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Anton dived, low and to the side. Al-Kadir’s signature move was to teleport behind his opponent and stab them in the back, often ending the fight in one move. The obvious counter to that was to whirl around and attack him as he appeared, but the obvious counter to that was to teleport right in front, either striking from within the enemy’s guard or backstabbing while the enemy was turned away.

Diving in a random direction left too many options for al-Kadir to respond to, even if he expected it. Anton dug his free hand into the sand as he flew, letting himself pivot over it into a forward flip. His other hand held Stormfang, and he swept it to send lightning crackling back to where he’d leapt from.

He had the briefest glimpse of al-Kadir wreathed in lightning before he disappeared again. Anton thought he might have screamed, but he couldn’t hear over the roar of the crowd.

“First blood goes to the King!” Kelsey’s voice boomed. “Regeneration or not, he’ll be feeling that for a while!”

Anton ignored her; he was already thinking about the next move. The most logical place for al-Kadir to appear was in Anton’s path. Technically behind him, but only for a moment as he continued to tumble. Anton brought his legs in, curling into a ball so he tumbled faster, letting his sword sweep ahead of him.

He was rewarded by the sight of al-Kadir forced to parry as soon as he appeared. He disappeared right afterwards, before Anton could trigger the lightning. Anton swung his sword back, hoping to catch his enemy backstabbing again, but his blade hit only air.

Anton landed, looking around to find out where al-Kadir had jumped to. He located the courl a fair distance away, possibly at the furthest distance the duellist could teleport. Anton made a note of it, but cautioned himself that al-Kadir wouldn’t want to reveal his full distance.

Double-counter on the first move, but only one level deep on the second, Anton thought to himself. Each person had a limit to how far they could, or wanted to, second-guess their opponent. Keeping track of how many moves they thought ahead was the first step in getting ahead of them.

Al-Kadir held a ready stance, but made no move to attack. In theory, he was too far away to teleport behind Anton, but in practice, Anton suspected that he was just taking a break. One of the issues with fast teleportation was that it left you disoriented, especially if you were changing directions. Anton had no doubt al-Kadir could manage more than three jumps in quick succession, but that didn’t mean that he wanted to.

Or wanted Anton to know that.

“Angry as I am, I owe your Kelsey a debt,” al-Kadir called out. Something he did made his voice carry. “The stage she has provided me with is… magnificent!”

“Ohoho!” Kelsey’s voice rang out. “Has the villain of the hour abandoned his blade already? One exchange and he’s resorting to intimidation tactics!”

Anton could feel it now, waves of fear that radiated out from al-Kadir. Soraya had warned him about it. She’d said it brought strong men to their knees, unable to move or even surrender as al-Kadir struck the final fatal blow.

But Anton was Unwavering. The fear that he felt was nothing compared to the feeling he got during Kelsey’s extended absence. So his voice didn’t falter when he replied.

“Is she right? Are you going to try and talk your way to victory?”

“No,” al-Kadir replied. “But I want you to understand, before you die, how grateful I am. Do you know why I want to duel you?”

“Because of Soraya?” Anton guessed. “Or all those times we blew you up?”

“All good reasons,” al-Kadir agreed. “But the real reason is the one that everyone has. For the level.”

“I’m twelve levels beneath you,” Anton said. “You aren’t getting anything from me.”

“Level is important,” al-Kadir agreed, “But for a duellist, other things are just as important if not more. The challenge of the fight, the audience, the stakes… You and Kelsey have provided such lavish examples of all these things.”

“That… wasn’t our intention,” Anton said.

“Oh, I think it was. Your Kelsey knew exactly what bait to dangle in front of me. It wasn’t easy to drag the entire fleet along with me, but the effort was worth it. You don’t know how hard it is to find a decent fight at my level.”

“If you lose, your entire fleet has to go home empty-handed,” Anton said incredulously. “You don’t care about the waste?”

“If I lose, I am dead,” al-Kadir said simply. “I have no legacy to care about; I care not what happens to the Empire. But I will not lose.”

He flicked his sword. Instinct made Anton put his sword up to defend against… something. Whatever it was, it hammered against his sword like a wave against the shore. His sword split the attack, but the remnants slammed into him. Anton was forced to take a step back, and a bruising impact was transmitted through his armour.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, it looks like the Suzerain of Stalkers has switched to invisible attacks!” Kelsey announced. “How’s that gonna play with the crowd, dumbass?”

“Nicely blocked,” al-Kadir taunted. “Was that your Active Instincts trait at work? You didn’t have that when we last met.”

“It’s new,” Anton admitted. “Got it at level twelve.”

“Good for you. You should find you can’t use Uncanny Evasion on Air Cut. You can’t dodge what you can’t see coming. But maybe that’s not true for you?”

He sent three Air Cuts towards Anton in quick succession. Anton might have tried to dodge, but his instincts were telling him not to. Either because it wouldn’t work, or because al-Kadir was expecting it. He tried something else and parried, but this time he activated Stormfang’s secondary power.

Echo of the Tempest, he commanded. He didn’t need to think the name, but it helped him focus his will. An extremely localised wind sprang up around him, whirling in a closely contained circle. It was meant for flinging arrows off course, but he thought it might…

This time, when he parried, he felt the energy disperse, carried away by the wind around him.

“It looks like the Liberator King has an answer, folks, leaving al-Kadir with nothing but hot air!”

Al-Kadir frowned and rushed forward. The crowd roared with approval.

