It was now time to turn back to my previous convictions: get strong, thrash foes and have fun. And help Faye reach her aim. After all, it may be bothersome, but it wasn’t like there was much else to do in this world. Moreover, I had already decided to do it, and that was all the reasoning I needed.

I gazed scornfully at the useless piece of metal which had failed me, causing me to get hit directly in the head like some sort of baseball impacted by a bat; then I got back up on my feet and spinned my mace in my hand. I stopped the weapon in mid motion, pushing a huff of air.

"I’m up and kicking! Let’s roll," I yelled almost maniacally.

I would probably calm down later once I recovered, but as for now I was drunk on my recovered sensibility, and most likely a fair bit of brain damage was also contributing to my current condition.

The only answer my words received were a gaping mouth from Lily and some horrified looks from the onlookers.

"His eye," one of them said timidly.

I frowned and brought my hand towards my face. I noticed that my left eye was dangling out of its socket. Luckily the optic nerve hadn’t broken, so it was only a matter of putting the eye back into place.

"Oh, thanks for the tip. Here we go, good as new," I said, shoving the eye back into position.

After blinking a couple of times, it rolled around the orbital cavity and got back to working as it should.

"Are you really sure you’re good to go," Lily asked, concerned.

I threw my mace in the air, showed her a double thumbs-up and grabbed the falling mace, all in one smooth continuous motion. Lily frowned, but seemed to yield.

"I like you. You’re the funny type. Well, if you insist, here I come," she shouted, jumping at me.

She shortened the distance between us once again and raised the greatsword high up into the air, telegraphing a downward vertical slash.

She raised her left foot to step forward, but I kicked her in the gut. The hit disrupted her balance, making her take a step back instead, which I reproduced symmetrically. The greatsword came ruining down, but didn’t hit anything aside for the ground, creating a hollow crater.

"Won’t work two times in a row," I scoffed at her.

"Let’s see how true that is," she responded while grinding her teeth.

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Her tone may have seemed annoyed, but her eyes were shining. Although I had designed Lily as a lively, easy going girl, I hadn’t forgotten to also give her the personality trait of being a competitive battle-junkie. The way I had so smoothly avoided her attack had probably stirred up the fire burning inside of her.

"Now it’s my turn!"

Without missing a beat, I swung my mace horizontally. It travelled through the air in mere instants and was intercepted by the greatsword. Lily’s eyes widened in surprise and she jumped backwards, to avoid the mace breaking her weapons in two. She drew an arch into the air and landed a couple of metres further away.

"Hello!"

I was immediately over her, with my mace raised up above my head and falling down towards her.

"Whoo," she exclaimed, stepping back and avoiding my weapon.

I kept my momentum going forward. Following up the motion of my mace, I performed a front flip in midair and came down with a rotating axe kick aimed at her shoulder. She was barely able to avoid it and her eyes impulsively went to where my heel had dug into the ground.

"Where have you been all this time," she exclaimed while laughing joyfully.

I may have been somewhat crazy but she was also a bit of a lunatic. She resumed her attack with a thrust aimed between my ribs, which I redirected by letting the blade slide over the shaft of my weapon.

"Anyway, it’s been on my mind for a while now, but is it truly a good idea to let us youngsters fight like this? It seems like a recipe for disaster," I intervened in the midst of one of our exchanges.

"Don’t worry about it. There are people on standby ready to intervene if things start to go down the drain. But, hey! Don’t think about useless things and focus on the fight," Lily replied, while failing to connect with my body for the umpteenth time.

Our battle had been going on for quite some time now. Normally by now most of our peers would have been deadly tired, but our stamina was equally monstrous. None of us had still been able to strike a good blow.

Although we were almost evenly matched both in physical strength and speed, her current fighting style slowed her down quite a bit. The greatsword she was wielding was badly balanced and obliged her to perform large swings with a wide base to avoid getting dragged along by her weapon.

Moreover, her tidal technique required time to charge and rack up inertia. This enabled me to exploit her openings, forcing her to get on the defensive or perform less efficient blows.

As for me, my attacks were definitely fast and strong, but the difference in range of our respective weapons made it easier for her to keep herself outside of the danger zone while still making it possible for her to strike.

I didn’t give up and continuously looked for a chance to make things go my way, and then I finally found it. During our exchanges, I had focused on blocking or redirecting her attacks while making sure the blade of the greatsword made contact with the head or shaft of my mace around the same place every single time.

With time, a series of fractures had formed on Lily’s weapons and this had slowly neared its breaking point. Although she had noticed it well in advance and had tried to react to it someway, for example by changing her rhythm or the trajectory of the greatsword during swings, I had been able to adapt every single time and continue my endeavour.

Now the weapon was on the verge of breaking and we both knew it. I needed a single last powerful blow to send it to blacksmithing heaven, but Lily had grown more careful and hadn’t given me the opportunity to end the work. But now, there it was.