He challenged me to a duel to "see what he's working with" and I swear on my mother's name he dragged it out longer than it should've been. He had a number of chances to take me out and end the battle, but he didn't take them. He also didn't let me land even a hit on him either. When I finally stopped for a break, he turned to leave, so I asked him for a rematch.
He said no, but I'm pretty stubborn if I do say so myself, so I kept on persisting. At one point, I tried to kick him in an attempt to provoke him, but he just grabbed my leg and threw it aside. When I got back up again, ready to fight, he looked at me and started to laugh. He said that my "impatience to lose" was incredible. I got annoyed and lunged out to him with the wooden sword and he grabbed it and swept me.
He then threw the stick back to me, grabbed his own, and told me to get up again. He swung at me and hit my stick and told me to fix my form. "No matter what position you're in, you should always keep your form. Or at least try to." He then moved back and swung at me again, but with more force. He did this repeatedly until my stick stopped drifting at first contact with his.
We did the same thing all day, gradually adding in steps and positions while doing so. At dusk, he dueled me again, but this time he wasn't going as easy as I was before , so I tried my hardest, but it wasn't enough. A few minutes in and I was on the floor with a wooden sword staring at my face. Elizabeth went into the courtyard and waved at Keith, making him go over to her, which was a big enough distraction to knock him over.
The plan was to knock him over and take the win, but he immediately noticed the sword heading for him, blocked it away, and tripped me. He said, "You taking advantage of an opportunity was indeed commendable, but you're was still nine years away from even standing a chance against him." Not going to lie, that made me chuckle a bit and I can say the same for anyone who heard it as well.
At dinner, Elizabeth mentioned how the battle would most definitely be on my birthday, but since they were planning to attack in the morning, they would miss the entire thing. I was confused and asked why everyone was going to miss it, and she told me that I wasn't going to fight.