***

Deep in the forests of Elvenwood a youth girl practiced her swordsmanship. The youth was special, she was the fourth generation heir of the LightBringers.

The youth"s name was Lu Zul, Lu Zul being the next heir of the LightBringers. She trained night and day trying to reach Bronze. Lu Zul lived in the headquarters of the LightBringers.

The headquarters of the LightBringers was a huge castle surrounded large mountains. The area around the castle was endless forest, the only way to get into the castle was through a gate built into a mountain. It was the perfect place to train and become a master in the art of swords.

***

The golden sun shined brightly into Lu Zul"s room, squinting her eyes she quickly got out of bed.

"Ah… The 15th year of my training. Today is the day, of the exam."

After getting dressed Lu Zul grabbed her sword off the wall and walked downstairs. In the kitchen, Lu Zul"s mother was serving breakfast. When she noticed Lu Zul walking down the stairs she smiled and nodded towards the table.

Lu Zul nodded back and saw that her brother and the current heir, her father reading reports at the table. The heir put down his papers when he saw Lu Zul walking over.

"Lu, as you know. Today is your exam day. Please, come and sit, we have lots to discuss."

"Yes, Father."

"Now, Lu… This exam is very special, I"m going to try and explain the exam in as much detail as I can. Lu, this exam will prove whether or not you have broken into Bronze Ranking. The examiners are going to put you through tough tests. Testing all of your skills, dodging, blocking, regular strikes. The final test of the exam is to fight one of the examiners, while in front of multiple judges. One tip from me, it doesn"t matter if you beat the examiner, just score points for the judges."

Lu Zul"s father smiled started to eat his breakfast. Lu Zul sat looking at the food in front of her. She sighed and picked up her utensils and started to eat.

After Lu Zul finished her breakfast she met her carriage at the front of the castle. Around the carriage were multiple Bronze ranked members of the LightBringers.

They were sent to escort Lu Zul to the exam. Elevenwood was a safe place, but the main roads of the capital had multiple bandits that patrolled the area.

The men around the carriage were sent by her father to protect her on the way. Lu Zul wasted no time and got into the carriage. At her word, the carriage started to move.

Lu Zul looked around the window, staring at the castle. Slowly, the castle got smaller and smaller.

"Miss, we are about to reach the gates."

The carriage stopped in front of a ma.s.sive gate that built into a mountain. Several guards walked up to the carriage. Many of the guards had longswords in their sheaths.

When the guards found out who was in the back of the carriage, they quickly opened the gate. The carriage jerked as he in when through the gates.

More guards were on the other side, they were standing behind stone walls that were pointed towards the main road. All of the guards quickly got into formation and bowed to the carriage as it road away from the gates.

Lu Zul moved away from the window and found her way to the back of the carriage. In the back, was a small cloth bed along with enough s.p.a.ce to lay down.

Lu Zul it was going to take a couple of days to reach the capital. She wanted to train, but she also knew it was going to be a safe journey. Lu Zul laid back and looked at the ceiling of the carriage.

Slowly, her eyes started to close.

"Protect the Miss!"

Lu Zul was jolted awake by the scream of the men outside of the carriage. Lu Zul got up and grabbed her sword, she made her way to the window. Outside the carriage, several bandits stood on the sides of the road.

Some of the bandits were in trees with bows pointing at the carriage. Lu Zul was about to pull out her sword when one of her guards rushed to the door of the carriage.

"Miss! Don"t come out, it"s not safe."

"I..."

Lu Zul closed her mouth and nodded to the man.

"Miss, Stay inside we will end this quickly."

Lu Zul was still tense, though she knew the men outside were all ranked Bronze. Every person outside of the carriage have seen combat, they are trained for killing.

As Lu Zul sat down she heard a deep voice outside of the carriage.

"Listen, all we want is your goods. We don"t want to harm anyone. Just drop your weapons and give us the goods."

A man in black leather armor was standing in front of the carriage. Lu Zul"s guards all had their weapons out ready for combat. In total, there were around twenty bandits and only four guards.

In a regular situation, the four guards would lose the battle against the bandits. That was the bandit"s goal, they picked carriages that are weak undefended. Then, they scare the people in the carriage with the numbers of the group.

Sadly, the four guards weren"t normal guards. They were Bronze Ranked, Each of the four guards were at least Middle Bronze. Considered elite among the LightBringers.

The bandits that stood around the carriage weren"t even near Bronze, they were just regular humans. Some of them may have skills in certain fighting styles.

Though, they were no match for Bronze Ranked elites.

"Uh? Going to answer me? Are you guys going to give us your stuff, or are we going to have to take it by force?"

When the guards didn"t respond, the man looked around to his buddies.

"Do you guys hear that? They don"t want to give us their stuff. You know what to do."

The man in the black leather took out his longsword from his sheath and pointed it at one of the guards. The guard he pointed the sword at was Zheng Gu. Zheng Gu was the leader of the guards that were protecting Lu Zul.

He was the most skilled in the group by huge margins. He himself could slay a five hundred man army. Zheng Gu moved into his fighting stance and gave the leader of the bandits a death stare.

"Oh! We have a fighter!"

