10 Chapter 9

Johan and I were taking part in different 'tournaments' but the stages for both of them were near each other, so we could still sit together. Johan's tournament was for people ages ten through fourteen and mine was for ages five through nine. Luckily, Johan had gotten us registered in groups that fought without magic so I did not have to worry about being overpowered in such a way.

Despite the fact that the stages were somewhat small, the tournaments themselves were surprisingly big. The one that I was meant to take part in actually had thirty participants while Johan's had over fifty. Just by looking around, I could see that many of the participants for either tournament gathered on the benches around the stages were from wealthy or even noble backgrounds by their clothes and the way they carried themselves.

I had never been around for this part of the holiday in Rama, so I did not actually recognize anyone or know any events that might take place. However, as a mercenary I had been hired to represent this or that person or faction in larger scale tournaments so I was familiar with how these things would work. Such as 'seeding'.

Someone with a good background or a winner from the previous year would have special placement in the brackets, giving the winners or the privileged relatively easy fights early on to make them look good. The only things they had to worry about were the infamous 'dark horse'. Someone the people controlling the tournament originally thought were unassuming participants but turned out to be capable fighters.

Someone like me.

"My first fight is coming up," Johan says with both nervousness and excitement in his voice, watching the stage where he would be fighting. A fight was already underway between two boys of similar ages, both wielding light wooden practice swords. The tournament I was fighting in did not actually allow weapons, but the older kids like Johan would be.

I considered this a valuable opportunity to evaluate Johan's skill, it was unlikely that his father would not have taught him how to fight considering how old he was. Even if he only knew the basics taught to recruits, that was still enough to be of use to me. The enemies we faced would be an unruly mob of monsters held together only by a shared blood lust and fear of their evolved leader- many were even about as big as I was.

I had no idea who he would be up against, but still I said, "I'm sure you'll be fine. Just stay calm and keep your guard up."

Laughing, Johan says, "Wow, you almost sound like my father. 'The most important thing when fighting is to keep your head cool and your hands up'. That was when I was your age, though, now he just tells me to keep moving and let the other guy wear himself out."

"That's the kind of advice you could win with," I agree casually, smiling slightly as the fight on Johan's stage ends with a sudden series of quick thrusts interrupted by a harsh chop. The dude who was thrusting committed too much and leaned too far forward, providing an opening for his opponent to chop at his arm and disarm him from the pain. That was a real life example of 'keep moving and let the other guy wear himself out'.

As Johan got up to go to his stage, I briefly glanced at mine to see two kids a little older than me rolling around on the ground just ugly wrestling. It was not surprising, most of the kids had probably gotten talked into participating by friends, parents, or even enemies and did not want to actually get hurt. So, they would do what I saw now.

The original Hugo of either my or this life would have never joined one of these tournaments. He had never even been in an argument til after joining the academy, let alone a real fight. However, on top of the experience and getting to meet other potential future warriors, the prizes offered were not that bad.

In Johan's tournament, the second and third place winners were awarded monetary prizes while the actual winner was given the right to commission a real weapon of almost any kind to be made by one of the smithies sponsoring the event. In my contest, the second and third place winners were also given money but for first place was both a bag of coins as well as a large knife of fine quality. Even though this was a contest for kids, the grand prize itself was an advertisement of the smith's skills and thus little was held back in its crafting.

Just as Johan was climbing up onto his stage with a naked wooden pole he had chosen from a rack of training tools beside the stage, one of the kids on my stage manage to get his arm around the neck of the other and force them into submission. My fight was to be the third fight for my tournament, so I still had plenty of time to watch Johan's match. Besides, there really was not much of interest to watch on my stage where literal kids were fighting each other.

The person Johan was to fight was an older boy probably just young enough to participate in his tournament who stood a few inches taller than Johan and had quite a bit of weight to him. This boy held a short wooden sword in either hand but did not actually look like he knew what he was doing with them. Somebody like him would have been better suited to wielding long handled hatchets, straight forward weapons with the same reach as his current swords.

