10. Retaliation

Giles stepped forward, and gave his sword a quick test swing.

Brielle would be interesting to fight as he was left-handed, as was Giles. Giles had been having to use his right hand to fight for most of the day, and now was getting the chance to use his dominant hand. He was looking forward to this.

They moved into the ring, and he was, in a somewhat dark way, hoping to show Brielle a lesson.

They began to circle each other, the both of them sizing the other up. Giles was fairly confident that he could defeat him.

He'd had the chance to study his fighting style throughout the day, but that also meant that Brielle had had the chance to follow his own movements as well.

They slowly moved around each other, and Giles took the chance to properly size up his opponent. He knew that Brielle was just slightly weak on his back hand, so he would have to take as much advantage of that as was possible.

Suddenly, Brielle swung, and Giles barely moved back in time. He was so close that he could feel the breeze of the sword as it just barely brushed the surface of his armor.

He immediately realized what his mistake had been. He had been assuming that Brielle would fight as the other knights did…but Brielle wasn't like the other knights.

Giles had been watching and knew that Brielle held nothing back. He was out for blood. He would not show any mercy.

His inner Ripper quickly responded to the blow that had almost landed and Giles lashed out with a lightning fast strike towards his opponent's left shoulder. Force him to fight with his less dominant hand, and he could certainly have a fighting chance at defeating him.

He felt his blade catch the edge of the shoulder plate, but then, Brielle, too, managed to get out of the way just in time.

Giles pulled back slightly, trying to figure out what his next move would be.

There were only a few things that he wouldn't do, but it honestly depended on what Brielle would do.

If he was pushed, then he would have no choice but to push back. Yes, it was just a competition and did not mean life and death, but he had a sneaking suspicion that it wouldn't stop Brielle from putting out every effort that he could to win.

Brielle swung out, this time trying to come in with a low blow, but Giles quickly blocked it and retaliated with a swinging strike to Brielle's shield.

The impact was hard and sudden, and the shield broke beneath the force of his swing.

Giles was slightly shocked, not realizing that he'd hit the man's shield that hard.

Brielle quickly dropped his shield, his body language almost portraying relief at the fact that it was gone. That was when Giles realized why Brielle's fighting was so familiar. He was fighting the way that Giles did while on patrol with Buffy.

He felt something inside of him plummet as he realized what he was seeing.

He was fighting against someone who'd had the same training as Giles did…Watcher training. Brielle, too, Giles had observed throughout the day, was accustomed to not fighting without a shield, and he was utilizing the moves of his enemy. He was moving like a vampire because the only way to defeat a vampire was to match him in strength and speed.

Both of those things were constantly reinforced throughout Watcher training…which meant that Giles was going to have to pull a few modern moves in order to defeat him.

He quickly dropped his own shield and then voluntarily took off his helmet.

Brielle saw this, and Giles saw the grin on his face revealed to him, as he, too, relieved himself of his helmet.

Suddenly, faster than he could almost follow, Brielle moved in with his sword, and Giles brought his arm up, barely blocking the knight's blade in time. Soon, they were engaged in heated battle, neither of them holding back anything as they went at each other.

Giles suddenly found his sword partially pinned, so he pulled a move that he'd seen Buffy do once before while on patrol.

He moved his sword in the opposite direction than was expected, down towards the ground, and then thrust upwards with his wrist.

Brielle fell back, thrown by the move, but quickly recovered and brutally retaliated.

Giles thought that he had moved out of the way in time, but the twinge that he felt in his right side told him that he hadn't. Brielle had broken skin. Giles tried not to flinch as he moved back slightly, keeping his right arm down towards his side.

Then that was when Giles remembered. They only had one fight.

He had forgotten in the heat of the battle. He should not be holding anything back. That was the reason why Brielle was being so aggressive.

He knew that he only had the one shot…which meant that Giles was going to have to do something that he ordinarily wouldn't.

Something that he'd never wanted Buffy to see.

Realizing that he had no choice, he readied himself for the move. It was a brutal move, and usually used as a killing strike, but he knew how to modify it so that it would only maim. It was pulled from street fighting and back-alley ju jitzu, as well as basic medieval sword fighting.

He moved so that he deliberately opened himself up for a frontal attack…and Brielle went for it.

Just as his sword should have pierced his flesh, Giles did a fast turn to the right, bringing his sword hand up and over Brielle's neck, knocking the pommel of it against the top of his spine, causing the man to fall even further forward through the gap that had suddenly appeared in front of him, and then Giles dropped to his right knee, leaving his left knee up to catch Brielle directly in the center of his chest, the angle causing him to flip over onto his back onto the hard ground in front of him.

Quickly, and without even thinking about it, Giles knocked Brielle's sword from his hand while the wind was knocked out of him, and then stood, his right foot on the blade that lay in the dirt, master-less, and his left foot on top of Brielle's left wrist, making sure that he didn't even think about going for his sword.

Brielle looked up Giles' blade, where it was pointed at his throat, shock and anger filling his eyes.

Giles saw this look and it shook him to his core.

It was just like Angelus.

There was an incredibly long pause of silence.

Buffy, who had watched the whole thing occur in just a few seconds, sat there in shock at what she'd just seen her Watcher do.

She had never before seen him so…so…so relentless. It was a bit scary for her to realize that this was a part of her Watcher. And then Uther started to clap, and soon everyone else followed. As Uther rose to his feet, so did everyone else. It had truly been an amazing fight.

Buffy stood and politely clapped, but inwardly she was trying to reconcile the man she knew with the man that she had just seen in front of her.

She realized, because she was an experienced fighter, that he could have killed him very easily with that move, but had so much control that he was able to make it into only an offensive attack.

Giles stood there in the center of the ring, now off of his opponent, and she watched as Brielle refused to have Giles' help up, and instead slinked out of the ring as though he had been truly humiliated.

As far as she could tell, he needed to be taken down a few pegs, but she was still slightly shaken.

Giles nodded towards the king and gave a small bow, but Buffy could see the wince of pain on his face. She quickly looked him over and didn't see any obvious wounds, but it was possible that there was one beneath the chainmail.

She waited patiently as Uther gave her Watcher the award of Knight Royale, but was apprehensive on the inside.

As he walked out of the ring, removing his armor, she felt her heart stop as he suddenly fell to his knees clutching his side where blood seeped from between his fingers.

Part 10/?