AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

“So, you this Luke Ironcrest I have been hearing so much about, nice to finally meet you while we are alone.” Lavinia Castilene said to me as offered her hand.

So as formalities dictate regarding our families’ respective ranks in the hierarchy of nobles, hers being from a Duke house while mine being just a Baron house, I reciprocate the gesture and kiss the back of her hand.

I do not know if she is trying to pull rank on me by initiating such a formal greeting in such an informal setting, or if she just has a stick up her ass, but I just took it in stride for now. “I am honored to be recognized by you, Lady Castilene, too bad that our first meeting is just before we engage in combat.”

“Nonsense!” she waved her hand dismissively, “Combat is the most honest form of meeting, especially if it is our first time.” she said with a twinkle in her eye while huffing like she was satisfied with her statement.

Oh no… is she a combat junky? How can such a slender, prim and proper young lady be a battle junky?!

“Ha ha, indeed, indeed.” I faked a laugh and agreed with the over-enthusiastic girl while I tried to look elsewhere to try and take the conversation elsewhere, that's when my eyes landed on the tournament board and saw the names of those Lavinia defeated to face me, and who else do I see but fucking Oswald Berkeley’s name being struck out in the second round against Lavinia.

“Not to disparage your skill, Lady Castilene, but I did not expect Oswald Berkeley to lose to you, he is one of the best swordsmen of our cohort for the Advanced Combat & Tactics class.” I commented while jerking my head to the tournament board.

“Ah, the Berkeley scion, he was not so bad, too bad he underestimated me and tried to overpower me with strength instead of skill, I swiftly corrected him of that notion, but I am still saddened that I could not apply for the Advanced Combat & Tactics class, father and mother said it was not becoming of a lady. Instead, I am stuck learning politics and the arts. I had to go behind my father’s back to get myself signed up for this tournament.” Lavinia lamented.

“Oh? You seem to be doing very well for someone not in any of the martial or magic classes I attend. What do you mainly use? Some light weapon I assume?” I asked probingly.

“I use a-” Lavinia said before stopping herself and huffing at me, “You are just going to have to find out when we fight, but as for you, everyone knows you are using a spear for this tournament. As for my martial skills, when I was younger, I had to pester my father for weeks before he agreed to hire a private tutor.”

All I could do was chuckle, “I am sure you will do your tutor proud,” it was around that time that the sounds of the half-time performance came to an end, and the applause of the audience sounded, “I guess it is almost time for me to see what weapon I will be facing in your hands.”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

And with my sentence, two ushers came to guide us to our respective entrances.

***

When our entrance was announced by the hype man, he gave me an enthusiastic entrance, extolling my virtues of how I fought with skill and courage. But when Lavinia’s entrance was announced, I would describe the extravagance and exaggeration of Lavinia’s previous duels and her house’s many great deeds, I swear it just shy of verbally tickling Duke Castilene’s bum with flattery.

As Lavinia got closer, my suspicions were correct, she was using a light weapon, to be more specific, a rapier that was clearly enchanted, accompanied by a dagger strapped to the other side of her hip.

After we were done bowing to the royals, we both took our positions and let the referee know we were ready.

“Fight!” the referee shouted and Lavinia made the first move by charging forward with a rapier in her main hand and dagger in her off-hand.

I reacted by backing off while leveling my spear at her center mass, but when she got closed enough to touch my spear, she revealed her true speed and sprinted forward while pushing my spearhead aside with her dagger at the same time, and when she got within range, she stabbed at me with her rapier.

I sidestepped the stab and used my greater strength to leverage my spear shaft in order to bat her aside and hopefully slash her with the spearhead. What I did not expect, was for her to lean into the spear pushing into her side and rolling over my spear shaft like some kind of fence.

But it did give me time to hop a few steps back for some spacing. When we were once again facing each other, she was giving me a predatory smile and a look in her eyes that I did not quite like.

This time, I initiated the charge, but apparently Lavinia had the same idea and charged me at the same time. Now that I knew she could be fast on her feet and quickly invade my space, I changed my target from center mass to her less defended parts, like her legs.

I did some probing strikes at her head and shoulders to get her used to the pattern, then with a flick of my spear, the spearhead that looked like it was going for her midriff, bent and went for her right thigh. But it seems like her reaction was better than average, as she was able to shift her right leg behind her left and bat away my spearhead to the side.

To which, I used the momentum of my spearhead being batted away to circle above her and bring my spearhead down in a vertical chop, forcing her to back off, and the moment she took a step back, I advanced while stabbing at her feet.

After a few meters of me stabbing at her feet and her back peddling, she must have seen through the rhythm of my strikes and tried to stop me by stepping on the flat of my spearhead and grounding it, but I did not stop advancing.

As I moved forward, my spear bent into an arch, I quickly moved under the bent spearshaft and delivered a high kick to the spearshaft. This caused my spear to whip out and up from under Lavinia’s foot, the suddenly released tension of the bent spear shooting up and “slicing” Lavinia’s left shoulder, also caused her to lift off from the ground and spin in the air.

She did not fly so high, so she did manage to perform a roll recovery to face me.

“Excellent!” she practically shouted toward me with more enthusiasm in her eyes than I was comfortable with.

What is with battle junkies? Are they all crazy?