Dave barely had time to blink before Max was upon him. He held a wolfish grin on his face. A heavy overhead swing sailed towards Dave’s head.

Dave blocked it with his spear and took a step away, creating some distance. Max was faster than expected. And stronger. Dave could still feel the swing reverberating in his arm.

Max's superior strength wasn’t news to Dave though, not just was he almost a head taller, Max had always been a pretty good athlete. He excelled in most sports and even did boxing for a while. One of the reasons Dave was quite happy their fight wasn’t being held unarmed.

Stil Max's physicality was surprisingly more than expected. Was it simply due to the hard days of travel that lay behind them? Maybe it had something to do with the passive buff his Skill gave him for being near Nodes.

Before Dave could speculate further Max was upon him again. He swung his stick in a horizontal line forcing Dave to retreat further. He kept swinging and thrusting at Dave with unrelenting pressure.

Even though he was on the backfoot and blocking one attack after the other, something became apparent quite quickly. Dave’s skill with the weapon was much superior. Most of the attacks Dave was able to parry or evade with ease. There was enough power behind Max’s attacks that they would’ve been reckless and foolhardy without a healer. But they were simply too telegraphed.

With his skill Dave had no problem seeing the swings coming, stepping outside of thrusts and parrying where he needed to. Thanks to Soul Weapon Mastery, Dave felt so comfortable with the spear that most of his movements came natural to him.

After he had overcome the shock of fighting Max at the beginning, he became calm and collected. He relied solely on his instincts, letting his Soul Weapon Skill take over.

A big swing went for Dave’s leg, he rotated a little and the attack soared by. An overhead swing followed but Dave simply leaned back, letting the stick miss him by inches.

It was time to fight back. In one fluid motion he parried the next swing, turned his spear around and rammed the butt of his weapon against Max's chest.

Max let out a grumph and stumbled a step backwards.

Pain soared through Max’s chest. With his one attack, Dave had landed more blows than Max had during the entire fight.

“Oh shit sorry.”

Max ignored him. It was clear from the beginning that Dave would have the advantage when fighting with weapons, because of his Skill. Of course Max knew about his Skill. That was one of the reasons he was so keen on fighting with weapons. He wanted to see it first hand.

And oh my god did it not disappoint. For the last minute Dave had been dodging swing after swing, parrying thrusts and avoiding Max’s stick without even breaking a sweat. Most of the time he only dodged at the last second and only by mere inches. A foolish spectator would’ve thought that a sign of Max being close to land, but as a longtime boxer Max knew better.

It was simply Dave’s pure mastery that allowed him to dodge with such close margins. Usually those close evasion would put him in a prime position to counterattack, but Dave never even capitalized on Max’s mistakes.

Like a ghost he simply kept fading away between attacks, either stepping out of ranger, ducking beneath or parrying. As if he was Neo in the Matrix. It was infuriating.

Of course Max was never meant to win this fight. Still it hurt his pride to know that he couldn’t even make Dave get somewhat serious. He even felt a little foolish for trying.

Well he had one more ace he held back so far, but he was worried it would be too over the top.

Gritting his teeth and ignoring the pain Max charged forward again, but his stick found only air. Dave had sidestepped and returned by swinging his spear against Max’s overextended leg.

Max almost buckled underneath the attack but kept upright. Quickly turning he tried to surprise Dave with a backswing, but he was already gone. Dave stood a few feet away, he was simply watching him. Watching and waiting.

What was almost more infuriating than his casualness was the blank look Dave gave him. It was the same when they played video games, whenever Dave entered the zone, all emotions and expressions simply left his face. No anger, no laughing, not squinting his eyes while concentrating. He just looked eerily calm.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

Max attacked again. He fainted low and went high. Dave simply intercepted his attack and returned with a strike to the leg again. But Max managed to at least block Dave’s counter attack. Thanks to the passive strength boost he received from his Skill while being near a Node, Max could stop the momentum of Dave’s swings even with badly placed blocks. Although only barely.

For a split second Dave’s brow raised in surprise and another swing sent Max staggering a few steps back again. His leg hurt like hell where Dave had hit him before and breathing came a little harder than usual. Max knew he wouldn’t be able to continue much longer.

“All right, maybe I went too easy on you.” Max said.

