Disclaimer: Log Horizon, all of its characters, musics, and stories belongs to their own respective owner. In this case, is written by Mamare Touno, illustrated by Kazuhiro Hara and published by Enterbrain. The only things I own here is the OC named Drest. This fanfict may or may not be canon. Besides that, I've got nothing else to say. So with that, please take a seat, grab your drink, pick your snack, and have a pleasant ride (or read).

Chapter 9 "Friendly Spar"

"Okay, here's the rule. You can kick, punch, grapple, or do any kind of move. Just don't aim to hurt your opponent…too much." That last emphasized word from Dolce made Drest felt not just worry, but also fear.

In front of him, the female monk named Kawara looked so eager for a fight. Her stance which befit of her class looked calm and efficient. Drest, on the other hand, looked a bit imbalance and full of opening. Even he knew that the difference between him and her was too far. But if what Soujirou said was true, then he had an advantage over her. That advantage was the ability to use his body fluidly and naturally. Although his opponent stance looked efficient, at close inspection he could see that her movement was rather stiff. Maybe she could get away from this relative unscathed. Relatively.

"Everyone's ready?"

"Ready!" Kawara shouted with eagerness in her voice.

"Ready!...I guess." Drest shout was less vigorous than his opponent, but he still assumed a fighting stance.

"Begin!" Dolce's shout echoed on the room, signaling the start of the match.

"HYA!" Kawara launched a fast kick to her opponent. Caught by surprise, Drest jumped back instinctively, avoiding her kick only by a thread of hair.

But her assault didn't stop there. She immediately launched another attack, this time in a shape of a side chop to his head. After barely able to avoid her first strike, Drest wasn't able to move as easy as before. With his unstable position, he could only block her attack.

"Ugh!" The impact that was made from her attack made him flinch as the simple attack contained quite some force. Noticing that she was about to deliver yet another blow, Drest jumped backward, gaining some distance from her.

"Not bad, not bad at all," said Soujirou while nodding. He looked at the mock battle between them seriously, trying to learn from their move.

"Souji, you're really enjoying this, aren't you?" Nazuna asked the excited looking boy.

"Of course I am! Just look at them!" He pointed at the two fighters. "At first, Kawara moved sluggishly, although quite accurate. But now she was able to move much better than before." He commented with joy in his tone.

"And Drest, just as the two of them said, fight as fast as we thought, fitting of his class."

"Exactly!" He exclaimed once again with joy in his tone. "Okay, I want to fight him next!"

"Oh no you don't! Remember the goal of this exercise, Souji!" She reprimanded him quickly.

"The goal?" He looked at her with a confused look for a few seconds before he changed his expression. "Ah, yes, yes. Sorry about that, I forgot." He gave an awkward smile while rubbing the back of his head.

"Geez, how can you forget about that, Souji?"

"I know, I know. It's just that, he fight as if that body is his all along." Soujirou said while returning his attention to the fight.

"That must be because of his amnesia, right? Because of the memories he lost, he gained an easier way to understand his current body." Nazuna gave her thought while joining her friend in observing the match.

"True, true," said the samurai while nodding his head. "I want to fight together with him on the field next time. I want to see his full capability."

"And the other?"

"Well, let's just make one big group and fight a bigger monster, right? Just like usual." The samurai boy just said that with a nonchalant attitude, clearly too excited to think of anything else.

At that, Nazuna sighed while shaking her head. She thought to herself, "It's hard to talk with him when he's too excited."

While the two of them chat, those on the stage were fighting furiously, although the reason for them to fight that way differed one from each other. While Kawara was fighting to her heart content mostly because of her competitive nature and also her thought to show off a little to her Guild Master, Drest was fighting just for the sake of not being beaten to a pulp by the overeager Kawara.

For the majority of the fight, Drest was only able to perform defensive movement. If he was not dodging her strike, he was blocking hers. For him, that was what his mind told him as the best decision. Speaking in level wise, the two of them was at the same level. In class wise, both Drest and Kawara excelled greatly in their attack. But as a monk, Kawara had a slight advantage in the defense side. In conclusion, their fight was supposed to be an even match, far from the one-sided match that happened at the guild at the moment.

"Come on, Drest-san!" Kawara shouted as she launched herself forward to do another attack.

Preparing himself for another defensive maneuver, he put his foot forward firmly and then crossed his hand to block the strike.

"HAAA!" A straight punch was delivered by her.

"Ugh!" The strike landed full force to his hands while making a small sound, an evidence of how hard her punch was. But even with sore hands Drest kept focusing on the fight, anticipating for another attack following the previous one.

"Take this!" And just as he predicted, another strike was made, this time in the shape of a sharp kick.

Judging that blocking it would be too much for his hands, he opted to dodge it just like before. As the kick was delivered, he hopped back to distanced himself. While feeling that he succeeded in dodging that, a smile appeared on her face. Unknown what that smile supposed to mean, he felt something was not going to be according to his plan.

