The Cyborg System-Chapter 55: Showing Promise

The Knight of the Haunting Veil had appeared to start this sparring match as usual, but secretly, she had been working on a new strategy, one which she hoped would allow her to finally defeat her opponent. As Sir William was stronger and his speed rivalled her own, perhaps even surpassing it slightly, she knew it was her ability she needed to utilise to win. But how could she beat an affinity that was known to be her own’s weakness? This is something she had pondered about for a long while, sitting down and considering the implications. She was laid in bed one night when it came to her.

Stronger abilities beat weaker ones all the time, but she would not say her own was any stronger than her opponents. So, what did she have left? The answer was shockingly simple. She just had to use her ability more efficiently than her opponent did. She had to re-examine what she had been taught for decades.

While it was typical that those of the School of Stone would harden an area a few moments before impact, it wasn’t just the struck area that would be fortified, but a small buffer around it also, perhaps a few inches. This would allow the strike to still be defended, even if the opponent changed directions at the last moment. However, the strikes from a strength user would be thrown with such force it would be difficult for them to change course. Not once they had committed. Also, by only activating the hardening as the strike was landing, a second or so of hardening could be reduced to fractions of a second. Sure, this seemed riskier, not allowing for much margin of error, but if the alternative was to waste so much essence in the first few strikes that she was unable to adequately defend herself later anyway, it wasn’t much of a choice.

Over the past few sessions, she had been practicing her timing with this new method. Sometimes, inevitably, she had left the hardening too late, or slightly misjudged the spot that would be impacted, but with practice, she had grown more confident, and this time, she would be going back to her usual aggressive style of fighting, whilst using her essence conservatively at the same time. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

She picked up her steel training shield, which was several inches thick, and the mace with no spikes on its head. She moved towards the centre of the mats with a grim look of determination on her face, obscured by her visor. Sir William, as expected, had approached with some speed, going straight for the strike, and was surprised to see that, instead of the usual check with the shield followed by a counterblow, she had gone for the strike also.

The simple steel armour she was wearing with no spirit essence was sliced through by his blade but met a thin strip of toughened flesh beneath which held firm. Sir William, on the other hand, had a large dent in the front of his chest piece, but it was still very much intact. They both followed up with another series of strikes, doing their best to evade or defend each other’s blows while landing their own. In terms of skill, they appeared to be evenly matched.

After a few minutes of this, both sets of armour were looking worse for wear. The Knight of the Haunting Veil had slashes all over her torso and helmet, but underneath she was fine. Whereas Sir William’s armour was covered in dents with thick welts underneath. He had not known what had gotten into her. She had been trying a more defensive approach recently, so this seemed to be out of character, and her essence was lasting a lot longer than it usually would. Had he underestimated her that much? Through aggravation, he had attempted to finish the fight with big strikes of his own, but realising his attacks were growing wilder, she had started to evade more often and use her shield instead of trading blow for blow. She knew he couldn’t maintain this level indefinitely.

Finally, she had noticed his swings had weakened. His essence must’ve been almost completely drained. In response, she swung her mace at his head, and he caught her by the wrist, holding it firm. He tried to swing down his sword at that moment, but it was bashed so hard by the shield it had fallen from his hand. Without hesitation, he had grabbed the lip of the shield and used all his strength to rip it from her hand, sending it skidding across the floor.

A hardened fist landed in his face, then another, and another. He swung back in response with his free hand, till they were both trading blows back and forth, but it was very apparent who was taking the most damage in these exchanges. Completely drained, he was unable to land a strike that would knock her out, and so instead simply used what little scraps of essence he could summon. He hadn’t felt this weak in a long time.

However, as a punch from a hardened fist sheared a piece of his helmet deep into his cheek, slicing through flesh, the words came out she never thought she would hear.

"I submit..."

He released her arm, and she dropped the mace to the floor. It landed with a thud. Falling to her knees, a wave of tears was released. It was only one battle, worse a sparring session, but for the first time, she thought she might stand a chance to move to that next level that few people ever managed.

She was going to become a national hunter. She was going to fight the monsters. She was going to get that beautiful sword which she had dreamed about since seeing in the forger’s room. And if anyone tried to take her down, if anyone tried to walk through her, she would be the immovable object that stood in their way.