~ Jasper ~

The two warriors faced each other down, both intensely concentrated on what was in front of them. Jasper, for his part, had already taken his stance, his good arm grasping his sword in front of him while his body was positioned at an angle to keep his body protected. His prosthetic hand hung limply at his left side, not factoring into his plans.

The chief smirked at Jasper, grasping his large greatsword in both hands.

“Is that your magic, there? Your ability to create that sword?”

Jasper nodded, saying nothing else.

”So you can’t use Wind Step, then, is that correct?” the chief prodded, his grin turning toothy.

“Who knows?” Jasper retorted.

“Oh please, I’m not an idiot,” the chief replied condescendingly, “Well, whatever. Guess that’s one less thing I need to worry about.”

Despite his earlier confidence, Jasper gulped nervously at the situation he faced. Normally, when he approached a duel with Lingzhi, it was all about using his own attacks to try and create openings while still keeping his defenses up so he could parry. However, Lingzhi’s sword usually was of a similar length and mass to his, meaning the situation he faced was purely down to strategy and skill, and the weapons themselves played little part in the outcome.

However, Jasper was clearly naïve to think that the orc chief would use a similar weapon and that he could rely on the same techniques he was used to in order to win. Rather than use a broadsword with a length similar to what Jasper used, the chief held a greatsword that was likely twice as dense and twice as long as Lingzhi’s old sword. If he wasn’t about to fight to the death, Jasper would have been impressed with the brute strength the chief had to even lift the sword, let alone wield it competently.

Nevertheless, such a sword was something Jasper had never fought against before, and his entire strategy would have to change to combat it.

The first step, Jasper thought to himself as he tightened his grip, Is to stay outside his range.

With the duel having already technically begun, Jasper inched toward the chief, attempting to judge the effective range of his greatsword. Jasper held his sword a little in front of him, attempting to make it seem like he was farther forward than he was. Sure enough, at a little less than two meters away, the chief swung his sword.

While it was just a light slash, the size of the sword along with the speed of the swing were still fierce. Jasper immediately recognized he was too far forward and took a step back. The chief’s sword slammed into his sword and knocked it out of his hand. The sword clattered to the ground and dissipated, the flow of magic cut off.

Undeterred, Jasper backed up and Formed his sword again. While he had lost the exchange, he had gained valuable insight into the sword’s range. Based on what he had seen, the chief had utilized the maximum distance he could swing his sword without extending his arms and leaving himself vulnerable. This meant, outside of situations where Jasper was vulnerable, he could estimate the chief’s range at around two meters.

That’s insane! Jasper thought, How the heck am I supposed to get in?

Lingzhi had explained that one of the most exploitable weaknesses of the greatsword was the follow-through on a missed swing, compared to a broadsword which was able to recover faster due to its lower torque. However, that meant if he wanted any chance of winning this duel, he needed to get the chief to miss a powerful enough swing that Jasper could close the gap in the meantime.

Jasper began to move closer again, sitting around three meters away from the chief, who had refused to move after Jasper dropped his sword. With a better idea of the range that he was dealing with, he was more confident he could provoke action from the chief without as much consequence. After a moment, Jasper hit what was approximately the two-meter mark, and waited. In response, the chief lifted his sword slightly and began moving it back and forth, daring Jasper to enter the danger zone.

Despite the reputation the orcs seemed to have for being hotheaded and unintelligent, the chief was a far more methodical warrior than he was expecting, content to wait for Jasper to enter his sphere of influence rather than rashly approach himself. Knowing that he was stuck in a more disadvantageous position, Jasper opted to take action.

He thrust his sword forward, leaning slightly to sell it, as a feint, to see if the chief would attack. Sure enough, Jasper found himself backing up as the greatsword came down, this time missing his sword and stopping about an inch off the ground.

It was a relatively weak swing, but it would still easily have taken Jasper down had it hit, and served as a red flag for Jasper’s current strategy. If such a powerful attack still left no exploitable opening from the distance, then Jasper wouldn’t be able to provoke any attack from that distance that would be able to get him closer to the chief. In other words, there was no way to potentially get past the chief’s guard without risking his life in an attempt to avoid it, or somehow blocking the giant sword.

In his mind, Jasper analyzed the two previous attacks the chief had thrown at him. Both had been vertically biased diagonal slashes, from shoulder height to knee height, left-to-right from Jasper’s perspective. While he couldn’t safely assume that the chief would always go left-to-right whenever he approached, the fact that he’d done it twice as his opening moves implied that it was his most powerful attack, which made sense. If the chief was right-handed, then swinging downward, which takes advantage of gravity, and right-to-left from the chief’s perspective would be the most natural and powerful swing. This meant Jasper’s best move was to try and provoke a diagonal slash going the other way, which would be somewhat weaker in comparison, and try to dodge that to get closer.

