Jacqueline’s left hand reached straight down for her wakizashi. At the same time, she pushed out her right palm ahead of her. A flash of blue lightning mana shot out of her hand firing straight towards Tallow.

Tallow pulled back her left shoulder while keeping her place, just letting the lightning energy pass by her body. It headed straight in Jon's direction but sizzled out of existence at the edge of the ring.

Tallow immediately responded by stomping back towards Jacqueline with her right foot and pushing forward with her right shoulder.

A gust of wind mana pushed against Jacqueline, making her slide across the floor towards the other end of the ring.

Lightning energy exploded from Jacqueline’s feet outward, and she suddenly stopped sliding before the wind carried her out of the circle.

“Drats!” Hector said, hitting the arm of his chair. “That almost worked!”

Jon was impressed by Tallow’s ability to throw off her opponent immediately with a counterattack, but he was also impressed by the idea that the ring could stop mana attacks from leaving from the inside.

“Try that again!” Tallow yelled. “I dare ya!”

Jacqueline held up two fingers in front of her face with her right hand, still holding on to her sheathed wakizashi. She didn't seem intent in drawing her sword or responding to Tallow's provocation.

Does it let her shoot lightning? Jon was impressed with her weapon. He wondered if it was a weapon like his, and let Jacqueline shoot lightning whenever she wanted, like him and his mana blasts. He was almost jealous, but that was superseded by his fear for Tallow's safety.

After staring at each other for several seconds without budging, Jacqueline jabbed forward with her two fingers. lightning fired from the tip of her fingers again.

Tallow dashed to the side using her wind mana, running along the inside of the circle towards Jacqueline.

Jacqueline fired another lightning attack from her fingers, forcing Tallow back into the center.

The change in direction was so sudden that Tallow ended up leaning over and bouncing on one leg to the side before dodging the next few lightning attacks.

Eventually, Tallow dived towards her opponent after moving away from another lightning projectile. She tumbled forward into a standing position, where Jacquline had already begun to draw her wakizashi finally.

Lightning expanded the size of the attack as Jacqueline swung quickly, her reach extending to Tallow’s location, but Tallow quickly bent backward as the energy attack quickly passed over her body.

“What was that?” Tallow asked as she casually came back up.

“You talk in the middle of battle?” Jacqueline questioned, finally resolved to answer Tallow's comments.

“I talk all the time!” Tallow yelled. “Especially when I’m getting bored!”

She pushed forward with her palm. Jon could see wind mana gathering to push Jacqueline away, but she quickly struck it out of the air with her blade, dispelling it.

“Bored?” Jacqueline readied her sword again. “There are kingdoms at stake here.”

“Important and boring are not exclusive,” Tallow responded, "but just cause it's boring now doesn't mean it has to stay that way.”

Jacqueline grunted as she lowered her position and slowly started to creep along the edge of the circle. Tallow slowly followed her, staying near to the center of the circle as she did so.

“Why doesn’t she use her nunchucks?” Hector asked. “It can deflect all of that crap.”

“Do you see how fast that mana is moving?” Mercy asked in disbelief. “Are you serious right now?”

“But I thought you and her-”

“She’s gonna need more training to use them effectively against moves like that,” Mercy explained, cutting Hector off and drawing a dirty glare from him. “It may not seem like it, but this Jacqueline women and Tallow both move at incredible speeds. That’s why they’re stalemated right now.”

Jon nodded, even if he wasn’t sure if Mercy was paying attention to him. He could see that both Jacqueline and Tallow were watching each other's body parts with their eyes, trying to gauge when to attack, scanning for strong enough movement. This was much more thoughtful than when Hector would swing his sword around in battle. Maybe that was why Hector had trouble understanding the situation.

Tallow’s strikes were extremely direct, unlike Hector’s own movements which always seemed good at covering an entire area when attacking. That, along with his extensive fire mana usage often forcing his opponents to react to his attacks and movements. Tallow, however, had to move herself around navigating the opponent’s attacks before, getting in close to make direct and effective attacks. Jon was also starting to understand that Jacqueline fought the same way, hence their present stalemate.

