Magical Atoner Lyrical Alicia

Twenty-two (Vacation four)

Defeating the next two knights was a little easier than Alicia had expected. She almost suspected someone of throwing the fights, though she knew that would be dis-honorable and therefore unlikely for knights.

Her final rival, Sir Hector, was cut down, Alicia's shimmering blade severing his arm, their devices generating a red 'damage effect' and making the limb temporarily dead. "Tis but a flesh wound!" he loudly declared, awkwardly shifting his grip. Alicia was faster, gracefully pointing her blade at his throat.

"Yield," she ordered.

Hector sighed, "I concede."

Subaru, Marian and Galahad cheered, as did many other spectators. One of the officials walked over, smiling warmly. "Well done, Miss Testarossa. Gawain and Lancelot ended up in the finals for their bracket. You get to fight the winner," Elaine told her.

"Huh," Alicia muttered. She had expected something like that.

The group of new friends headed over to where the other bouts were being fought, where they caught the last two fighting it out. Both fought with longswords, but while Gawain was graceful, Lancelot fought with raw strength. Gawain was kept on the defensive, but occassionally she would slip in a damaging blow.

"Their duels almost always get decided on points," Galahad noted, the young woman watching the fight intently.

Lancelot over-extended their swing just a bit and Gawain swiftly seized the chance, lunging. Realizing his danger Lancelot managed to quickly twist aside, but he still received a serious virtual wound to the side.

He held up a hand, and Gawain stopped. "Yeah?" she asked.

"I think we should call the bout," Lancelot admitted reluctantly. "In a real battle, that strike would be crippling."

"I don't mind carrying on," Gawain said.

Gwen DeVere, the judge of their bout, noted. "If we go just by points, then I'm sorry, but Gawain has won."

"Pretty much what I figured," Lancelot nodded. He bowed slightly, "Then I concede to the better fighter."

"Thank you. Off to drown your sorrows?" Gawain teased the older man.

"Of course," Lancelot answered promtly.

Gwen then declared, "Winner of the semi-finals, Gawain!" She checked her device and hid her surprise, "In the finals, you will be facing Alicia Testarossa!"

Gawain looked equally surprised, then looked over to see where Alicia was watching with the spectators. "You made it to the finals! Congratulations!" she yelled, waving.

Alicia smiled back at bit bashfully, "Thank you."

"No, you can't fight now," Gwen anticipated Gawain.

"Aww," Gawain pouted, making several folks laugh.

"We'll be taking a two hour break, to let the fighters recover. There will also be VIPs arriving for the final bout," Gwen explained.

"VIPs?" Alicia asked curiously.

Galahad smiled excitedly as she explained, "The High King is a former swordsman. They'll likely be attending."

"That's so cool!" Marian added excitedly.

Subaru looked unimpressed, but then again she and Alicia weren't locals. "Want to grab a snack?" she suggested to Alicia. "I'm pretty sure you burned through a lot of calories."

Alicia's stomach growled loudly. An unfamiliar voice burst out laughing.

"Sir Gawain!" Marian scolded the woman who had joined them.

"Sorry, sorry," Gawain waved one hand, the other behind her head. "I was just coming over to applaud Miss Alicia making the finals."

"Thank you," a faintly blushing Alicia said.

"You mentioned food, yes?" Gawain smiled. "There's a buffet set aside for contestants and guests. Would you care to attend?"

"I forgot that," Marian muttered.

Alicia looked curiously at Subaru. "Sure, why not?" Subaru agreed.

"Could we...?" Galahad asked.

"Certainly," Gawain grinned.

"Let me call my parents and let them know where we are...," Subaru murmured as the group walked off together.

Alicia picked out some food, but was a bit startled to see they were expected to eat with bare hands. "Bardiche, fork," she ordered.

"Yes ma'am," the device sounded a bit miffed over such a casual usage.

Marian looked amused as she picked up a drumbstick and chewed. "I forgot you were from offworld," she admitted.

"Is your crush a bit less, now?" Galahad murmured to her.

"SHUT UP," Marian growled back.

Gawain bit back a laugh. "So, are you and Subaru dating?" she asked boldly.

Subaru nearly choked on her food.

"We are not," Alicia yelped, but she blushed.

"Yes!" Marian hissed.

"Wine? Beer?" a serving girl asked as she circulated.

"Water or soda," Alicia answered.

"You don't drink before combat?" Gawain asked curiously.

"We're a little young," Subaru offered.

"Huh?" Gawain nodded to Marian, who was happily drinking her mug of beer.

"Different cultures," Galahad reminded her.

"Besides," Alicia added dryly, "I'm not sure it's a good idea to drink before using edged weapons on each other."

"Ha!" Gawain laughed, "Fair point."

Subaru checked the time, "There's about a hour to go. Might be a good idea to let the food digest before the bout."

"Makes sense," Alicia conceded. She got up, addressing the others, "Thank you for the meal."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"We're back!" Rachel exclaimed as they hurried up to the stands.

Yuchiro added, "That was cutting it a bit close."

They had been in discussions with Rachel's local contact, Morgaine, when they heard Alicia had advanced to the finals. Morgaine had insisted they should go see the match, especially since it was only an annual thing.

There was a boyish blonde woman sitting beside their section, and looked up as they neared. "Oh, hello," she smiled, "here for the match?"

"Yes," Rachel smiled back, "a friend of my daughter is competing."

"Ah! Testarossa then. I've heard she's very good," the woman beamed. "I'm Artura."

Yuchiro raised his eyebrows questioningly.

"It's a popular name," Artura explained casually.

"Shouldn't we be sitting with Subaru and the others?" Yuchiro asked Rachel softly.

"I noticed they were with some local kids... I didn't want to interfere," Rachel smiled.

"They're starting!" Artura said excitedly.

"Gawain certainly is bigger," Rachel noted, the other woman standing nearly a foot taller than Alicia. But Alicia calmly faced her, her sword glowing gold, with a black hilt.

"Begin!" the ref yelled.

As Gawain moved, Alicia just dropped to her knees. "Huh?" Gawain started right before Alicia slashed her sword across her legs.

"Okay, that's dirty," Artura noted, but she sounded admiring.

"Is that against the rules?" Rachel asked as Gawain staggered backwards.

"Officially, no," Artura said, grinning.

Gawain recovered somewhat, fighting on one knee. And she CLEARLY was good, holding Alicia off despite being mostly stationary.

"Gawain is lucky Alicia hasn't switched Bardiche to a spear mode," Yuchiro said evilly.

Artura snickered, "She'd poke poor Gawain to death."

Alicia raced around Gawain, who scrambled to respond. Too late, Alicia got behind her and executed a classic backstab, registering lethal 'virtual' damage.

"Victor, Testarossa!" the ref called as the crowd clapped and booed.

Artura stood as she declared, "Congratulations! Remember, we train for real combat here. All's fair, and all that."

There was a beat of dead silence then yells of "Hail! Hail!"

"Huh?" Rachel blinked.

"High King Artura," the blonde explained apologetically.

To be continued...

Notes: In any ACTUAL formal dueling, you wouldn't be allowed to do leg strikes. However, I did mention they were doing hilt-strikes and such, so it made sense they weren't doing those rules.

Artura is basically Saber from Fate Stay Night.