While audience was still giggling about Nick’s weapon of choice and chatting about the good decision to come no matter the results of the duel, the two men, one middle aged, large and burly and the other young, thin and dressed like it was spring outside, took their positions and bent their knees a little.
Around their feet small swirls of snow danced away signifying the large amount of Qi currently gathering there.
Then, without making any sound, Oscar swung his club. If you count the club’s and his hand’s length together, it was easily over two meters and for Nick there seemed no room to dodge. And he had to admit, the lump before him was, in fact, no lump, but incredibly strong and fast opponent.
But Nick practiced this training for weeks when he and YunYun made guards at the palace training grounds continuously attack them with long poles. In his eyes there were countless openings if, of course, he was fast enough.
He almost glued to the ground, but, as soon as the club was above his head, got back up, took a step forward and grabbed Oscar’s right hand. With the momentum of the swing he propelled himself to the right, used his right foot to change the movement direction upwards and, while evading the grab from Oliver’s left hand, stepped on his left thigh and in the next moment already sat on his left shoulder while making a slicing motion with the wooden stick around Oliver’s neck.
The previously loud arena fell in to a death still silence. It almost felt as if one could hear the snowflakes crashing down on the snowy arena floor. Everything happened in a split second and if you blinked at the wrong time, you probably missed the whole thing!
Nick jokingly hit Oscar’s head with the small stick and jumped off his shoulder, “I win!”
Oscar still couldn’t register what exactly happened, but his instincts told him that if the kid had a dagger in his hand, the snow in arena would be painted red by now.
“You win.” Oscar seriously nodded and went over to his brothers. Passing the club to Otto, he said, “You probably saw it better than I did. That speed …”
In the end he could only sigh. It was not that he had never lost a duel, but he found opponents like Nick most annoying. And he knew his brothers felt the same. Still, it didn’t mean they would all loose – one can kill an annoying fly with a log as well. And they had killed many flies in their lives.
While the silence still filled the arena, Otto came to the center.
“What else you got?” He said.
That, of course, implied ‘the same trick won’t work for the second time’. But Nick was not worried. He didn’t plan to use a particular move at some moment. He instinctively used the opening and the opportunity that Oscar presented, that was all.
Since Otto didn’t make a move, this time Nick attacked first. In the eyes of the many onlookers he simply vanished from his spot and the large towering stature of Otto was suddenly eloped in a swirl of snow.
From time to time he took a step aside and swung his club, but apart from that to most people it was not clear what exactly went on.
Until suddenly a minute and a half later the snow swirl disappeared and showed the two figures inside. They both stood facing each other, but Otto loudly sighed and shook his head. Then without saying anything went to pass the club to Oliver.
Only when he started to walk the crowd understood what happened. For some reason the wooden stick in Nick’s hand transformed into extremely sharp dagger and left countless amounts of cuts on Otto’s clothing. At there were so many of them, his coat and even garments underneath were cut into small, thin strips that fell whenever Otto took another step. When he arrived at the spot his brothers were at, he wore only boots and trousers. The most incredible part was that on his muscular body there were only few scratches! What control over his weapon one should have to be able to do this? And to think this was done using a wooden stick!
Nick did feel bad about this. It was so different from the usual fighting style the people here had, but to not loose, or rather, to not get any of his bones broken, he had to do that.
Oliver passed his thick coat to the half naked brother and without saying anything grabbed the club and went to the center. The arena was still silent and his steps echoed around the spectator seats. After the last fight people were holding their breaths and tried not to blink afraid they could miss something.
Nick looked and the man in front of him attentively. Even though he earlier wore the thick coat, one could guess he had a build like his younger brother and now, seeing it, Nick was amazed how similar they were.
“Just a second.” Nick suddenly said and went over to YunYun.
Up until now she was leisurely standing and watching the show, but when the last brother came in the center of arena, for some reason she became serious.
“I think he won’t use the club.” She whispered.
“Mhm.” Nick nodded, took off his jacket, passed it to her and then winked, “I’ll be back in a minute.”
He had to take off the jacked for this fight, but couldn’t put it in the wristband, therefore the only option was to give it to YunYun.
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Then he quickly jogged back.
“Sorry you had to wait.” Nick smiled and said.
Oliver looked at the kid in the white shirt in disbelief, “Are you going to be alright like this?”
“Ye, I really like that jacket, but I felt you might grab and tear it during the fight, therefore I took it off.” Nick said.
“You think I’m so petty that I want a silly payback for ruining my brother’s coat?” Oliver snorted in displeasure.
“Oh, no! You misunderstood!” Nick shook his head, “I think you won’t use your club and at the first opportunity will grab my pseudo-weapon and break it. Afterwards this will become a regular brawl during which inevitably you will grab and tear my jacket. Both of us are very fast and you are extremely strong as well, it’s just bound to happen.”
Oliver’s expression changed once again, “Sigh. And here I thought I could not underestimate you anymore, but you managed to surprise me over and over again. Alright, Nick! Let’s go! People are waiting.” He said, loudly laughed and to the surprise of the most onlookers threw the club away.
