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Benjamin treated each fight as a learning experience, a way for him to not only win or loose betting money but also as a method by which to better himself. His first round battle had gave him a taste of victory as well as a bit of humility, as it was his arrogance that lead him to be unprepared for the battle at hand. Thus he approached his second round refreshed and ready for battle, hoping treat is opponent with the necessary respect he was due. However due to last minute change in opponents, this also lead him to be unprepared for his actual match while ultimately ended in his loss.

This recent second round loss had taught him even more important, to be prepared for anything and anyone as your circumstances can change in the blink of an eye. Taking this lesson to heart, Benjamin had armed himself with all that he could carry opting to play things on the safe side. In that fashion he could easily discard whatever equipment he deemed unnessary instead of wishing for something he didn't have if he had left some gear behind.

Thus he rode upon the helicopter clothed in not just blue jeans and white cotton but also metal, that of his silver guantlets and jet black slim breastplate. His buckler and sword lay strapped underneath his seat and his dagger somewhere amongst the folds of his blue jacket or matching pants, the bulge hidden amongst the looseness of his clothing.

CHOP...Chop.....chop.......chop

The blades of their ride began to slow as they landed upon the mountaintop where the battle would soon commence. Looking over to his opponent for the first time this trip, he greeted the other man with a firm handshake before they disembarked and the bloodshed began.

"May the best man win."

Well...at least his opponent had shook his hand, a sign of mutual respect, but his response was still very cold. Not that Ben usually expected a warm welcome from a man he was about to come to blows with, but some more comradery was customary. However it wasn't important enough to do anything about or come to blows before their due time, so he simply disembarked and went his own way as they exited the helicopter.

As Saphen went to commune with nature on the edge of the arena, Benjamin respectfully kept his distance by standing in the dead center of his new battle stage and began his own preparations. He attached his buckler to his left hand and armed his right with his blade, as he began to stretch out and jog in place to loosen up his muscles. Then placing his left side towards his opponent, he waited in silence.

And he wouldn't have to wait long as Saphen got right down to business, although his methods were a bit unorthodox. Most people chose to arm themselves with weapons of a bladed, blunt or hacking nature while his current foe opted to use something of a...musical nature?

Obviously things were more than what met the eye, so instead of dashing forth as he had in his last two battles, Benjamin started to march. Walking carefully in tempo with his opponent, his buckler raised in front of him with his sword running along its right side. He'd also use this brief moment of calm to start charging his batteries since as his last foe had taught him, you could never have enough firepower.

Saphen went on strumming and Ben was none the wiser, his sleight of hand skill being sufficient enough to avoid detection when Ben had no clue of what to look for. He knew little about most of other competitors he had not met before and Saphen was one of them, so he was just observing for the moment. However when the blades actually started flying, he took notice as flying instruments of death aren't that hard to spot.

"My, my, my. Not only a bard..."

Twang!

Metal ricocheted against metal and Benjamin didn't even have to do much with his buckler already raised at a little below shoulder level and very near to his the middle of his body to begin with. The six inches of coverage in every direction from the center was large enough to block something head for his chest, and with his shield being a smaller buckler instead of one of the larger variants, his vision was not obscured. All this part of the assault did was inform Ben of what to look for, small light weight daggers.

"...but a magician as well..."

Not enough time to notice the other one before it came flying his way but the next few times Saphen made some strange movements, he'd be on his guard. The second blade required a bit more movement on Ben's buckler part as he swung his arm down and flicked his wrist to the outside, causing the buckler to swivel around its single hand to give the more protection against this curve ball of a dagger.

"...I really must hire you for my court...."

Twang!

But for all it's fanciness, it was no match for the superior size and weight of his defense and it went flying off to the side as well. And following its demise Ben simply raised his arm back up, and another flick of the wrist but him back in the same position. The only really change being a closing of the distance to 12 or so feet and increase in the amount of energy he had stored up.

"....whenever I get around to rebuilding it that is."

This time around Saphen knew the gig was up, so he didn't even try to hide this time around, making it very obvious that his daggers were coming from somewhere. A small relief on Ben's part as he was actually thinking these things were being pulled out of thin air and at least now he knew he wasn't dealing with an actual magician. Didn't change the fact that things seemed to be playing on a loop, as he could image the next few moments playing out as a game of cat and mouse where Saphen kept throwing daggers and he kept diverting them until someone grew tired. And to his mind, that didn't sound like much of a fight and so he'd have to switch things up a bit.

