Silence suddenly came over the courtyard, the first one to speak was Loreena.
"If that is what Sir requests then that is fine, but i Sir is willing, an explanation would help those rejected, to know where to possibly improve."
"Very well then, I shall first explain why those parties have been refused, the first test is unity. I have worked in many teams and groups before, and one of the core aspects for fighting is unity. Without it a group will fall apart and mistrust each other, this can be noticed by how distributed your equipment is, on top of how you interact within the group in social situations, along with a few other reasons, I don't believe that those groups can hold up to the pressure I might end up in and was hoping to politely deny you before I could hear your party names which if heard would mean refusing you is also refusing your honour."
Everyone blankly stares in my direction as I half think back to when I had to organise patrol groups.
"Very well Sir, do any of the parties have a problem with that?"
After a round of people finally accepting my reasons, the courtyard has already been more than halved.
"Now we have the room, I would ask for each party to send their strongest and weakest fighter and we will have a little tournament of sorts. First I wish to duel a few people, it has been a while since I had training, and it would also help each of your parties understand my capabilities for when you are defending me. If that isn't enough I have one other method but this one should make it fun."
The remaining 4 parties each choose their members to step forth into my little test. I feel like laughing maniacally but restrain myself.
My first opponent going by the name Gavin Cromwell, with his curled brown hair and blue eyes steps up to my challenge holding a training sword and shield, I of course pick a training dagger. Apparently this elicited a few laughs from Gavins party called The Scarlet Bears before I looked in their direction and they shut themselves up quickly.
Loreena goes over the rules before declaring the match to start, I rush straight out the moment I hear the confirmation to start. My speed being nothing new to Gavin, he brings his shield to face me making it hard for me to attack around.
My first attack bounces off the shield more than I expected causing my to stumble slightly leaving an opening that Gavin tries to capitalise on. Using all my strength to recover the dagger and my balance allows me to just barely use the force of his strike to step backwards causing the rest of his attack to miss.
I realise that I've never dealt with a gang member holding a shield before and have no idea how to get past one. Looking for openings I start circling around Gavin hoping to noticing a flaw when he turns or any long term conditions that would force him to leave openings. To my amateurs eye the only opening I can see is when I try to dash to his left on the side of his shield which causes him to lower it slightly to keep an eye on my footing.
This leads me into pushing at this flaw, I deliberately keep running around his left side forcing him to keep lowering his defence hoping to get in a strike. After a few seconds I notice that his turning is also slightly slow, so I reconsider and back off after trying a few strikes to the bottom part of his shield.
Taking advantage of each of these factors, I run around to his right side which makes him instinctively follow me around, I launch a few attacks forcing him to bring his shield arm across his body to block me on his right side.
In a single move, I thrust my dagger at his shield with a large amount of force, forcing him to take the attack seriously, at the same time I duck under his shield and dash around to his left side where he left an opening for that brief second he was recovering.
The shield starts moving back as he attempts to search for me, but I aim my training dagger at his waist and strike with enough force to break his stance.