So Peter left, heading towards a room with a big 4 on top of the door. As he entered, he spotted another person sitting on the bench alongside the inside left wall. The young man looked up, grinned, and said “Hi! I’m Rupert Stint, level 10 Darkness Elementalist, Dagger Throwing variant. What’s your name?”
“Hello, I’m Peter Miller, level 10 Leg.”
“Whoa! I’ve never dueled a Leg! This’ll be fun” said Rupert.
“Wait, you’re not upset you have to face me?”
“Why would I be upset? I’ll be the only person I know who actually had a Sanctioned duel vs a Leg. I didn’t even know your people were allowed to fight!”
“My people are people, we c-”
“Oh wow I’m sorry, that came out way worse than I meant!” started Rupert “I just mean I haven’t really gotten to meet a Leg before, or any Strength variant. This is an honor really!”
Peter had to pause. Every part of his journey since the Day of Choosing had only reinforced his belief, that Strength variants were eternally looked down upon as simple labor for others. That they could never be realistically considered combatants, and certainly not Champions.
He looked directly at the man, a kid really - probably 16 to Peter’s 18, and said “Thank you Rupert. I really appreciate that. This is my first Sanctioned duel, well really my first duel or true combat at all. Would you mind walking me through the details?”
“Sure, sure!” Rupert began “So, these buildings are special - I had to wait a whole month for this duel! - because Sanctioned essentially means not only are they recorded and the match counts towards our Combatant score, but also that we’re protected from dying/serious injury. There will be a Mind watching our match, a Combat Specialist variant, whose only job is to make sure the Air Eles overseeing are ready to interrupt if things get too spicy. It lets us go all out and try as hard as we can without any real concern. There’s even a Vitality fountain to help us heal up and get back in the matches. Oh, by the way - what is your Combatant score? You said it’s your first duel, but have you been in the tournaments before?”
“No, so I guess I’d just be 1500 right now?” said Peter.
“Yep, also your first matches count more for determining ranking so if you beat me you’ll be in a good spot! I just hit 1630 after the tournament two months ago. Made it to the third round! Will you be competing in the regional in three weeks?”
“Yeah, that’s the plan” Peter said.
BONG BONG BONG. A bell rang, signalling the start of their 4 hour session.
The door to the inner chamber opened with an audible click.
Rupert turned to Peter and said “Once we’re inside, there will be a bell along the wall. Once we ring that the duel officially starts. It ends when either the Ele has to break us up or either one of us concedes. We have the room for four hours, and I’m sure we’ll both need long breaks after each duel so let’s get going! Good luck Peter!”
Peter walked in, looking around. The room was a 50 foot by 50 foot square, with four 3 foot wide pillars near each of the corners, perhaps placed so combatants could use them to dodge or kite.
As Peter approached the furthest wall, Rupert called out “Ready? Going to ring the bell!”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Ready.” Peter replied.
Rupert rang the bell and suddenly a light shield of Air surrounded each of them, signaling they could start. Immediately Rupert threw a dagger of Darkness right towards Peter’s head. Peter moved to dodge, but was a step too slow.
BONG. A blast of Air pushed back both Peter and Rupert, signalling the end to the duel.
“Err, wow. Sorry - wasn’t expecting that to win right there” said Rupert.
Peter gave a small smile and said “Go again?”
“Alright!” began Rupert, “it’s your CS to sacrifice! If you don’t need the Combatant score I’ll gladly take it! I need 30 seconds to fully regenerate Stamina and let’s go”
Half a minute later, Rupert pushed the bell, and the light shield of Air surrounded both Combatants.
Rupert immediately threw another dagger of Shadow out of his right hand, again directly towards Peter’s head.
This time, as Rupert was moving his hand, Peter felt a slight nudge in his brain. Something clicked, and he began moving before the Shadow started its journey. Peter cleanly dodged to the side, and charged at Rupert.
