'BIIIIIIIIG AXE!!!' - was all Titanyana could think about as she scrambled to the side, dodging Kerefel's mammoth of a weapon by the fur on her tail.
CRUKSCH
Stones and crumbs of dirt shrapneled into her side from the impact. Her clothes took the edge off, but she had to admit that a few of the stones would probably leave some nasty bruises if she wasn't 'fixed' by the Great Csillacra. Even if they had broken skin it wouldn't have been much of a problem, pain would not inhibit her performance so long as the injury wasn't debilitating in some way, but it certainly outlined a bigger problem Titanyana was having.
Kerefel was proving himself exceptionally difficult to work around, and it all revolved around that axe of his.
For one, it was a strong weapon. Heavy, sturdy, and wielded by someone strong enough to move the bar between her blade and his chest with surprising consistency, that last strike had managed to dig down through the dirt to the stone pedestal the dirt platform rested on. Kerefel was fast enough to make a strike and get his axe back in a position to defend himself, making her traditional methods of approach less reliable. It was only an instinct, but she had a feeling that chasing was not a good idea. There was every chance he would drive the axe's head down in the dirt to stop its momentum.
It was a move he had already showed off once this match, catching Titanyana off guard and almost claiming part of her tricep as he swung his axe back towards her. The part of her sleeve that had been cut away left her arm feeling particularly chilly.
The other part of her difficulty was that she was, believe it or not, inexperienced. Titanyana had never fought someone on or near her level of skill that used an axe. She didn't know the ins and outs of dueling with someone like him, but she was sure he had a wealth of experience fighting people like her, and it showed. His movements, slow in comparison, were expertly timed to interfere with her avenues of attack.
He could dance around the handle, his arms longer than her sword keeping him outside of her range even when she had an opportunity. Those same arms were covered by a somewhat thicker set of gauntlets, and every time she tried to pierce them he only needed to adjust his position to make the tip of her blade glide off the side. The shape of those gauntlets, almost like hexagonal prisms around his arms, were undoubtedly designed for that single purpose. The surfaces lacked any form of embroidery or flair and were incredibly smooth, like mirrors.
The most annoying part was that, unlike the vast majority of her opponents, Kerefel was being careful. Incredibly careful. He left no obvious openings, he didn't take bait, he didn't leave bait, he didn't let her close, he didn't let her get too far away, and he didn't make the first move. Every single action of his was a response, the best option for him without question, and it was turning the battle into a stalemate.
Titanyana would always lose a stalemate.
"Ngrrr. . ." Her ears flattened in irritation. She had been forced into an undesirable situation, and the only way out was to use her brain.
"First time fighting an axeman?" Her opponent had finally decided to speak to her. His tone wasn't arrogant, but curious.
Hesitantly, Titanyana nodded her head. She didn't want to reveal her inadequacies, but her gut was telling her Kerefel could already tell. "Mhm. My people only use them to chop wood."
"I see." Kerefel maintained eye contact, his stance shifting a little as he adjusted his grip. "You are a part of that special squad the Montaug tasked Trebar with overseeing, no?"
"Mm." A grunt of affirmation.
"Very well. I shall see to it that you and your squad are properly educated in the art of countering axes." He spun his axe in front of him, an axe that likely held some form of cultural significance to him. "But for now, we fight. I wish to see what you have to offer."
Hearing this, Titanyana once more grumbled. Circling her opponent, she fell into thought, safely outside of her opponent's range. She recognized that this match needed a shift in paradigm, and she was going to have to initiate. But how?
Titanyana, skilled with a sword as she might be, found herself to actually be quite limited in approach options, approach options that she no longer recognized as being viable. Swords and lances did not move like axes, and her opponent readily demonstrated that her previously devised options were not as effective as she thought, at least not against this opponent.
The 'danger zone' of the axe was a lot bigger than she had given it credit for, particularly when in made an impact with the ground, and Kerefel could move it a fair clip faster than Titanyana could have anticipated. It was still slow, at least in comparison to other weapons, but it's sheer size meant it covered the area you would traditionally need the speed to defend. It didn't help that Kerefel himself was fairly agile.
What were her avenues of attack then?
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A frontal assault was impossible, at least with the tactics she could think of, and an attack to his flanks would very rapidly turn into a frontal assault. The back . . . wasn't a valid target, she just wouldn't be able to get to it. Maybe underneath? No, the axe was even more of a threat there with the assistance of gravity.
Maybe she could travel along the shaft? Sort of like a modified chase?
Her eyes drifted to the burly arms supporting the axe in its current position, immediately deciding against it. She already had some semblance of an idea of how someone might fight with their arms with her spars with Donovan. She had no reason to assume that Kerefel hadn't thought or fought someone who tried something similar. So long as his arms remained something she could not attack she would not be able to launch an attack that brought her close. Titanyana didn't have experience with hand to hand combat, and now wasn't the time to start training.
So where else? Maybe she could get a lunge out of him by sacrificing an arm? Did axemen even lunge?
