Chereads / Journey to The New World / Chapter 6 - The Duel

Chapter 6 - The Duel

It was now 4:50 PM in the afternoon, approximately ten minutes before the duel against Lenox. Finn exited his house and headed to the fighting ring. Finn walked out shirtless, but wearing his classic long fury jacket.

He walked through the Village with a focused expression on his face. Finn exuded authority with each step he took. He looked like a serious warrior, a strong capable man ready to decide his own fate. After walking for about five minutes he arrived at the location of the duel.

He saw the entirety of Ragon Village surrounding the ring. As he looked forward, he saw Lenox in the center of the ring holding his spear. His spear had a long wooden shaft with a metallic blade at the end.

Finn took of his long jacket and then stepped inside the ring. Once Finn took off his jacket and stepped onto the ring, everyone looked towards him. A large scar could be seen covering Finn's muscular body. This was a scar Finn had received during his time training for two years. It made him look tough. Other than the scar, people were drawn to his weapon.

Finn had a custom made sword that was sheathed. He took the sword out of the dark red sheath, and then let the sheath fall on the ground. As he walked forward, people appreciated his sword. It had a sharp, slightly curved blade and a golden grip with a curved metallic piece covering Finn's hand. Finn first found out about this atypical sword from reading a pirate book. It was a classic pirate sword. He found it interesting and after using it, he noticed it gave him a lot of mobility in battle, while still maintaining his powerful swing.

As Finn finally arrived at the center of the ring, he stood in front of Lenox. They both looked at each other coldly, intently. The entirety of the ring was silent, including the crowd, until a man started speaking.

"Now that both participants have finally arrived, let's begin. The winner of this duel, as agreed upon by both parties, will become the Leader of Ragon Village. It is important to note that this was also agreed upon by the remaining people in the village. Now, may the duel begin. Start!"

After signaling the start of the duel, both Finn and Lenox began fighting. Lenox took a step back, flexed his knees, and delivered powerful thrusts toward Finn. Finn, with his sword in his right hand, dodged Lenox's thrusts left and right. After a couple of minutes doing the same consecutive dodging, Finn started worrying.

"Shit, this is tougher than I thought it would be. I have to get past his spear", thought Finn as his abdomen was grazed by the spear. "Fuck, he almost got me."

Finn stepped back and recalibrated. Soon, Lenox was on his tail again, but this time Finn clashed his sword against Lenox's spear one time after the other. Then, suddenly, as Lenox aimed for Finn's belly, his spear was pushed aside by a powerful slash from Finn. With Lenox distracted from the sudden swing to his spear, he received a left hook to his cheek.

Lenox stumbled to the ground, and he was dizzy from the punch. As he saw Finn coming in quickly, he stumbled backwards, while lifting his spear in the air.

Seeing Lenox was able to get his guard up, Finn backed off, and waited for Lenox to move. Lenox, shocked from the strength behind the punch he just took, knew he had to finish the fight quickly because Finn would have the upper hand in a longer fight. Lenox rushed in to attack Finn. Finn, knowing a strong attack was coming, clashed his sword with Lenox. As their weapons both clashed, they were both pushed back.

"claang" "claang" "claaang"

Finn and Lenox clashed their swords again and again, until finally Lenox swung his spear with the trajectory of a parabola finishing at Finn's head. Finn, seeing what Lenox was trying to do, raised his sword over his head and met Lenox's spear midair, pushing it back to where it came from. Without waiting a second, Finn launched his counterattack. He swung his sword and cut Lenox's thigh.

As blood started flowing from the wound, Lenox let out a groan as he reacted to the sudden cut in his leg. "Fuck, Shit, I can't believe it. This damn kid how could.." but before Lenox could finish his thought, Finn let out a front kick, hitting Lenox in the chest and dropping him to the ground.

As Lenox hit the floor, he tried getting up, but soon stopped trying. Finn placed his sword in Lenox's shoulder. He didn't kill him since the fight was not to the death, after all Lenox was still his uncle. The sword on his shoulder resembled the end of the fight.

"I lost", said Lenox. "You're the leader."

As Lenox finished speaking, Finn held out his hand towards Lenox offering him to get up. "No, uncle." Lenox had taken Finn's hand and had stood up, but was startled by what he heard.

"What the hell do you mean 'NO'?", asked Lenox angrily. Everyone else in the crowd was also confused, except for Finn's friends. Although Finn never told them anything about what he planned on doing at that moment, they could imagine what he was thinking right now.

"I won't be the leader of the village." Finn responded to Lenox.

Everyone was shocked as they didn't know what was happening. Lenox included, the village was confused. So, Finn further explained.

"It is a great honor to be the Leader of Ragon Village", said Finn. "But, in the past day I realized it's not my position to fill. I am curious to know about the outside world. Although some might think I am making a foolish decision, I have made up my mind to go out and explore this mysterious world. Although I won the duel, Lenox can be the leader."

Finn decided to be as vague as possible when explaining why and where he was going since he didn't want to reveal what his father had told him in the letter. Everyone was shocked at what Finn had just said. The first one to break the silence was Mia.

"Yepp! That's right, Goran, Aldren and I are going with him too." People looked at Mia in even more shocked.

After a lot of whispering between people and conversations among the crowd criticizing their decision, Lenox spoke up.

"Alright guys, settle down. We have to respect their wishes. They are adults after all. We can worry about their safety, but apart from that we have to allow them to live their lives the way they want to live.", Lenox said acting with the authority of the leader. For the first time in a long time Lenox was helping Finn. Of course, he only supported Finn since that meant he would end up as leader.

"Wait, so why did you have the duel today?" asked a person from the crowd. "Yeah, what the hell?", added Lenox suddenly realizing what happened.

"You told me strength was everything in this world. That only the strong one leads in this world. Well, I guess I just wanted to establish who the strong one was in our Village. It's me. And as the strong one, I let you become leader, until the day I return."

Goran laughed after hearing Finn establish his authority and then looked towards Mia as she started speaking. "Well then guys, let's get going we have some preparing to do for our journey."