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05.03.297 — a clash of four Northerners in honor of Deus Mariarnelia's birthday
Watching the outcome of the battle against the capital's knights, Deus congratulated the mighty warriors of the North, and then announced:
Now the recent comrades-in-arms were to fight each other. Once again, discontent could be read on some faces, but no one dared to object.
On the arena, the knights positioned themselves as follows: Gingkink top left, Lorican top right, Alaria bottom left, Rezara bottom right.
The battle promised to be short, but by the judge's will it was again split into rounds. However, this fight had room for unexpected twists, and the round system had to be abolished.
Round 1
Lorican, it seemed, rushed toward the middle of the arena, taking a defensive stance along the way. Alaria charged forward. She looked extremely fierce and furious. About the same bloodthirstiness could be read in her eyes during the battle against the capital's knights.
Rezara and Gingkink also headed toward the center, but unlike the first two knights, they took no additional stances. The gong sounded before anyone managed to land a blow. Whether it was a matter of time limits, or the judge decided to give each fighter a chance to think and determine whom to strike first.
Round 2
The arena turned out to be too large for four participants. Again everyone took positions without managing to pounce on one another. If any of the participants had decided to pick up a bow, they would have already taken a shot, and such a quick gong would have made sense. Here it was more like simply stretching out the proceedings. But the judge, it seemed, found it very important to record the position of each fighter. Perhaps this allowed her to cut off potential injustices, for there were quite a lot of people in the arena.
Round 3
Alaria, Lorican, and Rezara again went on the offensive but failed to land a hit on anyone. The Knight of Perfection, at most, took a defensive stance. But Gingkink managed to catch up with the Knight of the Crimson Blade and struck her down with a single swing.
Immediately after that, Emilia struck the gong. Rezara was taken away by the medics. And there were three of them left.
Round 4
Alaria demonstrated a behavior pattern atypical by my observations — she hid in the shadows, much like Sir Lester Vargas used to do. What is this — high-quality learning ability or a cunning tactic that the Knight of Catharsis had been concealing all this time?
Lorican, meanwhile, unable to attack due to the great distance and the disappearance of his nearest opponent, again took a defensive stance.
But Gingkink, thanks to Verny, calmly caught up with the Knight of Perfection but failed to land a hit on him. He wanted to try striking again, but the gong did not allow him to do so.
Round 5
Lorican, instead of striking, remained in impenetrable defense. Either he was counting on fending off a possible sudden attack from Alaria this way, or he hoped she would attack Gingkink.
But since no actions from the Knight of Catharsis were visible, she was clearly adhering to some other tactic. Most likely, Alaria was counting on waiting until the Swordgard knights killed each other off themselves.
Meanwhile, Gingkink tried to overcome Lorican but missed again. By all calculations, the gong should have sounded by then. But no.
Alaria's actions turned what was happening into a duel of the type held at the tournament. And, it seems, the judge had already decided not to waste time on unnecessary breaks. Especially since keeping track of two fighters at once is much easier than keeping track of three or more.
Realizing that the Knight of Catharsis was not planning to appear yet, Lorican decided to attack Gingkink's horse. His first strike landed, but the second missed. However, the man also managed to dodge two attacks from the Knight of the Crushing Blow.
Lorican struck Verny again, temporarily immobilizing him and causing bleeding. Then Perfection dodged an attack and delivered the final blow to the horse, which, combined with the bleeding, finally took the steed out of the battle and straight into the medics' hands.
Now the agile Lorican struck Gingkink directly, although his hits were laughable against the opponent's armor. The Knight of the Crushing Blow, in turn, finally broke through the impenetrable defense of the Knight of Perfection and struck him so hard that he damaged, though not broke, his armor.
Lorican had to retreat to heal, blocking the opponent's blows along the way. Gingkink, meanwhile, continued attacking until he took a fairly powerful blow from the Knight of Perfection.
That did not make him retreat. On the contrary, the Knight of the Crushing Blow kept attacking unsuccessfully until he took two strong hits himself. The first attack literally immobilized him; he recovered from the second and finally decided to retreat to drink some potions.
Feeling a surge of strength, Gingkink continued his offensive. Together with his colleague from Swordgard, they exchanged a couple of failed strikes until the Knight of the Crushing Blow landed another hit on the Knight of Perfection.
Lorican lowered his guard to drink a potion, which immediately cost him another hit. Several times he tried to strike back, but instead Gingkink landed another blow on him. The Knight of Perfection took another sip from his flask, but that only delayed the inevitable. The Knight of the Crushing Blow, taking advantage of yet another pause, swung his sword with all his might. There was no dodging it.
The thoroughly sweating Gingkink exhaled wearily, watching the medics carry Lorican out. But he forgot the main thing. While he and the Knight of Perfection exchanged attacks again and again, somewhere in her hiding spot Alaria was literally resting, now preparing to strike. And there were two of them left.
As soon as the medics left the arena, the Knight of Catharsis leaped out from behind cover. At that moment, her eyes, just like her blade, were literally blazing. The girl delivered a strike that was perhaps weak but setting things ablaze. In response, Gingkink slashed at Alaria with all his might.
Anyone else would have certainly fallen from such a blow. But the Knight of Catharsis merely dropped to one knee, then pulled herself together and, with her last strength, rose to her feet. The girl needed to retreat to patch up her health. Along the way, her eyes blazed again, and she was ready at any second to resume that stance which had just saved her from defeat.
At the same time, the burning Gingkink, who was trying to catch up with her, also grabbed his flask, which cost him a hit. Alaria drove her sword into his arm but failed to knock the weapon out or weaken his grip. For that she was punished — the Knight of the Crushing Blow swung his blade again with such force that the girl was saved by nothing short of divine intervention.
Realizing that close-quarters tactics were not working at all, Alaria broke into a run, taking gulps from her flask along the way. Taking advantage of how exhausted Gingkink was from his duel with Lorican, not to mention the fact that his body was literally burning, the Knight of Catharsis took to flight. Along the way, she hurled throwing knives at him, of which she had a great many in reserve.
For a while, the Knight of the Crushing Blow tried to catch her, but to no avail. Continuing to burn, he increasingly resembled a pincushion for knives. In the end, Gingkink fell, making Alaria the victor of this battle.
