The announcer came up from one of the viewing platforms.
"Hello everyone! Today we are here to see which guild is better! The Stanlight Guild or-"
He was interrupted by the sound of clapping and cheering. Some people even started chanting,
"Stanlight! Stanlight! Stanlight!"
"Alright, alright everyone. Please settle down." "Ahem." He continued.
"Or The SoundlessSolemn Guild!" He continued with a bit of distaste.
The people who had came with the Guild Leader cheered but the noise quickly died down.
"Alright. Here are the rules!
1. There is no surrendering as this is a life or death duel.
2. To win, your opponent must be either dead or unconscious and cannot move whatsoever. You may kill or beat an opponent even when they are unconscious. After all this is a Life or Death duel. Or you can spare them which is a bit boring.
3. Healing spells are allowed, weapons are allowed, armor is allowed, skills are allowed, artifacts are also allowed, blah blah.
4. There will be no cheating, which includes using black magic artifacts. Switching places with one of your friends. Letting an audience member secretly help you.
5. The most important rule of all. No one may interfere. No matter how badly beaten someone is.
That's about all the rules! If a side loses, another opponent from that team may challenge and ask for a rematch but that would be embarrassing. Now wouldn't it?"
People in the crowd chuckled and burst out laughing. Arnos and his guild mates had a frown on their faces. The direspect was unreal, they were clearly implying that they would lose.
Down at the arena, Colin was fuming. He will not lose, he won't and he can't. He will prove to these bunch of bastards on who they were messing with.
James on the other hand was well composed.
'These idiots don't have faith in me. They just underestimate my opponent too much. Ughhhh. If only Guild Leader was here.'
"What a bunch of fools." He muttered, directing his words to his fellow guild mates.
"Alright everyone. LET THE MATCH. BEGIN!"
Colin came out and looked around. There were so many people, at least 300 people. After all the Stanlight Guild is huge and it wasn't even half of how many people there actually was. Hunter had brought 50 of their strongest mates, just in case a fight breaks out due to the results of the duel.
James looked around and spotted a familiar face. His calm composure was gone. He lifted his arm and rubbed his eyes. No, they were definitely there. He rubbed his eyes one more time but this time they disappeared.
He scowled under his breath, it was the Guild Leader's most trusted minions. A bunch fools who are so loyal to the Guild Leader, that they would cut their heads off for no reason if Guild Leader said so. They were loyal fools but he couldn't forget that those two were one of the strongest people in the Guild.
Maybe even stronger than himself. James calmed himself down and looked forward straight at Colin. His emotionless eyes pierced Colin and Colin had to look away due to the shivering he felt when he stared back. This was a skill that any mastery could learn but only a few knew.
Piercing Fear, the ability to look deeply into the opponents eyes and affect them with fear and make them turn away. It was a useful skill to threaten someone or help you get away.
James grabbed his sword and charged at Colin. Colin got his two blades into a defense position and blocked the incoming attack. Of course James switched last second to cut Colin's right hip. Colin saw it and deflected the sword off.
The Stanlight Guild seemed surprised that Colin had did that.
Arnos couldn't help but feel like there was some other person here in the arena who didn't want to be seen. He closed his eyes and used Presence Seeker. Surely enough a few seconds later, two blobs of two men appeared. They were using some sort of invisibility skill to hide themselves.
'Who are they? I should tell Hunter about them if something doesn't feel right."
Colin threw both blades up and James rushed towards Colin. Colin had to try dodge a bit before the blades landed in his hands and he landed a successful hit. All though during the time of dodging he had got cut near the stomach. They both were evenly hurt and disoriented.
James lunged towards Colin and caught him unexpected. James was on top on Colin, trying his best to stab down on him. Colin was barely holding on when he remembered a skill that he had especially learnt for these kind of situations. It seemed like he disappeared but was still there. Arnos knew this as he had seen him beforehand.
James on the other hand was confused for a second, before realizing what was going on but that was enough time for Colin to push James off and get back on his feet.
Mirage Escape, the ability to seem like you disappear but really you are still there. Even a slight pause or distraction can open up an escape route for you.
James smirked, he shouldn't have lost focus, just like that he ran at Colin and mid way through spun like a cyclone. It was Cyclone Twist!
'Wait... No. It's a skill fusion!!!'
Skill Fusion: When combining two or more skills together at the same time. Only a few can do it, it is deadly. It uses a lot of energy.
