Gordan walked forward slowly but with purpose smiling at the two that he had left to watch the forest.
"You two seem to be doing well, I'm glad that you made it out alright."
Orion sneered at the hero, bearing his teeth as a sign of aggression.
"Well if it isn't the little hero who ran. Here to pick on the injured? I don't know but given what I've seen you aren't here to fight fairly."
His veiw of the hero was quite low after his escape with the king when they had been about to fight earlier. He kind of wanted to fight but Gordan had warned him to keep his distance since the hero was capable of using the possession skill at any given moment.
"Why are you doing all of this? Has this kingdom not suffered enough for you? Or do you get some sort of pleasure out of watching people suffer?"
Gordan looked a bit hurt at the accusation and stood just out of the hero's range of attack.
"What ever are you talking about? I feel like I've mellowed out quite a bit from my earlier days. Back then I would have killed your king emidiatly, I actually did once you know. Old idiot decided to betray me, but even then I feel that I was quite merciful you know."
The hero looked at him in disbelief, he was starting to get the feeling that the person in front of him wasn't your every day run of the mill kind of person.
"Who, or what are you?"
Gordan pulled the bag containing the kings heart out of his pack.
"Does it really matter all that much? And anyway we still have a little mater of business to discuss. So the real question is, what exactly is it worth to you? And more importantly, for a person who seems to covet strength you put yourself under such a weak individual."
He held up the heart as an indication of the business he had been referring to. The hero gripped his sword tightly, attempting to hold in his rage.
"It's the job of a hero to protect those who are weaker than them. Plus the king has been taking care of me, how could I not protect him?"
Gordan shrugged and tossed the heart up in the air making the hero reflexively jump. Gordan tucked the bag back into his pack and faced the hero.
"I guess everyone has their views, but before we get into a philosophical debate we should really finish up this business because the king will be dead in an hour or two."
Gordan smiled at the hero with a look of enjoyment written on his face. The hero lowered his sword slightly and then raised it again with new determination.
"Fine then I challenge you to a duel for the kings heart!"
He said the words with some sort of conviction, but it sounded a bit fishy for what he was saying.
"Are you sure you want to do that hero? Just be aware of one thing, if you break the sacred nature of the duel in any way, there will be no second chance. But if you are willing take that condition I would be more than happy to fight you."
Gordan drew his own sword and held it at the ready waiting for the hero's answer.
"Fine, but no magic can be used during the fight by you, that is my condition."
Gordan shrugged, he already had a fairly bad headache so he wasn't planning on using magic in the first place.
"I'm fine with it, just remember don't do anything to go against the rules of a duel as well."
The hero smiled and nodded, his plan had already been formed and the idiot had fallen right into it without any hesitation. The hero remembered that he was the hero and, he was much more intelligent on matters like war becouse of the advanced society that he had come from. Before coming to this world he had been an avid reader and learned many things that could be implemented in this underdeveloped world.
"There's no need to add on such pointless things, is there? I don't feel the need to do so."
Gordan shrugged and looked extremely calm ready for any attack, he didn't want to deal with the hero in this way, but it was the quickest way that he could think of to finish things up, More negotiations would just drag out the problem even more then now. After all he still had to reach the appropriate location for the game time to run down.
"Well then, get ready. And go."
Orion gave the signal for the duel to begin and then walked over to where the other two were and sat down to watch the fight.
The hero emidiatly began to use spell after spell in order to cause Gordan difficulty in the start of the fight, but as all of the skills were geared toward magic users the effects were greatly lessened on Gordan. who simply shrugged them off and began attacking with his sword. At first he aimed for the hero's vital points but the hero was able to guard them fairly well since that was the most predictable kind of attack. As the hero began to swinging with his sword Gordan ducked under the blow and sliced into the hero's calf clean through the armor like it was made of paper.
The hero dropped his sword into a downward motion as soon as he saw Gordan dodge the strike, but he was unable to reach Gordan before he pulled back out of his reach once again. In order for his plan to go over perfectly the hero needed to make sure that the situation would be perfectly in his favor. Before when he had fought Gordan he hadn't used any magic because he had no time to do so. For his plan to go over he needed Gordan to get closer to him, so he dropped his sword to the ground as soon as Gordan slashed his calf, to make it look like the shock of injury was the reason why he had dropped it.
