Sam sat down in one of the empty seats and crossed his legs, watching as Sarge summoned a spectral rapier to his right hand. Apparently one of the best ways to progress in one's weapon mastery was to have to fight against someone who used the same weapon as you but to a greater degree of skill. Because of this, one would be able to not only refine their own techniques, but to see how the other fighter used their weapon, allowing them to copy it. This would be able to possibly get Eduardo to the last rank before long.
Unlike Sam however, Eduardo had been consciously practicing with his weapon, drilling through his weapon forms every day. Because of this, he lacked a store of insights to use to break through, like Sam had possessed. Instead he was going to have to rely on pure grit and hard work to do this.
Sarge bowed low to Eduardo, who did the same, and they faced off in the middle of the arena. For these bouts, they would only use their weapons, and would not rely on any other skills at all. With a sharp retort of a hand breaking the sound barrier, Sarge flashed forwards and swung with all of his might towards Eduardo. Eduardo dodged, barely avoiding the attack, and tried to lash out with his own rapier, almost hitting Sarge.
The robot laughed and parried the blow with his rapier, briefly opening up Eduardo to attack. The robot did not actually possess any ingrained martial skill, but he was able to rely on an extensive series of downloaded weapon styles that he could couple with his natural abilities to great effect. This current one matched Eduardo’s fighting style to as close a degree as the robot could find. It relied on quick, sharp movements that aimed to wound rather than kill, bleeding out the enemy over the course of the battle. Because of the speed that a rapier wielder could build up, the battle was progressing so quickly that some of the others were unable to make out the distinct movements.
Sam saw some of the more magically inclined members of his captains rubbing their eyes every time that they saw a rapier suddenly flash into existence, as if by magic, while in reality, it was simply coming back to a speed that they could see it at. Despite all of his skill, Eduardo was being beaten, and handily at that. Sarge was purposefully lowering his speed to one that Eduardo could match, but he still was superior in every way. It was not because of any sort of innate skill, rather simply through wealth of information that he would draw upon. It was similar to Sam’s store of techniques from his weapon imprint in some way, except even more extensive, and rank appropriate, meaning that the robot could actually use them to their greatest effect.
Blindingly fast streams of movement that linked into one another threatened to overwhelm Eduardo, who was already bleeding from a multitude of cuts. Sarge was merciless, pressing the man the entire time, and not allowing him to get a single strike in unless he worked for it. Eduardo’s lips narrowed, and he began to take the fight more seriously a few minutes in. His movements became more refined, and he lost the sloppy jerking motions that accompanied pure rage. He had accepted that Sarge was better than him now, and the only way to assuage his annoyance was to simply become better.
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He started to get in hits, and Sarge smiled faintly as he parried another strike towards his face. A moment later, Sarge flicked his rapier forwards, and disarmed Eduardo with a sharp movement of his wrist, sending the man’s weapon flying off across the sands and out of reach. Eduardo stopped, panting as he looked upon the placid visage of the robot in front of himself.
“Very good. You started to clean up your act towards the end there. I was trying to goad you at the beginning, but you were able to break out of it. Emotions are one of the greatest enemies of a warrior, sometimes more than his actual enemies themselves. You are quite good with that weapon too. It is rare that a Dexterity based fighter’s skill can keep up with their actual speed. Now, go rest,” Sarge said to Eduardo.
Eduardo nodded and jumped back up into the stands. The next fighter, Pyotr, jumped down, his landing shaking the ground. He bowed to Sarge, who returned the gesture. The ethereal rapier that the robot was welding dissipated into nothingness, and he summoned a massive ax into the air in front of himself, hefting it. His stat allocation shifted to one that suited Pyotr, and he stamped down, getting into a solid fighting stance.
The robot grabbed his ax securely, and ran forwards,each lumbering step shaking the ground. He had somehow changed his density, making his weight match that of Pyotr. Such a thing hardly mattered in a battle between powerful cultivators, but it did end up evening the ground a little bit. Physics still mattered to a degree, even if it was heavily suppressed by stats.
Sarge brought his ax around in a tight arc, trying to break open Pyotr’s guard and strike him out before the fight even began. Pyotr tucked in his ax and deflected the blow, keeping the other ax from reaching him. He jabbed out with the edge of the weapon, testing Sarge’s defenses, and finding them to be too secure for him to commit to an attack.
The man took a step backwards, and then whipped his ax over his head, beginning to concentrate his muscular power there. He roared out loud, and brought down his ax, swinging it with such force that the air seemed to cry out in pain. Slamming it down into the ground, he almost struck the robot, who narrowly dodged backwards. The attack cratered the ground, and sent Sarge stumbling backwards from the sheer air pressure.
The robot almost instantly recovered however and he surged in, baring the naked blade of his ax towards Pyotr, bracing with his hands. He pushed the ax into Pyotr’s own one, sending the man falling backwards. Sarge was upon him in an instant, holding the blade to the side of his neck.
Pytor sighed and released his own weapon, acknowledging that he had been defeated. The man had overcommitted to his last attack, and he knew that he had. When facing off against another opponent with the same level of power as himself, that was a stupid mistake to make, as it would allow your opponent to strike if they were able to evade the attack. Of course, in a real battle, where people had access to area of effect boosting factors such as elemental energy or mana, it was a different story, but unless one had enough raw strength to make the earth itself tremble, it was useless to simply rely on that. The sand had also wicked away much of the momentum of his strike, rendering it a lot less powerful than it would have been otherwise. Pyotr recognized this, and as such, Sarge did not bother lecturing him on it, instead getting up and allowing the Russian heavyweight to climb out of the ring and back onto the stands.