Chapter 219: Kawarimi

The short reprieve was nice, insofar as it gave Emma a chance to rest, but it did nothing to alter the dynamic once fighting resumed. A cloak that turned her invisible while staying still didn’t do much good, not when her opponent had kept track of her last known position, so she was still forced to dodge and thereby dispel the effect. That wasn’t to say Refuge in Audacity had become useless however, because it was still a heavy, full body cloak, which gave Emma an idea. Her opponent was doing things by the book, relying on a swift stab forward followed by immediate retreat to maximise the effect of the speartip’s magic, all while keeping himself safe from retaliation.

Unlike the case of Dione’s rapier, her latest opponent didn’t have to fear a clash of weapons, because his speartip was unblockable, meaning Emma’s only options were either to dodge or deflect. It wasn’t particularly difficult, but if she did nothing except play defence, then sooner or later she’d make a mistake, and the match would be over. Emma wasn’t willing to accept such an end, so after a good dozen dodges to lull the enemy into a false sense of security, she reached up to her neck and pulled. When the next stab came, she ducked low to the ground and let Finality strike true, the spear piercing straight through the cloak that she discarded. The added weight wasn’t much, but even a few pounds added to the end of the spear was enough to slow it down, which, when combined with the garment it was entangled with, gave Emma an opening for one clean hit.

She made it count, smashing her crowbar into an exposed forehead. That alone wasn’t enough to kill, not at her present strength, but it was enough to drive a man to his knees. There was no playing around this time, as Emma had a healthy respect for her opponent’s prowess, immediately circling behind him and delivering a double tap: a two-handed strike against the back of his head. Blunt force trauma did its work, and he was no more.

[Torn Cloak]

It wasn’t a flawless victory, but the loss of her stealth didn’t bother Emma, not when she was already in the endgame. More importantly, Finality was still intact, the magical spear representing her first true upgrade for a main weapon.

“That’s a shame,” Emma sighed, pulling the weapon free from its linen prison and testing its weight in one hand.

It would have been a lot more useful if she knew anything about wielding a spear, but all her training and System-granted memories had focused on swordplay up to this point. Even Sectmaster Horizon hadn’t bothered to show her anything, in the few exchanges where he showcased a weapon, so she was entirely on her own here. Emma turned back towards the middle of the arena, where the two remaining cheaters were still locked in battle. The one dead centre was perhaps the most traditional of them all, a gladiator wielding his shortsword alongside a small rounded shield. His opponent had been partially disarmed in the interim, a trident laying discarded to the side, while he retained only a weighted net and his helmet, neither of which were enough to save his position.

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He made several abortive attempts to retrieve this trident, his only offensive weapon, but all of them swiftly blocked by his opponent, who refused to let him regain control of the fight. As it was, all the unlucky fisherman could achieve was to tie down his opponent’s sword in his net, which still left him exposed to several shield slams, leaving him bruised and battered. On one occasion, their eyes met, and he directed a hopeful look towards Emma, who only shrugged in reply; both of the cheaters were strangers in her eyes, so she saw no reason to interfere in the natural course of the fight. Without her jumping in as a surprise third wheel, the sword and board ultimately prevailed; as one final shield bash to the wrist made the fisherman drop his net, and a sword found his ribs shortly thereafter. It wasn’t a clean hit, and required several follow up stabs to see the battle through, which of course raises the question: what was Emma doing while all this was happening?

“It’s all in the shoulders,” Emma muttered, her legs bent and her feet wide apart as she tried to recall what nuggets of wisdom she could.

After all, she’d never fought up close with a spear in her life, and wasn’t about to try for the first time against a practiced opponent, but there was one aspect of such a weapon she’d encountered before: the javelin toss. A relatively popular competition in England, which boasted a number of Olympic medallists in living memory; here, like in the Olympics, it all came down to a single throw. Emma wasn’t great at it, but her opponent was only twenty metres away, a far cry from the sixty plus that featured in high level competition. With a mighty heave, Finality flew true, embedding itself in the gladiator’s right shoulder, maiming and disabling his sword arm. To his credit, he reacted relatively quickly, even dropping his shield to transfer his sword to the off-hand, fighting through the pay to receive Emma’s charge in a brave last stand.

It didn’t help, because Emma had made it through the event untouched, while fatigue and blood loss ate away at him, but at least when all was said and done, he died on his feet. Emma didn’t bother dodging his desperate stab, instead grabbing the gladius barehanded. She got a maimed hand for her trouble, but it was far too late to matter, and got the job done, locking down his only working hand while her second went to work. Three swings of her crowbar later, and the job was done.

[Can’t believe you did all that before Half-Life 3 came out.]

Emma laughed at that, and was still laughing when the arena began to fade to white, signalling the end of the first night’s entertainment.