Duskbound

Velik's weapon gave him the advantage in range, and he was confident that he had a high enough physical stat to properly leverage that against Giller's shorter sword. In truth, he was more worried about the relatively fragile weapons holding up under the strain of repeated impacts. They were heavy iron, but he could bend his spear in half with his bare hands. If Giller was anywhere near as strong, he suspected both weapons would deform when they were smashed together.

As soon as the fight started, she burst forward so fast that Velik barely got the tip of his spear in place to stop her charge. I know they said no active skills, but if that's pure stats giving her that much speed, her class must weigh heavily towards that over raw strength. Or else she's cheating.

He'd know soon enough. If she had the muscle to fend off his probing strikes, then she was either a much higher level than [Apex Hunter] thought, or she was dangerously overspecialized in physical. The blunted tip of his spear was lined up to force her to either impale herself on it or dodge it, though she was wearing armor. That might blunt the impact enough that she could ram the weapon, but even then, it'd hurt like hell.

Except that didn't happen. She stuttered a single step to give herself an instant's time to smack the side of the spear just behind the head with her free hand. The tip wavered a few inches, not enough to matter in most cases, but it allowed her to twist her torso as her legs carried her forward and get her past the outside edge of his reach.
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Normally, he'd draw on his weapon's [Shape Shifting] enchantment to overcome the disadvantage that exchange had put him at. Since the metal pole they'd given him didn't have any enchantments, he planted his feet and heaved the weapon as hard to the side as he could. It collided with Gillar's shoulder, drawing a grunt from her and sending her staggering, but not knocking her off her feet like he'd planned.

Instead, she lunged forward with her arming sword, fast as any monster's snapping teeth. The sword was pointed right at his sternum and she looked like she meant to run him through with it. Velik faded back a step and dodged to the side, bringing the back end of his spear around to parry the sword strike up high.

Just like he'd suspected would happen, both the spear and the sword bent slightly from the impact. The two of them sprung apart, Giller eyeing her weapon appreciatively, and Velik gripping his spear on either side of the bend. With a flex of his arms, he straightened the iron back out. It wasn't perfect like it had been, but it was a lot closer than if he'd left it alone.

Giller snorted, reached one hand half way up her arming sword, and twisted the metal back into shape. "Should have gotten out the stuff enchanted for durability," she said. "Too late now."

And with that, she rushed in again. This time, Velik kept her back with a series of jabs. He had his work cut out for him, but [Spear Warden] was practically designed to do exactly what he was doing. Every thrust forced Giller to react in a specific way, and each attack built on the one that came before it until he took control of the battle.

At least, that was how things normally worked. Fighting an enemy with hands was atypical for him, however, and he kept finding himself forced to make adjustments on the fly when Giller didn't merely dodge around his attacks. Her tendency to try to grab his weapon and take control back was annoying, especially because it turned out she was just as strong as she was fast.

Another problem was that [Savage Rhythm] wasn't triggering for some reason, probably that his attacks weren't actually hitting her. He had the same problem with heavily armored monsters. If the spear didn't draw some blood, that didn't seem to be good enough for the skill. It was even worse in this fight, however, because she kept parrying or blocking his strikes.

The fight stretched on from one minute to two, and neither of them could gain an advantage over the other. Velik kept Giller back through raw strength and speed combined with the sheer reach of his weapon, but her sword seemed to almost teleport around, always appearing at the last possible instant to block around strike. Gods, that's annoying. I think I prefer fighting things without thumbs.

The whole time, Telit observed from the sidelines, his eyes scouring the fight in an attempt to tally the score. Jensen and Blendstin watched, the latter with his mouth agape as he struggled to keep up with the frenetic pace of the duel. The other trainees stared just as intently, though they were definitely keeping track of the action better than their boss was.

Suddenly, Giller's arm whipped forward and her sword went spinning end over end. With only five feet of distance to clear, it struck Velik's chest before he could react. Pain flared and the sword bounced away at an angle that his opponent had somehow predicted. She was already darting off to the side to reclaim the weapon.