Hector didn't seem satisfied, but he silently went back to watching the match.

After taking a few more steps, Jacqueline swung again.

Tallow rolled on the ground, passing under the manifested lightning blade.

This time Jacqueline was ready with a follow-up, dashing to Tallow and swinging with her Wakizashi.

She made three quick strikes Jon could barely see, due to Jacqueline's s close proximity to Tallow necessitated by the small size of the wakizashi when it wasn't extended with mana.

Whatever the case, Tallow dodged two of them and deflected the third with her swords. Jon noted that it was the first time she deflected. He wondered if she would push on the offensive.

However, she was now pressed on defense, Jacqueline continuing her swift sword movements and staying close to Tallow.

Now that she was in range, Jacqueline had no problem keeping up with her opponent. Her swordplay was quick enough to stop Tallow from moving back too far and getting space. Her hands flipped the wakizashi between a normal grip and a reversed one, using a combination of swings and stabs to keep Tallow on her literal toes.

Finally, Tallow made a quick horizontal swing back at her opponent, but Jacqueline had predicted this, taking a leap backward and pointing her fingers forward.

Jon could hear the remnants of Tallow’s muttered curse as she dived to the side of the incoming projectile.

Jacqueline then flipped her sword into a reverse grip and stabbed into the ground, causing a rush of lightning to travel across the floor in Tallow’s direction.

Tallow flipped back onto her hands and pushed off into a stand again, giving her space and time to react to the spell. Once she landed on her feet, she made a wide swing low to the ground, using her wind mana to extinguish the oncoming lightning.

Jacqueline wasn’t done, though. She pointed her sword up into the air. Lightning flowed from its blade and gathered into a ball over the center of the field.

“Shit, shit, shit!” Jon definitely heard these set of curses as Tallow ran just before a strong piece of lightning mana stuck the ground she was standing on.

Jon was getting worried. Eventually, she might have been trapped in a radius of the mana attack, even with her speed to help her.

She’s running out of room to move…

Tallow ended up near the center of the circle, right underneath the giant ball of energy.

Jacqueline swung her blade down, and the ball dived into the center of the field.

Lightning erupted in all directions as it collided with the floor, this time catching Tallow in its area of discharge.

Jon flinched as he heard his friend's scream. He hadn’t heard anything like that from her before since he had been cut in her back, even in the fight with Raglace.

The attack seemed to go on forever until all of the lightning sizzled away.

Tallow was still standing, albeit with smoke rising from her upper body.

“...Why didn’t you move?” Jacqueline asked, clearly bemused by what just conspired.

“If I leave the circle, I lose, right?” Tallow asked, her voice straining. “Anything until that happens is until then is golden. There's no score.”

“If that is the price you’re willing to pay!” Jacqueline threw her sword in Tallow’s direction, planting it near Tallow's feet at an angle.

She pointed to it with two fingers as Tallow dived out of the way, making lightning explode from its hilt.

Jacqueline was able to run up to her sword and grab it out of the ground, continuing her assault on Tallow.

Tallow dodged the next few strikes, making Jon wonder why she never chose to deflect any of Jaqueline's attacks with her own sword.

He learned the answer when Tallow dodged a quick stab and grabbed onto Jacqueline’s outstretched arm with her clawed hand.

Lightning erupted in all directions from Jacqueline's body, delivering another loud scream from Tallow as she received the full brunt of the spell.

Oh... Jon realized that Tallow had probably predicted something like this would happen if she kept contact with Jacquline too long. He felt stupid, as well as awe in Tallow's foresight in such matters.

Still, he could see Jacqueline straining from the attack as well. Was it hurting her, or was she just losing energy?

Despite her pain, Tallow held her ground through the coursing mana attack. She managed to reach forward, grabbing the back of Jacqueline’s head with her hand before pulling it forward and headbutting it hard.

The flow of mana stopped immediately as Jacqueline revived the full blowback of the hit.

Tallow wasn’t done. She kept her grip on Jacqueline's head as she kneed her in the groin.

