Amalia quickly leaned her head to the side as she stepped back, dodging the blow.

Whoa. Jon wondered if Mercy was actually aiming for Amalia’s head, or if it was just a diversion to scare her.

Would that really help push her out of the ring?

Jon had a bit of anxiety knowing that she was gonna fight Mercy in the ring. She was definitely a trained fighter, and Jon knew that she was more capable of being in the ring than most people he had known, but she had shown a bit of clumsiness on their last mission together. Even Jon had to step in to make sure that she wasn’t hurt during the entire mess, and one time, she had gotten herself knocked out by their opponent due to her inexperience.

Still, Jon didn’t think that Amalia was bad at fighting at all. He just wondered if her clumsiness would end up getting herself into more harm than usual, especially with Mercy in the ring.

Amalia stretched her tool into its staff form and continued to put more space between her and Mercy.

Good, Jon thought, keep her away.

Jon didn’t know what had opened up in Mercy. She chased after Amalia, swinging wildly in several directions as Amalia used the side of her staff to keep the distance between her and Mercy wide.

This didn’t work too long, as Mercy quickly made her signature triple air-dash maneuver, going over Amaliza’s head and dashing right behind her.

She then kicked Amalia in the back as she landed, pushing the princess forward and onto the floor.

Oof. If Amalia had been at the edge of the circle, she would have been out.

“I’m gonna tell you this once,” Mercy said quickly. “Move before you get hurt.”

Her blade already spinning in her hand, Mercy swung at the floor hard, not giving Amalia a chance to answer.

Amalia rolled over as the white blade scraped at the floor right where Amalia was laying and shooting out pillars of energy.

Amalia pushed herself off the floor with the staff and kept running away.

Jon wondered if such excessive force was necessary. He then reminded himself that even if he was worried about Amalia, he would have to accept that she wanted to be in the battle, like everyone else. She was exposed to the same dangers the others had.

Jon knew he should have wanted Mercy to win, but after seeing what the other women had been through, even Macy, he felt exhausted. He wanted it to be over.

Maybe that’s what she’s trying to do. End it quickly.

Mercy roared and swung her blade. It extended as it reached towards Amalia, who changed her tool to a shield and blocked the oncoming attack completely.

Mercy didn’t stop. Her tool immediately flourished into a reverse grip and stabbed down into the floor.

Several blasts of white energy shot out from the tool and traveled towards Amalia’s feet.

Ahh. Amalia’s shield was only on her wrist, so even if it was miraculously able to block one of Mercy’s extended swings, it wouldn’t be able to block anything below her lower body.

Jon wondered how many more energy maneuvers Mercy was actually able to perform. Had she always been able to do these things, or did she just learn them with Junwata when they had downtime?

Amalia jumped back and landed on the floor in a prone position, covering the top of her head with her wrist shield.

The energy blasts dispersed against the shield while leaving Amalia safe behind her protection.

Whoa. Jon felt a bit embarrassed. She had learned that when sparring with him.

“You’re doing too much!” Hector shouted loudly from his chair. “Just get her out already!”

“I’m trying!” Mercy yelled back at him, daring to turn away from Amalia and look at Hector. “She can fight!”

“Well, fight her up close!” Hector called back. “I doubt she has the experience to deal with that, even with training. And don’t you realize you're running out of mana?”

“I know!” Mercy turned back to Amalia and readied her blade again.

“No more interfering from you!” Luther yelled at his son.

Hector took a deep breath to stop himself from yelling back.

Amalia had stood back up, and changed her tool into its dual-stick form.

“Why didn’t you attack me while I was down?” Amalia asked Mercy.

“‘Cause you would have just run away again,” Mercy said, raising her blade.

And she’s tired… Mercy was trying to hide it, but he could see that she was breathing heavy, even if the fight had just started. Amalia, despite probably not being as good of a fighter, had come into the arena fully ready to fight.

Mercy would have to end this quick, regardless of how much she didn’t want to hurt Amalia.

Mercy and Amalia watched each other, not moving from their spots. Jon wasn’t used to Mercy taking so long to analyze an opponent. She usually rushed in and tried to deal with things while fighting.

She really must be tired.

Jon shook in his chair watching the scene. He couldn’t help but tremble thinking about all of the factors leading into the battle. Would Amalia’s inexperience be the deciding factor, or would it be Mercy’s exhaustion?

