22. Duel
"H…hello A…Auntie". Hinata bowed as she said in a stuttering voice.
Mamako smiled at Hinata's cuteness and greeted. "Hello Hinata-chan". Mamako also tried to touch Hinata's head but she dodged her quickly. She allows Alex to touch her head but that doesn't mean she can allow others to do so as well.
"Alex-kun?" Hinata asked in questioning way.
"Hmm"
"Robin came to learn in the dojo as well. She heard that we have a Dojo and wanted to join so I gave her the address". Hinata was shy at first but then just started to talk with more and more enthusiasm. At the end, she realised her blunder and just blushed.
Alex smiled at the cute creature and started patting her head. Mamako looked at their interaction with a smile but felt very jealous when she saw Alex patting Hinata's head. She also wanted to patted with such tenderness by Alex and it was clearly visible on her face.
"OK, let's go in". Alex said as he started leading the way forwards.
Getting inside, his way was blocked by a purple haired girl. She was carrying a bokken on her side with one hand while her eyes were looking at Alex sharply. It looked like she was assessing him with her eyes.
"I would like to have a duel with you". The girl said while looking at Alex with her big sharp eyes.
"Are you sure?" Alex looked at the girl and said without backing down. Even though the opponent was a little girl but he knew not to underestimate anyone.
The girl nodded her head and headed inside the dojo followed by Alex. They got inside and people cleared an area for them when they found what was going on. Alex took a wooden axe from the stand and hosted it atop his shoulders.
"First person to get incapacitated loses". The girl said and just stood there with the bokken in front of her in a stance.
Alex nodded and stood there with his usual carefree stance that never changes, no matter how much he learns.
The girl just stood there as she vigilantly watched Alex without making the first move. Alex quirked his eyebrow at this, not expecting her to have good patience. "If you don't want to then don't mind me".
Saying that Alex took a step and practically plunged towards her with his axe straight up and ready to strike down at a moment's notice. The girl readied herself and the strike fell, she side stepped and tried to strike with her bokken at Alex's flank.
Alex twisted his body and got struck in the back with the bokken. It hurt a bit but it was nothing major. He twisted the axe and swiped it horizontally. The girl kept the bokken in front of her in a vertical stance and was stuck with full force.
The force behind the strike sent her couple of steps back, signifying that she was quite strong and more so than her peers. Alex also felt the resistance quite a bit when he struck her with his axe.
The girl stomped the ground and dashed at Alex as she struck him with the tip of her bokken. Alex put the flat part of the axe in front of him to take the strike. The girl twisted the tip and plunged the tip into his shoulder.
Alex's face was a bit pained but he didn't back down and swiped his axe towards the girl. He twisted his hand halfway through and decided to knock the Bokken out of her hand. He struck the bokken with all his strength and made the girl's hands numb from the strike.
(A/N: One thing I don't understand during the fight of people is that if they are using weapons then why aren't they affected by the resulting vibrations that travel through their hands. I mean you can build resistance to it but it is not something that you can be immune to.)
But the girl made sure to not drop her Bokken. Her hands were shaking a bit and it was visible that her dexterity in wielding a weapon had dropped quite a bit.
Alex didn't plan to give her any time and dashed her again. This time, he threw a fast jab that she dodged and just as she stepped to the side. Alex swung his axe again.
She showed her technique as she rolled away from the strike at a moments notice. You could see the decisiveness in her combat.
Alex also ran at her with just the strength from his toes as the rest of his body was still unstable from the previous strike. He didn't plan to give her any time as he wanted to keep the pressure up.
He swung the axe in a vertical direction direction that completely blocked the girl from getting up from the ground. She swung the bokken towards his legs to make a trade off in the strikes.
Alex didn't mind and just kept going as he wasn't backing down from this. The bokken hit his leg as Alex felt the most pain ever. His calf quickly got a purple bruise on it.
But Alex still didn't change his strike and struck her back with the flat side of the axe as he knocked the wind out of the girl.
The girl got flattened on the ground as her face was towards the ground. Her back was in pain as she was still a child and her pain tolerance wasn't at a big level yet.
Alex put the axe's supposed blade side as it was a wooden axe on her neck and said. "You lose". He spoke with confidence even though his face didn't look good because of the bruise on his leg.
Alex could say for sure that if he didn't have his lesson with Gimli. He would've been the one to lose as the girl was quite strong and he wouldn't have been able to strike as hard as he did now.
But the most credit could be said to be in his uncaring and wild style of combat that just didn't give the opponent any time to recover and stand his ground but it consumed a lot of stamina.
Alex was currently panting like a dog after he got the win from the match.