Two hours passed, and Gustava and Sigismund stood on the dueling ground. It was a large square-shaped space with a wooden fence around it. A line of cloth decorated the barrier. The fabric had sigils of various noble houses sewn into it.
Both combatants wore shimmering suits of plate armor that shone bright in the sun. Gustava’s armor included a tabard emblazoned with her coat of arms: a two-headed golden lion holding a sword in its right front paw and a scepter in its left front paw on a field of white with red roses surrounding it. Sigismund’s coat of arms was more humble: a black crow on a field of white holding a skull in one of its claws and a sword in the other.
Sigismund and Gustava held a type of tournament lance in their hands. These had round heads that couldn’t pierce or cut, but they could still hurt even someone wearing plate armor with enough blows. On their hips were blunt swords.
There was a crowd surrounding the dueling grounds. Numerous students had come to see the duel. A few teachers were there as well. John Lancaster was among the students.
“This is my chance to see just how strong those two are," he thought.
A man stood between Gustava and Sigismund. He wore a suit of plate too, but under it, he was middle-aged with a scar over one completely white eye. His muscles were strong from decades of warfare. There was a grimace on his face.
“Young people are so damn hot-headed,” he muttered. “Getting into reckless duels.”
His gaze turned to Sigismund and then Gustava.
The man announced, “This duel will go on until one of the combatants surrenders or is unable to fight. You are to use spears until one of you is disarmed, your spear breaks, or you get close enough that your spear is useless. No throwing your spears unless your opponent is disarmed or their spear breaks. From that point onward, swords can be used. Magic isn’t allowed unless the duel takes longer than five minutes. Is everyone clear on the rules?”
“I am," Gustava said.
“So am I,” Sigismund added.
The man walked to the edge of the arena, “Begin!”
Gustava surged forward like a leopard striking. She sent a strong spear thrust right at Sigismund’s face. He batted her attack to the side with his weapon. Gustava held her spear back to parry Sigismund’s attack, but he didn’t retaliate.
Gustava seized on this advantage. She threw thrust after thrust at Sigismund. He grunted as he struggled to deflect them all.
“She’s incredible,” Sigismund thought. “I’ve only seen a few openings in her defense.”
Sigidmund deflected a thrust. He knocked the front of Gustava's spear to the side. She swung her weapon around to hit Sigismund with the back end. He ducked under it. In her growing anger, Gustava swung the spear too hard. Sigismund was in the perfect position to counterattack. Fear pulsed through Gustava. It was replaced with rage when Sigismund did nothing.
“Why the hell aren’t you attacking? You can’t possibly win if you keep defending,” she said.
“Her emotions are getting the better of her, but at least she’s talking,” he thought before speaking. “You’re right. You're good enough that I can't tire you out with defense. If I just keep defending, you’ll eventually beat the shit out of me without taking a single hit yourself.”
Gustava’s voice radiated with hatred, “Then why aren’t you attacking me, Myrksalr? Are you not taking me seriously? Is my spear technique not good enough for you?”
“It isn’t that. I’m just not fighting to win. I’m fighting to save you.”
Sigismund could hear her teeth grinding, even under her armor.
“Is it because I’m a woman? Is that why you’re pitying me?” she asked.
“I don’t give a single crap that you’re a woman,” he answered.
Shock overcame the crowd with a series of gasps. No one expected him to say that, and none of them could figure out what to think.
Sigismund continued talking without a second thought.
“I’d want to save you even if you were a man. And there’s a specific reason why I want to save you at all," Sigismund said.
“What’s that?”
Because you’re fighting me with hatred, but I’m not the one you hate,” he stated.
Gustava took a deep breath.
“You think that I don’t hate you?” anger pulsed through her. “Let me show you how much I hate you! I didn’t want to use this on scum like you, but I really want to kick your ass! Face my family’s greatest spear technique!”
She thrust her spear at Sigismund, letting go of it with one of her hands as it reached its maximim two-handed length.
The spear is known as the king of weapons. It is probably the most used weapon throughout human history and was the primary weapon of most soldiers.
