>What are we dueling with?
>Gauge opponent while fighting.
> Fight seriously.
> Note that pride of hers is a pretty fat target.
> You have your
Jian, a light, two-edged, one-handed sword, five-and-a-half handspans long and three fingers wide.
> Black-Jade is clearly a competent fighter, but her stance seems somewhat blurry, as if foreign combat styles have wormed their way into her technique. You're quite certain you see hints of staff-fighter and what looks like kusari-gama expertise. What is surprising is that even someone like her is not covering herself properly - her
pride is wide open, her
eyesight is undefended, as well as her
will to fight - you can spot weaknesses in that from a mile away - and her
loyalty. You are certain you would be able to find more weaknesses if you knew what to look for. The less said about her sword, the better.
> All this you see in the blink of an eye, before even Black-Jade makes her first step to lunge with her rapier.
> You are about to stop her sword with your open hand - a bloodless weapon like hers could never cut you - but instead you parry the lunge properly.
> And even in the parry you hold back - a careless motion might brush the sword's already weak sense of
being a weapon and shatter it to pieces.
> She is aggressive at least, and throws out a flurry of lunges and slashes, that you gently block.
> You are not used to fighting like this, like you are the only one in the fight who is not blind. At least the audience sounds entertained, from the murmurs you hear all around.
> You pick a moment between Black-Jade's strikes, a difficult timing when she subtly adjusts the sword's weight as she pulls her arm back, and flick your sword at her face, where her
pride shines brightly.
> She is quick enough that her eyes widen as the flat of your blade connects with her left cheek, and an angry welt soon forms afterwards. Anger blazes in her eyes.