Tate didn't know quite how to feel about things now that he was standing in front of his dragon opponent.
It had all started when he and Lou had arrived to the square he quickly noticed that the Royal Guard and Elder Narka were present as well as many faces, that he vaguely recognized from the one time he had seen them in the council room with Elder Narka, the first day he and Lou had arrived.
Today was the day, they had all arrived to see how he fared in this plan of the elders however, things quickly took a turn when he'd been informed that the sparring partner he had originally been going to fight, had become injured suddenly the night before. The replacement was going to be a dragon named Equ. The dragon looked around his age in his human appearance, but he'd been told by Koda that Equ was very young for a dragon but very skilled with the Talon. Koda also informed him in a whisper that Equ was the lackey of one of the council members, and that they had all chosen the dragon most likely to either kill him or cause him to fail completely. Tate could not decide if he should be worried or not as he looked at the dragon. For Equ's part, he seemed to be taking this as a big joke, he stood across from him his posture was relaxed. The dragon wore a sleeveless tunic over corded tawny muscles. His hair was light, blonde, and tied into a small queue at the back of his neck from this distance Tate couldn't make out what his eye color might be, but honestly, with the energy, the dragon was giving off Tate could care less. It was beyond clear that this younger dragon believed that Tate would be an easy opponent. Tate was not used to being taken lightly since it had never been something that happened to him before. He scowled back at the smirking dragon.
Elder Narka seemed put out by it altogether, her arms were crossed over her chest and she was glaring at her council members even though none of them would meet her eye. Tate decided to shove it all aside as he took in a deep sigh. He didn't have time to figure out the nuances of the dragon politics that was taking place in the suspicious replacement of the planned partner with this newcomer.
Bezhar seemed concerned too, even as he was instructed to begin the match. He stepped up on the field between them and explained the rules. His eyes shifted between Tate and Equ rapidly.
"This is a sparring match between Tate and Equ. This is a match to determine who is superior in the talent of wielding a Talon. First, there will be no overly aggressive attacks to the neck, chest, or face. Second, the match is over when one opponent is disarmed, yields, or is unable to continue the fight. Thirdly, there is no time limit on the sparring match. Other than this there are no other rules and the combatants may do whatever they are able to in order to best their opponents."
There was a slight breeze as they stood facing each other. Tate took in calm, steady, and deep inhalations of breath. He focused all his energy on remaining centered and alert. This was his only chance to get this right. Over the last few days leading up to the beginning of this trial, he had sparred with various members of the Royal Guard but it had all been with the intent of fighting the previous dragon, of whom most of the Royal Guards knew. Because they knew him they'd given him targeted tips and training in order to defeat that person. Now that it wasn't that person in front of him, he found himself in the same situation as he'd been in many times. It was war.
He didn't know anything about his opponent other than he was overly confident. He'd have to do what he had always done, he'd have to analyze while fighting and formulate a plan on the spot.
Tate couldn't help it, he tuned out the watchers, sound, and the rest of the world. He grinned and got into his ready stance, he was actually excited.
Bezhar gave him a strange look but gave the countdown. "Combatants ready?" Both raised their hands to indicate that they were. Both had the talons sheathed at their side and their drawing hand held up as their signal of readiness on the opposite side of the body.
"Three, two, one, begin!"
Tate had almost expected Equ to charge at him like a bull. He clearly thought he had the advantage in every aspect, so Tate had thought that he'd want it over with quickly. Instead, he drew the talon and dropped down into a textbook, ready stance. Tate had done the same instinctively. Now as he faced Equ he didn't know which of them would break first. It was inevitable, one of them had to give or this fight would go down in all realms and history books as the most boring fight to ever be held.
He smiled a little broader as his mind couldn't handle the humor of the picture of both of them just standing that way for hours waiting for something to happen, but since they don't like each other nothing happens at all.
He waited him out, but Equ had a lot of willpower and Tate had only so much patience.
Despite it not being his preferred method he made the first move.
A space of about twenty yards had separated them and this was different than how he sparred in the human realm where you began with you and your opponent only about six feet apart. It had been an adjustment at first, getting used to having to rush the opponent unless you wanted to wait on them of course.
The muscles in his legs bunched and swelled as he gathered all the power he had as a human to move his body as quickly as possible.
Equ smirked even wider and mid attack Tate realized that he'd given the dragon exactly what he wanted. Tate grimaced even as his Talon came down on Equ's already raised guard. The blow glanced off Equ's own talon and Tate was momentarily thrown off balance. He managed to recover his footing but just in time. Equ took advantage of Tate's glancing blow to slash backward as Tate passed by during his stumble.
Tate brought his talon up to the side and blocked Equ's talon this time. As soon as Tate managed to stop his blow there was a change. Equ looked like he got mad. He stopped smirking.
Tate and Equ traded blow after blow after blow, all the while dancing around a large area of the total land mass of the square. So involved were they in their match that they didn't even notice when they displaced waters in their pursuit to beat the other.
Tate was pleased to find after the battle went on for a few minutes that he and Equ were fairly even in skill, where Tate did have an advantage in every way was experience. Tate felt his grin grow wider with every block he made, as Equ's face hardened each time his attacks glanced off Tate's defense.
Tate couldn't say how long they went on like that. He was caught up in the dance, his every thought and every bit of his body focused on that fight. However, neither of them seemed close to winning or losing. They were both still in perfect condition. Neither had even begun to surrender.
It wasn't long before the suspended reality Tate was living in started to crack. That crack came with the look of almost desperation entering Equ's eyes. Tate chucked even as he blocked a slash to his back while he spun at the same time redirecting his blade to make a counterattack that predictably bounced off. He wondered what the spies that had been watching him on the council's orders had told Equ about him. They had to have had something to say, after all, they'd been watching him all this while.
Whatever it was one of two things had happened. Either Equ had been told blatant misinformation or he was a narcissist who had convinced himself that he could never be beaten.
At last, Tate saw his opening in the dragon's defenses and he began to press his advantage until he had Equ against a wall and was raining down blows on his talon which was raised in meager defense.
For those watching the fight had been a bit boring so far. It was taking an unusually long time for a match such as this to end, but there was no time limit so all they could do was wait and watch.
As Elder Narka watched the display her expression had gradually relaxed as she'd watched Tate not only keep up with the pace the dragon had set, but Tate had exceeded that pace. It was how he'd gotten ahead of Equ's attacks to get to the heart of his defenses. Now Tate was hammering down on that defense until it shattered. The Elder smiled to herself, she'd been right. She was right. She'd done the right thing.
All of a sudden a roar came from one of the combatants.