Victory & Defeat

Two or three seconds of silence passed as Thirteen and Eleven readied themselves.

Seeing that Thirteen was in an offensive stance, Eleven decided to wait, and see what he had readied. After the brief moment of peace came to an end, Thirteen dashed towards Eleven swiftly and made to close in.

Eleven however wouldn't allow it, using safe swings of his sword that would allow him to change trajectory to an extent in order to prevent Thirteen from slipping past his sword's range.

This continued for quite a while, with Thirteen dashing in quickly, avoiding Eleven's sword, and then moving back and reengaging once more. Every time he advanced, Thirteen would push his speed a little bit faster, and in so doing was applying increasing mental pressure to Eleven.

This wasn't something he did intentionally, he simply felt that he needed to force Eleven to give his all in defending. And his foe did just that. Gradually, Eleven began to expand slivers of internal qi in order to suddenly accelerate his sword in an attempt to catch Thirteen off guard and strike him before the boy's speed could continue to grow.

Gradually, Eleven's internal reserve continued to shrink, until, at some point, a light of realization shone within his eyes, as his movements began to slow down.

Thirteen, recognizing this drop in speed, concluded that Eleven had finally begun to grow tired with the loss of qi, and decided to make his move now.

Dashing in once more, Thirteen no longer dodged wide, as he believed Eleven lacked the energy left to make sudden adjustments to his swing, instead opting to dodge close to the sword that was swung with one hand, as he made to close the distance and strike at Eleven.

"Got you!" Eleven audibly yelled, as he gripped the sword with both hands mid swing, and accelerated it with everything he had, twisting his whole body in a way that would be incredibly dangerous should he miss.

Alas for Thirteen, miss he did not, as the wooden sword made quick contact with Thirteen's side. The impact was minimal, but soon after, Eleven dragged his wooden sword along the side of Thirteen's body, as if slicing him, while taking a step back and to the side.

"Good strike. Point to Eleven. Score is 2-0" Instructor Diores announced.

'Dammit' Thirteen lamented as he saw the taunting look on Eleven's face. 'Almost. I almost had him.'

After repositioning themselves, the third round of their spar began. At this point a lot of other children had finished their final fights and received the corresponding rewards from their helpers. They now walked the grounds watching those who still fought.

Among them, Thirteen spotted both Four and Ten watching him with heated gazes, like they wanted to jump in and help him beat down Eleven.

'Last chance. I need to make this count' Thirteen thought as he returned his gaze to Eleven.

'What can I use to bring the advantage to my side?' He pondered. 'I can deal with injury better, but that doesn't help me much in a sword duel. I have far more stamina, so I can afford to make a lot of large movements so long as they don't get me struck… what else?'

'He shouldn't be as good with unarmed combat as he is with the sword. I hope…'

Thirteen didn't have much time to think, as Eleven began to slowly advance.

'Perhaps I can disarm him? We haven't been taught how to disarm yet though. In fact we have not been taught how to fight against a sword while unarmed at all.' Thirteen lamented as he too began his advance.

The numbness in his leg had faded somewhat and it was beginning to feel both uncomfortable and itchy, but luckily he felt little pain even when committing large or heavy maneuvers.

Dashing in towards his foe, Thirteen truly was out of ideas about engaging a sword-wielding foe.

He began to simply repeat what he had done last time, but Eleven who had seen through the ploy no longer felt pressured by Thirteen's increasing speed, as he knew it was not without limit, and that It would not be able to contend with his own agility.

Gradually, Thirteen found himself on the losing end of the battle. He had no qualms continuing to fight, as his stamina was abundant, but his leg became more and more sensitive as the numbing paste wore off. Eleven had taken to the offensive, pushing Thirteen back, never allowing him close enough to strike with fist or foot.

The result of this battle was painfully obvious when Thirteen's left leg gave out for a brief moment, and Eleven, who had swung at him, stopped his sword mid air with a cocky smile before stepping back.

'He's bullying me' Thirteen concluded as he felt his face flush red and the calm anger within him become volatile once more. Trying to regain the initiative, Thirteen attacked. On one occasion, he managed to deflect Elevens sword with a palm to its flat side, and was pleased to find Instructor Diores considered it legal.

When trying to do so again though, he found the sword was far too swift for him to deflect reliably. A few times he had gone for his own sword that lay on the dirt ground a bit away from them, but every time, Eleven would swoop in for an attack.

Bit by bit, Thirteen felt himself losing control of the battle until finally, with one swing, Eleven expended most of whatever qi remained in his meridians to deliver his quickest blow — Directly at Thirteens left shin.

