"Are you underestimating me? What's with that face?" The knight said, irritated at Andrei's posture, the guy in front of him wearing lose armor is standing in an awkward position with eyes like dead-fish clearly not intending to fight.

They were surrounded by normal soldiers and the Silver and the Golden Knights, they sat on an elevated wood platform making the place seem like a small wooden colosseum. Some were chatting and some fell asleep on the bleachers, as the referee slowly entered the ring, it was the old knight that has white hair.

When he reached the center of the ring, he looked at the two fighters with each a s.h.i.+eld and a wooden sword, his expression got complicated when he saw Andrei's unmotivated face.

"Ahem, Ahem, right now will be starting the preliminaries for roster 4, I a.s.sume that you both have chosen your weapons carefully from the selection of a pike, short sword and s.h.i.+eld, halberd, and the great sword, both of you take your positions," as the old knight raised his hand to start the duel, he suddenly got interrupted.

"Wait a moment, as a knight, I can't take an opponent who's not taking me seriously! If you just want to lose, get out of the ring immediately, right this instant! I don't know about you, but I have trained hard for this day, I don't want to win an easy victory against someone like you," protested the plump knight, this made Andrei give him the thumbs up.

Andrei looked at the referee, but the old man shook his head. "I'm sorry but I can't grant your request, by the direct orders of her majesty Michaela, this man is to fight in the compet.i.tion"

"But... " the plump knight wanted to push his point.

"Yeah yeah... the plump knight is right!" Andrei lazily supported.

"Who are you calling plump!"

"I don't want to hear more about your complaints!" The old knight got irritated and swung his right hand to the right, the two didn't want to p.i.s.s him anymore.

"I have a request weirdo," the plump knight turned towards him.

"What? Who are you calling weirdo?" This time it was Andrei's turn to be dissed.

"At least, try to fight me seriously, please!" The plump knight bowed to him.

"Even if you are asking me that... "

"Geh! If you do that this puts me in a bind you know." Andrei thought as he scratched the back of his head, seeing him bow so pa.s.sionately, Andrei made a sigh of resignation.

"Guess I have to fight him for real or it would be really disrespectful, I'm weak but I have my means, I hope he'd be satisfied," he decided.

"Okay, I got it! I got it! So stop the bowing! Sorry for my att.i.tude awhile ago, but yes, I'll fight you seriously, but wait a moment" Andrei threw his s.h.i.+eld.

"What?! Why are you taking off your s.h.i.+eld weren't you supposed to fight me seriously?" The knight got fl.u.s.tered, he hadn't seen any knight who fought with only a sword, if he had seen fighters as such, it would be just bandits or adventurers who couldn't afford s.h.i.+elds for protection. "Even as a silver knight, how come would such a knight of this country fight with that style?" he thought as he looked at Andrei who was exercising his wrists by rotating the wooden sword with each of his hand.

"No, this is my way of taking you seriously, I don't really have a need for a tool that I don't know how to use, instead I have this" Andrei showed another wooden sword that he is holding. "Dual-wielding, I believe you've seen a fighting style like this?" Andrei asked.

But the plump knight simply shook his head, Andrei looked at the referee for second opinion but he did the same, then he looked around the other knights, they also shook their head.

"Haven't heard of it"

"Bandits maybe??"

"Bandits, yeah, or pirates?"

"Are you an idiot?"

These comments became imaginary daggers that struck Andrei from everywhere, "c.r.a.p, I messed up, I thought the medieval had fighting styles like these, d.a.m.n this is embarra.s.sing"

"Ha...hahaha...haha, I thought so" he looked at the referee trying to ask for help.

"No one has used that style, at least in this country, I think you're the first one, other ones would be idiots wanting to kill themselves with their own swords, or perhaps bandits who can't afford s.h.i.+elds," the old knight commented, once again another imaginary struck Andrei's heart.

"Anyway we will start the match" the old knight waved his hand down, "Start!"

"No choice then" Andrei made his stance, with his left foot in front, his right foot at the back, the two wooden swords are also held in the following pattern, Andrei rotated them both to make sure his wrists would be comfortable with it as he slashes it in different angles.

This is the stance of the Kali Eskrima martial-arts, in modern-earth it's the traditional martial arts of the Philippines, that has its roots in their ancient ancestors. This martial art used the same flow, stances, and techniques but with the usage of different types of weapons, be it a pair of sword/sticks, a sword/stick and a dagger, a pair of daggers, or if the user has no other weapons to hold, he could fight using his bare hands, there are many ways to fight using the martial arts, some even pair a whip and a stick. However for Andrei a basic pract.i.tioner, he only knew the dagger and the sticks, Eskrima training is basic training for his cousin that was in the marines, when he came they would often spar with each other.

The plump knight cautiously measured up Andrei while taking side steps, he used the popular warrior stance that he learned from the golden knights he looked up to, he held his s.h.i.+eld upfront and his sword forward, not letting anyone get into his defenses. To Andrei it was threatening, stable and flawless, compared to his crude style.

"I have a bad feeling about this, he seems like a bull ready to charge, is this 300 or something? He won't just kick me and shout THIS IS SPARTA! Anyway that stance is bad against my style that relies on speed and agility, better start now or never," Andrei dashed at the knight, delivered fast but light blows mostly hit on his s.h.i.+eld.

