“Prep the room, '' Fire Sky said in an icy tone.

The moment she did, it was as if a switch was flipped. The Flameforge guild members stopped whatever they were doing and in nearly perfect unison broke up the food area into its composing tables. Each table was put against a wall, leaving the center of the room empty.

“There’ll be no fighting here,” Hannah said, although she sounded less insistent than one would expect.

“I’ll pay for the event and all related damages,” the captain said firmly. “There’s no backing out of a challenge.”

“I wouldn’t want to,” Dallion said loudly.

Music, he thought.

Curiosity vibrated in almost all the opposing guild members, mixed with the occasional spot of pity or enthusiasm. Hannah, strangely enough, was calm through and through, even looking forward to what was about to happen. The only person who rang with hatred was Mord.

Are you certain you can handle this, Nil asked. I don’t know much about the pup, but Fire isn’t someone to be trifled with. She used to be a patrol sergeant of the Imperial wilderness legion. Seventeen direct beast kills, before she lost favor and was kicked out from the army.

Dallion didn’t respond. Even so, he thought he would be fine. While his opponent was larger, he seemed way overconfident for his own good. Furthermore, the sword he carried—while flawless—was made of common materials. There was no way he could take it in any awakened realm. The weapon was made exclusively for the real world, suggesting he was closer to someone like Veil. If that were the case, there was a good possibility that he had holes in his development. As long as Dallion didn’t get overconfident himself, things should be fine.

“Know the rules, rookie?” Mord asked.

“What are they?” Dallion crossed his arms. The cockier he made himself appear, the better. In this case, though, it was also true that he wasn’t fully aware of the proper duel etiquette. He had heard that there were rules concerning scuffles between guilds, but as a very junior member, neither he nor anyone else in the Icepicker guild had considered it likely that he’d have to resort to them.

“You issued the challenge, so Mord gets to choose the weapon.”

That sounded pretty much what Dallion expected.

“And the location?”

Everyone stared at him. Several people didn’t even hide their mocking chuckles.

“This room is the location,” Fire Sky said after a few seconds. “it is… discouraged that awakened common duels are held in the realms. That is reserved only for the nobility.”

Damn! Dallion thought. That meant he couldn’t use his harpsisword or his dartbow. Even the armadil shield was questionable.

“Blades,” Mord said with a smirk as he drew his weapon.

“Can I borrow a blade?” Dallion turned towards Fire. “Mine are in the awakened world.”

“Typical packrat,” Mord snorted, only to get a warning sign from his captain. Despite being from his guild, she wasn’t going to allow an unfair fight.

“Everyone here can offer you one, but you’ll have to pick it yourself,” the captain said.

“That sounds fair.”

Dallion already had an idea of what he was looking for. Of the four-dozen people, about ten were equipped with proper swords. Of them, three or four seemed adequate to Dallion’s needs. Moving closer, Dallion focused on his music skill, trying to get a sense of the guardians within. On the third sword he found what he was looking for—a guardian reveling in destruction and bloodlust. Taking one look at the sword’s owner, Dalllion could understand where that was coming from.

“Can I?” he asked, pointing at the sword.

The Flameforge guild member frowned, and reluctantly handed him the weapon, hilt first.

“Thanks.”

The sword was quite heavy for its size, possibly fifteen pounds. Being awakened, that didn’t present any problem, though. Dallion squeezed the grip, then moved the sword around. It felt much different from the weapons he was used to. The testing swings felt heavy and sluggish.

“Do you really want to choose that?” Fire Sky arched a brow.

“It’s his head, let him choose what he wants,” Hannah said in her usual tone of voice. “Of course, you’ll pay for any treatment of injuries.”

“Of course.”

Not a bad choice, but you’ll have to spend most of the time on the defense, Nil said. Keep your distance, rely on counterattacks, and block rather than parry.

“What does Harp think?” Dallion attempted his best awakened whisper.

She’s annoyed that she’s not there. Personally, I’m glad that she isn’t. The nymph has far too much bloodlust for anyone’s good.

That was to be expected, she was a battle gear, after all. Still, for the moment Dallion would have to do with the piece of chaos he was holding. After doing a few more slashes in the air, he lowered his sword and went to face his opponent.

“City rules, full contact,” Fire Sky said. “Don’t pull any punches. I’ll take action if anyone is in real danger. The duel ends if someone surrenders, drops his sword, or I determine it’s over.”

“Understood,” Dallion said.

“Get to it.”

Barely had the word been spoken when Mord charged forward with a piercing attack. The speed was substantial. Based on Dallion’s estimate, his body had to be at level fifteen at least. The reactions weren’t bad either, though felt just a tad slower than Dallion’s. Following one of the well-known guard sequences, Dallion twisted to his right, evading the attack. At this point it was normal to expect a follow-up attack, but one didn’t come until well over a second later.

This is so much easier than fighting the echo, Dallion thought, as he evaded the second attack. The force with which Mord’s blade left a hole in the wall made him rethink that. Maybe it wasn’t going to be that easy after all.

“You’re not playing around, are you?” Dallion said, using his music skill as he spoke. The goal was to inject fatigue, causing his opponent to become even slower. “Plan on fixing this afterwards?”

Instead of an answer, one of the other guild members placed his hand on the wall, then removed it. The hole had gone, along with a few other imperfections that had been on the wall for years. At least they were keeping their word to repair all the damages.

A new series of attacks followed, these one much faster and better organized than before—a double slash followed by a spin and a vertical slice. It seemed that Dallion wasn’t the only one testing his opponent.

After another arc attack, Dallion decided it was time to counter. After a double feint, he thrust the sword forward. The bloodlust radiated from the blade, giving Dallion a slight headache. Unfortunately, the attack was far too slow and imprecise to have an effect. Mord parried it without effort, following up with a slash of his own.

