Grizt charged forward at the knight. Andrea tried to ward her off with a one handed slash only for the acrobatics of her assailant to foil the attempt. Grizt leapt over the strike and used her broom to propel herself back to the ground by parrying her opponent's follow up punch. She kicked at the recovering knight. Andrea managed to roll away in time as Grizt continued to push the offensive.
Andrea was starting to get infuriated at the fact that she was actually having trouble with the creature. She had to think on why that was as she started shifting more and more onto the defensive. She had been making poor decisions since the start of the fight. Fortunately, it hadn't been decisive yet.
Unfortunately, she was clearly in a bad spot and the wretched creature was pressing the advantage. The first thing she'd have to do was find a way to recover.~If only the bitch would stop pressing long enough for me to get back on the right foot!~ She growled mentally. She had to wonder at how she had let herself get into this position. ~Dammit, I let her get to me~ The anger of the realization of what had happened had pissed her off more. In fact, it had caused her to ignore her defenses and go for an angry slash.. The goblin blocked the broom strike with her own and managed to land a painful blow to her arm. ~She is really starting to~
It was at that moment that she realized what was going on. She had purposely been getting under her skin. The goblin had done a good job of it too. She started to reign in her anger and focus more on defending. She had to wait for an opening.
Grizt was having a good time of it. She actually loved how skilled the knight actually was. In fact, she had been glad she had annoyed the woman enough to leave the required openings and muddy her mind. The reason was that the knight really was better than her. Maybe not by much, but it was still enough to spell a loss for her if she didn't play dirty.
It was as she began to admit the truth of the situation that something had changed. It was the look in her foe's eyes. Where as they once burned with smoldering hate and anger, they now seemed cold with pure hate. The desperate attempts to retake the initiative in this battle stopped. Instead, Grizt was greeted with parries, dodges and blocks. It was not a good sign at all for this battle. She became worried at this. She needed another way to provoke the knight if she wanted to keep training the princess. Then again, she had to wonder why this was so important. A small voice in her mind was wishing she would just surrender and let things happen. The toady would fail in training and ultimately fail in protecting her charge like so many such retainers had back in Godara. Once that happened, she and the others could be free once more.
~NO! That is not who I am. I make sure others get what they deserve and the princess deserves to live!~ She suppressed the traitorous thought as she adapted a new strategy in the face of her opponents own such shift. She was going to have to to show the importance of resourcefulness and what it means to truly fight. She even had a plan forming. She just needed to lead the battle a little more to pull it off. She smiled once more.
Grace watched the battle go underway with worry. She wasn't sure how Grizt compared to the knight, but she did recall that Andrea was not a push over. True, there weer greater knights in the Empire, like Sir Jerich, but she was still among the more powerful. Watching as Grizt's plan to provoke and conquer had brought hope for a quick win when the knight failed in her charge. She didn't care who won. She just wanted it all to be over before anyone got seriously hurt or worse.
~That's not true and you know it!~ a familiar feeling thought entered her mind. Jade had decided to make her presence known it would seem.~Now none of that, I was gone for a bit and now this mess crops up. Anyways, you and I both know you want the goblin to win. She believes you can do well with the training.~
The Princess didn't want to admit it still. To do so would be to hope that in some way she could yet still prove herself to be good at something that others would acknowledge as more than a hobby of sorts. Sadly, it looked as if Grizt's plan had failed in the end. She may have been able to humiliate the knight through provocation, but even she could tell the worry on her face as Andrea seemed to become more collected. In fact, the woman had already recovered fully from the failure of her initial charge. Their brooms clashed time and again. Grace had already concluded that the battle was over when something happened. Grizt had been taking a less offensive approach and had been more or less weaving about and dodging away as Andrea started to take the initiative once more. However, there was a major difference from before. Grizt was barely getting any more jabs through and had opted to keep circling and backing away.
She had figured this was the sign the fight was about to end until one thing happened. Grizt grabbed the discarded gambeson from earlier and threw it at the knight. Andrea screamed in protest as she smacked the armor away but breaking into a grunt of pain. Grizt had used it to break Andrea's line of sight and followed through with a full thrust that had been unexpected and fast. It hit dead center just below the rib cage. Andrea gasped as she fell to her knees.
Grace happened to notice the other knights drawing their weapons once more. She would not allow such an intervention," This is a duel they both asked for. I order you stand down before you tarnish not only your own honor, but that of your commander and the Empire!" They seemed torn about something for a minute and looked among one another as if considering something before the lead one shook her head to their silent glances and they returned to watching the duel.
Andrea managed to roll out of the way of the follow up strike. Grizt wouldn't let her recover this time and had gone on the full offensive as she relentlessly struck and jabbed at her winded opponent. Finally, Andrea had been left in a bad position between the pain, disorientation, and relentlessness. Andrea brought her broom up to guard against an overhead swing aimed at her head. Her broom snapped and she was knocked unconscious from the surprising force of Grizt's swing.
Grace and the knights were stunned at first as they looked at the scene before them. One of the better knights of the Empire had just been beaten by a broomstick wielding goblin maid. This is not something that should happen, but despite it all, Grace found herself happy with the result. Though the training would be painful, she wanted to see the results if her maid spoke true.
The goblins swarmed around their beloved leader and hoisted her up in celebration as they cheered happily. Grizt herself was laughing and smiling as she told them to knock it off already. This only made them repeatedly toss her in the air. Despite her protests, it was clear she was enjoying herself as she winked at the watching princess.
As for the knights, they were now surrounding and tending to their fallen leader. They were very clearly unhappy with the end results. In fact, one of the turned to yell at the goblins.
"You cheating scum! How dare you sully a duel with such trickery!" She screamed at them as she drew her blade once more. The celebration goblins stopped and faced their accuser as three of them picked up brooms and the other two backed away.
"Such a travesty can never be accepted as an honorable victory!" added another angry knight.
Grizt snorted as she eyed them while grasping a broom," A win's a win. Don't be tossing your crap around to deny it. Even your leader there recognized it or she would have backed off and said somethin'."
"Like she could after a blow like that!" retorted another knight as she too bared her blade.
"Stop this at once!" Grace commanded," You can't just go attacking my servants like this! Have some decorum as knights."
The knights didn't seem to want to stop. It was clear they felt differently on the matter and wanted to ignore the order all together. In fact, it seemed that was precisely what they were about to do.
"H-hold!" Andrea managed to force the command out. She took a moment to breathe as her knights composed themselves and started tending to her once more," I hate to admit it, but it was my loss girls. After all, that tricky goblin just managed to remind me of some of the most important rules of battle. Keep your head and watch your surroundings. I'll have to change the daily regiment to amend this failure."
Grizt was happy it was all over. She really didn't want to lose that fight. Especially if it meant doing someone else wrong no matter how indirect. It was pretty hard not to laugh after the fight. After all, no one seemed to have wondered why her broom had been able to break the toady's. It might have been cheap, but like she said, "a win's a win". She just had to set up the best moment to use that that bit of training.