In Eskrima one of the concepts was to conserve energy until the enemy has shown openings, as such as why Andrei made fast but light blows, to conserve it so he can deliver a deadly attack once he shows an opening.

"c.r.a.p he's fast, what's with this style? It's light but it's taking a toll on me bit by bit, is this the pressure from being hit so fast without break? Dammit! I'm not going down over something like this!" The knight thought, he deflected a blow and opened his s.h.i.+eld, and started his own offensive, he drove his s.h.i.+eld with his sword forward to Andrei while delivering heavy slashes, but Andrei did his best to evade it, without a s.h.i.+eld, his mobility was faster.

"One hit from that would be serious" Andrei then changed the way he held his sticks, he reversed his hold on the other stick, and used it as a type of small s.h.i.+eld, and made him very quick to avoid the blows.

The match was taking a toll on Andrei's stamina,

"I didn't exercise more than a 3KM run each week, naturally I'm more likely to run out of breath than this battle-hardened knight." Andrei lamented his lack of exercise when he was on his original world, then a sudden thought emerged on his head "-plump knight, that's it! why is he fat? That's because physically he also didn't have enough exercise to have slim himself, unlike those knights! Those aren't muscles, they're fat! He'll run out of breath soon!"

Andrei only evaded his attacks, and countered them sometimes, out of his ten counters two light blows made it to the helmet and to the chest, but it didn't do much damage, his first offensive made five out of ten, however it took stamina compared to the damage he did to the plump knight.

After a while the plump knight was out of breath, the chance that Andrei was looking for, he dashed towards the knight and threw a blow and hit on the s.h.i.+eld, the following blows landed on the parts where there's hard armor.

"His blows are light, my armor can take this, I'm almost out of breath, I have to end this soon or I'll lose, I just have to knock him out, before he scores more hits," the knight became impatient, he thought Andrei was as exhausted as they both exchanged blows at the same time.

This time he opened his s.h.i.+eld, to charge again, however this time something was strange, Andrei didn't move an inch nor did he changed his stance. The knight became more impatient he wanted to take advantage of the situation. "This is my win," he thought that with Andrei's stance, and by how long the battle took, this charge could break his balance.

The knight smiled, letting down his guard, and then started to change back to his s.h.i.+eld, but something surprised him before he could change his posture, something had hit the hand carrying the s.h.i.+eld and that made him drop it,

Before he knew it, Andrei was delivering non-stop blows on him that all he could do was cover his face and head out of the pain and confusion, and they were not light anymore, it hit his armor and gradually became heavier and heavier each time.

The two wooden short swords banged and echoed through his armor alternatively, on the head, knees, elbow and even his knees, with this the plump knight lost his balance, and his strength was gone, the hit on the elbow made him drop his sword, and then blow on the knees made him lose his balance and kneel while covering his face and head, the blows were too fast.

When he was on his knees, the blows temporarily stopped, "This… is my chchance" he thought, then he tried to reach his sword with the hand covering his head, but to his surprise, a very big blow hit his head.

The brave young plum knight fell on his face.

"Winner, Knight Elford!" the Golden knight announced. The crowd burst into cheers.

Andrei sweated, and was out of breath, in his sparring with his cousin, all they would do was exchange blows and evade, but this time the enemy was like a tank, it took him everything he can to throw away his defenses while evading, he was also caught by several s.h.i.+eld charges, he felt a bit of pain on his ribs but to him, it was better than the golden knight's punch earlier.

While thinking he was praised by the friends of the owner of the armor.

"Way to go Elford!"

"How did you become this fast? Is it because you lost weight?"

"I'm rooting for you for the next round! Show us that awesome style again!"

From these cheers, Andrei looked around and waved a bit, he couldn't deny that he himself felt a sense of satisfaction, but he felt something was amiss.

"Wait who is Elford?" Andrei thought, he then remembered that the armor he's wearing was something he technically stole "I have to end this early and get out before the person who owns this shows up" he thought With this, he eyed the gate to see if someone was still guarding it and there two of the golden knights waved at him, Andrei waved back with a wry smile, "they don't have any intentions of letting me go huh?"

He then looked at the young plump knight who's being treated from his wounds, although he lost he still smiled at him, which made Andrei wave at him with a smile. "In the battlefield of my world, this kind of guys would die first, their concept of honor is different from ours, maybe its the difference of history? For some reason I was glad I was able to fight him, in the end he was an honorable plump knight."

Looking back at his fight. his plan was to conserve his energy and wait for the right time. When he discovered that the knight was about to switch to the charging position again, he then used all his remaining strength to get to his side and land a hard blow to his hand in order for him to drop the s.h.i.+eld that caused him trouble. After that he rained down all the blows he conserved as hard as he could and when he finally showed his head he ruthlessly landed the last blow two-handedly to make sure that the opponent faint.

The plump knight was carried away by the stretchers and Andrei went to rest while watching the other matches.

"How should I get away from this situation?" Andrei sighed as he wiped his face with the towel given to him by Gerald. He saw his hands trembling, "I guess I can still fight two to three matches," he thought to himself as he saw the roster with unfamiliar letters.

"Does this mean I have to imitate those scribbles later on?" He made a complicated face as a line was drawn to a name after he fought. "So that name must be Elford," then he noticed that Gerald gave him a towel without him asking for it.