They both advanced toward the center of the ring, pointing their swords at each other. While John’s eyes focused on business, his mouth became positively chatty. “I got tired of the SCA after awhile. I joined a Kendo Dojo. My teacher was fast. The problem was, we fought with bamboo swords. I always wanted to know what it felt like to kill a man with genuine steel.”

Then he lunged. Joey managed to parry, but also took an awkward step backwards. He kept his balance, but decided to make his next offensive a verbal one.

“That’s funny, because I’ve been in the military. I guess someone thought I was too violent, because I got court martialed. I’ve never actually fenced with longswords, but I’ve had plenty of training with knives and improvised weapons. And I know what it feels like to kill someone. Funny thing that. No matter how mean you think you are, -”

He lunged again when he thought Joey was distracted by his own speech. Apparently John liked that, the idea of skewering an opponent with a lunge while the fellow was distracted. Joey riposted, and almost managed to draw blood by using his own momentum against him. He parried and started a flurry of blows. He was good, and Joey disengaged with an awkward step backwards.

Then Joey deliberately breathed harder than he had to, and made a little production of keeping his balance. Maybe he could let the enemy become overconfident. He continued where he had left off. “No matter how mean you think you are, you always hesitated before killing someone face to

John wasn’t a fool, or a stranger to psychological games. “So in that case you’re all set. Charge forward and kill me. Even if I’m faster than you I’ll hesitate, right?”

His enemy advanced again, and Joey couldn’t afford to retreat any more, and risk getting caught against the fence. He deflected blows again and again, knew he had to attack more or his opponent would have all the initiative. So his attack was verbal.

“Before one of us dies, satisfy my curiosity. Did your Elder drive you to this somehow, or are you doing it voluntarily? I mean, he can find another host if you die – but you’ll still be dead. I figure he already promised you the moon when you became his host, so what else could he promise you for risking it all in a duel?”

The nasty smile reappeared, but Joey didn’t allow himself to focus on it. While thinking his opponent was distracted, the other man was getting ready for a killing lunge. He could see the tells, the muscles being readied while trying to stay inconspicuous. The other man was better at this than he was, but somehow overeager. Joey could still survive if he let the other think he was distracted, and the moment had come.

He made his voice sound indignant. “So what you really want is to kill someone?”

Simultaneously, he missed a parry and stepped back, so the sword narrowly struck the air beside his cheek. The deadly lunge came then, but Joey had been expecting it and sidestepped. He wasn’t there but his sword was, and the nasty grin impaled himself on it.

Then it was over. His tormentor was rapidly bleeding out on the stone floor. He made a couple of gurgling noises as if trying to speak, then fell still.

And a blue rectangle appeared in the air in front of him.

ACHIEVEMENT: You have defeated an expert duelist in a weapon with which you are not trained.

He blinked it away and got,

ACHIEVEMENT: You have fast learned the skill Longsword while in deadly combat.

Next came,

ACHIEVEMENT: You have defeated an opponent guided by an elder.

Of course Joey had an elder too, but he hadn’t been any help. Maybe the other one had?

He blinked away the third rectangle, conscious of the fact that the people around him probably saw him standing and staring at nothing, though so far it had been only a few seconds.

YOU HAVE LEVELED UP: You are now level 15!

Up a whole level from one fight? Of course he had been facing a pretty tough opponent. And maybe he had had some points left over after the last time he had leveled. There was no time to think about it now, the timer was counting down.

He resisted the impulse to put a point into the skill Longsword, he had no special reason to think his next fight would involve one. Hopefully there wouldn’t be one, but hope was not a plan. He managed to find a Weapons Aptitude skill that increased the speed with which he learned weapons skills, but wasn’t sure how much one point of it would help. He didn’t spend more though, because his life might also depend on remembering what was going on.

He put a point into reducing the amount of his own memory that was blocked. He hesitated to make Emerald stronger, but everything might depend on remembering how to deal with the River. So he spent a point reducing the Eightfold memory block.

Joey stared blankly at the pools of blood and the corpse on the floor. He couldn’t even remember if he had ever killed up close like this, but he had certainly been trained for it. Strange thoughts were bubbling up inside his head. He remembered being a child, having no social skills and loving computer games. Unlike the other nerds, he had been very good at fighting, both savage and athletic, so the other kids left him alone.

Now he was the representative for Blue Sword Honor to Earth, and he had no idea what to do. Truthfully he was only the host for Emerald. Not really fair if humanity’s fate was in the balance, but of course life wasn’t fair.