The Duel

Justinius arrived at the sword yard out of breath, almost falling to his knees. Apparently just because he was in shape in his old life, that didn’t mean it transferred to this new body. Lilith was lying on the ground heaving for air. She had to show him the way, so he had made her run.

“You’re… going to get your… dress dirty.” Justinius said as he panted.

“Shut… up…” Was all she could manage.

Justinius stepped outside, dripping sweat, but didn’t see anyone. Great. Now he would think that he had chickened out and would tell everyone about how much of a wimp he was. Justinius hated the thought of that anyways, but now there was an extra reason to not want such a reputation. Apparently there were some people out there willing to kill him for being weak. Just as he turned around though, someone stepped out from the shadow of the storage building.

“You running away already?” He asked. Justinius turned to him, smiling.

“Never.” The boy walked forward, and threw a wooden sword at his feet.

“Pick it up.” He said, as he readied his sword in his hands.

“A wooden sword? What, are we gonna play house afterwards?” Justinius said, laughing.

“Unfortunately it would look bad if I killed the prince, but I figure a few broken bones, just to show you who’s boss, won’t matter. Everyone has already written you off as a coward anyways. Your little act of trying to change isn’t fooling anyone. Now ready yourself. I won’t attack a coward before he’s ready.” Justinius grabbed his sword, taking an offensive stance.

“Is… is that your stance?” The boy busted out laughing, lowering his sword, and just as he did so, Justinius attacked. The boy barely managed to lift his sword to block it.

“You dirty little…” He began saying, but Justinius attacked again, and again, and again. At first Justinius had him on the defensive, but as he regained his composure, the boy was able to turn the tide. He managed to block Justinius’ blow deftly, and immediately arc into a sweep aimed at his ribs. Justinius just got his sword up to block it, but as the wood smacked together, he came to an awful realization. He had no clue how to sword fight. Swinging his sword wildly at someone was one thing, but just attempting to block that sweep had almost broken his wrist, and he still felt the force of the swing in his side. He held the sword in front of him, trembling now. He was almost certainly going to lose. The boy smiled.

“It looks like you’ve realized the difference in our abilities. You shouldn’t have taken the Bizantanus name lightly, and I, Skipio, am the best sword fighter in our family.” He swung once again, but this time, aiming directly at Justinius’ sword. It bent his hurt wrist and flew right out of his hand. Skipio closed in on him, and swung at his leg. Justinius jumped backwards, but landed poorly and fell onto his butt.

“Give up. You’re no fighter. You’re weak.” He said, pointing his sword within inches of his face. Justinius gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, filling them with… dirt. He flung the dirt at Skipio’s eyes causing him to step backwards blindly.

“Ahh!” He yelled, covering his eyes with his forearm. Justinius jumped up, ran forward at him, and, gathering all his strength into his leg, kicked him in the nuts as hard as he could. Skipio shrieked, and fell on the ground, curled into a tight ball. Justinius stood over him, threw his head back, and began laughing maniacally.

“Shows you!” He said, proud of his work.

“Are… Are you allowed to do that in a duel?” Lilith had walked up behind Justinius and was looking at the twitching lump on the ground.

“No. You’re not.” They turned around quickly, suddenly hearing a voice behind them. It was a huge man, barrel chested, with big, brawny arms, and a thick full beard standing there. “Though there are fights where you use any method to win, a duel is about honor, and you’ve gained no honor. It would’ve been better to lose than to win like that.”

“And just who are you?” Justinius asked angrily. The man laughed.

“To think you would forget our time together.” He picked up the wooden sword on the ground, and got into a fighting stance. Justinius readied his sword.

“What are you doing!?” He asked, shaking from the impressive figure before him, but the man didn’t answer. He swept his sword at Justinius, and though Justinius just managed to get his sword in front of the blow, it had such force behind it that his wrists immediately crumpled under the pressure and his sword went flying. He dropped to his knee, caressing his hurt wrists

“Hahahaha!” The man laughed a hearty laugh, holding his belly with his hands. “I’m surprised you even tried to block it, though you’re just as weak as you were before, and even worse form.”

“Who are you?!” Justinius yelled at him.

“But one thing that you have now that you didn’t have before: guts. Where’d that come from, I wonder?” He smiled down at him, the light from the setting sun behind him obscuring his features so that he looked like a massive shadow.

“Answer me!” He barked, but the man just laughed. Lilith ran to his side and helped him up. As she did, she whispered into his ear.

“He’s the master at arms, John McBane, he used to train you at swordfighting.”

“And a bloody hard time I had at it! Never have I seen a wimpier kid.”

“What did you say?!” Justinius pushed himself off the ground, hurting his wrists again so that he fell back onto his knee.

“Which is why it surprised me that you fought with so much vigor there, even if it was the most dishonourable thing I’ve ever seen, but, I suppose that people can change.” He finished speaking, stood there for a moment looking at Justinius’s hunched over form, and began to walk away.

“Wait.” Justinius said weakly. John stopped and looked at the bent over form of Justinius on the ground. He stood up slowly, pushing off of his knee with his elbow to protect his wrist. “Please, teach me swordfighting again.” John laughed heartily, his big belly shaking with him.

“Oh please, I’m not going to waste my time with that again. You may have gotten some guts, but your mechanics are even worse than they were before.”

“I’m not the same person I was before! Just once. Give me one lesson, tomorrow, and I’ll show you.” He scratched his beard, appearing lost in thought for a moment, then he looked over at Justinius and smiled.

“Ah, what the hell. I’ll give you a shot, but I’m not gonna go easy on you, it’ll be a day of torture, and if you can’t keep up, then you’re done.” Justinius smiled.

“Perfect.”