What followed was almost pure swordsmanship, a style familiar to Anton from their previous sparring. Al-Kadir had held back then, just enough to avoid overwhelming Anton with his strength and speed. Now Anton was stronger, but al-Kadir was not holding back at all.

Anton could almost match him on Strength, but the duellist moved so quickly and smoothly it was like fighting Zaphar. Al-Kadir had a parry Trait that could match Anton’s Quick Strike, and his Leaping Attack was almost completely negated by al-Kadir’s Blink Step. Of course, that could work the other way sometimes…

Al-Kadir disappeared right in front of him. Anton didn’t hesitate.

Leaping Attack.

He leapt straight up in the split second before al-Kadir appeared, knowing that the courl would be beneath him a moment later. His attack came down, harder, faster than gravity would allow. Al-Kadir was disoriented for the briefest of moments as he appeared to what would have been Anton’s side.

He used Uncanny Evasion. Anton recognised the Trait instantly and tried to follow up with Quick Attacks, but al-Kadir kept evading until he Blinked away.

“How are you more skilled than me?” al-Kadir demanded. “You’ve been fighting monsters, not men.”

“How can you think he wouldn’t be?” Kelsey mocked from above. “Anton grew up fighting zombies, skeletons and revenants—all men, or close enough. You finish all your fights in one move.”

“I’ve fought plenty of men,” Anton growled. “Humans and courl both.”

“Fair enough,” al-Kadir allowed, and Blinked back into the fight.

This time, his attacks were unrelenting, timed to keep Anton from launching any Quick Strikes of his own. That should have been impossible—Quick Strike was just that quick—but al-Kadir’s speed was overwhelming when he pushed himself. Active Instincts proved its worth over and over, keeping Anton’s sword between him and attacks he hadn’t even perceived.

He was getting overwhelmed.

The noise from the crowd intensified, roars of triumph from the Elitran side, cheers of encouragement from the Zamarrans. Kelsey was calling out the strikes, but Anton ignored her. She wasn’t important right now.

Anton had been holding off on Uncanny Evasion. There was a weakness to it, and he knew al-Kadir knew it. Anton’s instincts were telling him that al-Kadir was pushing him to use it, crushing his defence with strength and speed. Anton had hoped he could outlast the attack, but he couldn’t.

Uncanny Evasion.

The problem with the Trait was that you couldn’t do anything while you were dodging. You were too twisted and not in control of your actions. You were impossible to hit, but vulnerable to anything that could hit you.

“Unerring Strike,” al-Kadir said. He barely whispered it, but it rang out across the arena. His sword twisted, moving on its own, barely remaining in al-Kadir’s grip.

It pierced Anton’s side. He was already moving away from it, but it moved quickly enough, its edge was keen enough, to slice through his armour and Stoneskin and draw blood.

Anton didn’t let the pain stop him. He finally got to counterattack with Quick Strike, but al-Kadir Blinked away. He needed a moment for the poison to take effect.

But Anton was prepared for this.

The moment that al-Kadir had stepped into the Dungeon, Kelsey had known every trick he had—at least those that depended on his equipment.

“He’s got other poisons,” she’d told him. “Dunno why, but he’s got five daggers strapped to him, each with a different one. It’d be a pain to figure out which dagger he uses, so just rely on the general antidote for those. The sword, though…”

Anton had seen it for himself.

Viper’s Edge: Sword, Magical, Tier 3: Basic Enhancement, Viper’s Tongue, Vampiric

“It’s practically made of poison,” she’d told him, and had given him a specific antidote. Two vials. “One should do it, the other is just in case.”

Thanks to alchemy, general antidotes worked amazingly well against a wide variety of poisons. Al-Kadir would probably expect him to have one. They didn’t work on every poison, though, nor did they work as completely or as quickly as specific antidotes.

Anton could already feel the burning starting to spread. He pulled the steel vial from his sleeve and swallowed the contents.

Al-Kadir waited for Anton to fall. The fight paused long enough for the cheers to die down, as the crowd wondered what was going on.

Anton didn’t fall. The wound wasn’t too deep; Uncanny Evasion had cancelled at least some of the damage from the strike.

“What.” Al-Kadir stared at Anton.

“Ohoho, did the Champion of Poor Decisions think his poison was actually going to work?” Kelsey called. “The Dungeon of Endless Battle is famous for its wide variety of poisons! You think you’re gonna bring something we haven’t seen? Guess again!”

For just a moment, al-Kadir let the taunting get to him. His face twisted into a grimace, and he looked up at the glittering announcer.

“You—” was as far as he got. Anton decided that now was the time to reveal the range of his lightning strike. Al-Kadir moved fast, but lightning was even faster.

“Argghh!” This time, Anton heard him scream. Kelsey had theorised that the Trait that turned all wounds into flesh wounds would prevent the lightning from penetrating further than skin deep. Then she’d giggled and pointed out that that was where most of the nerves were.

The crowd started up again as al-Kadir Blinked out of the lightning. This time, though, Anton had a follow-up.

Al-Kadir’s options were constrained. He couldn’t Blink towards Anton, or away—that would keep him in the path of the electricity. That left him with left or right, with a minimum distance to make sure he cleared the lightning and a maximum that he’d demonstrated before.

That left two fairly wide areas, but fifty-fifty was pretty good odds. And Anton had one attack that was flexible enough to cover a wide area.

Al-Kadir had been facing to the left, so Anton chose it.

Leaping Attack.