I stare at the guild building ceiling as I ponder recent events. Much of what has gone on doesn't really make sense, and it doesn't help that I am starting to draw too much attention to myself. I also even made an 'enemy' who actually wants me dead. Though how was I supposed to know he would get set off by the smallest things?
"Whatcha thinking about?" Kara said as her face suddenly appeared over me.
"...Nothing important," I said after some hesitation.
"I think we both know that isn't true" She smiles.
"Dang, don't believe me?" I respond.
"What are you thinking about?" She said without a change in expression.
"To put it simply, Henry," I said with even what I noticed as frustration.
"Not his biggest fan huh?" Kara asked. "Fair enough, he is a bit of a jerk and tried to kill you...twice."
"Yep...so now I am going to have to be careful," I said.
As I looked at Kara I then remembered Henry's words. He said he would hurt her in some fashion like he tried to me with the big arrow trick. I take a deep sigh.
"Well don't let it get you too down!" Kara said trying to cheer me up. "It's not all bad. You still have Scarlet and me to help ya out!"
"Yeah, that's true." I chuckle. "Thanks, Kara."
"No problem!" Kara said as she moved away and sat on the couch. "Besides it's not like you can hide who you are, so you might as well look for the positives!"
"'Hide who I am...'" I mutter to myself.
Wait, that's not a bad idea! I could gather information on things more easily that way! I just need to find a way to hide my identity. Especially my eyes, they are a dead giveaway as the Silver trait.
"Good afternoon!" Mr. Fang busts into the door along with Scarlet. "I have come to inform you guys, you are signed up for the tournament coming up in a few days!"
I look over to Scarlet and give her a look of confusion.
"We just signed up to join." She explained. "We will be participating in the E brackets."
"I see," I say as I sit up. "We will have to do the best we can but..."
"What is it?" Mr. Fang asks.
"What do we get exactly from the tournament?" I ask.
"Nothing if you don't take the top 3!" Mr. Fang beams. "But if you do take them, you can get a better budget, rank up, etc."
"So stuff to help the guild then?" Kara added.
"Correct," Scarlet answered.
I then stand to my feet and stretch. I look at everyone's faces and Scarlet gives me a bit of a worried look. I mouth the words 'Don't worry about me' to her and smile. Although it didn't seem to do a whole lot, she did seem to loosen up a bit.
"If we want to be ready for the tournament, we should practice and train," I announce to everyone. "How do these tournaments go, Mr. Fang?"
"They are in pairs." Mr. Fang responded simply.
"How does everyone feel about doing some group training then?" I ask everyone.
"I am ready to go!" Kara announces.
"Likewise, I am ready." Scarlet smiles.
I nod at them and smile. We then make our way out and head to the training grounds. Once there we broke up into one versus one. I had the girls stand against each other. They then got into fighting stances and took wooden versions of their weapons. As soon Mr. Fang announced for them to start, they flashed by clashing against each other. As expected, Kara is a lot more agile and relentless with her strikes, while Scarlet is a lot more full of technique and skill.
I watch their fight as they keep up with each other. Neither one of them was dominating the other in this fight. I started to focus on the things Kara was doing and what kind of moves she did. I can use these to learn better fighting styles with the Daggers but I should look for things I can help. Maybe there was something the way the game showed it that could help her. After a bit more time I start watching Scarlet, she has good technique but she is stuck doing the same thing I did. She thinks too much.
As time went on, Kara started to push Scarlet. If Kara had more skill and technique, she would've dominated this fight near the beginning. The same could be said if Scarlet didn't overthink her moves.
Kara runs towards Scarlet ready to slash. Scarlet barely managed to block it and started to push Kara's dagger away but Kara reacted quicker and kicked Scarlet away.
"Enough," I call for the fight to be over. "Good job you two!"
"Yeah..." Scarlet said. She is not the most happy about being knocked down.
"May I offer some advice based off of what I saw from you two?" I ask.
"Please!" Kara excitedly responded.
Scarlet didn't respond but watched me closely, signaling me she was all ears.
"First, Scarlet. You have good form and skill but you focus too much on your thoughts rather than the fight." I say looking at Scarlet, she looked taken aback by my statement. I then turn towards Kara. "Kara, practice repetition in your movements. If you have more precision you will be able to dominate your opponent faster, and more efficiently."
"Oooh! Gotcha!" Kara said tapping her fist into her other hand. "Can I try it with you?"
"Yes. I will be your new opponent." I smiled. "Scarlet," Scarlet tensed when she heard her name. "I want you to watch the fight closely. You will be fighting me next."
Scarlet gives me a serious look and then moves to the side. Mr. Fang made sure we were ready and then started the fight. Kara came at me with incredible speed. We clash weapons as she starts to push me. I quickly slipped out my wooden blade, causing her to stumble as held my sword in front of her neck.
"This is why I told you to be precise," I informed her. "Because I wanted to show you the importance of that and how short it became, we will go one more time."
I move away my sword and Kara just stands there shocked. I give her a light tap on the shoulder which jolts her back to reality.
"Right, sorry," Kara said as she went back to her side.
A bit of an odd reaction... I didn't have much time to contemplate the meaning behind it as Mr. Fang started the next fight. Once again Scarlet came running at me. This time once she reached me, she used one dagger to push my sword down and spin around to hit me with the other. 'Clever' I thought as I barely managed to move out of the way. Kara continues to push me. Although she has gotten better in a matter of a few seconds and is rapidly improving, she isn't doing enough precision allowing me to move out of the way.
Just dodging like this makes me feel like a martial arts master! I laugh to myself. Kara and I continue 'dancing' along the arena with her mostly pushing. She is good at pushing people, but what happens when she is the one being pushed? She swung both daggers from above coming at me, so I used the opportunity to block it and get close to her. I manage to close the distance between us enough that I am only about an inch or two away.
Almost immediately she stumbled a little bit to get back, but before she could jump back, I swept her legs causing her to fall.
"Oof!" She exclaimed as she hit the floor.
"You got better fast!" I smiled as I held my hand out to her. "I hope you were able to learn from our fight, I know I did"
"You learned something from me...?" Kara said confused as she hesitantly took my hand.
"Much." I smiled.
"Thank you." She says calmly. "I learned a lot as well. I will practice it!"
I smiled at her determination. She didn't become a legend in the game by accident.
"Well, look who is learning how to teach!" Mr. Fang exclaimed. "I guess you did learn a thing or two from me."
"Try most of what I know!" I laugh.
"Most?" Scarlet asks.
"I learned from Kara, from you, from the dungeon, and some other things here and there," I responded like it didn't matter too much.
"Well isn't that an honor!" Mr. Fang chuckled. "Scarlet, are you ready to face Adrian?"
Scarlet nods and gets up. She then walks across from me on the other side of the arena. We both take our fighting stance, staring the other down.
"Right then." Mr. Fang starts. "On your mark! Get set. Begin!"