Nick threw his stick away as well and bent his knees, lowering the center of gravity. This will be extremely difficult!
Finally both men charged at each other. And once again for the most onlookers there was only a swirl of snow. But the very few saw how both rained punches and kicks at each other and, while Oliver took few on his upper body on purpose, Nick managed to evade all. Of course, if he let any hit through, he most likely would’ve been knocked out by those huge Oliver’s fists.
If a fight between Qi sword masters usually ended in an instant, then a brawl could go on for ten or twenty minutes, especially if both fighters had a lot of stamina. Currently the ones who were in the arena had almost limitless stamina and, until Nick made a mistake it was unlikely for the brawl to end. Not because he couldn’t defeat the opponent, but because he once again started to treat something as a practice.
A wide smile plastered across his face as he dodged and punched, while his opponent became increasingly annoyed. The problem was that Oliver simply couldn’t land a hit, but the slippery mosquito from time to time managed to sting him. And, although it didn’t hurt much, it was still unpleasant and did hurt his pride a lot, especially since he understood that in a life and death battle by using weapons most likely he would've lost.
Once Nick, to avoid Oliver’s grab, slid through his legs without attacking his genitalia and only poked his thigh marking the missed opportunity. Another time was when Nick got hit on his right shoulder, but to lessen the damage he spun clockwise while falling down and landing a round kick on Oliver’s shoulder. The latter was absolutely certain his opponent could’ve landed the kick on his cheek and broken multiple bones, maybe even killed him.
Finally, fifteen minutes later, when the crowd already started to become restless, the snow tornado dispersed and at its place stood one large man, almost out of breath, holding a youth by his neck like a chicken with his feet dangling above the ground.
Crowd, seeing this result, burst into loud cheers and shouted Oliver’s name. But the man simply let Nick go and the latter, after getting back his balance, rubbed his neck and said, “Damn! That was good! We should do it again some time!”
Before Oliver could respond, the emperor spoke once again.
“Alright! The duel has concluded. Some of you saw the details, but for those who are not experienced Qi masters I would like to explain what happened. The fight was not as one sided as it might look from the result! During it both parties showed incredible speed, agility and reaction. Even though in the end our young friend got caught, there were at least two instances when Oliver would’ve gotten lethal injuries if this was a real fight to the death. Therefore I announce this duel a draw! My thanks to the participants for showing what the true honor and friendship is!”
The crowd burst into loud cheers and applause. No one regretted to come out on this cold day – the duel turned out to be incredibly entertaining, even for those who could only see the swirls of snow.
After a minute when the crowd’s cheers died down, the emperor continued, “Regarding the bet! Since it was a draw, we will settle the bet this way – our young friend will pay for the damaged door at the inn, but the three brothers will pay for the lunch at the castle since that is the most expensive place in the capital!”
Nick’s eyes widened in surprise from these words, but the crowd cheered again and for some reason some people even hysterically laughed. In the end Nick decided it was because of some inside joke he didn’t know yet.
After finishing his speech, both emperor and empress left and Nick went back to YunYun.
“You surely had a lot of fun.” She said. Obviously this nuance didn’t slip by her attentive eyes.
“Ye, I kind of wanted to use the opportunity. We almost never do any hand to hand combat training and this was an interesting experience.” Nick said.
“You can’t be serious.” Oliver just came over when he overheard Nick’s words and now he didn’t know how to express his shock. It was one thing if the kid was well versed in such combat style, but if he never practiced it, on what level was the combat he actually practiced?
“Don’t take it too seriously. Speed is my forte, you know. If we competed in strength, compared to you I could be considered a toddler.” Nick tried to console the big guy, but the latter shook his head.
“Alright, we can chat later. Let’s move quickly to the castle or you’ll freeze to death.” Oliver said looking at how Nick wore his leather jacked again.
At this point the other two brothers came over as well.
“Damn it! I should’ve thought to fight you hand to hand as well!” Oscar complained.
“If you want, we can go for another round later.” Nick shrugged.
“No way! It’s my turn! You already had your fun!” YunYun suddenly said.
The three brothers froze in their steps. What? This girl wanted to fight them head on? But what came next shocked them even more.
“Sure, if they agree. But you have to remember to hold back and not deal any serious damage! Especially the intimate parts and the face.” Nick said, “They are holding back as well, of course!”
“Hmm. In that case I better don’t fight. Holding back in practice might negatively effect me in a real fight.” YunYun shook her head and said in a sad voice.
“At first I also thought so. But try to look at this as coordination and speed training and set your main task to hit points close to the vitals as if there were the only openings in the opponents armor.” Nick instructed and YunYun’s eyes lit up.
“That might work!” She said.
The three brothers couldn’t utter a word. Were they some kind of target dummies? The two were using this event to simply practice? What was wrong with them?
Speechless, they led the two weirdos to the castle. Luckily it was close and Oliver didn’t get to freeze without his coat for too long. Of course, Nick didn’t care about the weather at all, but curiously inspected surroundings.