Curse of the Crystals

Chapter 19: The Final Matches - part 3

The Alchemist was the first to attack. He kept the dagger in his right hand while stabbing at Itzal with the short-sword in his left hand. Itzal felt his magic starting to slow things down for him, but he would keep his word, so he did his best to tune it out. Although it worked, things ended up being pretty tough by the combination of focusing on tuning out his magic while having to dodge the Alchemist the normal way. He barely managed to dodge the incoming blade, but the Alchemist was too predictable in his follow-up move of swinging the dagger at Itzal. Rather than hitting Itzal, the Alchemist felt his arm slashed at by Itzal's dagger. The referee was quick to speak up. "One point to mister Fusun!"

Itzal didn't hesitate to go on the offensive while they were still close to each-other, as he stabbed at the Alchemist's chest with his short-sword while preparing to slash at him with the dagger the moment he'd try to dodge it. The Alchemist wasn't a fool, and he knew this kind of tactic well enough, so rather than dodging, he used his own short-sword to deflect the blade and slashed at Itzal with his own dagger. Itzal dodged most of it, but the dagger still grazed him. "One point to the Alchemist!"

They knew each-other too well to grant the other any big openings, and they were surprisingly equally matched. The Alchemist tried feinting an attack, but Itzal didn't take the bait. Instead, he only pretended to fall for it. At the last moment, he slashed his short-sword to intercept the actual attack and rammed his dagger forwards. The Alchemist was prepared for this, as he too rammed his dagger forwards. They both felt a dagger hit their stomach, exchanging equal blows at almost the same time. "Two points for both mister Fusun and the Alchemist!"

Their breathing was getting heavier, but Itzal noticed something. The Alchemist was getting tired slightly faster than him. All the training to increase the amount of magic he used had also significantly increased his stamina, so if this was a battle of endurance, he'd win. The Alchemist realized the same thing, as he switched up his style by going for a surprise kick. In a tournament like this, based on using weapons and awarding points based on the level of expected injury, you'd have to go for a pretty strong kick to get as much as a single point in.

Points weren't what the Alchemist was aiming for, as the moment Itzal jumped back to avoid the sudden kick, he threw himself at Itzal with both weapons in front of him. The short-sword clashed with Itzal's short-sword, but the Alchemist was able to put in enough force for Itzal to fail stopping it, as it hit Itzal full in the stomach. In return, Itzal was able to slash his dagger at the Alchemist's throat before the Alchemist could defend himself. At the exact same time, the Alchemist managed to ram his dagger at Itzal's leg whilst keeping Itzal's blade away with his short-sword. It had all gone by so quickly that the referee needed some time to figure out the points. "Three points to the Alchemist, then five points to mister Fusun, then two points to the Alchemist."

After doing the counting, the referee announced the result. "Both mister Fusun and the Alchemist have gotten eight points so far!" The audience was thrilled. Despite neither of them two audience favourites, they were putting up a closely matched and interesting fight. Right now, they were both breathing heavily. Although his mask hid his emotions, the Alchemist sounded thrilled when he spoke up. "This fight is reminding me of the good old days. Long before everything went wrong!"

Itzal shook his head. "You were on the path of failure the moment you started walking."

The Alchemist didn't reply. Instead, he got into a battle-ready stance once more. Itzal did the same. Even a mildly decent strike could win either of them the fight. In fact, throwing their weapons might be enough to score those finals points. Neither of them even considered doing so. This fight was about more than just a tournament right now, although neither of them would be able to put what they were feeling into words. Itzal attacked first, rushing at the Alchemist in a way that would look careless to anyone that was watching them.