"I cant sleep"

- Carving in the wall of the cell 211 of the Prison of Newfoundland

the terrain chosen was a small rocky clearing about half a day on foot from the mermaid lake. even though it was not as far away as Siegfried recommended it would work, during the last week while hunting monsters they also used that time to scout out the area around the giant lake.

after confirming this with the Queen and getting her permission they decided to head first.

By the time they arrived it surprised them how the scenery had changed. the Mermaid clan had built a couple of crude roof tops and benches for the bout, half of them where already drunk and cheered as one of the contestants arrived, the other half where ether busy or did not cared that much. Brandon asked himself if the mermaid tribe had used a teleport skill to move all this people here in such short notice. Something he would need to inquire in the future.

The mermaid warrior arrived in full scale armor that covered every inch of his body from neck to toe, the scales had an azure color to them and shined beautifully under the sun. Jack could not perceive a single trace of cockiness or arrogance in the Young triton.

After bowing slightly to Jack as a greeting they parted ways without saying a word, each to a shadow casted by some tent roofs erected for the preparation of the warriors situated on opposite sides of the arena.

Brandon had suspected that this would be a big event but this was far more elaborated than he imagined. he was starting to get nervous.

"so what would be your weapon of choice, if you chose spear he will go with his trident" Siegfried downed his cup and eructed slightly. Brandon started to suspect that Siegfried was an alcoholic, they even had a joke where they would ask Siegfried if he was feeling sick if they found him without a cup on his hand.

"fists" Jack had decided to use his boxing skills to win this, even though it would prolong the fight for far to long he had more confidence in his advanced ability than in his spear wielding, a skill that he learned less than a month ago. and to make it worst most of the time he just used his size advantage to overpower the opponents rather than outmatch them with skill.

even though he was advised otherwise by his companions since he was on the disadvantage, it was a fight to exhaustion, and he being under leveled made it more likely that he would wind out sooner than the enemy.

This was possible, but it was not certain. skills and titles influence more the stats than actual level, and the two brothers really have good skills and even unique titles.

A man in fancy robes walked to the center of the arena and rose his hands to quiet down the rowdy crowd. his speech was carried with the wind, a strong and resonating voice that could be heard by everyone, more than likely it was a skill.

After introducing the two fighters by name he waited for them to approach.

" A duel to the death for the Hand of the Princess!" he exclaimed and the crowd cheered.

"The Defender will now declare weapons" they where explained beforehand that this was done right before the match so the challenger did not have the advantage of preparing beforehand. Seems like Duel to Death rules of this world really worked against the challenger, and helped the defender... In a sense it was the right approach, if you consider something worth to kill for, you are the one who has to take the risk.

"Fists" said jack while tossing his spear back, Brandon who was standing some 15 feet back caught it midair and walked away towards the tent.

there was death silence, some of the people in the crowd seemed to have stopped breathing.

"say that again?" the Referee did not believed what he heard

"Fists is my weapons choice, passive and active skills are allowed as the ground rules stipulates" said while raising his guard.

they where explained that you can not prohibit the use of skills during a duel, only chose weapons

"The Defender Chooses Fists as Weapons" Said the Referee with an almost shaky voice.

the silence was broken by the Queens laugh while she dismissed the whole ordeal allowing it to happen. the triton node and gave his trident to a small boy that came running to fetch it for him, before the boy could run back the triton took out his armored gauntlets and also handed them over.

the fight starter without much anticipation after the Referee moved away to a safe distance.

"fight!" the triton lounged at Jack with a seizer like motion and with his hands extended he went for the neck, Jack was able to dodge it by using shadowstep, an active skill that makes you teleport to the shadow of a being or a thing, witch situated him to the immediate left of the triton, by the time he appeared he was midway throwing an uppercut.

the triton only had time to twist his head to look at Jack before the hit landed on his chin. while using Shadow Strike a second hit landed on the Tritons throat doubling down the damage and strength of the hit raising him from the ground a few inches and making him stumble back.

Jack did not lost a single second and pressed on the advance while waving his head Tyson style. he saw the hook coming and ducked down, immediately he threw a right to the body right where the pancreas in a human would be, this instinctively made the triton lower his guard, exactly what Jack wanted and expected to happen, an overhead left landed on the shoulder blade of the Triton, Jack clearly missed his mark because the triton Moved a little to the right.

while taking two quick and surprisingly long jumps backwards he was at least 15 feet away from jack, he shook his head as to clear it, and spited some blood out of his mouth. Jack noticed it was of blue color, a smile appeared in his face and for the first time they heard him speak

"Nice!" Adoras had a Deep yet kind voice, back on earth he would probably could been a singer, a very popular one judging by how handsome he was.

Jack had a feeling that the real fight would start now.