Day 01 Fighter's Guild Contest Fight 01; Gwyn vs Ren Lyncain

The weight and impact of the weapon would feel like a burlap sack of lead weights slamming down on Gwyn's weapon. The action successfully deflected the second swing to the side and the two weapons would wrestle each other to gain ground. As Gwyn went in for a headbutt, the young boy lowered his head and planted his right foot flat to the ground firmly and his left stepping back in support. He met Gwyn''s forehead with his own refused to yield an inch of ground.

"You certainly have the instinct," he muttered, "But you've left yourself too opened now. Both of your hands are occupied and my left is still free."

Even though he says this, his left arm still hasn't emerged from the folds of his cloak.

"If you keep this up, I'm gonna blow you down."

"Just try it, if you don't mind my knee planting itself in your groin the instant you swing it!" Gwyn shot back, glaring up at the taller warrior as she refused to back down as well. Her feet were well planted into the ground however, and with a quick Reinforcement, she suddenly used her low stance to slide Ren's weapon higher up on her blade before flipping it, with the intent of sending his sword-ax to his side so she could free up her blade. Despite their close range, it seemed as easy as snapping her wrist for the small girl to turn her sword around and thrust forward with the hilt, intending on planting it in his gut.

As much as she didn't like his demeanor, Gwyn had to admit, Ren and his desire to fight stronger foes could be valuable in the long run. She'd use this chance to see if he was all talk before addressing the matter further.

Even with use of enhancement magic, Gwyn's attempt to move away her opponent's weapon would come with some struggle. It was not due to the weapon being too heavy but her opponent's arm strength matched her magically enhance power. The young boy eventually moved his weapon to the side and as Gwyn tried to bash him with the pommel, he was stepping back. Her pommel managed to planted itself into his gut just before he moved out of range. His right foot planted firmly behind him, the moment he was struck his own weapon swung at a wide arc.

He was strong, really strong! Gwyn pulled her pommel back as he swung his weapon, forcing her to crouch and oncemore try to re-angle his swing past her body. She couldn't keep reinforcing herself like this, she was already starting to sweat up a storm from the constant parries; he was definitely a step far above the soldiers that she'd learned from.

"Incredible... absolutely incredible...!" she managed to say as sparks flew from their weapons clashing together, "No doubt about it... If you come with me, you'll find all the strong opponents you could ever dream of!" Again she moved in, trying to force his sword up above his head with her own in the same motion. In the ideal world, she'd be able to knock his weapon away, but he seemed just as intent at keeping it in his hand as she did her's.

Wait, that was it! With her arms upwards, she tried to plant an elbow in his face, to oncemore force him backwards. She'd use her whole body to force him out of the ring if she had to, but it might be her only shot against such a powerful foe!

"Che," the boy clicked his tongue in place of a snide scoff. "I don't recognize you as a worthy warrior until I unsheathe my sword."

Gwyn's elbow swung in and he soundlessly back stepped to avoid it, giving Gwyn room to push him with her whole weight while he wasn't grounded. They would move about a foot before Ren slammed his boots to the ground and anchored himself in place again.

";.'~`',`' |'~,," the young boy muttered. Suddenly, from under his cloak, something shot out at lightning fast speed. A bronze-colored blur would slam against the flat of Gwyn's weapon, smashing with the force of a falling boulder to knock her away and zipped back under the shadow of his tattered cape. The boy would take the opportunity to swat fast with his heavy blade to knock aside Gwyn.

"That's fair enough, it's a shame neither of us can fight at full power then!" she shot back, only to suddenly be caught offguard as a blur hit her sword, forcing it back before a rather heavy weapon slammed into her. "Oof...!" the air in her lungs shot out as she went bouncing back across the ground, rolling until she stopped in a little heap.

"... Hah... hah..." She wasn't out yet, but damn did that hurt. Slowly, she pushed herself back up to her feet, her arm oncemore extending to point her sword at him, her other arm supporting the first from below. "It's... quite the shame neither of us are willing to go all out. I certainly won't be happy with the results of this match because of it!" Her stance was almost, in a way, a hunter's salute before she brought her sword back down in a more traditional stance.

"If you're the kind of warrior you say you are, surely you can understand the dissatisfaction I'm speaking of!" It was a long shot, but she was hoping to force him on the offensive oncemore. She'd need to conserve her energy to beat this young man.

"Che," the boy clicked his tongue again. "Satisfaction? I'm holding back because it's more satisfying. Fights like this would be too boring."

