Part 3:

“Oh c’mon, Champ! I thought you’d be better than that, heh.” I mock.

“SHUT UP! I’M JUST GETTING STARTED!”

“Yeah, I’m sure…” I mutter.

Hotshot gets back onto his feet and takes stance once more. I ready myself for his next attack, knowing he will be going on full-offense. This time without hesitance, Hotshot takes another swing. I once again parry it but he follows up with another swing, this one being aimed across my chest. Seeing it last second, I parry it again but this time sparks fly, making the crowd cheer. He’s really putting his all into this fight… good. 

We clash our blades repeatedly, parry after parry with his string of attacks not differing from the last. As he is still trying to break my defense, I let my blade clash with his and straight after, lead him into the door of the SUV, crashing his head against it. The sound of the steel hitting against his skull makes the crowd go into a fit. I turn my head around to see the rest of the Prodigal Blades’ reactions and let me say that they aren’t happy, I could say a whole english essay to describe their reactions but I’m sorta getting tired of this so I’ll call it quits here, my taxi should be here any minute now.

“Well. I think that settles it. The whole world will soon know about your patheticness.” I say, dropping the sword in front of him and walking away.

Unfortunately, Hotshot isn’t ready to forfeit this fight yet. 

“BULLSHIT! ALL YOU DID WAS STAY ON DEFENSE! I’M NOT CALLING THIS OFF UNTIL YOU PROVE YOU’RE OFFENSIVE POWER!” He shouts, getting back on his feet again.

God… He's a pain in the ass, but I have to admit, the guy’s persistent. Not exactly a good thing but it seems that persistence is the reason he’s gotten here in the first place. Sometimes your worst attributes can be your best weapon and well- he’s done something with that.

Hotshot kicks the blade under my feet as he looks me dead in the eye.

“ONE. MORE. ROUND.” he says.

I pick up the blade again and sigh, “Fine…”

“AND YOU BETTER GO ALL OUT!”

“Yeah yeah. You still recording, Sera?”

“Yup! Kick his ass, Joseph!” Sera cheers along with the rest of Ryan’s gang.

“Heh, I’m going to do much more than that…” I mutter.

Hotshot and I get back into the circle.

“Kill this kid, Parkie!” One of the Prodigal Blades’ shouts.

“Don’t worry. I’LL MAKE SURE HIS DEATH IS SLOW AND PAINFUL!”

Parkie, huh? I guess I can stop calling him Hotshot now. Parkie now with a defensive stance, gestures to me to come at him. I again twirl my sword a few times but afterwards, I toss it up into the air and catch it perfectly from the hilt… looks like I still got it. Be ready, Parkie, I’m not letting up on this one. To close the distance between us, I swiftly dash into his personal space, forcing him to make a move. Parkie instinctively swings his blade to rid me, I dodge the swing and follow up with a feint thrust and immediately take a slash at his knee, cutting his jeans open. I swing round behind him where he’s open and attempt to execute an upward slice on his back. Unfortunately, Parkie sees through it and manages to pull a 180 to successfully block my attack. Parkie tries another slash on me but with a smirk on my face, I outspeed him and execute a dash slash, this time on his side. The jacket manages to take the slice and protect his skin from my attack, talk about a dense jacket. My side slash manages to also spin him around and leave him in a bit of a daze, but his defense is not going down… not yet. With his daze still present, I proceed to unleash another combo. I commence two downward slashes whilst stylishly switching the blade between both of my hands to apply pressure, afterwards, I do three swift consecutive figure-eight slashes to force his guard to lower, next I start to repeatedly slash his guard until he manages to perfectly parry me. As he does, I let the grip of my blade slip outta my hand as it spins airborne above us. Parkie, unknowing of the situation, begins to blindly swing at me seeing as I am now unarmed.

“YOU LITTLE-!”

Still wearing a smirk on my face, I proceed to evade all his swipes by ducking under his side swings, hopping over his sweeps and side stepping away from his downward slashes and thrusts. I keep this up until my sword comes back down. As the sword comes down, Parkie initiates one final slash to finish me off. However, the sword is already on its way down. Time for the killing blow! Just as Parkie attempts to end this once for all, I duck under his arm and jump for the sword from behind him. Whilst still in the air, I spin myself around and commence an air slice aimed across his back. It connects! although just like my other attacks, it doesn’t even manage to penetrate the jacket. Are these swords even sharpened? 

But even after that attack, Parkie hits the floor, dropping his sword and breathing heavily. Did I do it?

“NO! PARKIE! GET BACK UP!” His team tries to cheer him on.

“I…- He’s… That… Form…” Parkie barely breathes.

He must’ve been really fired up and filled with adrenaline to be in this state. I wasn’t even aware of how much time had passed. My taxi must’ve been waiting for me for a while now. Nevertheless, I guess this situation is sorted- I think.

“Well? Looks like you can’t go on anymore.” I say.

“I… yeah…” Parkie forfeits.

The rest of the Prodigal Blades’ faces frown in defeat as Parkie sits there with the same expression. Are they looking for sympathy? They know they’re not gonna get any after their last few insults. But, I have to admit, although Parkie didn’t manage to get a hit on me, I could see the passion and power in his eyes. 

“Anyways, you gonna hold your end of the bargain?” I say.

“... Yeah… We’ll disband the team and never pick up a sword again.” Parkie says distastefully.

“Parkie…” The rest of the team mutters.

“Hmph. You know what? Keep swordfighting.” I say suddenly.

“Huh? But-”

“During our duel, I could feel the passion in your heart. You love swordfighting, don’t you?”

“I… yes… yes I do. I’ve been honing my style ever since I was nine.” Parkie replies.

“Then who am I to stop you. However, ‘honing’ your skills on people like them isn’t gonna get you anywhere and it isn’t going to boost your reputation either.” I lecture simply.

“I understand.”

“Good.”

After that, I begin to walk away into the crowd as they cheer my name. 

“Joseph, was it?”

“Hmm? Yeah.”

“So does that mean that we can keep the team around also?” Parkie asks eagerly.

“Eh, as long as I don’t hear you guys causing ruckus in other areas then yeah, fine by me.” I answer nonchalantly.

“THANK YOU, JOSEPH!” Parkie thanks, excessively.

I simply nod as I disappear within Ryan’s crowd, blasting their chants into my ears still. This took longer than I expected. Nevertheless, I guess I can look forward to the Prodigal Blades’ return… Crap… I should’ve asked them to change their name… 

“Joseph! You did it! You’re our saviour!” Ryan grabs me around the neck.

“Oww… yeah- well you guys could’ve handled the situation without me.” I say.

“Nonsense! No one here knows how to pull off the stunts you just did! And well- you certainly know more than the basics of sword mastery anyway.”

“Compliments aren’t going to be accepted as payment for this favour, Ryan…” I mutter.

“Anyways, that taxi in front of the gate has been parked there for a while I’ve noticed.” Ryan points.

I look over and lo and behold is the taxi that I supposedly ordered ten minutes ago… I hope he hasn’t been waiting long.

“Crap! I gotta run, see ya Ryan!” I take off.

“Oh- That’s yours? Oh well- Nevermind. See ya, Joseph! I still don’t know what’s going through that kid’s head…”