The Referee

“Valle, are you okay?” Isabella asked. “That amount of blood loss isn’t normal when Max barely scratched you.”

Adrenaline had worn off and Valle cursed in pain. It had been a long time, but the wounds Johan and his blade Godslayer had given Valle hadn’t yet healed completely—if they ever would. The match had forced some wounds on his torso open, but the Champion of Cresna used his stats to power through the pain and made no acknowledgement of it during the bout itself.

Carr exchanged a few words with Celle, then, with his arms crossed standing before the seated Valle, said, “You’re sitting the next round out. Isabella, start warming up, you’re up after Fedal and me have a go.”

Valle, who had been looking down in exhaustion, raised his head immediately. “Don’t you dare do that to me, Carr. I can still fence. The Champion of Cresna will not—”

“That is exactly why I’m subbing you out now,” Carr declared. His tone was firm. “I’m going to need you in the second to last match. If you fenced against my fake, you’d be in no position to fence there. I promise I’m going to sub you back in, so just shut up and rest for now.”

This point was logical enough, and Valle acknowledged it—albeit not happily. What Carr hadn’t told him, however, was that this was his plan all along injury or not. Isabella had made him an explicit request earlier in the day to face off against the False Carr, and though she hadn’t been clear on why, Carr had started to suspect the reason. She appeared to have no interest in fencing anyone else except for him and appeared quite happy to warm the bench if it meant she would be well rested for that duel.

Just a few meters beside him, however, Fedal was having an entire different concern. Isabella is subbing Valle? But that means—I’m going to fence all of my three matches? The whole time? The young man had been expecting, if not dreading, that he would be the one subbed out, especially after that disastrous last match. Even if they had faith in him getting better results, he had lost a lot of his [HP] earlier, and he wouldn’t have blamed them if they assumed he could only fence one more match before being done for the day.

Fedal himself certainly thought he only had one more match in him. But now that Carr had announced that Valle would be subbed out, there was no way around it. Fedal would have two matches, low [HP] or not. The first one would be against the one called Katherine, the supposed false copy of one of Carr’s friends. His last match would be against Max, who had just tied against Valle. Neither he nor Valle were going all out that match…they were both concerned about the score and fencing around that. If he’s even stronger than that, what can I do?

But that was a concern for the future. For now, Katherine was his concern.

The young girl beside him pulled at his sleeves. “I…I don’t want to believe it,” she said in a quiet voice. “This is almost too much to take in but…that girl, could she be… .”

Now here, I thought, was something new to me. As the almighty referee, I knew everything that the [Eye] could see and even more—anyone who I laid my eyes on, either in person or through the numerous [Eyes] across the world, was forced by Rule to bare their soul to me. Very little escaped my grasp. Yet here I discovered something else:

Roger had his secrets from Johan. Certain beasts weren’t meant to be tamed, Roger… . Most curious development, this one. Surely one that I saw no need to tell God or Johan about. My job is to be impartial, I thought, with a certain pride. Francisco, Varen, God, whatever name suits his fancy—may come to regret his actions, but he picked me to be impartial and that is the role I chose to play.

The young girl was the sister of the nameless servant Johan had turned into Katherine. Fedal’s mind flashes glimpses of his conversation with Roger, and here I could infer his motives, but it still mystified me. Roger, you sacrificed your own son’s life to prop up Johan’s reign, I thought. And yet you couldn’t bring yourself to kill this one girl? Why is that? Did Roger have any plan…or was he merely weak?

Chances are, her presence here would affect Johan’s plans in some fashion. The young girl was quite clever, and she had been exposed to enough information to draw her own conclusions. I could see what was about to happen before it did.

“Those…those fakes,” the young girl said. “Her Highness said something earlier about someone who can alter people’s appearances…someone in the castle. R-right?” Her own conclusion appeared to scare, but not deter her. “My…my sister was given a job by Lord Johan. I…I haven’t seen her since. If the person with her locket is not who they say they are, could it be…”

Fedal nodded. “You don’t have to force yourself to say anything. I know what you’re getting at.” He didn’t dare say the young girl’s name aloud—he hadn’t even wanted to bring her to the tournament—but from what the two had previously discussed, between what Roger had said and Princess Nevada’s rumours it was hard not to come that conclusion. Shit…what do I do? I’m fencing her sister now. Is she okay?

