Skar assumed a combat stance, and Alan reactivated his hypercognition mode as the countdown neared zero. To his surprise, he felt a slight headache as he reactivated the ability. It looked like there was a limit to how much he’d be able to use the ability, and these duels would help him learn that limit.

The duel began, and Skar took an aggressive swing at Alan, who sidestepped the punch and kneed Skar in the groin as hard as he could. Skar doubled over in pain as Alan let loose a fury of additional blows to Skar’s eyes, neck and the back of his knees. With a sickening crunch, the giant let out a roar of pain, and shouted, “I concede,” and thus the duel ended.

Alan shook hands with Skar as they were teleported back to the dueling rings, apologizing for the low blows, but Skar seemed to accept that it was within the rules he’d outlined. Given the speed of the victory, especially when Skar had been the one to set the terms of engagement, no new challenger appeared to try to best Alan, which suited him just fine.

As Alan began to eye the recruits around him, wondering who would make for a good person to challenge, a sudden flurry of duels began, setting off a chain reaction as people tried to avoid being challenged by the wrong opponent.

Alan decided to play it safe, and challenged a swordsman recruit in simple power armor that only possessed 250 guild points. The swordsman chose a swords only battle, and Alan chose to wager only 100 guild points, as he planned on not using most of his abilities. The subsequent duel was actually more challenging than Alan expected; he was barely able to finish off his opponent, even with Eve’s calculations.

Eve’s ability to help him wield a sword didn’t translate nearly as well as the ability to wield a gun. With a gun, all Alan had to do was aim and shoot, but when it came to fighting with a sword, Alan had no idea how to grip the thing, or the proper movements. While Eve could show Alan the correct motions, he had little to no idea why they were the proper motions, and thus often found his balance off. Finishing blows turned into glancing ones as Alan struggled to face off against insofar as he could tell, a middling opponent. It was suffice to say he had room for improvement, and needed to train more.

Alan quickly challenged another random recruit, who quickly set the wager to 100 guild points, given Alan’s string of victories. Alan let it be a simple pistol duel, and easily won with Eve’s help. He was about to challenge a 5th opponent, then retire for the night, when someone tapped him on the shoulder. He turned to find Aurora.

“Um hi,” Alan said.

“Greetings. Sidestep tells me that you are surprisingly powerful, and I would enjoy a duel, with certain conditions attached,” Aurora said.