Christopher felt both irritations and a flash of fear when Lietenant Gara singled him out to fight against Zerez in the first match. He was pretty confident that this bout had been orchestrated by the Lieutenant and Zerez. He guessed and hoped that they simply wanted to put him in his place, and did not plan on something more nefarious. He was also not going to give them the satisfaction of objecting, pretty sure that such an effort would be pointless, only eliciting some ridicule before being forced to spar.

The lieutenant asked for his name, which Christopher promptly provided.

“Join me in front of the group.” The lieutenant commanded, and Christopher quickly abided.

Problem was that he did not even have his own proper equipment yet, the robes were the only clothing that he had for protection. His [Soul Mark] only had three slots and the robes had been the only thing that could fit a single slot and still cover him. He had been careful not to spend silver on anything that he might not need to.

“Excellent, excellent. Now, let’s make some room for these two shall we. I’m sure that these young men want to give us a proper demonstration of their abilities. Everyone, gather in front of the tables. The rest of the room here will be our fighting arena.”

Lieutenant Gara took a few more seconds to scan both Christopher and Zerez, a confused expression appearing as he looked over Christopher. “Are both of you ready to fight?”

Christopher spoke up. “Lieutenant, could I be provided with the proper equipment?”

“You don’t have your own?” Lieutenant Gara asked, managing to sound sincere, but the question seemed mostly rhetorical. “Most soldiers prefer to bring their own gear instead of the standard gear of the Lumen Forces.” The lieutenant gave a good showing of appearing baffled.

Christopher tried to suppress the anger that he felt at the most likely false front the man put up. Some chuckles from the spectators also pissed him off. Maybe Christopher should have bought the quarterstaff from the interface store, or a cheap one from a shop here in Lumen. He had decided against it earlier, figuring that he would get free equipment here, saving him some silver.

“What is your preferred weapon?”

“I hoped to receive a quarterstaff and also a second dagger. And probably some better armor as well.”

"Sergeant Forro, can you check the supplies with Christopher quickly. We do not want any protesting about unfairness after the bouts. I will set up the other matches in the meantime.”

Zerez looked very pleased with the proceedings. Christopher caught the eyes of Beteb, who looked embarrassed at the way he was being treated. Christopher followed Sergeant Forro towards some chests that held some solid and simple equipment.

Christopher took a quick look at the available equipment and he soon chose a simple steel staff that should do nicely. There were only three sets of simple armor, but one fit him pretty well, only being a little tight. He picked up a simple steel dagger that somewhat matched his Adeline dagger in size. Christopher was honestly more than satisfied with his new equipment, and he hoped that he could keep it with him the rest of this loop. He rejoined the Lieutenant and Zerez.

“Great now that everyone is ready, please don’t hesitate with your blows, Sergeant Nessa is a skilled healer and is more than capable of fixing most injuries.”

“I don’t like to set too many rules, but try not to aim for the head and the crown jewels. Anything else should be fine, we can heal you right back up.”

‘Shit, this is a problem’ Christopher realized.

Lieutenant Gara might have just given Zerez the go-ahead to dish out some serious punishment. He had already learned that healing broken bones was not as simple as the lieutenant made it out to be. He could only hope that they had not planned some kind of fatal training accident, but surely even they would not go that far. Christopher had only talked back a little after all, which was hardly a crime. He was not exactly going around making enemies here, he had even tried to stay respectful. What a pain this was turning out to be. Christopher should really try to study healing himself at some point, if only there was time for such pursuits.

“Lieutenant, I assume that there is a restriction on the use of Soul Arts for this bout?” Christopher asked, already dreading the answer

“Hmm, Soul Arts should be fine, I judge that you are all capable enough to not overdo it,” he said with a wink towards the gathered.

'Fantastic, I really am fucked.' something told him that Zerez had the advantage there as well, and it would make the fight much more dangerous. Christopher looked around, he and Zerez had a rather massive space to fight in, most of the large bronze training room was available for their bout. The other recruits were now all standing by the far wall, in front of the tables containing the food and drink. They looked on with both nerves and curiosity. They were probably nervous for their own fights coming up, especially with such a loose ruleset.

Christopher looked at Zerez Stout, who was sporting a somewhat reined in grin, clearly looking forward to the prospect of the fight and confident in the outcome. He was pretty sure the noble was looking to break some of his bones.

