Dent hummed to himself, his eyes watching the Death Knight fight as his fingers tapped at his sword scabbard. It was possible he had to fight Humphrey soon enough, or even possibly-
“Hey, Dent.” Sally said, leaning against the chair beside him. “Chuck not coming to watch you prove your worth?”
The swordsman sighed. “Oh, he is watching, don’t you worry. He felt guilty at having time off yesterday to play baseball, so is catching up on work today.”
She groaned. “What could he be doing that is more important than being here supporting you?”
Dent grinned. “He’ll show up for the final, and that suits me. I don’t need fussin’ over during these intro fights.” He leaned forward. “No offense, Theo.”
“None taken.” The vampire was staring blankly back out into the area. “Your technical skill level is far beyond what I am capable of, even though you were holding back in your last fight. My style is much closer to how Sally fights. High risk, high reward.”
“We both prefer to be up close and personal with our weapons,” she said wiggling her eyebrows at Theo, who wasn’t even looking.
The swordsman nodded. “Very true. It goes to show how good a combatant you both are that you can keep pace with the best sword users in the System. Interesting that you think I was holding back, Theo?”
“You stay out of the limelight, but I’ve done my research. Dug around in your accomplishments before the fight against Ruben.”
“Oh?” Dent shuffled uncomfortably. “So you’ve been able to prepare better for fighting me, then?”
Theo shook his head and looked between him and the zombie. “Hadn’t even thought of it, not since that time Humphrey killed me. There wasn’t enough time between… baseball and now to really do anything worthwhile. You can just win, I suppose.”
“How gracious.” The swordsman furrowed his brow as the vampire turned back to stare at the fight. His eyes went up to the zombie. “Is he okay? I haven’t seen him this out of it since…”
“Last time we played baseball?” She nodded. “He really puts a lot of effort in, and it takes a lot out of him.” Sally maintained a neutral expression. “Repeatedly.”
Edward groaned from the couch. “Terrible day to have a migraine.”
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Bugula rolled away from the Death Knight like a beetle before popping back up to her feet. Drips of thick ichor fell from her torso as she wavered slightly.
“You move quicker than expected,” she hissed through her mandibles.
“As do you.” Humphrey moved his sword into a ready position. While being a huge suit of armor seemed like it might be unfair, Chuck had labored him with an armor reduction debuff so that he would be on a closer level to the other fighters.
While he couldn’t bleed out and losing limbs was unlikely, his normally pitch-black plates were now criss-crossed with dozens of slim silver lines. His opponent was relentless and impressive, using her six swords with practised prescision.
If anything, that just meant he had to win, so that Sally didn’t have to go up against her.
Plus, he wanted to face Dent.
“There is no shame in knowing when you are outmatched,” he said with a grin.
“Save it, rustbucket. Going toe to toe with Head of Security and one of the Outsiders is a win in my books.”
Crimson flame flickered around the Death Knight’s helmet as a plated foot slid across the loose sand. “The acceptance of that fact proves you do not have the fortitude to gain true victory.”
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Dent rubbed the side of his head. “Wow, and I thought you and Theo talked too much during combat.”
With a slow nod, Sally couldn’t help but agree. “Pops loves the process of a duel, but that also ends up taking up more time with monologues and showboating. I usually keep it short with a few taunts or amusing anecdotes.”
He shrugged. “I suppose that makes it more interesting for the audience.”
Watching the Death Knight flourish his blade before giving another one-liner, she was actually dreading their match-up. It had been fun to goad him into having to fight her, but when it came down to it she wasn’t sure how she even felt about it. He was the better fighter with a sword, so he should win - and most likely would. Didn’t mean she would give up and allow him an easy road to the top, however.
She turned her head to see Theo standing right behind her. “Problem, pup?”
“Just anxious for my fight.”
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Dent turned around to face the vampire. “You seemed rather calm earlier.”
Theo nodded. “It’s not every day I get to die, however.”
The swordsman sighed and look back out to the fight. “I know your strengths. What you might lack in skill, you make up for with your willingness to be reckless at your own detriment. Two peas in a pod, you and Sally.”
Sally grinned. “We literally won’t give up until you’ve pulped our heads in.”
“That’s why I can’t let you fight each other.” Dent shook his head. “It would either descend into wanton cruelty as you both maim each other and refuse to submit… or you’d probably make out.”
“Probably both,” she agreed, while the vampire nodded behind her. “I suppose that makes it more interesting for the audience.”
Theo then shook his head. “It’s in the rules actually. No petting.”
“Rats. Really, though?” Sally tutted. “All this bloodshed and death is fine, but two lovers can’t share a smooch amidst the heat of battle?”
There was a groan from the back of the room and they turned to see the demon stand up and brush his suit down.
“Well my migraine has suffered all that it is able.” Edward gave them a tired shrug. “Best of luck everyone, raincheck on later, Theo?”
The vampire nodded and Edward vanished with a flash of blue.
Sally pouted. “Something’s not right with that guy.”