He wanted to stop the fight, but he couldn’t. He just had to watch, and it felt somewhat cruel to have to do so. Watching to see who would get hurt first.

Is this how Hector felt the entire time? Jon took a look at his friend, who sat with a frown on his face. He was exhausted too, even if he tried to hide it behind his usual scowl.

Jon didn’t know what to say to his friend, so he didn’t say anything. Still, he wanted to help comfort him.

Hector must have noticed Jon’s anticipation.

“What?” Hector asked with no disdain and just a genuine display of curiosity.

“...I don’t want anyone to lose,” Jon said.

“...Me neither. But’s that’s the way it has to be…” Hector sat up in the chair to be more attentive.

Jon wasn’t used to Hector being so calm as to just let things happen. He was usually firm on a more aggressive stance on things. Was he finally trying to act more mature?

Or is he just hiding what he’s feeling?

Jon tried not to think about either, since both situations seemed equally scary.

He looked back at the fight.

Mercy and Amalia were still standing in place.

“You shouldn’t let me recover my energy,” Mercy said finally to her opponent. “Why not try to take me down now?”

“I’m no fool,” Amalia said. “If I let you get too close, you’ll destroy me. It doesn’t matter how exhausted you are, it would just be a matter of second nature to you.”

She lowered her position. “I’ll just have to stay my way forward.”

Mercy gave a bit of an exasperated chuckle.

“Good luck,” she said, giving a bit of a toothy smile.

Jon’s toes began to wiggle in anxiety. So much so that he could feel flexing in his knees.

Hey! Jon looked at his knees.

He felt muscles twitching inside of it with the movement of his toes.

My legs…

He was snapped back to attention by the sound of Mercy running to the other side of the ring towards Amalia.

Amalia turned one of her red sticks into a boomerang and threw it in Mercy’s direction at an angle.

It bounced off the floor and ricocheted into Mercy’s side.

Mercy leaned her head to the side, dodging it without much effort.

It had already begun curving around Mercy to make its way back to Amalia when it changed form in mid-air, transforming into its half-staff form.

The stick extended into the back of Mercy's head and shoved her face-first into the floor/

Jon jumped in his chair in shock. He hadn’t expected it, and neither had Mercy apparently.

The stick transformed back into a boomerang and returned to Amalia’s hand.

Jon noticed that there was whispering at his side, and turned to Hector.

“Please be alright, please be alright.”

Alright? Jon didn’t know if there was something he should have been concerned about. Was Mercy really hurt that much?

Granted, she did skid a bit forward after her face plant, but Jon couldn’t have imagined it being anything more than what Mercy had encountered before.

Maybe it was different because she was low on mana.

Amalia switched her tool back into its full staff form, ready for whatever Mery had next when she got up, even though Jon could see the trepidation in her facial expressions and her jittery movements.

Mercy, after some time, finally pushed herself off of the ground.

Jon wasn’t expecting the line of red draining down from her forehead and over her eye. Even her hair that hung where her eye was had been caught in the streak of red.

Blood. Did it hurt that much?

She was still standing, and Jon could barely see the wound past her hair, so it didn’t seem to be as bad as Liz’s.

Still, he couldn’t tell what her expression was. And that scared him more than anything,

He wanted to call out her name, but what would he say? Anything he could say had a risk of distracting her from the fight.

“...She’s been holding it back the whole time…” Hector muttered. He stood up.

“You should have told me she had a head wound!” Hector yelled, this time at Mallory, surprisingly.

“I didn’t know!” Mallory yelled, shrugging while holding his hands up as much as he could. “And it’s not like I could have-”

“Ha!” Mercy swung her blade again, swinging it hard and extending it.

Amalia turned to the side and blocked the attack with relative ease.

After a pause, Mercy began roaring and swinging rapidly.

This time, Amalia really had to start hiding behind her shield. She couldn’t move as she could do nothing from covering from the mass of attacks.

Mercy began swinging faster than Jon ever saw her. Her blade almost seemed to multiply and several beams of energy all began to strike in Amalia’s direction.

Jon saw Amalia struggle as she grabbed the inside of her shield with her other hand, but soon, she began to slowly kneel, unable to move from her spot.

When Mercy stopped, Amalia stopped holding on to her shield and her shoulders dropped in front of her.

“She can’t see,” Hector said quickly.

She can’t see?

Jon wondered what Hector mean. Was it Mercy or Amalia that couldn’t see the fight?

Mercy raised her tool over her head with both hands, pointing up in the air.

