Following my last punch, there was enough of a gap in combat for me to notice the temperature in the room had increased noticeably.
"Now, the real fight starts."
"Real fight?"
I didn't get an answer as Lemon once again launched an attack, crossing the distance between us in an instant, the remnants of the smoke cloud violently dispersing in his wake. His fist was once again rapidly approaching me, followed by his face, plastered with a mad grin. I took a step back, intending to dodge, but at the last second, I braced myself and threw an open-handed strike at his incoming fist in an attempt to catch it.
Our hands met with a crack, but neither of us budged. My arm was a bit sore, but I was otherwise unharmed. The development was clearly a surprise to both of us as we looked at his fist in my hand. As if coordinated, our gazes drifted upwards until we made eye contact, where I instinctively grinned at him. Before he could react, I crouched and drove myself into him, grabbing his wrist with my free hand and releasing his fist, grabbing his forearm with now both hands. From there I pulled his arm down and stood up, throwing him over and in front of me.
As he arced over me, the realization that I didn't know what to do after this struck me. I put more strength into my arms, trying to swing him into the ground, hoping I'd have long enough of an opening after he hit the ground for me to figure out my next move. Just as he was about to hit the ground though, he abruptly thrust his legs out under him, landing firmly. Before I could react, he ripped his arm forward, sending me stumbling in front of him. Before I could regain my footing, he took a step forward and threw out a full force, roundhouse kick, a thin line of smoke trailing from the tip of his foot. The kick hit me hard in my side while I was still off balance, and I soon found myself tumbling across our little arena.
I swiftly stopped my movement and forced myself off the ground with a quick push with both arms. Lemon hadn't let up and was nearly in striking range again. As I stood and prepared myself to meet him again, I realized his strike, while powerful, hadn't hurt all that much. In the moment, I took that to mean he had held back, or that I was too focused to truly feel the pain. Either way, I knew I had to take action before the situation changed.
Rather than waiting for Lemon to approach me, I closed the small remaining distance between us and immediately sent a jab at his face. He blocked it easily and responded with a kick aimed at my thigh. Not having enough time to step back or block, the only thing I could think to do was to strike his leg with my palm. In a split-second decision though, I decided to grab his leg instead of striking it, forcefully stopping it. The smile that had been on his face until now faltered. With a smirk, I threw a punch at his chest, which he blocked, but with his leg still firmly in my hand, he didn't have the balance to launch a counterattack.
While tightening my grip on his calf in response to him trying to pull his leg back, I started hammering on his hands. They were blocking his face, but my goal wasn't to break through his guard. Rather, it was to attempt to weaken his hands and arms. If it hurt every time he struck or blocked, the fight would, in theory, become much easier for me, and ideally, if his arms were to weaken and slow, I could possibly sneak a real strike onto his person.
Just as I was starting to wonder when he'd start to show signs of weakness, he suddenly deflected my hand instead of blocking, interrupting my attack rhythm. He then lifted his other leg off the ground. To my surprise, even though I was now holding all of his weight with my one arm, he didn't feel particularly heavy. It also wasn't lost on me how strong his legs must've been to be able to hold his entire body up like this. While I stood there in mild shock, he swung his leg towards my head. I raised my arm to block it, but with his whole weight put behind this maneuver, there wasn't much I could do.
Almost instantly, the two of us hit the ground. Somehow, both my arms ended up pinned, rendering me completely immobile. His elbow was bearing down on me quickly, tracing a thin line of smoke in the air as it went. Then, suddenly, it stopped just above my face. Just like that, the fight was over.
"I think we can stop here."
I let out a sigh of relief as he started standing up. Once he stood up fully though, and took a step away, my breath caught in my throat. Floating just behind where his head had been, was my sword, poised to thrust and gently spinning in place. Before he stood up, it would've been nearly touching the hair on the back of his head. As I stood up, the sword spun around, almost instantly, presenting its hilt to me. I glanced between it and Lemon, who was staring intently at the sword, briefly before taking it and returning it to its place on my hip.
"I swear I didn't do that."
"Really? Unfortunate."
"How so?"
"Well, you're fighting skills were good enough for me, perhaps a bit lacking in quickness, but it would've been better if you were willing to break the rules we agreed on to win."
"What's the point of having rules then?"
"Manipulating the people dumb enough to stick to them at the expense of their own wellbeing. Of course, I need to follow them in my capacity as leader or people will get real mad with me, but as they say, if you aren't cheating, you aren't trying. A dishonorable win is better than an honorable loss."
"You said that already."
"Saying it twice makes it more true. Now. I have to go make sure everything is together for tomorrow. Spend your time however you want."
He then walked out, and I let him go unchallenged. As he left, I noticed him massaging his hands and rolling his wrists.
The whole exchange had left me feeling somewhat strange. The two of us were close in strength, which came as a surprise to me, especially when near the end of the fight, it felt like I could've won had just a few things happened differently. Thinking about it more though, no matter how close we were in strength, he far outmatched me in experience; everything I threw at him was effectively countered, and there was no reason why anything else would achieve a different outcome. The other side of it to consider was the fact that he had been purposefully holding back in order to both observe and teach, and that he wasn't using a weapon. Given his comments about being ruthless and decisive in combat, I could only assume he'd treat it like that in a real fight. Whatever the case, I was sure I'd get a chance to watch him in a real fight in time. All I could do now though, was to focus on improving myself.
I pulled out my sword again and simply looked at it, sighing after a while. I'd wondered before whether the sword was bringing me more trouble than it was worth, but it was a magic sword, and that alone was enough for me to want to keep it, especially having seen what it could do. The problem though, as it stood, was that it simply had too much of a mind of its own, which was a rather insane thing to consider in the context of a sword. Everything I had seen it do was a result of, as far as I could tell, its own will. If I was able to make use of it properly, even if I couldn't control it completely, I felt that I wouldn't have to truly fear much. For now though, all it was was a good sword, but a sword too sharp to even train with.
Looking at the sword, I held it out in front of me and dropped it.
"Float!"
It hit the ground with a clang. I kept my hand outstretched.
"Return!"
The sword stayed on the ground, unmoving. I bent over and picked it up, returning it to its place. Whatever abilities it had, it refused to allow me to use them.
I wasn't sure how long we had been fighting for, but I estimated there were a few hours before we were to meet. There was nothing left I needed to do, but I couldn't stand around doing nothing for hours. I had spent the last week with a clear goal to work towards, but now, at least for just a brief moment, I was back in a similar place to before I left for the city. I decided to go out and wander, finally exploring the city I had technically spent the last week in even though I had never step foot out of this building.