Everything indicated that Zerez was no slouch when it came to fighting. Christopher’s own month of training with the daggers, and his even shorter training with the quarterstaff was not going to work miracles here. Zerez certainly had the confidence and the equipment. And apparently, his father was kind of a big deal, having even personally trained the Noble. Christopher was kind of nervous, not enjoying the anticipation of a painful beating.

“Recruits, take your position, you can start the match on my mark.”

Christopher looked at the impressive silvery blade held out on his opponent's side. To his surprise, Zerez actually put the sword back in its scabbard.

“Let’s not make too much of a mess” Zerez said mischievously.

Christopher now had the simple steel Quarterstaff at the ready, both of his daggers were holstered and within easy reach. For now, he preferred the range that the quarterstaff provided. Not that he had any real fighting experience with the quarterstaff yet.

He questioned the wisdom of Netello Brave in not letting them practice any actual fighting yet. Continuously practicing his stances and footing had surely been the proper way to start his training, but would it really help him in a fight right now? Hopefully his new armor could protect his bones from shattering.

“Start the fight” Lieutenant Gara exclaimed.

Christopher tensed his body, ready to react at a moment’s notice. There was quite some distance between him and Zerez, which should give him plenty of time to respond.

Zerez Stout did not seem to be in a hurry though, the noble started swinging his now scabbarded sword through the air with practiced movements, his posture relaxed. Zerez looked to be enjoying himself, clearly not thinking Christopher much of a threat. Christopher feared that the young noble had the skill to back up his confidence.

Christopher’s thoughts had been racing, trying to form some kind of strategy that might beat Zerez. Or a strategy that would at least prevent him from making a fool of himself. No grand strategy came to mind. He knew too little about his opponent.

He gripped the Steel quarterstaff, putting his left and right hand exactly where he had been taught. Christopher needed to adjust to the weight of the steel, it was lighter than the wooden practice staff that he had been drilling with.

“Come!” Zerez shouted towards him, still swinging his scabbarded sword nonchalantly through the air. “At least try attacking me, I will give you the first swing for free.”

Zerez was clearly toying with him, but would that not provide him with an excellent opportunity? Christopher of course had his Adeline dagger in the scabbard at his waist. Nobody should know that he actually knew how to use it, and it was one of his trump cards in this fight. However, this was the perfect opportunity to test out one of his other’s. On that had considerably more power behind it.

An impatient jeer could be heard from one of the Noble’s lackeys to the sides, clearly directed towards him. Christopher made his approach, walking clumsily towards Zerez to keep the Noble’s guard low. Maybe he could end this fight in one swing.

A glance to this side showed him that Lieutenant Gara was patiently watching the proceedings, having just lifted his goblet of wine to his lips, however his eyes were following with a hawkish focus.

Zerez taunted him again with barely concealed mirth in his voice. “Well, let’s get one with it shall we, show me what you got.”

Christopher would gladly take that opportunity. He kept moving clumsily, trying to lure Zerez into a false sense of security.

Christopher finally moved into striking distance for his staff. Christopher slowly moved into the seventh stance which would give him power. It had a longer wind-up, which clearly telegraphed the swing. Zerez as promised did not make any move to dodge, preparing his sword to block the blow.

‘Yes, good luck dodging this now!’

Christopher used all his power to swiftly bring down the steel quarterstaff, while Zerez casually positioned the sword diagonally in front of him with his right hand; At the last moment, Christopher rapidly poured in a good twenty percent of his Soul Force. His training to master the Soul Force powered blows from Zalla had progressed enough that he could at least time it this well while stationary. Not that he could ever really expect an enemy to just take his blow with patience. Adding Soul Force should not help much against a being with Soul Force as well, but surely every little bit helped.

Zerez his eyes seemed to widen for a moment, but it was too late to do anything other than block the blow. Christopher’s staff thundered down with tremendous force on the scabbarded sword that Zerez brought up to block.

To Christopher’s dismay, the effect was not as pronounced as he had hoped. Zerez let out an involuntary grunt at the two weapons met. Christopher felt the feedback from the clash reverberate through his arm and through his body. He had hoped to disarm Zerez with the blow, but Zerez merely stumbled back, the scabbarded weapon now pressed against his shoulder and chest plate, with Christopher’s steel staff pushing against the scabbard.

Zerez jumped back further to get out of range, clearly surprised judging from his startled facial expression. Christopher quickly pressed his advantage, immediately following up with the second movement he had learned under Netello Brave, a quick sweep at the legs to drop your opponent.

