Arthur was gobsmacked by Tamara and Stevan’s fight. Unlike Kale and Simon's fight, it was not one-sided, with one attacking while the other defended. “It's like a human cyclone!”

When the fight started, both Tamara and Stevan ran at each other, closing the distance. Their first clash was Stevan stabbing towards Tamara’s chest, only for the woman to parry it with her knuckle before side-stepping.

Tamara tried to close the distance so Stevan would not be able to swing his sword at her, but Stevan knew better than to let her get too close to him. He used a one-handed sword style, so his other hand was empty. He formed a claw with his free hand and swiped towards Tamara’s neck, which forced her to stop her attempt at closing in on him.

Getting the initiative back, Stevan used a combination of the sword and his hand to attack Tamara. Meanwhile, Tamara was not fazed by the flurry of attacks. She dodged each sword strike while blocking Stevan’s hand with her knuckles.

Tamara's feet never stopped moving as she danced through Stevan’s attacks, making it look like they were doing some kind of performance instead of fighting. “Why is she only defending? Isn’t that the same as Simon’s previous mistake?” Arthur gritted his teeth, rooting for Tamara instead of Stevan.

Just as he finished his line of thought, instead of dodging the sword strike like before, Tamara knocked the wooden blade aside with her knuckle, which threw Stevan off balance. She quickly tried to close the distance, sticking as close to Stevan as possible, which the guy tried to prevent by jumping to the side.

To Arthur's amazement, even though Stevan was faster than Tamara, he could not put any distance between them. She was sticking to him like glue, forcing him to keep backing away to no avail. Tamara sent a few quick jabs and crosses that Stevan blocked with the body of his sword while using his other hand to support the sword as well.

“How is she doing that? Is that her trait?” Arthur asked no one in particular.

“It’s her footwork, it must be specially tailored for her. Kangaroos have especially strong lower body muscles. She is combining that strength with her footwork to give her a small boost with each step!” Simon excitedly explained.

With the situation turned, Tamara held the initiative while Stevan was on his back foot. His only saving grace was that he was still faster than Tamara, so he could block her every strike. But he was not that much faster due to the nature of hand-to-hand combat, allowing Tamara to attack faster than if she use a sword because her moves were very efficient.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

The sound of wood hitting each other repeatedly could be heard before it stopped with a loud cracking noise—the sword broke as it took too much abuse from Tamara's attacks. Arthur thought it would be best for Stevan to let go of the sword and attack Tamara with his hand claw, but Stevan did not let go. He thrust the broken sword toward Tamara’s neck, going for the kill, as his blade was now the perfect length for close-quarter combat as an impromptu knife.

Tamara was not surprised by the move and leaned her upper body backward before twisting her body to the side.

*BAM*

Stevan crashed to the ground, raising a cloud of dust in the process. “I almost could not see it!” Arthur thought, wide-eyed. He was sure Stevan would have won that fight!

He almost could not see what happened. Tamara dodged Stevan’s strike while delivering a roundhouse kick, hitting the unsuspecting man’s temple, which caused him to tumble and crash from the strength of her kick.

“Stevan! I’m so sorry!” Tamara ran toward the downed man.

“The broken sword edge was sharp; it made me scared, so I could not hold back my kick strength properly!” she apologized while trying to help the man up.

It caused Arthur to frown, “She did not look scared at all,” he thought, “or maybe it was just happening too fast.”

“That’s it. Tamara wins!” Layla said casually, as if it did not matter that Stevan got hit in the first place.

Stevan tried to get up and tell Tamara he was alright with a smile, but his smile was cracking. Arthur could see that his smile was forced.

“Well, it is natural. My smile would be forced as well if I just got kicked to the ground like that,” Arthur thought, pushing his dislike toward the man away.

The following discussion about Tamara’s duel with Stevan went quickly without incident. Layla did not ask him but Athena instead. From their discussion, there were a few points Arthur learned. First, each weapon has its own effective range, and maintaining certain distance is paramount during a fight. You can't expect others to match your preferred distance in a fight.

The second point is to understand what the other is planning and what will happen after each clash to formulate a proper follow-up, just like how Tamara was ready to lean back and kick Stevan when his sword broke.

“Honestly, I thought he would let go of his sword before it broke and attack me with his claw arm, but either way, I was ready for him engaging in close quarters,” she explained when Layla asked her to explain her train of thought to the others.

The third point is about how to be unexpected and keep changing the rhythm of the fight to throw an opponent off balance, just like what Tamara did with parrying instead of dodging, while previously she would have dodged the strike.

“I learned a lot, but do I have it in me to use it during a fight?” Arthur was not confident he could implement what he learned.

“Repeated training is necessary to drill this lesson; there is no shortcut,” he told himself.

“Alright, Next up! Athena Lance, Aroon Dusk! You are up; don’t hold back. I want to know what all of you are capable of!” Layla called both Athena and Aroon.

Both of them took the swords prepared by Layla before facing each other.

“No hard feelings, alright? I'm just following our sergeant’s orders,” Aroon provoked Athena with a smirk.

Athena's facial expression did not budge, but she nodded at him. “Same here,” she said, which irritated Aroon as he held his wooden sword tighter.

“START!” Layla announced.