Trash: Chapter 155 Fighting Dirty (Patreon)

Chapter 155

Fighting Dirty

There is a pressure, a release that occurs when a fight or a duel officially begins. A rush where your mind can tune everything else out and focus on one specific task. In a way duels are a blessing as they allow some of us to have a moment where our true selves can shine.

In my two lifetimes I’ve met many people like Mr. Zabal, that arrogant, overly confident doctor who thinks their own shit doesn’t stink, while calling out the fact that everyone else reeks from the same issues. Issues they choose to avoid. The same doctor who can’t understand that no means no, and then proceeds to write you up for minor discretions as a form of bullying. While Mr. Zabal hasn’t done this to me personally, I see enough resemblances to the red flag bearers of my past life to make the mental connection. Also, another thing that annoys me about him is that he is now in opal white priestly attire. The idea being that his clothes represent his internal cleanliness and purity. Everything about him just screams wrong.

Taking up my stance, my feet invariably grind against the dense layer of sand. While the sand will force me to slow down and cut down on what I think will be a big advantage in this fight, namely my speed. The sand does one thing extra well, in that it provides me a chance to test out fighting in non-traditional conditions. Mr. Yi told me that fighting in sand was no different than fighting on other surfaces, it’s just that you need to adjust your movement to overcome the shifting nature of the sand. Here there was a hard surface underneath a thin layer of sand that prevented most of the issues one would face in traditional sandy environments, namely the sensation that your feet were being sucked out from under you. This meant that I would still waste more energy on my movement, but I could possibly pull off faster moves as I would not be bound by traditional inertia.

Grinding my feet in the ground, I also realized something else. This was something that I knew from my past life, but was reinforced by my newly acquired Earth Resonance* Skill. Namely the fact that sand sticks to every and anything it comes into contact with. Realizing this fact, and seeing the pristine white robe of Mr. Zabal, I came up with a plan.

Charging forward, I zagged right for a few paces, not wanting Mr. Zabal to crash into me directly. Given that he is older and has likely had his healing class for longer than I have, meaning that I should be prepared for him to do everything and anything. Mentally I go over my Attributes and their current ratings, not pulling up my status screen, but sadly having them burned into my brain from our musical stroll up here.

STR 183.1

Dex 213.6

Sta 206

Per 257.78

Int 234.58

Mana 213.538

Life Mana 96.2

LUCK 21.64

RESIS 8.36

Knowing my baseline, I begin to circle and probe Mr. Zabal’s defenses. All the time I am running, he does the smart move of standing still, holding out his sword and shifting his feet to have it so his blade faces me directly. But even in this, there are tells. He is right foot and right hand dominant, I can tell by the way his right foot is his anchor foot as he pivots, while his left foot is the one used to spin him about freely on the sandy surface. Additionally, his right hand holds the base hilt of the sword, while his left-hand hovers nearby as if to provide additional assistance should he need to point it at me quickly.

My mind reads all of this, just as Mr. Yi taught me. For a moment I feel stupid, giving up my advantage with a sword, for then I would be able to reach him on equal distancing. Instead, I now have to break my way through, I still think I can, but I’m basing my future actions on what I’ve seen thus far.

I continue to run around him in a circular pattern, my wide distance allowing for him to spin and keep up with me easily. Then finally, I make my move.

Using the sandy surface to my advantage, I give a quick kick-jump stopping my forward momentum that is pointed away from Mr. Zabal and instead direct my feet and body to directly face Mr. Zabal. Then I make my charge back towards Mr. Zabal. Not directly at him, but towards his right side, his dominant side.

My eyes effortlessly track the slow lumbering way his raises his sword, waffling his blade as he tries to aim at the spot where he thinks I am at, not where I’m going to be. It’s clear that while he might have some training with the sword, it is mediocre at best and criminally negligent at worst. He is already into a slashing motion as I am almost past him. At best the blade would provide a glancing blow against my right shoulder, but I redirect as Mr. Yi taught me. Snaking out my hand to catch the outside shaft of the blade as I glance and redirect the blade fully away from me. Then to show I could have done more, I make a point of taking my right foot and tapping it against the side of Mr. Zabal’s right leg.

He staggers at the blow but instantly recovers as I regain my balance and continue forward. Not even having to resort to my own movement-based Skills, something that I am keeping as a hidden ace, assuming that Mr. Zabal will eventually take this fight seriously as well.

“Come on, try again,” Mr. Zabal declares. I can tell he is slightly rattled, even as he shakes his sword in defiance. Still, I shrug, figuring this to be good practice for when I don’t have a weapon myself. Once again, we exchange movements and feints, this time I feign going to his right once more, only to wrap around his left side after which I provide yet another stomp to his otherwise pristine robes. I don’t hit with full force; there is no need as he would likely just heal it instantly. Instead, I go for the longer game.

Once again, he staggers from the kick, but regains his balance quickly. Then he proceeds to use the moment to try to taunt me for my inefficiency.

"You will need to work harder, what good is all that speed if you can't even injure your opponent with a strike," Mr. Zabal says.

"Who says I was trying to injure you. I just wanted to clearly mark my property," I reply.

"Property?" He hisses then looks down and sees the clear footprints marking his otherwise pristine uniform. Then I can see the moment rage takes over, as he finally takes this fight seriously.

