Chapter 46 Prior Knowledge

“Next two!” Koda shouted.
Reeve and Dave Johnson stepped up to the circle.
Josiah was tired of his own fight, but he also wanted to witness that one. It could be that he’d be matched with the promising son of the lieutenant like they said, after all.
The two young men were about the same size and had a pretty underdeveloped physique. Someone who didn’t know them wouldn’t give much to them.
They stood still facing each other and waited until the whistling sound marked the beginning of the fight.
And it soon started.
Of course, Dave Johson knew all about Reeve’s weapon. It caused the pain to be transferred to the attacker. With that prior knowledge, he charged in bare-handed, striking for disarming the opponent before he could draw his. Dave had all of his weapons firmly tied to the back and the hands-free. The whole way he carried his armor around was made for building up speed.
They were taught how to disarm a man with a knife on the army. Theoretically, it was no big deal.
‘That’s what I would do as well. That’s how I approached him on that narrow path on the first phase.’ Josiah thought.
Dave Johnson approached Reeve and grabbed the wrist of the hand which was holding the knife. The form and timing were exactly like how they were taught. There was no time for Reeve to react. One second and Dave was immobilizing Reeve’s both hands. He just needed to spin the wrist in order to make the knife fall.
And then Reeve let out a malicious smile. He stomped the floor.
“Argh!” Dave Johnson’s body started to crumble and he fell on his knees, releasing Reeve’s hands.
Reeve then finished him with a knee-kick straight to the face. It was the first knock-out of the day.
“Next!” Koda shouted.
Josiah was too tired to watch the other one.

The sixteen participants could be at ease for the rest of the day. It helped them recover their injuries the best they could for the next phases. Josiah isolated himself from the rest of the group, staying inside his tent. But he had a motive.
Lenny still hadn’t got out.
“You should really go tonight. Even if the trip takes too long. If the sarg finds out…”
“No! You need my potions. And I need your answer.”
“The answer, heh…? I still hadn’t thought of what to say to make you give up on your dangerous idea”
“Why is my idea dangerous? It’s the same as yours.”
“But I can fight.”
“Me too.”
“Yeah, right. Fight me, then. If you can survive a mere spar against me. I let you be my cohort.”
“Oh yeah? That’s great. I’ll show you how much I improved.”
“Hey, I was just joking.”
Lenny was almost finished mixing her substances on a flask she had brought with her.
“I mean it. Spar with me and I’ll show you.”
“Oh great, what have I put myself into? Ok… After this tournament ends we talk about it. But I won’t go easy on you, I warn you.”
“Tournament. It ends tomorrow, right? And… How was Reeve’s fight?”
Josiah’s mood visibly altered.
“Good. He won instantly. I think he invented a new attack.”
“A new attack?”
“He must have removed part of his knife and his it on his foot sole. The premise is that if the enemy touches his knife during an attack the pain is transferred to him. He must have let Dave Johnson touch his knife on purpose on the pretext of disarming and then stomped his feet on the removed part to transfer a hideous instant pain to Dave.”
“Sounds scary.”
“Yeah. And I have no idea how I’d deal with that… He was staring at me after he won. I think he thought of that after he lost to me the other time.”
“Here! It’s going to make you feel better.”
Lenny handed him another potion. Josiah felt the body healing the wounds and bruises on its own after each gulp.
“Oh! Look at what I did: hehe” Lenny showed Josiah the hilt of her dagger. It had a hand-carved symbol; a flat representation of two creatures in different colors. One gray and one pink.
Josiah grabbed the dagger in his hands to look better.
“The gray sturmon is you. Fierce and heroic. The gray is your mysterious humor. Always pretending to be more serious than you are, but still not black. You are a sturmon after all. And the Diifga is me because I like flying free as they do. Also, I like pink. Hehe.”
“Nice!”
‘That’s cute and all, Lenny… But I have no idea what those creatures are.’ Josiah hid within.
“I was thinking of doing one on your dagger. Since it’s a pair.”
“Yeah, about that…”
“Where’s your dagger?” Lenny asked.
Josiah couldn’t help but make the face of regret.
“I… Lost it in the first phase…”
“Aww.”

Despite Josiah’s objections, Lenny spent the second night inside the tent once again. The next morning came faster than he’d like it to.
Josiah was still sleepy and he was feeling the body heavy as steel.
‘Even though I’m not wounded anymore the fatigue still persists. Did we really have to wake up this early to fight?’
Josiah was in the burnt circle, staring back at soldier Douglas, the tall man from the night before.
Douglas had a decisive look on his face. The face of someone who knew the opponent in advance. Douglas knew exactly what to do.
Josiah had brought his sword and dagger out in advance. He was carrying one in each hand. Douglas, on the other hand, had just his human-made scimitar pointed to the floor.
The whistling sound marked the beginning of the fight.
Josiah was the first one to rush in, waving the sword in a very wide swing.
Douglas obviously had the skill to parry that with his scimitar, so he was minding Josiah’s other hand. He saw he carried the dagger on it.
Douglas knew the dagger didn’t strike from distance, so he parried the sword hit with his scimitar and jumped back to avoid the sequential hit with the dagger, thus dodging both attacks.
Right after, when Josiah was still recovering from the recoil, Douglas unleashed an attack with his weapon at him. It was a sequence he planned ahead, knowing the hardship of maintaining the body stable after two sequential hits with both hands. There was no time or skill that Josiah possessed which could defend him from that intermezzo strike.
Josiah took the hit with the scimitar with his armor, but the hit didn’t cause much damage as Douglas anticipated.
‘What…?’
Douglas fell on Josiah’s trap. Only after the impact on Josiah’s body, Douglas realized he was feeling funny because of the dagger effect.
‘The dagger… it works?’
Seeing the opponent staggered Josiah rushed in and finished with a simple sword strike, causing Douglas’ body to fall flat on the floor.
Josiah had to smile after remembering the events on the last night:

“Where’s your dagger?”
“I… Lost it in the first phase…”
“Aww.”
“Sorry. It was part of the first item we shared too.”
“It’s ok. It’s not your fault. But don’t you need it to win tomorrow?”
“Having the dagger back would help a lot. I tell you.”
“Here. You can have mine.”
“What? Really?”
“It’s yours after all. The bloodbound power only answers to you, remember? For me, it’s just a common dagger…”

‘It’s true. When I first gave it to Lenny I didn’t know how compatibility worked. And neither did she...’ Josiah thought as he finished his fight with ease by repeatedly striking Douglas on the floor until he gave up on his own. ‘Good timing. If it wasn’t for Lenny I wouldn’t have come up with this plan for the morning.’
Douglas gave up and Josiah was declared the winner.
“Ahem.” Sargeant Koda cleaned his throat. “We are going to proceed with the next fights in the afternoon. We received info about someone infiltrating the camp. Me and the other instructors are going to deal with that.”
‘Lenny…?’ Josiah’s eyes widened up.
He began rushing back to his tent, without even noticing who he bumped with on the way.
“Sorry!” He said and started trying to contour the person and follow his path.
“Why the rush, babyface?”
“Reeve?” Josiah looked up.
“Good job on your fight. It seems the inevitable is going to happen in the afternoon as foretold. Me against your ugly face. I look forward to beating your ass.”
“Good, fight you too. You are paired with Yvonne next, right? Watch out. She set me up on the second phase.”
“Heh.”
Reeve followed his own path and left Josiah behind.
‘Now the problem is how to deal with that. He is the only one who has seen all my tricks. This time I really have nothing on him… ’