Fractured God

As the fight continued, Tibaut grew increasingly frustrated. Why? Each time he dodged a swing of the sword or back away from it he'd be pulled back into the range of the sword.

"How the hell is he doing this?" Tibaut thought frustrated.

Tibaut was at his breaking point. If this kept happening he'd lose. Again he tried to hit a few punches on him and he did, although none cleanly.

As soon he dodged out of the way of the blade, he was brought directly back into the blade's path through no fault of his own. Each time this happened he was cutting it closer and closer to nearly being sent flying to a wall of the pit. "Screw it," he thought.

He wasn't going to get a medal nor was the girl of his dreams going to appear before him if he only used martial arts. ("I honestly don't care how sweaty this looks, he's the asshole that decided to take the sparring session this seriously.") He thought while trying to hide his frustration.

As if a sign from God he caught a glance of Elizabeth in the crowd. While the crowd around her was fraught with excitement, she herself was eerily still, without the slightest hint of emotion on her face.

"That bitch, this was supposed to be your fight. At least pretend you're amused." He mumbled infuriated.

However with her if worst came to worst, she could probably step in to heal Ezekiel if he got too rough. So with that in mind, he decided no moves were off the table for this "sparring session".

However, he still couldn't get enough between him and the swordsman to comfortably use his spells. While evading his various slashes he jumped back far enough to start unleashing his spells. He was able to throw a fireball.

"Finally, get a mouth full of fire you cocky bastard," He said brimming with a newfound confidence. With the spell now unleashed, Tibaut was confident he would be able to truly begin his offence. Shockingly for Tibaut, it had seemed his hopes were misplaced as the fireball missed Ezekiel. He hadn't dodged or sliced it. It simply missed its mark.

Tibaut was dumbfounded by the sight before him. It had been months, nay, years since he had missed a fireball outright. Some members of the crowd even started laughing. To them this annual fight was the peak of combat, so to see someone so clearly miss with no action taken by his opponent was nothing short of laughable.

Insulted by the crowd's laughter he tried again. To be greeted by another miss. He'd keep firing them only so they could miss him by a few inches each time. The crowd now seemed like they were watching a comic routine due to the laughter erupting from the stands.

"Woah, Ezekiel's really showing off this year," Vanessa said.

"Tch, that's what that bastard gets for trying to make new attacks without learning how to defend himself," Elizabeth replied, annoyed.

Tibaut paid no mind to the crowd, the only thing on his mind was how he kept missing. "12. Out of twelve fireballs, none landed."

It seemed like Ezekiel was in no rush to close between then, so Tibaut decided to do a little test. He aimed at a crack he saw on the wall that surrounded them and he shot a fireball at it.

This crack was further than Ezekiel ever was to Tibaut. Yet he hit it almost dead on. "I see." Tibaut didn't know how but Ezekiel was somehow making him miss. But was he doing it on purpose or was it automatic? Tibaut decided to test this with his newfound skill. While it took twice as long to summon compared to a fireball, their speeds were incomparable.

He decided to call the move fire lance. Ezekiel stood a few metres from him with a bored look on his face. Tibaut summoned four before he decided to test his suspicions. He aimed the flaming rod and fired. It hit, but it was off target. He aimed for his chest but instead hit his shoulder. Ezekiel was visibly shocked.

While the damage to him wasn't enough to render his shoulder unusable, the fact that Tibaut, if only for one move, was able to overcome his magic through brute speed amazed him. Before Tibaut could fire any other lances however he was immediately pulled back into Ezekiel's range and while he was able to dodge his sword the lances weren't as fortunate.

("Okay I get Elizabeth probably has some super amazing sword since she's immortal and all so I can accept her cutting my magic but I call dogshit on chucklenuts here's display sword being able to do that as well!") Tibaut bitched internally while dodging.

Eventually, Tibaut grew tired of having to constantly dodge. He believed he had taken a large enough sample of his swordsmanship to try out an idea he shelved several minutes ago. As Ezekiel swung his blade at him he made no attempts to move. He was unsure what Tibaut was planning but knew from this fight that he wasn't going to just kneel over and give up so he braced himself.

What he did not expect however was being thrown off balance and Tibaut using the opportunity to uppercut him. Flew through the air for a solid second before hitting the ground.

Based on what he felt from his sword he couldn't believe that was all it took for him to go down. He was almost disappointed in himself for not thinking the young was capable of parrying his sword.

Meanwhile, Tibuat was ecstatic. That was the first clean hit he landed so far. Whatever his trick was, it was no use in close range. All Tibaut did was parry the blade while Ezekiel was going for a downward slice and yet he felt as though he was going to turn this fight around to his benefit.