The complication was that the chief was capable of stopping the blade before it hit the ground, and thus he would be able to perform a follow-up swing that Jasper would be in a poor position to dodge. However, it would be a swing going both against gravity and to his disadvantageous side, meaning it would be one of his weakest. If there was any chance to block a greatsword, it would be then, when he was closer to the chief to begin with as well as taking on a weaker swing. It was far from a foolproof strategy, but it was the best he had.

With a deep breath, Jasper approached the chief again, fading to his own left side. Then, once he reached the two-meter mark, he moved.

Jasper crouched and began moving quickly forward, attempting to get as close as he could before the sword dropped. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the greatsword coming down at the exact angle he was going for, making it easy to jump out of the way. Knowing what was coming next, he immediately twisted his body and swung his sword down to meet the chief’s, which was hovering around Jasper’s knee height.

The two swords collided and Jasper felt himself leave his feet. His sword flew out of his hand and dissipated while he fell to the ground about a half a meter away from where he was standing previously. He sat up only to see the chief standing over him menacingly.

“Too bad, kid,” he gloated, “You weren’t awful, but it seems like you bit off more than you could chew after all.”

The orc lifted his sword above him, ready to finish the duel.

Damn, Jasper thought, I underestimated his brute strength, and now I’m stuck here.

Another sword wouldn’t be enough to block a greatsword of that size, meaning Formation was pretty much useless here. Jasper only had one hand, after all, and though if he didn’t he could Form his own greatsword, there wasn’t much point if he couldn’t match the orc in strength. Not that anything short of solid metal would be able to stop that greatsword anyway, he figured.

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Wait, Jasper realized, Formation? Solid metal? One hand?

Three seemingly unrelated thoughts came together as a spark of inspiration for Jasper, and as he saw the orc swing his sword, he clenched his muscles and threw up his metal left hand to meet the blow.

A clang of metal could be heard audibly, and intense pain ran down Jasper’s arm at the force exerted by the anchors in his hand. However, the sword came to a stop slightly above Jasper’s head, and the entire village was shocked by the image that resulted.

To them, it seemed like a human had just caught a powerful swing from a greatsword in his hand, although Jasper knew that it was only half the story given what his hand was made out of. Even the chief, who had been incredibly calm up until that point, had his eyes widen at the sight.

“What? What happened?” he murmured, shocked by the development.

Smirking, Jasper struggled to his feet while holding the sword in his left hand. Not missing the opportunity, he immediately Formed his sword in his right hand and jumped toward the chief, who regained just enough sense to dodge and back up in suspicion.

“What did you just do, human?” he demanded.

Jasper backed up another meter before dropping his sword and taking off his left glove. This left his metallic left hand on display for the entire village, with a clear dent in the palm between the thumb and index finger.

“A fake hand?” the chief observed.

Jasper nodded.

“Iron. It’s not particularly thick but clearly it’s thick enough for this.”

The chief narrowed his eyes, before smirking.

“I see,” he commented, “I underestimated you. Remind me, boy, what is your name?”

“Reishi.”

“I see. You have earned my respect, Reishi. I shall not forget your name as long as I live.”

Jasper Formed his sword again and took his stance. He immediately recognized that with his left hand in play, the nature of the fight had changed completely. While it would cause him immense pain to do so, he now had a way of blocking his opponent’s greatsword, and thus a way to get past the circular area that had been causing him difficulty. However, the fight was still very up in the air, and Jasper recognized that one mistake on his part could still spell death for him.

Unlike previous interactions, this time the chief made the first move. He immediately charged until Jasper was in his range, and swung down in his preferred direction. Attempting to stay on his feet, Jasper crouched and threw his left arm up to catch the blade. Once again, pain shot down his arm, but he managed to barely remain on his feet. Unlike before though, the chief continued placing pressure on the blade, and Jasper felt his arm giving way. To avoid the sword, Jasper instead threw his hand down as hard as he could, sending the chief’s sword into the ground.

Seeing an opening, he charged forward and slashed, barely missing the body but managing to land a scratch on the chief’s cheek. Realizing his position, the chief quickly swung his sword up at Jasper, who lunged to the right and out of range.

At this point both combatants were panting, clearly worn out from the repeated action. At this point, Jasper realized how loud the crowd was being. Said crowd had backed up significantly with how mobile the two fighters had been, and while Jasper’s concentration had been on the fight at hand, he was beginning to notice that the spectators were enjoying themselves immensely.

Taking the initiative, Jasper began to move again, not wanting to give the chief a chance to catch his breath. Recognizing what had happened previously, the chief repositioned his sword to Jasper’s right, swinging downward. Jasper immediately repositioned himself, throwing his left arm up and to the right, this time immediately pushing the sword to the ground. However, the chief immediately swung up, attempting to sever Jasper’s artificial hand at the elbow. Seeing only one way out, Jasper threw himself backwards, falling to his back while the chief’s sword flew past him. Jasper immediately recognized his vulnerable position, but before he could panic, he noticed the chief’s sword overshoot its normal stopping point.