Spears have two advantages that make them ideal weapons. Their first advantage is their reach. One-handed swords, axes, maces, and similar weapons aren’t as long as spears. The second advantage spears have is their speed. Weapons with the same reach, like halberds and greatswords, aren't as fast as spears.
However, there is no such thing as the best weapon. If there was, no one would ever use any other weapon. Spears have several weaknesses.
Perhaps their main weakness is leverage. Weapons like swords have much more leverage than spears and can easily push spears used in one hand to the side. That is why spears are used in two-hands when fighting in duels. Using a spear in one hand would put you at a major disadvantage if you're not in a battlefield formation.
However, there is a one-handed technique for spears and other two-handed weapons. By letting go of your armament with one hand, you can extend its reach. You can avoid the leverage disadvantage by pulling it back into your other hand fast enough.
Gustava had been training with this technique since she was a little girl.
Her spear lashed out with incredible speed. Sigismund flinched back. The weapon barely missed him. Gustava thrust again, moving her spear from two hands to one and back to two.
A barrage of these spear blows came at Sigismund; however, his defense was as strong as ever.
“This is a really good technique. She has a reach advantage against me now,” Sigismund thought. “But I don’t want to attack her, so that doesn’t matter.”
Gustava threw out another spear blow, hitting Sigismund’s knee. However, his armor deflected it.
“You must be having a lot of fun right now," he said.
“What the hell are you talking about, you bastard?” she kept up her assault.
“There’s nothing better than beating the shit out of someone you hate, right? This must be very cathartic.”
Gustava stopped dead in her tracks.
“This…isn’t fun. I’m just mad."
“Do you not like fighting?” Sigismund asked.
“No, I like it,” she said. “But this…”
Gustava slapped her helmet.
“You’re a real shit head, you know that? I can’t believe I almost fell for that.”
“Fell for what?” Sigismund questioned.
“You’re trying to use my emotions against me, to put me in a weak position so you can win," she replied.
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With a sigh, Sigismund threw off his gauntlets.
“What are you doing?” Gustava said.
He removed his sabatons, took off his cuirass, his arm armor, and his leg armor. The only bit of plate armor left on his body was his helmet. Sigismund’s sole protection everywhere else was a coat of mail and the gambeson under it.
“Gustava, you’re just as good as I am. Now that you’re wearing plate while I have weaker armor, I don’t stand a chance against you," Sigismund said.
She was stunned into silence.
“Do you believe that I’m fighting to save you now?”
“Don’t fuck with me!” Gustava shouted.
She thrust her spear with greater force than Sigismund expected. It rammed right into his chest. He let out a gasp of pain accompanies by a loud snapping sound. Sigismund’s rib cage would have shattered if not for his armor. With it, he just had a single broken rib.
Gustava let out a roar of rage and thrust with her spear again, just as hard. Sigismund slammed his spear down on hers. They crashed into the ground. Dirt went flying up. Sigismund stomped on Gustava’s spear, forcing the shaft to touch the ground. Gustava tried to raise her polearm while Sigismund's foot was still on it. The spear snapped.
As Gustava reached for her sword, Sigismund’s mind raced.
“With her armor, she could take a few hits and close the distance. Then, my reach advantage would become a disadvantage. I can’t prolong this fight with my spear. There’s just one thing left to do.”
Sigismund removed the pin holding his spearhead in place. He threw his weapon. It soared through the air and collided with Gustava’s helmet with a loud CLANG! She stumbled back. Gustava pulled out her sword to see Sigismund standing in the same position he had before with longsword in hand.
"You could have closed in and hit me with your sword. Why didn’t you?” she asked.
“If I did that, it’d shorten our duel,” Sigismund explained. “That could have ended the fight. I told you already that I’m fighting to save you. So, I’ll make this duel last as long as it has to.”
“Why? I’m your enemy! Our families have been enemies for 1,000 years!”
“1,000 years ago, some dead guy did something else to some other dead guy. Then a bunch of other dead guys spent centuries killing each other without actually accomplishing anything. I don’t see what that has to do with us," Sigismund said.
