Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)
Discord: https://discord.gg/K7f8qGpvuk
pat.treon:/Keanu_Eugene
CHAPTER START---
"So... what made you change your mind?" Thalie asks, standing at the edge of the campsite with Yang as he double checks his gauntlets, the pants and boots from his battlemage clothes on.
"Dungeon mom convinced me."
"Riveria asked you to punch her daughter in the face?"
"More like she made a trade with me, just be ready toward the end of this expedition, we might have something fun to do..."
At this point Welf walks up, hearing the tail end of their conversation," here ya go," he hands the shiny adamantite greatsword to Yang.
Taking the weapon he raises a brow to Thalie, not sure what the hell she's thinking.
"She's the sword princess, its a good way of seeing how far along your swordsmanship is, just because you need a bigger weapon to fight bigger monsters doesn't mean you don't need to learn more intricate swordplay...and considering her reputation---"
"You're throwing me in the deep end, so what a duel of blades?"
"Sounds pretty manly to me," Welf chimes in.
"Just stick to the sword until I say otherwise, I'm fully aware of what you can do so let's use this as practice," she gives a light shrug, turning to look across the camp to see Finn scolding Ais, Riveria standing beside the young girl in her defense.
"They seem really against her fighting him huh," Welf says as he notices where she's looking.
"They wanted to see me fight monsters, I figured Tiona's report would satisfy them but looks like Ais wants to learn hands-on," Yang says, waving his greatsword around a bit to warm up.
"She seems kinda...not all there," Welf whispers.
"You mean she seems like an airhead that somehow became a master swordsman, yeah, I can't even talk to her, it's like talking to a wall," Yang says aloud, earning harsh glares from some nearby members of the Loki familia, not that he cares.
"You suck at making friends, you know that right," Thalie jokes," but yeah she's clearly all about fighting, you're not much better, adventurers speak with swords anyway so you're about to have a nice chat with her."
"Yeah yeah..."
Noticing the Loki familia executives walking toward them, Yang stops swinging his sword to give them his full attention.
"Seems like you made a deal with my vice-captain, she's convinced me to honor it, but should this fight go too far for either side Gareth will step in," Finn announces as he looks at Yang.
"Uh-huh, can we just get this over with so she can stop nagging me?" he responds in an annoyed tone.
"Get to your starting positions," Riveria says as she points her staff to the clearing between the campsite plateau and the forest treeline at the other end of it.
Giving her a small smirk, Yang takes a small leap off the edge and lands harshly on the stone floor, the ground cracking slightly under his feet.
"I really don't think this is a good idea, why am I the only one against this?" Tiona questions, looking between her team and Yang's as they all simply turn to the combatants.
"Yang needs practice against people, what's your problem with it?" Thalie asks.
"Well...I...um..." she couldn't bring herself to say it aloud.
"She knows Ais can't win," Welf says it for her, her teammates look toward her and see her nervously playing with her fingers.
"C'mon, this brat can't beat Ais, she's the damn sword princess, or did you forget that!" Bete immediately gets heated and yells at the nervous amazon.
"Hey, aren't you missing one person..." Welf points out, Lefiya wasn't with them currently.
"I ordered her to remain in her tent until this is over, she's in no mental state to see this," Riveria quickly informs him as Finn raises his spear to gain everyone's attention.
"Alright, let's get this started, when either of you goes too far I'll be calling an end to the fight, begin whenever you want," He announces loudly, all but Lefiya and the people stationed to watch the entrance for floor 51 are standing at the edge of the campsite watching the fight.
Thalie stands a few feet from the edge with Welf at her side, close enough to see and far enough from the edge to stay comfortable.
"About that whole going too far rule..." Thalie says, starting up a small conversation with Finn.
Standing below the spectators, Ais and Yang have a staredown, his greatsword held across his shoulder, her sword in its sheath.
"So, anything you wanna say before we start?" Yang asks, looking across from him to Ais, standing 50ft(15m) apart.
"Don't hold back..." her only response before giving him a nod.
"My magic vs yours then?"
She pauses for a moment, thinking it over, "my magic is for monsters, not people..." she simply says, brandishing her sword 'Desperate' and pointing it toward him like a rapier.
In an instant, she dashes toward him. Her sword pointed out as she thrusts with all the strength in her body.
Clearing the distance between them, seemingly before he can even react. She sees his eyes tracking her, 'he can keep up with me without my magic...' her combat experience instantly sees the danger he poses to her.
Swinging his greatsword Yang parries her blade before bringing it back in a wide arc toward her.
She ducks under the swing, slashing toward his bare chest.
As her sword is seemingly about to make contact, with absurd speed, his greatsword is brought to block her with the flat of his 10inch wide blade.
'Fast and strong,' Ais thinks to herself as she moves to his left, constantly striking forward, dozens of strikes in a matter of seconds, all aimed toward areas where his guard should be lower.
