92 Duel I (2/2)

Launcelot unleashed a barrage of rapidfire jabs, his steady posture never once breaking. He did not put his full weight behind the jabs, making them extremely quick, and Azhar, despite his superior speed, ate a few to his face and chest before he could put his guard up.

Thankfully, because Launcelot had not used the full extent of his weight and muscles, the punches mostly rattled Azhar, knocking him further back and dangerously close to ringing out.

But Azhar, not having almost any strength which have health on top of melee damage, did not have nearly the sturdiness to eat even those few punches. A bruise began forming above his right eye where a jab had landed particularly hard.

Launcelot closed the distance again to loose another flurry of jabs, but Azhar, a little more used to the speed of the blows, used his combat instincts, superior agility, and flexibility to swerve under them, dropping to the ground and rolling behind Launcelot to prevent from leaving the ring.

Launcelot turned around in an instant and took a few steps forward both to close distance with Azhar and increase it from the ring's edge.

Azhar spat blood out from a split lip. ”You're good. Didn't take ya for the type to brawl. Guess your stuckup noble arse got around in taverns, huh.”

”I did not learn from mere drunken fools,” said Launcelot. He did not say more, but Li understood now.

Veritas, the academy that Launcelot graduated from, had been primarily a military institution meant to train the next generation of nobles to be competent in wartime. It might have been exclusive to noble blood, but it was no amusement park.

The training and curriculum were famously rigorous.

Launcelot was a military tactics major at that. He knew more than how to man armies. He had to learn every little aspect of warfare. Of course, this included espionage and single combat, explaining his boxing skills and stealth.

In contrast, Azhar may have trained just as hard to be an adventurer, but he had trained to fight monsters. There was a world of a difference in knowing how to beat down a giant monster versus knowing how to dismantle and beat down fellow humans.

”Yeah?” said Azhar. He took in a breath as he brought his shoulders back, flexing his back muscles. The red eagle etched on Azhar's back seemed to draw its wings in with the movement. ”You too good to get dirty in the taverns? Commonfolk a little too lowly for ya to deal with? Well, it's bout' time someone taught you how dirt tasted like.”

The tattoo glowed a bright crimson, and for a moment, the ghostly silhouette of an eagle flashed around Azhar, the majestic wings aligned with his arms.

”Impressive,” said Launcelot as he kept his distance, raising his guard high and flexing his leg muscles to drive himself into a steadier stance on the ground, ready to eat any blow. He truly seemed like the living embodiment of a shield like this.

”[Bowman's Stand],” said Azhar.

Azhar bent down, almost like he was getting into a runner's start, before driving off the ground with an empowered leg, shooting forwards with his fist poised forwards. He was like an arrow, his body the shaft and his fist the arrowhead. And that arrow struck true, getting past Launcelot's guard by striking him straight in the stomach.

Launcelot skidded several meters back, little piles of dirt ploughed up from his bare heels which still managed to stand grounded into the dirt. His posture had not changed at all, his stance and guard still stable, but his lips drew into a pained grimace.

A fist-sized bruise began to start welling up on his stomach even through his iron-solid abdominal muscles.

Li leaned forward a little to observe the fight more closely. It was up in the air now where this would go. Azhar had not only used his spirit magic to empower his speed, but he had used [Bowman's Stand] which equalized the playing field of this fight quite a bit.

The strength stat granted health, melee damage, health regeneration, and better scaling with resistances from items, though that last part did not matter in an unequipped fight.

Agility granted attack speed, critical hit chance, accuracy, and evasion.

Insight granted mana, mana regeneration, critical hit damage, and, if the combatant could cast a barrier or magical shield, bonuses to it.

Launcelot statted mostly into strength and agility, though mostly in strength. As a result, not only was he tougher, but he was decently fast, and, most importantly, had strong bonuses for melee damage.

Azhar, on the other hand, statted heavily into agility, with some dabbling into strength and intelligence. This meant that most of his damage was necessarily gated to ranged attacks, not to mention that he was frailer.

Yet [Bowman's Stand] was a niche ranger class spell that temporarily converted the ranged bonus damage granted from agility into bonus melee damage at the cost of giving up ranged attacks and increasing taken damage.

In-game, the spell was one of those neat lore spells learned early and discarded early, useful only in early levels when getting enough arrows and ammunition to reliably fire a ranged weapon was a legitimate issue.

Video game rangers, though, might as well have had infinite ammo in the late game and never lost their weapons unless temporarily forced to through a spell, so there was zero reason for them to ever seal their ranged attacks to fight in melee.

But in a real-world scenario, Li could see that the spell was far more effective. It could give rangers a last stand where they could potentially have a fighting chance without their bow or without arrows, but of course, an unarmed ranger fighting against fully equipped melee fighters or monsters was still suicide.

In Azhar's case, though, he was fighting an equally unarmed man. Combined with the agility multiplier from his spirit magic and his enhanced melee damage, he had a real fighting chance to win this duel.

Li did not know if the spirit magic even counted as legal in a duel like this, but Launcelot did not seem to mind, instead re-assuming his guard to seemingly absorb another blow.

Li would even say the fight favored Azhar. All Azhar had to do was keep charging, and because Launcelot could not react to the attack's sheer speed, eventually, even if he was too durable to knockout, he would get pushed out the ring.