Chapter 2 Basque - Sparring Session
Basque stared at the deputy headmaster, who’d barely spoken to him since his arrival. The few times Krill had spoken to Basque, he’d not been outright hostile, but he’d not been friendly either. The grin he wore and his voice lacked any warmth.
“One second, Master Krill.” Basque turned back to the students. “Would you all like to see me spar with Master Krill as well?”
There was an overwhelmingly positive response.
“It’s Deputy Headmaster Krill, Basque-Shoore.”
Basque turned back to Krill. “My apologies, Deputy Headmaster Krill. If my fists against your blade is what you would like. Or, if you prefer, I could match you with a blade. I will leave it to your choice.”
Krill scoffed. “Are you telling me you think you can beat me, a Sword, with a sword? I watched your match versus Harnel the Fist. You specialize in unarmed combat.”
“I specialize in ‘combat’. A Yani doesn’t care what you strike it with. Either it dies or you do.”
“Fine. Let’s have it your way. Grab a blade. I wouldn’t want you claiming to your little empire that you got beat up while you were unarmed and the opponent had a weapon.”
Basque smiled. “We’re a republic.” As he spoke, he pulled up his inventory and withdrew his single-edged sword. The weapon materialized in his hand.
Harnel came over. “You sure about this?”
“Why not?”
“I know you’re more skilled than I am in hand-to-hand, but Deputy Headmaster Krill is an earl. I know I could never beat him. I’m just a baron.”
“Well, you’ve also yet to beat me.”
Harnel laughed. “Bahaha. I’m just saying, don’t hold back.”
Basque nodded.
Once Harnel backed off, Krill said, “I noticed you went for a three-minute bout against Master Harnel. Why don’t we use official tournament rules instead?”
“What are those?”
“Best of three. Ninety-second rounds. One hundred health shields.” Krill twirled his sword.
“Again, if that is what you would prefer.”
“How do you do it in Hairy-bob?”
“Hianbru.”
Krill waited for Basque to do something other than correct the name of Basque’s home country, but Basque didn’t. “Well?”
“We spar.”
“Hmph,” Krill said.
A second later, a setup for the rules Krill laid out came over the system to Basque. He hit accept and then went into the options to turn on the visibility of his shield’s health for the students to see. Krill’s health was still set to private.
“There will be a countdown time of three seconds, then the fight will commence whether you’re ready or not. If someone’s shield is depleted, they ‘die’ and the other wins the round. If neither person ‘dies’ within the ninety seconds, the person with the most shield remaining wins.”
“Understood.” Basque kept his voice even as to not show his annoyance at the patronizing explanation.
The scoreboard sat in between them. It counted down from three, and as soon as it hit zero, it changed to a ninety and shrank up out of their way. Basque didn’t know the sparring interface could do that. Krill took advantage of Basque’s distraction and leapt at Basque.
The Krumian came at Basque with a multitude of two-handed strikes. Basque did his best to parry what he could, but he’d not been prepared for Krill’s sudden onslaught and speed. The health of his shield dwindled away.
Not to let the battle be one-sided, Basque pressed the other man back, striking several blows against his opponent’s shield. However, Basque could already feel the outcome of this round—he was going to lose.
With ten seconds left on the round timer, Krill’s piercing strike punctured the last of Basque’s health shield, and Basque “died”. The students roared. Krill basked in it, sticking his arms out wide and waving his hands up. The students cheered even louder.
Harnel came over to Basque and whispered in his ear. “I told you, you need to go all out.”
Basque raised one corner of his mouth in thought. While he felt he could take Krill if he paid attention to the fighter and not the countdown at the beginning, he didn’t know if he wanted to risk it. What would a loss now mean to his reputation in the school?
As an outsider, he knew his reputation was mixed as it was. Some teachers, like Harnel and Julvie, found his foreignness exciting or exotic and were curious about it. Then there were others like Krill, who refused to say the proper name of Basque’s homeland, and Natt, who was openly disdainful of him (though honestly with Natt, he’d yet to see the permanently drunk woman not show disdain to anyone).
He could only believe his reputation would be similar among the students. How would they react if he didn’t hold back and dominated Krill in the next two matches? He sighed. There was only one way to find out.
“Krill, may I have a second?” Basque asked over the deafening cheers of the students.
Krill just smiled and extended a hand.
After nodding his thanks, Basque set his sword down. First, he pulled out a hair tie and grabbed his long black hair and pulled it into a ponytail. Then, he pulled his hands into his sleeves and then pushed them out through the chest of his robe. The top half fell off his back, exposing the full-size tiger tattoo on his back. Grabbing the sleeves, Basque tied them over the sash around his waist.
