Being a high-profile family, the Blyths handled things a bit differently than most. One of them is when issues creep up among the younger generations of a family. Such issues are common as they promote competition among the younger generation.
If the agenda of one of them is found to be directly or indirectly harmful to the family's influence or power, the elders of the council would quickly put an end to it. The same happens to the cases when one of them uses unlawful or despicable means against another.
When the issue has no effect on the family and both the parties were lawful and honorable, they tend to settle it in a much more simple and effective way. They could challenge one another to a fight and settle the issue based on who won. It was common to challenge over monetary issues or bet properties when both the parties willingly agreed.
Balthazar preemptively dared Jack to challenge him so that he could avoid trouble from himself and get something from it.
Jack was very surprised by Balthazar taking initiative to suggest a challenge. He was always known to be a bit of bully and people hardly ever took initiative to fight him. But he couldn't just back down out of it as it would be harmful to his reputation. Jack had two other ventures and he could use one of them for the stakes. But he was sure that Balthazar wouldn't be interested in them.
Unable to decide on what to do, he silently moved towards his father and asked him in a whisper, "What should I put in as stakes? I don't know if he would be interested in either the restaurant or the building."
"I doubt that he would be interested in either. But I would suggest not to challenge him. He used to be able to hold himself against you five years ago. Though you are older than him and have your own experiences, he has a certain name in the military. You might not be able to fight him anymore," advised Oliver.
"I have the same feeling, but if someone offered to represent me?" asked Jack back to Oliver.
"I doubt anyone else in your generation can fight him either. Balthazar also seems very confident in himself and he is was not known to be unnecessarily reckless. Don't expect me to fight. I am Elder and I don't want to be that shameless to intrude in the fights of their juniors."
"What if an Elder wants to fight and even offered to pay the amount?"
"Who would be that generous to you?"
"Elder Max. But I suspect somethings wrong. Why would he give me such an offer? I hardly know him. So, I wanted to know if you might have any idea."
"Elder Max? He is always planning something or other. He is lucky, he never got caught. But since he is feeling so generous let him be. Don't interact with him ever again."
"OK, I will go on with the challenge."
Decided on going ahead with challenging he immediately sent a message to Max for the money. A second later he got a confirmation of the transfer. He immediately called out to Balthazar, "If you are in for the challenge, my representative is ready."
"You got someone else to represent you from the family? You afraid to fight yourself?" sneered Balthazar trying to agitate Jack to fight himself as he didn't know who the representative would be.
But Jack was not that gullible a man. He just laughed back. "What? You're worried about who it is that would be representing me?" he shamelessly asked back in a sneer.
"OK. I accept your challenge. Who is you representative?" said Balthazar. He was confident in fighting any member of the family of the same generation as him. He doubted that any family member including Oliver would publicly involve themselves in the squabbles of the younger generation.
"It is me," said Max suddenly coming to stand beside Jack. Max had been thinking about his summon back to the mansion for quite some time. He couldn't find any reason for the family to suspect him of anything. His contact at the knights of the old republic was insisting that he find out why he was summoned by his family. He did get summoned back after the attempt on Balthazar. So, he wanted to be doubly sure that Balthazar has no clue about him ever since he reached the mansion.
When he heard about Jack and Oliver waiting for Balthazar at the main hall, he immediately made his way down to the main hall and had been waiting there since. When Balthazar taunted Jack to challenge him, he couldn't believe that Balthazar would be the one giving him the chance.
When Balthazar saw Max stepping forward to represent Jack, he was both shocked and angry but mostly angry. He couldn't believe that Max an Elder would be that shameless to participate in their squabble. "This bastard! He is trying to test me out," he thought realizing Max's plans.
He quickly managed to calm the rage and managed to put in a face of surprise as he let his jaw drop down. A minute later, he sent a message to Max asking him why he would be doing this. But he didn't get any reply from him.
He immediately approached Max and asked "Uncle Max! What are you doing? Why are you doing this? You realize you are an elder right?"
"I am sorry Bel. But Jack had promised me a favor that I need, and I will be representing him for it," lied Max through his teeth.
