Alexia vs. the Spartian Warrior

When soldiers gathered on their off-days with drinks in hand, one topic came up without fail.

Which country had the strongest military?

And Spartia was always the answer.

What inevitably followed was the question: were Spartian warriors still strong without their shields, or weak?

If any among them had actually fought a Spartian warrior, they'd say this:

Their strength has nothing to do with whether they have a shield.

The Spartian warrior facing Alexia discarded his shield and leveled his spear.

Alexia gripped her battle-axe in both hands, watching him carefully.

The flames on her axe blazed on.

Her mana reserves were more than sufficient.

A gap separated the two.

To land a blow, someone had to close it.

Alexia inched forward, step by step.

Just as she reached the edge of her own striking range, the Spartian warrior thrust his spear.

A pinpoint attack. Sharp, with virtually no telegraphing.

The spear shot toward Alexia's head.

Tracking it with her eyes was nearly impossible.

She dodged by shifting her head, and only managed it because she'd anticipated the range beforehand.

The spearhead grazed her cheek, drawing a thin line of blood, and the spear was yanked back in one fluid motion.

Alexia swung her battle-axe to match the spear's withdrawal.

The Spartian warrior evaded by stepping back.

Alexia hauled her axe up and swung again.

This time, the Spartian warrior caught it on the shaft of his spear.

Heat and flame from the battle-axe seared the Spartian warrior.

He didn't flinch.

Before the fire could spread, his muscles flexed, and with raw power, he shoved Alexia back.

Alexia took several quick steps to recover her balance.

Another spear thrust came at her before she was fully set.

She got the head of her battle-axe in front of her face just in time.

The impact was savage. She held.

Barely.

Distance opened between them again.

Alexia wiped the blood from her cheek with her gloved right hand.

(The moment I show any opening, here comes that spear. What a pain.)

She could feel cold sweat forming as the thought sank in.

Without his shield, the Spartian warrior had traded his towering defense for a kill shot that could come at any moment.

If she let him keep that spear, she'd lose eventually.

Reaching that conclusion, Alexia tilted her battle-axe forward.

Her axe was longer than the Spartian spear overall.

Its effective range was shorter than the spear's, but that didn't matter.

The Spartian warrior eyed her changed stance with some wariness but deemed it unthreatening, and began closing the gap.

He thrust again.

A razor-sharp jab aimed at her upper body, angled so that even a dodge would leave damage.

Alexia sidestepped right on reflex, but this time the spear caught her left shoulder.

Another shallow cut, mercifully. An inch deeper and it would have been serious.

Against a spear-wielder, you had to live under the constant threat of a killing blow while damage slowly accumulated.

Alexia wedged the spear shaft into the gap between her axe-head and the haft.

Then she wrenched upward.

Ordinarily, no Spartian warrior would lose his weapon to that. Even one-handed, their trained grip strength could resist it.

But Alexia's magic sent fire surging along the wrenching motion.

Hold the spear and his hand would burn. Then the fire would spread to his body.

The Spartian warrior released the spear.

It arced high into the air and clattered down outside the stage.

The crowd erupted. A Spartian warrior disarmed by an opponent's attack. A rare sight indeed.

"You're the first mage I've fought who does things like this."

"Oh? This was perfectly normal in my family."

The Spartian warrior drew his sword as he spoke. Alexia answered with a quip.

The same trick wouldn't work twice.

He'd only released the spear because he had the sword. Try it again, and he'd charge straight through the fire to take her down.

That was the gut feeling Alexia had.

Back in her days as an Imperial noblewoman, Alexia had been among the strongest in the Empire.

She'd made a living hunting monsters, constantly honing her combat skills.

She'd never matched the monstrous knights at the heart of the Empire, but among her generation, she was undefeated, sparring included.

She also had considerable magic reserves, and had focused her studies on fire magic for its synergy with close combat.

The warrior before her was fighting at her level or above, and he was just a rank-and-file soldier.

Small wonder this nation was called the strongest on the continent.

With battle-axe against sword, the reach advantage now firmly belonged to Alexia.

A sword had more agility, but a single clean hit from a flame-wreathed, superheated battle-axe would end things.

The situation favored Alexia.

The moment she thought that, the Spartian warrior began to move.

Slowly. Deliberately.

Alexia tracked him, keeping her axe pointed his way.

He stopped.

At his feet lay the shield he'd discarded earlier.

Even if he picked it up now, it wouldn't matter without the spear. She could keep her distance and simply burn through it.

That had been Alexia's thinking, and then the Spartian warrior's next move made her eyes go wide.

He kicked the shield straight at her.

The massive shield hurtled toward Alexia.

"How is that even allowed!?"

Alexia shouted as she braced her battle-axe.