What are you fighting for?

5. The Duel

Adyn and Merce.
Keon and Zana.
Both parties standing opposite of each other in the round battle space.

Compared to the other areas, the plain circle in the middle is by far the smallest. But standing on one side, it feels like the others are 100 feet away. Still, Zana is sure that Adyn wears that smug grin on his face, she was able to see through the scope of her sniper just before she shot in front of his feet, accepting his invitation to a duel.

Suddenly, Adyn steps closer to the middle, pushing Merce in front of him. Keon and Zana do the same until they are about 10 feet apart just staring at each other. But the silence is not silent.

"What do you want?" Zana asks, more aggressively than she intended.
With a quick movement Adyn pulls out a knife.
Click
"Hey, you said you wouldn't-" Keon starts shuffling until he notices that Adyn cuts through the ropes that tied Merces hands together. He brings them in front of his body, revealing the blades he attached to his lower arms.

Zanas brain stutters for a moment and every part of her goes on pause while her thoughts catch up.

Keons eyes and his mouth were frozen wide open in an expression of stunned surprise, as he was staring straight at Merce standing next to Adyn.

"You asshole! How could you?!" A hot wave of anger rushes through Zanas blood. He run over, he snitched, he betrayed them when she believed him to be somewhat of a friend.

2 versus 2

Everything makes sense now.

"A duel"
"Exactly" Adyn answers, his voice low.
If it wasn't for their opponents answer Zana would've believed to simply have imagined Keons words, that's how quiet they were.

"I'll fight you" Keon pulls out his polearm from behind his back, pointing it at Merce.

With that Adyn and Zana both back a couple steps off, leaving them space to fight.

"Let's end this" you can hear the intensity in Keons tone. There's a great deal of emotion behind these words he is speaking.

The fight starts like a choreographed dance but the tension in the circle is growing with every step.

Zanas eyes flick from the duel to Adyn. His face as unreadable as she hopes for her own to be, no fear, no invitational smirk.

She is banking on Merce making the mistake. He is childish, playful and silly, predestined to make a mistake, to be careless. But it seems like everything he did wasn't silly or predictable but well planned.

Her focus turns away from the fight and back to Adyn. Both of them standing behind their partner like the players of a chess game. Her feet shuffle impatiently, like she is waiting for her opponent to make the next move, but her expression remained cold and stoic.

He has been playing this game since the beginning, always 3 steps ahead of them. And now the final phase of his master plan. These last eventful days happened so fast. The feeling that this all might be over soon seems unreal still.

The battle was nearly unbearable to watch. Both parties equally strong, dodging and landing hits.
It feels like the world stopped for this duel. Nobody breathes in fear of breaking the silence that was created when the four stepped into the circle.

The sound of metall clashing together brings Zana back into reality. The grunting, the sound of their feet sliding on the dusty ground. She holds her breath, straining to hear with every ounce of her concentration.

When Keons balled fist collides with Merces cheekbone, his neck flays backward like a willow caught in the wind.
"Coward!" Keons voice echoes through the arena.
As his opponent stumbled, he nearly fell over, rubbing his cheek with his palm.
"What the hell?" Merce cried, regaining his balance.
Keons action certainly took him by surprise, since he didn't expect the use of fists during a sword fight.

"How dare you betray us like that" a kick into Merces stomach sends him to the ground, Keon angrily hovering over him, pumped with adrenaline.

The blades Merce attached to his arm now useless, he grabs something from his belt.

The bullet spat out of his hand, hitting Keon in the chest, propelling him backward, dissolving in the movement. He doesn't even land in the ground. He's gone.

Never before had Zana noticed how time is so much like water; that it can pass slowly, a drop at a time, even freeze, or rush by in a blink. The clock says it is measured and constant, tick tock, part of an orderly world; the clock lies. The past three seconds had passed like thousands of camera frames per second shown one at a time. How his body flies backwards while dissolving from the point where the bullet entered.