He swung harder, Jasper noted, He wanted to take off my hand, and left himself vulnerable when he missed!

Unfortunately, being on his back Jasper was unable to capitalize, but the moment of weakness from the chief was enough time for Jasper to get back on his feet and begin another approach. Recognizing Jasper’s position, the chief swung the sword back down exactly opposite the path he had just swung it, but due to it being out of position, Jasper managed to duck to the side, the sword missing entirely and hitting the ground. Getting in range, Jasper swung his sword downward, cutting the chief’s shoulder but missing the chest due to the chief backing up quickly.

Jasper gritted his teeth, frustrated with his lack of progress. Even when he was able to get close enough for an attack, the chief was always able to back up just enough to keep damage minimal. It was possible that getting even closer would allow him to deal a crippling blow, but any closer than he already was and he was risking needing to defend against the sword, and while his left hand was able to level the playing field by providing a means to block the sword, it only worked well at certain angles. This was also ignoring the heavy damage the hand had taken in the course of the fight. While he could easily Form it again later to repair the damage, if it broke in battle it would be the end of his hopes of winning.

One thing was certain: he needed some kind of strategy that would get him close to the chief, closer than he had been able to get, while also taking the greatsword out of the equation for long enough to deal a finishing blow.

An idea popped into Jasper’s head. It was ridiculous, and something he had never even tried, but if his understanding of his abilities was correct, it was possible. If he was wrong, though, it would likely kill him. Jasper took a deep breath, clearing his mind.

I’ve been risking my life this whole time, he reminded himself, And I’d bet he could outlast me in a battle of attrition. I have to try it.

His mind made up, Jasper charged, fading right slightly to entice a left-to-right swing. The chief smirked at Jasper’s approach, and swung downward at the anticipated angle. As usual, Jasper caught the sword in his left hand, and felt the chief pressing down on his arm.

Blocking out the pain, Jasper focused on his left hand prosthetic, and began transforming it. He felt the fingers on the hand begin to reform, changing their orientation.

Focus, Jasper reminded himself, Understand what you’re making. Visualize the material, the shape, the position, and will the magic to Form.

“Huh?”

The chief’s voice was full of shock at what Jasper had done. The boy in question looked up at his hand and smiled.

What was previously a limp, hanging hand position was now a very tight grip around the blade of the greatsword, pinning it in place.

Now, wait for the response.

The chief, who was shocked speechless by Jasper’s action, began to tug on the greatsword slightly to pry it loose. However, Jasper’s grip held firm, and the sword was even beginning to show slight warping, further ingraining the grip of his hand. In frustration, the chief pulled hard, hoping to yank it completely use with raw power.

There it is.

As soon as the chief made his pull, Jasper kicked off his feet and flew toward the chief with his sword pointed forward. A moment after kicking off, he immediately dispelled his left hand, leaving the greatsword to fly back at a high speed, and leaving the chief’s torso wide open for attack. Jasper’s feet hit the ground less than a meter away from the chief, and he immediately ran the large orc through the heart.

The chief grunted slightly, his eyes wide with shock and the sword he was holding fell to the ground unceremoniously. Victorious, Jasper removed his sword and the chief collapsed, dead.

Jasper took a deep breath, and surveyed the speechless orcs around him. He didn’t blame them for their shock; this was their strongest warrior, proven in battle amongst the entire village, and he had been killed by a mere human using magic tricks.

“Now then,” Jasper loudly began, “As the winner of the duel, I demand the hostages of Rosemary be returned with no further conditions, and the ransom cancelled, as agreed upon.”

“Why should we?” the orc he had met first replied, “You just killed our chief.”

“Your chief agreed to these terms, and he fought honorably,” Jasper responded, “Thus, the conditions should be upheld, should they not?”

“What about you?” a female orc cried out, “You used magic, and thus fought dishonorably!”

“No conditions were set for the duel, and thus everything was on the table,” Jasper objected, “I am a human. Orcs may believe magic dishonorable, but I should not be expected to know that.”

“Enough!” a third voice called out.

Another orc walked out of the crowd, sizing up Jasper from up close.

“As the chief’s second in command, I will be taking command of this village until a replacement is found,” the orc announced, “And out of respect for our fallen leader, I believe we should uphold the conditions of the duel. The hostages will be released, and we will withdraw the ransom demand.”

“Thank you, interim chief,” Jasper bowed, “I see you have honor your fellow tribesmen do not. Don’t worry about freeing the villagers yourself, as I have a group on standby to free them when I won.”

“I see you were prepared,” the interim chief narrowed his eyes, “But don’t misunderstand, boy. Just because we are releasing your fellow villagers does not mean that you get to leave here alive.”

“I’m sorry?” Jasper replied, a sinking feeling rising in his stomach.

“The conditions stated that the hostages would be released upon your victory. But you killed our chief, and you are not a hostage.”

The interim chief pulled a knife out of his belt.

“That means we cannot allow you to leave here alive. Warriors, attack!”

At that, the village descended into chaos.