"He had been prepared for this," thought Balthazar when he heard Max's excuse. "Well, I was just being silent all this time but if you insist on having a fight, I will show you what I can do."
"Are you sure you want to do this," he asked Max to confirm that a fight between them couldn't be avoided.
"I can't back out of this, Bel. I will go easy on you. Don't worry," he said acting as if to comfort Balthazar. Max also couldn't explicitly reveal that he wanted Balthazar dead.
"Ok," said Balthazar aloud. "I am fine with the challenge. Let us go to the fighting ring."
Soon, he along with Jack, Oliver, Max and a few spectating members of the family found themselves in the first floor of the gymnasium. The challenge fights would usually take place in one of the two fighting rings here. It was a square-shaped ring with rubber ropes along the borders similar to a wrestling ring.
As he got ready to fight, he received a message from Robert. "I heard you are going to fight Max in the gym. What happened to being friendly with him?" it read.
"He initiated the fight. He wants to represent Jack in a challenge," he replied back.
"I contacted Walter already. He was very angry that Max is taking sides in juniors' quarrels. He thinks that Max might take this chance to injure you seriously. So, his suggestion is for you to fight like he was the enemy or have Salazar represent you."
"No, involving Salazar would just give him more information about me. I will be fine. Come to watch the fight," he replied ending the conversation.
"State the terms of your challenge and wager of both the parties," said Oliver loudly trying to start up the challenge.
"I challenge Balthazar for the new cyber cafe he opened and wager a hundred million credits for it with Max representing me in the fight," shouted Jack initiating the challenge publicly.
"I accept the challenge. Let us deliberate on the rules of the fight. I propose no use of bladed weapons or armor. Fight ends on acceptance of defeat, knock-out or ring-out," said Balthazar.
This confused many of the spectators as they expected Balthazar ask for combat armor to compensate for fighting against an Elder. To become an Elder, one had to show a minimum amount of strength and fighting skills to be qualified. Balthazar's request made them think if he wanted to lose the fight.
It also stumped Oliver, Jack and Max. They looked at Balthazar incredulously as if he was some kind of mad man. They looked at each other as Max slowly said, "I agree to your terms".
Balthazar had the experience of about two years of fighting for his life as an assassin. He spent no small amount of time fighting people stronger than him. He also had spent 5 years perfecting his techniques in vita nova. His technique was strong, he could be very fast, and he had an element of surprise.
As soon as Max agreed, Balthazar got into the fighting ring and started to warm up. "Could anyone please volunteer to referee the match," he asked the crowd. The onlookers looked at each other but no one responded. Max was an elder who was fighting a junior which was already considered shameless. So, there was hardly anyone who didn't think that there might more shameless behavior from Max.
Usually an elder took over the responsibility, but now they had to referee another elder and they didn't want to offend him over a junior. The entire area went silent because of this. They couldn't start the challenge without a referee who didn't belong to either factions. Elders as a rule didn't involve them among juniors' squabble for the same reason. As they were stuck in that situation for a period of time, a voice suddenly broke the awkward silence.
"If no one is willing to referee the match, I will take over that responsibility," said Arthur. Arthur had already been in bad terms with Max and he always hated despicable acts. When, he heard that an elder was representing Jack in the fight, he thought that Oliver was doing it for his kid and wanted to give him an earful for neglecting his image as an elder for his kid. But when he saw that Max was representing Jack, he had half a mind to represent Balthazar himself. He was already involved in the investigation about Max and already had the men under him observing all the communication.
But looking at Balthazar already ready in the ring, he controlled himself and decided to referee the match instead. He started to admire Balthazar for his courage in attempting to fight an elder.
Max knew that Arthur hated him even more and the suspicions on him worsened, but he remained adamant as he was asked to test Balthazar out. "I hope both of you are ready. Please go to opposite corners of the ring," said Arthur as he jumped onto the ring and landed between them.
Max and Balthazar quickly went to the opposite corners of a ring waiting for Arthur to start the fight. "Okay, now that we are ready, you can start on the count of three," said Arthur in a loud voice.
"Three, two, one, FIGHT", he shouted.
