked again. The swords met again and he was put off balance as his opponent flaunted his sword to the side.

Who ever this was they were quite skilled.

The other man's sword came at him again. He leaned back. The sword scraped past his cheek. Leaving a trail of blood in its wake.

Fueled with irritation he started attacking again. The man blocked his every attack.

Then suddenly their swords locked together. There was no noise but the sound of their breaths. They tried to the push the other off balance. But no one gave way.

Montero decided this was a good time to stop the battle since the two fighters were obviously tied.

"Cease!" He announced.

Rami stepped back and tore off his blindfold. Only to see honey amber eyes looking back at him.

~~~~~

Smirking at the Young Arabian Knight, Jurie walked away from him.

The next day arrived incredibly quickly and before she knew it, soldiers lined up at the training arena for Rami's combat lesson.

"The Scimitar is a curved blade weapon, best used for slashing and slicing. It is a close combat weapon. Used to pinpoint, moving in for a deadly slash." Rami began. "When striking, you step forward, and swing." He stepped forward, closer to volunteer soldier. "Like this. And swing." And then swung his scimitar. "When locking swords, you always lock the back of your sword. That what the curved edge is still in play. Like so." Demonstrating this, paying no heed to the soldier's flinch as the point neared his chest. "Then you have the shield." He pulled out his large shield from behind him. "These are incredibly heavy. Try." He said, handing it over to the volunteer. The soldier reached eagerly for the shield, only for it to clang loudly against the concrete floor.

Jurie raised an eyebrow, knowing exactly how heavy the shield was and turned back to watch Rami.

"So sometimes instead of using that shield we use smaller ones, adjusted to fit our fists, like this one." Rami took his small shield, presenting it to the soldiers. Though small it is very effective. I fight with two hands, as I have a shield attached to my arm or fist. This small shield is used to block attacks, just like the large shield but it better when blocking higher up strikes, from the top of the head to the chest. It is small yet uses the same strong metals as the larger shield, and is easier to manoeuvre, as it is lighter. If you would like to pass the large shield along."

Rami watched amused as every soldier struggled to even hold onto his larger shield, hiding a smirk. Jurie could see an ego bar rising higher and higher next to his head and shook her head, shooting a glare at him, when he turned to wink narcissistically at her.

"You may begin practicing all that I have told you." Rami commanded. And the soldiers rushed off to the begin. For the next hour Rami roamed freely between the soldiers, watching and stopping to critique them, occasionally taking them by the arms, and showing them.

"Everything looks to be proceeding well." A voice came from beside Jurie.

"Captain Montero." She exclaimed. "Yes things are going very well."

"It's Giovanni to you Jurie."

"Care for a spar? Captain Montero?" Rami asked, his voice full of mockery, eyes flashing with an unidentifiable emtion. Jealousy? Anger? Or was is annoyance?

"Bring it on Arabian Knight."

~~~~~

We have been waiting for this fight since forever!!! Thea was nice enough to not let us wait any longer. I wonder what's going to happen. We'd like to hear from all of you telling us what you think will happen.

We'd jut like to thank every body because our book reached the 2k milestone!!!!

Thank you all we love you for sticking with our book so far! 😘

Until next time Adios Amigos

PS In the picture the First and last shields are the ones that are referred to in the chapter.