In front of me was Romuald. At first, he was walking , looking more like a savant than a fighter.

At my challenge however, he flashed a smile carrying a tinge of surprise and amusement. He rushed forward

Here

It

Comes.

Slash.

Horizontal slash from the left. I avoided it by an hair breadth. Literally. It wasn't even a blade, but the sharpness of the assault cut off some of my hair.

A return slash from the opposite "blade" of the stick.

"Sh--"

I hurriedly moved my weapon to block the strike.

Bam!

The strike sent me flying, and my left shoulder absorbed the brunt of it.

"Oof", I said has I blew air from my nose. Stunned. Flying at breakneck speeds.

Still, with all the grace of a newborn chick, I repositioned myself and looked at him. Below he was running, as if to strike a hit as soon as I landed.

"Give me a break!" I said.

I unwrapped the bola from my waist, I had a single shot and the current conditions were not quite ideal. Still, at the same time I couldn't see a more opportune moment, I was planning to use it in the plot forest but with that out of the question there was nothing stopping me.

I spun in the air, giving the bola some inertia and then threw..

Wait!

Accounting for my own speed, the speed at which he was running and the angle at which I'd have to unleash it, significant torque would have to be added, considering I'd have no leverage on the ground with my current strength and the state my shoulder was in, this was an impossible shot. And that was not even accounting for Romuald just dodging.

Unless?

A few seconds later, I fell on the ground, recovering in a roulade.

As fast as I could I turned towards my assailant, and aimed as fast as possible. He was now too close to dodge.

Here it goes.

"TAKE THIS!"

I couldn't really afford to wait for the result. I threw it as hard and accurately as I could, and left towards the final trap. Forgot the steps, I had threw all planning out the window to stake it all on this final trap.

I dashed towards him, instead of away. After all I couldn't let him know I was heading for something again. I would strike him, and then when he regained footing, run.

He went in a handstand, almost too easily.

"Shit this won't work," I thought as I immediately broke step and turned to run towards the exit of the training field.

As I ran away, I could guess he was about to free himself using his leg tornado thing.

A crisp *Snap* followed by a loud *Bam*.

Oh?

I didn't watch behind me, concentrating all my efforts on escaping, still I could guess what had happened. He had most likely freed himself snapping the rope, but lost balance due to the irregularities in the ground and crashed on the ground...

"Looks like all that digging wasn't totally useless," I told myself as I ran, revigorated.

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Quick.

Quick.

Quick!

It was pretty much certain that Romuald had not taken any damage, after all mana reinforcement was at least that potent. But the bola, had given me a few much needed seconds to escape.

Run!

I was stuck between a rock and hard place.

I had ran as far as I could but I couldn't go further, not because of any physical obstacle. But because any further and it would be obvious I was trying to lead him somewhere, still there was no real other option, I ran as fast as possible and arrived at the end zone, from there I pulled a thread.

The vines were the trap. They were somewhat elastic, they were resilient and they were part of the background. In fact, I had saw them so many times that I had taken them for granted.

But there was no reason they couldn't serve as snare trap material. The only problem was it would be obvious, and there was no way to control when it'd go off. But by simply offsetting the position of the trap to the forest nearby, I had made Romuald miss the trap, it'd be less likely to think there was a trap somewhere he had already went before, right?

He caught up to me. I waited for him to come.

"Moment of truth."

I was in a lot of mental turmoil, after all I had pretty much only managed to resist him meaningfully once. And even then, it wasn't worth counting. Trying to fight him was pretty much suicidal, but at the same time, there was absolutely no way for me to lead him into a trap without me being there. There is no way Romuald would walk into it willfully, there needed to be a bait, and in this case it would have to be me.

I breathed deeply.

"You got this... you got this... you .. got.. this..." repeating it to myself, trying to create a rythm.

Trying to put my mind in the same mental space, as it was during these meditative trances.

When he arrived, I was ready.

Reading the flow of his movements

He sent blows, and each time I narrowly weaved around them.

Every time, shivering at how terrifying he would be if he was going at full strength and with a real weapon in hand. I tried to place some hits too, but my instinct told me that with him being much faster, by the time I'd be in a position to strike, it'd mean offering an opening for him to use. Thus I stayed on the defensive the whole exchange.

This wasn't all bad however. This felt liberating.

For the first time ever, it wasn't a one sided fight. I couldn't let myself become too aroused, else I'd be dragged back to reality, still this felt amazing.

I couldn't get pretentious, the only reason I could even barely avoid these hits was because he was restraining himself, and because I had been so thoroughly hit by them that I could estimate their paths.

Still while I was telling myself that, and knew it rationally, I still felt invincible.

Moreover, I could feel in his breath that this was actually annoying him. "We are getting there."

As I stepped backward, I also walked slowly towards the trap. Slowly but surely, slowly but surely.

'slowl..ly'

Making sure to always dodge as closely as possible. At first I didn't have a choice, by the time I had read what was coming and moved the strike had almost hit me, but now that I was in the groove, in the flow, it all felt too slow.

This is fun.

'We.. are.. almost'

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARHGH!" He yelled as he unleashed a strike laced with killing intent, dragging me back into reality.

"Shi-"

I barely jumped out of the way. Abandoning all the subtle maneuvering for crude movements, barely saving my life.

I subtly looked at the trap.

"Shit" I said under my breath, my head drenched in sweat. I hadn't realized how intense this trance was, and how tiresome it was maintaining it in combat.

Still.

It's almost there.

He was so close to his demise. Three or so steps and it'd be set.

"Hahaha, kid, kid, KID!!" Romuald said with eyes that looked intoxicated.

"Who would have thought!? So quickly too!"

He said rubbing his eyes that were getting wet.

"AMAZING!"

Uh?

"What do you mean?"

"Ah, we don't have to fight anymore! You showed me what you can do, let's go feast!"

"Uh!?" I said even more surprised.

Lightbulbs lit in my head. Wait, I can use that to my advantage.

"Oh ok, alright?" I said, "Still there was one trap I'd like to show you, I didn't have time to set it but I would like to ask your opinion about it."

"Oh, another one?" He said interested.

"Yes stay there, and don't peek!"

He sat down.

Then.

I went to about 2 meters away from the snare trap hidden by leaves, making sure to walk around it without actually touching it.

The trap was between me and Romuald, my back hiding my drawing.

Once that was done, I grasped at my makeshift sword like one would a big brush, I paused a bit, taking my sweet time to build anticipation and then..

Only then... did and I start to draw in the dirt. Drawing, then erasing with my feet.

Swash

Then, again.

Swash

and, again.

5 minutes passed that way.

"Are you over yet?" He said.

"Haha, it's working" I thought to myself, trying my best to rein in my laughter.

"Not yet," I said taking even more time, after a good 10 minutes had elapsed he stood up.

He stood up and took a step my way.

Took you long enough.

As I continued to draw, not even looking his way I counted his steps in my head.

One

Two

Three

Swong!

A springy noise followed by a rustle of leaves.

I looked at him, to see his face in shock and disbelief at what was happening. His legs attached to the snare trap and pulled in the air. I couldn't see myself, but I could feel my cheeks hurting from the grin I was making.

"I WON!"