Wielding his pole like one would do with an actual ax, Johan calmly walked toward the center of the stage to meet the boy and await the start of their bout. Watching this, I quickly realized the only weapon Johan was actually familiar with was probably the ax he used for chopping wood. Although, from the way he stood and waited with the weapon held in front of himself, it did not seem like he was without practice or even actual training.

Maybe an ax was the weapon his father actually fought with in the legion, but every soldier was still trained to used a sword and spear as the basics.

Once the fight actually started, both Johan and his opponent closed the distance at the same time to try and take control of the fight. Despite wielding two swords, it quickly became clear by the emphasis the boy put on the weapon in his right hand that he lacked proper education in wielding two weapons. Johan lead with a thrust as if using a spear and the boy swatted it away with his right sword, but instead of pressing on with the left sword he tried to press with the one he had just used.

A half spin of his pole was enough to bat the boy's straightforward chop aside just like his thrust, but Johan more skillfully flicked the lower end of his pole up at the boy's midriff. Once again instead of using his left sword, the boy sidestepped backwards from the blow and retaliated with a thrust of his right sword. After a few more exchanges like this, something clicked in my head.

"Watch the left!" I called out to Johan as he started to get comfortable, pressing an advantage he thought he had with a series of thrusts. Just as Johan was started to over extend himself to create distance, the other boy once again sidestepped but inward to close the distance where he finally thrust his left sword at Johan. Luckily, Johan had heard me and used the butt of his pole to swing up from under the sword and knock the sword and arm holding it upward over the boy's head.

The lack of using his left sword was not a lack of skill or practice, it was a simple trap to make the opponent 'forget' he even had the second weapon. That, in itself, was somewhat tactful if not skillful. The skill would have been in succeeding in using that trap method, but Johan had a second pair of eyes outside the fight for him.

Pressing the new advantage, Johan quickly spun toward the boy's left and swung the top of his pole inward from the side, letting his leading hand slide down the shaft of the weapon like a proper ax swing to add leverage to the blow. The other boy quickly dropped and rolled out of the way of the attack, proving that he had decent reflexes at the very least. However, before he could get up from his roll, Johan deftly spun the pole between his hands for a bit of momentum and then chopped one end down from high up right across the boy's back from his outer shoulder to his inner ribs.

Despite the thick woolen clothes the other boy was wearing, Johan's strength was nothing to laugh at and caused the boy to grunt audibly as he splayed out on the ground. However, he was a big boy with a body that could take several blunt force blows and he quickly retaliated from the ground by swiping his left sword at Johan's legs. Johan easily backed off and out of the way of the attack with a quick hop, allowing the other boy to get back on his feet.

Once the other boy was back on his feet, I was quickly reminded of how I thought hatchets would be better weapons for him by the way he rushed at Johan was quick windmilling chops of either shortsword. Johan almost comfortable defended himself from these attacks by holding his pole up lengthwise in front of his body. However, the other boy quickly switched tactics and tried to thrust his left sword up from under his staff.

Johan, once again, was no pushover and easily blocked the attack by slamming the middle of his pole down and to the side against the thrusting sword to knock the attack wide away from his body. Having expected this, the other boy tries to follow up with and overhead chop of his right sword only for Johan to easily slam the middle of his staff upward to the opposite side for the same effect. Then, using his pole like a true staff, Johan deftly swung the left end up under the boy's raised arm to slam into his armpit before bouncing the staff off of his body to swing the other end around and into the boy's left arm.

He cried out in a mix of shock and pain as he dropped his sword and tried to back off, but Johan pushed forward with similar sets of side swipes that struck the boy about his arms and sides without giving him a chance to defend himself. Only a few seconds later, the other boy curled up on the ground and called out his forfeit of the fight. Only then did Johan stop harassing the poor boy.

Johan had, quite skillfully, won his first match. Now, as the two older boys on my stage were done kicking and wrestling, it was my turn to fight.