When Endrian arrived home it was already night and most of the family were already asleep. His mind had been thinking about the challenge and he had come up with a few more questions, so he went to his mother because he was hoping she was still waiting up for him like usual and could answer his questions. He found her in her room laying out a new outfit that looked like it was for him, based on the size.

“Mom, I have a few more questions in regards to this challenge, do you have a moment?” he asked her.

“Endrian there’s really not much else you need to understand, all you need to know is to fight and win leave the rest of the stuff to the women. Look, you are required to go to this otherwise I would rather you stay here.”

Endrian was a little disgruntled to hear his mom say something like that, it was very unlike her, but he decided to ignore it for now because she was probably stressed out. Instead he asked “It’s only a couple of questions, and then I will stop asking.”

Sighing she stopped what she was doing and gave him the look. You know that look that only mother’s can give when they are both annoyed and indulging their child. “Fine but no more questions after tonight you will see it all tomorrow.”

Smiling Endrian thanked his mom and then asked “So why must we take this challenge anyway if this is for the rights to sell our bows to the city guard then, shouldn’t our superior design be sufficient to just ignore the challenge right?”

Allyce looked at him like he was some stranger in her house asking about the weather. “Why would you even ask that? You would really sacrifice your family members’ word? We have already agreed to the challenge. This is a matter of honor, though, it is equally also about what we can do legally in the city.”

Endrian felt confused and asked “I’m not sure I understand what you mean. I understand the family honor is at stake, but really if that’s all is it worth the risk to dad?”

Smiling as she understood it wasn’t a matter of just disregarding family honor but it was a matter of caring about the family she felt a little better. “Endrian, I’m not sure if you’re old enough to understand this, but when you give your word it is law. This is not just for honor but this could even impact your cultivation. When you give your word to do something, then it creates a bond to you when you break that bond it causes your will to weaken it creates self doubt, even if you are unaware of it, and this can negatively affect your future in ways that are hard to understand. On top of that how would busines even be accomplished if you could not trust the other parties word?” She finished with an amused smile.

Thinking of his old world made him feel kind of complicated about the last part of that statement. It made him think of the small mom and pop businesses in the mid 20th century who got screwed over by large companies because they expected people to honor their word. Though the cultivation impact seemed like an interesting way to enforce people were more honorable.

Allyce continued on to say “Oh well I suppose there is also the rules of the challenge that would prevent people from surrendering the fight. You see each family also writes up a list of demands in regards to the challenge. These lists are verified by the city official at the arena and the winner’s list is accepted by the city and will be enforced by city law, in regards to the dispute.”

“So, can they put anything in their list of demands?” Endrian asked.

“Yes. Well, not anything. So I guess no. But they can put in anything that pertains to the dispute. No death or killing or there would just be all out fights between families. But from a business point of view they could kill or maim you. Like this Lochmond family, they will probable demand the designs for our bow and require that we never do business with the guards again. Though we can always challenge them to recover our rights to deal with the city guards and the design while forcing them to stop their dealings with the city guard so in the end it is fair to all people involved.” she explained.

“Have disputes always been handled like this?” Endrian asked.

“As far as I know, yes it has always been thus. Though, I do know they were not as civilized as now.” she paused and then looked at her son and shook her head and continued. “I have not studied these things though and I never asked these questions of my mothers as I felt it served no purpose. It is and it has been so what more is there to know? Anyway you should get some rest, the challenge will take place before high sun tomorrow. Oh yes, have any of your instructors shown you how to use the mana in your body to enhance your vision?”

“Yes Esalana and Kuuthyia both explained how it works and I was able to reproduce it to some extent when we were practicing the different combat techniques.” he relied.

“That’s good. Then tomorrow you will get to practice this more when you watch your father. Now, off to bed with you. You need to get better sleep to grow strong like your father, no need for more than one bag of bones in the family.” she said with some self deprecating humor.

Smiling bitterly Endrian walked over and gave her a hug. He didn’t say anything just hugged her. After returning the hug she said “Go on, now. Go get some rest.” and as he left he could tell there were some tears in her eyes.

The next day Endrian got up and got ready for the day. He went through some of his new forms and started practicing his movement and attack techniques. Afterwards he helped fix breakfast like usual, then he went to get cleaned up himself. Finished cleaning up he started to get dressed in the new clothes his mother had put out for him when he put on the shirt he noticed that the back had a pair of slits in it that were held together by something in the fabric. It felt kind of weird like he had two sticks shoved down the back of his shirt. He assumed it was for his wings.

