The King of the School Year Competition was nearly upon us, with the invitational battle with our sister school soon afterward. I was feeling more enthusiastic about class too. Ms. Elena was instructing us in the schoolyard under the brilliant sun. Everyone was careful to stay hydrated to avoid heatstroke.
Ms. Elena looked down on us from her perch atop a wooden practice sword that had been thrust into the dirt. She really enjoyed having the high ground.
“I think you’ll find today’s technique useful against both monsters and human opponents. But to be honest, I’m not a fan.”
It seemed she thought it might be valuable for us to know, even if she didn’t care for it. She leapt off her perch, retrieved her sword, and pointed it at me.
“Stand in front of me and hold your sword.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I did as I was told. I felt like I’d been put in this position a lot lately. She held me at sword-point, and for some reason, I started breathing harder.
“You should use this technique between the middle and end of an encounter. Remember, you can always use it if things are going poorly. All right, Noir, give me all you’ve got. Attack whenever you see an opening.”
“You got it.”
I’d been training every day, I had a C-Grade Swordsmanship skill, and I had acquired quite a bit of experience in combat. Even if Ms. Elena came at me with all her might, I was fairly confident that I could hold my own. At least for a while. Just as I’d calmed myself down, Ms. Elena rushed me.
“Haaaah!”
There was such intensity in her attack. I needed to keep my cool—uh? Her move was impressive, but she stumbled as she dashed forward. She managed to recover her balance, but she still ended up down on one knee. Ms. Elena grimaced. Huh, it really was a mistake. I couldn’t let the chance slip by. I closed the distance between us, swinging my wooden sword down toward her neck.
“Wha—?!”
Ms. Elena exploded with force and slipped behind me. She had been waiting for this moment. And then—whomp!—a furious swing, followed by the chilly sensation of her wooden sword on the back of my neck. If it had been a real sword, I probably wouldn’t have had a head anymore.
“It…was a bluff,” I said.
“Exactly. It’s so cheap. I don’t use it. But back in my days as a mercenary, I saw plenty of people win like that.”
I’d fallen for it completely, so it was a little unsettling to think about how many other people had too.
“Even if you don’t use the technique yourself, remember that other people might. You’re vulnerable when you think your opponent is wide open.”
She had a point. There were many tales of strong fighters getting ahead of themselves and then losing. Creating situations like this made it easier to execute riskier moves too.
“It’s a cowardly move for sure,” said Ms. Elena. “And some people won’t approve. I won’t tell you to use it. But for the purposes of this lesson, we’re going to practice it, as well as some countermeasures.”
We split up into pairs and got started. As usual, I was paired with Emma.
“So which one of us will do the acting?” she asked.
“Would you mind going first?” I asked. “I want to come up with some countermeasures.”
“All right!”
Emma started to approach me, then clutched her stomach and crumpled to the ground. Well, that worked. I feigned a swing and Emma parried, countering my attack in one swift motion. She stopped before actually hitting me, so it didn’t hurt, but it did make me realize how hard it was to defend against that kind of attack.
“It’s hard to tell if someone’s acting, huh?”
“Yeah. It’d be really hard to tell in the middle of a fight. But you’d also have to be brave to try it.”
It would be best to save it for when you were at a serious disadvantage. It would also probably work better on a hotheaded opponent.
“My turn. Let’s do this.”
I charged in with my weapon held high. I deliberately exaggerated my movements, and Emma dodged me like a butterfly. I started panting and sat down on the ground.
“Haah, haah, I can’t go on.”
This was actually really embarrassing. You needed some acting skill to pull it off too. I planned to counter the moment Emma attacked, but instead, she dropped her weapon and embraced me tenderly…
“Nothing good comes from fighting. Let’s forgive each other’s transgressions and start again.”
“Emma…you’re right. And I just got something very valuable—LP.”
“Well, congrats.”
We joked around a bit, and it wasn’t long before I felt Ms. Elena’s bloodlust piercing straight through me.
“Excuse me, maggots! Do you find my class that dull?”
“O-oh, no…um… We have to replenish our life energy, so…”
“Oh, is that all? Well, I think your tanks should be full by now. Class, attention!”
Ms. Elena had a wicked smile on her face as she gathered the rest of the class around.
“You two are going to practice until the entire class agrees that your acting was perfect.”
“But…Ms. Elena…” we pleaded.
We’d never get to leave! Although I supposed it was our own fault for messing around.
It took us about ten times each before our classmates agreed we could stop. I wished I had the acting talent to fool Ms. Elena. At least by the time class ended, her mood seemed to have improved a bit. I took the chance to ask her about the upcoming King of the School Year Competition.
“Can you tell me anything about the enchanted item you get if you win?”
“Wait until the competition. You only get one prize, but there are several options to choose from.”
That made sense. An archer wouldn’t be very happy with an axe, after all. At least it was probably something good.
“Noir, remember that strength isn’t always physical. People who are strong in the traditional sense don’t win every battle. Never forget that.”
I burned her advice into my heart. Battle was never just a simple equation where the person with the highest level or most skills and experience was destined to win. Sometimes, the underdog could pull the rug out from under a certain victor. There were plenty of examples of people like that beating someone more objectively powerful. See, for example: my encounter with the Black Lancer in the hidden dungeon.
“Ms. Elena, have you ever defeated someone stronger than you?”
“You bet your ass I have. Who the hell do you think I am?”
Her fist flew through the air, stopping a hair’s breadth from my nose. I had no time to react at all! I was amazed at how quickly she moved. Even Leila, who specialized in hand-to-hand combat, would probably have struggled.
“It doesn’t matter if your opponent’s got you beat on level, skills, and experience,” she said. “You can’t let them beat you in here.”
She pointed at my chest.
“I won’t forget it!”
Ms. Elena flashed me a beautiful smile, like she was proud of me. I was so lucky to have her as my teacher.