"Big Brother, how long must we stay here?" Little Snow mumbled uncomfortably as she didn't want to distract Lucas attention from the sparing happening in the arena. Lucas, on the other hand, has his attention focus on the arena and did not focus on what Snow has said. "What? Ah~ That a nice stab! Go! Go parry!"
In the center of an arena, two brave wounded rabbits were pointing their horns at each other and they slowly circle around while trying their best to catch their breath, focusing only on the enemy in front of them as their lives depend on it. Blood slowly ticked down the bigger rabbit's left ear which had just been grazed when avoiding a fatal stab. These two are criminals that have done different levels of crimes, and in the arena, they must fight to the death to free themselves and swear their loyalty to the king to be his personal guard. This rule has been passed down for centuries.
There are three levels of crimes, the first level is when one trick and scam others of their money, or cause a fight in the streets.
The second level is when one murdered someone unintentionally or intentionally without a royal command, or when the agents failed in a mission.
The third level is when one faked that they have sworn loyalty to the king, or work as a spy for others, other than the king. The number of times they need to fight to death corresponds to the level of crimes.
Of course, most of those who had received the third level crime would choose to suicide immediately, they fake their loyalty for a reason, but all third level criminals have force-fed ice fruit seeds (weaker than the actual fruit, will not cause one to be immune to ice fruit even if eaten in bulk), making them unable to move and suicide, they were only allowed to move once they are in the arena. They could make a choice to choose to end their lives or to kill someone that might be the next loyal servant.
They are the hardest to find, those that were found out were lucky to survive the first round, but few manage to pass the second, much less the third round. Some that survived the third round still refuse to swear alliance, they would be locked up deep in the dungeon forever with no chance of escaping again.
The smaller rabbit in that arena is one of the second level criminals, while the bigger one is of the third level, this is their final fight to freedom.