“No.” Theo ran his tongue across his fangs before turning back to the arena. “He is usually quite open about things, but something has been bugging him since yesterday and he won’t say what.”
“The world dropping maybe?”
He gave the zombie a shrug and went to sit back down on their seats. “Not likely, but who knows.”
Sally squished up beside him, and leaned closer to his ear. “Hey, pup. You want to… bite me before your fight? Get some pep back in you?”
“Nah, thanks though.”
She sat back and pouted. At least she tried to make the looming fight more exciting. Maybe doping the contestants was also against the rules. They seemed too long to read fully, and having them delivered in paper format was an odd choice.
With a loud crack, the crowd then started cheering. Leaning over the window it didn’t take much guesswork to see that-
[Humphrey wins!]
A flash of blue and the Death Knight reappeared in their chamber.
“And that makes me the winner,” he said, a wide grin on his skeletal face.
Sally rolled her eyes. “Yeah, we can see the announcement. Did you talk her to death and she committed sudoku?”
“Seppuku,” Theo corrected.
“Bless you.”
Humphrey narrowed his eye sockets, unwilling to allow the rain cloud spewed forth to dampen his win. “So amusing, Sally Danger. This just means we are to battle in the near future.”
“I’m not worried.” She shrugged. “I know you, your true weakness is your heart. So that’s where I’ll get ya. With my sword.”
The Death Knight said nothing, but went over to the window to observe the next two fights before Theo and Dent were up.
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Theo yawned, leaning forward to touch his toes, before righting himself and flexing out his back. Neither movement provided any satisfying clicks or pops. The magic of the System didn’t seem to heal over the aches in his muscles, or low energy. Removing his glasses again to put in his Inventory, he then bent over to pick his sword up from the sandy ground.
“You’re making it look like you’re not taking this seriously,” Dent said, already in a ready position with his sword up.
The vampire shrugged. “Far from it, Dent. In fact - I doubt anyone will take you as seriously as I have.”
[Dent vs Theo begin!]
Theo closed his eyes, holding his sword loosely by his side.
“See, this is what I mean.” The swordsman worked his jaw. “Is this one of your mind games?”
“No. You see, I’ve noticed that you have three main starting strikes for engaging combat. That gives me a base chance of 33% to guess and block which you will use to enable my own counter. However, now that I’ve told you this you may switch up and use a different opener… although, you are a stickler for consistency in these things, aren’t you?” Theo tilted his head to the side. “If I miss the counter then every subsequent strike has a smaller and smaller chance of success. At our comparative skill levels I determine I have a 5.4% chance of winning this fight… rising to 7.9% if I manage to guess the first counter.”
“And I thought Humphrey talked too much,” Dent murmured. “So what? You going to submit already, or shall we get on with the inevitable?”
Theo opened his eyes. “Make the first move, cowboy. We’ll see how lucky I am.”
Dent flourished his blade around and then launched himself toward the vampire. Sword back, he made the decision on what would be the best opener to use against his lax opponent.
However, Theo wasn’t waiting to prepare a block or counter. As soon as the swordsman had set off he instead leveled the Demonkiller sword back, and then flung it straight toward the approaching man.
Dent slid and tried to dodge away from it, the clang of the blade bouncing off his own as the sword sliced through his clothing and nicked his shoulder. Before he could gather himself the vampire colided into him, a shoulder barge knocking him to the ground.
The vampire rolled off away and grabbed his sword back up from the loose sand. He spun as he drove it back down towards his opponent. Sparks flew off of Dent’s mechanical hand as the Demonkiller slid down his hastily raised weapon and bounced from his metal fist. A kick lashed out causing the swordsman to stumble back as he regained his footing.
Blazing red eyes pierced the clouds of risen dust, Theo’s wide grin exposing long fangs that caught the light as he darted forward with a wide slash of his sword.
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“You don’t seem too enthusiastic.” Humphrey crossed his arms as he stared down at the two trading blows.
“Hmm?” Sally looked up at him. “Oh. No, Theo will lose. He told me before that Dent has a very structured way of fighting. Almost like a flowchart of well-honed counters and follow-ups for every situation.”
“I see.” He nodded slowly. “That explains why Theo is being both reckless and unorthodox in the way he is attacking.”
“’Delaying the inevitable’, he had said. He doesn’t have the full picture so it would only be a matter of time before he fell into part of the flowchart and lost.”
“At least he is making a good show of it.” Humphrey turned his head to observe the zombie. “That is not what is bothering you, though.”
Sally pouted. “I’m going to miss all this, when I go. It’s been a fun few days, I can’t deny that. Saw all my pals, we had some fun, fought a little, Theo even gave me a smooch…”
“What? I thought you said you’d not go further than holding hands this soon.” The flame behind the Death Knight’s helmet rose higher.
“Special occasion pops. Who knows how long I will be gone for?”
Humphrey deflated and looked back out to the fight. Before he had the chance to reply, a bleep interrupted them as they both received a Chat notification.
[Chuck: Come see me tomorrow afternoon.]
[Chuck: We have things to discuss.]