“That’s too much energy!” Hector yelled, shooting out of his chair. “Stop it!”

Mercy ignored Hector, but no energy erupted from the tool.

Is that because she’s too tired?

Mercy dropped her hands to the side and ran over to her Vindhazi sword, which was still inside of the ring from the last two fights. She picked it up and ran in Amalia’s direction.

Amalia saw this and put her shield to the floor. It turned into a staff, pushing her up into the air and over Mercy’s head.

Mercy skidded to a stop while turning, then chased back after Amalia.

Amalia landed and poked her staff at Mercy before trying to give herself more space again.

Mercy didn’t seem to be having it this time. She dodged the tip of the staff and charged forward.

Amalia’s staff became a shield and she braced herself for Mercy’s swing.

Instead, Mercy just shoulder-charged herself into Amalia’s shield, pushing the princess all the way back towards the edge of the ring.

She equipped her black tool in her left hand and swung with her extended blade. This time, Amalia completely ducked the attack instead of blocking.

Whoa. Jon had never seen Mercy shoulder charge anyone before. It was a move that he had expected of Hector, but not her. It was cool for a moment, but he remembered the implications of the match, and his feelings quickly soured.

“Stop playing around,” Hector said without yelling too loudly.

Jon didn’t think Mercy was playing around. He thought that she was getting desperate. He wasn’t one to disagree with Hector very often, but he had spent enough time around Mercy to know that she only started becoming innovative when it became very clear that she didn’t have a good chance of winning.

He groaned loudly. Would Sabez’s message “focus on the objective” help Mercy out here? The shoulder charge seemed to be effective in almost winning. Would Mercy come up with any other strategies to outwit her opponent?

Also, would she be able to give a shoulder charge like that into a shield again? because it looked like it hurt a lot the first time.

Amalia began creeping forward behind her shield, pressured into being offensive because of her close positioning end of the circle.

Mercy waited until Amalia got close enough, then started attacking with her Vindazi sword again.

The serrated edges of the blade managed to tag onto the side of Amalia’s cloth dress, and there was a nasty rip as it tore the side of her leg.

Ugh. Jon realized that a cut from the Vindhazi sword would really hurt Amalia, remembering the damage that Tallow had done to Raglace’s back when she had the opportunity to hit him with it, and he was way stronger than Amalia.

Maybe Mercy was being kind when she was using her energy blade, Jon wondered.

Jon expected Amalia to retreat, but instead, she ran forward straight into Mercy.

She grabbed one of Mercy’s arms and bent it around.

Her red tool, which had shrunk down when she approached Mercy, extended again, knocking Mercy’s Vindhazi sword out of the ring and into the ground.

“She disarmed her?” Hector leaned forward in shock.

Mercy tried to headbutt Amalia, but Amalia had let go and ran away before Mercy could get any more damage in.

Mercy didn’t waste any time in pursuing her. Amalia stabbed the ground in the floor, extending it so that she quickly pushed past Mercy, who had to turn back around to keep her in her sights.

Amalia swung her staff when she landed. Mercy ducked and snaked underneath the swinging staff and quickly began forming hand signals while she did so.

Whatever spell she was gonna cast never happened, as Amalia had jabbed her staff in between Mercy’s hands, causing them to grasp onto the end of the pole.

Jon didn’t know that was a thing. He hardly had time to marvel at what happened before Mercy pointed her two fingers at Amalia’s head.

A small steam of fire shot out from her fingers straight towards Amalia’s head.

There was an explosion of fire on Amalia’s face as she gasped and covered her face up with her hands.

“She’s not looking!” Hector yelled as Mercy swung her energy blade.

Unbeknownst to Jon whether it was because of Hector’s yell as a warning or because of instinct, Amalia dived to the side, just narrowly dodging Mercy’s energy blade.

She rolled out of the way as Mercy continued swiping at the ground, using her staff to push herself back of the ground and run away from the oncoming ninja.

Amalia couldn’t run too far, instead of having to turn around and block the next few attacks that Mercy had to give.

And Mercy gave as much as she could, swinging at Amalia to keep her on the defensive. She dropped to the floor and tried to sweep Amalia from under her legs, but Amalia raised her foot in response.

Mercy kept the momentum from the spin and stood back up to start swinging at Amalia again.

She gave another shoulder charge to Amalia’s shield, forcing her back once more.

