I Stopped Simping and the Heroines Lost Their Minds

The referee’s whistle had barely finished sounding when Arthur crossed the distance between them.

Corwin brought the saber up immediately, trying to reclaim the comfortable range he had controlled in the opening exchanges. Arthur was ready for it this time. He knocked the flat aside with his forearm and kept moving, forcing Corwin backward before the longer weapon could settle between them again.

Arthur stepped inside and showed the beginning of a committed dagger strike. Corwin shifted to meet it, but Arthur cut the attack short and moved sideways before the counter could develop. They came out of the exchange without a touch, circling back toward the center.

Corwin regarded him for a moment.

”Better.”

”Emily said you say that,” Arthur replied.

Corwin’s mouth twitched before he came forward again.

Arthur stepped in and left before his dagger followed, showed Corwin the beginning of the same retreat twice, then stopped the second one almost as soon as it began. A shoulder turn that had preceded an attack earlier led nowhere this time.

Corwin answered by pressing forward himself. The saber came at Arthur in longer sequences now, forcing him backward before he could spend too long testing another entry.

Arthur showed him a familiar inside entry, stepping heavy on his lead foot.

Corwin changed his guard early, raising the hilt to close the line Arthur had attacked before.

Arthur saw the guard changing and let the attack he had intended die with it. Corwin’s forearm was exposed for only a moment.

The dagger snapped into it.

The whistle shrieked. The referee pointed to Arthur, and the board above the ring pulled them level.

Corwin looked down at his forearm, then across at Arthur. ”That was ugly.”

”It counted,” Arthur pointed out.

”Unfortunately.”

Kael celebrated loudly enough for several people around him to look over.

”It is literally one point,” Emily told him.

Corwin came forward sooner after the reset, and Arthur met him halfway. Within seconds the comfortable distance between them was gone.

The saber still controlled the open space, but whenever Arthur managed to crowd past its reach, the exchange turned rough. Their shoulders collided more than once, with wrists caught and weapon arms jammed before either man could finish cleanly. Corwin’s greater strength repeatedly forced Arthur to move rather than plant himself and wrestle for position.

”That looked terrible,” Kael announced from the stands.

Adrian didn’t look away from the ring. ”It worked.”

Kael still looked offended by the aesthetics of it. ”It still looked terrible.”

Emily glanced sideways at him. ”You say that like your fights are elegant.”

On the next exchange, Corwin gave Arthur the space he wanted.

Arthur stepped deep inside the saber’s arc. He brought the dagger up, but Corwin shifted his grip on the hilt, stepping into the space instead of away from it. He used the crossguard to jam Arthur’s arm, turned his body into the gap, and forced Arthur sideways. The saber whipped around on the exit, close enough that Arthur had to twist sharply away. Corwin followed him out with no sign that the cramped exchange had bothered him at all.

Minutes passed without another clean touch. Arthur got the dagger close to Corwin’s shoulder once, only for Corwin to knock his wrist aside before contact. A little later Corwin deliberately gave ground near the boundary, and Arthur stopped rather than repeat Emily’s mistake by chasing.

Corwin answered by increasing the pressure whenever Arthur tried to reset. Twice Arthur had to abandon an entry before it was ready, and one Silent Knife transition died almost as soon as it began when the saber arrived in the space Arthur needed.

Arthur clicked his tongue after another promising line vanished behind Corwin’s saber.

Corwin’s chest was heaving now too, sweat dripping from his chin as he reset.

Arthur stopped following the saber itself.

Corwin’s shoulder moved before the blade did. His lead foot adjusted before he changed direction, and there was a small shift through his hips whenever he prepared to drive forward. Those were familiar things to watch; the same small movements had always mattered when Arthur was judging when to release an arrow.

When Corwin came in again, Arthur moved a fraction earlier.

It wasn’t enough to dominate the exchanges, but it was enough to make Corwin adjust sooner than before.

Arthur drove Corwin toward the boundary and kept pressing until Corwin planted his feet and shifted the saber to meet the next entry. Arthur stopped short instead. Corwin’s guard moved toward the attack that never came, and Arthur immediately cut to a new angle.

The dagger slipped past the saber and brushed against Corwin’s competition armor.

The referee kept his hand down. Not clean enough.

Kael shouted an objection. Corwin stepped back, exhaling sharply, and glanced once at the spot Arthur’s dagger had brushed.

The crowd had grown quieter between exchanges. Emily leaned over the railing now, while Gareth sat beside her without moving.

Corwin came forward as soon as the referee released them againn, putting Arthur under pressure before he had fully settled. Arthur slipped the first strike, redirected the second with the flat of his dagger, and braced for the third.

The third never came.

Corwin stepped smoothly inside instead. His shoulder crashed into Arthur’s chest.

Arthur lost his balance for half a step, stumbling backward. Corwin’s saber snapped toward Arthur’s shoulder, missing as Arthur twisted away.

They kept moving, separating without a whistle.

After the next brief clinch, Arthur tried slipping out to the right, but Corwin shifted with him and blocked the route before he could pull free. Arthur immediately changed direction, only to run into Corwin’s weight again. At this distance the saber couldn’t swing cleanly, but Arthur’s dagger was trapped just as effectively. Corwin leaned his weight into the clinch and started walking him backward.

The crowd grew louder as Arthur tried the sharp turn that had saved him against Kael. Corwin moved with it rather than driving past, keeping the pressure steady and forcing Arthur back another step, then another.

”Running out of room,” Corwin said.

Arthur glanced down just long enough to see the boundary beside his heel. ”I noticed.”

Corwin pressed again.

Arthur’s heel came down on the line.