The young girl appeared surprisingly unbothered by Carr’s near execution of her supposed sister. She had been concerned at the time, true, but once the healer go to her and there was sign of movement she appeared more relieved than Fedal thought was warranted. People in this world have a messed up definition of lethal thanks to [HP] and [Restoration]. Katherine’s [HP] didn’t drop to a negative version of itself, so she’s not only recovered, but fit to fence against me, Fedal thought. If Carr had aimed for her heart instead of the right side of her chest, she would still have died because of how much damage that would’ve dealt. I wonder what these people would be like in a world without [Skills]. How would they function?

“I’ll handle everything, so just sit back and relax,” Fedal told the girl. “Keep a cloak over your head—just in case Johan shows up.”

Truthfully, Fedal had no idea what to expect. He had much to worry on the way to his next bout. The young girl’s feelings, whether he could win the match against Katherine, Carr’s mental state regarding him fencing the copy of one of his old friends, the score, the unicorn, the—

“Hey,” Carr tapped on his shoulder. “Do you ever get overwhelmed? Like, just in general.”

Fedal laughed nervously. “Yeah. All the time.”

“Good. Me too. But you know what?” Carr tapped on his shoulder then gestured at the piste. “That place, right there? That’s a magical place. You don’t have to worry about anything else while you’re there. For as long as the bout takes, you can just ignore the world and enjoy your fencing.”

“But a lot of my concerns are related to the bout! Your friend—”

“I want you not to care about me,” Carr told him. “Don’t care about the score for now. Don’t care about your friends. Be supremely selfish. Stage is yours.”

Truthfully, despite his calm mask, Carr was still seething with anger. He was incredibly furious at the copies and he wanted Fedal to murder them as badly as possible. But his responsibility as team captain took priority at that point. I want to paint a portrait of the people they mocked with their blood, Carr thought. But he knew his anger would concern his team and affect the outcome.

Carr was a curious individual. Back on Earth, he let his anger get the better of him as well. Where he differed from his other sports brethren, however, was that he didn’t let go of his reason in his fury, and this raised him from an unruly beast into a calculated one. He took pleasure upon exacting his anger, and this made him an effective athlete on Earth.

Here, however, it made him something else.

Cruel.

“Just focus on your match. Don’t worry about anything or anyone else,” Carr said.

Fedal hesitated, looked over at the young girl, at his teammates, then finally at Carr again—and nodded. “I will.”

On the other side of the piste, a similar conversation was happening with the opposite team.

“Are you sure you don’t want to use my sword, Katherine?” the False Carr asked hesitantly. “Listen, I…I’m worried. That last match, you could’ve died if—”

Katherine flicked the man’s forehead, who looked up in a mixture of surprise and annoyance. Meeting his gaze, Katherine attempted a regal look for a moment before laughing. “Relax. The fake you was as petty and angry as you were…but the guy I’m fencing shouldn’t be that much of a problem. He’s not a psychopath.”

“How are your injuries? Are you sure you’re up for it? I know [Restoration] does a lot but—”

“I’m fine,” Katherine insisted. “Really.”

The False Carr’s face tightened. “I—okay. I just…I don’t…I don’t want to lose everyone again. Not again. When I was an idiot and left you guys that night, I…I have been regretting it ever since. I can’t imagine losing you again. We all need to be here when Clara and Jack wake up! We need everyone here!”

Here, Katherine’s memory felt fuzzy. Everyone? Me, Carr, Clara, Jack, Johan…was…was there someone else? No…but then why do my memories feel so…weird? Her suspicions surfaced again, and again she forced them back down. It’s not the time to worry about that. “I can use your sword if it would make you feel better,” she told him.

