Chapter 133: 131 Duel: Titanyana’s Debut

Titanyana prepared herself to jump off the levee as soon as it touched the ground. It had moved across the arena, well over to the other side, but she found herself uncomfortable on it.

Titanyana did not like flying. She could tolerate them, flying around on these crafts were a necessity at times, but her experiences on her home planet had engrained a fear of riding on any such flying vessel. While not too terribly common, they did occasionally fall out of the sky back on her home planet. These ships used split, and there was a frightening lack of it there.

"Wait until the ramp is down if you would please, Lady Strapper." The gentleman who was just holding conversation with Donovan approached Titanyana from behind. "This is to be your debut match. You should make a good impression on the audience."

Once reminded of her status here, Titanyana took a step back from the edge. "Sorry."

"Please, do not apologize. I am only making an attempt to improve your image. Once you leave this levee, the image you make for yourself will be determined by your own actions. Acting rashly, as you have almost done here, may make you seem impolite." He turned his head a little bit, a discreet method of bringing her attention to her superior. "You would not want to look like a savage, no?"

Titanyana shook her head. She was a princess. Even if she was a warrior princess, there were standards of courtesy and manners that she had to reach. These standards were only that much higher considering her position, she needed to make Donovan look good by proxy.

"I wouldn't, no." She resettled herself, taking a deep breath and shaking away her fears. The Sanctum would never authorize the use of an unsafe flying boat, the damage it could do to their reputation would be irreparable. "I should really get my head on straight, shouldn't I."

"I cannot say that, but I would encourage you to put more thought behind your actions."

"Mm." Titanyana relaxed her shoulders, tense from worry, and shook out her legs. She couldn't just be the polite princess, she needed to be the superior swordsman. Her opponent, whom she could barely see from across the ring on a levee of his own, didn't use a lance. She would see a lance, which meant he probably used a sword. "Just gotta relax."

"If that will improve your performance."

The ramp dropped, the result of some finagling with the controls by the captain of this levee. It was the signal for her to get going, to be the mentor and asset that Donovan needed. She moved her hand to the hilt of her sword, still patiently waiting in its scabbard, and took a deep breath. When she felt herself prepared, she began to descend the ramp.

Much to her surprise, she did so to raucous applause.

"- and from a special squad in the second army, Titanyana Strapper!" A voice, loud, announced her entrance into the ring. Her ears jumped in surprise, and her tail stiffened in shock, but for the most part she kept her composure. "Hailing from the Kingdom of Nekh, she wields a sword and was notable in the preliminaries for her quick dispatch of her opponents. And of course, before I forget, ladies and gentlemen this is her debut match!"

The cheers grew in scale.

- - - - -

It took a few minutes for both parties to get situated in the ring. Titanyana's opponent, who's name she had failed to catch, assumed an aggressive stance in the white ring. Seeing as this was her first time fighting someone of his race, she had no way of knowing where his natural weak points, places he wasn't as good at attacking or defending. But she could guess. 

He used his right hand, meaning that was his dominant hand, so there was a range where he could not effectively make an attack to either side of him. That range would change if he ever decided to switch to a two handed grip, but the handle of the sword seemed a little small for that.

Titanyana could no be certain, but she felt that this man was a speed-centric combatant, much like herself. His smaller stature was one hint, as was the disregard for defense in his stance, but the biggest tell was the size of that sword. It bordered the realm of being a longer knife, but it was still very much a sword. 

Based only on what she could see of her opponent, she had already come up with a plan.

If she found herself to be faster than this person, then there was no real difference from normal. She would dash in while keeping out of the path of his blade while delivering one or two slashes to his torso. Even if it wasn't an immediate death, as in he managed to get enough distance between himself and Titanyana that the cuts were not deep enough to kill him instantly, she should be able to keep enough distance between them that he bleeds out.

Not the most honorable tactic, something she worried might draw the crowd's ire, but she wanted to win the way she normally would.

If she found herself to be evenly matched in speed, she would have no choice but to parry a few strikes while she looked for an opening. It would be a classic duel, one she was ill suited to, but she trusted that her opponent would eventually give her an opening based on stance alone. In the end it would be a contest of skill.

If she found herself outmatched in the realm of speed, her only option would be to bait her opponent into attacking something insignificant while she tried to land a fatal blow. It would be a trade, something usually frowned upon in battles as a whole, but it would be her best chance at victory.

"Are both of you ready?" One of the two enforcers spoke, bringing her attention back to her surroundings.

"Yes sir."

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"Mhm."

"Keep your extremities inside the ring and prepare to fight on my mark. All good. Ready? Three, two, one, GO!"

