Ruben felt almost drunk. Though the pain stopped, he couldn’t feel his limbs for a bit. Reappearing, Ruby’s movement left a frozen afterimage that the young man simply walked out of. Otherwise corporeal, he phased through the unmoving original body.
Older men pass down the notion that the duels were instituted by the most recent deity, Zenith, the god of champions. Whether there is merit to those words or not, skill scholars still debate. However, duels are undoubtedly a key to how this world functions. Debates, petty squabbles, and disputes can all be solved universally. Even wars are just duels with bigger stakes.
“Let’s do it a bit further from the decaying body,” Fox’s doppelganger suggested, leaving his original body and the troll’s away.
“I never thought this would feel so insane.”
Ruby breathed heavily.
“Boy, is this your first duel?” The sword asked.
80% of people experience their first duel before they hit twelve. After all, the system has no drawbacks.
There are three types of duels one can partake in. First blood, friendly, and hostile. The latter two end once a lethal blow is dealt to any of the fighters, the difference being that the pain is minimized in the friendly version. Some swordsmen claim that the only way to achieve a truly fair battle is to prepare to get hurt for real. Once a duel is finished the body doubles return to their original owners, which reverts all the damage gotten in combat, but also all the healing received. It’s a difficult system to abuse with time limits and hidden rules.
“I’m fine, I’ll do my best.”
*Clang*
The edge of the black blade dropped to the floor as the young blacksmith was unable to hold it properly.
“You’d need to work some muscle, boy. I’ll help with that as well for now.”
The weapon was surprisingly understanding as it flew upwards.
“Feels a lot lighter,” the blacksmith thought.
Technically, no force would stop you if you were to take your word back upon loss and not stick to the previous agreement, but no one in their right mind would do something like that. The people of this world respect honor and integrity; they are growing up surrounded by it, and this concept of competition and fair conditions are all engraved deeply into who they are.
“Here would be fine. Ready?” The swordsman stopped, talking with his face away from Ruben.
“Alright then, let’s start.”
Ruby took another big sigh.
“Three!” A mental countdown began.
It was as if someone completely different was speaking inside the fighters’ heads.
“Two.”
The swords were readied.
“One.”
Half a second before the duel started, Fox turned and threw a sharp dagger in between the boy’s eyes.
“Start!”
*Clang*
If not for the legendary weapon Ruben would have already lost.
The swordsman crossed the distance in the meanwhile and prepared a large vertical cut.
“Dirty tricks,” the sword threw as it parried.
Fox reached out to the left of him and grabbed another dagger levitating in the air beforehand, now targeting the boy’s gut.
“Guh!”
The pain was diminished, but it still hurt like crazy. Way worse than what Ruben expected.
Stab after stab, the boy began bleeding profusely. The black sword, moving on its own accord, tried to pierce Fox’s skull, but the swordsman ducked and jumped backward, leaving the dagger behind. Next to his palm another already formed.
“No time left, approach and call for my [Innate skill]. I allow it,” the sword blabbered.
Usually, to activate a skill of a weapon you aren’t attuned to, one must ask for permission from the owner. The case of living weapons seems to supersede that rule.
“Innate!” Ruby spoke with difficulty, barely avoiding a thrown dagger to his neck.
*Phroom*
The blade elongated, becoming two times larger.
Fox’s eyebrow rose, as he prepared to deflect the edge swiftly rushing towards him.
“That’s its legendary innate skill? Growing a tad bigger? Pfft,” Fox scoffed to himself.
“Got you!”
The blade would smile if it could, as its edge passed through the blade and its wielder.
“What?!”
Both fighters were befuddled, but the duel hadn’t ended yet.
The true part of the black edge hidden by the illusion changed its angle, capitalizing on the confusion. Unfortunately, Fox realized the trick.
In his left hand, he was holding a sword breaker just in case, a type of dagger with crevices to catch blades into. Using intuition, the swordsman angled it to stop the assault, with the illusory edge still piercing him.
A smirk that practically evoked the question “That’s it?” appeared on Fox’s face, only to evaporate in seconds.
Ruben charged the toughest headbutt of his life, letting go of the self-piloting weapon completely.
“Don’t disrespect Master Brockur’s mastery!” Was all he could think.