"Point, Giller," their referee called.

Velik ignored the man and the pain as he lunged forward, spear leading. Now that Giller had disarmed herself for that point, he knew he had a narrow window of opportunity to punish her for her eagerness. His spear flashed out, only to be blocked each time by her hand slapping it away. If he'd been using a real weapon, he'd have shredded her palm, but with a practice spear, there was no edge at all.

It seemed a little unfair to him. He was technically making contact, but he supposed since it wasn't with the tip of the spear, Telit wasn't counting it. That must have been some stipulation of their dueling rules, because Velik knew better than anyone that the shaft of a spear could do plenty of damage.

Screw it. I don't even know the rules. I'll just avoid bashing her skull in and start treating this like a real fight.

Giller seemed surprised by his sudden aggressive rush, but her mouth stretched into a gleeful smirk as he gave up the reach advantage to close in on her. Even though she hadn't managed to recapture her sword, she seemed more than willing to mix things up unarmed. That lasted all of two seconds until Velik started working his spear like a staff, striking at her with both ends.

Her hands were a blur as she worked to fight off both ends of the weapon, but when he slipped a kick in that caught her knee with his heel, her leg slid out from beneath her. It was only a small misstep, barely even a tiny hop, but it was an opening, and Velik was ruthless in pressing the advantage. The tip of the spear struck her shoulder hard enough that the ring of iron on steel echoed through the whole courtyard, and he followed up with the base end whipping around to catch her hip while she tried to regain her balance.

"Two points, Gray."

The end without the point counts? Good to know. One more to go, and you're still disarmed, he thought.

Giller gave up on recovering her sword and pressed in, too close for Velik to even use his spear. That wasn't a good situation for him; he already knew she outclassed him at hand-to-hand combat. If he couldn't keep a weapon between them, she'd overpower him immediately. Try as he might, he couldn't backpedal quickly enough to get out of her range.

If he couldn't break off pursuit without taking a hit, the only choice he had left was to go on the offensive. This duel was about scoring points, not doing damage. That meant he didn't need enough range to get power behind his swings. He just had to hit her one more time.

He waded back in, snapping the spear out in short chopping strikes. Once again, the lack of [Shape Shifting] on his spear was limiting his options and making it harder for him to score a decisive blow, but he was confident he could win the duel. He just needed to push Giller off balance again so he could get the last hit in, but that was easier said than done.

He'd caught her off-guard the first time, and she'd underestimated him when he'd switched up to fighting with a quarterstaff instead of a spear, but he already knew she was good. She wasn't going to fall for that trick again. If he wanted to cinch a victory, the best thing he could do now was lean into his overpowering strength and speed.

His attacks sped up, and thanks to all the practice he'd had with [Savage Rhythm], he was more than up to the task of chaining them together even without the skill's help. Giller's grin turned into a frown of concentration as she worked to keep Velik at bay, then a snarl when he pushed her back another step.

The tip of his spear swung around in an arc, only to be aborted at the last possible instant when she tried to duck under it and accidentally put her head right in line with the blow. Velik pulled back just short of clobbering her and mentally cursed the woman's clumsiness.

Her fist connected with his gut at the same time he was stopping the momentum of his spear. She did it on purpose, he realized when he saw the smirk on her face.

"Point, Giller. Next one for the match," Telit announced.

Even as he spoke, Giller's other hand came around in a side punch aimed for his ribs. Velik could dodge it, but he'd be leaving himself open for a follow up if he did. Instead, he pulled his spear over to deflect her knuckles, the bottom braced against his foot. Giller's punch came up short, almost like she'd expected the defense, and with his stance locked, he couldn't react quick enough to stop her from shouldering him.

The armored plate smacked against his stomach and rocked him back on his heels. Last chance to get a hit. Abandoning the spear, he brought his hands up and clasped them together. His intention was to slam them down on her back and score the final point, but a sharp pain in his hip told him he'd been too late.

"Final point, Giller. The match is over," Telit said.