Bog Standard Isekai

Book 4. Chapter 8

Myra raised her hand to the air, signaling the start to the fight, then quickly took two steps back.

Both Rhun and Zilly blurred into motion, launching at each other. Zilly used [Dash] which let her exit or enter combat at breakneck speed, but Rhun moved just as fast and Brin didn’t know what Skill he was using.

Rhun’s [Hide Status] was blocking his Skills, but now that Brin was seeing it in action, he might get more detail. He used [Inspect].

Charge [22] - A Warrior moves forward. Rhun can activate this Skill to run forward with nigh-unstoppable momentum. Extra attack damage while charging. Extra damage protection while charging. This Skill has been leveled up twice.

[Inspect] leveled up! 40 -> 41

Zilly reacted just in time to redirect her [Dash] away again. She came back in, still at breakneck speed to hit Rhun from the side.

Rhun pivoted, smoothly dropping out of his [Charge] to switch his sword to his left hand and block Zilly’s thrust. She followed up with a quick series of slashes and cuts, but Rhun parried each one with practiced motions. He managed a slice that came within a hair of Zilly’s neck, but she [Dashed] away again to avoid it.

With some space between them, the opponents stood and eyed each other for a moment, considering.

Every [Warrior] had to take either [Iron Body] or [Blade Mastery], so Brin guessed that they were both wondering which the other one had. Since Zilly wasn’t actually a [Warrior], she would need to pretend to have [Blade Mastery]. Rhun was a real [Warrior], though. Which would he have? His swordsmanship was good enough to pass for [Blade Mastery], but he might’ve just been dedicated to his training.

Zilly [Dashed] forward again, and this time Rhun stood his ground and waited for her. She swung, a straight and powerful downward swing. Rhun moved to block, looking confident that he would be able to press her back. After all, Zilly was a Dexterity-main, and he’d probably focused on Strength.

It was a bad move. The gap in levels alone probably made Zilly stronger than him, and that was to say nothing of Skills. Right at the last moment, Brin saw the tell-tale weight and energy enter Zilly’s sword that meant she’d used [Overload].

The clash of swords rang out like an alarm bell and sent Rhun staggering back. Zilly followed up with a string of attacks that powered through his guard and eventually landed him with a thin cut on his shoulder.

She [Dashed] back again, and lifted her sword in a cautious guard. Everyone froze.

“That’s a touch!” called Myra.

Rhun looked confused for a moment, then blinked and looked at his shoulder. He clenched his jaw, and then sighed, lowering his weapon.

“Well done. A good match.”

There was a scattering of applause from people gathered around, and Brin took the time to notice his surroundings. Were they going to get in trouble for this? Hammon’s Bog didn’t mind if people dueled or trained in the town square, but every place had different rules.

No one around looked particularly angry or worried, though he saw a few copper pennies trade hands as people made bets.

Then he noticed for the first time that a big circle had been drawn on the ground in white, and there was a wooden sign.

Designated training area

Absolutely NO ranged weapons or Skills!

All weapons MUST be sheathed or safetied before leaving the circle!

The ban on ranged weapons was practical, but even so, it wasn’t exactly safe. Did the businesses nearby not mind that this was here? Looking around, Brin saw two cafes with outdoor patios where people could watch the fights. ?Â?????

Rhun crossed the distance and shook Zilly’s hand. “A good match,” he repeated.

She brushed a hair out of her face with hands still shaking from adrenaline. “Thanks! That was nice work on the [Charge]; I haven’t met a [Warrior] who can pivot out of one of those that easily. Not even my town’s Preft. Oh, a Prefit is like a…” she trailed off, having trouble describing it.

“I know the word.” Rhun’s accent was thick enough that Brin wondered if he was just saying that. “But you must mean you have never met one other than yourself! You make [Charge] look as simple as stepping through a garden.”

“Thanks!” said Zilly, looking a bit flustered at the praise. “And thanks for the match. I actually got a level off that! You know, I could go again if you want.”

Rhun’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “You would? Yes! I would like that very much.”

Again, they moved to opposite ends of the circle. Myra stepped forward to call “Begin!” then quickly skipped out of the circle again.

This time, both Zilly and Rhun held still. They eyed each other warily. Now that they’d taken each other’s measure, they wouldn’t charge in blind again. Brin bet that both of them had a plan and that this match would be decided in a matter of seconds.

