CHAPTER 95

287 AC

Even though Wyland was a noble knight since our second fight, he turned into someone who greeted me respectfully. So today, I was going to return this respect. At the arena, I offered him my hand. For a second, he hesitated but accepted the handshake. I asked in a tone only he could hear.

"Do you want to see my full power, or should we have a fight with dignity?"

He thought for a few seconds and said

"I want to see the difference between us."

"Are you sure? You're going to be humiliated in front of so many people, and I don't want to humiliate you in front of all those people."

"You will humiliate me so much more if you don't use your full power. After watching what you did to Hugo, I know I can't win and heard what you said to him. Do I deserve your sword?"

"How you acted since our last fight. You deserve my sword and respect."

We took our place, and I approached him slowly with the signal. He started sending an onslaught of attacks at me, but I kept deflecting them without moving so much from my spot. All the commoners and nobles without training were cheering for his success. It might look like he was pressuring me to the untrained eyes, but he and everyone with some training could see I wasn't moving.

The footwork is one of the most important parts of a fight, and the footwork could be all the difference if the fighters are close in talent and experience. In its essence, the footwork is control. With it, fighters can decide when to attack and defend. Without it, you give all your control to your enemy. He will be to one to determine when to attack or leave your reach.

After a few more strikes, I started using footwork too. With it, the distance between our talents became more evident to the untrained eyes too. I was moving like a leaf in the wind, and he was not able to touch me with his sword. After a few more exchanges, I took a few steps back and said.

"Please be careful. I'm going to use my full power now."

I started a flurry of attack at him, and he was barely able to keep up, but with every strike, he had more of a hard time, and with one more strike, he wasn't able to back away fast enough and fall on top of his back. Then I put my sword to his neck.

I held out my hand and helped him stand up. Then I put my sword in the reverse grip, brought that hand over my heart, and respectfully bowed my head to him, and he did the same. My other two following fights were against average knights, and I wanted to fight someone noteworthy, but there were none. The king didn't allow Jamie Lannister to fight in the tourney.

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The only noteworthy one was Smalljon Umber. He was around 18-20 name-days old. He wasn't as big as his father, but he still had time to grow and maybe pass him. he had 11 power and came to the last fight while using his impressive physique. He didn't have much of a technique. In all honesty, you would need that much technique with that physique, but he was too slow. He had only seven speeds.

I didn't know if my armor and magic armor combo was strong enough to defend against his great sword, and I didn't have enough confidence to try my luck, so I had to dodge all of his attacks, and the speed difference was more than enough for that.

With the signal, he charged at me while holding his great sword vertically, one hand at the hilt and the other at the top. So, he could occupy a larger arena when he charges. He wasn't afraid of my sword on a frontal attack. He was like an iron giant. There was two way for me to beat him; one was attacking his unprotected joints from the back, and the second way was going for a war of attrition. Suppose I could keep running away from him and doing little hits while goading him into doing big swings. I could outlast him.

With every swing, I could hear the wind howling from the great sword's cuts. I don't believe my double armor could stop such a considerable blunt force. Something might not break, but it was clear that the blow would knock me down and bruise me. He kept swinging his sword and kept charging at me.

I hit him whenever he showed an opening, but he wasn't an idiot. He only showed a gap where the armor was thickest. He never allowed me to hit him in the back of his joints. But he was obviously getting tired, even if I didn't goad him.

I would win in a war of attrition since I have a buff that boosts my stamina three times, but I didn't want to win that way. I knew I could kill him with one spell, but I wanted to test the limit of my sword training. So, I decided to clash with him but couldn't just charge at him.

There wasn't a way for me to beat him in a fight of strength, and I had to fight smart. Since he started to get tired, he changed how he swung his sword. He began to make his swings more circular to preserve and not waste his strength.

This way, he was able to keep the momentum high while using less stamina. But this way of fighting was so predictable in my eyes since my familiar buffs boosted my eyes and reflexes, and his movements were like an open book. I began to see where his sword would be before he did it, and with it started my counterattack.

When he started his movement, I slipped into the blind spot his circular movement caused and struck the back of his knee. he realized this way of fighting was not going to work. He must be having a hard time believing someone was outlasting him.

POV SMALLJON UMBER

He was like a slippery eel-like bastard. It was almost impossible to land a real hit. Every time I got close to a hit, he would be able to dodge within a centimeter of distance. How is it possible this guy was outlasting me?

So, I decided to conserve strength using circular movements, which made it worse. He was able to predict my movement, slipped past my defense, and struck the back of my knee. My left leg was no good, and there wasn't any way for me to outlast him anymore. I have to finish this fast.

I made another circular move, and as I expected, he moved in to use that gap, but this time, I was ready and did the same thing he did to his first opponent and hit him with my shoulder, but I didn't feel a big collision. This snake-like bastard had read my trap, jumped back with my hit, then kicked my knee simultaneously while I was off balance.

I couldn't keep my balance and started to stagger. He used this gap to swing his sword at my overextended arm and disarmed me. I tried to tackle him to the ground, but he managed to get out of my way before I could grab him and put his sword at my neck. I couldn't believe I lost to a three and ten name-day old child.