Fox’s hand was forced to let go of the sword breaker. The opportunity that the black blade used to dig itself deep into the swordsman’s chest.
*Swoosh*
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Fox’s saber pierced defenseless Ruben’s heart just in time.
“Draw!” A voice yelled inside fighter’s heads.
“Don’t get too ahead of yourself,” the swordsman threw as they got back inside the original bodies.
“What?” Young blacksmith asked while still waiting for that feeling of demise that never came.
“You used up your only trump card just to end with a draw. Next time I’ll be ready. Let’s settle with a tie and get on with our lives.”
“No! We need a rematch!”
“You’re such a sore loser, buddy. Wasn’t this your first duel?”
“Exactly! I just got this weapon, I will do way better this time!”
“It’s only fair,” the weapon judged.
“Fine, but this is your only other chance. Why do you even want this so much?”
“Because I-”
“But without the backstories, please.”
“Shut the hell up! You aren’t fooling anybody. This no-nonsense persona… You care!”
Ruby finally got fed up.
“You gave me this skill so I could patch myself up, left all the treasure for me. This is how you get gleam, you buy it with money. Why not split it? Share a cut? It’s because you felt bad. Felt bad for me even without knowing my story. This weapon you use, there’s nothing special to it for anyone besides you because it was made by someone special to you! That’s why it's your treasure. So cut the crap and admit that you just don't want to get attached to new people.”
“Whatever, let’s just get on with it.”
“I need to meet Brockur for my father. This was the task I was given. He might not be the most pleasant man, but his honor matters. You are training to become stronger for someone too, aren’t you?”
Fox grew quiet.
Another duel soon ensued.
This time Fox was unmoving.
He struck a stand that evoked seriousness, leaning backward with his chest and pointing the saber towards the young blacksmith to make the most distance. In his left hand, close to the weapon, was a rondel dagger.
Ruby hesitated.
Raising the sword overhead, he also assumed a kind of defensive position. Threatening to hit the enemy if he gets any closer.
“Innate!”
The sword grew disproportionally, almost like it was stretched upwards by an invisible hand.
“Haha,” Fox chuckled.
“He thinks I’ll get too full of myself, grow impatient, and attack first,” the experienced swordsman concluded.
“The time limit of a friendly duel is five minutes unless discussed prior. Let’s speed it up.” Fox spat at the ground.
“I just need to catch him off guard once. It's easier for me to tell the true length of the blade when I’m prepared, or the illusion could make me miscalculate as well,” Ruben thought about his options.
“If this duel ends in a draw I’ll kill you. How about that? Well, you’ll just try to lose then, hrm. If you lose I’ll kill you too.”
“What?!”
“Took me for a goody-two-shoes, did you? I’m a bandit, buddy. Should have run while I was in a good mood.”
“You’re lying!”
Fox cut the bottom of his bag with a loud tear using the dagger. Tens of marbles of different colors scattered through the floor.
“Monsters aren’t the only ones who can form skills upon death. And the human ones are a lot better in quality. The skills capture the experiences creatures had in life, the more vibrant a person’s personality is, the more interesting the skill becomes.”
“That can’t be-”
“He’s telling the truth,” the sword confirmed matter-of-factly.
“But…”
“I won’t be able to defend you, boy, not with the injuries of your regular body. This is what you wanted. Breathe in and calm down, we must win this.”
Ruby’s heartbeat tripled. Suddenly a duel became a battle to the death. Was his judgment of Fox’s character that wrong? Were all these skills parts of humans at some point? The fear dulled out all other emotions and thoughts Ruby had. He never intended to lose, but with a risk that large…
The next three minutes will decide everything!
Despite the sweat-filled face, the young blacksmith’s eyes spelled seriousness. He was ready to risk his life against a troll just now.
“How is this any different?!” The man thought.
Seeing how unmoving his opponent was, the boy rolled closer but just out of his reach. The intention was to throw the fighter off.
“My sword is longer, he will want to close the gap.”
While still low, Ruben made a wide horizontal sweep, aiming at the knees. The innate skill’s effect ended, revealing the blade’s true length prematurely.
Fox jumped. He couldn’t block a full-force swing from the blade this heavy.
*Swoosh*
“But dodging a thrown dagger at this angle while committing to a swing is impossible,” he thought.
