A Katarina Interlude
Katarina's eyes didn't stray from the scythe as she sat down on a bare spot around the circle of prism stones. She was willing to admit that the… thing wasn't a real scythe anymore. It was more like someone had put a giant curved sword made of big razor blades on a pole the wrong way around. It was basically a misbegotten naginata, Something scythe-shaped and not the real thing. A scythe lite. A scythe zero. A scythe without the sugar, without the good things about it that made it worth existing.
She tried to think of it like that. The thing seemed well-maintained, and so obviously well-used and well-loved. It wasn't a real scythe, it was just scythe shaped.
…
No, the farmer inside her was still heavily offended such things existed at all.
And now that she was a being trained as a knight, she was double offended! As Maria had taught her, the point of polearm weapons as to poke people from a long ay off because you had a long stick. Because of the design, the point was actually well before the end of the stick and to one side, so you couldn't put all your weight on it, and the edge was on the inside of the blade's curve, so unless your scythe was sharpened on both edges—something a real scythe didn't need—you weren't even going to be poking them with the sharp side! Except she'd seen how Maria had shown her how scythes were 'supposedly' used, which was with swings where you tried to hit someone with the point… except the curve of a scythe meant that hitting with the tip was hard, and the way the blade was mounted meant that it could easily break off the shaft…
A knightly part of her that was trying be fair pointed out that someone who could use a scythe despite all that was probably very skilled and fell practiced, but the rest of her ganged up on that part, screaming that they should just use a halberd or spear. At least mount the blade point end up to you could poke and slash with it without the blade breaking off!
Katarina sat, watched and waited. Dame Vardan, from what she could see, actually was pretty skilled. She moved like Maria did, except with less jumping and that weird thing Maria did where she seemed to turn into smoke.
She wasn't sure she could learn to do that. It seemed pretty hard, and Maria was much better at magic than her.
Katarina thought she'd have to wait a long time since she'd just sat down at the circle. After all, a lot of people had gotten there first, and what if Dame Vardan lost before Katarina had gotten her turn. However, once Dame Vardan had beaten her opponent—by hitting his shoulder armor with a surprisingly light tap of her scythe-like thing—the host she'd talked to had looked around and pointed at some people, and Katarina had noticed that some of the other people made a small wave, like they were brushing something under the carpet. Eventually, the host had looked between Katarina and someone else, and pointed at the second person, who'd stood up and gotten into the ring of prism stones. The new person, who was wielding a longsword in either hand, made a bow that was returned.
The next round began.
Katarina was barely able to keep herself from yelling about how the new person fighting Dame Vardan should use his swords to parry instead of rolling around at Dame Vardan's feet, and only remembering that 'not talking' as a rule did she manage to hold it in. In fact, he seemed to spend more time rolling than actually doing anything, though he seemed to be trying to get behind his opponent.
There was a brief round of laughter from everyone, even those sitting down, as his energetic rolling led to him rolling out of bound when Dame Vardan maneuvered herself there with a smile. The dual-wielding knight had groaned but seemed to take his loss with grace, bowing to Dame Vardan before stepping back.
The host looked around the circle again, looking at the other people sitting there, before turning to Katarina and pointing at her. Ah, it was her turn already? Did people not really want to fight Dame Vardan, or were they waiting to see more of how she fought before trying? Still, Katarina got to her feet, managing not to fall over, and carefully walked around people to enter the ring, making sure to step over the stones.
Dame Vardan blinked when she saw Katarina, then frowned for some reason. Why was she—? Oh! Katarina realized she was glaring at the scythe-thing again. She probably thought Katarina was glaring at her! Ah, how to fix this, how to fix this…?-!
Katarina met Dame Vardan's eyes with a big smile, and waved cheerfully at her. It was the friendliest gesture she knew, and combined with her smile, it would show she meant no harm!
It just seemed to confuse Dame Vardan for some reason, and one hand actually started to go up in a tentative wave before she shook her head and bowed instead. Aw. Well, maybe she's the really formal sort like Maria? Katarina shrugged, drawing her sword from her sheath at her and leaving her shield on her back.
For some reason, the people sitting down started snickering. Ah, had they finally realized how stupid using scythes for anything but farming was?
With a smile on her face, Katarina settled in for a friendly spar, even as her eyes kept staring at the scythe in Dame Vardan's hands, and her eyes started to narrow without her knowledge…
So she really didn't understand why Dame Vardan's eyes narrowed as well as the other woman gripped her scythe-thing in both hands. Still, Katarina didn't let her confusion affect her, years of muscle memory putting her into a guard position, her sword pointed low.
People started snickering again for some reason. Yes, using scythes for anything but farming is really stupid, isn't it!
Dame Vardan sighed… and suddenly she seemed to skip forward, swinging with both hands. Most people would have been surprised… but Katarina had been taught by Maria Campbell, who could move so fast it was like her feet didn't touch the ground, who moved like an arrow loosed from a bow. Her eyes had learned to track her sensei, and someone like Dame Vardan who had only moved in a short burst…
Katarina took a single step forward, just enough that the point of the scythe-thing's blade would swing behind her. She saw Dame Vardan's weigh shift and knew that the woman—who was kinda shorter than Katarina—would backstep and draw back her scythe-thing to try to catch Katarina from behind.
