Project Empress 009

(Chapter 3 continued) 

The lord-bishop didn’t strike at once; he first saluted Natalie, then Cara and finally the cross, then waited for Natalie to finish her salute. 

After a small nod from Natalie he burst towards her, sword and buckler forward. With a leap and two long steps he had reached them. Natalie had pushed Cara aside, the lord-bishop had not attacked her but was positioning himself in a way where Cara would be blocking Natalie’s strong side, forcing her to counter from her weaker side. 

“Back”, Natalie snapped.

The lord-bishop´s sword clashed against Natalie’s, who dove under the attack, using the strong of her blade, the part next to the cross guard, to her advantage, absorbing the attack. The lord-bishop´s blade passed over Natalie’s head. Out of her crouch she shot upwards, throwing her opponent off balance. 

As the lord-bishop stumbled backwards, he shifted his buckler around his arm to gain control over Natalie’s sword, freeing his own. The moment his blade wasn’t bound anymore he turned it around to slash towards Natalie’s face. 

A short jump and slide backwards moved Natalie out of of danger while still keeping her foe in range of her long-sword. Instead of rushing back in, she kept the point of her sword zipping around, close to the lord-bishop´s body. Avoiding binding both to the sword and the shield. As Natalie’s feet moved further away, she leaned slightly forward to maximise the reach of her weapon. 

The movements of both fencers were so fast that it was hard for Cara to keep up with them. Right now it seemed that Natalie was keeping the lord-bishop´s hands apart, constantly shifting which new opening of his, the point of her sword was threatening. 

While the weapons of the two fighters were darting back and forth, Cara noticed that neither Natalie nor the lord-bishop appeared to be stressed. Natalie’s expression was focused, her breath synchronised with her movements, breathing in as her sword retreated, breathing out as it burst forward. The lord-bishop, on the other hand, had a wary but curious expression, his eyes mostly focused on Natalie herself, only darting towards the approaching point of Natalie’s sword when it suddenly appeared from a slightly unexpected direction. When that happened, the corners of his mouth twitched very slightly. Cara could not quite tell if those were nerves or if the lord-bishop was almost smiling.

When Natalie pulled her sword back again to reposition the point, the lord-bishop leapt back further into the atrium. As he did so, he pulled the buckler next to the sword again, shifting his stance forward. At first Cara had wondered why he did that, but now. as he shifted a bit to the side and Natalie stalked after him, keeping the threat up but never quite committing to an attack, Cara realised that this tiny metal shield cast a vast protective shadow behind it that grew in size the further one stood behind it. In this stance the lord-bishop stood in the bucklers protective zone, his sword an invitation to anyone foolish enough to come forward and kill themselves with it.

Natalie moved forward with a great stride. Her sword was high over her head, in what she called “The Day in Zenith” position. A posture that Natalie had warned Cara about. because while it looked scary it didn’t have that much of a reach and gave you no protection whatsoever. You should only ever use it against lesser fencers who did not know the Path and then you should wait for them to enter your reach and not walk into them like an idiot.

And here she was, master-prospect Natalie Laukkanen Lapointe, rushing in, against weapon master lord-bishop Waltharius with her blade in the Day in Zenith position. Cara was as appalled as the lord-bishop was suspicious of the manoeuvre. Natalie had kicked her front-leg forward, half stepping half jumping, dragging her leg behind her, sliding over the grass in the atrium. She brought her sword down hard, using her momentum to increase her reach, letting her sword crash down towards the lord-bishops head. 

The lord-bishop was not impressed. With rising eyebrows, he stepped forward into and under Natalie’s attack, blocking her descending sword with ease high-above and in front of his face. When Natalie pushed even more against the block, the lord-bishop smirked, disappointment etched into his face, as he reinforced his stance to redirect all of Natalie’s force through his body into the ground. 

The smirk had not quite settled when Natalie, still moving forward, switched her sword around, gaining new momentum by the force the lord-bishop was still pushing into it to repulse the attack. In a fast accelerating circular motion the attack that had been coming from above now turned into one entering from below diving under the lord-bishop’s defence. 

The smirk was swiped away by the turn of events. Eyes growing wide, the lord-bishop twisted his sword around to intercept the incoming attack, while pulling the buckler close to his body to stop Natalie’s blade, if that wasn’t enough.

Cara saw how Natalie, still carried by her momentum, fell to knees, sliding over the grass, pulling her sword down with her, holding it horizontally, as she slid past the lord-bishop cutting him over both his legs as she did so. Once past him she shifted her sword back into a basic defence position while jumping back up.

Now she allowed her self a small predatory smile.  

