The sun was up in the sky, but its brightness was low. Due to the winter, the grass was also dull and brown.

  Kharvos was standing with his two longswords, one in each hand, against Lyra with her needle and Bromgar with his axe.

  Lyra took her stance and charged toward Kharvos. Bromgar did the same, but his speed was slower than Lyra’s.

  Upon reaching Kharvos, Lyra stabbed the needle toward him, but Kharvos dodged with one of his longswords and parried it, forcing Lyra back a few steps. By then, Bromgar reached him and swung his axe at Kharvos. Kharvos easily dodged it and kicked Bromgar in the stomach. Bromgar went flying backward before landing on his knees.

  Bromgar had the disadvantage of height, and Lyra had the disadvantage of her weapon.

  “A halfman and a woman will never defeat me,” Kharvos said in a calm voice.

  “Underestimating your opponent is the last mistake you can make in a battle,” Lyra taunted, pointing her needle at Kharvos.

  “Is that so?” Kharvos bent his body and pointed one longsword toward Lyra while his other hand hung loose.

  With that stance, he charged toward her at incredible speed. Bromgar stood frozen, amazed by the speed. He quickly ran toward Lyra to defend her.

  Lyra’s eyes widened as she saw the attack charging toward her. She tried to dodge the longsword and, for the most part, she succeeded. But the longsword still touched her cheek, leaving a mark.

  After stumbling a bit, she checked the scratch. There was blood, but not much. She took a deep breath and taunted Kharvos again, “Is that the best you can do?”

  Kharvos turned around. With his hunched posture, he swung his sword at Lyra. Lyra dodged left and right, but a few marks appeared on her body until she got a chance to counterattack.

  During one of Kharvos’s swings, she moved to his left side and had a perfect angle to strike him in the stomach from the side. She quickly pointed her needle toward his stomach and stabbed at Kharvos.

  Kharvos managed to dodge it easily by jumping backward. He gained some distance from Lyra. But what he didn’t know was that Bromgar was behind him, already in the air with his axe raised.

  While Lyra was clashing with Kharvos, Bromgar found the perfect moment to launch an ambush attack.

  By the time Kharvos realized the attack, it was already too late. Bromgar swung his axe directly at Kharvos’s shoulder.

  Kharvos quickly jumped to the left, but the axe still made a mark on his shoulder, making his left hand numb and unable to be used. By then, Lyra had also launched her attack, aiming directly for his heart.

  "This is the end," she whispered, driving her needle toward his heart. But Kharvos blocked the attack with the sword in his right hand.

  Lyra’s eyes widened. She was shocked that Kharvos could block the attack so quickly after just taking that axe strike to his shoulder. He didn’t even seem to react to the wound.

  “If I die so easily, I will not be a king,” he said in a calm voice. He tried to kick Lyra in the stomach, but she jumped back and landed beside Bromgar.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Kharvos looked at his left arm and the longsword that had already fallen to the ground. He took a deep breath and looked at his opponents. Both Lyra and Bromgar were in their stances, ready to attack him.

  Kharvos bent to the ground, took his longsword in his mouth, and straightened up.

  "Will he use his mouth now?" Bromgar asked, then rushed toward Kharvos with his axe raised.

  Lyra did the same. She tried stabbing with her needle as Bromgar swung his axe. But Kharvos blocked them both.

  He blocked Bromgar’s attack with the weapon in his right hand and Lyra’s attack with the longsword in his mouth.

  “He is so stubborn,” Lyra thought as she forced her strength into her needle in order to break his stance. Kharvos was doing the same, but he was not even flinching.

  Because he was holding the sword in his mouth, his lips were parted and saliva was dripping down, which caught Lyra’s attention. She glanced at the saliva, slightly loosening her grip on her needle.

  This gave Kharvos the perfect opportunity. He shot a side glance at Lyra and lowered his head a little, giving his longsword a clean path toward her chest. Lyra quickly realized the longsword was about to slash her chest, directly toward her heart.

  She tried backing up, but the longsword still pierced her skin. She landed on her knees, gasping for breath. She looked at her wound. It was bleeding. She put her hand on it to stop it, but it didn’t help.

  After freeing himself from Lyra, Kharvos turned his attention to Bromgar.

  After seeing Lyra cut down, Bromgar raised his axe and swung again and again.

  “I will kill you, Kharvos!” he screamed as he struck harder.

  Kharvos blocked each attack. He opened his mouth and let the longsword fall to the ground.

  Lyra was breathing hard, supporting herself with the help of her needle. She looked to her left at the corpse of a dwarf.

  Lyra quickly went toward the body and started taking the clothes off its upper body. If she wrapped them around her chest, it would stop the bleeding temporarily, allowing her to fight again.

  “Why did you get so aggressive all of a sudden? Do you care about that woman?” Kharvos asked Bromgar.

  “It is not about that woman, Kharvos. It is about you killing all my people—my son, the other dwarves in my village. You killed so many of us, and for what? Some grudge of your ancestors?” Bromgar said, his voice rising.

  Kharvos gave a small smile. “You killed my wife. Your kind wiped away my ancestors in the Great Battle of Heaven, and you think I will let you go?” He kept blocking every attack, slowly giving ground.

  Bromgar struck his axe with more force than before. He held it with both hands, and each impact was strong—strong enough that a normal Nyctona would be crushed in just one strike. But Kharvos was strong.

  “You only lost your wife. We lost so many dwarves already,” Bromgar said.

  Kharvos stayed silent for a moment, then whispered, “Only my wife, huh? Well, that’s right. I lost only my wife.” Kharvos stopped blocking for a moment and let his right-hand sword fall to the ground.

  The axe struck his left hand again. Bromgar’s eyes widened as he realized he had the perfect opportunity to take Kharvos down, but instead of a killing blow, the axe came down on Kharvos's already-wounded left hand.

  Kharvos endured the impact on his already-wounded left hand and grabbed Bromgar with his right hand. He gripped Bromgar by the hair and lifted him up.

  Bromgar tried resisting but failed to loosen Kharvos’s grip on his hair. It was hurting him, but he had no way to free himself.

  “My wife was everything to me. I will even take down Eryndor for her,” Kharvos said through his teeth, slamming Bromgar into the ground again and again.

  Bromgar had no option but to take the impact. After slamming him for a while, Kharvos looked at Bromgar again. He was not moving. Kharvos threw Bromgar straight ahead.

  Bromgar flew through the army and the corpses, landing far away. He was still alive but bleeding heavily.

  Meanwhile, Lyra had successfully wrapped the cloth around herself, and the bleeding had slowed.

  She took a deep breath and picked up her needle. Then Kharvos's voice came from behind her. “Run away, girl. Or you will die.” Kharvos had picked up his longsword again.

  Lyra’s eyes widened. Her mouth fell open as her vision grew blurrier. Kharvos was closing the distance between them. Even with his left arm useless and only one longsword, he was far above Lyra’s league.

  “Run away, huh? All my life, every time, all I did was run,” Lyra whispered.