Eva had just healed Noah, he'd given her two copper coins for her troubles once again. She'd try to decline them once, before defeatedly accepting it.
It was night, the sun had set, the crowd had begun becoming drunk, the air felt colder and sweeter. But, it was not the time to rest. Not yet.
He travelled down the main road, took the first alleyway to the right, then he'd taken the second left. He knew the path from memory, he'd come here often. He continued forward until the three wooden stacked boxes, that was a way point, he took a left.
In front of him he saw a construction error. The buildings which were meant to connect, did not, one of them was too small. There was a narrow vertical path way there, he squeezed himself through it.
It was a lot tougher than it had been a year ago, he'd grown quite a bit after all, he thought about how the larger people would be able to fit in. He'd successfully squeezed through and was met by the sight of a fight.
The fight was between a black person, and a white one, they were similar in length and muscles. Around them stood multiple boys and looked at them, some nodding, some smiling and each one chanting "Fight, fight, fight…" whilst rocking their hands.
The most notable person in that circle would be Ferro, he was bald and a year older than Noah. He was a lot fiercer and crueler, kind of a bully, but he had a thing for fighting. He loved it. A few years ago he'd started this with a few friends, each night they got together and fought. Then it had caught on and became more popular between the younger adventurers.
Ferro and Noah had became acquainted when Noah started fighting here, you could call them friends, they had a connection of sorts, both of them adventurers, young and poor. But they weren't, life was cruel and they had no problem betraying each other. It hadn't got to that though.
When Ferro saw Noah a wide smile grew on his face as he greeted him, "Hello, old friend", "Hey Ferro". After their greeting, Ferro's attention returned to the fight, and Noah's followed after.
The black boy had wrapped his arms around the white one's waste, and was trying to topple him. The white one tried his best to keep his balance, whilst sending sharp uppercuts at the other ones stomach, they had both taken off their shirts.
The black one kept pushing and eventually made the white one fall backwards, he mounted him quickly and punched him twice in the face before the white one begged for mercy, the fight was over.
Ferro didn't think so, he ran forward and kicked the white on in the face, "fuck mercy" before letting out a deep laugh. The other boys around them laughed with him, not because it was funny, because they didn't want to not laugh at Ferro's joke.
All but one, Noah found it dirty. It was man on man, he broke that. Noah spit on the ground. Ferro noticed that Noah wasn't laughing, "Ahh come on old friend, it was just a joke" Ferro said, "you know what, I haven't seen you fight in a while. How about a fight with me?"
It was posed as a question, but it wasn't. If he'd said no, Ferro would attack him and begin the fight that way, he'd seen it happen. The chanting had dropped own, silence dominated and everyone was waiting for Noah's answer.
He wasn't going to decline the offer. He took off his cloth shirt and dropped it to the side along with his rusty sword, an uproar. The chanting continued more fiercely than before, they were in for a show.
"Takin off our shirts are we? Ferro said, as he started taking off his own shirt.
Ferro was taller, bigger and stronger than Noah, his muscles were bulging. Nonetheless, he was still bony, poverty does that to you. Noah got into the artificial ring alongside Ferro, they stood 2 meters apart from each other.
The fight had started. Both of them took up their guards and begun moving towards each other. Noah had a feeling that he would have to bother Eva again later tonight. They were completely focused on each other, the chanting had completely been faded out.
Their breathing, the subtle movements, the barriers to their fight; that was all they thought off. Noah went for the first strike, the one who strikes first, strikes last. It was a kick towards his the left part of his waist. Instead of dodging Ferro blocked it with his arm whilst approaching Noah.
He gave a kick of his own, a wider more powerful kick, but it was slower. Noah stepped back, he had been pushed back towards his corner. They took up their guard and stared at each other once again.
This time Ferro lunged at Noah, if he could get him down onto the ground it would be a finished fight. Noah sidestepped this and forcefully kicked Ferros left leg making him loose balance.
They had switched positions. Ferro stabilized his balance and begun approaching Noah slowly. Noah was running through multiple attacks in his mind, each one ended in failure. He slowly backed hoping Ferro would make a mistake, but Ferro approached him with discipline.
Noahs back was against the artificial ring, he had to go for an attack now. He went for a left jab, Ferros body responded but it was a bluff! Noah spun and went for an elbow attack with his left arm. Ferro might of moved his body but his eyes were following Noah's actions closely, the attack was too slow. Ferro instantly lunged at Noah bringing him down to the ground.
Ferro mounted Noah and started punching his head, Noah brought up his hands in order to defend himself but it was futile in front of Ferro's brutal force, by the third punch Noah tapped out and shouted for mercy. Ferro stopped his hand midway.
The previous white boy who had been kicked in the head had recovered, he ran out from the crowd and kicked Noah in the head, "FUCK MERCY" he shouted. It made Noah pass out. The ring of boys immediately became silent , wind was all that could be heard. Ferros eyes were piercing the boy now, he slowly arose and approached him.
…
Noah woke up, his head rested against Hay. He had a terrible headache, his body was slightly bruised but it was nothing. He looked around and spotted Ferro sleeping, he had a rough idea of what had happened. Beside him laid his sword and shirt, he quickly grabbed them before leaving. When he was about to exit, Ferro spoke up "You owe me one", before continuing to snore.
Noah heard him but didn't respond, he closed the barn door and made his way towards the adventure hall. It wasn't far away and eventually, he was there. He found Jimmy sitting on a stool waiting for him, Jimmy had spotted him the second he entered the adventure hall.
Noah didn't have the time to think before Jimmy dragged him out of the adventure hall and towards the sewers. By now, Noah nearly puked when he thought of the sewers, especially the water running through.
It was finally time to kill rats though, and that was pretty nice, pretty nice indeed!