“The first point appears to be mine.”, Natalie said.

“So it seems”, the lord-bishop said, he himself was now smiling too. He winked at Cara before turning around. “Best out of three?”

“Deal.”

Both fighters, moved away from each other a few steps, gave a quick salute and their second bout started. 

This time, no one rushed in. Instead both inched closer, circling each other, but the lord-bishop avoided stepping inside the zone that Natalie’s attacks could reach, while she avoided getting drawn into his by walking into it with an easily broken attack. 

The situation reminded Cara of two cats circling each other.

Whenever Natalie poked at the lord-bishop her attack was either evaded, deflected or blocked. 

On the other hand, all careful entries by the lord-bishop simply led to Natalie retreating in a circling motion, staying out of the lord-bishop´s range while also avoiding being pressed against a wall. 

Cara had the suspicion that the lord-bishop was betting on Natalie’s temper getting the better of her, or maybe pushing her towards another stunt like the one she had pulled before. However, Natalie was having none of it. Her expression was back to her focused combat self. Every once in a while she moved her head, shifting her perspective slightly as if considering some kind of new attack vector, but always thought better of it. 

To Cara’s surprise it was the lord-bishop who in the end lost his nerve. The corner of his moth twitching in disapproval, he rushed in towards Natalie. Cara’s master, now for a change followed the advice she had given her student. Closing the line between her and her attacker by extending the point of her sword into the face of her attacker. The lord-bishop just pulled his buckler up, pushing against Natalie’s sword, diving under it, pressing further forward, his own sword now slashing upwards with a backhanded strike. 

Natalie jumped back, letting the strong of her blade fall to block the lord-bishop’s attack. The moment she had the lord-bishop´s blade under control she snapped the point of her sword around, attempting to cut the chest of her opponent. The lord-bishop slapped the sword away with his buckler.

Soon they were back to circling each other. 

And so it went on for a while. 

It seemed like they were evenly matched, none of the fighters quite able to get past the other’s defences. 

The lord-bishop tried to push past Natalie’s point, where she would not have the range advantage anymore. 

Natalie tried to manoeuvre past, the lord-bishop’s defence with her long reach, but she constantly had to either block a counter attack by her opponent´s sword or got blocked by the shield. 

Also, to Cara’s amazement, especially considering her utterly sore body, none of the combatants showed any signs of exhaustion. They were covered in a thin film of sweat and their breathing was heavy, however they were not slowing down and both their eyes were still clear and sharp. 

Another fast attack series. This time by Natalie, jumping left throwing a horizontal overhead slash, smashing against the lord-bishops blade, sparks flying! Then a jump to the right with a low horizontal cut, easily blocked by the shield. Back left she went with another low attack, which was blocked by a hair´s breadth. As she kept up her alternating attacks, she opened up the defence of the lord-bishop, spreading it further to the left and to the right, thus leaving him open in the middle. 

As Cara realised this, Natalie’s sword did not swing back to the other side but went over her head directly towards the lord-bishop´s face. 

This was also the moment, when Cara realised that her master was walking into a trap, that the lord-bishop had set.

“Master…”, she yelled, “his shield!”

But it was already to late: the lord-bishop had blocked Natalie’s overhead attack with his blade and now used his buckler in an uppercut punch that hit Natalie square in the stomach and sent her flying eyes bulging.

Natalie gasped for air, struggling to stay on her feet. Cara ran to her, helping her stand. “He tricked you by making you expect attacks only from his sword”, Cara said.

  

“Yeah”, Natalie gasped, “I noticed.”

She took a rattling breath. 

“Hold my sword for a moment.” 

Cara did as she was told. It took Natalie a few attempts, but she got her breathing back under control. Once she had done that, she took off her coat and draped it over her shoulders, fixing it with a chain that held it closed high on her chest.

“Sword”, she said and took it from Cara.

The lord-bishop had watched this, not moving, his face not betraying any emotion.

“This last round decides your fate. Are you ready master-prospect Natalie Laukkanen Lapointe?”

Natalie’s answer was just a broad grin, with little humour but with a large helping of bloodlust.  

This time, Natalie rushed forward with shocking speed. Before the lord-bishop was in her reach, she had circled several steps around him, her long coat billowing behind her. She grabbed hold of it, drawing it between herself and her opponent, who for a moment just could see the dark blue wall of fabric. He pulled it away with the tip of his sword ready to push against the advancing Natalie who wasn’t there. The time it took him to find her, she had used following her coat and staying behind its cover as long as possible. She had already crouched low, slashing her sword against the exposed ankles of the lord-bishop. He just managed to pull his legs away in the last second with Natalie’s sword barely scraping against his right lower leg.

