"...I see." Thaddeus eyes his challenger up and down. "Will you need to retrieve your equipment? We have weaponry here but no armor, unless Xenia is prepared to make you a set."

"No need for that." Beatrice snaps her fingers, and in a flash the warrior is encased in armor from her boots to her helmet. A moment later her sword follows, sheathed at her hip. "I've always got it with me."

The prince glances at her magical storage rings with an envious look. "An impressive trick - bottomless bags are useful, but not nearly so efficient as that. Fortunately I'll just need a moment, and then I'll be happy to take you up on a duel."

His wife seems a little less enthusiastic about it, however. "Ah, Thaddeus, are you sure you don't want to put this off? I mean, you've just gone a few rounds with Taly, and all..."

"Haha, I could give her a round first to wear her down a bit!" Taly grins at the new arrival. "Seeing as you don't have a tree around here to hit me with, I think I'll do alright. Besides, I've picked up a few new tricks."

"Fair enough, then - show me! All your tricks on the table!" As Thaddeus steps aside to find and equip his helmet, Taly and Beatrice take up positions on opposite ends of the large circle painted onto the floor. Beatrice has her sword while Taly pulls out her twin daggers, but the first attack that occurs is one of sound. Off to the side of the circle, Tizzy grabs on to her oversized purple ears and quickly casts a barrier spell.

"Fuck, that ringing! You tryna make me deaf!?"

"Mostly had it aimed the other way, sorry, but I'm pretty sure that should've gotten through that fancy helmet of hers! Don't worry, Beatrice, we can patch up your ears later - or never mind, you probably can't hear me saying this!" Giving up on banter, Taly dashes forward in order to engage the warrior in close combat. With Beatrice completely disoriented by her ruptured eardrums, the monster slayer doesn't have a chance at countering the nimble undead speeding her way at a pace few mortals can match.

Or at least, that's the theory. No one's more surprised than Taly when with a few quick flashes of steel both of the woman's daggers are falling to the floor, along with the hands holding onto them. Before she can even register the pain, the guardian notices Beatrice's blade is already pressed up against her neck - and that there's hints of a grin beneath Beatrice's visor.

"What - what the hell!? I was layering multiple frequencies to get past sound-dampening enhancements, that still didn't work!?"

"I'm assuming you yield? Yes? Well, you're not the only onto to have picked up a few new tricks since our last spar." With her free hand Beatrice lifts up her helmet, and Taly is shocked to see the metallic face that lies beneath, smiling at her. "Thought you'd try a banshee attack, even if it didn't help you so much last time either. Fortunately, silverform is kind of resistant to stuff like that."

"Silverform!?" Taly shakes her head before waving her stumps at her opponent. "And hey, my hands! I was using those! You're lucky I'm an undead and I can't really bleed out, but I can't just stick those back on, you know."

"I'm sure Xenia can patch you back up after this." Beatrice chuckles, clearly unrepentant. "Besides, maybe it'll keep you out of mischief for a little while."

"Bah! Tizzy, it's your job to feed me snacks while we watch your hubby get his ass kicked. Assuming he manages to put on a better show than I did, at least."

"Snacks? What snacks?" The scout yelps as a bowl of nuts suddenly appears next to her on the bench she's sitting on, and her eyes rotate skyward. "Uh, thanks, Xenia? Oh, but hey, you're not gonna cut off Thaddeus's hands, are you!? I mean, we already just got the one new one not that long ago!"

"Well, it is a traditional punishment for thieves in some places...but nah. Nothing that can't be healed with a basic healing potion, if that sounds good with you?"

Beatrice looks towards Thaddeus, now fully encased in his armor, which means that if the man is at all intimidated by her performance a moment ago it's mostly hidden. "I accept these terms. To yield or unconsciousness, then?"

"Works for me!" As soon as Taly's taken a seat on the bench, looking a little odd with her strangely bloodless stumps, Beatrice resets her position with her sword at the ready. "Show me what you have, little prince."

Although Beatrice had demonstrated a great deal of speed in her disarming of Taly, Thaddeus feels rather confident in his own bursts of acceleration. His trusty enchanted boots are still one of his most powerful cards to play, and the man opens with a quick dash across the arena. Beatrice does manage to match him however, her own inkbound enhancements triggering beneath her armor, and within moments the fight is engaging at a pace that the two observers struggle to follow.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Flashes of steel and the clang of blade upon blade, and of glancing hits upon armor, begin to echo around the chamber. A few things do become apparent, however. There's no denying that Beatrice is the more experienced combatant, with two decades of battle experience over Thaddeus. Yet the blacksmith's daughter is almost entirely self-taught, with that experience mostly coming at the hands of non-humanoid monsters. Prince Thaddeus meanwhile is the product of a lifetime spent with the best royal tutors his family's money could afford, with most of that training being specifically against other swordsmen.