Nothing would have pleased the False Carr more. “Please! That guy is a terrible fencer, but his stats are really high. The sword might keep him from just trying to spam moves against you, okay?”

A terrible fencer who landed a toe touch on you, Katherine thought, but didn’t say. Instead, she smiled at her friend with genuine kindness and said, “I won’t be hurt this match. I promise.” She took the time to look at the False Carr, and the longer she looked at him, the wider her smile became. You’re my Carr. No matter what happens. No matter who I am. You’re my friend. The thought brought her more than comfort, it brought her resolve.

She stepped onto the piste where Fedal had been waiting for her. Both glared at each other, but it was a forced motion from both. They both felt compelled to hate the other because of their teammates, but truthfully, neither of them could quite muster up the emotion.

Are you the girl’s sister? Fedal thought. Are you in there somewhere? Or have you been…rewritten completely? Is there anything I can do?

Fedal the Hero, Katherine thought. What kind of hero are you supposed to be? Who are you supposed to save us from? We don’t need heroes, we have Johan. He…he is a just man. Concerns flashed through her mind, but again she pushed them down. Not now.

I looked at both of them and considered their mental state. It appeared like both of them were professional enough to be able to focus on the bout itself instead of their concerns. This was good. With a single motion, I gestured the time to start.

“TO 20

SCORE STARTS AT 11—15

Fedal the Hero vs Katherine the Duellist

THE SUN ORBITS AROUND YOUR SOULS

MAY YOUR WINGS WILL REMAIN UNBURNT

FOURTH BOUT

ALLEZ!”

Fedal’s approach surprised everyone.

Immediately following the start of the bout, he took a step forward and lunged at Katherine. Instinctively, she knew she had to do something, but though her mind knew what to do, her body refused to obey. MOVE! STEP BACKWARDS AND STOP HIT! Katherine screamed in her mind. But her feet refused to move as her mind commanded, lagging behind her thoughts. Fedal’s lunge was too far to hit her torso, but it wasn’t his target from the start—it was her foot.

His blade was extended and his lunge form wasn’t bad. If he had been a centimetre to the right, he would have landed his hit. Yet the foot is a small target, and in his hurry to get the surprise attack out Fedal had extended his arm after the lunge and not before—and his skill wasn’t such that he could afford a delayed extension.

The surprise was enough that Katherine didn’t manage to punish him, however. Fedal managed to recover from his missed attack and retreated a few steps backwards, his sword arm extended in stop-hit position in case Katherine meant to give chase—which she didn’t.

Shit, Fedal thought. I was hoping I could sneak a point in with that.

What Fedal had tried wasn’t uncommon among beginners who scored a lucky hit. It could be said that they were enamoured with the glory of their last successful hit, but perhaps a more accurate description is that a beginner in that position knows they don’t have a lot of viable ways to score. They know the basics, and if athletic enough they might be even tough to score against, but they have few ways of finding an opening in their opponent’s fencing to score a hit of their own.

Fedal knew, instinctively, that foot shots wouldn’t work anymore. He had successfully landed one against the False Carr and failed at using one against Katherine. The element of surprise was surely gone by now—they would be expecting him to try one at some point, and he wasn’t skilled enough like Max to attempt a foot touch and remain unpunished.

So how do I go about finding a weakness in her guard? Fedal wondered. I know how to do parries, disengages and binds. Let’s try one by one. First, disengages—

A moment later and Fedal had advanced toward Katherine one more time. He lunged at her, aiming at her inside line, at her chest. This basically invited a parry four, the one where you bring your right wrist to your left to push an incoming blade out of the way. His plan was to, once Katherine’s parry motion started, circle his blade around hers so that his blade would “dodge” hers. By that point, he would have her exposed arm as a target.

That was the theory, anyway.

Instead, Katherine ended up parrying his blade in eight, where she also aims to go under his blade in a circle. The consequence was that both fencers’ blades ended up clashing while attempting to encircle the other, resulting in a rather messy situation. Infighting, Katherine thought. I have to—why aren’t my legs listening to me?

