As the dust kicked up by the explosion settles Darius looks around a little for the woman he was fighting. He dispels the Arcane Shield he had cast to protect himself from the blast. Darius sees the woman laying on the ground 20 metres from where she had been. He turns towards the soldiers she had brought with her. “Okay, you should take her, and leave, now.”

A few of the soldiers run over to her and quickly pick her up, they carry her away as they leave. Darius walks back up to the gate which opens for him, he walks in, looking around as people cheer again. He closes the gate again as he says “Everyone, rest up, I’m not sure if they’ll be back, but I’ll watch for if they do.”

Darius walks back up above the gatehouse, stretching before he sits down on the wall again to wait. The people in the hamlet are celebrating for a while as Darius waits. After two hours Darius sees a person walking through the forest towards the hamlet. He stands from where he is sitting as he waits for them to enter the clearing.

Darius watches as a man wearing fancy armour walks out from between the trees. The man walks towards the gate, looking up at Darius. “Let me guess, you are the lord?” Darius says when the man stops 5 metres from the gate. “That’s correct, just call me Jack.”

“Jack huh, and why exactly are you here? Are you also going to try to take this place? It won’t be easy alone.”

“Oh no, no, no. I’m not here to take it per se, you’ve already earned the right to control land, but the question is if you are strong enough to exist outside of the Husea kingdom.”

“I think I get it, I’m strong enough that you do want to keep me around, but mostly if you can get me on your side. I imagine the taxes that my people and I especially generate would be worth a lot to you.”

“Well, you aren’t wrong about that, and it’s not very good to have someone we don’t know trying to build an unaffiliated kingdom right on our borders.”

Darius shrugs as he looks down at Jack. “You say that but surely you can realize how good a buffer state would be to have between you and your enemy, it would allow for longer periods of peace, especially if things don’t go as you plan.”

“Well. I will consider that. But only after you can prove you are strong enough to run your own kingdom. If you win our duel, I’ll leave you and your people alone, and allow the possibility of trading.”

Darius nods “Those are good terms, but I would like to add something. I’d like you to send your discontent and generally those you don’t like here to join me. You can probably guess that I don’t have many people, and could use more.”

“And how do I know you wouldn’t use those I send against me?” Jack says as he looks at Darius with suspicion.

“Well, you will need to trust me, that and I’ll be too busy making this area perfectly livable to use them against you, besides if I wanted to, I could just take your position.”

Jack slowly nods before he says “We’ll see if that’s true, shall we?” Darius sighs before he stands and drops from the wall again. “Very well, I was hoping to avoid another fight, especially one where there could be real destruction.”

Jack laughs “Looking out for your people huh? At least you have some qualities a good lord has.” Jack says before he moves to 20 metres from Darius. Darius nods slightly as he looks at Jack before he draws his sword and points it at him. “Let’s do this” Darius says before he starts to run in a circle around Jack, who just watches him.

“Give it your best shot,” Jack says, looking towards Darius. Darius frowns as he looks at Jack before he shrugs. He quickly charges up a fully overcharged Ice Shard through his sword, which then blasts towards Jack. It’s the width of a person's torso and as 6 feet long, the tip is sharpened into a deadly point.

Darius frowns as all Jack does to block it is raise his hand before he sees an arcane shield appear in front of Jack. Darius shakes his head as he says “Poor choice.” before the Ice Shard hits the shield, slowing down for a fraction of a second before piercing through the shield, blasting through Jack's arm entirely destroying it.

Jack looks down towards the bloody stump where his arm once was “Well, that’s unfortunate.” He says before he looks towards Darius. “Unfortunate? Just unfortunate? I blasted your arm off.”

Jack shrugs as he raises the stump, while Darius’ eyes widen, seeing it is already starting to regrow. “I have very good health regeneration.”

“Well, shit, you certainly do, I didn’t know you could regrow limbs,” Darius says as he shakes his head. “Normally you can’t, but certain traits let you.”

“That is good to know, now, is that enough proof that I’m strong enough to run a kingdom?” Jack shakes his head “Nearly. But that’s only a single attack, you’ll need more than that.”