The weight of his wide but thin greatsword, at least 18 pounds(8kg). A sword of that size shouldn't be able to stop mid-swing the way he's using it.
She leaps backward, allowing one of his awfully telegraphed swings to bat her away and give her some space.
'So strong and fast, and he reacts just as quickly,' she looks carefully at his muscled body and the sword he wields in one hand,' that sword is weightless in his hands, he can stop it mid-swing at any time, I have to be faster...' she forms her plan while taking a deep breath.
Again, she tries a direct approach, this time being met with more and more swing as they continue.
Focusing more on her speed, trying to land a single hit.
Every time he strikes, she strikes three times in that same instant.
Her blade constantly breaks past his guard, only for him to reposition his greatsword as if it were truly weightless to block her.
It was obvious to everyone watching, especially to Ais, he was faster and stronger.
Neither party could land a single hit, but she could see his attacks coming from miles away.
For all his advantages he couldn't make up for the difference in experience, she'd been training with the blade for 11 years, for all his power and raw talent, he didn't have the combat sense to match the Sword Princess.
Taking the chance to change the pace, Yang capitalizes on the open space and dashes forward, doing a powerful upward swing.
Ais eyes go wide at the sheer speed of his assault, she knew his movement would be nothing to scoff at but this was beyond a level 5.
As he brings his sword up in a diagonal swing she barely has time to defend, forced to block with the flat of her blade instead of positioning herself to parry and counter.
Yang's gaze is still bored and unchanged as he makes contact, 'no footing, no leverage, no problem,' he thinks to himself. A more concise version of what Thalie taught him, a strategy that can only be used by him, only useful to a fighter that can fly, take them to the air and make them fight on your terms.
Realization dawns on Ais as the force of his blade lifts her light body off the ground, he's unmatched in the air, her wind makes her more maneuverable in the air but even she can't fly.
Reacting in a heartbeat she curls up, raising her feet to join her hand on the flat of her blade, she tilts her blade while twisting her body, using her entire body to push off his sword and leap over him.
He shifts his head to block a swipe at his cheek from her sword as she twirls in the air and kicks him with both her feet in the back, pushing off and tumbling as she lands gracefully a dozen meters away.
Before her feet are even planted firmly on the ground, her body instinctively moves to the side, narrowly dodging a vertical swing, the greatsword sinking into the stone beside her as she keeps backing away.
'He turned around and closed the distance before I could even get my footing back... but why a vertical swing?' she questions his awful choice in sword strike given the opportunity while she assesses him from the start once more.
'He can instantly close any gap I make, he's stronger and faster, I need to catch him by surprise, something he can't expect or react to...' she decides her plan of action in a few moments.
"His swordsmanship is...something," Gareth says while watching the fight, easily coming to the same conclusion Ais did.
"That a nice way of saying complete garbage..." Thalie adds in, blindsiding them with her brutal honesty.
"Then why a sword?" Tione asks, not sure what they were thinking, having him sword fight Ais.
"Because he's bad. His stats are insane so he can swing it around like nothing, but his fists can only go so far, punch a big monster without magic and your hand just goes into them and nothing happens, and he can't always depend on magic," Thalie explains.
"So this is training for...using bigger weapons?" Gareth realizes.
"Yeah, in the time it takes to teach him sword skills matching his level I can easily teach him to weird a great sword or great axe and let him focus on his own magic training, besides...his stats make that the smarter move anyway," Thalie says with a knowing smile.
"Using Ais to train, smart move," Finn compliments her.
As they were talking, back on the battlefield charging forward once more, Aiz capitalizes on his inexperience, she knows how her opponents treat her.
The Sword Princess, Orario's top swordsman.
A once a generation sword specialist that worked harder than all her peers to hone her skills.
She keeps him focused on the one thing everyone can't help but focus on, keeping her blade Desperate in his view.
Keeping their swords constantly clashing.
Keeping all the small sparks flying.
Her blood hadn't been pumping like this in a while. She's finally seeing it, the distance between them. He's stronger, faster, she can't even tell by how much, but he's just another victim of Loki's propaganda.
Loki and Finn went out of their way to make their familia out to be heroes. Loki went even further to make Ais the adventurer representative of Orario, the most beloved adventurer in the city, even without being the highest level.
As Yang focused on her blade, just like everyone else does, Ais takes advantage of it.
She moves her sword out of the way to avoid his downward vertical slash while stepping to the side.
Raising her sword up she puts her back into one large downward swing, telegraphing her strike aimed at his wrist, not holding back in any way, there was no point when she knew he'd defend.
He instinctively reacts and raises his blade upward, clashing with her own.
Leaning forward as if she were foolish enough to contest his strength, only for her to push down with all she can and raise her leg.
Delivering a harsh kick to the side of his head. As his body stumbles a few feet to the side Ais takes the chance and thrusts forward to pierce his shoulder.
