Duellist's Road: No Shortcuts - A LitRPG Fantasy Adventure by Rafael Kalleen

Author:Rafael Kalleen [Kalleen, Rafael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-11-29T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Carr

Do you know why I wasn’t overly shocked that swordsmanship was so stale and underdeveloped in this world? Because the very same thing happened on Earth.

True, battlefield swordsmanship evolved constantly especially as technology forced new approaches to be considered. But one-on-one duelling? That, my friend, was less advancement and more tradition—almost regression, at times. Ah, goddamn tradition!

The reasons for that were many: egos, nepotism amongst masters, a disagreement about whether to focus on duels to the death, first blood or purely for sports’ sake…it all amounted to a style that was, frankly, after a certain time period…very stiff. This isn’t to say it wasn’t brilliant in its own way, but once fencing became fully a sport, it seemed to almost invite the question: why fence like this, according to traditions that no longer apply? It was a hard transition, the one between duel and sport.

Sure, you didn’t dare lunge deeply and fast in a duel because you valued your life, that made sense—but once you were in a sporting scenario, why care about this? Moreover, even accounting for life and death, it made sense that people back then worked on all parries and forms in a more well-rounded fashion—duels were more than just about who won them, winning them in an ugly, undignified fashion probably would have been bad for your reputation. You didn’t have to just win, you had to win properly.

People fenced that suboptimal, ‘do it properly’ style for a long time, even up to the 1980s, back on Earth. Despite duelling having been long gone—the very last duel occurred in 1967 and by then it was closer to a sport than a duel of old—people didn’t change their style immediately. They kept the old archaic habits.

Why is that?

Surely, no one wants to be the one to look at their coach and say, “Well, sir, I understand that this is the way masters from hundreds of years before me being born agreed to be best, but can I say they were full of shit and I know better?” and so a suboptimal style raged on, even as advances in sports science and general athleticism were made. The old style, though tried and true, was not optimal for modern circumstances, but nobody dared change it, lest they be mocked for it.

Ridiculous as that sounds, it fully happened on Earth—and as such, it hardly surprised me that this world contained such rudimentary swordplay, for I was sure it too was rooted in tradition and the desire not to upset balance, much like before.

But society advances and culture changes regardless, and all it takes is one spark. And on earth, in 1977, a genius started changing the fencing world forever.

This genius—a man by the last name of Harmenberg, whose first name I prefer not to think about—decided that tradition was overrated and that he’d much rather win. And by god, win he did.

This man decided to focus on his “Area of Excellence.” Rather than practice every move equally, he’d practice his strong points and try to drag his opponent into fencing on his own terms.

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