The crowd was in it for the spectacle, not for the stabbing. They wanted the tournament that Alaroc and his compatriots had brought to them, not the cold embrace that was the fights that end with people dead and bleeding into the dirt below them.
The cavalier turned to see his opponent, the nameless monk who had murderous intent in his eyes flipping his hooked wave blade in hand. His stance was firm and his look piercing. Despite use of magic being allowed the two of them had proven that true swordsmanship and skill could best even the strongest of magics.
Alaroc had bested dragons and those blessed by Gods while his opponent fought past deception and the explosive arcane arts just to stand here, blade to blade, and fight. The official in the governor's balcony rose the banner to signal the start of the match. The two of them did not looking to him, merely glancing in their peripherals to see the flapping of the cloth in the wind, opting to instead focus mainly on their opponent.
The banner flew and with it did the monk, unleashing speed only told of in the storybooks. Alaroc snapped out his blades igniting his energy blade and placing his dragonslayer forward. The monk feinted around the cavalier, faster than Alaroc could keep up with and landed a heavy kick to Alaroc's midsection.
The cavalier was pushed off his feet backward, recovering just in time to raised his sword and with it's flat to halt an ax kick from caving in his helmet. The monk followed up and lifted off of the block spinning and bringing his other foot around ready to slam into Alaroc's right, but the Cavalier flicked his blade up and over to hold that attack at bay as well.
The monk kicked off of the second block with a back flip and a perfect landing. He straighten and said, "Nice reaction, you know more than you let on."
""You ain't the first monk I had ta spare with, My buddy Jin may not be as fast but he hits a heck of a lot harder."
"I assure you," The monk lightly waves his hand with his blade around as if going through some form taught in his martial art before continuing, "There are no monks like me." The monk moved in again unleashing a flurry of blows with his feet, almost seeming to lift himself off the ground with the speed and power of his kicks. 4 times he struck in the air with Alaroc managing to deflect or absorb the strikes, but then time felt like it froze.
The monk snapped out his wave blade and with it's menacing curve the blade slithered past Alaroc's guard that had been pushed back into the warrior's chest. The hook of the blade planted itself deep between Alaroc's neck and shoulder. It didn't have the raw power of larger blades, but the sharp weapon plunged a good half a foot into the Cavalier's body.
Time still frozen, the monk pulled on his blade and shot over Alaroc's shoulder doing a short flip followed by a spin and another inhumanly accurate puncture, this time into the small separation of plates in Alaroc's armor plunging into the man's back.
Time flowed back and the monk snapped his wave blade back into a resting position, flicking it to remove some of the blood from Alaroc, as both deep wounds now erupted with a short but strong plume of blood. Alaroc turned and as he shook he managed to stay standing.
The monk smiled and said, "Incredible, none managed to stand after my Perfect Strike, let alone two of them."
"You might be fast, aye, but no one can take a hit like me. Though if I hadn't shifted more than an inch you'd have hit the organs, no doubt." Alaroc stood again and seeing the blood run down his chest he grit his teeth and pressed his energy blade to his shoulder, searing the wound closed. He flicked back his blade to do the same to his back, but the monk was already back on him.
"You might be fast, aye, but no one can take a hit like me. Though if I hadn't shifted more than an inch you'd have hit the organs, no doubt." Alaroc stood again and seeing the blood run down his chest he grit his teeth and pressed his energy blade to his shoulder, searing the wound closed. He flicked back his blade to do the same to his back, but the monk was already back on him.
The monk tried to snap his blade back into Alaroc's untouched right shoulder, but the cavalier jumped back and barely managed to avoid the stab, and with the attacks that followed right after he raised his dragonslayer to continue blocking as he haphazardly tapped at his back wound and managed to staunch the blow as best he could.
The two locked blade and wave blade and Alaroc swung out his energy blade to break the lock, but the monk flipped up off the ground and looked to be planning to flip over around and cracking the back of Alaroc's head with his knee. Alaroc finally countered back and made use of his new strength enhancing belt to push back on the locked blades the moment the monk left the ground to force him up and away into the air.
The monk easily twisted in the air twirling about to land lightly back on the dirt. The monk smiled and looked ready to complement Alaroc again. Then in a split second he was gone and darted in to slam into Alaroc's chest with a blow to end all blows.
Alaroc was blasted back, before he could firm up his stance and hit the ground with a roll. His limbs flapped about before stopping on the ground. Alaroc rose, dropping his energy blade to retrieve twenty-four's bone, but before he could the monk was on him and kicked the bone away into the crowd with a spin kick before standing and looking down to the kneeling warrior saying,
"This is a fight between you and me. Warrior to warrior." The monk kicks the energy blade back near Alaroc's open hand and says, " So then come." Energy blade back in hand, Alaroc swipes up at the monk before another heel kick flies in from the side and blasts him another 5 feet skidding along the ground.
Alaroc takes a moment before getting back up and looks to the crowd cheering and his gaze scans over to his friends. Still shaking a bit, his face pale. He shakes his head and looks back to the monk who is hopping in place expectantly. The monk flits his gaze over to the combatant's box and frowns.
"Is that whelp's life really that distracting?" Growls the monk angrily. "Fine then, no distractions." The monk twirls his arms about and centers them on his body and stiffens them as they connect in an unmoving grip with his wave blade pointed up. Alaroc looks to his friend in the crowd reaching out and swinging his hand to the side to tell him to run, but then after some moments of fear in Leo's eyes, he places his hands to his chest and smiles, almost crying.
Alaroc looks back to the monk, confused and asks, "I thought you wanted to kill him."
"Why would I do that? If I did you would have either gone in a rage and become sloppy with emotion, or shut down in despair. Neither of those are what I want, now I want you to stand, free of distractions, and fight me."
Alaroc stands, feeling the wounds of that first round, ready to fight again for the victory with one less thing on his mind.
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