Chương 73: Book 2 Chapter 25 - Cheating

"You've mastered all of the forms," Handel said once she noticed him standing there. He'd said it as an observation rather than a question. Kiara nodded in response. He smiled.

"Let's spar again."

"Um, sure." He tossed her a dueling collar, and donned one himself.

"Let's start with the way we ended last time. I won't use a weapon." Kiara rolled her eyes lightly.

"Trying to stoke your ego?" Handel laughed.

"Just trust me." The spar began. Kiara moved in with Wind Form, a good option when attacking an undefended opponent, as it allowed her to maintain her reach. Once again, Handel began dodging her attacks gracefully. However, this time she was able to more easily read his movements, pay attention to his footwork, and the way he reacted to her own movements. She adjusted accordingly, and almost immediately landed a hit on his chest, right where his heart would be. The spar had only lasted two seconds.

"Very good," he said proudly.

"Again." They went again. He tried sidestepping and grabbing the sword from her wrist like he had the last time, but she saw it coming in plenty of time and twisted the sword to lance his shoulder. The spar ended in under three seconds again.

"Are you even trying?" she asked him suspiciously.

"This isn't some weird trick to boost my confidence before next week's tournament, is it?" Handel laughed again.

"No, it's not a trick, and yes I'm really trying. Mastering the foundational techniques and forms helps more than you might think, which is why I have my students start there. They provide a structure, a framework to operate within. Now that you are less focused on your own movements, you have an intuitive edge. Your own attack and defense patterns are solid, leaving your opponent very few openings, while you can capitalize on any weaknesses their own approach contains."

Kiara tilted her head to the side as she considered it. The last time they'd sparred, she had still been working on mastering the sword forms. She had attacked with one she was good at, but had been thrown off by his defense, even though he was weaponless. Now, with her mind less focused on the sword forms themselves, she was able to feel the natural ebb and flow of the fight more easily. Her understanding of the forms had been too rigid before, and her mastery helped with that.

She nodded once she felt like she understood what he was getting at.

"Okay, let's go again," he said with a smile.

"This time, I'll use a sword." They faced off for a third time. As Handel switched from form to form, Kiara followed suit. Her transitions felt smooth, and she was able to keep pace with Handel. Satisfied, she fell into Stone Form and began modifying it based on which form Handel was using. She was hoping to surprise him by finding openings in his patterns that shouldn't exist when she was using Stone Form. This was the method she had used to beat Seltzer so handily in their last spar.

She was instead surprised herself, when he began modifying his forms as well.

"Modified Stone Form, very good!" he said with praise.

"When I'm using Lake Form like this, try stepping slightly wider on my weak side when you riposte, I think you'll find a better angle that way." Kiara realized he was right, and tried out his suggested modification. They spent the next few minutes sparring like that, transitioning more slowly now from form to form, spending some time experimenting with how each form might be modified to best face off against another form.

He offered her pointers and tips with each one, praising her on the things he thought she executed especially well. After a few non-stop minutes at that pace, Kiara was tired, and needed a short break. After the break, Handel asked to spar one more time. He had a faint glint in his eye when he said it, and Kiara prepped herself for some kind of trick. Sure enough, halfway through their second exchange, a second blade appeared in Handel's left hand, and he speared her in the torso with it before she could react.

"What?! That's cheating!" she exclaimed loudly.

"I can't hear you over the sound of you being dead," he replied with a smirk.

"Would you be open to me giving you a suggestion for your focus over the next few months?" She breathed deeply, pushing down the angry feeling of having been cheated out of a fair fight. She recalled her earliest lessons with Hank and Jeff, half a year earlier, when they had taught her a similar lesson. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings. She nodded.

"Hit me with it."

"I've noticed you've begun experimenting with fighting on different terrains, and that's great. Learn what you can by watching Olga, she has a natural talent for it. Once you feel confident in that, start re-learning all nine forms again, this time with your left hand." She pinched the bridge of her nose.

"I just finished mastering the forms, and now I have to start all over?" He chuckled.

"You can do whatever you'd like, but that's my suggestion, yes. I think you'll find that most of the difficulty will lie in getting your left hand coordinated, rather than actually learning the forms. The movements are all mirrored with your left hand, but you already understand the principles behind each form. The steepest part of that hill will be overcoming your mind's natural resistance to using your left hand in general." She studied him for a moment, then nodded, accepting the challenge.