She looked towards the axe, noting the small but sharp needle extending from the shaft. It probably wasn't the most effective weapon, but she imagined it had its uses when Kerefel found himself in a weapon lock, no way he would use it to initiate an attack. It probably wouldn't even be a death blow if it did hit.
Maybe a suicide rush? Sacrificing defense and taking the hit on the approach to secure a kill? She would normally think that an effective last resort when faced with a swordsman or lancer, but when she did that she purposely took a hit in a spot where she would survive long enough to get that death blow off. Would she be able to do that against an axe?
Her torso started tingling just thinking about it.
That left one option, something she really didn't want to try, especially given her position as an instructor.
"Could I, um, could I ask you to let me tell something to my squad leader?"
"Hm?" Kerefel looked genuinely confused.
"I'm in charge of teaching him to use the sword, and, well, I'm abut to do something I very specifically told him not to do. . ." She feared she might be revealing something about her plan, but she wanted to cover her ass in case she succeeded. Under no circumstances should Donovan be led to believe what she was about to do was a 'smart' move.
". . . that's fine?"
Titanyana gave a short bow, thanking him before walking a little closer to the edge. Confident she was close enough for Donovan to hear her, she yelled. "DO NOT DO THIS!!!" Anxiously, she waited for a response, well aware of the crowd's eyes tearing into her.
". . . WHAT!?!"
Titanyana's tail flicked, furious with herself. She measured her distance and voice based on a Nekh's ability to hear, not a Terran's. Unwilling to get closer to him, she stuck her sword into the ground, pointed at it, swung her arms like she was holding it, then waved her hand in front of her nose like she was warding off a bad scent. Following that, she crossed her forearms into an 'X' shape in front of her before giving a double thumbs up with a tilted head.
It was the best she could come up with in the moment. She wanted to say that the move she was about to do was 'stinky', and that she wanted confirmation that he understood that.
A few seconds of heart pounding embarrassment later, Donovan returned a thumbs up. "DON'T DO WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO!?"
He still asked to be sure, to which Titanyana responded with a vicious head nod in the affirmative.
His single thumbs up turned to a double thumbs up, and Titanyana very quickly returned to her post. "Sorry. . ."
"No, there was a time when I would have done something similar." Once again he adjusted his grip. "Now, come. I wish to see this 'foolish' move for myself."
Titanyana nodded, and backed up a few steps. Now they were at roughly the same distance they started at. Once as before, she sprang like a rocket towards Kerefel, careful to not go faster than she could handle. Kerefel, ever the expert, judged his swing perfectly. Titanyana would need to slow down to not get hit.
Titanyana wasn't planning on stopping, but she wasn't going to let the axe hit her either. She was on a collision course with the axe, almost like she wanted to be cleaved in half, when all of the sudden she wasn't.
Titanyana did the one thing she told Donovan to never do, she jumped.
- - - - -
The instant he saw Titanyana go airborne, Kerefel knew it was his defeat.
Truly, this move was 'stupid' beyond belief. Truly, there was nothing he could to do stop her at this point. Had she just ducked under the axe as she had the first time he could have pushed his axe into the ground and punished her for getting close, but that wasn't an option when she was above it. The quickest way he could think of getting the axe's handle in a position to defend was to drive the head into the ground and then pull it back, but there wasn't enough time for that.
- - - - -
Titanyana's trajectory, all things considered, was fairly flat. It wasn't the best jump, she was flailing and spinning, and she was undoubtedly going to collide with his chest, but someone of her size and skill would be able to land a fatal blow like that. Especially when they had a tail.
See, Titanyana had a little secret. It might be more accurate to say the Nekh as a whole shared this secret, but Titanyana was one of the few individuals small enough to use it to the best effect. The Nekh, much like cats, could use their tails to stabilize themselves while airborne to a degree, so while she wasn't quite stable by the time she stabbed Kerefel through the head, she was steady enough to make an accurate stab.
Within moments of Titanyana and Kerefel returning to their rings, the crowd went absolutely ballistic. To them, this match was absolutely phenomenal, perhaps even the 'Duel of the Day'. Titanyana was a newbie, this being her debut match, and she had managed to defeat a fourth year, a veteran. Not just any veteran either, but one of Trebar's veterans, inherited with his squad from his predecessor that was considered to be the third most powerful overall.
"BAHAHAHAHAAAA-!!!" A tremendous bout of laughter erupted from the levee opposite Titanyana's, evidently belonging to the man larger than Kerefel. Kerefel himself appeared quite pleased, even though he had lost he was smiling. As the two of them bowed though, Titanyana could only feel the sweat drip down her back.
'Why did that work?'
Everything Titanyana knew about combat suggested that was possibly the dumbest thing she could have done in that situation, and yet it worked. She was walking back to her levee, victorious, lauded by the crowd, while her opponent, the person who by all rights had her cornered, was shamed to defeat.
As she took a seat in front of a dumbfounded Len and Wall, desiring a glass of water, Donovan leaned over.
"Is it okay if I try that as a last resort?"