Chapter 20: Duel

As the sun rose above the horizon, Nadran walked out toward the arena, a dark look on his face. Catching himself, he shook his head and inhaled deeply, trying to calm his emotions. [There's no use in thinking more about it. It's already happened, and I can't change that.] He looked up into the sky, but his mind formed a smirking face out of the clouds. Nadran trembled, then shakily took a breath. [It's been years, but… I guess I still can't handle thinking about HIM.]

Before he knew it, Nadran had arrived at the arena. The person he had challenged was standing smugly on the stage, acting as though victory was already in his grasp. Meanwhile, a small crowd of people was waiting for the duel to start, talking amongst themselves. They seemed to be on friendly terms with his opponent, and their looks were filled with mockery and disdain as they glanced his way.

Nadran didn't care about these glances, and calmly walked up onto the stage, before jumping up to his starting position. This arena was a flat circle, about 50 feet in diameter, and the participants started standing opposite each other.

"So, you actually showed up," his opponent said arrogantly. I was worried you would run off after challenging me. After all, you chose to challenge the mighty Selek, and-"

Nadran turned to the third person who had walked onto the stage, who was presumably some kind of referee, and asked in a monotone voice, "Can we start the fight now?"

The referee looked surprised, but nodded her head, replying "You may begin on the count of three."

Nadran's challenger, who was apparently named Selek, froze with a grimace on his face as he was simultaneously ignored and interrupted by the opponent he was looking down on, causing his anger to flare up. He didn't say any more, but instead entered a ready state, waiting for the match to begin.

Nadran prepared himself for the coming duel as well, calming his breathing and readying his stance. [I'm glad that guy shut up, he was getting annoying real fast. Anyways, this should be helpful for my combat experience. While there is only one opponent, he should be more powerful and flexible than the individual shadows I was fighting yesterday. It's one thing to deal with a horde of weaker enemies, but another thing altogether to fight a single, stronger enemy. The tactics and approach are totally different.]

Nadran's internal monologue was interrupted by the beginning of a countdown from the referee. Nadran shook his head to dispel his lingering thoughts and mentally readied his wyvern claws sigil, going over its arrangement so he wouldn't forget halfway through.

"3, 2, 1, Begin!"

With that, 2 different sigils simultaneously began taking shape in the arena, one gray, one purple. The gray sigil was completed much faster, but not because of a large difference in complexity between the sigils. It was simply due to the fact that Selek was much faster in tracing his sigil. He was finished in a few seconds, and drew a sword, which now had bolts of pale-yellow lightning flickering across the blade.

[It seems like he is the kind that relies on his own combat skills, with his sigils being a complementary force. Actually, that's not that different from me. This could be interesting.] Nadran maintained his blank expression, but was internally assessing the situation all the while.

Selek rushed forward before Nadran could finish his sigil. "Such slow casting speed, who are you going to defeat with that?" he ridiculed, slashing his sword toward Nadran.

Nadran didn't respond to the provocation, merely continuing to trace his sigil. He was nearing the end of his cast, but he would not get to finish it uninterrupted. Still continuing to trace the sigil, he ducked under the blade, sweeping out one of his legs in an attempt to throw his foe off balance.

Selek stumbled back, caught completely off guard by Nadran's counterattack. He quickly regained his balance, but by then Nadran had already completed his incantation. A faint purple glow encased Nadran's hands and forearms, forming a pair of translucent, clawed gauntlets.

Selek's annoyance at failing to interrupt the incantation was quickly replaced by ridicule as he saw Nadran's weapons of choice. "You're going to fight me with those claws? There's no way those puny things can compare to the reach of my sword! How do you expect to beat me with that?"

Nadran slightly cocked his head to the side upon hearing this before replying in a flat tone. "If you think reach is the only valuable trait of a weapon, then why aren't you using a lance?"

Selek's mouth twitched violently at these sarcastic words. He had never been the calm and collected type, and was quickly incensed by his opponent's jab. Letting out a roar, he charged at Nadran.

[I wonder what his combat style is?] Nadran contemplated as he watched Selek approach. Despite having no real teacher, Nadran had learned a surprising amount from the lectures he had snuck into. While the lectures were focused on sigils, many sigils were intrinsically tied to certain fighting styles and techniques which needed to be discussed alongside the sigils, causing his theoretical knowledge to be quite extensive.

In terms of experience, Nadran was not a master of martial arts or anything of the sort, having spent so much time slowly and arduously training in sigils. This did not mean he could not fight, however. He just knew that without sigils to complement ones' strength, it would be difficult to even pierce a simple barrier sigil. This was widely accepted to be true, and most people focused almost exclusively on sigil training, seeing combat techniques as purely supplementary.

Nadran did not completely buy into this philosophy, but his first goal was to support his family, and thus he hadn't spent as much time on combat as he would have liked. Despite this, Nadran had at least found his preferred fighting style; one focused largely on evasion and precise strikes. He found that he was most successful when he focused on exploiting openings and weaknesses, but he was still trying to develop a true fighting style to call his own.

[Maybe he's the type to overwhelm his enemy with a barrage of attacks, pressing the offensive until his opponent slips up? That seems likely based off his posture… In that case, I should be ready to disrupt his rhythm.] Nadran steadied his breathing, his violet eyes staring forward, trying to read Selek's every movement.

