Herald of Steel

“Wait mistress, let me be your champion.” Alexander still tried at the last second to switch with his to-be wife.

It felt too dangerous.

But the feisty girl shot him down, “What champion? The idiot called me a witch. Did he call you a witch? Stay put and let your mistress do her job, slave.”

The last sentence drew an imperceptible twitch to Alexander’s face as he felt slightly insulted at being talked to like this in front of everyone by his soon-to-be bride.

‘Looks like I will need to give her a proper spanking later.’ He thought with some spite in his heart.

“The challenge was issued by the challenger by herself. I am afraid only she can participate.” Meniscus from the side interjected, clarifying the rules.

“Brother Gratz go easy on her.” From the side, Heliptos urged, already showing whose side he was on.

‘This level of sycophancy…’ The mercenary leaders all had mixed emotions about this guy.

Soon, the space around the entrance of the medical tent was cleared and a dueling ring with the mercenaries as the walls was created.

Shields were not allowed in Trial by combat, so both combatants faced each other holding swords in both hands.

Most soldiers from Damious’s group jeered and booed Cambyses, expecting the duel to end soon.

If gambling had not been strictly forbidden for any trial by combat, many would likely have opened gambling booths with their money firmly on Gratz.

After all, Gratz was one of their best commanders and the most trusted man of their late commander, so how could he lose to a mere woman, no to a girl!

Menicus was chosen as the arbitrator of the match, and the old man, surprisingly had a loud bark as he shouted,

“Start!” and signaled the beginning of the duel.

“Get her.”

“Show her what is a real man!”

“Witch!”

“Kill!”

“Kill!”

The crowd cheered the man on and urged him to finish it quickly, while Cambyses’s side silently watched.

But neither party attacked, instead, they simply started and started to circle one another like ravenous sharks.

Because duels in reality were not all like what Hollywood tended to portray them as.

In actuality, duels were a bit boring as combatants would wait and observe, thrust feints, and like they were doing now circle one another to try to find a weak point in another’s defense.

Duels were a test of nerves as much as a test of skills as it was possible to let the pressure get to one and make a premature strike thinking he had found a weakness while it was all along it was just a feint the opponent had created just to lure in an attack. 𝙚𝙙𝙣𝒐𝙫𝙚𝙡.𝙤𝙧𝒈

This could see one get parried and counterattacked and likely killed.

So one had to be patient.

To wait and observe and try to figure out which weaknesses the opponent revealed were fake and which were real.

Usually, this was done by short thrusts to try and open a gap in the defenses and then take advantage of the opponent’s lapse in judgment to deliver the killing blow.

Note the use of the word- ‘usually.’

Because in this particular unusual instance, Gratz soon lost his patience and partly egged on by the crowd and partly because of overconfidence, charged.

‘I was defending just in case the witch had some strange powers, but she’s just a scared brat. Hah, I will enjoy this.’ The man simply did not put Cambyses in his eyes, and with a manic grin bought his sword straight down the middle, intending to spill her into her skull in two.

Alexander breathed a massive sigh of relief at this move because he was now almost sure of Gratz’s skill and determined that Cambyses would win.

The move was so textbook that Cambyses could bet that she would be able to parry it blindfolded.

She expertly brushed the sword onto the right using her sword and then used her footwork to get to his left side to flank him, which caused Gratz to make a wide swing to try and catch her.

“Too easy!” Cambyses smirked at the man, as her sword caught the incoming sword mid-way in the air and parried it towards the ground, planting it in the soil.

Simultaneously, as Gratz was reeling from the shock of having his swords strike the ground and tried to get back his stance, Cambyses retrieved her sword, used her agile speed to get from Gtatz’s left side to his back, and then…

Well, there was no more, “and then.”

Because it was over!

Cambyses did a little dance as she spun on her heels and using her momentum spun the sword one-handedly, cleanly chopping off the head and creating a little red fountain for the crowd’s entertainment.

From the time Gratz made his attack to when his head got graciously separated from his body, it took less than ten seconds.

And this was how Cambyses won her first-ever duel.

This abrupt conclusion of the match stunned most soldiers.

Because the duel had ended quickly as they expected but not in the way they expected.

The reason for their shock was also exacerbated by the ease Cambyses ended the duel, almost effortlessly and many felt confused by how quickly Gratz lost the duel.

This was because they all knew Gratz as a good captain and a formidable opponent to face on the battlefield but they had forgotten to take into consideration his individual fighting skills.

Skills that the man had neglected to keep sharp and thus had allowed to become rusty over the years.

After all, the man usually had a literal army to do his battles for him so why bother?

While the soldiers were still digesting the sight of the headless corpse, Alexander was making his own evaluation of the match.

‘Cocky.’ Was the grade he awarded.

He had always taught Cambyses to kill her opponents as quickly and as efficiently as possible and felt that Cambyses really did not need to do the little dance and chop off his head.

A far less waste of movement would have been to simply stab him through the much wider back into the heart.

Instead, the girl chose to attack the much smaller and thinner neck just for the theatrics.

‘I will need to lecture her on this,’ Alexander thought as he did not want to see his beloved head cracked like an egg by giant hands because of hubris like in that show.

“The gods of spoken.” Menicus declared the end of the match.

And with the all soldiers, though many were unwilling, accepted the judgment of the gods, and the matter of Damious’s death was finally put to rest.

Damious had officially died of cold!