At this point, in infighting situations, you are generally supposed to break your en garde and bring your back foot forward. It’s a difficult reflex, and even intermediate fencers have trouble with it. But Katherine, who was supposed to be an expert, was having trouble summoning her reflexes. SHIT! MOVE, BODY!

Fedal never had any hope of getting into proper in-fighting stance. His training simply hadn’t gotten him to that level yet. Instead, both fencers awkwardly attempted at stabbing each other by pulling their arms back and turning their torsos, with both missing their initial thrusts, until my announcement informed them a thrust had landed, causing both to attempt to regain a measure of distance from the other.

The New Bladewolves:

Fedal the Hero — 1 (12)

The Real Bladewolves:

Katherine the Duellist — 0 (15)

“I’m so not proud of that hit,” Fedal muttered to himself. At the same time, he thought, We take those. He was caught between knowing the point had gone his way purely out of luck, and feeling a sort of manic relief that came with scoring a point so early in the bout.

This is often the case with fencers who go up against the other team’s anchor first. Hopelessness sets in from the start, but things only get better from that point. Setting your expectations at the absolute peak, anything under that, even if only slightly, feels like a relief. Fedal had sort of expected not to land a single point again, but this first point had unleashed him from the mental shackles he had placed on himself—the terror of his own expectations no longed had him bound.

I feel like trying something new, Fedal thought. It was an insane thought for him. He had always been scared of trying anything that people didn’t assure him of a thousand times, and even then it was less because he would be convinced it would work and more because the repeated assurances meant he knew they couldn’t blame him for following their advice. But here a sort of carefree confidence was born in him, the one that comes with being on the lead in the individual scoreboard—even if his team was still trailing behind.

Fedal launched himself forward in a flèche. Then, like Valle, he attempted at exploding his stats from a small number to a large one to create a sudden acceleration.

The result wasn’t perfect—he started at a high number and ended at a higher number instead of managing to go from zero to maximum in a moment like Valle could. Still, his stats were high enough that the move was devastating nonetheless.

Armed with the [Legendary Sword], Katherine should’ve been able to simply power through the flèche like the False Carr had, but there were a few differences in this near clash. The first and most important was that Fedal wasn’t seeking a clash, but rather his flèche. It was a passing attack, and he meant to simply stab Katherine as he ran through while never touching her blade at all. The other major difference was that Katherine’s body wasn’t responding as well as the False Carr’s body was—though she knew where Fedal’s blade was going to be, she struggled to move it, and by the time she had her blade somewhat in place, it was nearly too late.

The New Bladewolves:

Fedal the Hero — 2 (12)

The Real Bladewolves:

Katherine the Duellist — 1 (16)

“Goddamn it,” Fedal muttered under his breath. “I didn’t want a double.”

His team, however, was more than thrilled with the results. Carr was clapping loudly and shouting, “YOU HAVE THE PACE! DON’T LET HER TAKE IT FROM YOU!”

This was undeniably true.

While the move had ended on a double, so far every move in the match had been initiated by Fedal. Though his moves had been inelegant at best, he had managed to control the pace of the match. With his stats and inexperienced fencing, Fedal had managed to put together a style that was if nothing else, at least mildly threatening.

And mildly threatening was more than Katherine could handle right now. He knows just enough fencing that I can’t go for a stats clash against him, Katherine thought. I’m the better fencer, but my body isn’t responding to it…I don’t know if it’s nerves or whatever, but I’m screwing up basic moves and my responses are too slow.

Slowly, Katherine’s concerns started to leave her mind. Her injuries, her sense of self—those were all secondary. She realized that she was losing the match, and that mattered more to her. The Nameless Servant inside of her was pushed down—no, even that part of her agreed the match was more important. A sort of overwhelming sense of hunger took over her, something both her host and her memories shared. A desire to be the best.

He’s stronger and faster than me, Katherine thought.Well now…how do I go about crushing someone like that?

Katherine grinned at the thought. She lifted her heels and started kicking the ground with the tips of her feet. “Let’s dance, Fedal!”