The Knight of Chivalry

Chapter 34

After Simon had a quick breakfast he went back to his tent and strapped on his armour, which didn’t take too long and he went to the third ring where the other knights were gathering as well. The organisers were pairing them up the victors from yesterday’s bout, this time it seemed that the pairings were a little fairer as they had a better judge of the skills of the knights and wanted to make the best matches possible. Once they paired everyone up and set a schedule for the fights they started the first one. Simon would be fighting in an hour or so it would seem, against Sir William Scott, he saw him fight yesterday and he seemed very able and used a double handed sword without a shield.

The first couple fights were good ones and most of them lasted ten minutes or more which is an improvement from yesterday, the crowd really loved this and were cheering for all the fighters. Those that became favourites yesterday came out to great big roars from the crowd and most of them did not disappoint them and won their matches in style but a few fell to their more skilled opponents who wanted to get the job done. The crowds groaned at this but there was nothing they could do about it. Simon’s turn came around soon enough and he was up and ready for it.

He nodded to his opponent as he entered the ring and shouted good luck to him and then took up his position. He paid no heed to the crowd who were cheering around him as now he merely focused on his opponent who quickly struck at him with his sword, he defended himself easily from the blow and countered it with one of his own. They slowly circled each other and exchanged a few more blows, his opponent was very quick and had better reach with his longer sword but lacked the benefits of having a shield to defend himself and Simon took advantage of this. He managed to land a couple of blows when his opponent didn’t move fast enough to block them with his sword or move out of the way from them. He even used his shield as a weapon against his opponent by striking out with it which stunned his opponent. But his opponent kept on trying and used the reach of his sword to try and get around Simon’s defences. He managed to a couple of times but he didn’t hit hard enough to get through Simon’s armour. After a few minutes of fighting Simon had a good measure of the man and used both his strengths and weaknesses, which he had figured out, to gain him the win against the man. The crowd liked this and gave him a good cheer as he helped his opponent up and then shook his hand. He then took his leave of the field and went back to his tent to strip of his armour as it was very hot and uncomfortable.

Once he had done this he returned to watch the rest of the fighting. The bear was up shortly after his fight and was against an equally big man and they hack at each other with their massive weapons for several minutes. The bear was the better fighter in the end though and overpowered his opponent and so gained his second win. Ginger and dwarf were equally as fortunate in their fights and would proceed to the next round but the twins lacking each other for support failed to beat their opponents. All of them fought in the morning and when it came to lunch time they met up and ate together. They congratulated each other for making it through and bragged about their own fights, they gave a little flak to the twins for losing their fights but weren’t too harsh as they knew they fought best together and then went and watch the afternoon fights together.

Even though there were less fighters on the field today it still required fights in the afternoon to get through them all and once they did there was little point in putting on a second round of fighting but the organisers called together all the knights that had won today and paired them off then instead of having to do it in the morning and scheduled the fighting. With smaller numbers they said, there would be a second round in the afternoon to further reduce them and that the fighters should rest and recuperate now to be ready for that. Simon and his friends left and went to a tavern where they got a few drinks and then a meal but called the night early as they didn’t want to tire themselves out too much. But they did see the silent knight and the prince later on, who again had won their matches and would be fighting in another round.

Simon slept soundly that night and had a quick breakfast before returning to the tourney field and got ready for his match. He would be fighting in the second match against Sir Phillip Radcliff, who had proven himself an excellent fighter and used a sword and shield combo like Simon did. With him being up so soon he didn’t sit down and watch the fighting but instead stood outside of the ring and waited for the first match to be over. It took nearly fifteen minutes for it to be done but eventually one knight was crowned victorious. He then entered h ring calmly and treated his opponent with respect and wished him luck, his opponent wasn’t so noble and threw it back in his face and then started taunting him. Simon didn’t let this get to him and instead went on the attack with a few blows to test his opponent. Sir Phillip easily blocked the blows and then returned a few of his own whilst keeping on his verbal barrage as well, this seemed to be his tactic, hoping to anger his opponent into making a mistake which he would pounce upon but Simon wasn’t a fool to fall for such a thing. But even so his opponent had a great defence and it wasn’t going to be easy to get through it. After several minutes of fighting Simon still hadn’t gained the upper hand but he could tell his opponent was tiring from talking so much and he started using this to his advantage to make his opponent move more so he would get even more tired. Not only this but Simon now had properly gauged his opponents’ strengths and weaknesses and were making use of them. It still took a few more minutes of fighting before he won and he was very honourable to his opponent, thanking him for such a great fight.

Simon went back to the side lines and sat down to catch his breath, he took off his helm as well too cool down a little. Once he got his breath back he returned to his tent and changed to normal clothing and returned to the ring to watch the others fight. Ginger won his match but took nearly twenty minutes to do so. The bear was equally as accomplished but took only ten to beat his opponent into the ground. Dwarf however wasn’t so fortunate and was defeated by Orik Orcsbane who also used a battle axe but proved to be the better fighter. Soon enough all the morning fights were done and they stopped for a quick lunch, they made fun of dwarf a little at it but weren’t too harsh towards him.

When they got back to the ring that afternoon the organisers got them all together and set up the fights again. This didn’t take too long as there were less of them to pair together. Once Simon knew who he was fighting and when he went back to his tent and armoured up and then got back to the ring as quick as he could. He would be fighting after an hour or so, depending on how long each match lasted against Altair Ibn La’Ahad, one of the southern fighters who used two curved swords, he was incredible skilled and moved very quickly but was lightly armoured. Simon watched the other fights for a bit until it was time for him to enter the ring.

His opponent only worn a half helm and he smiled at Simon when they entered the ring, Simon nodded at him and wished him luck and then took his position. Altair was the first to strike and move very quickly indeed raining down a series of blows against Simon but Simon was no slouch and managed to defend himself against these attacks and then struck out himself. For the next few minutes they attack each other, trying to find a way through and it seemed like Altair had much more success as he could move around Simon a lot easier being in less armour and got a few good hits in against Simon but with his armour on they didn’t hurt him to much. Simon knew that if they kept this up his armour would be his downfall as he would become more tired than Altair would in his light armour even if he wasn’t moving as quickly. But Simon knew his opponent better now and would turn his weakness to his advantage and so started to leave himself more open for Altair attacks, drawing him closer and though he got hit more he also got hits on Altair which did greater damage. After a couple good strikes by him, Altair was soon too injured to carry on the fight and had to yield to him and so Simon won the match. Simon helped Altair to the medical tent as he needed treatment himself for a couple of cuts that made it through the armour. Once he was patched up he went back to his tent and took of the rest of his armour and patched it a little as there were a couple of holes in it now. Once he had finished that he returned to the ring and watched the others fight. He saw the bear take care of Orik in his match and saw ginger being taken out by Sir Ralf Winter.

The organisers get them together after all the fighting is done and tells them that the fighters from ring 4 will be joining them tomorrow as their numbers were reduced enough to warrant this and again there would be two rounds of fighting tomorrow. They then paired them up for the morning fighting and Simon would be against Sir Ralf whilst the bear would be taking on one of the fighters from ring four. Once this was set up they went to dinner at a tavern and celebrated their victories with the silent knight and prince joining them. Again they cut it short so they would be ready for the next round.