The city traffic continued unabated. Carts and carriages continued to rumble down the broad avenue carefully circumventing the duel. Some pedestrians, however, were drawn by the unfolding scene and started to gather around the two men. They all stood a good distance away from where the two men stood. Some kind soul from the crowd has pulled the unconscious young man away to the side and was tending to his wounds with a wet towel. A crow on a nearby rooftop cackled. The mid-afternoon sunlight cast shadows from the buildings onto the two men. Looking at the dueling space, Ada estimated the invisible circular arena to be about twelve feet in diameter with each man standing on the rim. With the men's fighting stance taking up a length of two feet towards the center and assuming their net velocity to be four feet per second, she calculated the clashing of swords to occur in two seconds. If only one man moved, that would mean four seconds. She has read that unlike in the movies or competitive fencing, most real swordfights would be over in a matter of seconds. If one of the men failed to parry, deflect or dodge an attack by the other, he would most likely lose.

Ada glanced over at the Gunders and noticed that Alfre was furrowing his brow intensely while glistening sweat dripped down his forehead. He and his wife eyed each other, faces anxious with worry. The kids didn't notice their parents' anxiety with faces of curiosity gazing at the impending duel. Alfre then turned to Leanne and fired a few words. She responded back in rapid succession and nodded.

"They do not want to be here when blood is shed. The children are too young to witness this. They want to know if they can go inside and order some food," Leanne translated for Ada.

"I feel like I'm too young to see this as well," Ada muttered with an emphasis on "I'm" before clearing her throat and speaking with greater clarity, "I absolutely agree. You still have enough gold?"

"A merchant always has gold," Leanne giggled.

"Ha, true. Go with them inside and get them situated," Ada said.

"What about you? I can give them some money and I can stay here."

"No, farmers with that much money may draw unnecessary suspicion. Go ahead. I'll be fine."

"One more thing! I cannot believe that I forgot to mention this but it is very important. Another tradition they have is that if an outsider jumps into an established duel, either party can kill the intruder without repercussions."

"Wow, that's an absurd rule. Ugh! Well, I'll just stand here and watch the fight but believe me when I tell you I will interrupt if it gets too far. My only concern is completely blowing our cover and putting all of you in the spotlight."

Before she could protest further, Ada interrupted her, "Just go. They're getting more agitated."

Alfre had opened the inn door and was about to enter. A mixture of the smell of sweat, food and alcohol permeated out of the ajar door. Inside, no one has noticed or maybe cared about the scene outside. The clinking of mugs and the chatter of patrons within was welcoming. With a nod, Leanne accompanied the Gunders inside. Ada turned back and observed the two men. The bald man scratched his head and jeered at the old man. Then, with an unnecessary flourish, he swung his huge sword in a circular arc with one hand. The man was large and the sword was well-proportioned to his frame, stretching over a meter and a half in length. Some in the crowd cheered while others looked at him with distaste. The old man stood silent and just calmly gazed back. He carried a short curved sword resembling a saber. Ada was no expert in swords but she did think that it looked more Asian than European. Speaking of Asian, she had the sudden thought that she was about to witness a fight scene in a badly dubbed kungfu movie play out. This was the classic trope of an old man beating up a young hotshot. In the trope, the old master always won decisively. With no particular reason, she decided to name the bald man Kung Lin and the old man Master Su. In her head, she started dubbing the dialogue.

"Grandpa, where's your caretaker? You got no business butting in. I, Kung Lin, will gladly end your life today."

Master Su stood there without a word. His face betrayed no emotion.

"What? You scared? You should be. I have crushed the skulls and balls of countless men. It doesn't faze me one bit to put your old bones to rest."

Master Su still stood there.

"Not blind I see. Just clearly deaf."

The old master remained standing like a statue.

"I'm tired of this shit. With you, I don't even need to use my ultimate technique."

As the drama was running through her mind, she suddenly saw Kung Lin charging at Master Su. The large man swept the sword in a wide horizontal arc which would cleanly cleave the elder master in half. The old man appeared to smoothly dodge the strike but as he was sidestepping, he was hit in the face with a small jagged piece of rock. The rock was not thrown by Kung Lin but rather was ejected from a wagon passing over a pile of rocks on the road. This was quite unfortunate for Master Su. Though he dodged Lin's first strike, the jarring sudden impact left him off balance on one leg. Lin took advantage of this and drove his left fist straight into Su's face. As the old man fell backwards onto the ground, Kung Lin did not hesitate. He grabbed his sword back with both hands and rapidly thrust down without mercy, impaling the old man in the stomach. Su gasped and died before he could fully comprehend what has just transpired. Less than four seconds has passed.

This was the scene which Ada perceived to happen in her mind. She saw the rock fly out from under the wagon wheel heading towards the old man. By her calculation, it would strike his face in less than 720 milliseconds. It is a common theme that time appears to slows down in emergencies. Although Ada was in no harm herself, she felt a sudden shift in time. Perhaps this was one of her passive divine powers activating for she felt for sure that this slowdown in time was not just her perception but rather the reality. One second in real time felt like quarter of a second to Ada. She had no time to increase the density of the air through the rock's pathway so she would have to rely on one of her scripts. Quickly, she activated systemhelper.