Not that Ruben was committing. When the swing was initiated, the blacksmith let go of the sword and rushed under it. Ruby grabbed the dull edge, turned the weapon, and pushed it upwards.
*Blam*
Sparks flew out as Fox was forced to use his strength to push the sword away from its intended trajectory mid-air rather than throwing the dagger.
“Iref metal…” he figured.
With the blade’s position, Ruben grabbed the handle for a diagonal cut at the just-landed opponent.
Fox used the wide swing as the window to strike but only punctured the air.
Despite the large strike, Ruby let go of the sword to let it finish the swing on its own, opting to move out of the way of the saber. Two more stabs, however, did reach his shoulder.
Fox tried to avoid the swing of the sword by slightly redirecting it with a dagger, but his shoulder still took the blunt hit of the wide swing.
“This is so… Fun!” Ruben smiled forgetting what situation he was in.
Fighting monsters before, all the blacksmith banked on was safe positioning and skills, but in this duel, the legendary innate ability doesn’t even matter.
“Don’t rush. No one is hurrying you, why are you messing up all your work,” a memory echoed.
“Sorry, I’ll go slower.”
“Ruby, do as I taught you, and your weapons will keep getting better. When you rush like this, they become rough and unbalanced.”
The bearded man shrugged.
“But, your technique has no room for me to express myself. I want to do my own things.”
“You’ll get to do them once you master the basics, son. No true artist starts with a unique art style.”
Ruby ducked from a retaliation swing and parried another, now with the black sword in hand. He stepped backward to make some distance.
“I need to be careful with his quick attacks.”
The blacksmith put much more force into swatting the blade than Fox did in his shallow attacks.
He keeps trying to stall me, but, at a distance, I have an advantage. I just need to claw out an opportunity.
Two minutes left.
“Innate!” Ruben yelled once the skill was ready again. He spun the sword so that the edge would point upwards and charged at Fox.
The fighter dodged from side to side without knowing where exactly the illusion ended and the true blade started. Under such circumstances, the only natural decision one could make is to slide under, and-
Ruby unsheathed the shortsword, forgotten until now, and struck the spot where he knew Fox would dodge.
“You fool!” The swordsman yelled.
“Ignite!”
Everything burst into flame in a large pyre within seconds. The roaring sound of the all-devouring fire echoed through the room. Both fighters were reduced to ash.
“We need a rematch!” Ruben’s true body came to its senses.
“Idiot, iref reacts to sudden temperatures, never do this in a real fight!”
“I challenge you to a duel!”
“Leave me alone, you psycho.” Fox sighed.
“Didn’t you want to kill me? Let’s fight for real! And… I’m not a psycho!”
“Two sentences that contradict each other. Listen, buddy, I was bluffing. You just get lazy when nothing is at stake.”
“That’s not true!”
“Just look at how you performed, you don’t need me for protection.”
“You know me better than I do all of a sudden?”
“A tit for tat.”
Fox turned around and began waddling away.
“Ah, you’re afraid,” the legendary sword gave his voice.
“Say what?”
The swordsman turned around.
“Afraid you will lose to a boy that never dueled before, of course, how can you accomplish your dream when you can’t even beat one talented beginner.”
“Talented? He’s just quick-witted. Don’t forget that the only reason he didn't lose during the first second of our duel is you doing everything for him.”
“You had the choice to wield me as well.”
“Just. Let’s duel again!” Ruby insisted.
“Calm down, boy, you don’t have the experience yet. We lost for now,” the blade lamented.
“But-”
“Okay, okay. Wow,” Fox couldn’t find a way to deal with his frustration.
“Brockur will be in Jedom during the tournament, right?! It’s in a month. If you are so-o-o talented, then surely in a month, you’ll far exceed me. Here’s my bet: if I win, you will swallow your words, and me and Ruby will melt you down. Then, we will make together something useful with a tongue that is not as sharp.”
“Then, if I win, I will take your treasure for myself.”
Ruby crossed his hands.
Fox had to look a few times on his saber before the pride got the better of him.
“Like that would ever happen.”
He smiled and threw a clumsy wave.
“Were these skills really all from humans?”
Leaving through the only intact entrance to the smithy, he glanced at his new rival one more time.
“Nah, not all of them.”