Zilo awoke to the sound of a mass score of people rumbling and rambling. He looked to the window to see Cruxis staring. Leo looked to be waking as well while Alaroc looked to be unconscious beside his bed, still clad in his armor from yesterday.
Zilo rose to the window and looked out to see beyond the town's limits and saw a massive influx of hundreds of people settled in, what looked to be, makeshift camps. They all looked to have hunkered in near the town side by the arena, and some looked to be waving regional flags for a handful of symbols Zilo semi-recognized.
The symbols were on some of the fighters Zilo had looked upon yesterday. To have garnered such followings, they must be made of stern stuff, but nothing to daunt the optimistic bard. He readied himself for the day, dawning his weapons and armor as Cruxis and Leo did the same.
Once all three were prepared they kicked Alaroc awake.
"HUNZA! Wh- what!?" Woke the warrior in a fright, his shock reverberating in his helm.
"We got a match to get to." Spoke the Paladin, hiking his thumb out the window toward the arena.
"Oh. Bully then! Let us away." Said the man failing to wipe last nights stains away. The three friends began to make their way to the arena at the time they were told. They needed to fight the crowds a little, but not horribly.
Upon arrival they descended to the warrior pits to see a few of the other warriors from yesterday had already arrived. There was also a table full of fresh food of all varieties. Zilo smiled and walked to the table to grab a hold of a fresh apple, when he heard a woman's voice cut the air with a heavy tone.
"Enjoy it welp, it'll be your last." Zilo turned about to see the lean brunette woman from yesterday cutting and seasoning some fresh meat from the table.
"I doubt that, back home I visit the market every morning to get fresh veggies, and old Donovan always gives me a fantastic deal on apples."
"Well old Donny must be a dullard, apples are fruits boy."
Zilo thinks at that for a moment and responds, "I suppose you're right miss, I'll endeavor to note the difference. I'm still not fully on the up and up on the sun grown confections of this world."
The woman's eyes widen as does her smile, "Well ain't this lucky, my first one is the simpleton of the group."
Zilo furrows his brow and responds, "Hey now, that's not very nice. Who are you anyway?"
The woman finishes up with her meat for a few moments before warranting a reaction. She stands and points her short sword at Zilo, saying, "I'm Carly 'Crimson' Carver. I drew the number 2 lot for the matches, meaning that you are just like this meal of mine."
Zilo looks down at the meat, which looks very well seasoned and gets the message.
"I'm flattered you find me delicious, but I'm afraid I'm already taken, not that you aren't..."
Zilo is cut off as Carly dowses her blade in oil and lights it a blaze. she then responds in a low tone, "You're dead meat." As she finishes she swipes down to the table and cuts off a piece of the meat, searing it as she passes the blade. Zilo nods a few times before turning back to his allies. The three of them stare at Carly transfixed and intimidated.
Zilo snaps them out of it by pointing to her and saying, "She seems great, should be a fun match."
After the group finished up eating, Zilo marched out with Carly for the first match. The arena had changed over the day's rest. It was now booming with hundreds of people cheering and shouting. Carly doesn't react to this in the slightest, she merely walks over to her starting position.
Zilo smiles and waves to the crowd, he begins clapping and blowing kisses as well. The crowd rages in response to the bard's actions. After a few more moments of playing to the crowd the official motions Zilo to his opponent.
Before he knows it the match is begun and he charges at Carly with his silver longsword, but 5 feet from her he freezes. Her actions have him stunned. She is stoically stood, fearless, waiting for him. In his hesitation she jumps forward and chops with her short sword.
The bard deflects the attack with his sword before he loses his shoulder. She lets out a spine tingling battle cry and thrusts at him right away. Zilo side steps around the attack and places both hands upon his sword standing opposite her.
"Do you see this blade, fool?" Says Carly, cutting the boom of the crowd with her voice. Zilo looks upon the sword closely to notice it has dozens of notches on it. Carly flicks out a dagger and points to the notches.
"For every person that dies to this sword I mark it, as you can see I've gotten rather good at it, and now." Carly niches another notch into the sword. "I've saved you a spot."
Zilo freezes, He'd fought plenty of monsters and evil beings, but none as confident in death as she. He tightened the grip on his blade. Carly darted in with a horizontal slice and Zilo deflects it with a turn of the blade, followed by a kick as she passed him by.
Carly rubbed her side where the bard kicked her and smiles maliciously. she charges back in again with a flurry of thrusts and chops. Zilo back pedaled as she came, flicking his sword with practiced skill. Before he knew it his back was to the wall.
Carly's thrust became far more frequent and closer. With the shorter range Zilo's long sword was no longer able to block as easily, and so the bard needed to shift bit by bit to avoid the stabs. The blade went thunk over and over as it was planted in the wood wall behind the bard.
Every time Zilo tried to flank around, her blade cut him off. As he tried to come up with a way out of his corner he felt a deep cut in his gut. As a reaction Zilo back handed Carly off of him, making her spin back to the ground.
Zilo grimaced as he pulled the blade out and threw it back to Carly's body. After a moment or two Carly rose and stared at Zilo, licking the blood that formed on her lip. But as the crowd roared at her bold reaction, Zilo saw something they did not.
A tear also fell from her eye, and with that, Zilo knew how this fight would end. He gripped his left hand to his wound to hold it in place and put pressure on the wound. He extended his blade out in front smiled.
Carly chucked and said, "You finally ready to be a man."
"You first please." The bard retorted. Carly scowled and charged in again, only this time Zilo flicked his blade and sent her sprawling back again. Zilo marched forward very determined and at a modest pace to avoid aggravating the wound.
Zilo is the one on the attack now, using his sword's longer reach to keep Carly from moving in closer. Carly's intimidating demeanor tried to maintain, but she very quickly switched to a panic mode. Eventually, from Zilo's onslaught, she loses her footing and Zilo kicked her down and before she could react, Zilo's blade was at her neck.
"Yeild, Or else..." Zilo leans down and takes her short sword away with a face of morbid intentions, and continues,"This notch will not be for me."
Carly shivers and responds "I YIELD!!!" Zilo's face returns to his jovial manner and he plants her blade in the ground by Carly. She looks dumbfounded as Zilo begins to mend his wound with a spell. She sits up and asks, "Wait, what was that?"
Zilo smiles to her and says, "Theatrics doesn't compare to skill, and you aren't the only one who could have been a better actor than fighter."
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