She then took her hand off of Jacqueline’s head and swung her elbow hard into the side of Jacqueline’s face.

Jon winced from the hit. Even for an opponent, he could feel a bit of sympathy in having to review a hit like that. He never knew that elbows could hurt so much.

Jon waited anxiously to see what would happen next from either of the two girls, but then he saw that they were both struggling just to stay standing,

“Shit.” Hector had cursed hard under his breath.

Both of the girls finally sunk to their knees, before tipping over in opposite directions onto the ground.

Oh. Jon didn't think he had seen two people tire themselves out like that in the middle of a fight before.

Mallory peered over the arena, checking out the girls.

“...I think they’re both still conscious! Mallory yelled while waving his arms in the air. “We’re just gonna have to let them play it out!”

Jon heard low growling, which he initially figured was Hector, but then he followed the source and saw that it was in fact Luthor.

That's a loud growl...

“How could either of them do this?” Hector suddenly asked bringing Jon's attention back to his friends. “They’re just leaving themselves open!”

“They’re letting each other rest,” Mercy said. Jon realized that she had been watching the battle without much comment.

“Why would you let the opponent rest?” Hector turned to her. “It makes no sense!"

“Not to people like you and your father,” Mercy responded coolly, “People who only see fighting as a way to solve problems.”

She didn’t say anymore after that, choosing to keep her focus on the battle.

Hector didn’t seem happy with the answer, but he was also too curious to keep his attention away from the circle much longer.

After a minute of harsh breathing, Tallow spoke up to her opponent.

“Not used to taking hits to the face, are ya?” she yelled. “You’re usually too fast for that, right Jacky? Can I call you Jacky?”

“You sacrifice your well-being in order to make strong gains on your offense!” Jacqueline also said loudly between her pained breaths. It was the loudest Jon ever heard her. “You show no fear when you are faced with pain head-on. For that… you have earned the right to call me whatever you want!”

Both girls held their respective swords straight up into the air.

“I’m ready when you are,” Tallow said.

“Agreed.”

Both women groaned as they stabbed their swords into the ground to push themselves up.

It wasn’t long before Jon could hear chanting from the booths.

“Jacqueline! Jacqueline! Jacqueline!”

Oh…. Jon wasn’t expecting to hear any sort of chanting, but sure enough, there it was, coming from the table.

“These idiots!” Hector yelled. “Don’t they see this is serious! They’re seriously cheering on-”

“Tallow! Tallow! Tallow!” The cheers of the others suddenly became louder as well.

Jon could see Lester cheering along with the crowd for Tallow, pumping his hands in the air.

Jon didn’t know why he felt embarrassed.

He could see the embarrassment on Hector’s face too.

“This is dumb,” he remarked, ignoring Mercy’s smirk in his direction.

Tallow nor Jacaline seemed to respond to the noise. They just instead readied their weapons and readied themselves for battle.

The cheering stopped as Jacqueline made her first move, pointing her fingers towards Tallow’s feet.

Tallow maneuvered out of the way, but Jacqueline was already winding up her next swing. Jon could already see the lightning building up for the attack.

Oh no. Tallow was too close for Jon to even see how she would get out of it.

Jacqueline yelled as she swung, but there was a large calking noise as the attack was stopped halfway.

Tallow had reached behind her back and drawn her dagger just in time to deflect the attack, and despite the amount of electrical energy coming from the wakizashi, the dagger didn’t show any signs of conducting energy.

“Why didn’t she do that before?” Hector yelled, throwing his hands up in the air in disbelief. “She had that the whole time?”

Tallow knocked away the blade, lifted her foot, and kicked forward, her wind mana assisting the attack and sliding Jacqueline back towards the other end of the arena.

Jacqueline caught herself before she slid too far again, but Tallow was already running after her.

Jacqueline swung her blade in anticipation, knocking Tallow’s sword out of her clawed hand.

Jon realized that Tallow had purposely let go of her sword. Her clawed hand was already balling up into a fist as she pushed at Jacquline's face.

Jacqueline blocked the attack with her sword, but Tallow had already swung back with her dagger, knocking away Jacuqline’s wakizashi from her face again.