Unknown to him, Kawara expected him to do that movement. To counter his slick dodging movement, Kawara devised a simple plan inside her head. The brown haired monk already prepared to do a following attack after her last kick. With one of her feet still on the air, she turned her body swiftly while propelling forward slightly. As she did that, her other leg move forward and she performed a scythe kick toward her opponent.

"What the!?" Surprised by the following attack, he instinctively ducked to avoid the slashing kick while his hand acted as a support to his body. Barely able to avoid the kick, he could feel the air moved at a high speed near his head. But in the back of his head, Drest could feel that the danger was still there.

And just as he predicted, Kawara did prepared another attack. Landing with her hand, she pulled her legs to do another attack. She turned her body toward Drest and swung her leg forward to sweep toward his head.

Already forced to a very disadvantageous position earlier, Drest was running out of option. He raked his head for any way out of the very dangerous situation. He knew that being hit with that attack was anything but pleasant. Although he will not be killed by such an attack, he will not risk his body and his life.

With only attacking back as his only option, he jumped forward with his knee swung to receive the attack. The impact was made accompanied with a loud sound. The two had hit smashed their knee together and was blown backward slightly by the force.

"T-That…r-realy hurt!" Kawara shouted. Both Drest and Kawara were forced to their knee, rubbing their leg to ease their pain.

"…Ow, ow, …" Drest was also not in a better condition than her. Holding back the tear that was going to come out due to the pain, he realized once again how dangerous these adventurers were.

"Okay, now that's 2 hit for Kawara and no hit for Drest!" Dolce who was refereeing the match announced the current result.

"OOOHH! Wow! Great!" Soujirou exclaimed with happened after seeing the two gave an intense match. "UOOO! So cool!" He continued to cheer on them with clear evidence of excitement on his voice while clapping his hand. The other member was too captivated by the fight to give any reaction, only able to look at the fighter with amazed look on their face.

"Drest-san, you have to attack to or this will not be a fair fight and we will not be able to train ourselves." Dolce reminded the black haired swashbuckler of the previous aim of the fight.

"Y-Yes, understood, Dolce-dono," said Drest while trying to lift his body upward to resumed his stance. He looked forward to see that his opponent was also struggling to do the same.

(I must fight back.)

With that thought in his mind, the same phrase he heard on the battlefield rung inside him again.

"Feel, don't think."

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Regulating his breath, he could feel calmness slowly returned to his mind, making him easier to focus on the task at hand.

"Oh, his feel changed," Nazuna said with a quiet voice only possible to her to hear. She looked to her friend, the samurai boy, and noticed that he seemed to have the same opinion as her as his eyes looked to be much more excited than before.

Drest let out his breath and opened his eyes, facing his opponent with a much more focused mind.

"Hehe, getting serious now, aren't we?" Kawara said to him with an amused tone.

"Yes, please be prepare, Kawara-dono." Drest said with a calm but firm tone.

"Good, good. I guess I will." A short reply came from the female monk with a small grin appeared once again on her face.

"Ready!" Dolce's voice filled the hall. "Go!"

This time, Drest was the first one to launch his body forward. Realizing that, Kawara also did the same.

She aimed at his head again. A quick side chop was delivered to him.

(Hit!)

She exclaimed inside her head as the chop was only a few millimeter from his head.

"Eh!?" But the situation that followed after that surprised her. The attack hit his head but she felt nothing. She then realized that it was just an afterimage.

Suddenly her mind screamed that danger was approaching from her back. She quickly rolled forward to avoid any attack, not even trying to look what kind of danger was behind her. While doing that, she felt the air moved near her head. For a split second she looked at the image of her opponent doing the same attack from behind her. Quickly standing up and turned around to face him, she found no one was there. Startled by that fact, a warning came from her mind again. Deeming that avoiding the attack was near impossible this time, she turned back while slamming her elbow backward to whatever attack that was going to hit her.

Her elbow managed to make an impact. But contrary to being relieved, she knew that something was wrong. She felt that her elbow was still moving although an impact was already made.

She looked at the culprit and saw that her elbow was captured by her opponent.

Instead of launching another attack, Drest waited for the right moment to counter her attack. And his chance came when she delivered that elbow blow to him who was waiting behind her. Drest caught her arm with one of his hand and the push her back. With the momentum of her attack still going added with the loss of stability courtesy of Drest, Kawara's body was flipped and propelled into the air.

"GUWAAHH!" She hit the floor back first with a loud thumping sound. The wave of that fall could be felt by the whole member of the guild currently present on the hall. In a split second, the air on her body was pushed out because of the heavy fall, making her paralyzed for the moment and rendered her silent.

The whole hall became silent as everyone was trying to process what just happened.

The first one that was able to break out of the shock was Dolce. He immediately raised his hand and then declared with a loud voice "Winner, Drest!"