>>5608972>>5608972>20The man tumbles as you sweep his leg with your blunted blade, catching him at the back of the knee and sending him tippling. Your sword-work was masterful, swift; your timing precise, your angle calculated. To much of the crowd, they did not see your sneaky and underhanded strike—they saw the prince charge at you, and then come tumbling down with a light tap.
You step back, allowing the Paladin Prince, heir of the empire, to tumble to his hands and knees. His sword drops, clatters, skids to your feet.
“Y-you DARE?!” he sputters.
You gently tap his sword with your boot, sliding it back to the fallen royal. With a disingenuous smile upon your fake face, you offer him a helping hand up.
“Ssorry,” you lie, “I thought e were ssstarting.”
The Crown Prince, as red in the face now as his younger sister was earlier, slaps your hand away. He takes up his sword and stands under his own power, taking up a stance.
“If I win,” you growls, “you will leave Hawksong FOREVER, and NEVER return, you blackguard. Do we have an AGREEMENT?”
There are chuckles from the crowd at the King’s heir losing his composure, joining the mutterings of displeasure at his keeping secrets, and commentary upon the embarrassing ease with which you took him down with a single light blow. He silences them all with a glare—testament to whatever ‘Fearsome Presence’ he might have ever this entourage, though you feel no such emanation from him.
(Among the crowd, Ekaterine's eyes widen, and you see her lips part in a little gasp. her smooth brow furrows with outrage and concern. For you? At her brother's xenophobia and spite? Both? You'd like to think it's at least a LITTLE for your benefit..)
Presence or no presence, and even with the difference in your age and fitness, you have to admit: your first blow WAS a fluke, or at least a bit of shrewd and unfair opportunism on your part rather than an actual difference in raw skill. The Crown Prince is obviously confident in his ability, to challenge you so publicly, and to set such dramatic terms. His stance is practiced, and you sense an aura of the mystical about him.
And you are a Knight Ascendant, bound by the code.
