Lord Lorcan Harridan turned away from Lorelei, “We can deal with that later, but for now I need to punish your guard for injuring mine.”

William sighed dramatically and shook his head, “I heard you were dull, but seeing it in person is something else. Or perhaps you are just blind?” William raised an eyebrow. “You have no authority over me, so why would I let you punish me for nothing?”

Lorcan Harridan had already started trembling in rage. “Nothing? You think injuring my guard is nothing?”

“Nothing compared to what he deserved for getting in the way of the Archmage… and even more importantly, in my way. I was already merciful to your stupid guard.”

Lord Harridan turned back toward Lorelei, “I- I demand that you punish this person for his disrespect!”

Lorelei shrugged, “Very well.” She gave a light slap to William’s wrist, “You’re supposed to say ‘I was already merciful to your stupid guard, Lord Harridan.’”

“Ah, of course. I was already merciful to your stupid guard, Lord Harridan. This isn’t even your estate, and he had no right to stop me regardless, but I suppose I shouldn’t have let him get away so easily… If you’ll bring him in, I can kill him, and then the matter will be settled.”

Lord Harridan just blinked, “What?”

“Oh, sorry, you’re hard of hearing too?” William raised his voice, “I said, since you insist on bringing the matter up, I’ve decided I was much too nice, and your guard should die. Go fetch him for me will you?”

Lord Harridan placed his hand on the hilt of his sword. “I’ve had enough of this disrespect.” He looked around the room, “I trust none of you will have a problem if I kill this man?” The responses were mixed shrugs and a few voices of encouragement, as well as a lazy yawn from Lorelei. Then he rushed forward, drawing his sword as he went, and slashing at William.

William had no weapon to draw- Chris was already in his hand, though he supposed he was technically in a sheathe. Regardless, he was ready with a parry, and the sword slid harmlessly off to the side. William then brought the other end of the staff up into Lord Harridan’s rib cage. There was a slight grunt as he stumbled backwards slightly, but there was no other effect. Not that William expected more. Though he wasn’t wearing heavy armor, he still had a sort of thin gambeson, and it was doubtlessly magically enchanted.

Lord Harridan looked slightly surprised, though William couldn’t entirely blame him. It was actually a decently skilled attack, and it had quite a bit of power behind it… but William had been ready for something of the sort. After a brief pause that felt like much longer, the battle actually started. Sword and staff clashed against each other in a whirlwind of movement. The sound of metal against leather rang out continuously. Occasionally, one of them would have to dodge, and some glancing blows hit each of them- only to be nearly neutralized by their magical defenses.

William thought he could gain an easy edge if he used magic, but he thought he would save it in case it became necessary. Besides, the mana was riled up from the repeated activation of the magic in their respective armor and robe. William could do something tricky, but with so many people watching up close it could easily backfire. Besides, he was doing just fine. As he thought that, he was sent flying backwards into the table in the center of the room.

-----

Lord Harridan watched as his opponent stood up shakily, and had to prop himself up with his staff just to stand. “You’ve done well to get this far. Most would have perished in the initial exchange. Sadly, this is as far as you go.” Lord Harridan had to admit that he was only slightly superior in terms of physical body and technique. He had to wonder where Lorelei found such a fellow. Perhaps she had been secretly raising him for a gross of years. Regardless, he seemed to have very little proficiency in ki, and Lord Harridan would use that to give him a proper finish… it had to be elegant and clean, or he might be looked down on for taking so long to win the fight.

Lord Harridan started gathering all of his ki to his sword. It was almost a waste, as his opponent was barely able to stand, but he had some rather annoyingly tough enchantments on his robe. That was why he was merely bleeding from a dozen shallow wounds instead of ones an inch or more deep. Lord Harridan actually felt that part was strange. The man almost looked like a mage, but he hadn’t used magic at all. Even now, he couldn’t see anything happening with the nearby mana. Still, he made sure to keep his guard up for that.

He walked slowly forward… but his final two steps were quick, to give him no time to react as the sword slashed toward his side. Lord Harridan was surprised about how little resistance their was to his slash. Perhaps the enchantments on the robe had run out, but he would have thought the bones would have done something. Then, his sword ran into something hard… and stopped suddenly enough he thought it might have chipped. It was the staff. That was strange, he had intentionally aimed for the side that the staff was not on, so that it would be harder to deflect his attack. No, wait, the staff hadn’t move at all, had it? Yet the man he was fighting wasn’t. All of those thoughts happened in an instant, when he saw the figure swinging around the other side of the staff, and then was met with the heel of a boot to his face.

Gravity seemed to change direction briefly as he was flung backwards, and then changed again many times over a moment as he tumbled uncontrollably. There was a crashing noise, and he found himself on his back. Was his nose broken? He had some items that should have created an enchantment covering his whole body. It wasn’t as good as an enchanted helmet, but still… For some reason his body didn’t want to sit up, so he tilted his head to the side to try to get a different view. All he saw was some sort of pot. Well, the broken remains of one, anyway. He heard footsteps, and then a voice talking down at him. “Did you ever imagine you would lose?”

Lord Harridan tried to turn to face the voice, or to speak to respond, but his head was in chaos. He thought he heard someone else shout “Stop!” but he couldn’t tell who… and he only barely managed to turn his head the right way in time to see the staff coming down at his face.