He focused inwards and activated the new Skill he got after the fight with the wooden knights. The Skill he hadn’t told Dave about yet.

*Node Warrior:

Level: 1

Rarity: Uncommon

Effect: Can be activated for a boost in strength, stamina, dexterity and vitality. Strength of boosts and duration of boosts depend on the number of Nodes claimed by the individual.

Origin: Inherent*

Max felt a wave of adrenaline rush through him. He suddenly felt more alert. His chest and leg didn’t hurt anymore and he was fresh like the fight had just begun.

He took a deep breath in and focused on the energy flowing through him. It felt like a cascading river went to him straight from the Node. He breathed out and thundered forward.

He was in front of Dave almost immediately, thrusting forward. Dave’s eyes went wide in surprise and even wider as the attack knocked the wind out of him and forced him a step backwards.

Max almost felt bad after hurting his friend. Only almost though, because Dave was upon him a second later.

This time they were more evenly matched.

Dave was surprised to find Max blocking his attacks. After being hit, Dave had let instinct take over even more. Retaliating in a quicker manner than before, Max still managed to avoid being hit.

“His technique still looks sloppy.” Dave thought to himself. How he could judge that, he wasn’t sure. Technically he knew nothing about fighting with a spear or a stick for that matter, but his subconscious told him Max looked off.

He was however noticeably stronger and quicker. Before Dave could retreat back to safety, Max’s stick lashed out, forcing Dave into an awkward block. Unbalanced as he was, Max simply took a step forward and bodychecked him.

It felt like a truck crashed into him and Dave was thrown onto the ground. Having the air forcefully pressed out of your lungs a second time in only a short period of time wasn’t a pleasant experience.

Shaking his head to clear it Dave got up again. Max let him, he stood a few feet away, still with that ambitious smile on his face. Like a lion waiting on his prey. Sometimes Dave became a bit scared of how competitive Max could get.

This was his element though and it was time to stop holding back. There had been moments where Dave didn’t want to attack for fear of hurting Max, but he knew the point had been to hurt Max all along. He couldn’t hide from that anymore.

Dave locked eyes with Sam, they exchanged a nod and with that reassurance Dave rushed towards Max.

They exchanged a lot of heated blows. Attacks were dodged or simply withheld, others were parried and countered. As the fight kept going on, with no clear winner yet, the difference in their fighting styles became more apparent though.

Max was definitely the fighter with more physical prowess between them. He was able to knock some of Dave’s attacks aside with ease. Dave also quickly realized he should evade rather than block Max’s attacks. After every exchange Dave could feel his arm reverberating with force.

But evading fit Dave’s fighting style perfectly, he was moving like a ghost. He utilized nimble movement, taking small steps and circling out of range. Then he danced into range again to land an attack and faded out again.

Dave was clearly landing more blows and kept dodging most of Max’s attacks. But due to Max power there was always the threat of one fight ending swing, which kept it exciting. However as the fight went on Dave pulled further and further ahead.

The difference between them was that Max might’ve been stronger, faster and more durable, but Dave was able to adapt. WIth his deep understanding of spear fighting, he soon recognized patterns in Max’s movements and utilized them.

After dodging one of Max’s swings, Dave knew a thrust was coming. So he preemptively sidestepped, avoiding the blow and countered with a strong thrust to Max’s stomach.This one he wasn’t able to shrug off and he almost toppled over.

While Max was crunched over forwards, Dave drew his spear back and used the momentum to spin around and hit Max with the side of his weapon directly on the forehead.

Like a sack Max fell to the ground.

“Ohh shit.”

Blood froze in Dave’s veins as he realized what he had just done. He had gotten too lost in the fight and the instincts provided by his Soul Weapon Mastery Skill. He simply got carried away and didn’t pull his punches enough.

The others drew in breaths and Sam was immediately kneeling over Max's side.

Before Dave could ask him anything, Sam simply vanished from view. Suddenly Dave was standing alone on the clearing a few feet further back than prior.

He looked around and couldn’t see their camp anymore. Confused at first, Dave quickly realized that was a good sign. His gaze was still lingering where Max had been only seconds before.

A cascade of messages popped up in front of him and Dave’s worry was soon forgotten. A little smile played over his lips.

*Congratulations, your Soul Weapon Mastery Skill has reached Level 4*

It was the next message he was more excited about though.