Cruxis lay wounded, but still able to call upon his divine power to make himself able to stand and lift his weaponry. As some guards cart off Cruxis' opponent the paladin stands to suddenly hear a loud horn blow from the top most part of the arena.
The fighters and crowd all turn to see a pudgy man with long brown hair and a small mustache in regal nobleman's outfit. Beside him is one of the guards holding a horn. The regal man stands to address the crowd. Zilo leans over to Leo and asks, "Who's that guy?"
Leo gives him a dumbfounded look and responds, "For real guy! He's Matrix Deneval, he has royal blood of the king. He's the Duke of this region! He runs this arena!"
Meanwhile in the other realm The man in the hat with Zilo's Sheet looks curiously at the skinny man
with Leo's Sheet. The man in the hat states. "What do you mean!? The king has relatives!? I thought you said he'd lost his heir?"
"He did, that's his nephew." Responds the man known as Jones.
"Why would I know that!" Shouts back the man in the hat.
"I told you that!" Shouts back Jones. "Like at the start of the session."
The man in the hat nods and sighs, "No lie, I was looking up a song for my fight since the line up said I was first. So he's like the guy?"
The tall man in a helmet that held Alaroc's sheet responds with a reverberating statement, "Yup, he da guy."
Matrix waves his arm about and addresses the crowd, "Fantastic first rounds all around, though it is sad to say that the rules have been broken by that man for using abilities that extend past his swordsmanship." And he points to Cruxis.
The crowd begins to murmur here and there as Matrix continues, "Now normally this offence would be punishable by loss, but since he seems to have really won the crowd, I've decided to give him one last chance to keep his spot in the tournament."
Cruxis looks about as the crowd begins to cheer slightly again. He looks back up to Matrix and bites his lip. Matrix' face twists into a sadistic grin and he continues, "And so we shall finish off the day with a last battle, our cheater verses all the other remaining combatants. If the fates let him survive for 3 minutes, he may proceed to the next round."
Cruxis' eyes go wide as he looks to the fighter's platform to see all but his three companions rising and preparing for another fight. Leo, Alaroc, and Zilo's faces look grim, but after a few moments of them in a huddle they follow the rest of the fighters down to the arena.
The fencer, wave blade user, female half-elf with curved blades, and Aakif stand ready to attack Cruxis. Moments later the warriors of SSI Join them, and Cruxis waltzes up to them and speaks, "Guys, help me out here, there's no way I can take all 4 on my own."
Alaroc Shakes his head and says, "About that, we are still in the running, and helping you might get us kicked out too." Cruxis grits his teeth and turns to Leo.
"Leo, you ignore every rule you've ever been told, please, help me out here." Leo smirks and responds sarcastically, "I thought I was a dirty murderer, you'd really turn to a murder to help you? What sort of paladin are you?"
Cruxis opens his mouth, but as he sees Leo laughing, he realizes he wasn't going to alter is position, so his last hope he turns to Zilo, and widens his eyes. Zilo shrugs, and dashes all of Cruxis' hopes before the guards whisk him back to his side of the arena.
The crowd sounds unsure whether they want to see it or not, but once both sides take out their weapons they accept that the match is happening and settle into cheering for the carnage. Cruxis uses his last Cure Lesser Wounds spells to top himself off before the coming assault.
The match begins and the female half-elf twirls through the air and and spins her double sided blade trying to go right for the kill. Cruxis picks his blade up to block the first swing, then as the blade bounces back the woman spins back with it and tries to stab with the other side, only to miss as the shield halts the attack.
Cruxis swings his blade in, but the acrobatic woman flips away and the fencer jumps in right away. In a flurry of attacks Cruxis is forced backward. Suddenly Alaroc is on Cruxis' flank and he slashes in, Cruxis manages to deflect the swing, but he is stabbed as he takes his eyes off the fencer.
Cruxis uses the pain to spur action and snaps his shield up to knock away the rapier followed by a kick into the fencer's chest. Cruxis turns to face Alaroc only to feel a deafening crack in his left ribs. He is sent sprawling into the distance.
Cruxis' adrenaline and panic spurs him up faster than he would normally take. He spots the wave blade user standing where he had been, but before he could wonder about what happened, he sees Leo and Zilo moving in on him. They begin to dart to each side.
Cruxis advances on Leo to break their assault formation fast. Leo raises his blade to block, but Cruxis swipes with his shield, using the tip to knock the blade away and move in with his blade, Leo jukes to move to Cruxis' other flank.
Leo leaps and is ready to bring down his blade, but it deflects off the side of the Paladin's shoulder armor. Leo snaps back but as soon as he lands he is rammed by a shield away, but not by Cruxis. Aakif stands between Leo and Cruxis and shouts.
"Stay back, this man follows a divine path, and will not have his light snuffed out by a lowly killer." Leo spreads out his arms and exclaims, "For Socca's sake! I didn't mean to! Stop interfering!"
Aakif has a stand off with Leo who looks to be backing away, with that Cruxis turns to Zilo who still looks to be rounding the paladin and throwing seemingly off course swings. Cruxis goes to block one of the swings.
The blade's tip passes right through the shield's surface without a sound, and Cruxis' glare turns to surprise before he begins to run away to a less chaotic area. He looks back to see the bard and magus squaring off with Aakif. He looks back forward to see the wave blade user standing and waiting.
Cruxis brings his shield up as he runs, but it is quickly hooked by the tip of the wave blade's curve and forced down. Cruxis sees the man flip up and around before cracking the heel of his foot into Cruxis' head. The paladin falls and every thing goes black.
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