Unfair Favoring

"I hope that you know that I never agreed to this!"

"Don't worry, it's just a spar."

"Yes, but she looks no older than my son. Are you actually serious about this!"

"Yes."

Wompa was currently up against one of the guards who was forced into sparring with her to test her strength. The two of them stood face to face and were getting ready to fight.

"Sorry, but please don't blame me for this," he apologized to Wompa before the fight began.

Wompa simply shrugged her shoulders in response like she was saying, "whatever," or "I don't blame you."

"Oh, and by the way, no hitting her in the face, or body, or arms, or legs, or feet. Actually, you can't touch her at all. If even a drop of your sweat gets on her, I'll nail your head into the dirt," Nell told the guard with a smile.

"What!? How am I supposed to win then?" If he couldn't hit Wompa anywhere on her body then he had no way of taking her down. "This isn't fair!"

"I don't know, you'll have to figure it out on your own."

"Ugh... You're basically telling me to lose to her." The guard made an unpleasant grunt before raising his wooden sword. Wompa readied her weapons as well. She spun the two wooden daggers in her hand and went into her battle stance. She held one dagger in front of her while the other behind her back.

"Good luck! On three. One, two, three!" Nell waved her hand and the two charged at each other. The guard attacked first and swung his sword at Wompa's head. She dodged it by ducking her head. She then sprung up into the air and jumped right over the guard and kicked him in his back. He stumbled forward a little before turning around to face Wompa again. "Tch. Not bad."

"Hey, what the heck do you think you're doing!?" Nell yelled at him.

"What?"

"Didn't I tell you that you're not allowed to hit her!?"

"Wait, you were being serious about that!?"

"Yes! Try that again and see what happens!"

"..."

The guard scratched his head in frustration, trying to figure out what he was supposed to do if he couldn't hit Wompa. After a couple of seconds of pondering, he raised his sword. "F*ck! This is crazy!"

Wompa rushed at the guard and began to slash at him violently. Since the guard wasn't allowed to fight back, all he could do was try his best to block and dodge the attacks, causing him to be pushed back by her. Eventually, the guard couldn't keep it up anymore and tried to get away from her. He pushed Wompa back the next time he parried her weapon and distanced himself from her.

"D*mn it! Well, looks like there's only one way I can win this..." The guard took a deep breath and readied his sword again. "This isn't exactly the honorable way to win a fight but this stupid captain of mine leaves me no other choice."

"Hey! Who are you calling stupid?"

"I'm calling you stupid. How in the world is someone supposed to win if they can't even fight back?" The guard charged at and swung his sword with all his strength. Wompa raised her daggers to block it but the blow was too strong and knocked one of her daggers out of her hands. Wompa rolled away just in time as the sword came down on her a second time.

Wompa rubbed her wrist and rotated it around a couple of times to see if it was okay. After making sure that it was fine, she got back up and held up her single dagger, and faced the guard.

"You're using brute force against her!?" Nell exclaimed.

"Sorry captain, but it's the only way I can win. You didn't exactly give me any other choice." The only way for him to win is to disarm Wompa. He needed to get both of her weapons out of her hands since he couldn't attack her directly. The guard ran at Wompa with his sword in the air and brought it down with all his might again.

Wompa tilted her body and barely dodged the attack as it came down. She trusted her dagger at the guard's neck but he expected it and caught her hand right before the wooden tip could teach his neck. Wompa tried to pull his hand off but his grip was too strong "It's my victory," the guard told her. He raised his sword to her neck and clicked his tongue.

"Alright, that's enough. Let go of her," Nell ordered the guard. He did as he was told and let go of Wompa's wrist. "What did I say about touching her!?"

"Are you really going to give me cr*p for that? Ugh, I'm leaving." The guard didn't; want to stay anymore and just left. He had no reason to anyway since he already did what he needed to do. "That girl is pretty good, but it's not enough. She wouldn't stand a chance against the thieves," the guard said as he walked away. As much as they hated to hear it, it was true. Even though Nell gave the guard a huge handicap by not allowing him to attack Wompa, she still lost.

