The group before us made this encounter more consequential. Varys, the Vagabond of Arestria, a demigod descendant of the goddess of war, leader of the Blood God Bandits, stood before us on a path a day from Beorne. Around him a few dozen vermin swarmed, waiting to claim his scraps, and behind us crept a dozen more to drive home our theoretically dire situation.
Drifter moved to the front, Borin to the rear. The bandits threw meaningless insults at us, trying to rile us up for their own entertainment, until Varys held up a fist to silence them.
Varys was a monster of a man, over seven feet tall and rippling with muscles. His hair hung ragged from his scalp and face, and his clothes were in such dire fashion that he appeared as much ape as man. The spear he held stood a foot taller than himself, a solid rod of steel flaring into a blade at the end, while the short blades scattered around his body were arranged to flash out in an instant. He was the spitting image of a barbarian.
He locked eyes with Drifter for a long while, long enough that his compatriots backed off. Something sparked between the pair.
Varys spoke first: "My blood rages at your image. Who are you? A cousin?"
"Hope not."
The barbarian scoffed and lowered himself into a fighting stance, spear pointed towards Drifter. Likewise, Drifter drew his blade and turned himself sideways, settling into a fencing pose with his left hand tucked behind his back.
Let me be the first to say that I am no expert at the martial arts. Though I have avoided the most dire dangers of an overfull belly, I am more an expert on tavern dining than tavern brawling.
Even so, I have perused my fair share of martial handbooks over the years. Forms, movements, concepts, and accounts from dozens of traditions remain buried in the alcoves of my memory.
Varys' form was typical of Arestrian peasantry, the sort that is drilled every so often in a field and only used when conscripted into a levy. His size allowed him to widen this stance, turning this peg in a defensive line into a wall all on his own. While a peasant would set their spear against a charge, Varys had the strength to be the charge himself.
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Drifter's stance was typical of court duels in many kingdoms, but his most particularly of the former kingdom of Mornia. Mornia's dueling culture was ill-defined in many ways, including in the rules around weapons. Swords were commonly pit against spears, shields popped up with some frequency, one famous duelist even used a crossbow. A manual put out by Nonius Salaran discussed ways to counter many of these weapons if one was wielding a typical arming sword. It was quite detailed, discussing everything from positioning to specific strikes and ripostes.
Salaran's words are worth quoting here directly, as they capture Drifter's strategy in its entirety:
Long weapons possess the simultaneous advantage and disadvantage of range. At a distance, an opponent finds it difficult to approach, but they also have more opportunities for defense. The spear-wielder can use their most deadly thrusting attacks with ease, but piercing their opponent accurately can be difficult. In close-quarters this situations changes and persists; it is easier to find ways to strike, with all sorts of ways to bludgeon an opponent with the shaft of the spear, yet it is difficult to perform the thrusting attacks most effective with this category of weapons. Meanwhile the opponent will find themselves safer from the deadly point of the spear, but unable to strike past the spear's full-body defense.
As such, the strategy to counter long weapons has three phases: the approach, the shift, and the execution.
In the approach, present with your right shoulder towards the opponent and your body perpendicular. Your sword is in a defensive stance aiming to deflect the spear from the thigh and above without much commitment. The goal is to wait for an opening to move into the execution phase, so the stance minimizes risk of grievous wounds from arteries or the heart.
Shifting into the execution phase requires a commitment from the opponent. Commitment allows the spear to be knocked away enough that the gap between blade and opponent can be closed before they can move into a close-quarters defensive stance.
Execution is a very simple step-cut-retreat pattern, aiming deep enough to end the fight. If a deep enough cut cannot be gained, the retreat avoids a dangerous mêlée and allows a return to the safer approach phase.
If a commitment from the opponent cannot be gained, or they are fast enough that the execution phase cannot be completed, see appendix E.
Approach: Drifter keeps Varys at bay seemingly without effort. Varys' spear aims for death with every thrust, but is batted away as if it were a blade of grass on the wind.
Shift: Varys grows frustrated and thrusts deep. Drifter twists around the spear, slides along the shaft, and raises his sword as if it were a foil, aiming it down towards Varys's chest.
Execution: the blade plunges into Varys's heart. Before Drifter can pull away the giant of a man grasps the blade, straining with every fibre of his being to find a way to live, his heart still pumping around the sharp edge and forcing blood down its length, before it finally stops and his limbs go limp.
The blade is removed with a clean flourish. Varys falls to the ground, knees first with the rest shortly after. Blood creeps from beneath his corpse having saturated the earth beneath the wound. The rats scatter, their expectation of an easy mark thwarted between heartbeats.
Drifter gives a flick of his blade, leaving a clean line of blood in the dirt, then sheaths it at his waist.