Vale shook his head. He pointed to the bed he was sitting on and the chair beneath Kade. "Tool. Everyone is a tool to the next power. I use my bed, but do I have to intentionally start jumping on it? Do you leave your blade to rust?"
"Your blade can turn on you if you don't handle it well."
Vale thought of his father. He was feared but also respected. He did things as he wanted but was never cruel for the sake of cruelty, unless it involved Vale. "How will your blade turn on you if you are a blade master? You guide it as you wish."
"So, you want to dominate the weak but still give them free will?" Kade laughed. "You are so hypocritical and it seems you haven't seen the world for what it is. But enough of all that. You killed one of mine, so I'm here to kill you in return."
Vale's heart skipped a beat, but he didn't let his expression change from the mild smile he was wearing. This was the first time someone had outright said they wanted him dead, and it was a bit strange to hear something like that.
He let a bit of essence flow into his eyes, making them glow a bit. "Will you give it a try?"
His eyes glowed bright green in the yellow lighting of the room, gleaming like the edge of a sharpened blade.
Kade shifted and smiled even wider. "Oh no, because I came with a better offer, be my subordinate."
Vale paused, then raised his brows slowly and didn't bother to hide his surprise in his voice. "I should be your subordinate? Why? That's not part of my plan at all."
He pretended to think about it but then shook his head. "I decline. There's no reason to."
Kade's eyes tightened and warning tainted his voice. "What? Do you think because you are a Squire we are now equals? Even among Squires, we have people that are powerful and I am powerful! I am giving you your life, you'd better take it. I won't ask again."
The air in the room bristled with tension as they stared at each other. Something sparked in the air, making the hair on Vale's body rise on edge. "Did you just say you are giving me my life? And I've never heard anyone who's truly powerful say they are powerful. Either they are or they are not."
He smiled at him.
Kade's face shifted from his smiling facade to dark and glaring, but Vale didn't feel fear. His blood shimmered in his veins, and his heartbeat picked up a pleasant rhythm as he got ready for whatever was coming.
"I will make you regret this," Kade said in a low voice.
Then he raised his right hand casually as if to greet Vale, lightning flickering between his fingers with a low, vibrating hum.
He flung the lightning forward.
Already prepared, Vale projected a shield in front of himself. Generous with his essence, he created a half-dome, triple-layered shield.
The attack collided with a hiss as the shield shuddered but held firmly. Vale was more surprised than Kade. How was he using aspected essence if he was only a Squire?
"How is your shield that strong?"
Vale spread his hands and stood. "I could ask you the same. How are you using lightning?"
Kade smiled, and without warning or replying, the space between them exploded with lightning again, thick bands of twisting energy that covered the distance in a blink. Vale was caught off guard!
How did he perform a technique without moving any body parts?!
Vale rolled instinctively, projecting a shield and layering it as he dove onto a bed across the room.
The shields collapsed with little resistance, and the lightning slammed into the bed Vale had been on moments before. Metal screamed and twisted, and the bed burned with a bluish fire that died quickly.
He registered the smell of burning fabric but didn't wait to survey the damage. Without hesitation, he reached within himself and drew essence deeply into his body.
Strength surged through him as he flung himself forward, a streak of brown blurring across the room. Kade didn't seem surprised and rose to meet him, his eyes burning with flickers of lightning. This time, the lightning around Kade blended with his limbs, making him faster, much faster than Vale, who was still learning.
Kade twisted away and sent a punch that cracked the air toward Vale's head. He bent at the last moment, grimacing as the force stirred his hair. But he hadn't been the top of his class for nothing.
He gathered essence and pressed his will down, shaping and twisting it. Four swords of essence hovered around him, blue-white with gleaming compressed edges.
Vale smiled and picked one up. "Let's see if I still have my skills left."
Kade's face tightened as he concealed his shock. He knew now that he had bitten off more than he could chew, yet his body twitched with anticipation. He was enjoying this. Lightning gathered around him, more than he'd conjured so far.
Vale didn't wait. He projected another dome shield, but not around himself, around Kade. The shield snapped into place just as Kade unleashed his attack.
It was his strongest shield yet, but it shattered like glass under the assault, and the lightning collapsed and fizzled with a hiss as well, and the shockwave blasted Kade out of the tent. He was jetted backward, slamming into another tent.
Vale followed quickly, holding two swords now as his essence reserves dwindled. Workers flinched and ran, though some stayed to watch from a distance.
Tiber and Slya stood among them, watching in stunned silence.
Kade staggered to his feet, unwounded except for a thin line of blood on his forehead. He felt the burn of something on his neck and focused.
Green eyes glowed with intensity, and a sword of essence rested against Kade's neck. Another floated ominously near Vale.
"Do you surrender?"