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Stories from the Verse
Con Version
Chapter 206: Cooper 65
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Takano 148
Red Swashbuckler spoke as he swung his wooden broom handle stand-in for a sword in a lazy circle. "I've fought a number of sword and dagger and spear fighters. They have a variety of skill levels, speeds, and styles. Usually, they have tricks such as throwing lightning from their blade." Of course, it was not lazy. The most minor lack of attention and it would snap out and sting. Brian Barrelmaster thought that if he could have beaten some of his computer students they might have learned faster, especially in the early morning eight o'clock class he had taught.
The stick whipped out, and he instinctively ducked so that it whistled past his bald spot. Red Swashbuckler continued without a pause in his speech.
"Understanding your enemy's capabilities is crucial. Now imagine I am Sensei Sam. He is a katana fighter. What can you tell me about him?"
Red Swashbuckler stepped back, and put his 'sword' up in high guard over his head. Brian, as Mister Justice, thought.
"A katana is a slightly curved single edged blade. I have two edges on my long gladius."
"This does?"
Brian thought, and shrugged. He had no answer. Test him on Calvinist theology, mountain herbs, or computer programming, and he'd do well, but the minutiae of cutting tools and the internal logic of them was not his strong suit.
"Three good things," Red Swashbuckler said. "Two potentially bad. Both sides of a blade are sharp which means thrusting attacks do more damage, and it penetrates armor better. It also makes it harder to grab a blade. Downsides, on a regular blade, not an angelic blade, are that a single edge is less likely to break, and easier to sharpen."
"Not really a problem," Mister Justice said as he recalled what his still gleaming blade that showed no sign of damage from his various fights looked like. Right now, it was in Warden Long's office, and he had his training sword out.
"You can also flat-palm on the back side of your own single-edged sword, called half-swording, or use the back edge as a shield. But now you know theoretical potential, you need to seek actual ability. For this, we can cross swords. Suddenly he swung, and Brian shoved out his sword, but without pressure. He felt almost no pressure back, and spun his blade about even as he withdrew it along Red's 'sword' until the part near his hilt was near the tip of his opponent's blade. He had mechanical advantage now, and shoved Red's blade down, and struck forward.
Red Swashbuckler faked falling to the ground as the amused prison guards watched.
"You mean I would have won?"
Red Swashbuckler leapt back to his feet.
"If you were four times faster. Sensei Sam is very fast, but overcautious at the start. He can draw his katana and cut a flying fly buzzing around him in two. He is faster than me, and I carry a rapier which is a lighter, faster weapon than a katana."
Brian considered. He had used his Sword to increase his running speed. It was said to be able to make someone a better swordfighter. Maybe he could use it to make himself move faster? Later tonight, at the manse, he might give that a try.
He was considering how to reach for the ability, to see what if anything was on the other side of the metaphorical door, when he heard a rising ringing sound coming from the other side of the prison building. Red Swashbuckler looked up with a delighted grin.
"What--?" A loud KHAWHOOOM was followed by a ringing noise.
"Could not have planned it better myself," Swashbuckler said. "I knew if I was out here in the prison courtyard there was a chance I'd be here during a prison break. And here I am." He turned to walk away with the guards drawing their weapons.
"You're a prisoner. You can t leave!" Mister Justice called after him.
"Justice, with the guards' help, you might, just might, be able to stop me. But in the time you use to try, whoever is breaking into the prison is going to unleash a lot of other criminals. I, on the other hand, promise you, I m just here for my sword, and to get over the wall."
"You can t trust a communist. A lie is virtuous in the service of World Revolution," Brian said.
Red Swashbuckler nodded from twenty feet away.
"Yes. You're right. I would lie in a good cause. Don t trust my word then. Like the great Lenin said, treaties are like pie crusts, made to be broken. Trust that I hate the supervillains who are naught but capitalism at its zenith as a predatory beast. I'd be willing to use them if I had to, but I don't see the need now.
A guard launched a net at him, and the supervillain dove under it, rolling and coming up in the surprised guard's face with an elbow strike that put the guard down on the ground with a bleeding nose. For a long moment, Mister Justice dithered, but then he ran for the warden's office to get his weapons before heading for the front of the prison. After some yelling, the other guards followed him. Mister Justice just knew that William Tell Junior was going to be so angry that the 'commie rat buzzard' had escaped.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