From there Pandemonium broke loose and it was beyond Cara to follow what was happening. Natalie was using her coat both as a distraction and as a shield and was using her enormous speed and agility to get every advantage she could get. Cara recognised many of Natalie’s movements as those she had seen her perform when she was moving to the music during their late night training yesterday night. 

The lord-bishop had a hard time keeping up with the constantly shifting Natalie, but by now they had given up all pretence of a friendly match and were going all out. Now he also had a focused expression. It was clear that he had been playing with Natalie before, testing her skills. 

For a moment it seemed that Natalie at her best was evenly matched with the lord-bishop, but as the fight went on it became clear to Cara that lord-bishop Waltharius was the greater martial master of the two. While he was unable to get past Natalie’s fury, neither was she able to get past his indomitable defence. However, the longer the fight went on, the more the lord-bishop adapted to Natalie’s sword and storm style of attacks, redirecting her force, slowly opening her up to to counter attacks and distracting her attention by carefully played manoeuvres.

Natalie was also adapting but not as fast and where the lord-bishop was planning his manoeuvres several steps in advance, Natalie was forced more and more to react to whatever was coming at her at any given moment. 

She went for a last push, hiding behind her coat again, going forward, deviating left, deviating right; the moment the lord-bishop pushed past her coat, she did not follow the coat, she loosened the chain, letting it fly away while pushing forward, using her blade as a shield, turning around as the buckler came flying towards her, narrowly evading it. She shifted her weight slightly downwards, letting the lord-bishops blade move her sword away from him, using the momentum to bring her pommel up to strike him with it square in the face. The lord-bishops eyes grew wide, he dropped his sword and the buckler, grabbed hold of the cross-guard of Natalie’s sword with one hand and the grip of it with the other, followed her momentum and sent her flying head over heels into the grass, where she slid and tumbled until she was stopped by one of the arcade’s pillars.

“I win.”, the lord-bishop said, now panting.

Natalie, using her sword to prop her up, struggled back up to her feet with fire still flickering in her eyes, teeth bared. 

“Oh, don’t look at me like that”, the lord-bishop said to the demon that was now stalking towards him, “Master”, no prospect this time, “Natalie Laukkanen Lapointe.”

The demon, stopped, flickered and turned back to Natalie again. 

The lord-bishop waited a bit longer, until he saw that Natalie was listening to him. “I had to test you and your abilities. The opponents you will be facing in Vienna will be among the best martial artists living in Europe.”

“Well, I obviously didn’t beat you”, Natalie said, still glowering. 

“Give me some credit, Master Laukkanen Lapointe, I have dedicated my life to the martial arts and to our Lord and Saviour”, he said, turning to the cross while crossing himself. Cara thought that Jesus was casting the lord-bishop a sightly judgemental look for naming him second. “I have been honing my skills for more decades than you have been alive. This gives me a certain advantage in skill.”

“Hmph”, was all Natalie had to say to that.

“You need to widen your horizons. Your Liechtenauer style is strong, as is your interpretation. But you need more training against other schools and, more importantly, against other weapons. But you have convinced me.”

“What about my student?”, Natalie said motioning with her head towards Cara.

“She will do.”

Natalie raised an eyebrow. “Just like that? No test? No little demonstration of her techniques?”

“No. You said, that she has promise but is a novice. There is nothing that a novice could do to sway my opinion one way or the other, as she naturally has no skills yet.” While what the lord-bishop said was true, Cara still blushed. “I think you are a good teacher Master Laukkanen Lapointe. Where there is a great teacher, he said, there are no bad students. Also during our second bout, when I was preparing you to my counter blow, she noticed what I was planning to do before I had executed my plan.” He turned to Cara directly now, smiling a genuine broad smile, which was a luminous as his professional one, “That was very impressive, Mistress Gibson Müller, I commend you”, he said, ever so slightly inclining his head. Cara felt the heat rising even more, which gave her the sliver of hope that she may spontaneously combust and thus be released from this situation. 

Lord-bishop Waltharius turned back to Natalie. “I think with this means we have a deal?”, he offered her his hand. 

“We have a deal”, Natalie said, shaking his hand. “One last question you Excellency.”  

“Yes?”

“What if we lose?”, Natalie asked.

“I don’t understand?”

“What if we don’t win the contest? Then you would have lost your investment.”

Another radiant smile. “Oh, I have already won. You are a great master and this journey will make you greater and you will elevate your novice to great heights with you. The manuscript will just add to that. Also, once the manuscript is out in the open again, who knows, it might still find its way back to our Lord´s library”, he said bathing them in the afterglow of his smile.