Seed of the Sovereign

In a dry and barren empty field, the sun stood high in the sky, basking the world with a bright red glow highlighting the carnage and disaster that filled the land.

Immediately after Luke was fully healed, Leon had invited him for a spar, claiming to want to test him so as to develop a proper training plan.

Luke expected Leon to take him to a training hall in his home, but leon had said that his house didn't have such a useless facility.

Before Luke could even ask where they could spar, Leon highjacked him and took him on a wild flight into the field of corpses. In a blink of an eye, Leon deconstructed the dead corpses in a few kilometres, turning the place into a clean sparring field with the corpses in the distance as the background.

In the center of the field, the two spearmen stood against each other, one in a casual and relaxed stance, the other tensed and ready.

If Luke had been a beginner, he might have fallen for the illusion of relaxation Leon gave. While Leon smiled and his hands seemed to hold the spear with a loose grip, Luke knew it was all a lie — an illusion to fool him into complacency.

Even if he was a fool to believe that Leon was truly incompetent with the spear, he already saw the massacre that the man had wrought to the demons and the wolves in the forest. It would be a mistake that Luke would never forgive himself for if he underestimated such a person.

Plus, Leon truly wasn't incompetent with the spear. In all of Luke's life, he had sparred with many true spear masters. His phlego clan were a group of people dedicated to the spear and as the heir of the clan and a spear genius, he'd received and issued many challenges over the short course of his life.

But very few had giving him the sense of dominating oppression that he was now recieving from Leon.

The last time he'd felt this much oppression from a spear user was his last bout with his father. His father never went easy on him during their spars, even though he didn't use any of his powers during their spars just his skill was enough to thoroughly suppress him. Of course his father had said that he himself was no where close to Luke's talent, but that was just in terms of potential. In terms of skill, Dio Phlego already had few equals in the world.

And now, this uncle whom he'd never heard about gave him a sense of pressure not much unlike his father.

His face hardened in seriousness.

While they had their talk, he'd asked Leon why he'd never heard about him or his family name before. He'd asked him parents but they always found away to escape the topic, refusing to say anything specific on it.

He thought he'd finally had his chance with this uncle of his but who knew he'd be even more slippery.

Luke had never met a more shameless person in terms of changing topics before.

So he had himself a person who claimed to be his uncle and was a mysterious powerhouse with spear skills on the level of some of the best in the world yet whose name he'd never heard of.

"Are you having cold feet?" Leon asked with a casual smile as he started walking towards Luke's tensed figure.

"I heard that an untouchable spear prodigy the likes of which hadn't been seen in decades was groomed in the Phlego clan, the holy land of spears. But meeting you now, that might have been an exaggeration huh?" As Leon slowly closed the gap, he twirled his spear with his two hands playfully. His face carried a playful teasing smile but Luke saw his eyes. They were predatorial, watching for the weakness of their prey.

Luke didn't fall for the provocation.

Immediately Leon entered into a five meter radius, Luke burst forward, his spear splitting air as it coiled towards Leon's face.

Leon moved his head to the side, dodging the attacking spear head by a few inches, but Luke wasn't done yet.

With a skillful control of strength, he stopped his speeding spear in place, performing a beautiful horizontal sweep aimed to take of Leon's head.

Leon raised his spear to block. A loud sound rang, spear clashing against spear in a battle for domination.

"Not bad," Leon said. His teasing smile ever present. "Let's take It up a notch now, shall we?"

Leon turned the block into a redirect, pushing away Luke's spear arm as he performed a series of stabbing strikes instantly going on the offensive. A stab to the throat. One to the ribs. Another to the guts.

Luke matched them all, if only barely. He instantly fell to the defensive, unable to do anything but block and parry.

He grit his teeth, frustration bubbling in his chest but he forcefully suppressed it. The worst he could do would be to get impulsive in this fight. His face returned to it's cool iciness, his eyes darting about, looking for a way to reclaim the rhythm.

"Ohhh, not bad." Leon said, his eyes shining.

"But you're a fool aren't you?" He asked as he disengaged from Luke.

"Huh?" Luke blanked. Where'd that come from?