[F01] Goofing off

[Luke Pendragon 0]

Luke stood across from a soldier, looking them up and down. This was it, a spar with an NPC that he’d promised to take part in. It was a sort of trial quest that required players to fight in order to prove that they knew the basics of the controls. Almost everyone had to partake in some kind of fight once in a while.

It was Luke’s first time sparring in such a manner. Sure he’d sparred plenty of times, but not with a bunch of NPCs watching him, and an NPC who was no doubt going to take notes. He had a blunted sword in hand and wore some padded armor that he was lent for the sake of the fight. He’d have preferred his normal armor, but if he had metal then a wooden sword wasn’t going to be able to do much to him.

The purpose of it all wasn’t to cause injuries, but to prove that they could fight at a suitable level. Luke felt that he had proved himself time and time again in the field and that this was all unnecessary. He supposed that was only natural as a player. He didn’t truly appreciate how important this spar was to the others. And yet he was obliged to participate, because if he didn’t he would never prove himself worthy of being treated as an important person by the masses in this game.

“Alright, let’s get this over with,” he said, brandishing his wooden weapon.

His opponent was dressed similar to himself. They were similar in size and build, except his opponent was clearly not magical in the slightest. Luke felt bad for the man, seeing as though he probably knew that he was going to lose.

He wasn’t barred from using any sword arts, which was quite the pickle. Did he just end the fight in two seconds? Or should he try drawing it out a little to have a good fight? He didn’t know what the etiquette was, seeing as though he’d only ever seen these kinds of fights happen among the distinctly not strong.

His opponent shuffled forwards with their own sword held taught. They gave an exploratory stab at him, which Luke avoided by stepping aside and whacking their sword with his own.

Luke tried to hold back taunts. This was supposed to be serious, so he kept his face neutral. He batted away yet another swing, then another while circling around. He then jolted forwards quicker than one might expect for someone in armor. He rammed his shoulder into the soldier who staggered backwards and was pushed back by one of the bystanders.

His opponent stumbled towards him and bared his teeth. He felt like he was being made a fool, so he came at him with a more desperate series of slashes.

Luke used this as an opportunity to practice blocking with his armor. He used his armor against the first slash, then quickly strained to perform another defense that blocked a second strike. He realized he was holding his breath to do so, and took a gasp of air while stepping around his opponent. He whacked him with the flat side of his blade on the back. It could have been fatal in a real fight, but the spar continued.

The soldier turned around – he was also panting. Fights were usually over within a minute, or minutes at the max. This was why soldiers on battlefields tended to cycle from the front lines to the back lines. Even well trained soldiers couldn’t go all out over and over again. He knew that he only had so many more tries before he started to look pathetic.

Luke let the fight carry on as usual as he got his bearings back. People in the crowd were probably confused as to why he was not just ending things, but he wanted to try one more time to use his armor. He did strike back, slapping his opponent several times hard enough to make him feel the pain. Then, when he intentionally created an opening in his defenses, he felt the mitigation kick in around his whole body. He thrust his hand out to the side to balance himself as he grunted with effort. It was brief, but he did manage to mitigate the damage. 

The sword came down on his arm, causing him to hiss with pain and roll out of the way despite the mitgation. “Time to end this,” he thought to himself as he rose up into a fighting stance. He narrowed his eyes then jolted forwards once more. He hit his opponent’s weapon so hard that his sword flew up into the air, and in a fluid motion, put his sword’s tip up to the man’s throat.

His opponent froze, and there were gasps of surprise from the onlookers. The NPC clapped his hands. “Good work, you two. Luke, you pass.”

The person he had fought against sulked away, but Luke did hear some people congratulate him for lasting so long. Luke’s victory didn’t exactly get any cheers. Everyone here knew that he was effective and this was more or less a formality. 

There was a short celebration, and a period of rest, then Luke was ordered to join the NPC for a meeting.

“Congratulations, Luke,” the older man said, “you did well, and you showed the troops that you can hold yourself in a fight. I’ve assembled some other NPCs in a room nearby. Go and meet them. I have some tasks for the lot of you to do starting tomorrow. Prove you can be good to them, so that you may continue to succeed. And remember, respect is earned, not given.”

Luke nodded and said, “yes, sir. I’ll do my best.” He headed to the room across the hall then walked in to see a group of soldiers standing around. He didn’t recognize a single one of them, then again he hadn’t paid much attention earlier. 

Luke went out of the building to rest on a small hill, away from the hubbub of the main area. He looked out in the distance where some kind of wagon was travelling down a road. It looked like it had gotten stuck in some mud so it came to a stand still. Though now the front half of the wagon was also entrenched in a ditch. It was a problem he was sure those people would deal with later. Two people vacated the wagon and began their journey towards the town, just a few miles away. They moved like they were familiar with the area as they were easily able to locate the right path to go towards the town.

Contrary to how it may have felt for the ragtag group, they had a plan, or at least something vaguely resembling one. The day prior to their arrival, these two had gotten some kind of quest that required them to go rescue an NPC inside the town. Luke didn’t know anything about this plan, but he did think that they looked out of place. They wore the right clothes, but their gait was off from what he’d expect from players.

Halfway to the town, one of them pulled out something from a bag and started to adjust her disguise. A helmet, some armor that covered her torso, and baggy pants that helped hide her womanly shape. That would make this seem like just another day, which is exactly what it needed to be if they were going to get in and rescue the NPC.

Luke decided that he ought to go meet up with them before they made it to the town for his own peace of mind. He brought his sword, and wondered whether he should have sent someone else to investigate, but he didn’t have anything better to do and was trying to kill time.