After he was ready he left his room to meet with everyone in the entryway to the house. Before he had made it two steps out of his room his mom called for him. Turning he saw her standing there with Ethese who was pouting.

“I thought you would like to say farewell to your sister before you went with everyone.” Allyce said with a weak smile.

Ethese spoke up in a huff “I don’t see why I can’t go with big brother.”

Endrian couldn’t help but smile as he listened to her. He vividly remembered how frustrating it was not being able to go out or do things with everyone. “Don’t worry just a little bit more and you will be able to do what you want.” He said to her comfortingly.

She frowned and scrunched her eyebrows together in the most adorable pouting face Endrian had seen in a long time. Walking up to her to give her a hug he said “Remember to take care of the house for me while I’m gone and don’t forget to study so that you can get into the academy later.”

She didn’t say anything but just pouted and turned into his chest and hid her face with her arms still crossed. After a moment Allyce said “Okay Ethese it’s time for your brother to go.” As soon as she said those words Ethese quickly uncrossed her arms and grabbed on to Endrian like she was going to lose him if she didn’t keep a strong hold on him.

Patting her head Endrian said “Ethese I’m sure that everything is going to be fine. I’m sure we’ll be back before you know it. Now I need to go, everyone is waiting for me.”

She turned and ran into Allyce’s arms and buried her face in her shoulder. His mom gave a sad smile and turned to head back to her room.

Calling out he asked “Are you not going either mother?”

She stopped but did not turn around and said “No. I chose to stay and watch over Ethese while everyone is busy.” She then continued into her carrying Ethese.

After saying his goodbyes Endrian went down and met with everyone. He noticed that they all seemed to be wearing the same style of clothes that he was. Davian was carrying his shield and spear and had a focused look. He noticed other pieces of armor around the room placed next to the various people. When they saw endrian Vanya stood up and cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention.

“Listen up young ones. I know none of you have gone through a challenge before so here is how things will work. The women will surround Davian and we will be carrying his armor for him. We will walk in silence and head to the arena. Girls you will line up in two columns behind Shyael. Elva on the Shyael’s left and Zakoya on her right. Endrian you will be in the middle with Etopha and Lisyth following.” pausing for a moment to look all the children in the eyes and make sure they were paying attention she said “You must maintain silence once we leave this house until we arrive at the arena. This is to show respect for all those that have fought and sacrificed so that we can have the order we have now. If you cannot do this then say so now.” After waiting a moment for them to say anything she finished her speech by saying “When we leave here you do what we do. If we change, you change, if we stop you stop. Does everyone understand?” Receiving nods of acknowledgement she nodded and then picked up the chest armor and headed out of the door.

As soon as they walked outside the house the adults all changed to their fighting form. Which surprised Endrian and the girls but no one said anything and they transformed as well. When Endrian transformed his wings poked through the slits in the back of his shirt and it was actually surprisingly comfortable to wear like this. The walk to the arena was uneventful if a little ritualistic but Endrian didn’t mind. It was fascinating and he wanted to appreciate everything while at the same time his emotions were warring inside of him with concern, excitement, and curiosity. As they walked people would move out of their way and bow their heads briefly in a show of respect.

When we arrived at the arena it was a little surprising for Endrian to see because all he could see was a wall. It wasn’t that tall a little less than 3 meters in height. They walked up to a gate that had no other traffic near it. The gate keeper looked them over slightly pausing on Endrian or more specifically his wings, but he quickly recovered and waved them through. After they walked past the wall Endrian could see the arena which was not what he was expecting. Instead of this huge structure it was more like a crater. It looked almost like the waves of an ocean carved out of stone. The seating area was surprisingly not as massive as he would expect but the scale of it was mind boggling to him. Just at a glance you could probably fit three Busch stadiums in the “playing” field. The seating was all stone benches and the waves were shelters to help block the weather from the attendee. The benches and seating sections were set up at a height that was probably about 20 meters in the air relative to the playing field.

