seems like a good word

Stephanie walks in with members of the academies staff carrying two racks of swords. They are put down on either side of the twelve students as Stephanie walked along the row. You can't help but notice there are a lot of students in the stands and a few teachers have shown up to stand by the arena's exits. You guess this is normal for Fridays. Stephanie said the next duel will be in three weeks from last Friday so maybe Fridays in general are worth watching.

"Pain in combat is an inevitable part of fighting. Those swords have an enchantment on them that will cause pain identical to what a real sword will inflict." She is speaking very seriously and giving every a hard eye. "All of you should know how to heal, how to push past an injury and recover to keep fighting." You only have recent experience of that, Asune cutting you to the bone had hurt but for less than a second until you healed. She reached the end of the row and grabbed a sword. "But what happens if you can't heal? Your hand." She is standing in front of you with her sword pointed at the ground, it's edge was flat, completely blunt.

You hesitate, you relax your eyes to check the enchantment on the sword since that is clearly the danger. It looked like barbed wire was wrapped around it's length. Offering your hand you brace yourself for pain and get ready to heal. She puts the blade along your palm and you catch your breath as the barbs sink inside your skin. There isn't any pain and you relax for a moment. Stephanie draws the blade along your palm.

"FUCK!" You ripped your hand back and cradle it as you try to use magic to knit your skin back together but the pain is still there. You look at your hand worried the damage was more serve than you thought only so see totally uninjured skin. The pain is still there but the moment you saw there wasn't any damage it lessened. Checking the magic you see a few barbs in your hand but the dissipate as you watch and the pain is gone. "Ow." You say clenching your hand a few times.

Stephanie looks up and down the line, the sword stabbed into the ground next to her. "If anyone can tell my why Christopher recovered so quickly you may leave."

"He's powerful." The voice came from the end of the line and everyone leaned over to look at Twelve.

Stephanie walked over. "Wrong." Her sword flashed and Twelve collapsed grabbing her shoulder in a scream. She stayed down whimpering as she held a perfectly fine arm. "Every take a sword. Today you will duel without magic in pairs I pick." Everyone very nervously looked at Twelve still whimpering and the sword in Stephanie's hand. "Or you can exhaust yourselves and duel with normal swords." That spurred people into action and swords were quickly taken up. When everyone was lined back up Stephanie started pair people up. "Twelve and Three." There was a more than a bit of shock at the comment but no one said anything. After that numbers were pair with those directly above them until Vatarie. "Five and Two." You looked down to see Vatarie looking at her sword a little worried before looking up at you. "Four and one." That paired Anastasia up against Asune. "First pair." As you took your place you re-evaluated your Friday understanding, maybe each week was a duel but only some of them resulted in student eliminations.

Twelve and Three took the field both eyeing the other carefully. You remembered Twelve's duel against Eleven, Twelve seemed to doing well before tiring out, maybe Stephanie decided that not having magic will even the playing field. When Stephanie said t begin Three struck first. Her sword spearing at Twelve's stomach. There was no magic so they were moving at normal speed. Something Three didn't seem to appreciate since their distance made dodging out of the way easy. Twelve was pretty slow in dodging but dodge she did and swung at Three's arm. The blow was slow and missed but it made both of them pull back to rethink the fight. Not using magic made everything much slower and the danger of the swords was making engaging dangerous.

The pair circled for almost a minute before Twelve charged. From her reactions so far you doubted she'd last long but were surprised when she avoided a riposte you doubted you would have done. The burst of skill didn't last long as the next time Three's blade ran along Twelve's forearm. Twelve let out a pained scream and dropped her sword. "I YIELD!" Came out a moment after the scream. Three didn't move waiting for the end of the duel to announced.

Stephanie watched at Twelve's scream turned into a whimper. "If you surrender after the first strike you have no business in my class."

Three and Twelve looked at each other as Twelve picked up her sword gingerly. She was clearly still in pain but she seemed to have recovered a bit. Until their swords clashed and Twelve's wrist crumpled in a grunt of pain. Three didn't strike anymore but Stephanie didn't call an end. Twelve picked up the sword in her other hand and they fought a bit more.