Amalia tripped but kept her foot as she was she readied herself more of Mercy’s attacks.

They stayed close to the end of the arena, Amalia leading Mercy back until she turned her back towards the center of the circle with an incredibly sharp angle and continued to retreat.

Mercy made a sharp turn as well, hopping towards Amalia and pushing forward with both hands.

“Mercy!” Junwata yelled.

The force was enough to break Amalia’s guard and knock Amalia’s shield away.

She’s open! Jon was ready for Mercy’s next attack to knock Amalia out of the arena.

He quickly realized that Mercy’s next attack wasn’t gonna push Amalia out of the arena.

Mercy’s tool was raised above her head, and she was already pushing herself off the ground.

Jon snapped into action. He pushed himself out of the chair, rolling over his head on the floor before coming back up into a kneel and shooting his gun.

The blast wasn’t enough to completely push Mercy away. Instead, the blow washed over Mercy, for whatever reason causing her blade to extinguish.

As it did, Mercy had stopped in her spot, not moving.

She turned to Jon, her free eye staring at his position from right outside of the ring.

Jon was breathing hard. He still couldn’t tell what the expression on her face was.

He was about to mutter an apology to her when he heard a shout.

“Look! She won! My sister won!” Duranny was pointing at the ring in excitement.

“Wait, really?” Harris, who had been covering his eyes the entire time, pulled his hands away to look at the ring.

Jon, Mercy, and Amalia all quickly tuned to Mercy’s outstretched left heel, which had been pushing her forward to continue her assault. Sure enough, it had been covered in white powder.

“Aw, shit.” Hector hadn’t uttered his curse that loudly, but the entire room was silent, so it was heavily audible to everyone in the room.

Luther looked at Mallory, who was kneeling on the floor the entire time while watching the fight.

“Well?” Luther asked him.

“Duranny’s right, sir,” Mallory said. “Uh, Mercy must have stuck her leg out when she made that sharp turn too close to the edge of the circle. So, uh…”

He looked at her. “Sorry, Mercy.”

Mercy didn’t say anything. She dropped her arms to her side momentarily, before finally falling to her knees.

“I should have been… paying…” Mercy didn’t finish what he was saying as Harris ran past her to the center of the circle.

“Did you hear that?” Harris yelled out to the tables taking his daughter's hand and swinging it up to the air “My daughter won! Give three cheers to my daughter! Hip, hip,-”

“Hurray!” Half of the room cheered. People stood up and started to applaud.

Jon took a quick look behind him to see Hector, who was still in his chair, but he didn’t get to take in his fully pained expression as he turned back to Mercy.

Mercy. Jon winced in pain as he struggled to push himself up.

Come on… gun…

He wobbled to his feet and took a few steps forward before stumbling and dropping to his knees next to Mercy.

“Mercy… Sorry…” Jon said softly.

Mercy didn’t respond right away. She turned to Jon before the both of them turned to Amalia, who was still sprawled out on her back after being shoved to the floor.

“I’m sorry,” she said quickly before her father reached down and grabbed her hand.

Harris pulled his daughter up to a stand, showcasing a strength Jon would have never expected to see in the man.

“She won!” Harris yelled. “She won! Long live my daughter. Long live the Queen!”

There was more cheering. Jon finally took the chance to observe the tables to see who was cheering.

It wasn’t as many people as he thought. Cecilia’s father had a grim look on his face, before standing up and leaving quietly as the rest of his table cheered. The table where Jaqueline had been, where everyone was wearing white, had also been very quiet, although their matron did seem to give small applause in respect to what was going on.

He turned back to Mercy.

“Mercy-”

“I lost, Jon,” she said, not even looking at him. Her entire right eye was so covered in blood, and yet she didn't seem bothered by it at all.

“I lost…” she repeated softly.

She finally stood up. Jon waited for her to help him off of his knees so that they could talk and trade condolences together.

Instead, she walked off the ring without another word to Jon

"Mercy!" Jon wasn't sure if Mercy had ignored him or if the shouts of the crowds were drowning him out.

Mallory tried to stop her, reaching for her head to treat her wound, but she lightly pushed him aside and ignored him as she walked straight to the side door.

As such, she had to walk by Luther as well. Jon expected a smart comment, but all Luther did was regard her silently as she went past him.

“Aw.” Jon could do nothing but voice his surprise. He literally couldn’t, as his legs wouldn’t move beyond this, so all he could do was sit while all of the celebrations continued around him.