Theuderic Fargur

My opponent is from the guild Twilight Council and his name is Theuderic Fargur. A spellsword like me, except he uses air magic instead of water. So, he is nicknamed a blade singer. I heard through gossip that he is 27 years old. 8 years my senior, and is actually a member of the minor noble house of Fargur. Though through secondary marriages by both his father and grandfather, he has no claim on any inheritance.

After handing our adventurer cards to the judges we walk towards the arena battle grounds and pass through a magic shield which cancels all active magic spells. This makes it so misfired spells cast inside the arena will get canceled out before they reach the audience. It also cancels out any enchantments placed on the duelists by other adventurers to prevent cheating. Fortunately, the shield leaves my runes untouched.

As we are walking to the center of the arena grounds, I think back of the previous matches Theuderic has fought that I was able to witness. The guy has been a show-off. He is dressed in fancy looking plate armor which I am sure he spent extra money to make it look good instead of just provide armor. The most obvious way for me to notice that, is that he never wears a helmet. Why spend so much money on looking good while keeping your head exposed? It’s because Theuderic wants to look pretty while fighting.

He has also been telegraphing his skills instead of hiding some like me. The most obvious one of his skills is his [Dual wield] ability. Not gona lie, he has made dual wielding seem interesting enough for me to start thinking about choosing that skill myself. With my odd adventurer card, I might actually do that.

His second skill is [Charge]. I have regularly seen him use it at the start of a duel, often catching his opponent off guard. I will have to be ready to expect that. His third skill, I’m not sure, but I feel it might have to do with how fast he can swing his swords. I haven’t seen him use a fourth skill, but not all rank B spellblades have 4 skills. Most only have three.

Finally comes his magic element, air. When he dueled an archer, I saw him cast an [Air Shield] to deflect arrows. I should be weary of that. He has also made plentiful use of [Gust] to cast an air current. He often used it to bring his opponents out of balance. I remember from my training how important it is in battle to simply be able to stand. After all, if you are pushed to the ground, you are no longer in a position to fight.

When I get to my position in the center of the arena, I draw my sword and get into position. Theuderic too draws his swords, but then he starts spinning both of them. He does this at the start of every fight. It is how I first figured out how much of a show-off he is. Shortly after he finished his spinning move, the judges give the signal to start the fight.

Since I expect Theuderic to charge immediately, I start by casting [Water Barrier] around me. Good thing too because Theuderic first casts a spell, then performs his [Charge] skill. Despite knowing he focuses his style on speed, I am still surprised at how fast he is. While training with my guild members in the Dark Dragon arena, there were several who used [Charge] on me but none came in this fast. Fortunately, my spell was ready before his first strike. His swords come in incredibly fast. Faster than I am used to. Though I notice they move in tandem. Either both come from the left, or both come from the right. Always from the same direction. It is like he doesn’t treat them as separate but like they are the same sword, just one coming slightly behind the other. I guess that is him compensating for only having the strength of one hand behind each sword while I have the strength of 2 hands behind my sword.

Theuderic continues to be aggressive and forces me to step backward as I defend myself from his sword slashes. His fighting style makes him versatile enough to be able to get past my defense and strike at me. It is mostly him trying to nip at me with the tips of his swords, but my [Water Barrier] tends to push his swords away. Whenever he does manage to reach me, my armor mostly keeps me safe. There are only 2 times where he manages to give me a fleshwound.

This still leaves me in a bad spot. Theuderic is too fast for me to retaliate. He is keeping me on the defense and I can only retreat so far. I also can’t spare the time to reach under my pauldron and touch the runes for a [Sunlight Charge] or [Migraine] spell. If this keeps up, I will lose. I need to think of something.

The plan I come up with is to use my magic ring to summon some water and spray it into his face. It works as far as Theuderic is **** to defend his face, but then he casts [Gust] at me. His air spell blows the water I’m sending to him back to me and he comes in for the attack. I am just in time to activate [Dual Strike] and see his attack in slow motion. Oddly, despite me seeing him move slower now, he is still moving slightly faster than my opponents usually act when I activate this skill. Regardless, I focus on landing my 2 blows.

Theuderic’s attack is different now. Instead of both swords coming from the same angle, they come from opposites. I guess this is his way of finishing it. I first strike his sword coming from my left and strike it hard, close to Theuderic’s hand. This forces him to let go. Then I do the same to the sword coming from my right. Once my two strikes have been made, Theuderic is back to moving in normal speed. He is surprised that that I have managed to so quickly disarm him. And even more surprised when I barrel into him with my shoulder. The weight of my entire body bashing into him pushes Theuderic to the ground. While he is down, I reach under my right spaulder to touch the [Migraine] rune with my thumb. I activate it and then I cast the migraine onto Theuderic. The blade singer quickly reaches for his head and screams in pain. I take this moment to get on one knee next to him and grab him by the hair. I pull hard on his brown hair, eliciting a scream from Theuderic, and with my sword on his throat I tell him to yield. He doesn’t even hesitate to do so. Shortly after, the judges sound the gong and my victory is assured.

The crowd cheers at me as I pick up my adventurer card at the judges. With so many more people, the cheering is far louder. I honestly feel a bit intimidated by it. When I return to my fellow guild members, they congratulate me and I get a few pats on the shoulder. All this attention makes me feel a bit embarrassed. Luckily, everybody gets quiet when the next contestants are getting called.

These are going to be C ranked adventurers. Imagine my surprise when it turns out one of them is Mia. She is competing as well? And made it to the quarterfinals too? I watch how she and her opponent get to their position and then their duel starts. Her opponent is a rogue and charges at her right away. Mia brings her hand to the ground and touches it briefly. She then backs away and does it a few more times to her left and right. The rogue runs around all the places she has touched. Mia manages to touch the ground 8 times around her and for some reason, the rogue seems to not want to get close to her. Is there something about her touching the ground? Then Mia jumps outside the circle she has made. The rogue goes after her by running around her circle. Eventually their swords clash and Mia puts up a good fight. But then she intentionally catches her opponent’s sword between her torso and her left arm. It’s fine. She’s wearing chainmail armor so she won’t get cut. And now her opponent can no longer use his sword. Mia first gives him a few punches on his face with her sword hand. Then she kicks him aside, where she first stood and touched the ground a few times. When the rogue fell onto one of the spots she touched, a gout of fire suddenly erupted from the ground. The rogue’s leather armor catches on fire and he starts yelling “Yield!” The gong goes off and the judges declare Mia the winner, after which some royal guard members run op to the rogue and make use of water magic to put him out. As the crowd cheers and Mia revels in the victory, Kiara suddenly asks me a question.

“Do you still have feelings for her?”

I turn to Kiara and reply. “Huh? What?”

“Do you still have feelings for Mia?” Kiara repeats.

“No. No, I’m …” I turn back to Mia and watch her head up to the judges to reclaim her adventurer card. “I’m past that now. You helped me get past her.”

“You were still staring at her quite intently.” Kiara remarks.

Was I? Hmm, looks like I didn’t even notice myself. Why did I even stare at Mia like that.