Chương 74: Book 2 Chapter 26 - Under-handed Move

Their first few exchanges were exploratory, each testing out the other's defenses. Pretty soon, Olga tried pushing Kiara toward more rocky terrain, one of Olga's favorite places in the arena. Kiara's mastery of the sword forms allowed her to stand her ground or re-position in ways that avoid letting Olga dictate the location of the duel. She tried to learn what she could from her though, like Handel had instructed.

Pretty soon, it became clear to both of them that Kiara might have the slight upper hand now in pure sword form mastery. Olga was good, and had clearly mastered all nine forms as well, but not to the same depth of understanding that Kiara had achieved. Similar to how when she had sparred against Handel, except with Kiara now the one with a higher level of mastery. Handel had been able to still offer her tips about her form modifications, even though she felt like she had mastery on all nine forms.

Handel's depth of knowledge and experience was just superior. Kiara's confidence soared as she realized she had a legitimate chance against Olga, and she let it get to her head. When Olga stumbled, Kiara attributed it to her own superiority, and didn't realize that Olga had done it on purpose in order to grab a handful of dirt. When Kiara pressed the attack after the stumble, Olga back-peddled frantically, and Kiara rushed in, thinking she had her on the ropes.

She didn't realize that Olga was drawing her to the very terrain she had been purposefully avoiding this entire time. When Olga threw the dirt in Kiara's eyes, her instincts from the life-or-death fights she had been in took over, and she tried to use her superior speed to either dodge the dirt or evade Olga's follow up until she could clear out her eyes, but she failed at both.

The dueling collars ensured that Olga was just as fast as she was, and before she could clear the dirt out of her vision, the fight was over. Once she could see clearly, Olga bowed again, respectfully, and Kiara bowed in response. She was upset that she had lost to such a dirty trick, but Olga had clearly earned the victory. She begrudgingly admitted that Handel was right when he told her to keep watching Olga and learn what she could from her.

Kiara had been in enough real fights to know that when Handel had said anything goes, she should have been expecting anything and everything. He had even pulled a dirty trick on her a few days ago when they were sparring! It was like he had been trying to warn her. It wasn't like it really mattered.

She didn't have anywhere near enough points to earn a place in the advanced class this time around, and she was far enough ahead of the bottom two students that it was impossible for her to flunk out either, at this point. The only people the tournament really mattered for were the top five or six students, who had a real shot at getting into the advanced class, based on how the tournament panned out. Speaking of which, all of the top students easily won their matches.

Henry and the second ranked student got to sit and watch, without any fear of losing in the first round. Perks of doing well all semester, apparently. Kiara made her way over to where Ron was sitting after her loss.

"Good showing!" He praised her.

"You lasted longer than I ever have against Olga. Too bad about the dirty trick."

"Eh, Handel warned us about it," Kiara replied. She had already come to terms with it now.

"Heh, true," Ron said.

"You know, he sparred with me last week."

"Oh?" Kiara raised an eyebrow. Ron nodded.

"He pulled an under-handed move like that during the spar. I think he was trying to warn me or something." Kiara laughed. Ron looked at her.

"What? You don't think so?"

"No, it's not that. It's just that he also sparred with me last week, and did something similar." Ron chuckled.

"Hidden sword to the ribs?" Kiara nodded, still laughing.

"I guess it was fair of him to warn us since we're new." Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Ron nodded his agreement. * Tuesday, Kiara was still upset about having lost in the first round of the tournament. There were a few students at the top of the class, Henry included, that Kiara felt like she would lose to more often than not still, but she considered herself in the top ten at the very least. Maybe top five. Losing in the first round stung.

The losers bracket that put her in was pretty much with the bottom half of the class. She was pretty sure she could beat everyone in this bracket without trying too hard, so she went back to practicing her new skills during the duels instead. She kept an eye out for any more dirty tricks, but none of the students in the bottom half of the class were capable enough to pull anything off with how hard she pressed them.

She worked on forcing her dueling opponent into different areas of terrain, then positioning herself in an advantageous area of said terrain. It was relatively easy against someone she was so much better than, but it was still good practice. Her opponent Tuesday didn't land a single hit on her. Wednesday, she slipped up and took a swipe to her left arm, but was able to deliver a killing blow in response. Thursday, she faced off against Ron in the semi finals of the losers bracket.

It was a stark contrast to the spar they had in the beginner's class a few months back. Her mastery of the nine main sword forms gave her a strong sense of Ron's attack patterns, as well as how best to exploit them. Not wanting to embarrass him, and still working on her mastery of terrain and environment, she didn't go all out. Similar to the previous two days, she focused on forcing Ron into unfavorable terrain, giving herself opportunities to practice from new angles and heights.

They dueled over the bridge, down the steepest part of the river bank, under the bridge amongst the river rocks, back up the other bank, over towards the boulder field, then into the mini forest. Once they were in the forest, Ron took up Forest Form. It was then that Kiara realized Ron had used River Form in the middle of the river, and Air Form when they were going over the top of the bridge. She laughed and pulled back from pressing the attack.

"Forest Form, Ron?" He winked then shrugged.

"Gotta have fun somehow when I know I'm gonna lose."

"Well, you win on style points, I'll give you that." She pressed back in, going harder this time. Before long, she landed a hit through his left shoulder, and his arm went limp. A few strikes later, she sliced his right wrist. He dropped his sword as the dueling collar forced his hand to stop working. A quick follow up landed on his chest where his heart would be. They were both smiling ear to ear. On the way back to the sidelines, Kiara noticed Henry watching again.

He looked away hurriedly when he noticed her looking back, but this wasn't the first time she had caught him watching her intently when she sparred. She made her way over to him.

"Hi, Henry." He stiffened slightly at her approach, then bowed low.

"H-hi, Lady Yountal, it's a-a pleasure to make your acquaintance," he stammered out, clearly nervous. Oh, she realized, so his awkwardness is from social anxiety or something. Now that she thought about it, she had seen him at the Marsant's ball a few weeks prior. He had mostly kept to himself, at least the few times she had seen him. This entire semester, she had been looking up to him as the class prodigy, an untouchable opponent with incredible mastery.

She had seen him as someone who kept to himself because no one else in the class was worthy of his attention. Now, she was suddenly seeing him in a whole new light. He was a shy, awkward boy, around her age, who undoubtedly saw her as some kind of social queen, due to her recent notoriety here in Easton. Someone who focused so hard on his sword lessons because it was something he was good at, a place where he didn't have to talk to anyone or worry about what to say next. She decided to befriend him.

"Who's your duel with today?" she asked, standing next to him and turning to watch the next duel. He nervously glanced from her to the ground. Repeatedly. Like he wasn't sure where to look.

"Um, it's uh, Marco Loyarta." Marco was the rank 4 student, one of the few people that Kiara wasn't confident in winning against regularly. Henry had beaten him both times they'd sparred during the semester, and Kiara was sure he wouldn't have too much trouble. Henry had eliminated Olga the day before, which meant that if Kiara had won her first duel, she would have faced him yesterday.

That was something she had been looking forward to, actually, since she'd missed her second spar with him while she was away in Portish.

"Henry, would you like to stay after class today and spar with me?" she asked. His eyebrows shot up to his hairline as he glanced at her. In his surprise, his social anxiety disappeared momentarily and he held eye contact for a second or two.

"Um… yeah, I'd like that."

"Great!" she flashed him a smile.

"Good luck on your duel today with Marco."

"Thanks," he replied with a small smile of his own. She turned and walked away before he could start feeling awkward again.