Chapter 20: Paladin vs. Monk

The three girls — paladin, mage, and monk — walked together back into the arena. Two men were fighting one another on the platform, but Lexi paid them no heed whatsoever, all thoughts consumed by the central question of how she was going to defeat Samantha. The demonstration she had witnessed only minutes prior was, however brief it may have been, utterly terrifying in terms of the monk’s strength and power.

I’ll bet her strength stats are off the charts, Lexi mused. But, the word “chart” itself happened to trigger an idea in the paladin’s mind. The barest hint of a smile spread across Lexi’s lips as she began to formulate a plan to take down the muscular behemoth and win her allegiance once and for all. As the plan coalesced in her mind, both her confidence in it’s potential efficacy and her smile grew steadily.

While Lexi schemed and Samantha stood next to her impassively, rippling muscled arms crossed over her thick chest, Gretel went to find the organizers, to see about getting the paladin and monk added into the morning’s schedule. She came back after only a few minutes, smiling nervously.

“You’re on next,” the mage said. “Sorry about the short notice, but that was literally the only open slot left in the novice bracket today.”

“It makes no difference to me,” Samantha said stoically.

“Y-Yeah,” Lexi stuttered. “Fine by me too.”

“The only thing you need to do is come to an agreement as to whether it’ll be armed or unarmed. And, if you want to use weapons, you’ll both need to pull something from the rack.” The mage gestured towards a large collection of wooden dummy weapons of all shapes, sizes, and designs. “They don’t allow any outside weapons, wooden or no, just to make sure no one’s sneaking in anything that might be overly lethal.”

Lexi nodded at the mage, and then looked up to meet Samantha’s downward cast gaze. “What say you, knight?” the giant asked. “It matters not to me.”

“Well,” Lexi said, “since you’ve got the clear size advantage, let’s go with weapons. That should even things out a bit.”

Lexi hoped she was right, but the amused expression that blossomed on Samantha’s face had her beginning to doubt the plan she had devised.

None of that, she said to herself. Don’t let that bitch get in your head. The plan WILL work.

With a deep breath, Lexi turned on her heel, and strode over to the weapon rack, picking out the closest wooden simulacrum to her own two-handed broadsword.

“You can leave your sword with us,” one of the attendants said to her. “We’ll keep it for you while you fight, and you can pick it up when you’re done — or when you’re conscious again.”

Samantha, who had apparently borne no weapon into the arena that day, selected a long wooden staff. Both fighters gave their respective wooden weapons a few swings and thrusts, testing the weight and balance, completely ignoring the fight which concluded only a few feet away on the platform. So intent was Lexi on revising the details of her plan, that Gretel had to come over and shake her back into awareness after the organizers had told the two fighters to take their positions. Each girl took her respective position on opposite sides of the platform, walking up the steps simultaneously.

“Our next match,” Johann’s magically amplified voice boomed. “Is between a fighter we’ve just seen and a competitor who is new to the arena. I give, once again, Samantha von der Faust, and facing her, Alexia Moore. Begin!”

Lexi said a silent prayer and snapped her wooden sword up into a defensive position, her feet naturally falling into place along the blade’s axis. Samantha gripped the middle of her staff, and began spinning it in rotating arcs that passed across each side of her body, creating an almost butterfly-like effect from the whirling length of wood.

Knowing that she would need to seize the initiative, Lexi coiled herself like a spring, and leaped forward, aiming a decisive strike directly at the monk’s head. Fast as lightening, Samantha repositioned her hands, spreading the about a foot apart, and intercepted the strike by with the very center of the staff. Both girls held this position for several tense seconds, each one straining against the other’s muscles in a test of strength.

Feeling her own, not inconsiderable, reserves of strength beginning to slip, Lexi whipped her sword free from the lock, launching a ferocious series of volleys against the monk. As fast and unpredictable as the paladin’s strikes were, Samantha parried each one with perfect precision, the consecutive cracks of wood on wood ringing through the arena like machine gun fire.

“Bash her head in!”

“Which one?”

“Who cares! I wanna see some blood on the mat from these two!”

As fast as they had crashed together, the two fighters leaped apart, each landing poised into a defensive stance. Lexi was breathing hard, a thin sheen of sweat covered her entire body, as her muscles practically screamed in protest from the sustained flurry of intensity. Samantha, on the other hand, looked perfectly at ease. Not a drop of sweat marred her chiseled physique, and her breaths came in slow and steady draws.

“Your technique is quite better than I expected,” the monk said in her clipped manner of speech.

“Y-You’re not h-half bad y-yourself,” Lexi panted back, grinning in spite of the sharp pain pulsing from the stitch in her side.

Time for part one of the Top-Secret-Plan™, Lexi thought to herself.

Without uttering another word, Lexi dove back into the fray, launching a burst of quick thrusts and jabs at Samantha’s midsection and legs. As expected, the monk was able to easily parry these strikes. And, as Lexi also expected — and indeed planned — the giant warrior spotted a flaw in the paladin’s technique, noticing that she had left her legs unguarded amid the flurry of strikes.

Following the crack of wood on wood from the final parry, Samantha dropped low into a spinning leg hook. Lexi’s legs were swept from underneath her, and she landed hard on her back, the wind nearly knocked from her lungs. Intending to finish the match decisively, the monk continued the spin into a complete circle, coming back up to tower over her downed opponent, and bringing her staff down in a slashing movement from above.

Here goes nothing.

Lexi was gambling big here. The Top-Secret-Plan™ would either fail spectacularly, leaving her unconscious in the middle of the arena, or it would give her just enough of an advantage to turn the tables on the monk. Just before Samantha’s staff came crashing into her face, Lexi cried out the command word of a spell.

Holy Illumination!

A brilliant flash of illumination exploded from the suddenly outstretched blade of Lexi’s sword, temporarily blinding Samantha with its radiance. Not a second too late, Lexi jerked her head to the side, feeling the staff impact against the wooden platform just centimeters from the side of her face, it’s cracking sound deafening in such close quarters. Not wasting a second, the paladin rolled up onto her feet, and channeled every ounce of strength she possessed into a powerful blow aimed at the monk’s head. Lexi knew this was her only chance, and that if she failed in this, the stronger — and likely more experienced — fighter would undoubtedly find a way to reverse the advantage, and demolish Lexi.