Seeing that the two of them had reset Jeff quickly changed his stance from one that a fencer would use that did jabs to an overhead guard. Seeing him change his stance, his opponent does the same by letting go with his left hand bringing the sword back behind him, and extending his left hand toward him. This, Jeff surmised, was a more traditional sword stance. More importantly, it left him at a slight disadvantage in positioning. If he goes for the downward strike first, Luke could easily capitalize by dodging it and then countering with his longer-reaching weapon. However, leaving the attack initiative would be a bad idea as well. From what Jeff could tell, Luke also held a small speed advantage. Which left Jeff with only one option, to perform a bluff.
-----
‘ That freaking prick! Why can’t I hit that guy!’
Luke swore in his head as he backed away after taking an upward swing to his chest. Luckily, his armor took the brunt of it. In the exchange that just occurred, Jeff led with a downward swing that ended with the sword by his attacker's right leg. Which Luke easily dodged before pushing in for his counter, only for it to be caught by the joke of a wing shield on his left arm. Jeff then proceeded to step forward and raise his sword in a backswing that caught Luke in the chest.
‘ How is that prick so good? I know I have not focused on my sword training, but I should not be this bad.’
After taking a couple more steps back Luke goes back to the two-handed stance he started with.
“ Hey, what gives? How is this prick better than me with the sword?”
Jeff genuinely blinks in surprise at this but does not react otherwise. One of his associates opens his mouth to answer but a strange field, like the one the first day they came here formed.
Field of Mute in effect.
Sounds and other forms of communication have been blocked from inside to outside and outside to inside the barrier.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
The elf twins smile pleased with themselves as the dwarf responds to the change.
“ Getting information on your opponent at this point will count as outside interference. To prevent such, we as impartial judges, have deemed it appropriate to erect this mute field.”
Luke ground his teeth hearing that and focused on his opponent again. Only noticing the floating ‘2’ over his head now. Doing a quick review of his combat log, he found that he did take damage by blocking with that joke shield. This caused him to smile a little bit as he figured out that he had both a strength and speed advantage. Now having a proper measure of their abilities and capabilities, Luke stepped forward again to go on the offense. With this closing the distance, Jeff reacted by striking the side of Luke’s sword with his own, but found it unmoving, causing the other man to step back.
‘ Gotcha!’
As Jeff stepped back Luke proceeded to continue his forward momentum, having learned that Jeff could not redirect his steady blow. Which turned into a thrust that he barely dodged, leaving a scratch on his mithril helmet. As expected, Jeff tries to capitalize on this but fails midstroke as Luke lets go of his sword with his left hand and intercepts the other duelist's wrist. What Luke was not expecting however was for the wing shield to strike against his right arm’s elbow as he went for the dagger on his belt. Fortunately for Jeff, Luke turned his sword so when the wing shield shifted the sword, it hit the flat side of his helmet. Seeing what comes next, Luke lets go of Jeff’s wrist and steps to his right as he brings his sword edge down onto the other man's shoulder in a slicing motion. It brought a smile to his face when he saw that strike doing more than all other attacks combined. His victory was shortlived as Jeff quickdrew the dagger onto Luke’s extended right arm. Causing the other man to regain the lead.
‘ You got to be kidding me!’
Luke stepped back again to catch his breath and reset his stance but Jeff had other ideas as he rushed him in that same high sword stance as before. Quickly reacting, Luke quickly took hold of his sword with both hands as he guarded the strike with his sword. Using his superior position and strength, he then proceeded to throw back the strike, but he had forgotten about the dagger as Jeff used the push to increase the momentum of his dagger strike right into his kidneys. With his sword raised, however, Luke quickly brought it down onto Jeff’s exposed and undefended shoulder. A move that would have cleaved the mans arm completely off. However, when he checked the numbers, somehow his were lower, by a large margin.
-----
The scaleprince watched with mild amusement, the so-called hero of the sword was being beaten by someone of similar level in a weapon that was supposed to be his specialty. By the rule of rarity, the hero should have at least twice the potential of one who is merely only a champion. So the disparity in training between them had become even more apparent. This caused her to be curious as to what the hero was actually doing with his time. At least his physical stats are superior however to the cardmancers. By nearly a two-to-one factor, but such things are not uncommon in lower levels. The disparity in mental stats however is much greater in the cartomancers favor. Probably about two to five. Which showed in the superior technique and tactics. Making sure to come out ahead in each exchange, or with as little loss as possible. As she thought this the duel entered its peak phase, where both combatants were at their strongest and had a measure of the other’s abilities. That is when she felt something was wrong.