Zilly started to creep around to the side. Rhun matched her, keeping the maximum distance between them. Both of them were staring at the other’s feet.

Rhun [Charged]. It happened so fast that Brin half-thought that he’d accidentally booted up a few threads, because time was moving faster than it should.

Zilly waited in place. Rhun stabbed forward, unable to change his direction he could do nothing but commit. It felt like a mistake, and Zilly must’ve thought so, too, because she did nothing but let him cross.

At the last moment, she dodged to the side, and swung up at Rhun’s stomach from the left. Because of the angle it wasn’t the strongest blow, but it didn’t need to be strong since Rhun was completely undefended on that side.

Rhun reached over with his off hand and caught Zilly’s sword.

He had [Iron Body]. Now Zilly was undefended on the right side.

She [Kicked], using her Skill that disrupted other Skills. She pulled her sword out of his grasp and used [Dash] to weave around him, avoiding his falling sword.

“Ow!” said Rhun, not needing Myra to call the fight, though she did anyway.

“That’s blood!”

Rhun opened and shut his hand, and there was a clear cut straight through the palm, though it wasn’t bleeding much now that [Iron Body] was reactivated.

“Good match!” Zilly called out first. “But isn’t grabbing someone’s sword a risky move?” She had her usual mocking smile, but Brin could see a hint of hesitation under it, probably wondering if he was going to be mad about losing twice in a row.

Rhun showed no sign of that. Brin had to admit that his first impressions of Rhun might’ve been a little wrong. No matter what else Rhun was, at least he wasn’t a sore loser. He smiled and sheathed his sword so that he could shake Zilly’s hand with the one that wasn’t bleeding. “It is risky! That’s why it is supposed to take you by surprise.” He laughed. “But you are too cunning for that!”

Zilly smiled in relief, looking pleased at the praise. “It did surprise me!”

“It looks like a good way to lose your thumb,” said Myra.

“It’s not as risky as it looks. Most swords aren’t razor sharp. They need a strong, thick edge rather than a thin sharp one, otherwise they’d fall apart after the first hit like my glass spearheads,” said Brin. “Actually, I saw a [Knight] training manual once and grabbing an opponent’s sword was something they showed quite a lot.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Rhun shot Brin a piercing glare. Maybe not an angry glare so much as intense interest. “Is this true?”

“It is,” said Brin, but he left off the fact that the manual had been for medieval European knights, not for people with magical Skills.

“Those guys wear full plate armor. It’s pretty risky to do barehanded, even with [Iron Body],” said Davi.

“Exactly,” said Myra.

“Hm.” Rhun turned back to Zilly. “Would you do me a favor and agree to a rematch? Not today!” he added quickly, as if fearing her answer would be no. “In a week. I need time to train.”

“Sure,” said Zilly.

Rhun nodded. “Very good.”

“Did you want to start training now? I could give you the afternoon off,” said Sion.

Rhun frowned, considering.

“I’ll stay with him, if that helps,” said Zilly.

“Yes, I suppose I can know he is as safe with you as he would be with me,” said Rhun. “Although why one such as you would choose to lower yourself to the level of these commoners, I couldn’t say…”

Sion rolled his eyes. “And here we go again.”

“What do you mean?” Zilly asked, her smile starting to falter.

“That’s not how things work in Frenaria! You aren’t suddenly royalty just because you took a Rare Class,” said Myra.

“Steel sharpens steel. You are weakening yourself if you measure yourself against commoners,” said Rhun.

“Look around! Who exactly is common here?” asked Myra.

Rhun did peer around at the five of them, a little confused until he saw Davi. “I will apologize to the [Bard]. But the rest of you are Commoners. It’s a matter of quality.”

Davi answered with a mock salute.

“I don’t see how you can be on such a high horse just because you’re a [Warrior]. Pretty much everyone here could whoop you. Zilly is honestly the person you have the best chance against.”

“I don’t think that’s quite true,” said Zilly.

“Ridiculous!” Rhun snorted and turned to leave.

Myra shouted at his back. “Any of us! Sion, Brin, Davi–”

“Hold on, leave me out of this,” said Davi.