The bandits around the carriage started to shout for their leader.

"Snake! Snake! Snake!"

"Snake? What kind of name is that."

Lu Zul wondered this as she listened to the man.

Zheng Gu had a stern look on his face looking at the bandit leader.

"Here I come!"

The bandit leader rushed forward with his longsword pointed at Zheng Gu. The bandit leader started to laugh as he rushed forward. Zheng Gu brought up his sword and blocked the incoming attack from the bandit leader.

Zheng Gu"s sword sent the bandit flying back a couple of steps.

"Mhm, Not bad."

The bandit leader brought the sword in front of his face. Zheng Gu noticed the stance the man did. The stance that the man went into was a basic stance. It was one of the first stances you learn after joining the Bronze Academy.

Zheng Gu smiled slightly after seeing stance.

"Crossbreak? Haha. You think you can beat me with that s.h.i.tty stance?"

The bandit leader became shocked after the man said the name of his stance.

"s.h.i.t… This guy is from the academy."

The bandit leader"s face turned back to normal and rushed at Zheng Gu. He slashed his sword a couple of times trying to scare Zheng Gu. Zheng Gu wasn"t even fazed by the attempt of the bandit leader.

Right before the bandit leader was about to hit Zheng Gu, he jumped back. The bandit leader almost fell over after using all his strength to swing his sword.

"Haha."

Zheng Gu laughed loud enough for the other bandits that were watching their boss fight. The laugh that came out of Zheng Gu angered the bandit leader.

"Enough."

The bandit leader got back into the crossbreak stance and took a deep breath. A small gray light started to fade into light around his body. Seconds after the light appeared the bandit leader jumped at Zheng Gu.

Zheng Gu was slightly taken off guards and brought up his sword to block the attack. Their two swords struck each other. Both of the men stared into each other"s faces. Anger filled the Bandit"s face, While Zheng Gu wasn"t smiling or laughing. He had a stern emotionless face.

Chills went down the bandit leader"s body, the man in front of him wasn"t normal. Zheng Gu finally decided to fight back, before Zheng Gu was messing with the bandit leader.

Though, now he had to end this quickly. Zheng Gu remembered that Lu Zul was in his carriage. While the two swords were still against each other, Zheng Gu tried to counter-attack.

With quick speed, Zheng Gu moved to strike the bandit leader"s leg. But, the bandit leader noticed the strike and blocked it was a spark from his sword.

The bandit leader smiled, Zheng Gu tried to strike the Bandit leader again. Once again the blade was blocked by the bandit leader. The bandit leader moved his sword away and stepped back a couple of steps.

The bandit leader spotted a weak spot in Zheng Gu"s defense. He took the opportunity in front of him leaped at Zheng Gu aiming for the flaw in his defense.

When the bandit leader was about to kill Zheng Gu, Zheng Gu"s sent out intense killing intent. The bandit leader saw Zheng Gu smile slightly.

"s.h.i.t! He knew!"

Zheng Gu slashed his sword with lightning speed. The bandit"s last expression on his face was horror. He looked deep into Zheng Gu"s eyes and only saw death.

Blood splattered into the air, the bandit leader"s head was cut clean off. Both the head and the body hit the ground. Everyone was silent, the chanting stopped. All of the bandits looked at the scene that just happened.

All of the bandits couldn"t believe what they just saw. They only boss, he was very strong and made them all rich from raiding carriages. They saw him countless strong knights and other fighters.

Though, this time he was killed in under thirty seconds. They couldn"t believe that he was so easily killed. Zheng Gu slashed his sword cleaning off the blood from his sword.

"Kill them all."

The three other guards pounced from their spots towards the bandits around the carriages. The bandits didn"t have enough time to react to the attacks from the three guards.

The bandits not only could not react, but they also couldn"t even scream as they were killed. In seconds all of the bandits were killed. Lu Zul looked out at what just happened and had a grim expression on her face.

Zheng Gu nodded at the other guards for killing the bandits.

"Grab the valuables."

The three others guards moved swiftly through the bandit"s bodies and grabbed the jewels and other valuables they had. The guards quickly made their way back to the carriage. After putting away the valuables they got from the bandits they returned to protecting the outer of the carriage.

Zheng Gu put away his sword and walked up to the door of the carriage. Inside he saw Lu Zul looking out the window with a shocked expression on her face. She was not only shocked back had a sick looking face.

"Miss? Are you okay?"

Lu Zul quickly nodded her head.

"Miss, all of the bandits have been taken care off. I don"t think we will be seeing many bandits from this point on. We will be reaching the capital in two days."

Zheng Gu bowed to Lu Zul before making his way back to the front of the carriages.

"Let"s move."

Zheng Gu hit the reins on the horses. The other guards around the carries started to run at a slight jog, walking close to the carriage.

Lu Zul took in a deep breath and made her way back to her bed. She slowly laid down and started to cover herself with a blanket. While laying down, she remembered the fight that just happened.

She was very impressed by the way Zheng Gu fought. She played back the battle in her mind multiple times. Each time seeing something new, his speed and fighting stance was amazing.

Lu Zul now understood the true power of someone ranked Bronze.