Gustava grabbed the spear Sigismund threw and threw it back. When she picked up the weapon, its head fell off. The wooden shaft harmlessly bounced off Sigismund's armor.
“This is about the honor of our families! Don’t you care about that?” Gustava asked.
“I am the overman. The only code of honor I care about…”
Sigismund pointed his thumb at himself.
“…is my own.”
Someone from the crowd shouted, “You bastard! How dare you not care about your family’s honor?”
“Go to hell! We don’t need dishonorable scum like you here!” another scream joined the first.
The audience was in an uproar.
“If you don’t like the way I live my life,” Sigismund gave them a thumbs up. “Then that’s fine! Just avoid me, and we won’t have any problems.”
“You would dare...” Gustava glared. “You would dare insult your family’s honor!”
She grabbed her sword by the blade and charged forward. Gustava swung it at Sigismund, targeting him with the crossguard.
Swords are not good weapons for fighting someone in armor. Mail is nigh impossible to cut through, and plate is impervious to cuts and thrusts. Weapons like axes, maces, poleaxes, war hammers, and halberds are better options for fighting armor.
However, you don’t always have the option to use one of those weapons, and a warrior must be ready for every situation. There are two methods for fighting armor with a sword. The first is grabbing the sword by the blade with one hand and keeping the other on the handle. That lets you better maneuver your sword into the gaps of armor.
The second method is grabbing the sword by the blade with both hands and attacking the enemy with the guard and pommel. This technique is known as the murder stroke, and it turns your sword into an improvised war hammer.
Gustava swung her sword so fast that it was a blur.
Sigismund parried with his sword just as quickly. Force slammed into his arms with every blow he deflected. Gustava saw an opening and slammed her pommel into his left arm. He let out a grunt of pain. Gustava continued her assault, forcing Sigismund to step back.
“Why do you care about my family’s honor?” he asked.
“I don’t! I hate your family!” she answered.
“You got mad that I insulted my family’s honor. If you really hated us, why would that make you mad?” Sigismund said.
Gustava’s eyes widened in shock, “That’s…a good point.”
Just as she admitted this, her crossguard slammed into Sigismund’s arm right where her pommel hit it before. A loud snapping sound rang out as his arm’s bones cracked. Sigismund swayed back and forth. The pain made him want to collapse.
“It’s over,” Gustava stated, guilt flowing through her.
“In this one fight, he’s shown me more kindness than my own family ever has. I have to kill him, but I shouldn’t. No! I can't think that way! I hate him! I really do. I think,” she thought.
“What are you talking about?” Sigismund held his sword in his right hand alone. “I can still fight.”
“Are you insane?”
“Yes.”
“Is that why you want to save me, some fit of madness?” Gustava asked.
“I told you why I want to save you already. That really is the only reason," Sigismund said.
“Then I will crush you with every last bit of my hatred!” she declared.
“You might, but I’m not the one you hate,” he stated.
The middle-aged man called out Before Gustava could ask him what he meant.
“It’s been five minutes!”
Gustava let her hatred and rage overcome her, extending her hand. Hurricane winds blasted out. Sigismund swung his sword. A wall of bones came into existence in front of him. The gale crashed against it like a wave slamming into a rocky shore.
It knocked people standing in the audience behind Sigismmund back. The fence fell over. However, Sigismund’s wall held. Gustava stopped her wind storm. The bone barrier fell apart.
“That’s the thing about necromancy,” Sigismund said. “It works best when there’s something to manipulate. You can't make permanent things from thin air with it.”
“You will face the rage of the storm,” Gustava stated.
She charged her sword with lightning.
“This attack will go right through your sword and into your body. You can’t parry it," she said.
“Thanks for the warning," Sigismund replied.
Gustava stepped forward and swung her sword. Sigismund summoned a small wall of bone in front of him. His opponent tried to get her weapon around the barrier; however, Sigismund stepped around it.
With a roar of frustration, Gustava slammed her sword into the bone. Her lightning electricity crashed through it. This was enough to shatter the barrier. Bits of bone flew at Sigismund. He covered his eyes with his hand on reflex.
