Arablest/ Prototype

The day ended quickly while I sat in the wagon reading yet another book, because I was tired from walking.

Actually, reading in the wagon was too difficult, since the travel was not smooth, considering the roads we had to take and the inconsistency of how we moved, so I just sat there and thought about my past life, hoping I get home again. It was getting boring, but I had nothing else to do. Everyone else was busy talking to each other, except Pierre and that other Unicorn rider… Wait, I don’t even know her name yet! I’ll have to ask her later.

Anyways, Pierre and the unicorn rider were silent the whole time, but both seemed to be thinking as well.

As we finally stopped that night to set up camp it seemed like most of us were already friendly with one another, with the exception of Pierre, the unicorn rider, and I. But, if I overheard Kal and Tomer correctly, then they would duel tonight. That would be exciting to see, a real duel that wasn’t choreographed by some movie producer or something.

But in the meanwhile, I would have to sit here and be bored.

Perhaps I could write a journal so I wouldn’t forget what would happen, but I doubt I would be able to bring it back with me, considering how I got here.

I was going to have to ask General Ira sooner or later, but it felt like I had all the time in the world.

So I sat in the wagon until it was night, staring at the scenery as they passed by. For once I had nothing to think about, and I actually missed the pointless one-sided conversations when Lenora was here. It was true that I barely said anything back to her when she was talking, but at least there was something to do, instead of, well, just sitting here and staring off into to space.

Night finally came, after what felt like an eternity, so we finally stopped when the unicorn rider found a clearing for us to set up camp. It would be faster traveling directly to the Northern Isles, and then to Thanti, then stopping at villages along the way.

While Ira and a few other mercenaries proceeded to make dinner, Tomer walked over to Kal, his massive ‘blade’ being held over his shoulder.

“You ready? We start now.” Tomer said.

Kal sighed, and drew a new sword I did not see him buy from his back. I took out one of the books that supposedly belonged to me (I had hidden it in the wagon before we left, but I suppose I didn’t have to; they supposedly were mine, after all.)and looked for the descriptions of weapons. I eventually found it; Kal’s new sword was called the Kill sword. It was similar to the Killing edge that Kal used to have earlier, but the difference was that the Kill sword was much thinner, and lighter, which made accurate striking and hitting painful and damaging areas much more easily. Tomer’s sword really was a blade, although I wasn’t sure what it was made of. Either way, it was huge.

Fortunately, I didn’t miss much, because they had just gotten onto position, and where now facing one another. Tomer still had his sword over his shoulder, and Kal let his sword hang loosely at his side, pointing it at the ground at a slight angle away from him. They both held their swords with their right hand.

Kal struck first, dropping to the ground to running even faster than I ever seen him run at Tomer, sword already ready to strike. Tomer retaliated taking a step back, and using both hands to bring down his blade with a large smash that shook the ground, forcing Kal to nimbly dodge instead of striking by moving to the side, and slashed back at Tomer with his sword. Tomer simply leaned back, and the sword narrowly missed as it sliced over his body, pulling his blade towards him as he went.

Tomer fluidly pulled the blade towards him and up, making it vertical to the ground, just as Kal struck again with his sword, only to have it blocked. Tomer’s blade had acted like a shield, since it was wide enough for Tomer to literally hide behind it. Tomer, with one hand on the handle, the other on the flat of his blade, pushed the sword over his head and swung it towards Kal in a counterattack, forcing Kal to leap back to dodge the blow. The blade continued it motion, and Tomer converted the momentum into another downward slash.

By now, everyone else had come to watch.

As they fought, I noticed that Tomer was mainly using momentum in his attack because the blade was actually that heavy, but he could convert the movement of the blade into a slightly different direction to fit his needs. He rarely did lift the blade while only holding its handle, which would require the most strength. In fact, more often then not when he had to lift the blade he pulled it towards him, the tip dragging the ground, or placing one hand on the flat of the blade to support it on the other side. He used the momentum of his sword to help any of his upwards strikes. Despite how heavy the sword was, his attacks and maneuvers were very fluid, as he flowed from one attack to another.
He would sometimes use the blade as shield, and when he did, he could dance around the blade to avoid an attack from any direction. The massive size of his blade also gave him the advantage of being able to hit farther, so he had a bigger range.

Kal, on the other hand, relied on speed, speed, and speed. His blade moved so fast that sometimes it looked like he was using multiple swords. He himself, moved fast enough to rarely, but occasionally leave afterimages, with attacks making him look like he was flying back and forth around Tomer. He dodged every strike from Tomer, but was not able to get very close to strike accurately at Tomer, who was taking advantage of the size of his sword.

It was literally a battle between speed and power.

And I knew that the winner would be the one who was better at what he did.

What I wanted to know was, how is it possible for someone to be fast enough that they leave afterimages behind?

Either way, they fought on for some time. I have no idea how long they fought, but eventually, they stood apart, Kal panting for breath. Tomer was breathing heavily too, but not as hard as Kal was, who was literally panting for breath. Neither was injured, and I already knew how good Kal was, because I had seen him fight before, but I supposed moving so much would tire you faster.

“Hey, tired already?” Tomer taunted. “I know you’re better than that. Did you forget everything already?”
“Or maybe you just improved a lot.” Countered Kal. “But I haven’t shown you everything yet.”
“Then show—”

Tomer never got to finish his sentence, because Kal reinitiated combat again.

The combat was interesting to watch, considering how interested in swordplay I was (despite my lack of abilities in that category), but I didn’t know who to cheer for. They were both allies, to themselves, and to us, after all.

As their swords clashed, Kal managed kick Tomer, knocking him back, and in that short time while Tomer stumbled back, Kal took advantage of that and leaped forward, driving Tomer to the ground, his Kill sword pointing at Tomer’s neck. And yet, Tomer just smiled. Kal looked down, and found a dagger pointed at him as well. Although Tomer had dropped his blade when Kal leaping at him knocked him down, he had a hidden dagger, just as Kal had one, and he had drawn it as he fell.

So, even though Kal technically won, it was a draw.

“You…” Kal spoke with amazement. “When did you learn that?”
“Looks like we’ve both improved.” Tomer replied, ignoring his question. “And this time a draw, leaving us both tired, aching bodies, and bruises.”
“Bah. I should have one that one.” Kal said, standing up, offering a hand to pull Tomer up.
“Yes, you should have.” Tomer replied, accepting the hand as Kal pulled him back onto his feet. “Well, it was a good fight.”
“A good fight indeed.”

We joined them, and laughing and talking about the duel they had, we went to have a good dinner.

I still missed having a salad here and there, though.