Quoted By:
>“This should be entertaining.” It’s too late to intervene, the tone of the talk makes that much certain. While Jess seems nonplussed at the debacle in front of her, bringing attention to her presence or yours is only going to complicate matters. As for you, you’ve heard much of the skill of Langlish blademasters. Let’s see if they live up to the stories. You will keep a close eye on their fighting stance and styles, it could prove handy. [Haughty]
<span class="mu-i">“This should be entertaining.”</span> You hold your arm out, blocking Mikail behind you.
You don’t speak the local language, but the tone of the words seem crystal clear to you. Some insult or other has been offered and violence is imminent. Your intervention would most likely only draw the ire of both parties to yourself and Jess, and you trust Jess well enough to not get herself stabbed in a fight between two strangers in the street. As for yourself, your curious to see if these Langlish swordsmen fight as well as they posture.
<span class="mu-g"><span class="mu-i">“Disegna il tuo acciaio, ruffiano.”</span></span> The first bravo snarls, steel on the hilt of his short blade rasping as he draws his second sword. <span class="mu-g"><span class="mu-i">“O essere nominato per sempre un codardo.”</span></span>
<span class="mu-i"><span class="mu-g">“Non ho paura di te, povero sciocco. The second bravo has yet to draw a single blade, his right hand resting lazily on his long steel. “Vieni da me, se apprezzi così poco la tua vita.”
Jess at least has the good sense to skip back sharply as the first bravo lunges forward at the second, short steel overheard and long steel flicking out. You blink. Had your attention not been entirely focused on the second man’s reaction, you would have missed the motion entirely.
The first bravo stumbles, dropping his short steel to clutch at the rapidly splotching mass of red spreading from his chest. He collapses face first at the feet of his killer. You note with some interest that there is no exit wound in his back, the second bravo’s long steel penetrated just deep enough to pierce the heart through the chest and not an inch further. Masterful.
You struggle to piece together exactly what happened in that half-second, notwithstanding it occurred right before your very eyes. As the first bravo lunged the second twirled inward, until his left shoulder rested side-by-side with the first bravo’s right shoulder. You know he drew his long steel at some point, he’s wiping a speck of blood off it this very moment, But the angle was all wrong for a thrust under the first bravo’s guard. To have pierced him in the chest, not the gut, the second bravo would have to have flicked his long steel over the <span class="mu-s">back</span> of his own neck and shoulder. Completely impossible, at least with an arming sword, and any Cantôn Master-at-Arms would rightly beat his pupils black and blue for even trying such a thing in the tiltyard.
But with a rapier…
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