As soon as Arthur said fight, Max rushed towards opposite corner throwing a punch with his right hand at Balthazar's face. Balthazar stood with his hands behind his back and didn't move till Max's fist was less than a foot from him. He quickly ducked jumping to his right barely a moment before Max would hit him as something brown came flying at Max's face.
"Throwing your glove to block my vision? The kid is too naive," thought Max as he aimed a kick at the spot where Balthazar was supposed to land while using his left hand to stop the glove from hitting his face. But for some reason, the kick didn't connect with its target.
He immediately jumped back a bit towards his right, away from where Balthazar was supposed to be. As he was jumping back, he felt a thick belt latch around his neck and pull him down further to his right to the edge of the ring as a kick to his lower back lifted his body off the platform.
Max wasn't a fool and quickly understood that Balthazar was trying to force him out of the ring. He couldn't move his neck either as that would only allow Balthazar to tighten the belt and strangle him. Though his body was off the platform with him facing the ceiling, he quickly threw his arms behind towards the ropes at the edge of the stage.
Just as his fingers touched the ropes, the belt around his neck constricted making him dizzy and he felt a strong tug on his arms through his vest along with a sharp strong push upward on his buttocks. The next second he found himself midair outside the ring.
He couldn't believe that he was outside the ring as he fell on the floor. Everyone was silent except for Arthur who announced that Balthazar won the challenge by ring-out. He felt as if Balthazar was faster compared to him who had more than 20 years of experience in fights. His attempt at injuring and intimidating Balthazar to get an idea into Balthazar's thoughts towards him failed miserably.
Only the spectators realized that it was not so. Balthazar never had shown himself to be faster or stronger than Max in the few seconds of the fight. He had only guessed Max's moves and outplayed him. Balthazar hadn't even made the slightest show of his strength. Even his kicks were soft and aimed at pushing Max into the air but not actually intended to hurt him.
It looked as if Balthazar was a kind elder and didn't want to hurt Max using just soft moves and experience to throw him out of the ring. Hardly anyone got to see Balthazar's actual strength which was why a majority of them were spectating the challenge.
A good number of the spectators had their mouths agape in astonishment that he managed to defeat an elder. Balthazar had impressed a good number of the elders present including Arthur. Arthur being an adviser of the table of Ouroboros, knew that the feat cleared one of the tests for being the senior members of the table and this achievement would certainly be noted.
Balthazar calmly thanked Arthur and went down the stage in the direction of Jack. He quickly settled the bet as he sneered, "If you are not satisfied, you can challenge me whenever you feel like it."
He quickly reached Max who was still lying on the floor with a look of shock and a belt lying by his side. As Max heard his footsteps, he realized that he was at an awkward position and quickly sat up.
"How are you doing?" Balthazar asked Max giving him a hand to stand up. He put on a glum and concerned look on his face as if he had lost something even though he won.
"Could be doing better. Nice moves you got there," replied Max taking his hand.
"I haven't been idle the past 5 years. Couldn't get to my position without learning a few tricks."
"Sorry about the fight. I bet my assets as I thought I would be fighting Jack. It was a guaranteed win. I couldn't lose the cyber cafe. I just didn't expect you to fight. I couldn't win against you head-on and did whatever possible to quickly cause a ring-out," explained Balthazar still feigning a friendly and apologetic attitude to Max.
"It's Okay."
"No hard feelings, right?" he asked Max.
"None. If anything, it is my fault for underestimating you," replied Max.
"Now that I lost the fight, I need to make some arrangements. Will be taking my leave now," said Max putting on a serious face and left towards the exit of the gym. As he left the gym, he looked back a few times towards Balthazar who maintained glum look while looking at Max's back.
As Max exited the room, Arthur approached Balthazar. "You have got good acting skills. You improved your reputation among the family while worsening Max's without giving up any clues about your involvement in his summons. You are worthy."
"Thank you, adviser," said Balthazar nodding his head. "I will take my leave now. It has been a very tiring day. Had to put in a lot of effort the last few minutes."
Saying these words Balthazar took back his belt from the floor and affixed it back on his waist. He went to his room with Anubis.