Thirteen heard a shrill noise echoing out from his own mouth as he fell backwards to the floor, and the daunting announcement that explained to him what had happened.

"Eleven's point. Score 3-0, Eleven's victory." Diores called.

—

As Diores saw the two helpers, each about to call for excessive force and malicious intent, he raised a hand to stop them.

'While striking at his enemy's weakness is encouraged, I cant have Eleven believing he can do as he pleases here. That said, I want this scene to be engraved in Thirteen's mind. Punishing Eleven now would only interfere with that, so I will deal with him in private.'

Diores gave a long look at Thirteen, who clutched his leg on the ground, before turning to the helpers.

"This should be Eleven's third victory. Award him accordingly."

After stating that, Instructor Diores left.

—

The next few minutes passed as sort of a blur for Thirteen, as he soon found himself under the shade of a tree, surrounded by Ten, Four, Melia, and the same medic as earlier.

She had applied a cream to the wound once more, but also held her hand just above the skin of his shin. As his foggy thoughts began to clear, Thirteen noticed a gentle light emanating from her palm.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"Just checking your condition. I'm not like you kids, I didn't receive any fancy healing art from the royal treasury." The medic woman replied, a degree of spite transparent in her words.

Thirteen noted the displeasure in her voice, but was more shocked by her words. 'The royal treasury? Are the arts we were given really expensive?' He thought naively.

Looking at Melia, the medic asked "Can you take this boy back to his dorm? He's going to need some rest."

"Sure" Melia replied as she tucked her arm under Thirteen's shoulders, placing his left arm over herself.

"You're to stay within your room tomorrow. You can cultivate, but no physical exercise. Your leg is in bad shape and even with your ability to heal, you will need rest. Tomorrow's a free day anyway, and you won't have any classes, so stay inside." The medic informed, before heading in the direction of Instructor Diores.

"Thank you" Thirteen muttered, as Melia began leading him back to the dorms.

Looking back to his two friends, Thirteen noticed the fury burning in Four and Ten's eyes and gave a genuine smile at their concern.

——

When he awoke, Thirteen found himself in his dorm, still dressed in his training clothes.

'I don't remember getting back.' he realized.

Turning to take in his surroundings, he found Nine, sitting on his own bed, looking over at where Thirteen lay.

"Finally awake?"

"So it seems."

"Helper Melia told me what happened. You were reckless." Nine said calmly.

"Bah, Melia's just gloating because she was right." He dismissed.

…

"I'm going to be visiting the dojo on my free days from now on."

Thirteen expected as much. "Same." he returned.

…

As silence took over the room once more, Thirteen began to think. He wanted to fight Eleven again, and to beat him. But, did he have the right? Surely Nine wanted to do the same, and it didn't seem right for Thirteen to make this his own matter when Nine had been so badly wounded first.

He thought he should let it go, and instead help Nine get his revenge, but the very thought of it made his anger rise. 'I want payback' Thirteen thought. 'He deliberately hurt me and Nine. I want to hurt him back.'

Turning to look at Nine, Thirteen saw he looked quite down. His head hung low and he was seated as if meditating, but Thirteen could hear his breathing was normal.

"Hey, Nine?"

"Yeah."

"Aren't you... mad? Don't you want to get payback on Eleven?" He asked tentatively.

… After a moment of silence, Nine replied slowly.

"You know… I was beginning to think that Intuition was just as good as strength or dexterity. I had won a few times and quite easily too. I let it get to my head."

Thirteen was confused by Nine's response, but continued to listen.

"I know now. I can win. But not by deluding myself in regards to attributes. The difference between those with and without physical attributes will only continue to grow, and I don't know when i'll awaken my next one.

If i want to cultivate. If i want to hone my strength, as Nicholas put it, then relying on my intuition isn't enough. No matter if i know what's coming or not, it wont help me if i can do nothing about it.

Am I mad at eleven?

No.

I'm just annoyed at myself."

Nine looked up, and on his face Thirteen saw no signs of sorrow or anger, just plain determination.

"I won one of two battles today fighting under a false assumption. If I work hard on my fighting ability now, I'm confident I can surpass the likes of Eleven, so i have no need for anger or hatred. Nor do I need to fight him again. I've learnt the lesson he has for me, now I have no need for the likes of him."

Thirteen was stunned. Nine had always seemed a bit more mature than he, but Thirteen assumed it was just his use of bigger words. He felt that everything Nine had said was incredibly reasonable, and yet...

'Why do I still feel angry?' He couldn't understand it.

'Nine is fine. He's not angry with Eleven, and even came out better for it. So why do i still feel so mad?'

He didn't know. All he understood was one thing.

"I want to beat him"

"Then do it." Nine responded with utmost confidence.