When Peter was 15 feet away, Rupert kicked his left foot up, a Shadow dagger springing out towards Rupert’s midsection. Unable to dodge in time, they both yet again felt the gusts of Air drive each Combatant back towards the starting positions.
Peter had a full grin going now, and looked right at Rupert, yelling “Again!”
Rupert was enjoying himself but - “You got it, one minute on Stamina though, don’t you need a break?”
“Nope,” said Peter. “I can go all day. Ready when you are.”
—————————————————-
For the first three hours, Peter lost every single one of the duels, and it wasn’t very close. But then all of those little nudges in his brain started adding up. He had seen a particular feint before, or that unique shadow dagger had approached his left side in an earlier duel, or his experience of having a kick dodged by Rupert and the correct follow-up - all of these mini memories were sparking something and gave his body the precise response he needed and finally, he won a match with a terrifying roundhouse kick directed right at Rupert’s core. Just before impact the Air shield popped into place and flung the combatants back to their starting positions. Interestingly it was Rupert who shouted with glee after Peter’s first victory.
“Yes!!!” Rupert yelled.
“Uh, thank you?” said Peter.
“No, sorry, I mean congrats, I mean - well, I leveled up! Finally 11!”
“Ah, congratulations to you as well then, ready for the next duel?”
Rupert replied back “Yep, I’ll place my attributes later, not sure what makes the most sense, probably just more Vitality and Dexterity. But with the level up my Stamina is full - so, let’s go!”
As they got back to the duels, Peter went on a string of victories. Initially the matches were close, with Peter barely coming out the victor. By the end though Peter would finish every match without a single scratch on him or a lone missed attack. With just twenty minutes left of their allotted time, and Rupert’s enthusiasm quickly waning with the constant losses, Peter felt his own level up happen.
Ding! Congratulations, you have reached level 11. You have five (5) unallocated attribute points and zero (0) unallocated passive ability points.
Peter immediately put three points into Endurance, one into both Intelligence and Vitality. With his strategy confirmed he had to make sure he lived long enough to see it to fruition.
Peter turned to Rupert “Just leveled up myself, ready to finish out the duels?”
“Might as well,” said Rupert, “Even if I’m suddenly losing everything it’s at least great experience!”
Peter and Rupert finished their matches, with Peter sweeping the rest easily - fast enough that Rupert’s needed Stamina breaks weren’t a big hindrance.
BONG BONG BONG. That bell rang again, signalling the end to their time.
As Peter began to leave the room, Rupert turned to him and asked “That was so much fun! You got really strong so fast, I had no idea Legs were so powerful! How come more of you don’t compete in the Tournaments?”
Peter smiled “Well, most Strength variants don’t even try, they’re too busy building and working to make sure their families stay healthy and safe.”
“Oh. I guess that makes sense. Well - if you want to practice again in the future let me know! My family belongs to the obstacle club in central Junton and I’d be happy to bring you to practice together! We get two guest passes a month, just let me know. I live over in district 2, the green house at the top of the hill.”
After they parted ways, Peter was heading out of the coliseum when James flagged him down from the front desk.
“Hey Peter” James said, “I wanted to apologize. We just haven’t had a Leg in here for… I think ever. Anyway, the ending duel score was 11 - 14, in Rupert Stint’s favor. Because he started at a higher CS than you your current CS still went up 45 to 1545. Let me know if you have any questions or need anything.”
“Got it. No worries, thank you for the information.”
“Yep, sorry again. Have a great day”
Internally, Peter couldn’t help but be elated. His plan absolutely worked. Adaptation was as strong as he hoped. Any time he faced a combat situation similar to something he’d already experienced it helped guide his reactions.
The next phase was simple. Now all Peter had to do was train. Train for every circumstance. With his Endurance already at 43, Peter had no concerns over a lack of stamina. He had three weeks until the next Regional Tournament, and he planned to spend every waking minute - or about 95% of all the minutes - training.