...

...

...

...

Unlike the steel box which Ada has made earlier, the flying rock barely whimpered when it collapsed into fine dust. The ashes scattered in the light breeze. No one noticed. With the disaster averted, Ada paused systemhelper and breathed a sigh of relief. When she let out her breathe, time reverted to its usual speed. This shouldn't count as interfering since the rock was interfering and I interfered an interference which means that I didn't interfere at all, Ada thought to herself. There was no reason to justify it for anyone but she felt justified in presenting this logic to fit the rules of this game.

Her eyes shifted back to the scene and now it was playing out as expected. The old man dodged the attack easily and situated himself crouched on Lin's right side. With a swift low leg sweep, he struck the bald man's right leg. Lin's leg buckled and his body started falling forward which was amplified by the momentum of the sword swing. Still in a half-crouched position, Su did not wait for Lin to fall completely before he swept his sword in a downward circular arc. The sharp blade cut through Lin's sword arm and red blood splattered from the blade as it completed its exit from the arm.

"Arrrrrrrrrgh!" the bald man screamed in agony.

The old man said something which Ada translated as, "Surrender and you won't have to die today."

"Noooooo!"

The response made was closer to a loud groan than an emphatic "no" but the meaning was clear. Despite having a horrid wound with his right arm hanging uselessly by his side leaking out blood, Kung Lin still tried to stand pushing himself from the ground with his left hand. If this was still the old Ada, she would have assuredly fainted by now at the sight of so much blood. As a goddess though, her body felt perfectly fine as usual though inside she felt a pang in her heart. Ada was glad that she could still be mentally disturbed. This meant her humanity has not disappeared.

"Forfeit. You have lost."

"Nooooooooooo!"

There was a louder longer groan this time from Kung Lin. With a final forceful push from his left arm, he stood up. Master Su could have struck him down right there but he didn't. Instead, he stepped a few paces back and waited for Lin to regain his dignity. The younger man was breathing heavily with sweat dripping down his chin.

"There's no way I'm gonna lose to you, old geezer! I'm not throwing in the towel!"

Lin retrieved the sword from the ground with his remaining good arm. Can he really be ambidextrous? Ada wondered. She quickly realized that he wasn't once he started swinging the sword. It lacked the finesse and strength his first swing had. Perhaps this was due to him already being wounded but what was more likely was that he was not adept using it with his left hand. Seeing that who the winner was evident, some people in the crowd yelled for the end. She couldn't tell if the crowd wanted death or surrender. Ada wanted to ask Leanne if she knew which one was more likely to happen in a duel around here. Lin had no intention of surrendering and he continued to swing his sword wildly.

Su said a few words evidently waiting for the young man to come to his senses. With no change in the latter's attitude, Su gave up on convincing Lin. After he easily evaded Lin's next swing, Su closed in with one leap and struck Lin on the forehead with the hilt of his blade. Lin looked stunned and slowly collapsed on the ground in an ignoble heap. Some people in the crowd cheered while others grumbled. She guessed the ones who were grumbling were the losers in their blood bets. How despicable to bet on people's lives, she thought.

As the crowd dissipated, several armored guards carrying swords and spears appeared. Apparently, some of them have been standing in the crowd the entire time observing. No doubt they were there to ensure any duel didn't extend beyond the two participants. Ada was quite glad that she didn't openly interfere. Ignoring Su, they heaved the unconscious Kung Lin onto a cart. They also dragged the young thief who was still unconscious and loaded him onto the cart as well. She hoped that both of their wounds would be treated before they end up in prison.

"I suppose this is my sign to leave and join Leanne and the Gunders," Ada said aloud and turned around to go inside. "The fun is over and thank God no one got seriously hurt."

"Ah, someone who can speak the divine tongue. This is rare indeed," a voice from behind her spoke in a clipped English accent.

"What?! Who are you?" she turned around and saw that the voice belonged to the man she had named Master Su.

"My name is Obar," the man said and bowed.

"Oh, I thought Master Su suited you better to be honest," Ada said, mildly disappointed. Then, she explained, "That's the name I made up for you. But what about your last name? And who are you really? There aren't many that know the divine tongue."

"I will share that with you once we are more acquainted with each other," he replied in bemusement. "Shall we talk inside? This was my original destination before I was rudely interrupted. Now, I am even more famished than before."

"Same. A few friends of mine are already inside," Ada said.

Obar opened the door and gestured for her to go in first. Ada wondered if he opened the door out of common courtesy or whether he did so out of misplaced chivalry where he saw an innocent young woman. Whatever he thought, she was sure that he would be more surprised by who her was than the other way around. Ada walked into the inn confidently and Obar followed.