The playing field itself was a marvel. There was grass growing, and sandy area. There was a stream flowing across the field. Peppered around the field were pillars of different elements, he could see pillars of wood, of metal, of ice, of fire and water as well as lightning, light and dark. It was mind blowing and physics defying. There were various places that had rocky cover and forested areas. It was an impressively diverse field. While Endrian was taking this all in the family had continued to walk and were starting to descend down some stairs. These led to a large room at what he guessed was the same level as the playing field.

At this point Vanya spoke up “Okay children I want you to wait here while we go and help your father prepare.” and with that she, Ratrece, and Shyael walked in carrying the various pieces of Davian’s armor.

As they sat there Elva couldn’t hold it in anymore “This is so exciting!” she exclaimed. “I can’t wait to see my first challenge. I’ve always been curious about it ever since I had heard about a family getting challenged in Landow. Mama wouldn’t let me go back then though.” she said with a slight frown on her face.

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“I’m not sure I would call this exciting.” Zakoya said with a small frown.

Etopha and Lisyth jumped in saying “How is this Not exciting?! Dad is going to go out and fight and win and bring honor to our mothers!”

Endrian smiled as he watched the interaction between his sisters but decided not to join in the conversation as he was afraid his own worries about this situation would affect the mood. Though it seemed that this simple desire was not going to be realize.

Elva looked at Endrian and said strongly “You need to watch dad carefully so that when it’s your turn to fight for the honor of your family and your wives you will be able to do your best.”

Endrian smiled at Elva, he had a wry feeling in his heart but tried to keep it off his face. He still nodded so that she would leave him alone. When she get’s worked up she just doesn’t stop pestering people until she get’s what she wants. It’s both amusing and annoying; amusing when directed at others and annoying when directed at you.

Zakoya moved over to Endrian and said quietly “You seem to be unusually quiet. You are usually asking questions about everything.”

“I talked with my mother last night about the challenge and got most of my questions answered. That and I’m a little worried the mood on the way here was a little tense, and I’m thinking about the ramifications of this challenge, what caused it and whether it will end here, win or lose.” He said in a suppressed tone. Elva, Etopha and Lisyth were all talking about what they would do with their husband and how they were looking forward to walking with him to do battle for the family.

“Don’t worry so much little brother.” She said while wrapping her arm around his neck and dragging him closer to kiss his head. “That’s for our mothers to figure out.”

Not long after Davian and their mothers came out. Davian was looking like a fantasy war god. He had his standard round shield with a polished steel finish strapped to his left arm. His spear was deadly looking in it’s simplicity. He had dark black scales that had a blue tinge at the edges with his steel grey eyes. His metal chest piece covered his torso and had a chainmail skirt at the bottom and his shoulders. There was an additional shoulderpad on his right shoulder that had a metal arm guard that met with a metal bracer on his weapon arm. There were metal plates on his legs that looked insect like and they went down to his knee which was reinforced with additional metal and almost looked like a small target shield on each knee. His feet were covered with a steel covering but the bottom of his pad was exposed so that he had better feel of the ground. To round it off he had a steel helmet that looked both fierce and practical.

Vanya spoke up to get the children’s attention “Okay we are going to meet the city official. While we can speak now without breaking any traditions it would be best if you children remained quiet while we finish things up. Then we will head to our seating and your father will take the field. If you have any questions,” and she looked pointedly at Endrian “then hold them until we get to the seating. Okay? Let’s go.”

After meeting with the city official and handing over a list of their demands in regards to the dispute. They were informed that the match would start at high sun. The city official handed something to Vanya who in turn gave it to Davian. They then went off to the private seating area reserved for the fighters family while Davian headed down to the fighter’s entrance. As they were waiting for the time to occur a knock came from to door. Vanya gave a strange look and opened the door. Where she saw Rantak standing there.

“May I help you guard commander Rantak?” Vanya asked.

“Ah, I just need to talk with Endrian. If you could send him out here?” she replied somewhat formally.

“Is he in trouble?” Vanya asked with a little worry in her voice.

“Oh no, he’s not in trouble just some information I need to pass on to him. Thanks.” she said with a smile.

Vanya turned and look at Endrian and moved out of his way so that he could go and talk with Rantak.

He moved outside and Rantak turned and walked off with him. After walking for awhile she came to a room and opened the door. There was no one else in there. She let him in and closed the door behind her.

“So how are you doing? Are you excited?” Rantak asked with an expectant expression on her face.

