Chapter 16: En Garde!

For training Braydon usually wore a full gambeson armour, he'd need the padding if he were fighting Rhydian. Rhydian had forbade him from using plate armour in training. Something about him taking the full brunt of the attacks he received, instead of the armour negating it. While Braydon knew that was what plate armour was meant to do, he did not know why Rhydian insisted. He was sure that Rhydian had the skill to defeat him easily even if he wore full platemail on top of the gambeson he already had.

The difference from usual combat is that they were using swords with dulled blades. They would hurt, as Rhydian would soon show, but it would be very hard to draw blood. For the purposes of the duel Rhydian would be using the same sword as Braydon, a standard long-sword. Not that Rhydian was in much danger even when using a smaller sword than usual, Braydon knew he was outclassed.

"Usual rules?" Rhydian asked.

"Of course. Best of five. Being taken off your feet, disarmed or forced to surrender is a loss." Braydon knew that Rhydian asked that for the peanut gallery more than him, they did the same thing every time. And it was not exactly non standard, this was a normal format for competition duels across Fiveria and the surrounding countries.

"Whenever you are ready, Sire."

Braydon was always allowed the first move, Rhydian was physically stronger than him. Combined with his skill, Braydon might not even last one move if he were to make the second move. They had started circling each other, Braydon looking for any opportunity to attack. None came, Rhydian had his sword tailing behind him and Braydon had seen how quick he was at responding.

He decided to go for it, Rhydian was not going to attack first anyway, swinging his sword with a low blow towards Rhydian's arm. And it was promptly voided. Rhydian had stepped aside with ample room. He countered with a wide swing from his right. This forced Braydon to bring his sword back to block before parrying it away.

Braydon then drew back. He had learned that hard way that he did not have the speed to follow the parry with a counter. Rhydian had managed to use many attacks, different each time to force his surrender from that.

This time Rhydian came at him with an overhead thrust. He pushed it to the side, stepping in. Then he gripped the blade of his sword to us the pommel like a club. This surprised Rhydian. He had no way of voiding at such a distance.

Braydon's sword stopped next to Rhydian's ear. He had won the first round.

"So that was the new technique you were working on." Rhydian said. Impressed.

"Well I had to learn something I had not done before to even stand a chance of winning one round. Half swording, against you who primarily uses great-swords, seemed like a winner."

"You know there are still three or four rounds left right? It won't happen again." 'I know that but I at least need to win once, to show off to my men.' Looking around the men were definitely impressed.

"If you are going to shatter their impression of me, do it gently."

"Haha, we'll see. You used me to impress the ladies, it will cost you." He didn't like the sound of that.

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He lost. Miserably. Braydon didn't stand a chance in the other three rounds. Rhydian knew his moves inside and out. Not to mention he would not let Braydon pull off an upset with the same move twice. At least he had won once, showing that he was not totally incompetent. Nobody in the castle could say that they could win a round against Rhydian. Heck, it was the first time that he had done it!

He had yet to change out of his training clothes but knew he had 3 very large bruises on his body. Not to mention he was sore all over from the training Rhydian put him through afterwards. The duel was just a warm up. The real thing was the repetitive swings and blocks and parries that Rhydian had made him go through. Ten of each move, restarting if he made a mistake.

The crowd had long disbursed when they were going through repetitive moves. It was a rather boring thing to watch. And it was nowhere near as interesting as a duel. It was more painful just watching the grueling training lasting for hours. They had long missed evening meal whilst training, the hunger making it more painful. So as soon as they were done, even before removing their armour was to go to the kitchens to eat. The kitchen hands were much more comfortable with his presence than they were to begin with. He had eaten late too many times not to.

When he left the kitchens with Rhydian, they saw Nela waiting for them, Mireille in tow. Rhydian excused himself, heading to his quarters for the night.

"Why are you still waiting here for me at this hour? I'm sure you guys are tired after the journey today, you should get some rest." Braydon was confused, Nela usually spoke to him during the day over a meal. Granted he did just skip the last one.

"I just wanted to congratulate you on winning a round against Rhydian. Gerald tells me this is the first time." 'That's it?'

"Why thank you, but you could have just done this tomorrow." Braydon was still unsure why they had not just waited for tomorrow to say this. It did not seem all that urgent and they had not much planned for the day.

"Well, I had planned to do that but Mea told me that Mireille had stayed to watch the whole of your training. She refused to budge, so Mea brought her food whilst she watched. Appears she was enamoured by your performance." She stifled a giggle when she felt the girl tug on her dress from behind, enjoying her embarrassment.

"Are you sure that was not Rhydian, I got my arse handed to me quite solidly back there." Before Nela could respond they both saw Mireille shake her head with a tinge of red on her face. Now Nela openly giggled at this.

"No, I am quite certain it was you."

"Err… Thank you?" He had no clue how to respond. What was he even meant to say to that? Not that Nela's constant giggling at both of their actions was helping any. 'I almost thought she lost her touch after the Gerald-Aran combination, no such luck.'

"Are you sure you just want to watch me train? Isn't it boring?" He had to ask, even he found watching Rhydian drill the men monotonous.

"Boring, but you." She replied, her voice quiet. Her expression still not changing throughout. The only way of telling something about her was different was that her usually pale white face was a light shade of red.

"..." He wanted to respond but his brain had short circuited at the sight of Mireille being embarrassed. Only realising he was staring when Nela waved her hand in front of his face with a knowing smile. His face going red too.

"What?".

*giggle*

"Oh, nothing."