Just as the hero had anticipated Gordan came in a bit closer for a strike, so he fashioned a blade out of air which would be impossible to see and thrust it forward to impale Gordan. But at the last second he moved to the side and instead of a frontal attack the hit the hero's other calf, slicing even deeper then the first time since now he had more balance. This time however he did not pull back and instead took his other hand and punched the hero in the throat, which made him fly back several paces and began coughing.
Gordan hadn't added all of the pressure that he could since he knew that it wouldn't have changed the result. The hero had added protection onto all of his vital points which made it hard to kill him that way. But Gordan didn't want to kill him at the moment, it was bad luck to kill a hero before one went on a journey, and he was already having a pretty bad time with luck as it was. He also knew that if he felt a killing blow, the ability that came with all hero's called 'Last Minute Immunity' which made a hero invincible for about ten seconds, which would be enough time for the hero to use the possession spell in a more reckless manner. And if Orion ended up being the person possessed that would cause some serious damage even if they were able to get out of the situation alive.
Gordan shook his hand which stung a bit after the hit.
"Recoil huh... That's a nasty protection spell to use. You really have it out for me don't you?"
Gordan smiled as he noticed that the hero seemed to have recovered from the attack with at least a bit of damage since he could already see some bruising appearing on the area that had been hit.
"What are you trying to do, kill me?"
Gordan sighed and leaned one of his hands on his face and looked at him slightly disappointed.
"Drat, was I being to obvious with my intentions? Of course I'm after your life, aren't you after mine?"
The hero didn't answer and instead charged forward, he now had changed his weapon from one to two, one being a long sword and the other being a dagger. He swung with one and Gordan emediatly parried without missing a beat.
It was obvious that Gordan wasn't really fighting seriously to those that were watching the fight. He was missing so many opportunities to finish the hero off, but he would always be a second to late to take the opportunity. As his blade flashed around blocking all of the atacks, he would occasionally get in a hit that would cause the hero to bleed profusely, and then he would jump back a bit to give the hero time to close up the wound. It almost looked like he was waiting for the hero to do somthing, but it was hard to tell anything, becouse he was moving in such an odd and unpredictable way that his intentions were hard to read.
From the perspective of the hero things were actually going all according to his plan. As he couldn't see the battle from an objective point of veiw, so he had no idea about Gordan's actions. To him it was already hard enough to deal with Gordan's relentless attacks.
But then he found what he was looking for. For a fraction of a second Gordan lowered his arm to ready for another strike. As he was coming in the hero ducked down and stabbed the dagger into his gut before suddenly changing the end to a hook which caught in Gordan's flesh and stuck fast, the hero looked up and saw that Gordan was slightly smiling but he ignored this, and instead emidiatly activated his plan.
Suddenly the sound of swords clashing stopped altogether, and neither Gordan or the hero moved an inch. Suddenly the hero's body fell lifelessly to the ground in a heap. Still Gordan didn't move at all.
Drake came over and checked the hero's condition, but he didn't seem to actually have anything wrong with him, other than the wounds that he had received from Gordan's earlier attacks.
Orion stayed seated and merely observed the situation silently.
Suddenly Gordan's hand began to move and he suddenly moved his head around from side to side, testing his muscles. Then he suddenly fell to his knees and gasped for air.
Drake was about to see what was wrong when Orion called him back to where he and the General were sitting.
"Hey Soilder, I need your help with somthing. Don't worry about him, he can take care of himself."
Drake nodded and then walked back to where the others where, but he kept looking back at Gordan who seemed to be in extreme pain, and then he wasn't. Drake turned around and watched as Gordan got to his feet and stretched out his arms again to stretch them. He hadn't said a word yet. and he wasn't acting anything like usual which bothered Drake, but he decided to continue with what Orion had said. He turned back and Orion motioned for him to sit down beside him.
"Sit down and watch the show, it's about time for the main act."
He stood up and waited for Drake to sit down before slowly approaching Gordan, letting his disguise peal off as he walked.
Gordan was rooting around in his pack until he found the thing that he was looking for and pulled it out in triumph.
"At last I got the kings heart!"
Orion laughed which made Gordan turn his head in confusion.
"I think you've made a bit of a mistake there sir hero."
Orion held up a small bag that looked almost identical to the one in Gordan's hand and smiled brightly. Gordan quickly ripped open his own bag and threw it to the ground as he found that it was nothing but a bag of stones.