The day after their first clash with Duronius’ army was one of rest and recovery. Both sides watched each other quite closely, but neither made any significant moves against the other.

Since it seemed like nothing interesting was going to happen for a while, Leon decided that morning to take care of some business now that he had a unit of his own: assert his authority. Twice had he been defied by the Barons placed under him, and he couldn’t have it happen again. They’d worked out both times, but a third could end with them all dead on the battlefield.

He had to deal with this problem of insubordination.

To that end, he had Alix and Valeria running around the camp all morning delivering messages, including summoning the Barons to his tent. He toyed with the idea of calling them to him before breakfast as a power move, but in the end, he decided against it. He didn’t lack for ways to lord his authority over them, especially with a hundred giants on his side, and figured that they’d be less irritable and more willing to listen if their bellies weren’t grumbling during their meeting. Besides, he needed that time to make some other preparations.

Leon fully expected there to be resistance given the actions of the Barons during and immediately after the battle, so he also sent Valeria and Alix with the message that if he had to summon them a second time, it would be Lapis who would be coming to retrieve them.

It seemed to work, for the Barons began to arrive only slightly after the appointed time. Leon hadn’t expected them to arrive on time, so he wasn’t too surprised, but he definitely took notice.

As everyone arrived, they took seats around the table just outside of Leon’s tent. As the commander, he had a fair bit of room in front of his tent for just this sort of thing, but the nobles had brought enough of their retainers to fill up just about every available square inch of space in his assigned section of the army camp. Leon couldn’t help but notice a rather disproportionally high number of these knights wielding hammers and clubs—crushing weapons that were generally more effective against stone giants than swords or spears.

The Barons made small talk amongst themselves, mostly ignoring Leon as their colleagues arrived one-by-one. Leon was content to remain silent, letting nothing more than a light smile grace his face as each of the five Barons appeared and subsequently barely even glanced in his direction. He did listen to their conversations, though, hoping to get a better grasp of their names than he currently possessed, for in the day or so since he’d been assigned the unit, he’d only managed to memorize Baron Gellius’ name.

It wasn’t until all five had arrived that he finally spoke up.

“Thank you all for coming,” he loudly said as he stood up from his chair. He couldn’t help but notice a few of the knights that the Barons had brought subtly reach for their weapons once he made his move, but he felt nothing more than some mild amusement at the idea that they’d attack him. He was a sixth-tier mage, easily the strongest person present, and he had the giants standing by not too far away. He wasn’t invincible, and Alix, Valeria, and Anzu near the entrance to his tent were a bit more vulnerable, but he wasn’t going to be cowed by a bunch of provincial knights trying to act tough.

Leon continued, barely even pausing as he started to slowly walk around the table behind their seats, “I’m sure all of you are wondering why I called you here, especially when you could be all curled up in your fancy tents resting.”

He heard a few groans from the crowd of knights as he got going, and he was sure they were doing so because it seemed he was getting ready for a long speech.

“Well, I figured that since Prince August personally assigned all of you to me, that we ought to get some things straight. Namely, that the insubordination that you five have shown to me and my subordinates will stop. Today.” Leon paused as he stood behind Baron Gellius’ seat, the Baron himself not even turning to look Leon in the eye. It was all Leon could do not to pick the nobleman up by his neck and slam him back down into the table, but that wouldn’t be conducive to a good working relationship.

After Leon’s statement, he heard a few incredulous chuckles from knights who couldn’t control themselves well, but the Barons mostly remained quiet, though he noticed Gellius and Baroness Gaia Orientis—the noblewoman who led the largest contingent of fighting men and women in his unit—smile mockingly at him.

“Of course, I’m not so naïve as to think this declaration alone is going to change many minds,” Leon continued as his slow walk around the table resumed, “and so I’m going to offer all of you a chance. Or, perhaps more accurately, a challenge. I will face each of you myself, and if you can beat me in a duel, then I will not only go to the Prince and resign this commission he’s given me, but I will also recommend the person who defeated me be given command of this unit.”

Finally, that got a positive reaction. The Barons froze in their seats as greed and pride flashed across their faces. Leon smiled and decided to make his challenge just a little bit more enticing.

“Hells, I don’t even have to face you mighty nobles personally, I’ll even allow you to send out champions if you don’t wish to sully your blades with my barbarian blood.”

Leon suppressed a smile as he watched the Barons wrestle with the opportunity he just presented them. On the one hand, it was a sanctioned and legal way for them to assert their authority over the others in the unit while also being able to punish the barbarian who thought himself better than them, but on the other hand, Leon was a sixth-tier mage who proved his power the day before.