His cloak billowed and suddenly a puff of misty steam blew from below, like a machine venting out heat. He raised his massive sword and stabbed the point into the ground, wedging it in.

"This isn't even my weapon. It's my handicap."

A heavy and strung gust of wind blew, catching the audience by surprise and snacks and handkerchiefs blew away, and yet the boy's cloak barely moved.

"But fine. I'll show you some of my strength. This battle is boring me anyway."

His hidden left arm suddenly emerged, and what was seen is an unexpected invention. Halfway down the forearm, the arm was made of metal, the elbow covered in a heavy chainmail material. From the elbow down, the arm was oversized with a long metal rod-like instrument mounted on top. A stream of steam billowed from the knuckles.

Ren wrapped his metal finger around the medal pin that held his cloak together and pulled it. Almost instantly, his cloak fell to the ground with a loud *CLUNK*. It spread out on the ground, the insides unlined with thick iron plates from the shoulders and down.

Ren shook his wild hair and wiggled a pair of triangular ears on the top of his head.

"^|`\,'/|''~<`|" Ren growled in the same foreign language as before. "It means, 'From the left.' "

A sound like a boom was heard before the young Enkidu warrior disappeared, a cloud of debris and rubble burst from where his sword used to be wedged into the ground. The wolf boy's sword swung from Gwyn's left side in an overhead swing, its wielder having closed the distance using ridiculous speed.

"^|`\,'/|''~>`|" Ren muttered "It means, 'From the right.' "

His weapon dropped down with gravity alone as the Enkidu abandoned his massive blade and sidestepped with the same incredible speed. His left arm extended forearm, held up with his right, the spike mounted on top aimed right at his opponent.

"|\`Y/^,<`'\'`" Ren muttered. "It means 'shield your eyes.' "

Rather than the spike, a blast of boiling hot steam blew from his knuckles.

Well, this was turning out to be a fight full of surprises! The shorter of the two kept her eyes peeled as she watched her opponent reveal his arm, discard his cloak, and reveal his true species. Enkidu, another Enkidu! Gwyn couldn't be anymore excited than this!

That is, until the language lesson. The only thing that could match her thirst for power was her thirst for knowledge, after all.

"^|`\,'/|''~<`|!" she repeated as her sword parried the blow, their clothes fluttering from the force of the impact. Then another sentence, similar to the first in such a way she realized what it meant before he even explained this time. As his sword fell, Gwyn brought her attention to the right, her long sword swinging upwards to deflect the spike. By now Gwyn was pumping all of her anima into her muscles just to try to keep up, a task that was growing harder and harder as the sharp point of that spike ran across her forehead while she forced his arm upwards, slicing through the skin with ease. "^- ^|`\,'/|''~>`|!"

The last lesson came at a rather unfortunate time, as her sword had already forced that arm upwards, right in time for steam to shoot out about face-level. Her forehead felt like it'd been shoved into a fire, though luckily her eyes had managed to squeeze shut before they were just as burnt. If he'd managed to hit her whole body with that... well, she wouldn't die, but she'd surely be unable to move for days. She'd felt worse than a steam burn, though! This was her chance!

"^|`\,'/|''~<`|!" Gwyn called out, and her sword came from the left, just as she'd said. She'd taken on some sort of unusual attack though; instead of swinging to maim, she was using the blade to force him into her previous position, and her in his. She reinforced her right arm with everything she had as she gripped his discarded weapon. "^|`\,'/|''~BOTH!" Both swords swung out at him now, with overhead swings from either side as Gwyn pushed forward; she hoped for him to parry them both, only to take a tackle from her and force him off the side of the ring she had been standing next to.

Damn it, she wanted to fight him with all her tricks, but she had to save them still... but, maybe, just maybe, she could find him after all this, and get the real fight she wanted!

Gwyn might find clumsy resistance as she grabbed hold of the enkidu's weapon. The handle was far too short for the size of the blade and it lacked a weighted pommel to counterbalance the heavy slab of iron it was meant to carry. Even with augmented strength, the weapon's imbalanced structure is widely difficult to compensate for.

When both weapons slammed down, they'd hit the ground feeling no resistance. At Gwyn's side of the arm she used to hold the discarded weapon, Ren had side-stepped with ease. The moment the weapons slammed to the ground, he reached to grip the excess length of the handle and shoot up his leg to kick the small girl away and forcing her to let go of his sword.

"Your grammar sucks, but you catch on fast," he muttered half-heartedly as he delivered a swift but heavy kick. "Nice try, but I'm gonna blow you down."