I Stopped Simping and the Heroines Lost Their Minds

Arthur woke the next morning to his ribs immediately reminding him about Marek Holt.

He lay carefully on the guest room mattress, staring at the ceiling. The fresh linen wraps Nessa had secured last night were still tight, but the deep bruises beneath them throbbed heavily. His left shoulder felt as though someone had been enthusiastically hitting it with a heavy wooden board for several hours, which was essentially exactly what had happened.

The heavy striking sounds from across the compound were gone. The morning was completely quiet.

Arthur slowly pulled himself out of bed, grimacing as his chest protested the movement. He dressed carefully, favoring his right side, and headed downstairs. He fully expected Kael to look at least equally exhausted, given that the idiot had apparently been abusing the training yard until late into the night.

Kael was already sitting at the table, eating a massive plate of food. He looked annoyingly cheerful.

Arthur stopped near his chair and looked at him. ”How late were you training?”

Kael shrugged around a mouthful of eggs. ”Not late.”

Adrian looked up from his coffee. ”It was late.”

Kael ignored him entirely.

Arthur pulled out his chair and sat down carefully. Looking at Kael’s completely functional body only made him want that damn Ironblood Elixir more.

With Arthur and Kael fighting for a place in the final that afternoon, the tournament naturally dominated breakfast.

Gareth remained completely neutral, eating without offering tactical advice to either side of the table. Seraphina handled the practical logistics, confirming their match times, arranging the family vehicle, and asking if Arthur needed his ribs re-wrapped before they left for the arena.

Emily sat beside Arthur, eating normally, though her knee occasionally bumped his under the table.

Kael, completely unable to help himself, kept trying to figure out what Arthur planned to do.

”That shield trick won’t work on me,” Kael noted casually, reaching for another piece of bread.

Arthur ignored him and kept eating.

A few minutes later, Kael tried again. ”And don’t bother trying to drag me off balance either.”

Arthur finally looked across the table at him. ”Anything else you’d like to warn me about?”

Kael realized he was doing it again and shut his mouth. Adrian hid a quiet smile behind his coffee cup.

When breakfast finished, the family scattered briefly to gather their equipment.

Arthur walked back toward the guest wing to grab his competition dagger. As he crossed the main entrance hall, he saw Nessa carrying a stack of fresh linens. She was busy managing the household logistics for the remaining tournament guests.

She noticed him passing. Her dark eyes flicked briefly toward his chest, checking the line beneath his jacket.

Arthur caught her looking, and Nessa met his eyes without breaking stride.

”Still intact?” Nessa asked as they crossed paths.

Arthur lightly touched his ribs. ”Mostly.”

”I meant the bandage,” she said smoothly.

She kept walking toward the guest wing without slowing, leaving Arthur watching her back for a second before he headed for the entrance.

The atmosphere at the central arena felt distinctly different today.

There were far fewer competitors crowding the halls. The massive field of fighters had been brutally pared down, and the spectators were now heavily concentrated around the few remaining names on the boards.

Arthur and Kael’s semifinal had attracted more attention than either of their previous matches. Both names carried the Thorne Main Dojo tag, and Arthur heard more than one spectator commenting on the guest archer Gareth had sponsored somehow ending up against Gareth’s own son.

Arthur heard his name mentioned a few times as they walked through the crowds, but nobody bothered them.

Before heading to the competitors’ corridor, Arthur scanned the massive updated bracket boards near the entrance.

His own side of the bracket had become much simpler.

Arthur Vance — Thorne Main Dojo vs. Kael Thorne — Thorne Main Dojo

One of them would be fighting in the final.

On the opposite side of the board, Emily still had her own late-round match scheduled later that afternoon. Adrian and Corwin Vale were both still alive on routes that could eventually cross.

Emily walked Arthur toward the waiting area.

”Anything useful?” Arthur asked as they neared the doors.

Emily thought about it for a moment. ”Kael is going to hit you.”

Arthur looked at her. ”Your entire family gives excellent tactical advice.”

Emily caught the front of his jacket. ”Don’t assume he’ll make the same mistakes he made when you sparred.”

Arthur glanced toward the waiting area. Kael’s recent matches had already proved that much.

Emily gave Arthur a short, firm kiss, then stepped back. ”Win.”

She turned and headed toward the family’s section of the stands.

Arthur found Kael already waiting near the entrance to Ring Two.

Kael looked genuinely excited, rolling his broad shoulders and checking his heavy competition short sword. He looked down at Arthur’s blunted weapon.

”You know I already know what that thing does now,” Kael said.

Arthur glanced down at his dagger. ”It’s a dagger.”

”You know what I mean.”

”Arthur Vance. Kael Thorne. Ring Two.”

The whistle shrieked.

Kael closed the distance the instant the whistle sounded.

Arthur angled away sharply. Kael cut him off, his heavy boots slamming against the mat. Arthur shifted again, trying to create space on the opposite side. Kael stayed right on top of him.

For the first few seconds, it felt unpleasantly familiar. Darius had chased Arthur until there was nowhere left to breathe. Kael was worse in a different way. He was watching Arthur closely while he pressured.