Selek wildly swung his sword down in an overhead slash, prompting Nadran to dodge to one side. [That first attack was too telegraphed, he is surely planning to chain it into an upward slash toward my new position, thinking I'll be caught off guard. If I preempt that attack, I may have the room for a counter.]

Nadran quickly positioned one of his claws to block the expected trajectory of the follow-up. However, no attack came. Nadran quickly realized that, rather than continuing his assault, Selek was stumbling past him due to his forward momentum, clearly off-balance. [What is he doing? Is he trying to bait me into letting my guard down? How would he even pull off an attack in that position?]

Nadran watched intently as Selek began to regain his balance, then sent out a probing roundhouse kick toward Selek's back. To Nadran's surprise, Selek was cleanly hit by the kick, and fell forward, landing hard on his elbows and knees. Nadran slowly walked toward his downed foe, trying to control his confusion. [Does this guy… actually know how to fight? It seems like he doesn't even know the basic sword forms. But in that case, why would he act so arrogantly and sure of himself? I haven't even actually used my claws yet, other than to block an attack that never came…]

Selek knelt on the ground, panting heavily due to frustration. His knuckles whitened as his grip on his sword tightened. As he heard the footsteps approaching from behind him, he let out an incoherent scream of rage before pushing himself off the ground, swinging his sword in a wide arc around his body.

Nadran quickly determined the path of the blade, and did not stop his movement. He allowed the tip of the sword to sweep harmlessly by him, missing by almost half a foot. After this, Nadran reached out his clawed arm, bringing it to rest against Selek's exposed neck. The tip of the claws lightly brushed against Selek's Adam's Apple, causing him to flinch back in fear.

The anger in Selek's eyes now replaced by terror, he nervously squeaked "I-I concede." With that, the claws were drawn away from his neck. With a vaguely disappointed look on his face, Nadran turned away and began walking off the stage.

"It seems… I overestimated him," Nadran muttered, wishing he could have had a closer fight to improve his combat experience. This comment was overheard by Selek, who began trembling in humiliation. Nadran did not heed his downed foe, however, and calmly walked off the stage.

"The-the victor is Nadran Drasnor." The referee quickly recovered from her surprise before announcing the results. This sentence also snapped the spectators out of their shock, causing a ripple of murmurs to spread throughout the crowd.

"What just happened? It's over just like that?"

"Yeah, Selek asked me to come watch him destroy someone, but he was the one who got destroyed. Did he have any idea how strong his opponent was? It seems like he went in totally unprepared."

"Haha, that's what he gets for underestimating his opponent. Still, though, who is that guy? I've never seen him before."

"I'm not sure either. I'm going to ask around, there's no way someone that strong doesn't have a reputation."

"Wait, now that I think about it, although his sigil color was weird, weren't the energy fluctuations only at the level of a low slate cultivator? Selek is a high slate cultivator, but he still didn't stand a chance. I guess he made up for this deficit with his superior fighting skills."

Nadran didn't care about all the things that were being said, however. Without another word, he walked off the stage, then continued toward his room. With the duel out of the way, the next item on his to-do list was the alchemy mission he'd taken. [I hope this pill refinement request is more interesting than that fight was. Seriously, though, I hope I can find a sparring partner or something similar to practice against. Without opponents to try things out against, most of my theories and strategies will remain untested. The last thing I want is to end up dying due to a lack of combat experience if someone strong attacks me. Hm, the challenge pavilion will be useful, but the artificial foes there likely won't be able to respond with the insight and creativity of an actual person. Well, I'll just keep this in the back of mind and hope I come across someone suitable. Right now, though, I need to get ready to do some pill refining.]

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Selek stalked angrily down the road as dusk arrived, trying to contain the rage in his heart. He had never been humiliated like this before, and even his 'friends' laughed at his crushing defeat. Unable to take it, he ran off, stewing in his embarrassment turned anger. At this point, he had already walked for miles, no destination in mind, and found himself on an otherwise empty road that passed through a nearby forest.

"This is all his fault… if he hadn't gotten lucky and knocked me over, I never would have lost, I never would have been laughed at by everyone… I'm going to kill him, I swear I'll kill him, I'm going to make him suffer even more than I did!"

Selek suddenly felt a piercing pain in the back of his neck. Before he realized what had happened, his eyes bulged out as he let out a soundless scream, his limbs convulsing as he fell to the ground. As his face warped into an expression of shock and disbelief, the light slowly faded from his eyes.

Quiet footsteps approached the fallen figure. A figure cloaked in a long, black, hooded robe knelt beside Selek's body, and one delicate hand was placed on his back, while the other pulled a crimson needle out of his neck.

As the sun dipped below the horizon, a breeze fluttered through the forest, blowing back the hood. In the dying light, the face of a young woman was revealed. While she appeared beautiful, there was something unnerving and unnatural about her appearance that set people on edge. She closed her black eyes, dipping her head toward Selek's corpse.

"It seems… you have lingering resentments," a quiet voice calmly stated. "Worry not, for you will have your revenge. Then, you will be able to find true peace."

As she looked at the body before her, a faint smile played across her lips.