Zerez unfortunately managed to recover quickly, dodging the sweep just in time with almost supernatural swift movements. Christopher’s stomach dropped, had that been Soul Reinforcement of the body? Zerez increased the distance further, Christopher’s chance slipping away.

There were some jeers from some of the other recruits, and even a few shouts of support for him from two or three of the many observers. They were clearly getting riled up by the fight.

Zerez reacted venomously to Christopher’s attempt.

“You coward, what kind of dirty tactics are those, is this what you call a Duel?” some of the lackeys yelled their support.

Christopher did not think he had done anything wrong. Zerez had taunted him by giving him a free shot after all. The Noble looked all but humored though, which was not the best development. The truth was that Christopher was angry at the Noble as well for his treatment of Vila earlier.

Christopher did not feel like discussing his tactics with Zerez. He dashed forward, moving the metal staff forward with a jab. Zerez easily sidestepped the sword, swinging the scabbarded sword at Christopher’s arm.

Christopher tried to dodge to the left of the blow, but the sword scabbard glanced of his upper arm regardless, sending pain shooting through his neck and arm. Christopher was thankful that he was not facing the real blade, which would have surely cut deep. Still, he would have to prevent such a blunt blow to his head at all cost. It seemed unlikely that he could use [Bookmark] while fighting at such speeds, which would not doubt be a problem both now and in the future. Any blow to the head had the potential to be fatal.

The direction of the fight had clearly changed. Zerez stout was taking a more aggressive stance. Christopher had his eyes completely on his opponent. His relentless dagger sparring against Arlo helping him with his positioning. Zerez moved in with quick movements but also clearly with caution now.

Christopher tried to stay out of range of the swings scabbarded sword, using his longer staff to his advantage. He had no choice but to go on the defensive, both dodging and batting away the sword. it took his all to keep Zerez from landing a hit. To the others it would look like he was all but running, but it required all of his skill to dodge the noble. The movements and ability of his opponent was clearly far superior to his own.

Christopher kept trying to imbue his quarterstaff with some of his raw Soul Force at the moments that their weapons clashed, hoping to batter it away. It did not go very well now that they were in motion. The arrogant but skilled Noble was difficult to anticipate, and Christopher did not yet have the skill to time it so precisely, it required too much of his concentration. His infusions were often way too early or too late, his Soul Force draining far too quickly. After numerous clashes he finally got lucky and timed it right.

The effect was immediate, when the weapons met, his quarterstaff won out, and Zerez lost his balance, opening him up for attack. Christopher immediately pounced on the opportunity, using the fourth stance. The move was for disarmament, in this case targeting the right wrist.

Zerez could not prevent the blow from impacting his wrist due to being out of balance, causing a painful yelp. Christopher immediately started swinging for some follow up attacks. Hoping that the injury would prevent Zerez from properly utilizing his sword.

His hope was short lived. Zerez with a bit of grimace on his face seemed to just shrug off the injury, easily blocking the blow with his sword before barreling in him at full force, knocking the wind out of Christophers lungs. Christopher managed to keep upright, quickly stepping back to create more distance. Both of them were now breathing more heavily, but Christopher was much more out of breath than his opponent due to all the running and dodging.

He could not keep this up for much longer, his Soul Force was now down to only a quarter, and his regular blows had proven to be ineffective. Christopher’s decided that it was time to utilize some of his other abilities. Lieutenant Gara had allowed them the use of non-lethal effects after all.

Christopher took Soul Heat and Soul Frost off the table, those seemed way too dangerous, the effectiveness of those Arts had surprised him before after all. He remembered what had happened to the White Crescent Spider when infused with Soul Heat, and he could also imagine Soul Frost easily snapping limbs. Despite his anger, he did not want to do any permanent damage to the noble.

That left two other Soul Arts that should be safe enough to use. His remaining Soul Force meant that he would have to choose his remaining moves carefully. Unfortunately, there was little time to think things through, Zerez already moving into weapon reach once again.

Christopher quickly drew his Adeline dagger, then closed his eyes, before pouring in half of his remaining Soul Force into the Adeline dagger for a very bright burst of Soul Light. Achieving such a burst had taken quite a bit of practice.

The startled cries from not only Zerez but also many of the spectators made it clear that his Soul Light burst had caused an effect.

Christopher cursed inwardly. ‘Oops, forgot about the others.’