“Really?” Endrian was shocked. She comes down grabs me from my family while my dad is putting his life on the line and she is expecting me to be excited?

“What don’t tell me your afraid.” she responded.

Giving her an exasperated look Endrian said “Did you really come down here just to talk about my mental well being right now?”

“Your not being fun.” she said with a mock hurt look but then straightened up some and said “No, not really, though I was interested in how you were handling this.” Endrian just stared at her.

“Don’t give me that look, you’re what 7 maybe 8. Gain some mass then come back and try again.” she said while ruffling his hair. “Well I heard some news that there were some noble houses that were moving against you and your family. If this becomes and issue the church will step in on your behalf because we don’t want problems occurring while you are training at the academy.”

“Why are you telling Me this? Shouldn’t you be talking to my mothers about this?” Endrian asked confused.

“No, I wouldn’t talk with them. I don’t really care about them. But you’re different, I’m not sure what it is about you but you’re easy to talk to. I find our conversations enjoyable instead of tiring.”

“Which brings us back to the point of me being 7.” He said looking at her strangely.

“Don’t give me that.” she said while smacking him on the back of his head. “It’s more like an intelligent and nice younger brother instead of a self important, or arrogant dipshit of a younger brother.”

“Thanks?” he said trying to follow her train of thought.

“So how are you feeling, are you excited to watch your dad fight in this challenge?” she asked again with some expectation.

“Umm, not really excited. I’m not sure how I feel, though, I can say that I would rather be the one out there than the one watching. I’ve never been much of a spectator.” he replied with some ambivalence.

“Ha so you would rather fight for the honor of your family, commendable.” she said boisterously. To which Endrian couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “Well you go back and watch your dad they should be starting soon. Oh yeah one more thing. The scouts returned about a week ago. They had said that during a fight with some abominations that their communication crystal was lost. So they weren’t able to report in and only got back three days ago. They said that they didn’t find anything out there to be concerned about other than some abominations running around. They recommended that we increase the patrols in that area to hunt down these things when they show up.”

“Ah, that’s good to know.” after a short pause to realize the ramifications of what she said he said under his breath “and irritating.” Speaking in a regular tone he asked “So have you informed the priestesses?”

“Yes we have. Though it was yesterday that they were notified because we had to questioned the entire scout crew and verify the report as best we could.” she said.

Which translated into another round of being told he was the chosen one, due to lack of evidence and the fact that there were abominations running around. Sighing he could only deal with that when the time comes. Waving bye to Rantak he headed back to the seating box for the family.

After arriving back there Vanya asked about what was going on and what Rantak had wanted. After letting her know about the possible nobles ganging up on them Vanya did not have a happy look on her face. However, when Endrian told her about the churches possibly stepping in she felt a lot more comfortable. Shortly after their conversation a loud announcement was heard. “Ladies, allow me to welcome you to the challenge by house Lockmond against the house of Vanya. Davian will be representing the house of Vanya and Sulabar Lockmond will be representing house Lockmond. The dispute lists have been set and verified. The betting locations have been locked, Let the fight begin!”

As soon as the word “begin” rang out Endrian saw his dad take off. He could barely see his dad move and then he remembered that he had to enhance his eyes to be able to track this fight properly. He also noticed that the window seemed to change like it was tracking his dad. It didn’t appear to be like video but more like the focus of the window tweaked and changed to keep Davian in focus or at least his location in focus. His arms and legs were moving at a speed that was difficult for the eyes to track without enhancement.

He watched as he dad flashed past a metal pillar and was caught by surprise when he saw the pillar form 5 rings from it side as he flashed past. His spear moved through the rings and then they broke off from the pillar in a clean section. As he looked he saw that they molded around the spear so that as he was running they wouldn’t slide off or go flying. He also didn’t appear to be searching for his enemy but rather making as straight a line as he could. Within moments the two of them met each other, and unlike movies there was no slowing down for banter rather they immediately launched attacks at each others.

Endrian first saw Sulabar as he came within attacking distance of his father. He looked like a large cat or panther, his hair was a dark navy blue color and had spots similar to a cheetah’s that were a light blue creating a beautiful contrast between the colors. Physically he was slightly smaller than Davian but looked no less ferocious. His cat like ears twitching and swiveling to catch sounds or changes in the air. His red eyes glared at Davian as the fight began.