Myra glared at him, so Davi continued. “What I mean is, the last time Zilly and I sparred was something like twenty levels ago. She’s improved a lot since then.” Davi’s voice started to sound like Jeffrey’s; he was imitating his mentor to try to play mediator. “But Rhun, Myra’s not wrong. No one here got all their levels from taking it easy; we’ve all fought. Myra, for example, would tie you down with her magic. It would be a contest to see if you could cut your way out of your own clothes before she strangled you unconscious. I don’t think anyone wants to see that.”

Sion laughed, and Zilly smiled along, though Myra was still frowning.

“Cheap tricks!”

“I’m going to use what I have to defend myself, even if you think it’s cheap,” said Myra.

“In Prinnash, crafter women need not defend themselves. Any true man will fight for her honor or her safety,” said Rhun.

“How reassuring,” said Myra.

“Sion, on the other hand, would drink some expensive potion that would let him win. You know he’s bound to have something, right?” asked Davi.

“But in any fair fight–” started Rhun.

“No such thing,” said Brin.

“–and Brin would win because he doesn’t think there’s any such thing as a fair fight,” said Davi.

“I’ve won against Brin plenty of times!” Zilly objected.

Rhun stomped forward and poked Brin in the chest. “You make glass.”

“I do,” Brin said, trying to look bored.

“You could beat me in a duel?” Rhun asked.

Brin shrugged. “Well, sure.” Honestly he didn’t have a lot of reason to fight Rhun right now. If he lost after Zilly had won, he’d look pretty stupid. But he’d sort of wanted to punch Rhun ever since he’d barged into his workshop yesterday.

“Show me,” said Rhun.

He stomped towards the circle. Brin made a show of taking his time, and frantically started casting.

First, a directed thread was assigned Self-Invisibility. He instructed it to coordinate with a conscious thread who’d be casting Mirror Image. They needed to finish at exactly the same time. It had to be a conscious thread for Mirror Image, too, because while a directed thread could cast the spell, it would never be able to convincingly act like him.

With his own regular magic, he started casting a Mirror Image, except this one would use glass instead of light. He’d spent a few hours cutting the sound parts away as well as the parts that let him control its movement, and he’d also figured out how to make it hollow. He called it Quick Glass Statue, for when he wanted to make his Mirror Images look like something a [Glasser] could plausibly do.

“Here, use my sword,” said Zilly.

“No need,” said Brin.

The first few threads had their spells ready by the time he crossed the line to the circle. He started a few more, as he thought of things that would need to happen to pull this off. As he did, he walked one direction, while a Mirror Image of him, being directed by a conscious thread went the other.

“You need a sword. I’m not fighting an unarmed man,” said Rhun.

Zilly huffed in irritation. “Just take mine! What are you doing?” asked Zilly.

Stalling for time is what he was doing. He still had more spells to finish casting if he was going to pull this off.

“You’re going to give me time to summon glass? Generous,” he heard his Mirror Image say. It was a little weird to see a copy of himself walking around. His voice sounded different than it did in his head. Younger. And he wasn’t as… cool as he hoped he was. He was shorter than both Davi and Rhun, barely Zilly’s height. His scars were pretty cool, but he had bags under his eyes from the late night last night, giving him a sunken appearance. His muscles weren’t bad, but he had a lean strength, nothing like the heroic musculature of Davi.

Main: Can you summon a spear for yourself?

CT1: No problem

The copy held out a hand dramatically, summoning a glass spear that rose up from the ground to reach his hand. He twirled it, then pointed it at Rhun. “I’m ready.”

He was not ready. He pushed himself through the spell, but he was still a half minute away.

Main: Need 30 seconds

CT1: Got it

“Did we decide what the rules are going to be? I think we should keep going until you give up,” said the Copy.

“First blood,” said Rhun.

“Well, don’t be so hasty now. I don’t think you’ll properly feel the distance between the two of us with just one scratch.”

“Enough. Will you call the fight?” Rhun asked Myra.

“Oh. Right!” Myra scurried over to take her place as referee.

Walk slower, will you?

But his spell was done. He let a directed thread cast Invisibility on an area behind the Mirror Image, and placed his Quick Glass Statue inside it.

“Begin!” shouted Myra.

Rhun didn’t charge right away, thank goodness. Brin’s copy lifted his hand, and another Mirror Image lifted up from the ground beside him. This one had already been finished and cast beneath the earth so that when it drifted up it would look like Brin was creating a statue of glass on the fly.