The lightning had gone out of Gustava’s sword with the blow. She didn’t care. Gustava swung her sword at the distracted Sigismund. Her weapon slammed into his leg. He stumbled back, limping. Sigismund's breath was ragged. A dull, throbbing pain built up in his injured limb.
“That was close,” Sigismund said. “You were two centimeters away from hitting the bone. I don’t know if that would have broken it, but the mail’s weakest down there, so it might have.”
“Why won’t you just give up? Is saving me really worth all this pain? What are you saving me from in the first place?” Gustava asked.
“To answer that question, let me tell you who you really hate. It isn’t me or my family. It’s yourself.”
Laughter erupted from Gustava’s mouth. She stumbled back before standing firm again. The girl let out a roar of rage and stomped the ground.
“By the gods, you’re right. I hate myself so much, and I’m mad at myself, and I hate myself, and I’m mad at myself, and I hate myself…”
“Why do you hate yourself?” Sigismund questioned.
Under her helmet, Gustava started crying
“Ever since my brothers died, every single day of my life was spent training…”
Gustava pointed her sword at Sigismund.
“…to kill you. Every morning, I’d get up and do exercises in armor until I collapsed from exhaustion. Then, I’d do exercises outside of armor until I collapsed from exhaustion. After lunch, I’d spend the rest of the day sparring until I couldn’t move. Every day was nothing but absolute pain and torment. I’d get so beaten up that, even after I was healed with magic, I’d cry myself to sleep. I didn’t get any breaks from training, no days off, no time to recover, no festivals.”
Gustava gazed at her sword.
“I was never once praised. Nothing I did was ever good enough, nothing I do can ever be enough! I could humiliate you in the worst way possible and then flay you alive, but that wouldn’t be good enough!”
She slammed her sword into the ground.
“Even if I’m the strongest person in the world, it won’t be good enough! I! Will! Never! Be! Good! Enough!”
Gustava hit the ground over and over again until her sword snapped in two. Then, she collapsed onto her knees.
“You trained too hard. You need more breaks in training to get better. It’s honestly impressive that you got as good as you are with training like that," Sigismund said.
A chuckle escaped Gustava’s mouth.
“I once trained so hard that I got sick for a week from the stress. That was when my parents got me Ogier, so I’d have something that would help me relax. But there's no way I took care of him well enough.”
“Gustava,” Sigismund hobbled over to her. “You don’t have to hate yourself. You’re an incredible woman, and you’ve done more than enough. You’ve done too much.”
“Do you really think you can change anything, that one fight is enough to save me?” she asked. “How fucking naïve are you?”
He stated, “Maybe I am a bit naïve. That might be a flaw of mine. If it is, I won’t hide it.”
“What?”
Sigismund dropped his sword and pulled up his helmet’s visor. He gave Gustava an incredible smile.
“I am a piece of marble. My dream is to mold myself into a beautiful work of art so that even my flaws shine brightly,” Sigismund declared.
At that moment, Gustava thought Sigismund looked like a statue of a god.
“But if I let go of my hatred, my purpose of killing you, I’ll have nothing left," she said.
Sigismund pointed at her arms.
“You have two arms, two legs, a body, a head, years of training, the wealth and prestige of a noble family, that seems like a lot to me.”
“But I won’t have a purpose,” Gustava said. “Can you tell me what my purpose will be?”
“No. The only person who can tell you what your purpose is,” he pointed at her face. “Is yourself.”
For the first time in years, Gustava gave a genuine smile. She then clutched her chest and let out a scream.
“Oh, no!” she stood up, making it look like she had to force herself to move. “You really hit me hard with that necromancy curse there! I can’t possibly keep fighting you!”
Sigismund started, “I didn't…”
Gustava collapsed forward. Sigismund caught her, and she put her mouth right at his ear.
“Listen, my family will crucify me if I don’t use this chance to kill you and say it was an accident. I need some excuse to get out of this fight,” she whispered.
“Then I saved you?” Sigismund whispered back.
“No. I still hate myself, and I’m really mad at me too. I also don’t what I’m going to do next. But one thing I know for sure is that I don’t want to kill you because…”
Gustava took a deep breath.
“…you’re my first and only friend.”