After my bullet hell fight against Natalie, Claire and Vanessa came by to congratulate me. 

-That was awesome! How'd you do it? 

-That was cool. 

-Easy there Vanessa, just used my reaction times and a little bit of prediction. 

-Reaction times and prediction he says, you've been shot before or what? 

-Perhaps, my past is very colorful. 

-Anything is more colourful than your wardrobe. 

-Oh now that's just mean. 

We continue to chat till it was time for Vanessa's second match. Claire and i went to watch but it wasn't as interesting as the first day. In the end we split up in the afternoon to attend to personal matters, Vanessa wanted to do more private training while Claire had more experiments due to her sudden improvement to her health. Because of that I'm walking alone down a corridor when Natalie suddenly appeared around a corner, seems that she wants to talk. 

-Oh hi there, no hard feelings about your rifle right? 

-Wanted to ask you. How? 

-How? You mean how I dodged your rifle? 

-Affirmative. 

-Good reflexes and some good guesswork. 

She stares at me for some time before suddenly leaving, I guess I managed to satisfy her curiosity. The next few days were relatively boring, the semi finals didn't have any interesting and everyone was busy, now that final match has been determined to be between me and Vanessa, this will certainly be a fight for the ages. I wanna make this fun and fair so I'm matching my reflexes and strength to be equal to Vanessa's, I'm going to have to adjust it just before the match but that's fine. With our physical prowess equal it comes down to skill, and considering my experience I certainly have the upper hand, the question remains if Vanessa's trump card can make up for it. 

The day of the finals is upon us and the crowd is very excited, the commentators are buzzing and the judges are focused. I look across at Vanessa and quickly adjust my physical strength to match hers, now it's up to our souls to determine the winner. We ready our swords and confirm to the referee that we're ready. He starts the match and we charge, swords clash as a whirlwind of strikes ring out. After a few seconds we pull back to catch our breath. I've managed to graze her somewhat but she's managed the same, I have to get used to my slower body but I've been able to read her attacks and feints. 

Once again into the breach we go as rush towards one another. Trading hits and parrying each other, we keep trying to get the upper hand but to no avail. Its almost like we're completely in sync, i haven't seen anything like this aside from whenever eldest brother duels his first wife Annie. This feels less like a fight and more of a dance involving swords. The more we fight and the more we parry the more in sync i feel. Eventually we have to back off to rest and plan our next moves. 

-I guess your training payed of Vanessa! 

-I guess so, but aren't you a bit sloe today? 

-Just wanted to make this fair. 

Again and again we dance, a whirlwind of slashes, feints and parries ring out as the crowd and audience watch in silence, they're completely enraptured by our performance. Now the fight is going around the arena, whenever i try to move Vanessa gives chase, and when she tries to retreat i too go after her. Running around swinging, slashing, blocking, and so on. While there's a few things i think she can improve on i definitely feel like with a few millennia she could beat the grandmaster swordsmen of the empire. I'm sure Annie would be interested in training her. Now the whirlwind is spreading around the arena, our fight whips the crowd into a fervor. People shout telling either of us to win, the commentators are trying their best to keep up and comment on us. 

Eventually our sword dance ends with both of us standing at opposite ends of the arena. We catch our breath and stare at each other, we're equally nearing the score limit so this will be the last dance. I call out to her. 

-Princess! I suggest you use your trump card now! Show me what Britain's finest can truly show! 

-You better be prepared then! 

She activates Excaliburs secondary function and electricity flows thru the blade. This time instead of launching it at me she directs it towards herself, looks she plans to up her reflexes using electricity. Its similar to Roberto's secondary function, but Excalibur wasn't designed to do this, Vanessa must've trained to control the flow in other to both gain a noticeable improvement without killing herself. I match her improvements and we start rushing at each other. Our attacks hit faster, our parries are more accurate and our dance is far more high tempo and complex. I'm sure if Annie saw this she would be at least somewhat impressed. 

The crowd is going wild and the commentators can't keep up. Eventually we finish by landing killing blows on each other, our swords are but a millimeter from our necks. I wonder who won till i hear the announcement. 

-It's a draw! 

A draw? Are we that equally matched? Vanessa looks at me and smiles before passing out, seems that using that trump card puts quite the burden on her. I catch her and slowly lower her down, the medical team arrives and i place Vanessa on the stretcher and watch as they carry her to the infirmary. Now how will the principal handle this?