Then, in his system options, he went to the weapon-class section and changed from < unassigned > to < katana >. He felt the tiger tattoo on his back begin to move from its sitting position to an attacking leap with its claws extended. When the ink began to move, the cheering students fell silent, and a collective, “Whoaaa” replaced their applause.
“Cute trick,” Krill said.
Basque shrugged. “Whenever you are…”
Krill didn’t say anything, but the three-second timer popped up again. The instant it flipped to 90, Basque was on the attack. It wasn’t a contest. Krill didn’t even nick Basque’s shield once in the ten seconds before he “died”.
Unlike after the previous round, the gathered crowd of students was deathly silent. The only person making any noise was Harnel, who was clapping and laughing like it was the greatest comedy he’d ever seen.
The deputy headmaster lay on the ground and looked up at Basque. “Now you can’t say that Kruamians aren’t graceful.”
“I thank you for your grace.” Basque put his sword back in his inventory and mentally flew through his menus. Back in the weapon-class section, he replaced < katana > with < unarmed >. The tiger on his back moved again. Its claws retracted, and it sat as if pinning an invisible prey with one paw raised in the air.
The changes were completed just in time for the third round to begin. Their first round showed Basque that Krill wasn’t inept with a sword but that he was no match for Basque when he was in his full-power form. Attacks that had torn into Basque’s shield in the first round now struck empty air or were deflected as Basque weaved about. Basque used the openings that those attacks provided and gave Krill’s shield the slightest of taps.
Basque could see the frustration on Krill’s face grow. The blank expression twisted and distorted into a scowl as his attacks failed time after time, and the failure was repaid with the lightest of jabs.
“If you’re going to hit me, hit me!”
Basque spared a second to look at the timer. There were five seconds left. Avoiding Krill’s wild swing, Basque threw in a full-force three-hit combo, draining a quarter of Krill’s remaining shield as the time ran out.
Krill panted from the exertion, but Basque barely had any sweat on him. “Thank you for the bout, Deputy Headmaster Krill.” A Hianbrun would have respected the difference in their skill levels, and the slights and purposeful errors would cease.
However, Basque was completely caught off guard by Krill’s reaction. He lashed out at Basque with his sword, outside of the sparring system. Baque just barely managed to parry the attack as Krill’s sword nicked Basque’s shoulder, scratching it and drawing blood.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” Basque shouted.
Krill’s almost frantic attacks didn’t slow. “Didn't…you say…this…is…how…you do it…in…Hyena Brew?”
Basque stayed on the defensive. While it wasn’t easy to defend each blow, neither was it overly difficult. The only danger was that any blow that Krill landed would actually harm Basque, like the cut across his arm.
“We spar only within the system. What you’re doing is dangerous and reckless.”
“Dangerous and reckless?! Do you savages fight Yani in the system?! Are you too afraid to fight for real?!”
Seeing that Basque wasn’t making any moves to attack, Krill dropped any pretense of defense. His strikes became more and more extreme, and he left himself increasingly open. But Basque couldn’t take advantage of it; an ambassador killing a prominent member of the school wasn’t something Basque could sweep under the rug, nor could he survive the consequences. He wasn’t even sure he’d be safe just beating Krill down.
Even though Krill’s attacks were near-wild and left him wide open for counterattacks, they were controlled enough that he didn’t leave himself open to counterattacks that could disarm him, only maim or hurt him. He knew the situation Basque was in and was abusing it. Kill or be killed. Those were the options that Krill was forcing on Basque.
Unfortunately for Krill, Basque wasn’t only proficient with swords. Basque parried until Krill lunged. Instead of swiping the attack away, Basque stepped into it and grabbed the deputy headmaster’s arm. Twisting, Basque slammed his hip into Krill’s stomach and threw the man over his shoulder.
Krill crashed into the ground with a grunt as the air was knocked out of his lungs. Basque drove his heel into Krill’s hand. There was a sickening crunch, and the sword slipped from his grasp. Basque kicked it away.
Bending down, Basque whispered into his attacker’s ear, “You should get your hand inspected. I’d hate for you to become a fallen.”
Krill spat at Basque. Basque wiped it off. Loud enough for the stunned crowd of students and teachers standing around to hear, Basque laughed and said, “Wow! Thank you again for the duel, Deputy Headmaster! It was extremely educational.”
Basque extended his hand to help the other man up, but Krill slapped it away. “I won’t forget this.”