She reached forward with her clawed hand and grabbed Jacqluine by the collar.

Jon thought that she was going to headbutt her again, but instead, Tallow threw Jacqline over her shoulder and towards the center of the circle.

Jacqueline ended up on her back, crashing onto the floor.

“End it now!” Hector yelled, standing up.

Jacqueline stood up to her feet again, but before she could do anything else, Tallow pushed her hands up towards the sky.

Jacqueline was swept off of her feet high into the air. She tumbled upwards until a burst of electricity exploded from her body, stopping her ascent.

Tallow immediately followed up by launching herself into the air as well, spinning clockwise as she soared straight to Jacqueline’s direction.

“They’re still in!” Mallory yelled, running around the outside of the ring. “They’re still in!”

Jacqueline was already prepared, her blade charging with lightning mana as she drew back for her swing.

However, through all of the spinning, Jon could see the pair of blue nunchucks held within Tallow’s nonclawed hand in such a way that they weren’t flailing uncontrollably around her.

When she was in range, Tallow swung the nunchucks hard, knocking Jacqueline’s wakizashi out of her hand.

It flew towards the ground outside of the arena, impaling itself into the stone as the last glimmer of lightning mana fizzled out around it.

Tallow immediately followed up with a huge punch into Jacqueline’s face.

Unlike her sword previously, Jacqueline flew down hard, passing through the edge of the circle before crashing into the ground, not too far away from her sword.

Jon shook in his chair from the blow. Jacqueline was clearly not moving anymore.

She won! Jon thought. He didn’t have much time to revel in the fact when he realized that Tallow was falling over in the air and getting ready to land onto the ground on her head.

Tallow!

Four things happened at once.

Mercy quickly abandoned her chair and her skirt extension behind her as she dashed towards her friend, seamlessly transition up onto the side of the wall as she went forward.

Hector had already gotten out of he is chair, running to the ground that Tallow was already falling towards.

A glowing circle around Mallory’s hands appeared as he gestured wildly in the air

And Jon had already begun tracing Tallow’s body movements with his gun in preparation.

When the angle was right, he fired.

Mercy had reached Tallow first, jumping off of the wall to catch her body in the sky.

Jon’s blast reached them next, slowing down their speed.

Hector positioned himself underneath them and pointed his fists upwards, shooting a large column of flame that helped lower the speed of their descent.

Finally, a large pair of light blue mana-like objects reached out from the ground to catch Tallow and Mercy, lowering them down to the floor gently.

“You guys are so dramatic…” Tallow muttered as everyone gathered around her. Even Jon had pushed himself across the ring so that he could check upon him.

“I won…

“Shut up!” Mallory said frantically. “Shut up! Shut up!”

Jon didn’t understand why Mallory was panicking until he saw that Tallow’s unclawed hand had become completely blackened as if it had been burned to a charcoal-like state.

Oh… Jon then realized that Tallow had knocked Jacquline’s weapon from her hand. If it was like his weapon…

Tallow… Jon wanted to reach out to her, but he didn’t know what more he could do but watch as Mallory used his mana to wrap her arm in a light blue magical cast.

“I can fix this, I can fix this… nurses!” Mallory waved his hand, keeping his eyes on Tallow while gesturing for them to come by.

“Don’t worry…” Tallow began muttering. “Don’t worry… where's Jacky…”

She raised her hand toward Jacqueline, who was still unconscious. Jon could now see that the top half of her body was covered in white powder.

“I got her,” Mallory said. “Worry about you.”

Even as she spoke, Mallory had twirled his fingers in the air.

The nurses who were coming by to Tallow changed directions and went towards Jaqueline instead, who was still unconscious in the rubble of her impact.

The nurses picked up Jacqueline and moved her onto the stretcher. Jon could see that JAquline’s top half of her body was covered in white powder.

He wondered what would happen with the sword, but the nurses seemed to ignore it as they brought the stretcher back through the side door. The sword stayed in its implanted place in the ground.

“Don’t get any closer!”

Jon looked up to see who Hector was talking to.