The sword in Katarina's hands angled to the left and swung, and even as the scythe-thing was pulled Katarina was already parrying the haft upwards. The blade that might have cut at the back of her head simply threatened the empty air over her as Katarina parried it to her right, using the momentum from its initial swing to keep it moving. As Dame Vardan tried to turn with the swing, trying to keep control of her weapon and maintain its momentum, Katarina's sword continued its arc, pushing the haft of the scythe-thing downwards. However, Katarina's parry was making the weapon twist, and now instead of being level the scythe-thing's blade was beginning to twist.
There was the ring of metal one stone, and Katarina saw Dame Vardan wince at the feeling of the tip of her scythe-thing hitting the ground. There was another wince as Katarina brough up her foot and slammed it down onto the haft of the weapon, pushing her weight down on it to lock it in place, even as she used that foot as leverage to move forward, her sword rising high…
The blunt, rounded edge of her sword fell squarely onto the top of Dame Vardan's head.
"Critical hit!" the host declared, waving his torch. "You died!"
All over the entryways, the sounds of other dules continued, but around Katarina ring there was silence.
Then a gentle sound rose into the air as Dame Maria, standing next to Cousin Matthew—who had one hand on her head and was making a face—gave a sort of polite 'refined ojou-sama' clap.
It took Katarina a moment before she blinked and shook her head, sheathing her sword. "Ah, I'm sorry! Did I hit you too hard? Are you all right?"
"Uh, I'm fine…" Dame Vardan said, blinking. "Just stun-locked for a bit there—Ah! Crescent Vardan! Is she all right? Oh, dead gods, is her tip bent? What did you do?"
"Uh… I parried?" Katarina said.
"You… that wasn't… what kind of…"
The host coughed. "Um, Dame Vardan? You died, remember. Please leave the ring so the next person can have their turn."
Dame Vardan picked up her scythe, giving Katarina a confused look. "This isn't over! You're going to tell me how you did that!"
Katarina shrugged. "I told you, I parried." That just made Dame Vardan look more upset, for some reason. See, this was why farm tools should stay proper farm tools!
As she turned to walk out of the ring and head towards Siegadme, Katarina blinked as she noticed someone else had entered the ring already. Oh, she should probably leave, the next fight was going to start against…
…against the person who had one the last fight.
Her.
Oh.
… Ah, should she just step out? No, that was probably rude. Maybe she could just lose? Or just step out of bounds?
The person who'd entered the ring—a man with a thick moustache and wearing white former armor, who was most likely from New Catarina—gave her a smile and a bow, and she gave them a smile and a wave in response.
Then he held up his perfectly ordinary-looking longsword.
Katarina instinctively did the same, even as something in her—the part that had spent years training to survive against sword-related bad ends—wished she had wanted to grab her throwing snake. But no, this wasn't the black-hearted sadist prince, so that wouldn't work…
She held her ground as the man advanced warily but aggressively, only turning to make sure she faced him when he tried to circle around behind her.
Finally, he moved forward, his blade swinging.
They both moved at the same time.
Blade met blade in a resounding pure tone, and the man was surprised as his sword was parried aside.
The blunt, rounded edge of Katarina's sword fell squarely onto the top of the man's head.
"Critical hit!" the host declared, waving his torch. "You died!"
Katarina blinked as everyone, even those seated, starting whispering and murmuring. The man in front of her stared as if he couldn't believe what happened, then let out a laugh even as he raised one hand to the spot where her sword had landed. She'd remembered to pull the blow at the last minute, but it must still have hurt. "Well, that was careless of me," he said. "I just saw it happen, too. Good one, Dame. Most people go for the gut riposte."
"Ah, not a dame," Katarina hastily corrected. "I'm still just a squire."
The murmurs stopped like a meal that had run out of food. She could feel people staring at her.
"Seriously?" the mustached-man said.
"Uh, yes? My knight is right there." She pointed.
Everyone sitting around the circle and those on the edges turned and stared at Maria. Cousin Matthew had even stepped to the side and helpfully pointed at Maria so that people wouldn't be confused.
Maria gave a languid wave.
Everyone sitting around the ring of prism stones turned and gave the host very intent stares as they all pointed at themselves.
"Huh," the mustached man said. "Well. Was that parry beginner's luck?"
"Uh, no, that's pretty much what always happens when I parry."
People began pointing at themselves more excitedly as the host seemed to be trying to remember something.
"Well… then I suppose I better sit down and see this. Good luck then… squire."
"Thanks! You too!"
Well, she supposed one more wouldn't hurt. Plus everyone seemed to want to spar with her now. Leaving would probably be very rude.
As someone else entered the circle, wearing a mail shirt with the needle and blood of Hallig, axe in hand, Katarina gave them a smile and a wave.