Crap! Dallion leapt back. In normal circumstances, he would have lost by now. Having his blade shoved up had exposed his entire torso. Thankfully, his speed had saved him on this one. The way Mord’s attacks were intensifying, though, it might not for long.

“That was close,” Dallion said, trying to increase Mord’s overconfidence. Fatigue clearly was having no effect on the man. “Maybe we should just call it a draw? We’ll just be going at each other all night. None of us can win.”

“Shut up!” Mord did a double spin, scarring a nearby table. “I’ll win against a worm like you!”

Apparently, his music attack was having an effect. Either that or Mord was a bigger jerk than Dallion initially thought.

Shall I do a sweep to knock him down? Dallion considered. Or try another vertical chop?

In his mind, two versions of Dallion performed each action, and each received a corresponding response. To Dallion’s surprise, Mord froze. Without reason, he took a guard stance, holding the sword in front of him with both hands. The opportunity was too good to miss. If there was a time to attack, it was to be now. Instead of attacking directly, though, Dallion decided to try something out. A few days ago, he would have gone with the optimal strategy of those he had learned, or tried to improvise an attack on the spot. Now he was going to do something else—create an entirely new opportunity.

Music and forging, Dallion thought, concentrating on the enemy’s weapon. Show me any weaknesses.

It was a gamble to combine skills in such a way, especially in the real world, where markers couldn’t exist. And still, something told him to strike Mord’s blade three inches from the hilt. Logically, it made no sense. Even so, Dallion had decided to trust his instinct.

The blade split the air. After his momentary hesitation, Mord adjusted to block the attack with his blade. Before contact was achieved, though, Fire Sky appeared between the two of them in the blink of the eye. Dallion watched her blur into two instances of herself—one stopping Mord from attacking, the second preventing Dallion from continuing his attack. When the blurred images merged back into one, Fire was standing there, holding each blade with one hand.

“The challenge is over,” she said. “Put the place back to what it was and get back to your food.”

The order made little sense. No one had any idea what had happened or who had won. By the looks of it, though, no one wanted to argue. Dallion felt his hands letting go of the sword on their own. A few steps away, Mord did pretty much the same.

“There will be no further challenges tonight,” the captain said. “That goes both ways.”

“Yes, captain.” Mord looked away. Thanks to his active music skill, Dallion could see that the Flameforge guild member was full of rage and disappointment. In his mind he believed to have lost the fight, even if no such thing had happened. Probably he regarded the captain intervening as an instance of defeat. “You got lucky this time, rookie. Next time things will be different.”

“Whatever you say.” Dallion smiled. “I’m always here.” That was another good thing about the music skills—they showed when someone was bluffing.

Don’t push it, Nil advised. Enemies can always surprise you. For that matter, people can always surprise you. You did well this round. Take the victory and move on.

Had Dallion heard right? Had Nil complimented him? This was definitely worth celebrating… if Dallion didn’t have serving duties to perform. Apparently, the only prize for victory was the ability to serve customers in relative peace. Considering how volatile things could have turned out, Dallion decided that was reward enough.

The event continued pretty much as expected. After fifteen minutes the incident appeared to have been forgotten and everyone from the Flameforge guild was back to eating, drinking, and discussing recent experiences in the awakened world. In many ways, this was no different from the practice in Dallion’s own guild. From what he could gather, the group had helped with the improvement of a sky silver weapon. Details remained unclear, but it was a major enterprise involving over a hundred guild members. It was considered an undeniable feat that paid pretty well. The senior guild members had gone to celebrate in one of the fully awakened taverns, while the “packrat” equivalents had reserved a night at the Gremlin’s Timepiece.

“Hey, rookie!” Mord shouted as Dallion was passing by. “What’s your name?”

The man looked drunk, which was an achievement since the only alcohol was weak ale. Apparently, there were people who couldn’t hold their spirits in the least.

“Dallion.”

“Dallion!” Mord put his arm around Dallion’s shoulders. “You know, you’re not so bad. All those things they say about you—” he waved his other hand in front of him “—not true. Not true at all!”

“Thanks.” Dallion gingerly removed the man’s hand and placed him in the nearest chair. Thankfully, Mord didn’t protest. “Good to know.”

What the heck are they saying about me? Dallion wondered. Maybe that I’m a loser? I guess the news of me entering double digits hasn’t spread yet. That was good—one thing less to worry about.

Roughly an hour later, and two hours after the deadline Hannah had set, the party atmosphere had seriously died down. Those who weren’t drunk were bored, and those who weren’t bored were improving what little damage there was left. Dallion had offered to help, of course, but each time he did, someone had already mended the thing in question.

“Don’t pay notice,” Fire Sky said. “It’s not personal, just part of our guild credo: never ask help for something you can finish by yourself.”

“Thank you, ma’am. I’ll keep it in mind.”

“You’re a strange one, you know. You can’t be more than a starting double digit, but you already have the ability to split. Who taught you? I know it wasn’t March. It’s not her style.”

“Captain Adzorg has been teaching me theory,” Dallion replied, unsure what the question was.

“So, you really don’t know.” The woman sighed. “Outright scary. No wonder people are keeping an eye on you. It won’t be enough, though. For now, you’re hidden, but sooner or later you’ll start to shine, and there’s nothing the awakened in this city hates more than a light they don’t control. Keep that in mind and consider whether you want to switch guilds.”

Dallion blinked. Had he heard right? Had the woman just tried to recruit him?

“This isn’t a one time offer, so take your time and think it over. When you’re ready to join one of the five, just visit one of our guildhalls. I’ll make sure there’s an emblem ready for you.