'But Cyclone Twist and what else?' Arnos thought intently.
Colin saw that trouble was brewing and tried to evade the attack. Anyone was crazy to go head on with James right now, well unless they wanted a death wish.
With the cyclone twist activated, his speed was much faster than what Arnos had ever seen before. The cyclone was going up and down, regularly there would be wind like blast things that shot out and Colin unfortunately got hit by one of them and it was fatal. The good thing was that the skill suddenly stopped.
The crowd was silent and the Stanlight Guild weren't paranoid but were unhappy that the match had gone on for so long.
The two men were waiting in a corner and watching the whole thing unnoticed. They were The Vanishing Brothers. The two most loyal to the Stanlight Guild Leader, not to the guild but to the leader. Two boys who had a special mastery, specialized for spying on other people. Don't get me wrong though, you should never get on their bad side.
Colin gagged and coughed out some blood in reflex. He looked down, shocked to see that his chest was bleeding a lot. He needed to wrap this up or he might go unconscious due to lost of blood. He looked to see his opponents position.
James has cuts and light blood wounds and wasn't that affected but he had used a lot of energy during the skill fusion. He didn't think twice and used his only healing scroll. Scrolls were quite rare so they weren't mentioned in the rules. He only had one because he didn't think Colin would last so long and had saved it for emergencies.
He started healing, the Stanlight Guild smiled mischievously. Colin on the other hand wasn't shocked. James wouldn't have used a skill fusion if it took so much energy. So he would've had some sort of healing thing.
Colin breathed in and out. He tossed a blade in the air and ran at James. While sweeping his one blade aiming for the legs. James after fully recovering had much more energy than Colin. He easily jumped over and returned the favor to Colin but he made a mistake. James forgot about the blade in the air.
SLASH! It stabbed down barely missing James by a little bit. He had remembered last second and ducked to the side. They clashed together, Colin parried off the attack while James swung his sword at him. They clashed for a few minutes until Colin grew very tired and knew it was time to use his trump card.
His eyes grew dark red and his movements grew quicker and quicker and quicker. Colin definitely stole and took the advantage and now had the upper hand.
James wouldn't give up so easily though.
A few minutes later.
'Oh no. This is bad! Colin needs to finish now or he'll pass out from exhaustion!'
The time was ticking, Arnos looked towards Hunter who was frowning and looking worried.
30
29
28
27
26
25...
Colin of course knew it was going to end soon and he tried very hard. James looked beaten and tired but was still holding up. The two minions were grinning and The Stanlight Guild was ready for the win.
10
9
8...
In a turn of events when all hope was lost. Suddenly James crashed to the floor. Light swing was all it took. James has lost a lot of energy when trying to hold back Colin. He forgot to pay attention for that and got hurt. He laid down, unconscious with blood pouring out of him.
3
2
Colin was going to finish him off when he himself also passed out.
The audience was silent, when Arnos's guild broke out in cheer and the Stanlight Guild were in disbelief and total shock. The Co-Leader, Marcus banged his clenched fist on the table in front of him in frustration and humiliation.
They left the Guild after they had fully healed Colin. They were proud and everyone congratulated him and Arnos smiled and patted him on the back. It was a great day, that day The Stanlight Guild lost face and they showed them who they were messing with.
Back at their own guild, there was a feast to celebrate that Colin had won. It was amazing and there was a lot of food. They ate heartily, the feast went on all the way till 3:00pm.
Back with James, James hd gotten severely beaten by not the Leader but the Co-Leader. He couldn't fight back since Marcus had more authority over him but Marcus stopped and trembled when he saw the figure behind James. It was the Leader and he was unhappy. Not because of the lost but because Marcus was beating up his cousin.
"I know what happened. But. When did I give you permission to beat him up?" His voice was not bold or scary but the tone and his looks gave terrible vibes. Marcus shivered and suddenly slumped to the floor. One of The Vanishing brothers stood behind him with a knife that was covered in blood.
"He's not dead. Just unconscious. I'm disappointed in you, James. Don't lose another match or I might just do something. The only reason. You're still alive is because you're my cousin. Now go."
James left with his head down. He was mad at himself, frustrated and mad that he didn't win. Mad that he was seen getting beaten up by him. The man who has no guts and uses his authority to get away from trouble.
As James left, The Guild Leader muttered to himself.
"Jackson, sigh. Why do you have such a failure of a cousin?" He muttered to himself.