Swoosh!

Another dagger came his way and instead of dodging it and continuing to match forward like before, Ben took a wide step forward with his left causing his body to slide into a profile position so that the dagger would fly past on his right undeterred. His left arm was held straight up towards the sky, presenting his buckler first and foremost as he cranked back his sword arm. His blade beginning to him along with the gauntlet of that hand as he put his powers to work and began to transfer a charge of his charged energy into his blade.

Twang!

Dagger numero dos slapped against the buckler that was presented before him, clattering uselessly to the side as he took a large step forward with his right foot bringing around his arm like a whip before releasing his grip on his weapon. This would cause his blade to spin end over end horizontally towards his backpedaling opponent, a bluish blur of death headed straight for his mid torso.

His weapon now released Ben began to move once more, stepping forward with both hands raised skyward at a brisk pace, much faster than the slow waltz he was performing before. Before he had been bent on meeting his opponent halfway in a moment of glory but now that Saphen was retreating, there was no reason to plod along at a march. Now was the time to rush forward, not a charge, but a pace fast enough to catch up quickly to someone who was now trudging away from the glory of bloodshed.

And as for the third and final dagger? That last strike of Saphen's latest onslaught? Ben would do nothing more about it, as nothing more needed to be done. You see....his blade wasn't glowing for no reason, that bluish energy the eminated from it was not just for artistic purposes. It was a beacon, a signal that told anyone who knew what to look for, which was a select group of people that included just Benjamin, that said item was generating a magnetic field.

Not something strong enough to tug any equipment out of Benjamin's grip as his metallic items were quite secure but strong enough to pick small loose bits here and there like these flying daggers Saphen had been tossing about. Fortunately for him most of these bad boys had been cast off to side, save one and presented no danger to Benjamin but unfortunately for Saphen all of them presented a danger to him as they would follow in the wake of a spinning blade of death.

All of which was followed by Benjamin who was a few precautions away from just bum-rushing his dancing musical foe.

Ben grew impatient easily as many of the upper class often did, they were so used to having everything handed to them as soon as they asked for it that they could not grow accustomed to slower service. And right now, Saphen was giving Ben what he considered to be slow, low quality service.

For Ben was not a big fan of the distance games, the back and forth of exchanging blows from opposite sides of a battle field. He'd much rather go blow for blow toe to toe with an opponent and Saphen's constant hit and run tactic were not giving him any good points in the prince's books.

Thus his movement from deflection to dodging, moving past and ahead of the projectiles instead of smacking them safely to the side as such movements tended to slow him down and give his opponents more time to flee.

Well, no more, no more. Ben was going full throttle, countering Saphen's run with a run of his own. His brisk walk turning into a full out run as his feet hit the pavement, hard. Then to Ben's great surprise and delight, Saphen ran out of room and was forced to turn back around and face him, the musician taking to the skies to avoid the threat below. But then he went and got on the blond's bad side once more when instead of following up with a toss of his violin or a smash over the head, he opted to throw some more daggers. And Ben just wasn't having it.

Using his second charge, Ben released another pulse in direct opposite to the one before as he made a leap of his own. A pulse that would serve to repel the blades that were coming down as well as attract his sword back over the arena as it currently held an opposing charge. Unfortunately he wouldn't have it in hand any time soon as it would take a moment to resist its previous momentum and would probably land somewhere off to his opponent's rear as it had ultimately lost its battle against gravity, having not the strength to resist forever.

As for his leap and where it would take him? To Saphen of course, it was time they met in bodily combat and Ben would start it off by going for his opponents center of gravity as he was coming out of his short flight.

Both of Ben's arms would seek to wrap around his thighs, his buckler grip small single grip being not big obstacle save for sacrificing some staying power while giving his opponent more discomfort than was usual. While the way he aligned his head and neck would give his foe's midsection a hefty helping of shoulder. And the momentum from his charge serving to take Saphen back to earth much more roughly than expected.

((Sorry for the wait, was contemplating whether or not I should resign because of unrelated IRL frustrations but decided that, for the moment, I should stick with it.))

