Curse of the Crystals

Chapter 18: Start of the Tournament - part 3

With the referee declaring Aiolos out of the battle, it was now a two against one match, and before long, Liraz too fell to the sheer brutal force with which Otrun managed to swing his club. A gasp went through the audience, as seeing this kind of bone-breaking force was rare. Most Elves chose precision strikes over forceful ones, making Otrun's style look a lot more like that of a Dwarf than that of an Elf. It was clearly effective though, as had had gotten them their victory.

With this battle settled, the first day of battles ended. The next day of tournament battles arrived without much happening in-between. Itzal was still avoiding them, the Alchemist was as reserved as always, Maiara had been writing notes about all her opponents in preparation, Qadir was helping Luna and Millicent with their teamwork, and Ambrose was healing people left and right as per usual. Now, on the second day of battles, the public flooded the stands once more. The announcer spoke up. "Welcome, to the second day of matches!" He read aloud yet another long list of names of nobles and high-ranking officers. This time around, only prince Frode was present, although he was accompanied by the General Guard of the capital Nemsis itself.

As soon as the obligatory name-reading was done, he introduced the first contestants in the next batch of matches. "The first team is that of Swithin Accardo and Jarek Eilerts, two members of the Warriors of Dawn. The Warriors of Dawn are know for achieving great feats while working together with the army, so they have a strong reputation to uphold!" The two stepped forwards as the crowd cheered. One of them, Jarek, was a High Elf that was tall by even High Elven standards. The other, Swithin, was a much shorter Forest Elf. The High Elf had brought a halberd, while the Forest Elf had brought a short-sword and buckler.

The announcer spoke up again. "The team they are up against consists of Shun Kanda and Min Amano. They are sailors that arrived in New Haven a few months ago, after having spent a few years working on the Orcen continent. Now they are here to show us how they survived out there!"

Although it sounded a bit overdramatized, it was true that the Orcs were far from an easy species to deal with, so they had likely learned how to stand up for themselves. If that was enough to go up against members of a legendary mercenary group was yet to be seen. In fact, Ambrose was disappointed to see them wield the same combination of dagger and sword, and take up the same fighting stance as the others from New Haven. Outside of tournaments, being well-trained and in sync was their strength, but during tournaments, it only served to make them predictable.

As if reading his thoughts Itzal sudden spoke up. "Look more closely at them."

Ambrose startled, having not even heard him approach. However, he did as he was told. That's when he noticed it too. Their posture was slightly different then that of the others from New Haven. Ambrose wasn't sure what to make of it, as it might just be a lack of training, but the fact that Itzal pointed it out suggested that there was more to it.

Itzal seemed to read his mind. "They're not untrained, they're faking their fighting style."

Not long after Itzal said it, his words were revealed to be true. Jarek went in on them with the halberd, and from the way he struck, he seemed to expect the typical deflect-counter move from their fighting style. Instead of this, Min dodged the attack altogether, and suddenly lunged forwards at Jarek. Completely caught off guard, he had a dagger against his throat before he could react. If it had been a real one, rather than a wooden one, his throat would've been cut straight through. Swithin met a similar fate while dealing with Shun. They seemed to be a little more closely matched while trading blows, but it was clear that Swithin wasn't able to keep up with some of the unexpected moves from Shun. Before long, the referee deemed the hits to have been lethal for him as well, announcing defeat for the Warriors of Dawn.