Gone Mad

The battle began, and the guy called Gean rushed toward Frederic with his hammer in both hands. Frederic raised his shield, while the hand holding his short sword remained behind. He intended to block that hammer, or so we thought. Before the hammer arrived, Frederic stepped back a bit. "Bam!", the hammer slammed the ground with enough force to crush someone into a pulp.

"You bastard, are you afraid to take on my strikes?", Gean asked, annoyed. "Who said that I have to? Moreover, we are still battling...Swoosh!", Frederic replied while slashing with his short sword. His technique was certainly weird. The distance between them was larger than the reach of his sword, and yet Gean defended with his hammer.

"Clang!", for some reason, the attack connected. Frederic didn't cease after that one slash though. He utilised his forward movements to carry out a chain of attacks. All of them seemed to slash the air, but clinking sounds were apparent throughout his attacks. I watched him more closely, then finally found the reason behind that.

Frederic's short sword was indeed short, it wasn't gimmicked in any way. The reason he was able to reach was thanks to his movement technique. He was able to advance, and distance himself a few steps in an instance. That created an illusion he was swinging his sword into thin air, but in reality, he was always within the range.

I wasn't sure why he wielded the shield, if he wasn't going to use it. The answer to that question came rather quickly. Frederic wasn't using his shield for defence, or at least not most of the time. He used it to attack his opponent. Gean was really proficient with his hammer, and managed to block most of the attacks. Even then, the shield was perhaps a bit too much for him.

Frederic used it to disturb his flow and balance, and then tried to close in with his short sword. To our surprise, Gean wasn't simple either. He didn't have another weapon or a shield, but he had his fists. His gloves had to be special, because he slapped Frederic's short sword away from him, even though he lost balance.

Frederic, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind, and closed in once again. Both warriors tried to gain advantage. Sometimes, Gean's hammer would come very close, and smash the shield in Frederic's hand. Frederic came close a few times as well, but they were pretty evenly matched.

That was until Frederic changed his strategy. The two more daggers hidden inside his shield were utilised, and we were able to witness some unique swordsmanship. He didn't abandon his shield, but rather used his other hand to juggle the three swords and attacked with them in succession. Gean sustained a few injuries from that barrage, before counter-attacking with his own unique move. He spun around with his hammer extended outwards, like a twister. Though that sort of strategy seemed pointless and quite vulnerable, Gean had that covered. He moved the hammer during his spin, creating a sort of wave. This attack became much more unpredictable, and shielded most of his body from Frederic's attacks.

Frederic had to back off, and even received one or two of the hits to his shield. The strikes could only be called as grazes, and yet Frederic would lose balance and step backward a few times. Of course Gean's attack couldn't last forever. More importantly, he became a bit disorientated after stopping.

That was an opportunity for Frederic to go in for the win. He did just that, and everyone suspected him to win, but Gean had something else in mind. Though he was most probably dizzy, he had a grin on his face once Frederic advanced. He seemingly raised his hammer, then tried to slam the advancing Frederic. Frederic on the other hand, was easily able to avoid it, but then his face changed.

The hammer that rose to the sky, Gean's hands weren't on it. He wasn't holding onto the hammer anymore, he was attacking the side with his fists. That was something Frederic didn't anticipate, and even though he tried using the shield to block, the attack went through. "Ungh..", his grand audible thanks to the crowd staying silent for that deciding moment.

That one punch was enough to throw Frederic off the pace and flow, and gave Gean enough time to follow up with more attacks. Three punches later, Frederic slammed the stage, struggling to pick himself up. Gean was visibly exhausted too, but he won. His strategy was better, even though he seemed to struggle most of the time.

Some parts of the crowd roared, while others seemed a bit disappointed. Frederic had to give up, since his opponent could beat him up even more. The battle was over and Gean's name was chanted loudly by many people in the audience. "This was a great battle. I'd like to face both of them", Teri said.

"Yea, they were great, but don't forget about the important things. You'd need your full strength to even face them. We can't risk that", "I'm aware, don't worry. I just said that to myself really. We should watch more battles though. This is a great place to learn something", he replied. That wasn't a bad idea. We managed to learn something already, and Teri especially liked the idea of attacking with his shield.

We left the arena shortly after the battle, and returned to the tavern. Fortunately, Dawn was back, otherwise I'd worry about her. "You guys took your time, was the arena interesting?", she asked. "Yea, we saw a great battle. You should come with us next time. What about you?", "I'm not sure yet… That's why I took it with me". Her reply didn't make sense for a while, until she actually took out the portrait from her storage item.

"Are you insane!", I exclaimed. "Shhh, keep it down will you? I don't need attention", "... Dawn, it's alright. It's fine, everything is well. My father will help you once he shows up. Or we'll go back to the North, I'm sure there's a cure for this... Okay? Just give me this portrait, and get some rest". I spoke slowly and gently. She went mad after all, and we had to deal with that somehow.

"Stop bullshitting yourself. I'm not mad, you idiot", "Come now, we are all friends. Just give me that portrait. I promise to show it to you once in a while, okay? I'm not taking it away…". She interrupted me before I could finish, "Want me to beat you up? I told you, I'm not crazy. Moreover, the way you speak is annoying me. Stop that".

I didn't want to make it worse, and decided to 'take' the portrait from her with some help. She had to sleep one day or another. I knew she'd be on guard against me and others, but perhaps not against Curly. "Okay, okay… Keep it, I'm not forcing anything. Get some sleep, alright? We've been out and about for the whole day, I'm sure you're tired", I proposed.

Dawn hid the portrait back into her storage item, then laid on her bed. She didn't go to sleep, I could tell that much. The most important part was that she actually listened to some reasoning. There was a chance, and we had to get the portrait away from her. Though I couldn't really ask Curly in Dawn's presence. "I'll be back in a moment. I'll just tell Tara and Teri to wake up later. There's no rush, right?".

With that, I grabbed Curly and left the room. "Curly, once Dawn's asleep, make sure to steal her storage item. I'm sure you know which one it is. Once you have it, wake me up and bring it to me. By the way, she might be faking it, so make sure she's really asleep. Okay? That's really important to me", I whispered.

Curly nodded her head in agreement. We visited Teri and Tara to tell them about Dawn's condition. Tara wasn't surprised much, but Teri didn't want to believe it. "Yea, taking the portrait is a bit extreme… But that doesn't mean she's mad. Maybe she really thinks there's something in it. How about we give her some space? If she's still obsessed after a few days, we'll intervene", he proposed.

"Really? She went mad the moment she saw it. I'm sure. Maybe the portrait had that sort of thing? I mean, we don't know many things. Maybe she got charmed by it, therefore taking away the source of that charm would help her", Tara argued. Both of them had a point. Dawn was our friend, especially a close friend for me and Tara. We should trust her, but at the same time, we were worried.

"I'll see what happens once Curly gets her paws on the portrait… I know, we should trust her more. I'm simply too worried. The more we wait, the less time we might have. I don't know how unhealthy this is, so it's better to act sooner. If worse comes to worst, I'll take the blame", I said before leaving their room.