He wondered which would win out, their greed and pride, or their caution and reason. He was pretty sure he knew which of these traits were stronger.

“What are the rules for this duel, and who will officiate?” Baroness Orientis asked as a smile played across her lips.

Leon’s smile grew wider. The Barons weren’t the only people that he had Valeria and Alix delivering messages to that morning, he’d also been in touch with August and Roland. August was sending a couple of prominent knights to preside over the duel, while Roland would be coming to watch in person and to lend his own influence to ensure that the rules were upheld.

“Sir Roland and a couple of Prince August’s representatives will be our neutral witnesses,” Leon replied, reveling in the shock on the faces of Gellius, Orientis, and a number of watching knights. The guests that were coming effectively cemented Leon’s challenge as legitimate.

“I will fight you!” Gellius roared as he almost leaped to his feet. “When I’m done, barbarian, you’ll wish you never left that festering wasteland you came from!”

“Hold on, Gellius,” Orientis said, freezing her fellow nobleman in her steely gaze. “The rules, Sir Leon. I believe you were just about to get to them?”

“I was,” Leon light-heartedly replied, acting as if Gellius hadn’t just insulted him and the Northern Vales in front of dozens of watching knights. “First off, no killing or causing serious injuries; no reason to weaken our side in the middle of a civil war. Secondly, you can fight me yourselves, or you can send out a single champion. I will allow any gear you deem appropriate for this duel, no restrictions at all.” He saw a few smirks at this blank check he just gave the Barons, but he trusted in his skill and the weapons he had at his disposal to see him through whatever strange weapons and items that the Barons might bring out. “We will fight until there is a clear victor. Finally, each of you may only challenge me once. If I defeat you or your champion, then you have lost. If I defeat all of you, then you will follow me without complaint. If you do not challenge me, then you will follow whoever wins these fights without complaint, whether that’s myself or one of your noble comrades. Any questions?”

“Simple and reasonable rules, I don’t think anyone here will have any problems following them,” Orientis replied. “Where will we be doing this?”

“Should I assume that this means you’re challenging me, My Lady?” Leon asked.

“Where are we doing this?” Orientis repeated as she flashed Leon a predatory smile.

“Right here. We can move the table.”

All of the Barons immediately stood up, and several knights moved the table to the edge of the gathering space between the tents. As they were getting ready, however, Roland and August’s two proxies arrived, and they disagreed with the location.

“I’d rather a fight between mages capable of elemental magic doesn’t happen in the middle of the camp, and I’m sure His Highness and Lord Aeneas would agree,” Roland said as he strode into the gathering space.

“Where should we go, then?” Leon asked.

“Follow me,” Roland replied, and he led Leon, Alix, Valeria, and the Barons across the camp, a distance of more than a mile, toward a designated mustering area for the Legions. It was a wide, relatively flat open field that had been further smoothened by earth mages. “We can do this thing here,” Roland said. “Plenty of room for everyone to watch and for the combatants to go wild a bit.”

“It’s perfect,” Leon exclaimed.

The group began to get set up, which mostly consisted of the knights forming a large circle around Leon and their Lords. Valeria and Alix, however, stuck around Leon for a moment longer.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Alix asked, worry written all over her face.

“I am,” Leon confidently replied.

“But—”

Interrupting Alix, Valeria said, “The nobles respect martial strength. If Leon defeats them, then they will have less cause to defy him. This is a good way to force them into line, at least for a little while.”

Alix frowned, but she relented, and she and Valeria began to move to join the watching knights, though Valeria paused just long enough to share a nod of solidarity with Leon, which he reluctantly returned.

Leon was left standing alone in the center of a ring of watching knights, but that didn’t last long. Baron Gellius pushed his way forward, appearing in front of Leon with a look of gleeful anticipation on his round face, his beady eyes squinting slightly in the midday sun. The nobleman didn’t spare Leon a word, simply following up on his earlier challenge by summoning a suit of gleaming white and gold armor from his soul realm.

The white of the Baron’s armor came from beautiful, immaculate white silkgrass, which Leon knew must’ve cost a fortune. Emblazoned upon his chest was his family’s sigil, a fist grasping three arrows rendered in dark red dye. Everything that wasn’t covered by the long silkgrass tabard was protected by enchanted golden plate, including his gauntlets and helmet. The helmet itself was almost diamond-shaped, with the faceplate forming something like a cross with only a pair of angled eye slits cut into it. It was gaudy and looked hard to breathe in, but Leon could see how it might appeal to someone who greatly valued appearances.

He could also see—and hear—why the nobleman didn’t wear the armor the day before, as it added quite a bit of bulk to his already fairly wide frame, and with every movement, Gellius made a distinctive clinking sound that proved he was heavily armored beneath the brilliant white silkgrass and glittering golden plate.

