The smile was about providing intimidation by showing confidence. I was showing the physically older youth that he didn’t intimidate me. Not even six months of bullying, subtly or otherwise, could make that true. The fact of the matter was, I had dealt with much worse and would deal with much worse for the sake of protecting my family and those I cared about.

Pain was nothing. Danger was nothing. I was ready to fight even if it came down to Edbert and I duking it out hand to hand. I wasn’t the same low level punk that I was last time he dealt with me.

Besides that, I had leveled my monsters up and with such speed that even the Baron and his in-laws would have to take note. Either way, the fight was about to begin, so I knew I needed to pay attention.

While I was pretty sure of the rules of a Octahedronite mediated duel, if there was anything that my time in Hekatondrona had taught me, it was that assuming made an ass out of me.

“No intentional maiming will be allowed. As stated before, there will be no targeting the human combatants until the smaller of the two -” she stopped, observing the two of us before speaking, “Edbert, attacks first.”

That was not good. It was almost enough to make me mentally scream curses. That meant this would be a cull contact match in every sense of the word. I knew Edbert would throw everything he had at me. I tried to keep my confidence showing, though.

“Additionally, as cited by young master Edbert, the sixth compact ruling on the mediated duel there will be an additional rule put in place. The battle will be one monster versus one monster.”

He gave me a shit-eating grin at that, flaring his nostrils and looking all the while like the hazel eyed, chestnut brown-haired young man had caught me in some sort of trap.

I hadn’t just leveled my monsters to level six. After obtaining the traits for my core monsters, I had leveled each of the four to level ten. Bedevere the Beelebian had even somehow grown from level 6 to level eleven in the same amount of experience I had spent on the others.

“Each spar between monsters will last until one monster is knocked out, surrenders via return by its master, or the timer of eight minutes per bout runs down. In the case of the timer, a spell will be used to calculate and grant a point for every successful strike landed.”

My monsters weren’t likely to be faster than his, so that meant whenever I was fighting, I’d need to go for the knockout blow.

“Finally… the winner of the duel is to be granted one monster from the possession of the other.”

I grit my teeth at that, even more reasons why I had to win. More reasons to make sure I understood every bit of the laws herein Hekatondrona as well.

But I didn't have time to muse on it either.

“With these rules reviewed, BEGIN!”

As the words came from her mouth, I had already reached for the reliquary of Bagheera and threw it. She would lead the way.

As the die came down, my eyes moved from Edbert to his chosen monster as it launched from the reliquary.

Once again, it was Faerir. A quick scan confirmed it was level 12 and Edbert was level 12 as a guard as well.

As the wolf went from being summoned to turning into mist and launching it at Bagheera, I had a moment of panic. Had I not prepared enough?

Bagheera answered that question for me with a roar. Then the two were locked in a struggle. Heated claws and fangs slicing at the larger, evolved wolf monster and landing glancing blows.

In exchange, Bagheera took several scratches and a few deep gashes from a bite the wolf monster had landed on my jaguar-smilodon hybrid cub.

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Their fight went on and I realized the value of having the classes I had gained as a health bar on Faerir began to begin to go down faster than Bagheera. Where it was stronger, a higher level, and older, the Ossicarn I was partnered with was more sturdy and unwilling to give up.

As the wolf flitted around the jaguar with its mist step technique, Bagheera had begun to use its own pounce technique to predict Faerie's appearances and to leap to those spots.

I would have watched it forever but I felt a punch from Edbert and a shout of “Your fight is with me, not my monsters. And you will show me the respect that entails.”

His long sword was already drawn and pointing all too close to my throat. Instinct and weeks of hard training with the shepherd brought my staff out and down. With a loud twap against his knee, he was forced back.

"Fine, you’ve got my attention. You’re going to regret it though. After all, Bagheera doesn't need my coaching to deal with your bag of fleas."

I held my staff with both hands in a neutral position, ready to guard or attack as I waited.

“Regret it? Bag of fleas? Don't insult me like that, you filthy peasant!"

With the word came boos from outside, and echoes of his words and my own could be heard. As he charged at me, I was ready.

First rule of staff fighting I was taught was don't let your enemy close with you if you have superior reach.

So I flurried a few strikes at his knee again.

As I did, I dropped to a half-crouch and performed an upward swing directly at his breastplate.

He wasn't new to a fight though and dodged out of the way of the strike at his chest, only to be caught on the chin by that same stroke as I lunged forward.

He immediately moved to step back and regain his balance. As he did, I brought my staff back up and used it to push myself up.

If I had more points in the blunt weapons skill, maybe I could have done something acrobatic and mind blowing. I was going to have to fight like a dirty amateur if I really wanted to stand up to his higher level and likely almost on par swords skill.

I was faster to my feet given the assistance of my staff, and when I got up I spun around on my heels and with a forward step of my left foot and a lunge I forced him to dodge and kept it up. I could see even as we fought the floating health bars of our respective monsters, alongside their names, and that allowed me to have a bit of battlefield awareness.

As such, just as Faerir was about to land a massive bite on Bagheera from behind, I used my staff to pole vault. My plan was to kick Edbert into his wolf monster.

Edbert’s longsword swiped my staff out from under me while I was mid thrust. Instead of me launching him, his attack sent me barrelling into his wolf instead. In a series of scratches from it and punches, knees, and elbows from me, we rolled across the field to catcalls and whoops from the crowd before Bagheera launched herself like a flaming bullet into Faerir’s side.

Her entire demeanor demanded the wolf focus on her, and with a fearsome roar I was reminded how little my kitten monster really had in common with an actual house cat, and what she did have in common with one.

So as she used her natural weapons, pounce, and vulcan’s crescent again and again at the wolf I realized how much had changed since our initial encounter six months ago. Then, it had taken four monsters at once to even threaten Faerir.

But I didn’t have much more time to think about it, because Edbert charged at me with his sword again and I had to scramble to my feet and away from the mass of fur, fang, and claws nearby. Sweeping my staff out like one would beat clean a rug on the line, I kept Edbert back and he let me.

“Faerir, use wing sling.” he said, and I for a second thought I was about to be attacked from behind.

Instead, I hear a loud roar from Bagheera and there was a shout from Marlie on the sidelines.

“Round one is finished! Bagheera the Ossicarn has defeated Edbert’s Faerir!”

Edbert’s Faerir. It was practically his original partner from what I understood and yet he didn’t bother to nickname it? What a snob.

Or was I the weird one for naming my monsters? Only people I knew other than I that did it were Jose the Guard Captain.

With the battle over, Bagheera and I headed back to our side, and I caught my breath. While I did, I looked her over. She was at a tenth of her health, from the system interface provided by my skills, and I could tell just from sight she was exhausted.

That had been a really close battle, and while I had time I reached down to scruff her fur.

“Good girl, Bagheera. You did a great job. But now it’s someone else’s turn.”

I reached for her reliquary and returned her, before turning to Edbert. His eyes were angry and his cheeks puffed out but he wasn’t saying anything just yet.

“I think next we’ll use Hierophant.” I murmured to myself, and reached for the Liefviathan’s reliquary.