In an ideal world Steve would have instantly whipped out the handgun and blown Kaltek into next week with a witty one liner. Apparently in lizard-kin society a duel starts the second the challenge is uttered and accepted by the one being challenged, so such a series of events could have indeed have transpired in an ideal world. Steve did not live in an ideal world. To be honest, he lived in a pretty shit one.
In true 'shit world' fashion Kaltek had responded to Steve's challenge by roaring, drawing his sword and kicking Steve across the room before Steve had even had the chance to figure out which of the buttons on the gun was the safety. Assuming it had a safety and not a self-destruct button. Or that this was even a gun, and not say, a welding tool, or a tic tac dispenser. Steve may not have had lightning fast reflexes, but his ability to think of worst case scenarios was second to none.
His train of thought was unfortunately interrupted by him coming into conflict with a dining table, and then the floor once said table collapsed under the unexpected strain of having someone land on it. Shoddy craftsmanship, to be sure.
Steve was relatively unharmed because of the amazing protective properties of his suit. He quckly came to appreciate his suit all the more because of the gigantic lizard man now bearing down on him with a sword big enough to kill a small elephant.
He looked frantically around for support, only to see Sarah and the now apparently un-possessed Saltek looking on from the sidelines with smug expressions, as if any second now Steve would destroy Kaltek with the ease of an angry god. If they thought anything was wrong, they certainly weren't showing it.
Steve realized belatedly that if he was getting his ass-kicked they would rationalize it as him playing with his opponent. In the long term this would benefit him, but right now he would much rather not be sodomized by a broadsword. It would really put a damper on any long term plans he would like to make.
He could hardly ask for help and not expect to get himself killed for appearing weak later down the line, so asking for help wasn't really an option. It was a choice of possible death now verses pretty much guaranteed death later. Not exactly two option Steve would like to picking from, but what could he do about it. Die most likely.
The other party goers had moved to the walls of the room with practiced ease, creating a ring of bodies around Steve and Kaltek. Duels to the death must not have been all that uncommon at these events. The whole 'swords and armor' thing was beginning to make a lot more sense in Steve's mind. He also made sure to not attend any parties in future. Sure he would miss the witty banter and pleasant atmosphere, but he just couldn't quite bring himself to accept 'a sword through the gut' as a possible outcome to a pleasant evening's festivities. He was just old fashioned like that.
Steve leaped to his feet and remembering his experience with far too many back alley brawls and prepared to duck under the next sweep of Kaltek's blade.
The blade came in. Steve ducked. The blade ducked too. Steve learned to fly once more. Steve collided with a patch of floor about a meter from his initial standing location.
On the bright side the sword hadn't taken his unhelmeted head off, on the other hand Steve now understood the vast gulf between a back alley beat down and fighting a well-trained veteran warrior.
He may not have liked the situation, but he was far from completely defenseless, and it wasn't the first time he was up against an opponent who outclassed him. He had a few tricks up his sleeve.
He may not have had any formal martial training or be a massive behemoth, but he did have a nigh invulnerable suit of flexible light armor, a wealth of experience fighting dirty and a flexible mind, which if he judged correctly Lord Kaltek had never before experienced.
Steve knew what to expect from his opponent, Kaltek had no idea what Steve could and could not do. Kaltek was likely waiting for Steve to use the 'spear of the gods' and blow him into next week, which was making him needlessly aggressive in his attack. Or maybe the dude always fought like he had a hot poker up his ass?
Steve looked at the handgun that was basically just dead weight in his hand at the moment. He would have liked to use the it to save his ass, but he couldn't really find the time to discover which combination of clicks, buttons and trigger pulls made it go bang, while someone was waving a sword at him.
The handgun may not have been as complex as a rubix cube, but with someone trying to jab him with a pointy bit of metal while he fiddled with it, it may as well have been.
The lizard-kin charged in again, intent on finishing what he must have assumed was a wounded opponent. Steve rose up into a crouch as the blade came down intent on splitting his skull open. Steve rose up one hand open palmed to block it and prayed his rapid planning paid off. He didn't need to do much, just buy enough time for him to figure out how to work the gun.
The sword impacted squarely with Steve's upraised palm and Steve reflexively gripped it as the suit instantly hardened all the way down the arm right through to his feet. It was like being incased in solid rock. The only place left unaffected by the suits hardening was Steve's right arm, which was not required to contribute to the solidity of the suit. The same right hand that also currently held the pistol.
Kaltek began trying to pry the blade free as Steve started fiddling with the pistol in one hand. If Kaltek had been a little less terrified of being smote down by a being that appeared completely impervious to harm, he might have let go of the blade and punched Steve in the face. As it was his attempts to free his sword only resulted in the suit retaining its rock solid state.
Steve felt a smug sense of superiority as the lizard-kin struggled against Steve's iron grip. Steve may not have been able to move, but with Kaltek immobilized now just had to calmly figure out how to use the gun an- Smack!
Steve felt his nose crumple, and the spray of warm blood over his mouth and chin as his body fly backward. It probably looked pretty comical considering the suit was only now softening as Kaltek had let go of the sword and punched Steve in his unarmored face.
Kaltek was a quicker learner than Steve had given him credit for. On the bright side now Steve had a sword. Also a broken nose. The second thing didn't seem nearly as helpful.
Steve landed once more in a crumpled heap on the floor, one hand holding the gun, the other the blade of Kaltek's sword. Steve was happy to now own a weapon for which its usage was a relatively simple of system of stick the pointy end in the other guy. A broken nose was a small price to pay for such a boon.
Not to say that Steve didn't feel like crying over the loss of his dashing good looks, as well as the smarting pain that only crushed bones mashing together can summon, just that he prioritized increased survivability over his vanity. After all, it was quite difficult to be appreciated for the devilishly attractive man that you are when you're dead.
The only issue Steve could see was that even if he had a sword, Kaltek's armor was specifically designed to stop pointy things like swords going into it. Kaltek himself had likely been trained to avoid pointy things going into him. Steve had no training on how to put pointy things into people. So other than removing Kaltek's advantage, Steve really hadn't gotten all that much of a leg up on the competition. Life was hard when you were not secretly a black belt kendo master. Did kendo practitioners even have black belts? It was a mystery he may never know the answer to.
Focus.
Steve's musings on the subject were abruptly interrupted by the realization that the throbbing pain in his nose had abruptly stopped. The steady stream of blood had stopped too. Hooray for small mercies.
A quick check with the back of his right hand confirmed that all the damage to Steve's previously pulped nose had been healed. His dashing good looks would survive to see the morrow. Provided of course Steve survived to see the morrow.