Same as always, Titanyana shot from her circle, keeping in mind the spacing between her steps as she kept her eyes on her opponent. In a high speed - high skill engagement, where you feet landed in relation to both your opponent's position and your intended attack mattered more than most other matters. Speed was irrelevant if you couldn't hit your opponent in a meaningful way from where you were. It was a concept she had hoped Donovan had come to understand from their training, but the only real chance he had gotten to see this in action was with her duel with Zhoie.

The problem with that set of matches was that Zhoie was a little bit too fast for Donovan, a problem that was not going to show itself with this opponent.

'Slow'

That was the only word Titanyana had for him. He didn't really compare to Titanyana, which made it fair for her to call him that, but he was considerably faster than the average. He was a speed fighter, but he was not a speedy individual, a problem for someone who had a combat style that revolved around being faster than her enemy.

Titanyana decided that now was an excellent opportunity to further demonstrate the importance of positioning to Donovan, who she could feel staring intently at her from the levee. She abandoned her draw, but she kept her hand on her sword. She would not embarrass her opponent, but she wasn't going to kill him as fast as she probably could. 

She charged at him, side-stepping the desperate stab her opponent made to fend her off, ending up on his right flank in a low position, her head right next to his hip. Here she was protected from her opponent's weapon, the short sword being too long and heavy to build up any meaningful speed this close to his body. It helped that his anatomy did not allow for such a move in the first place, but as with most things in a duel this was only a temporary safe spot.

As expected, her opponent tried to jump aside, bringing his blade back towards her as he strove for victory. It was still pretty slow, meaning Titanyana's biggest concern was still whether or not she made it look like she was making a mockery of him. Fortunately she could attack here, which was the second lesson for Donovan about such positioning, blind spots could also be attacked.

Drawing and spinning around to build up as much speed as possible, Titanyana's legs didn't push her further in, but away. She was disengaging. Normally this would be the moment she would increase the pressure on her opponent, but for Titanyana there was something more important. Here she was demonstrating how Donovan should be fighting.

He was still slow, still lacking skill. He needed to know when to cut his losses and take the win on an individual engagement. Donovan was, if she had to give it a name, a 'shock' fighter. His methods of attack were many and varied, despite only using a sword, because of his willingness to use the rest of his body. Additionally, he could afford to take a few hits. He had demonstrated that quality time and time again. However he was slow, and he promised to be for quite some time. 

Donovan simply didn't have the ability to keep up the pressure. If they wanted to get away from him, they were probably going to get away from him. He had to focus on getting the most out of individual engagements, the 'shock' from the loss opening up his opponent to further losses. He had, after all, managed to get an elbow off on his opponent - to his face no less. Considering that this blow, one not enhanced by split, was strong enough to draw blood, she wondered what damage he could have done if he had access to that power. A shattered jaw maybe? A concussion? Maybe even a knockout if he got the angle right. Whatever the result, the fact remained that Titanyana envisioned Donovan to be a defensively focused combatant, receiving engagements rather than taking them, reacting rather than initiating.

As she slashed her opponent's torso, drawing blood an damaging organs, she realized that she finally had a plan for Donovan going forward. It wasn't her field of expertise, defensive fighting, but she had enough experience to know what such a style would entail. She would definitely need to find references though, and there would be a good portion that she just wouldn't be able to teach. She might have to consider urging Donovan to participate in fights at every opportunity.

That wasn't ideal though. She knew more than most how repeated fights could affect a person. These were high stress events, made all that more stressful with an audience, so burnout and loss of motivation would probably set in if she pushed him too far. She didn't want that.

She charged back at her bleeding opponent. She knew from experience that the wound wasn't deep enough to kill him in a short period of time, but he was weakening and reeling in fright from it. It was proof of how far outclassed he was. This time, desperate, he went for an overhead slash.

Easily read, easily dodged, and his arm went tumbling onto the ground.

His head followed soon after.

- - - - -

Donovan had counted how long Titanyana's duel lasted. From the moment the enforcer said 'go' to the moment Titanyana was transported back outside the red ring at the end of her swing, five seconds had passed. FIVE. SECONDS. That was incredibly short for an event like this. He had to imagine that not all of the duels were like this, especially considering how fast Titanyana was, but he felt like they weren't that far off.

The cheering and hollering from the audience only grew in magnitude though, evidence of the crowd's approval, so this likely wasn't a problem. 

Titanyana quickly bowed to her distant opponent, who appeared to be silently fuming over the loss. He was much less polite than Titanyana, instead stomping off to his own levee to the commiserations of his company. Donovan, Wall and Len all began to clap as she came back. It wasn't anything special, merely an expression of their approval, but it was a little awkward with only three of them.

Still, Titanyana seemed plenty pleased with it, immediately finding Donovan and taking a seat next to him.

"What did you take from it?"