‘Turtling up, huh?’ Leon thought derisively as a wicked grin spread across his face. He summoned his sword and black Magmic Steel armor from his soul realm. He felt the enchantments he’d placed upon it activate, granting him great protection from fire and lightning magic, while also increasing the potency he already possessed with those elements. A few smaller enchantments gave him additional protections from the other elements, but they weren’t nearly as effective as the fire and lightning enchantments.

“Are you two ready?” Roland asked as he stepped forward to take the position of referee. Leon noticed the other two knights that August had sent in his stead were also standing by, one of them each watching Gellius and Leon like hawks.

“Yes,” Leon and Gellius said in unison.

“Then you may begin,” Roland said as he lightly stepped backward, moving so quickly back to the edge of the watching crowd that he almost seemed to teleport.

Gellius immediately surged forward, a large single-bladed ax appearing in his hand, it’s curved blade shining with bright white light. He raised and swung the ax in a downward strike with a fluidity that spoke volumes of how much he’d trained with the weapon, and his thick aura of killing intent showed that he wasn’t holding anything back in his attack, despite Leon’s stipulation that they not strike to kill or cause debilitating harm.

But Leon didn’t care too much. Gellius was moving extraordinarily fast, but Leon had no trouble tracking the nobleman. As Gellius drew close and began his swing, Leon drew his blade, swung in a powerful horizontal slice, and deflected the oncoming ax all in one smooth movement.

Gellius had overcommitted to the strike, so as Leon’s blade sent it swinging wide, he wasn’t able to stop until the glowing ax sank into the dirt, leaving him wide open for an easy retaliation from Leon.

With a complete lack of sentimentality, Gellius let go of his ax and threw himself backward, expecting a vicious follow-up from Leon after the Baron had so clearly struck to horrifically maim or kill. And so, when Gellius managed to fall back a few paces without so much as a single half-hearted attack from Leon, he and many of the spectators were struck almost dumb with surprise.

Leon simply stood there in a stance so sloppy that he could only be deliberately mocking Gellius’ attack.

Gellius roared in anger at Leon’s derision. He extended an arm and tiny white lights began to dance around his fingers as he called upon his power. These lights coalesced into a glowing orb of roiling white light, and with a grunt of exertion, a beam of light erupted from it aimed right for Leon’s chest.

And it missed. Leon seemed to vanish like he wasn’t even there, reappearing ten feet to Gellius’ right with a deafening clap of thunder, his legs sparkling with golden lightning magic. The beam then dissipated harmlessly upon a wall of white light that Roland summoned to protect the rest of the watching knights, with August’s two proxies standing by just in case that wall failed to stop the beam.

“You’re going to have to do better than that…” Leon mockingly said, the smile on his face hidden by his helmet but revealed by his tone.

“Filthy savage!” Gellius shouted back. He snapped his fingers, sending a dozen tiny motes of light hurtling toward Leon faster than just about anyone could see, but again, Leon vanished with a blast of thunder, although this time he didn’t reappear far away from the Baron, but right upon him.

He was within sword range of Gellius, but before he lunged forward, he hit the Baron with as intense a pulse of killing intent as he was able. The result was a wave of killing intent so potent that Gellius’ legs practically turned to jelly, and the Baron began to collapse, his magic failing him in that brief moment.

But Leon knew that he only had a second or two before Gellius recovered, so as the Baron fell, he swung his sword like a bat and clipped the edge of his helmet. As soon as it made contact with the golden metal, lightning surged into the nobleman’s armor and his head whipped to the side fast enough to audibly crack his neck. Leon’s lightning tore through the armor’s enchantments and coursed through his entire body, causing his muscles to seize and his golden armor to be scorched an ugly mud brown.

Gellius dropped like a bag of rocks, and he didn’t get back up. Leon’s lightning had caused his silkgrass tabard to catch fire, and the only reason this didn’t cause Gellius terrible burns was that Leon had doused the flames with a snap of his fingers almost as soon as they appeared. He could sense that Gellius had been completely stunned and was in no position to defend himself even from mundane fire.

The Baron lay in the dirt completely motionless, curled up as his magic fought off Leon’s lightning.

Leon stepped back as Roland leisurely stepped forward. Gellius’ aura was strong enough that it was clear Leon hadn’t seriously hurt him, but it was also clear that Gellius had lost. Still, Roland checked the Baron anyway and helped Gellius’ seizing muscles to relax with a few waves of his hand that sent orbs of white light into Gellius’ body.

“Now, then,” Leon loudly said to the watching crowd as Roland saw to Gellius. “Who’s next?”