It was Luther, who stood just a few feet away from the group, watching them.

“This is what happens!” Luther said. “She might be a good fighter, but there’s always someone-”

“This is your fault!” Hector yelled. He began to walk towards his father.

Jon realized that with Tallow unconscious, and Mercy and Mallory busy with Tallow, he had to step in.

He quickly rolled up and blocked Hector from getting closer.

Hector looked at Jon’s face and thankfully didn’t react in anger.

“People are gonna get hurt trying to fight for your stupid ideas,“ Luther gruffed. “You wanna see what happens to that girlfriend of yours if you keep going?”

Hector had opened his mouth to yell back when he was suddenly interrupted.

“Hey!” Tallow yelled. Jon saw that she had managed to stand back up on her own.

“Next time… how about you and the old man back there get married instead!” Tallow yelled, pointing to Harris with her clawed hand. “And save us the damn trouble next time!”

There was a bit of chuckling from the tables.

Luther immediately turned red in the face.

“You would get hurt for these people?” he asked her. “What’s in it for you?”

“Not being a dick,” Tallow responded simply.

She used her clawed hand to give one last middle finger before falling backward.

Mercy caught her again.

“...She’s out,” Mercy said.

The nurses came back out with the stretcher, taking Tallow from Mercy and laying her body onto it before taking her back out.

Jon frowned, but at least he knew it would all be taken care of.

Luther growled, but he didn’t say anymore. He left and went back to the side of King Harris.

Macy, however, had walked past him, causing Luther to give her a stranger look that she ignored.

“Brother, I-”

“I don’t have time for your nonsense right now,” Hector said, turning away from her. “The next match is gonna start.”

Hector gave a look to Mallory, who grimaced, then sent back to the audience.

“Alright! So, despite the massive injuries of both parties, we have a win for Tallow! Which means a win for the power couple of this evening! With that done, it’s time to accept a challenge for the groom again! Does anyone want to submit for candidacy the next round?”

As Mallory spoke, Jon watched Hector walk away from Macy and towards his chair. Mercy gave Macy a sad look and walked away as well.

That just left her and Jon.

“Jon…” Macy said.

“...I should go…” Jon said.

She frowned, but Jon rolled up to her and grabbed her hand.

“Later,” he said. He squeezed her hand and pushed himself back to Hector and Mercy’s side since he figured they would need him the most right now.

“Anyone?” Mallory called. “Going once! Going Twice!”

Hector leaned over to Mercy.

"Why didn't Tallow use her dagger before?" Hector asked in a low voice.

"Cause she didn't know," Mercy said. "We've barely had any time to properly do anything."

"Well she should have used it in the begginning," Hector responded. "If she had a chance-"

"It doesn't work like that!" Mercy said, slamming the arm of her chair with her fist but still managing to remain quiet. "This is a high-stakes match. You can't just start adding new strategies and weapons without being sure!"

"Fine, whatever." Hector immediately became disinterested returning to his chair properly.

"Going twice in three quarters..." Mallory kept looking around.

"It's gonna be your turn soon," Hector remarked. "In that case, I'm pretty sure they're gonna send-"

He was interrupted by a voice from the other end of the castle.

“I would like to submit myself for the candidacy for the hand of the Highlander women!”

The voice was somewhat weaker compared to what Jon was used to hearing around here. He picked his head up to peer towards the front of the castle, where the voice came from.

At the entrance of the room walking in were two people. There was a tall older man with a large pointed hat and a grey robe who used a giant stick to aid in his walking. He had a large grey beard that was longer than Jon had ever seen before.

At his side was a younger gentleman who also held a large brown staff at his side. He wore a brown vest with long soft pants and a large yellow cape that stopped right at his heels. Jon was bad at judging the ages of people younger than him, but he seemed to be at a similar age to Thalia. Jon wondered what she was doing now.

“Is that… Milo?” Hector asked incredulously.

“Oh… no…” Now it was Mercy’s turn to slink down into her chair in embarrassment.

“You know Milo?” Hector asked her.

“I do…”

Jon had never heard Mercy speak with such regret. That was usually par the course for Hector.