Arthur tried a familiar Silent Knife escape, slipping his shoulder to duck inside Kael’s reach.

Kael adjusted his stance before Arthur even finished the motion. The heavy practice sword snapped down, cleanly clipping Arthur’s shoulder before he could clear the danger zone.

The whistle blew. Reset. First touch to Kael.

Kael grinned across the mat as they backed away. ”I’ve watched all your matches.”

That was exactly the problem.

As the fight resumed, Arthur tested Kael with a shallow feint toward the guard, looking for the kind of defensive commitment Marek had eventually given him.

Kael answered the shallow feint by attacking straight through it, forcing Arthur to scramble clear before the sword connected.

A minute later, when Kael pressed aggressively forward, Arthur tried yielding to the pressure, attempting to drag Kael’s balance sideways.

Kael recognized the body position instantly. He sharply pulled his weight backward, killing his own momentum entirely before Arthur could exploit it.

Kael laughed. ”Saw that too.”

Arthur had watched plenty of Kael too. The tournament had tightened his discipline, but that aggressive streak was still there. Once Kael smelled a real advantage, he pushed harder.

Arthur began using the ring space more carefully, giving ground at awkward angles and changing direction whenever Kael settled into the chase. Kael kept adjusting with him, refusing to give Arthur an easy turn.

Arthur finally caught something.

Kael pressed him aggressively toward the outer edge of the mat. He stepped in hard and angled his body to shut down the obvious sideways escape.

Arthur instead stepped directly toward him.

The aggressive forward movement surprised Kael for half a beat. Arthur used Silent Knife to slip his dagger line smoothly inside the larger man’s reach.

But Kael reacted incredibly fast. He dropped his arm, violently catching and deflecting Arthur’s weapon arm before the dagger could score.

Suddenly, they were pressed close together.

He drove Arthur backward using raw physical strength. Arthur’s bruised ribs screamed as they slammed together. Arthur immediately tried using leverage to break Kael’s balance.

Kael felt the shift and widened his footing before Arthur could turn him. Kael twisted his arm free and landed a clean, solid strike against Arthur’s side.

The whistle blew. Reset.

Up in the stands, Emily watched the exchange with a serious expression.

”He really watched everything,” she muttered.

Adrian nodded slowly beside her. ”Of course he did.”

Gareth watched in silence.

Arthur returned to his mark with his side throbbing. Kael had an answer every time Arthur tried to get clever at close range.

Arthur stopped trying to get close.

When Kael advanced again, Arthur gave him three steps instead of one, changed his angle before the sword came down, and made him turn. On the next approach, Arthur stopped short, forcing Kael to check his own momentum. The exchange after that ended before it even began when Arthur slipped sideways and made Kael reset his feet.

The bow was missing. The habits it had taught him weren’t.

He gave ground at angles that made Kael keep turning. He stopped unexpectedly, forcing Kael to rapidly restart his own acceleration. Arthur used his enhanced Perception to watch for the moment Kael shifted from following him to committing to an attack.

It started making the fight significantly less comfortable for Kael. Arthur wasn’t suddenly dominating the exchanges, but Kael was suddenly having to work much harder to maintain the same level of pressure.

Kael adjusted again.

Sometimes he charged aggressively. Sometimes he took a single heavy step and waited. Sometimes he postured like he was about to unleash heavy pressure, only to stand perfectly still. On one exchange, Arthur shifted early expecting the pressure to continue and nearly walked himself straight into Kael’s sword line.

Kael smiled across the mat.

Arthur’s first clean touch came when Kael stepped in to close the distance. He changed angle just as Kael committed and slipped a clean dagger touch onto his arm before he could square himself.

The whistle blew. Reset.

Arthur was finally on the board.

Kael’s smile disappeared for a second.

The longer the fight dragged on, the harder Arthur’s ribs became to ignore. One messy collision caught the bruised side again and sent pain stabbing through his chest. His next breath came shorter than the last.

Kael noticed.

Kael’s pressure increased immediately. Arthur couldn’t afford to let this become a long fight.

He noticed that Kael had begun repeatedly cutting off his escape toward his right side, anticipating the movement.

Arthur tested it once. Kael aggressively closed the route again. Arthur gave ground.

A minute later, Arthur deliberately let himself drift back toward that exact same side.

Kael saw the familiar position and stepped hard across the escape route.

There.

Arthur changed direction sharply, abandoning the escape and diving directly inside Kael’s extended guard.

Kael reacted instantly. The two of them crashed violently together. Arthur managed to get the blunted dagger halfway toward a clean scoring line on Kael’s chest.

Kael’s hand shot out and caught Arthur’s wrist in a vise grip.

Arthur immediately abandoned the strike and caught Kael’s weapon arm.

For a breathless second, they were locked close together, both men fighting desperately for leverage as their boots scraped across the mat.

Kael grinned right in his face, his eyes alight with competition. ”Got you.”

Arthur, already shifting his footing underneath the grapple, stared right back.

”Maybe.”