Basic Trope: When someone beats their foe using a method that the opponent is very skilled at, often when said foe establishes the rules.
- Straight: Dracone, a Master Swordsman, challenges Hiro to a swordfight. Hiro accepts, along with any conditions that Dracone insisted on, and manages to defeat him in their duel.
- Exaggerated: Dracone, despite being a swordsmaster who has ridiculously Implausible Fencing Powers, is utterly defeated by Hiro, who literally never held a blade in his life.
- Downplayed: Hiro's victory in his duel with Dracone is a Pyrrhic one. He is severely injured to the point he may never fight again, or at least put out of action for some time.
- Justified:
- Dracone’s fighting style is All-Offense-No-Defense. As such Hiro, a Jack of All Stats fighter, simply goes on the offensive since Dracone wouldn't be able to counter him effectively.
- Dracone's age and arrogance has caught up to him. Despite his skill with the sword, it was only a matter of time before someone would take him down in a duel.
- One of the reasons Dracone is such a master duelist is because nearly all his previous opponents use standard fighting styles that he is familiar with. Hiro on the other hand, while not quite as skilled with the sword, uses his own unique fighting style that Dracone cannot predict/analyze properly.
- Inverted: ???
- Subverted:
- When it appears that Hiro is about to win, Dracone reveals he had been holding back and now decides to use all his skills and starts to beat him.
- Despite Hiro appearing to have the advantage, he decides he's running out of time and pulls a gun on Dracone, shooting him right between the eyes.
- Double Subverted:
- …Until Hiro also reveals he's been holding back, and similarly decides to use all his skills, thus beating Dracone.
- It turns out, Dracone was also going to shoot Hiro in their fight (having a gun hidden up his sleeve), but Hiro beat him to it.
- Zig-Zagged: Dracone is constantly changing the rules of their duel, which Hiro is struggling to keep up with, but is hanging in there.
- Averted: The fight is a Curb-Stomp Battle in Dracone's favor.
- Enforced: Dracone has become something of a Creator's Pest for the writers and they decide to axe him from the storyline. Rather than having Dracone killed abruptly in a way that would anger the fans he does have, the writers instead opt to give him one final duel to the death to serve as his last hurrah, while also showing how Hiro has developed in his own skill as a fighter.
- Lampshaded: "A Decade of Experience with a Homefield Advantage... and Dracone lost his swordfight to Hiro. Now that was unexpected."
- Exploited: Emperor Evulz feels that his lieutenant Dracone is a threat to his plans. Rather than simply killing him (which could potentially cause problems with his other minions), Evulz instead convinces Dracone to duel his archenemy Hiro to the death. Since Dracone takes a lot of pride in his skill as a swordsman, the emperor feels that having his best subordinate lose to Hiro would make his death all-the-more satisfying and poetic.
- Defied: ???
- Discussed: "Never-in-a-million-years would I have thought I'd ever see Dracone lose in a swordfight. He must have lost his edge."
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: Hiro tells his colleagues of the time he fought master-swordsman Dracone in a duel, and even shows the blade he used. When they ask him what happened, Hiro simply replies, "What do you think? I won."
- Deconstructed: Dracone manages to survive his duel with Hiro, however his pride is utterly destroyed. He spent nearly his entire life honing his skills with the sword… and now he lost to the most unlikely of opponents, one he never imagined would ever defeat him. Dracone will be haunted by his defeat for years to come. Not only that, but this defeat permanently damages his reputation among his men, who now question whether the master-swordsman is truly worthy of the title, as well as questioning all their own capabilities since they learned their sword-skills from Dracone in the first place.
- Hiro, on the other hand, is thrilled at his accomplishment and now believes that he is the new greatest swordsman. It isn't long until Hiro becomes an Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy in his own right, taking great pride in defeating Dracone, and eventually he is shown to be not so different from his enemy.
- Reconstructed: Though Dracone is defeated, Hiro compliments his opponent on his skill and admits that under different circumstances, his swordsmaster foe might have won. Dracone likewise compliments Hiro and now fully considers him a Worthy Opponent he was wrong to underestimate, and the two leave on (relatively) good terms.
- Played for Laughs: Every rule and condition that Dracone sets up for his duel with Hiro somehow benefit Hiro in one way or another, and Dracone is none-the-wiser, even when Hiro wins.
- Played for Drama: Dracone is unable to bear the humiliation of his defeat, and opts to end his own life.
