Breaking the unspoken rules, the woman dove behind Odrick and kicked him in the back of the knee, causing him to fall to a kneel.
Or, it should have, but the man didn't falter in the slightest. He simply turned around with a curious expression and smiled.
One second of still passed. Then another. Then, the platform erupted into battle once again.
It was clear as day to anyone who'd ever been in a fight before—or really, anyone who wasn't an idiot. Prince Odrick was completely playing with his opponent.
It was almost cruel... but he wasn't trying to humiliate her, despite what some might think. He was just enjoying himself. It was a fun event.
Oh, but it was over before he even broke a sweat. Because, on his second swing, he didn't miss. He just wanted to see if she was capable of blocking one of his strikes... and, she wasn't.
As the wooden swords swung through the air, the masked woman knew she was finished. Odrick hadn't been mindlessly blocking—or, perhaps he had been, but his unconscious battle prowess proved apt enough to weaken her blade to the point of unusability.
One singular point in the wooden sword. That was the only part that had ever touched the prince's blade. And now, it was far too damaged.
Their blades collided, and while Odrick's sword rose into the air victoriously, the woman held only a hilt pointed down at the floor.
"I win," Odrick said. "Good fight!"
The Crown Prince held out his hand, but the masked woman only stared at it for a second before turning around. She walked to the edge of the platform and walked off, disappearing into the crowd.
"She just refused a handshake from Prince Odrick! How disrespectful!" someone in the crowd said.
The rest were all saying pretty much the same thing.
"Oh, it's fine! I seemed to have ruined her fun, so it's my fault! Well... does anyone want to step up? I still have some time!" He laughed as the crowd only shrunk away from the platform.
"Wow, what a great fight!" Liora said, clapping her hands together. "Maybe I should challenge him?"
"Are you insane!? ...Have you ever even picked up a sword before?"
"I'm a quick learner."
"...Are you, though?"
Linnie thought back to when she was trying to infuse her essence into the mana stone. She hadn't been a very quick learner then.
"I'd never wrestled before, and I'm even better than you are, now!"
"That's—" Linnie got an idea. "Really? You're better than me? Let's test it, then."
He pointed to the stage behind him. It was much smaller than the sword dueling arena, and had half the crowd, too. But, it was truly something anyone could participate in.
An open wrestling match.
"Wait, but that's so embarrassing... wrestling in front of all those people," she said, covering her face.
"True, it will be really embarrassing when you lose. I guess we don't have to do it."
That's how they both signed up for the wrestling stage. It seemed to be a little different from the sword stage, and had a more organized structure—sort of like a tournament.
Linnie signed up to the left line, while Liora signed up to the right line. They would be each other's first fights, so they were just going to leave before they had to fight another match.
They were only doing it for one reason, after all.
When it came time for them to get on the stage, the crowd was, rightfully, very interested. Nearly everyone else had been large, grown, men. Now, it was two scrawny kids. Not the typical fight you'd see at an open challenge wrestling ring.
Both Linnie and Liora had stripped their robes, placing them inside of their hats and storing them beneath the stage. Now, they were dressed in their light garments for the least amount of physical restriction.
It seemed like someone on Liora's side of the platform had tied up her hair so it wouldn't get in the way. Actually, the entire right side of wrestlers were cheering her on. Linnie wondered how she'd endeared herself to these manly meat-brains so quickly, and almost laughed.
The people behind him... didn't care about his fight at all. It kind of hurt.
"Beat that little brat up, girl!"
"You got it, girl!"
"Crush his little nuts!"
'What the hell!? Is no one rooting for me!?'
It did look a little bad for him—a boy wrestling against a girl. Except, she was taller than him! And, after the time spent travelling together, she now weighed more, too!
Not that she ever weighed that much less than he did... she wasn't the only malnourished child in the world.
But now, wasn't a frail little girl at all! Well, maybe compared to most others, but not to Linnie. He was the one at the physical disadvantage, here!
But, soon... everyone would learn why Linnie was known as a beast in his hometown. The boy cracked his neck, then his knuckles, then his elbows and wrists and knees and ankles... he cracked damn near every movable thing in his body!
It was quite menacing. That was actually the point. It didn't really seem to inspire any sort of fear into the person that it was meant for, though.
On the other end of the platform, Liora was standing with a happy grin. The sight of her fangs created an uneasy feeling in his stomach, but he quickly brushed it off.
Despite what she said about embarrassment before, she definitely loved all the attention. It was actually just like when they visited the tavern, the night before.
'Is she... an attention seeker? Tch, I'll show her why it's not good to focus on the people watching you.'
Linnie was decently used to fighting in front of a crowd. The pit where he would fight most of his matches in his hometown was often surrounded with young boys.
This stage was pretty much the exact same thing, even if the crowd was a little larger.
The two apprentices walked to the center of the platform as instructed by the overseer and bumped fists. Then, they returned to their corners. Linnie wasn't familiar with such rituals, but it didn't matter.
Rituals wouldn't change what he was about to do. Wrestling was always the same... or so he thought.
In fact, his, and Liora's, idea of 'wrestling' wasn't really wrestling at all.