Putting on his best “what’s your problem” look, Basque stared at the man who was still on the ground. He kept his voice low so that the audience couldn't hear. “You won’t forget this? Honestly, I hope you don’t because you need to realize the difference between us. You know, like how you tried to surprise attack me—and it still wasn’t enough?
“I don't know what your problem with me is, but as long as we're talking about remembering, remember this: while you may be important in your little pond over here, I’m a visiting fish. I know you recognized that well enough and used that against me, knowing I couldn’t afford to kill you. But you aren't able to kill me. One day, I’ll go back to the much larger ocean, and what I see, what I say, what I know will determine not just your future, but that of everyone else around you.
“If you’re as ‘noble’ as you claim to be, think on that. Don’t forget today.”
Basque stood up straight and looked at those gathered around and then back at Krill. “It was an honor, Deputy Headmaster Krill.”
Krill stood and walked over to his sword. Using his non-injured off-hand, he picked his sword up and sheathed it. After straightening his clothes, his eyes scanned the crowd of students, not pausing on anyone in particular. “I hope you all enjoyed the performance. Next time, Master Basque, I won't let you win like this.” His eyes came to a rest on Basque, and he glowered hatred at him.
Basque smiled in return. Whatever you need to save face.
Spinning on his heels, Krill turned and stomped off. As the deputy headmaster receded, the silence that had fallen over the training area became a hubbub of conversations. The students animatedly discussed the dismantling of one of Kruami’s upper elite.
If that was one of their elite, Basque wondered what the main Hianbrun ambassadors were hoping to gain by establishing a relationship with this country. They had to be resource-rich because, as of yet, he’d not found anything culturally or societally that he wanted to import into Hianbru.
He didn’t get the people here. They didn’t seem to understand that his position in this society was a double-edged sword. While he needed to hold back and respect their culture, it didn’t mean that they had free rein to trample over him in return. He had the right to stand up and warn them if they got out of hand like Krill had. Kruamians definitely wanted something from Hianbru too, otherwise Basque wouldn’t have been where he was.
After putting his sword back into his storage space, Basque untied the sleeves of his robe, put it back on properly, and reset his weapon-class to < unassigned >. Beneath his robes, out of sight from everyone, the tiger on his back returned to its resting position.
Once he was properly dressed, Harnel came over and smacked his back as hard as he could while laughing. “Bahaha! Having experienced that from Deputy Headmaster Krill’s side, I do have to say that was quite the show.”
Basque smiled. “Thank you, Master Harnel, but do you mean the actual bout or his flailing attempt to murder me?”
Harnel gave one of his signature guffaws and smacked Basque’s back again. “Both, my friend. Both.”
By this time, most of the students who’d been training when Basque arrived had gone back to their training. Those who’d followed him out still stood around, mostly watching Basque and Harnel. Fawna and Avali stood front and center. Avali’s eyes sparkled, and Fawna had a grin that looked like one a happy drunk would wear.
“Well,” Basque said, “I’ll let you get back to your teaching. I’m going to finish my tour with the students.”
Harnel nodded. “Sounds good. Be sure to tell me how your date goes.”
Basque scratched the back of his head. “Nothing’s going to happen.”
“You never know.”
“Fine, but even if it did, I wouldn’t tell you.”
“Oh, not a kisser-and-teller, huh?”
“Ha!”
“Or maybe you’re just not a kisser and have nothing to tell? Bahaha!”
Basque laughed with him.
Harnel continued to laugh as he turned and lumbered off. Basque watched his large frame move away for half a second, then turned to the students.
Avali and Fawna came over to him. A feeling came over him. He liked these two. He was glad that Fawna was one of his students. A couple of others followed them. Avali’s eyes were still wide and sparkled. “I-I’ve only heard tales of Earl Krill the Sword’s battles, but my father speaks of him as if he is an indestructible force.”
“Deputy Headmaster Krill’s skills are impressive.”
A girl in another group spoke up, “If that was impressive, you’re god-like.”
“Do all people from your country fight like you?” a boy asked.
“Every Hianbrun is taught the same. The specific weapons and techniques they excel in vary.” He kept his answer vague on purpose.
Looking Fawna in the eyes, Basque said, “I do not know what other teachers’ classes will be like, but please come prepared for mine. If you see any others who are in Class E, please let them know that training uniforms will be the only uniform required.”
Turning to the rest of the crowd, Basque raised his voice. “That will be the end of my sparring for the day. Feel free to enjoy the facilities here. I wish you all a good day.”