Book 4. Chapter 21
Brin was fairly certain he could take a level 30 [Warrior] without too much trouble just based off raw stats, but he wasn’t sure what a [Knight] could do and Hedrek kept his status locked down tight. The biggest issue was the armor. It wasn’t raw steel like Brin’s; Hedrek had real armor. Though it was plain in design, it practically thrummed with magical energy. He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to break through it, and he wasn’t willing to sacrifice his Bog Standard spear the way that he had with his glass spear against Aberfa.
Hedrek didn’t give him time to plan. He launched himself forward, sword swinging. Brin defended against a wild assault, with Hedrek’s sword seeming to come from everywhere at once. Each strike landed with force that made Brin’s bones tremble, and he barely managed to parry and block the oncoming strikes. The haft of his spear deflected the sharp steel sword well, but Brin didn’t trust it against a full-force swing, so he had to nudge the sword aside rather than block as often as possible.
Hedrek chopped down with a wild overhand strike that Brin had to jump to avoid, and it stuck Hedrek’s sword a foot into the ground. He roared and pulled it out, spraying dirt into Brin’s eyes. He only blinked for half a second, but in that time Hedrek closed on him in a side sweep. Hedrek’s sword left a notch in the haft of his spear that had partially blocked it and made a clang as it hit the armor on Brin’s shoulder.
Brin kicked Hedrek, knocking him back, but he recovered and launched himself forward again, sword swinging like a madman.
Despite the power of the blows, they weren’t especially quick. Brin was stronger, and probably had more Dexterity, too. Something else was making the sword hit harder.
Growing confident, Brin moved to the attack, taking advantage of openings. He rang the glass of his spearhead against Hedrek’s breastplate, and then did it again. Hedrek stepped back on reflex, opening up some space, though of course Brin was nowhere near penetrating that armor.
They circled each other for a moment, calculating, and now that he had a moment to breathe, Brin realized something was strange. Hedrek didn’t fight like someone with [Blade Mastery]. He fought with a berserker fury, almost like [Blade Mastery] had given him perfect form and then he’d forced himself to learn how to fight poorly again. It was effective, since Brin never knew what to expect.
But what was really happening here? Now that he’d seen some sort of Skill being used, maybe [Inspect] would show him what it was. He tried and–success!
[Path of the Blade] The second step on the path to true mastery. This Skill heavily increases a blade’s striking power in exchange for making it more difficult to control. Imbue the blade with mana to increase its striking power further.