Saphen would have trouble diverting Ben's hands with a simple smack, for no matter how small his stature may be, Ben was not aiming to grab onto his legs from the front and had no need to keep his hands so close together. His aim afterall was not to simply grab but wrap his arms around Saphen's legs and thus a need to keep his arms stretched out at around shoulder length apart before he implemented his bear hug like grip. So slapping one arm to the side, particularly in such a strange fashion since using his right arm to attack Ben's own right involved crossing his arm over his chest, which was more time difficult and consuming than the direct approach, although that difference is fairly miniscule.

Meaning that Ben had ample time to see what was going on and compensate for it, his larger "bulk" in no way effecting his speed of simply stiffening and bracing his arm, so that its movement were less dramatic than anticipated by his foe. Not that any larger movement would have deterred his arm from reaching its target but it would have meant the difference of passing on the side with room to spare and grasping onto a the thigh itself instead of going around for a better hold. In fact had his opponent succeeded in his venture, he would only have done himself more harm, streaming lining his arms which would have caused Ben's buckler to spear into his gut instead of his shoulder.

As for the second part of the duet, a blow to the head was indeed devastating, even more so when one could not see it coming. But Ben was a planner, not the greatest or the most intuitive but he did think at least half a step ahead. He knew that impact with his opponent was coming and that they would soon after hit the ground hard. The move he was performing, a double leg takedown aerial style, required him to place his head behind his opponent, which in this situation meant that he'd land face first into the pavement before his opponent's body even grazed the ground. So the closer he got, the more he was making sure he wasn't going to break his nose to get too shaken up on impact. Such a thing might turn the fight horrible against his favor and might even end it on the spot.

Thus as he flew forward his chin was tucked to the side of his left side so that the bulk of his face was facing that direction, so that less would have a possibility of impact and only his right eye could see the going ons mentioned earlier. Also meaning what any strike from above would hit upon his back and neck first, spreading pain about and lessening the actual impact against his dome making it more so the feeling of aftershock of the attack
than the actual earthquake or so to speak.

Not to mention that although Saphen may be a bit more dexterous than Benjamin on the ground, he was not the faster moving body in the air having traveled longer and been longer exposed to the speed reducing capabilities of air resistance while Ben was launching himself from a longer charge during the last dregs of Saphen's flight. On the ground, Saphen may be nimble and Saphen may be quick but at this moment Ben was flying over the candlestick.

The damage reducing nature of his "attack's" positioning combined with the relative speeds of their bodies was going to mess with the violin's blow, depositing the brunt of it on Ben's shoulders and back while still managing to give a knock on his noggin. Meaning that for the rest of the short duration of their flight, Ben may be having a headache and a ringing in his ears but on the ground he wouldn't be rolling around groggily like a drunk or worse incapacitated.

In fact, come time they hit the ground it would be Saphen who had the rougher landing as once he finished knocking around his opponent, he would find the prince pushing his edge in the strength category by using his hold to crunch up a bit to make this impact as loud and painful as possible.

The sound of their impact would annoy him to no end, a sharp "ow" that passed his lips adding to the grunt extracted from him when wood met skin, muscle and the bone underneath.

The other man was tricky indeed, dragging Ben in close and yet having no desire to engage in an exchange of blows. Instead of trying a smack him another one, he flatten himself as if content to ride the slip stream beneath the blonde to safety.

Saphen sought to slither out of Benjamin's grasp but he was not going to have any of that, the prince had but a taste of hand to hand and was not ready to go back to games of cat and mouse. And so he was going to do all in his power to stop the slippery Saphen from escaping.

A goal which was not as far-fetched as it might seem as Ben had two hands, two arms poised to strike. Their alignment not truly straight as their intended target was no the waist he had been in line with but the legs below. So his arm was already angled down, about to do what it had been aching to do all this time by taking hold of his opponent.

An opponent struggling to rid himself of the aerial confrontation, making move after move to escape. But time was short, their distance small and their speeds great enough such that Saphen would not get away scott free. For time was on Ben side and before the other man could finish his maneuver there would be some chest on back contact. A rough shove as metal met jerkin, shoving his opponent down and forward slightly, a hick-up in his plan which Ben exploited.

For it was after this moment of rough contact, this sideswipe of sorrow that Ben's arm would spring into action. And unless Saphen saw some reason to hold onto Ben's other hand, right would join lefty soon as they would warriors finally fell towards the ground. At another time, when his brain was less fuzzy, Ben would wonder why aerial encounters always seemed to last for hours.

Impact would not be kind on Saphen as unlike Ben's earlier plan of action, his opponent would hit dirt face first.