It really was a good idea, learning to use her off hand for fighting.

"When will you teach me what you showed me last time? Reading someone's movements and dodging pre-emptively?" He smiled.

"Eh, that's something you'll pick up on your own, with practice. In fact, I think you're already partway there. You adjusted to my movements pretty quickly today when I didn't have a weapon." He turned and began walking away.

"Practice with that left hand!" She gave her sword a few experimental swings with her left hand, and by the time she looked back, Handel was gone. * Kiara showed up early the following Monday, excited for the tournament. Handel strode into the arena right at the top of the hour.

"Great semester, class!" he announced happily. The class members all applauded and cheered, some whistling loudly.

"You've all grown," he continued.

"It's truly a pleasure to see your improvements over time. As most of you know, Trevor dropped out early this semester, leaving only thirty of you. This week will be a single elimination tournament, instead of normal class, with one round of the tournament taking place each day.

"We will be using public duel rules, instead of sparring rules. For those of you that don't know, this is important, so pay attention." He fixed both Kiara and Ron with a stare, since they were the only newcomers this semester.

"Instead of multiple rounds that end on contact, a public duel consists of a single round that ends when one party yields or dies." Wait, what? Kiara thought in surprise.

"Obviously," he continued, "we won't be killing each other in class." A few chuckles echoed his statement. He held up a dueling collar.

"The dueling collars have a unique setting for duels, rather than spars. The collar will keep track of injuries you would have received if it was an actual duel, and will simulate the effect. You will feel the pain and lose the functionality of body parts that are stabbed, slashed, or that would have been cut off.

"Once the collar detects a fatal blow, it will light up red, after which the debilitating effects will disappear, leaving you with just the bumps and bruises from actually being hit with the blunt swords we use for practice. Remember, the collar won't protect you, so don't take any shots to the eye or anything. Any questions?" No one raised their hand, so he continued.

"The tournament will be single elimination, but each group that loses will enter into a losers bracket to determine final placement. For example, we'll have fourteen losers on round one – that's today – and those fourteen will earn the bottom fourteen spots in the tournament. Their loser's bracket will determine which of the bottom fourteen spots they earn.

"Losers on the second day will earn the next bottom 8 spots, and so on. The bracket will be seeded based on your performance in class this semester. The instructors will moderate each duel, like they do the spars, although with a single round to the death, they likely won't be very involved. It's a no-holds-barred duel, so do whatever you want, as long as the collar lets you do it." Ron raised his hand.

"Does that mean we can use magic in the duel?" Handel's eyes gleamed mischievously.

"If the collar lets you, then sure."

"So…," Ron asked.

"So no, no magic is allowed," Handel clarified.

"Although I should say, that in an actual public duel, should any of you ever have the misfortune of participating in one, truly anything goes. Your opponent will actually try to kill you, and will use magic, dirty tricks, and anything else they can think of to win. The collars don't quite simulate what that is like, it's just an approximation. Any other questions?" There were none.

"Okay, Hansen and Reynolds, you're up! I'll be watching." Everyone gathered around for the first duel of the day. Hansen and Reynolds were the last names of the two students from the middle of the pack, ranked 16 and 17. The top two students would automatically advance to round two, leaving fourteen losers on day one and sixteen participants for round two. Their duel was fairly evenly matched, due to the similar skill level. Hansen took a shot to the chest, which caused his collar to turn red.

Previous to that, he was limping badly and had an arm hanging limply to his side. Reynolds wasn't in much better shape. The collars both seemed to recognize the duel was over, and the winner's collar lit up green instead of red. A moment later, their 'injuries' disappeared, as both collars deactivated.

"Reynolds advances!" the moderator announced loudly. One of the other instructors made a note on the bracket. The fights got more one sided as they worked their way through the bracket. Ron, who was ranked 19th, fought the 14th ranked student. It was a pretty close fight, but Ron ended up losing by a hair in the end. He seemed pleased with his performance, though. Seltzer, ranked 12th, won his fight quite easily. He was severely under-ranked, though, so it didn't come as a surprise.

Kiara, who was ranked 24th, was up against rank 9, which happened to be Olga. Both of them were under-ranked, but Kiara was glad that her first duel would be a challenge. Olga seemed to share her sentiment, and nodded to her respectfully before the duel started.