I don't get what your point is. The vote leading up to that encounter assumed that with the bearicane providing cover we'd be able to tip the battle in our favor. And we did; before the Champion showed up Mathilde faced no opposing rolls and created incredible damage. No one voted for that fight anticipating there would be a a Khorne Champion.
Also, this was the third time Mathilde has been in close combat against Martial 30+ murderblenders... and the third time she's survived, too. It's not unreasonable to expect that there will eventually be a fourth, whether you'd like that to happen or not.
Allow me to make my point one more time, as clearly as I can.
Anyone and everyone bemoaning us not being the favoured winner in a close-quarters melee combat against anti-magic specced Khornate Champion murderhoboes, has completely and utterly mistaken assumptions on what sort of martial skill we should
expect Mathilde to achieve.
So anyone going into sword training based on the expectations that the next time we meet one, we will be able to whip out Branulhune and murder one without breaking too bad of a sweat, has severely mistaken assumptions on the results of even dedicated sword training. Because even if we dedicate the next decade to nothing but sword training, we will still be training less in the art of melee combat than a Champion of Khorne (who lives for this kind of stuff as a religious obligation) would.
Therefore, we should never ever in a million years make plans based on having an ability to engage a Champion of Khorne level opponent with pure martial skill ie. Absent all our magical arsenal (which Champions of Khorne, as we've seen, can enforce upon us). These are deadly opponents where we are an underdog.
And,
when we have options to decide on how to proceed with planning, we in fact should AVOID such confrontations since they represent a failure to take advantage of our majority skillset.
When such confrontations appear probable due to our chosen path, we should take care that the risk we are knowingly and willingly undertaking (and it is a very real risk of Mathile dying), is counterbalanced with a corresponding reward.
And finally,
when we are forced into such a confrontation
against our will, this
inherently represent a failure condition on all of the above, such as failing to use our magical skills to avoid detection, or failure to call upon allies prior to embarking on the quest, or failure to correctly estimate strenght of enemy forces etc. And when these situations occur, it should be understood that we are likely not the opponent's equal in pure martial ability.
Because we are a magic user, and this comes with an opportunity cost that when we could have been learning how to sword, we were instead learning how to bend Ulgu with our soul, and this is not a shitty computer RPG where you can max every stat.
Therefore:
Raising swording ability is good, since it increases our survivability.
Raising swording ability based on the expectation that afterwards we can favourably take on Champions of Khorne, particularly if ambushed, is a severe fundamental mistake in comprehending what the above line about survivability means.