It was grayer and shinier than his real body; hopefully it looked like it was made of glass. It was the best he could do in the few seconds he had to prepare. He stepped into it with his real body, letting Self-Invisibility fall away.

“No way! Did you just summon a glass copy? Is that your 35 Skill? What can it do?” asked Zilly.

Brin did an impression of something halfway between a zombie and a robot, taking one jerking step forward.

“Cool!” she cheered.

Rhun scoffed. “Perhaps if you had ten more it might serve as a distraction. Now are we to duel or create sculptures?”

“I already said begin. Go whenever,” said Myra, waving between the two of them.

Rhun [Charged]. In Brin’s sped-up time perception, it looked like he moved faster than the speed of sound, and he crashed straight through Brin’s Mirror Image and the glass sculpture. He was glad he’d chosen to ignore the “fake” and charge what he thought was the real person; Brin didn’t know if he’d have been able to dodge in time if it had been the other way.

The Mirror Image and Quick Glass Sculpture worked perfectly, looking for all the world like Brin had pulled a shinobi switch and replaced himself with glass. He pushed some glass magic into it to make it explode with a loud crack.

The conscious thread returned the instant it happened, and with time back to normal Brin dashed in from the side. Rhun had probably been expecting the copy to do something, but he clearly hadn’t expected what he thought was the real Brin to go down so easily. His momentum carried him too far, and he was a bit too slow to turn.

Brin kicked him in the back, pushing him out of the circle.

Rhun took a few stumbling steps, trying to regain his balance, before landing on his face.

He rolled to the side and jumped up, but then when he noticed he was out of the circle he shouted in frustration.

You have defeated: Rhun Charlik [23]

Experience reduced for non-lethal duel.

There were a few gasps, and a small splattering of applause from the small crowd that had circled around to watch the fight, but most of them were simply surprised; it had ended too quickly to really react much.

“Ah, I see how it is,” said Rhun.

“I don’t follow,” said Brin. “Are you giving up?”

“The match is over. You put all your power into one big trick; this is the way of fighting for Common Classes. But tell me true: Could you do that again?”

If he delayed, maybe, but he wasn’t sure if it would work a second time. “Of course. Though it doesn’t matter, Rhun. Step back in the circle.” Brin pushed his magic into the glass on the ground, pulling it back together and forming it into a spear. “One more. Humor me.”

Rhun grit his teeth, but did as Brin was told and re-entered the ring, moving to his place.

Neither of them spoke, so there was nothing to delay the match. Brin didn’t need it. His plan last time had been complicated and creative, and it had been an interesting experiment, but now he was starting to think it had been a mistake.

He didn’t need tricks to beat Rhun. He had fifteen levels on him. He was a lot stronger than the [Warrior].

One last time, Myra hesitantly took her place as the referee. “Begin.”

Rhun [Charged].

Brin dropped the spear. He saw a flicker of hesitation in Rhun’s eyes, but he couldn’t stop; [Charge] was a Skill you couldn’t use unless you were committed.

At the last second, Brin stepped out of the way of the [Charge]. Rhun pivoted quickly, just as before, but Brin knew where he would be. He caught Rhun’s sword arm by the wrist with one hand. With the other, he cocked back and swung, decking Rhun in the jaw.

Before Rhun could recover, he grabbed the sword out of his hand and pushed him back with his shoulder.

Brin didn’t know if that was one of those life-changing punches that everyone should experience at least once. Rhun didn’t fall to the ground this time, but it did seem to readjust his thinking somewhat. He stood, blinking and dazed, and his eyes seemed to grow redder.

Then, to Brin’s surprise, Rhun shook it off. He laughed. “Good. Good! Nice fight!”

Still in a good mood, he shook Brin’s hand, leaving him a bit speechless.

Brin sighed. “Here, let me get that glass out of your eyes.”

He could sense glass well enough to pull even the dust from an explosion away from Rhun’s face, moving it from his eyes and even some from his lungs. A fight was one thing, but he didn’t want to blind Rhun or give him lung cancer.

“I thank you. Zilly, are we to duel again in a week?” Rhun asked.

“I’m still on if you are,” she said.

“Good. Then after I beat you, I shall show you how to defeat your [Glasser] friend as well.”