Twelve was significantly more cautious. Ducking and weaving out of the way even when a more aggressive approach would have won out. The fight lasted for two more agonising minutes before Three scored a hit on Twelves leg sending the woman to the ground unable to get up. Three helped her limp back to the stands and they took a seat together. You watched Twelve as they put their swords down. The moment the hilt left Three's hand the pain on Twelve's face eased. You looked at your sword and checked the hilt. The enchantment on it looked almost like a broken circuit between the blade and the pommel. An absence in the centre that your hand connected. You weren't sure if that is how it the magic worked since your hand still hurt after Stephanie had let go of her sword but holding the sword was a part of it.

The next pair went but and both were extremely **** to even approach each other. That was until Stephanie said that they could either fight each other or fight her. The fight ended quickly with both of them an arm down after the first engagement.

The fight continued with mostly unwilling participants. Fear of pain or fear of causing pain you weren't sure which but since you'd be going up against Vatarie the latter was eating at you.

When it was your turn you took the field and looked at Vatarie as she spun the blade around. "No holding back." She said with a wide toothy grin.

"Begin."

As the word left Stephanie's mouth Vatarie approached. Your swords tentatively crossed twice. Your **** to engage was very apparent and Vatarie pouted a for a moment. Rather than say anything she decided to try and encourage self defence. Rather than aiming for arms or legs her blade swung for your face. You knocked it out of the way a little shocked at Vatarie's choice of target, which gave her an opening to drag her sword along your arm.

"AHHH!" You shouted as her blade ran along your left bicep. The pain did indeed feel like being cut open by a sword and your left arm wouldn't respond when you tried to use it. Vatarie tried to use the moment to attack your right arm but you expected it to happen and brought your sword down to spear her thigh. She barely reacted to the pain but backed out of her strike.

You shook your left arm to try and get some control back but that only made the magical barbs in your skin dig in. It wouldn't be hard to get them out. All you'd have to do was use your magic to push them out easy as but you weren't allowed to use magic.

You and Vatarie circled each other. She looked very serious and you were not enjoying this at all. The pain wasn't the issue, it was annoying but easy to get rid of. However, you really didn't want to hurt Vatarie, even temporarily. Vatarie stopped moving and looked into your eyes. Either she noticed your unwillingness to hurt her or she decided to end it as she jumped you. You moved to block her sword with yours but it didn't meet metal. Vatarie wrapped her hand around the blade and janked it out of the way. The tip of her sword aiming for your chest. You reacted without thinking. Not using magic but twisting your sword forcing Vatarie's arm to bend at a bad angle and making her miss. You jerked the blade from Vatarie's and brought it to her neck, avoiding letting any barbs touch her skin.

She looked peaved at you and dropped her sword. The pain in your arm vanished and you dropped your sword as well happy that that was the end of the duel.

Vatarie punched you in the face making you stumble. "I said no holding back." She pouted picking up her sword again and kicking yours back to you.

Without magic to heal you felt a bit of blood trickle out of your nose. You straightened and prepared for the fight to keep going. Vatarie approached carefully and deciding to stop fret about hurting her you met her. Your swords clashed and you saw her clench her fist to punch your stomach. Rather than avoid it you tensed your muscle and stepped into the blow. The changed angle made her unsteady but the punch was still very hard and **** the air out of you.

She pulled back but you didn't, bringing your sword to her left leg you managed to nick just below her kneecap. She crumpled on the now unusable limb and you dashed forward grabbing her sword hand and lightly touching your sword to her neck. "YIELD!" She shouted, you'd let go of your sword the moment you heard the 'Y' and checked over her to make sure she wasn't hurt. She stood up completely fine and wiped some of the sand off her shine. "Better." She said with a wide grin. Stephanie called an end to the duel and as you walked back to the stands Vatarie reached down to squeeze your ass. "Good boy." She let go and sat on the other side of Anastasia, Three was still by Twelve for some reason.

Stephanie called for the next duel and Asune and Anastasia took to the sand. There was suddenly a lot of tension in the air as the audience, who had been getting increasingly conflicted emotions as the fighters screamed in pain at injuries that didn't exist. There were cheers a plenty at the victories but the screams made everyone quiet. With the Princess facing off against Asune no one was sure how to engage with either scoring a hit. Anastasia was the Princess so they should cheer for her, but Asune was terrifying and no one wanted to earn her ire by cheering at her injury.