Shattered Sanity

(Academy Arena Number 4)

Once both fighters had taken their starting positions, the appointed match referee, Academy Dueling Instructor Professor Jude, stepped into the center of the battleground and looked towards both First Years.

”This fight will be conducted under standard Academy rules. If there is no decisive victor within fifteen minutes, the result will be determined by the judges’ scores. You both understand?” Professor Jude asked, as Riven and Gary nodded simultaneously.

”Good. I want a nice, clean fight. No deliberate maiming and absolutely no attacks to the family jewels. We don’t want the future generations of the Ironveil and Dawnriver bloodlines ending here, do we?” Professor Jude joked, as Gary chuckled while Riven maintained a completely straight face.

”All right, then. You can touch weapons if you want,” Professor Jude said, as he began retreating towards the edge of the battleground. ”Fight!”

The crowd immediately erupted into cheers as Riven and Gary walked several steps forward for the customary touching of weapons.

Clink

The tip of Sky-Cleaver gently touched Gary’s longsword, and almost immediately, Riven’s expression changed as every distraction surrounding him disappeared from his mind.

’All right. This is my chance.’

Riven thought, as he immediately swung Sky-Cleaver with tremendous force, deliberately targeting Gary’s sword and expecting him to block the incoming strike.

However, Gary did no such thing.

Instead of meeting Sky-Cleaver’s blade directly, Gary angled his longsword and deflected the halberd away from himself, before immediately stepping forward and slipping past the weapon’s head.

Riven’s eyes widened. Gary had bypassed his weapons effective range, and was now fighting him in close quarters which was not ideal for him.

’I need to get away. I can’t destroy his weapon at this range....’

Riven thought, as he tried to step back, however, before he could reset his stance, Gary’s longsword was already coming towards him, forcing Riven to rotate the halberd and block using its reinforced shaft.

Clang!

Gary attacked again.

Clang! Clang!

Riven blocked desperately as another sequence of sword strikes followed, with Gary remaining close enough that Sky-Cleaver’s enormous blade had practically become useless.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Riven was driven backwards relentlessly, as the strategy he and Circuit had spent so long developing began falling apart before his eyes.

Their entire plan depended upon forcing repeated collisions between Sky-Cleaver and Gary’s Academy-issued sword until the inferior weapon became damaged enough for Riven to hook and disarm it.

However, never in his wildest imagination had Riven considered that Gary could simply refuse to block Sky-Cleaver altogether.

Worse still, neither he nor Circuit had properly accounted for what happened if Gary bypassed the halberd’s ideal range entirely.

At this distance, the enormous blade that gave Sky-Cleaver its advantage had effectively been reduced to dead weight, while Riven was forced to defend himself using the weapon’s shaft as though he were carrying an oversized iron rod.

’Fuck!’

Riven cursed internally, as he jumped backwards and desperately attempted to create enough separation to bring Sky-Cleaver’s blade back into play.

However, much to his dismay, Gary immediately followed like a leech.

”You’re not running away from me, Dawnriver!”

Gary muttered with excitement clearly visible in his eyes, as with each blow that Riven successfully blocked, the speed of his subsequent attack increased, until Riven could almost not even see his movements anymore.

’Fuck, fuck, fuck. If this goes on, I’ll end up humiliating myself big time.’

Riven thought, as his heart began to beat out of his chest, while his mind raced for solutions that simply weren’t there.

His entire battle strategy hinged on him disarming Gary during the early stage of the fight, and with him failing to do so, he now had no more hidden tricks to fight back with.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

The sound of metal clashing against metal continued to grow louder and louder, however, even the onlookers could see that it was simply Gary in charge of the tempo of the fight, while Riven was desperately struggling to block, as a smug smile quickly spread on House Aureate members.

”Hahahaha! Look at Dawnriver, he can’t even hold his ground against Gary.”

”Oh boy, I do hope Dawnriver manages to survive till third minute, after all, I placed a wager that Gary wins after the third minute.”

”Hahaha! Gary is thrashing Riven, the same way Aureate will thrash Argent in the house competition this year.”

”This is why sword is the most popular choice of weapon for most warriors.

A Halberd looks impressive, but its toothless once you’re inside its effective range.”

The audience muttered, as House Aureate members cheered for Gary at the top of their lungs, while House Argent members sat at the edge of their seats hoping that Riven somehow made a comeback.

”Come on Dawnriver.... I’ll cut you like a dress up doll at this rate.

You must have some hidden storm spell you are holding back.

Hit me with it.”

Gary taunted, as the only reason behind why he was still cautious and not going in for the kill strike was because he believed that Riven was holding back on his hidden storm spells.

However, what he did not know was that there were no hidden storm spells.

That unlike him, Riven had never received formal combat training before entering the academy.

And that, his whole plan....

His ace in the hole, had already gone up in shambles, about 0.5 seconds after the bout began.

”You should start taking me seriously, Dawnriver.

If you don’t, this bout may end before it even begins.”

Gary warned, as he scored the first cut across Riven’s shoulder, drawing a thin line of blood.

At the same time, Riven suddenly felt the cold moisture of the wall against his back, making him realize that Gary had successfully driven him all the way to the brick boundary of the arena, leaving him with no more room to retreat.

This was it.

He either needed to come up with an unconventional solution to force his way out of this mess.

Or be humiliated in defeat in a bout where he failed to score a single hit from start to finish.