And it wasn't like that guard was that tough of an opponent either. Kies saw from the way that he fought that he was pretty average. He was much better than the old mercenary that she fought with yesterday but was slightly worse than Trisha. Unlike the mercenaries, the guard knew how to use a sword properly. There was no randomness in his attacks. Each swing of his sword had a purpose and was careful so that it left no opening.

"Hm... Well, that's one point for me and zero for you guys. Looks like you're up next," Nell told Kies. "Remember, if you don't win then you can forget about accepting this request."

Wompa gave Kies an apologetic look for losing but he shook his head, telling her that it was fine. He knew that the guards weren't going to be easy to defeat since they are technically soldiers and have had formal training. Self-taught fighting styles weren't going to work against formal fighting styles unless it was on the same level as it.

"So I have to put some effort into this..." Kies muttered. He walked up and greeted his opponent. He was handed a wooden sword and so was his opponent. Since he wasn't accustomed to fighting with a one handed-sword, he knew that he wouldn't be able to win against the guard with his skills. He needed to do something else.

The two of them stood and stared at each other for a moment, sizing up one another. Kies made the first move and charged at the guard. He swung his sword horizontally, aiming at the guard's shoulders. The guard moved his weapon to block the attack which was exactly what Kies had hoped for him to do. Just as the two swords were about to collide, Kies stopped his attack and suddenly jabbed his elbow at the guard's chest. The attack succeeded and the guard stumbled back, clutching his chest where Kies' elbow hit.

"D*mn... And here I thought that I was lucky since I get to fight with you instead of the girl since I wouldn't have to deal with the captain's bullsh*t rules... Turns out you might be even more of a pain to deal with than her." The guard didn't look happy about getting hit by that surprise attack but he didn't say anything else.

The soldier cracked his neck and then proceeded to approach Kies with his sword to his side. Yep, he really didn't look happy about Kies tricking him with that attack. Well then... Trying that a second time won't work so Kies needed to think of something new. But there wasn't really much he could do. The only way that he can win this fight is by doing what the previous guard did to Wompa. He needed to overpower his opponent with sheer strength since he had no way of winning through his swordsmanship.

Kies charged at the guard and thrust his sword at his stomach. The guard jumped back to avoid the attack and Kies followed it up by swinging his sword as hard as he could at the guard's chest. Once again, the guard chose to dodge the attack instead of blocking it. Kies continued to attack the guard with brute force. The guard saw what Kies was doing and raised an eyebrow. All he needed to do was to continue dodging the attacks and Kies would eventually run out of stamina from recklessly attacking like that. There was no need for him to waste a bunch of his energy trying to block those attacks himself.

The guard confidently dodged all of Kies' attacks and waited for him to run out of energy. When he saw that Kies was starting to slow down and his breathing turned heavy, he took the opportunity and attacked Kies. But it wasn't Kies' mistake, it was the guard's. He had fallen right for his trap. Kies wasn't human so he didn't get tired at all but the guard didn't know that. Therefore, he faked his breathing and exhaustion so his opponent would lower his guard.

Kies waited for the sword to almost hit his head before he suddenly quickened his speed. He dodged the attack and swung his sword at the guard, surprising him with his sudden burst of speed. The guard moved back but saw that he wouldn't be able to dodge the attack in time so he put his sword up to block the attack.

The two swords collided with each other and both of them broke from the impact. The guard fell backward since he was not prepared for Kies to put that much strength behind the attack. Kies moved forward with his splintered sword and pointed it at the guard's neck before he could get up.

The guard's eyes flashed from confusion to realization, to anger, and then finally to acceptance, all in the span of one second as he saw that it was his defeat. "F*ck! You got me..." The guard laid his head back down the ground and waited for Kies to take the sword away before getting up.

"As much as I hate to admit it... I lost..." the guard grumpily admitted his defeat.

Kies turned to Nell and Wompa and saw that the princess was clapping at his performance while the captain was staring at Kies with her mouth open in utter disbelief at what just happened.

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