Which is to say, the initial rounds of the bout are surprisingly even. Despite Thaddeus being the first to begin the fight, most of the spar's aggression seems to come from Beatrice, who focuses on lunges and thrusts to try and trip her opponent up. Despite their unrefined nature, most opponents would struggle to parry or dodge movements at such an enhanced speed, and yet Thaddeus seems to manage it easily. Every move she makes it's as if he sees it ahead of time, and eventually he manages to get through her outer layers of defense a few times - although his hits are barely enough to mark her armor, let alone hurt her. Even so, the man has a trace of laughter in his voice.

"You mostly fight monsters, yes? I can see it!"

Beatrice growls as she continues her aggressive moves. Her silverform is gone, given her need for maximum agility and speed, but it still doesn't seem to be enough. "Oh? And how's that?"

Thaddeus whacks the side of her leg with the flat of his blade, more a message than an attack. "You don't hide your footwork at all! I imagine most monsters don't need the use of feints, do they?"

"Don't need feints when I've got - this!" An electric charge builds up in Beatrice's left hand, and a moment later a lightning bolt is flying in Thaddeus's direction. The brief warning is enough time however for the man to bring up his prosthetic arm, and the enchanted barrier spell within kicks in just in time to absorb the energy. The sight of it actually makes Beatrice pause for a breath. "...Okay, that arm's pretty neat."

"I still prefer the original, but it does have its uses." The pair both pull back for a moment, but it's not long before Thaddeus is back on the attack. This time with a very different strategy - rather than using his enhanced speed, instead the prince begins working to box Beatrice in, using a combination of his ability to guess her movements and taking advantage of his barrier shield to physically get in her way when she attempts to flank around him. Eventually he's pushed her out of the floor's painted circle and almost up to the chamber wall, and it's clear that soon he's about to go for his final strike.

It's a move that even Beatrice can see coming and so when that thrust comes, the monster slayer...simply isn't there. Instead the woman actually dashes through the sword, appearing almost as an afterimage as she moves more quickly than either of them have up until now. She actually overshoots her target a fair bit, returning to solid form fifteen feet behind her opponent, but fortunately Thaddeus is even more disoriented by the move than she is. By time the prince spins around the flat of Beatrice's blade is already crashing into the side of his helmet, and the man's sent sprawling to the ground.

The prince's boosted speed fails him here, a weakness of his magical boots which require that they actually be on the ground in order to give him any benefit. Beatrice's inkbind tattoos come with no such restriction however and so the battle ends with two more kicks - one to knock Thaddeus's sword out of his grip, and another to knock him back down as he attempts to find his feet. As he looks up to see Beatrice's sword pointed down at his face, the man raises both of his empty hands.

"...I yield. That was...a most unexpected move, Dragon Slayer."

"Thanks. I spent ages practicing that and it's still a bit rough. The first time I tried it I dash-teleported right into a damn stone wall, and that wasn't fun. Still, I suppose I have to admit...magic tricks aside, your swordsmanship is pretty damn good. If we'd had this match a year ago, you would've given me a lot more trouble."

"Still, perhaps it may be for the best that you were out of town when we first arrived in this realm." Beatrice offers the prince a hand up, and the man takes it. Once he's back on his feet he removes his helmet, and it's plain to see that despite his calm tone of voice he's still a little concerned about the consequences of his loss. "So, I suppose I owe you...reparations for my crimes, then? Something else, if you don't want a portal back to your original realm?"

Beatrice removes her own helmet before taking another look at her opponent, scanning him up and down. "To be honest, there's not much I need. I mean, that's why I came here in the first place. A lot of my enchanted gear's no good here, or won't be soon, but gold spends well anywhere and I still have plenty of that. I'm keeping Xenia's necklace, alright, but other than that..."

Tizzy speaks up, having finally recovered from the dismay of seeing her husband defeated. "Wait, you mean like your gear is losing its charge, right? Because of the incompatible mana?"

The slayer looks back at the scout. "Something like that, yeah. Why?"

"Well, we had the same problem - lots of times, actually, since we passed through a lot of realms to get to this one. We've developed a fix for the issue - for example, I can craft an enchanted chest that recharges stuff you put inside it. Would...that be helpful?"

Beatrice gives the nervous woman a grin. "Tizzy, right? You help get some of my old gear working again, and you might just become my second-favorite Worthy. And hey, maybe I can help your husband here with his training, eh? I bet I can push you a little harder than Taly can, at least."

Thaddeus gives her a solemn nod. "It would be an honor to learn from such an experienced combatant. I do hope we can get off on a better foot. Perhaps it's time for a break, shall we get some drinks in the inn?"

"Sounds good to me, third-favorite Worthy! Maybe I owe you a drink for putting you on your ass like that, haha!"

As Beatrice claps the man on the shoulder, the moment is interrupted by Taly. "Ah, such a touching example of newfound friendship. I'd applaud, but..." The banshee waves the remains of her arms around.

Beatrice sucks in a breath. "...Maybe I owe you a drink, too..."

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