Looking over his shoulder he sees her rushing him and instinctively reacts, as her feet leave the ground he swings the greatsword, for the first time against her with all his might.
Seeing the swing as a silvery blur, Ais's brain can barely form one word to describe what this was, 'Power'.
Raising her sword to block with the flat of her blade, he bats her across the stone floor causing her to get ragdolled, her clothes getting dirty as she eventually stops rolling.
As she rises to her feet, placing her hands on the floor to support herself, she can feel a pain in her left arm, the arm that was on the flat of her blade to defend against the strike, it was shaking.
"Damn, you actually chipped it," Yang's voice reaches her, a hint of amusement in his words.
Looking up as she rises to her feet, Ais sees Yang poking at a chipped piece on the edge of his blade.
Taking a closer look at him, an amused smirk on his face as he passes his finger along the broken part of the blade. He isn't showing any kind of fatigue or effects from the clash, they were further apart than she thought.
"PUT THAT AWAY BEFORE YOU REALLY BREAK IT!" Welf yells at the top of his lungs from the campsite.
Yang looks over his shoulder toward his team waiting for confirmation.
"Yeah, just put the sword away and start taking this seriously, sword training's over," Thalie says with a sigh, she wanted to see his swordsmanship a bit more to assess him after all, sending a glance to Finn and receiving a serious nod in return, they turn their attention back to the fight.
Storing the greatsword into his inventory, Yang gives Ais a cocky grin as he raises his hands and takes a loose fighting stance.
Responding in kind she takes a more defensive stance, focusing her mind and body on countering his moves.
Before she can understand what's happening the ground below his feet becomes a crater.
A fist is less than a meter from her face before her sword can even move.
In a moment of pure adrenaline and instinct, she angles her blade to block the armored fist, just like before she supports the sword with her left hand.
The weight of this strike was nothing like before, pain shot through her arm as she felt every joint from her wrist to her should ache and quake.
The flat of her blade slammed into her face before Yang fully extended his arm.
"Argh!" she cries out, her body cracking the ground as she bounces across the stone battlefield.
Laying on her side, facing away from the spectators, her sword still in her grip, Ais feels the left side of her body screaming in pain. This didn't make sense. Weapons are force multipliers, how was he hitting harder without it? Did he hold back before? Her mind was frantically trying to make sense of this. If only she knew how his skills worked...
Forcing herself to stand, her numb and injured left arm hanging limply at her side, she turns her face toward Yang, feeling the blood dripping down her chin.
Her blade had cut a line across her face, from the top of her left eyebrow to the bottom of her chin, passing just under her nose and across her lips.
"We done here?" Yang asks, raising a brow as he sees the damage her own sword caused, he still looked like he barely even tried as he walks toward her.
"No," her simple response, holding her sword once more as she prepares to put her all into this fight.
'This man, he's stronger than me. He'll get to the deeper floors before me. He'll get to her before me. I can't lose to him. I can't lose to anyone!' Ais screams in her mind, as if reminding herself of her goals, no, she was convincing herself that what she was about to do is justified.
"Arie---" her chant is cut short.
Closing the distance in an instant, cutting off her words by grabbing her injured face and clasping a metal-clad hand over her mouth, Yang interrupts her chant.
"Short chants are still chants," he says playfully while lifting her off the ground by her mouth, her eyes go wide, shock and terror flow through her in an instant, this powerlessness, she trained so hard, she can't be powerless again! NEVER AGAIN!
Swinging her sword directly at his head, before she can realize what she's doing, his free hand reaches up and wraps his larger hand around her right hand, the hand holding her sword.
Slowly turning his head from looking at her sword to look her in the eyes, he gives her a cocky grin once more," looks like we are done here, now be a good girl and go bother Finn if you need a sparring partner, alright princess..." he brings her down to his eye level, her legs kicking in desperation, her hits connecting but not even making him budge.
As he brings her low enough, he leans his head back, preparing to slam his forehead into hers and end the fight.
Seeing the pain coming, knowing she can't break out, Ais closes her eyes. Small tears fighting their way out, her face contorted in anger and frustration, 11 years of training, all for nothing. Still the weak girl that had to watch her family leave.
"Agh!" she hears Yang shouts as he suddenly drops her.
Before she can even hit the ground, someone catches her, opening her eyes she sees Bete growling above her, his gaze locked on Yang.
Taking a breath she looks around to see Tione and Tiona at their sides, weapons ready and staring down their opponent.
Rushing to get up she wipes her tears, ignoring the pain of her injuries as she looks toward her opponent, raising her sword and falling in line with her allies, she isn't sure what's going on but she trust them, she trust that Finn would have stopped them if he didn't approve.
As they look over at Yang, the four level 5s see something that hasn't happened at all during the fight. His expression shifts.
An excited smile forms on his face...
END CHAPTER---
Thoughts on Ais vs Yang and what the hell the next chapter is gonna have?