“Why, you!” He shouts, as he finally begins using a movement Skill. I can tell as a blazing red light begins to glow from inside his body and pulse down to his core. The element of fire, which can burn bright. I think it also says a lot about Mr. Zabal in that his other affinity is fire. Looking back, it is kind of fitting given his somewhat mercurial nature to this point.

“Finally,” I hiss, as I too begin activating my full barrage of combat Skills. Really these are my healer Skills that I use for combat, but to me it is all the same thing, thanks to Mr. Yi. Before I even have to think, my body is already using and activating Life Reinforced Movements* and Golden Life Ratio Mana Regeneration* both. Life Reinforced Movements* to try to give me a chance against this Flame Skill, along with Golden Life Ratio Mana Regeneration* so that I don’t run out of mana during this fight.

My words cause Mr. Zabal to flinch for a second, long enough for my own movement Skill to fully take effect and put us on equal footing. Well equal in that we both have one movement Skill active. It is clear that this movement Skill is somewhat clunky for Mr. Zabal, that or he never had real training with its use, as he seems to be able to only move in direct lines with it, having to stop pivot on one foot and then point towards me and reengage the Skill each use. While the Skill does make him faster, in a straight line, it does little to actually increase his overall combat effectiveness given how easy he is to redirect. The first pass, I use to gauge his speed and coordination. While he can still swing his sword while passing me, his legs need to move in a straight line. Even his sword swings need to be contained as it is clear that he looks almost unbalanced while running and attacking, not really putting too much strength behind the swing, and mostly trying to direct the pointy end at me, in the hopes that he can impale me. Again, the Skill seems odd, or maybe improperly trained.

On his second pass, I move closer, dodging over and around the directed blade, while giving a hard kick to the legs. This one is meant to be a powerful strike, and I can swear that I almost hear bones crunch from the blow as Mr. Zabal instantly goes to biting his lower lip, while he is forced to continue his movement forward.  What was worse is that I specifically targeted his right leg as he passed, making his instinctual reaction to be to place all his weight on the now injured leg, something that he instantly regrets as he jumps up and immediately shifts to his left leg, as he begins healing himself.

Sweat is beading on his forehead, whether from exertion, pain, or both I don’t know. But he is already panting, while I am in what could best be described as a warmup phase of combat. The part where my body finally is starting to feel loose enough to really get going and to push myself.

“You afraid?” Mr. Zabal hisses out.

“Of you?” I ask back, my voice probably overly incredulous as I try to take in his comments.

“Then why don’t you attack me?” Mr. Zabal asks.

“Why, you’re hardly a threat with both legs, would seem kind of unbecoming to attack you while you are crippled,” I respond. Hearing my response, Mr. Zabal just shakes his head.

“If you aren’t afraid, then why do you continue to run your movement Skill, even now,” Mr. Zabal asks.

Hearing his question, suddenly his earlier comment about my being scared makes sense. He thinks that I am likely burning through my mana at an alarming rate, which come to think of it, he might be as well given his healing and his use of a fire-based movement Skill, he might be going through a lot of his mana quickly. Though unlike him, I have a way to regenerate my mana almost immediately.

“Oh, you mean why do I still have my Skill active? It’s because my master said that once I take an opponent seriously and use my movement Skill, I need to continue using until the fight is over,” I state.

Hearing that, Mr. Zabal, who is still taking his time to heal his leg just nods. While he is gradually putting more weight on the leg, he needed this diversion for more time to heal himself. I’m almost thinking he is better at fire than healing, how do those two affinities even work? Does this mean he cauterizes wounds? I honestly don’t know but will be interested in seeing what comes next. Then realizing he needs more time I fill with the rest of Mr. Yi’s rules for training.

“Also, my master noted that if I do use a movement Skill in combat, then I need to use it for an hour after combat to get used to using it in both settings. So, whenever this is over, I’ll still have to have it active,” I reply as if telling a fun fact about local weather patterns.

Hearing my nonchalant attitude about keeping a movement Skill active for an hour after combat, I knew two things. First, Mr. Zabal knew I wasn’t joking. Second, he looked completely shocked by the very idea of someone being able to keep a Skill going for an hour.

“Right,” Mr. Zabal said, “well shall we continue?”

I nodded, and then taking up a stance, I waited for Mr. Zabal to charge forward. His feet leaving scorch marks upon the sand as he made his way forward. I jigged right, then flashed left at the last second, avoiding the sword strike and once again striking the same wounded leg yet again.

It was odd seeing Mr. Zabal’s Skill at work. For even in pain, even while his body was in agony from breaking the same bone again, his Skill forced him forward. I could tell he was in pain this time as he dropped his sword about ten paces away, and began screaming out in agony as his body was forced to move forward until the end of its path. Seeing the Skill, I just shook my head as it might be faster, but too easy to counter.

At the end, Mr. Zabal came to a complete standing stop, his body facing away as he always did after these charges. Then he staggered in place for a second, before dropping face first into the sand.

There was a stunned silence as suddenly the audience that had been loud and boisterous earlier suddenly stopped in awe and anticipation.

Finally, the instructor spoke, “Maximus Zabal has been eliminated by knockout by Catarine Bloom.”

His words were calm and authoritative, as both the crowd went wild, and I could feel my system coming to life with new details.

Binding Oath activated…