As soon as they were within a hundred paces of each other Sulabar launched his first attack. This attack consisted of these dart like weapons which were attached to his shield. Without moving in the shield in a way to release them they flew out and launched towards Davian. At the same time Davian thrust his spear forward like he was attacking, even though they were more than 20 meters apart. Some of the metal that he had picked up slid free of the tip of the spear and changed into an arrowhead like dart that launched towards Sulabar.

Davian then lifted his shield to intercept the first of his darts that were flying towards him. They had arced in a strange pattern where after the first one another would land from the opposite side, and then two more would come in from an angle that would be hard to see if he blocked the second. As the first dart impacted on his shield it just splatted and became a part of the shield with little to no impact or damage. As he took the first impact on his left side he raise his spear to intercept the next dart and it splashed and merged with his spear.

While Davian was handling the darts his first projectile had arrived at Sulabar. He took the hit on his shield and deflected it away but the dart had bit into the shield and that caused an impact that shifted the shield back slightly. However, it was barely enough for Sulabar to register the change and he sneered at Davian thinking he would be easy. The next second Sulabar’s eyes went wide and he lifted up both his feet and his body shifted to the right in the air which brought his shield back in line and caught the small metal needle that was flying behind the dart. This had caused him to lose some of his forward momentum which Davian took advantage of. Also with the slight surprise and lapse in concentration as Sulabar reacted to the surprise attack the three other darts had all shot off in a direction that would no longer impact Davian.

Davian moved to capitalize on this slight advantage and when he planted his leg he was launched at an even greater speed and led with his shield hitting Sulabar shield to shield and because of his much greater momentum it launched Sulabar back as he still hadn’t had a chance to firmly plant his legs to rebuff the incoming charge. As he was flying back he spun in the air and his hammer launched out and slammed into Davian’s shield before coming to a stop at the end of its strap and then being pulled back into Sulabar’s hand. Sulabar smiled as he floated backwards in a way that looked like a bad chinese wire fight scene.

Behind Davian another dart was coming at him but it was glowing a cherry red and was on fire. It was perfectly in a blind spot and Davian smiled and then the dart hit him. It immediately splashed on him which caused him to yell out in pain and anger. The cherry red metal then launched off of his body as his chest piece shifted and scooped up what it could and threw it away.

In the box Endrian was watching and was so overwhelmed by the speed of the events he wasn’t sure how to respond. It had only been a few seconds from the time that they had made contact and yet so much had occurred. He watched with his fists clenched and he yelled out “No” when he realized that his dad was going to get hit by the flaming dart. There were gasps around the room as well when this happened.

Sulabar smiled gloatingly and stepped down to launch forward and press the advantage he had gained. However, as his foot hit the ground it crumbled underneath him and then he cried out as well as he stumbled and fell forward. Davian recovered and moved forward using the time given by his surprise attack that took his opponent down. However as he stepped forward his eyes grew wide as he moved his shield in front of him and his body pivoted without moving his feet. Seconds later an explosion of fire and air pressure washed over Davian. Gritting his teeth he took the hit and shoved his spear forward again and this time three metal balls launched off the end. They weren’t carrying the speed of his first attack but they were larger and were all flying for Sulabar’s head.

Now Sulabar was just about to hit the ground when a small knob appeared right under his chin. His hands smacked the ground to break his fall but the his momentum was enough that his head still hit the ground. Endrian wasn’t sure why he still wound up hitting the ground but he did see the knob that had appeared connected solidly with Sulabar’s chin. As he hit the ground and the knob he was dazed and his foot came up out of the hole. The whole foot was covered in cuts and even some of it was dangling at a weird angle. A second later the three metal balls hit Sulabar in the head and temple knocking him out.

Sighing Davian kneeled down and set his spear down then reached up to his neck and a small piece of metal slid out of a hole like a plant sprouting up from the soil and he plucked it out of his body with a wince. He did this a few more times and while he was doing that an announcement went out.

“Davian of the house of Vanya is the winner by rendering the opponent unconscious. The demands made by the house of Vanya will be approved. All bets need to be collected before tomorrow or they will be voided. Thank you for coming to Ampleforth’s Arena.” said the woman’s voice.

Watching the fight Endrian really had a wake up call. What he pictured as fighting was downright child’s play compared to what he saw. The brutality, the speed, the awareness of the battlefield. This was eye opening as nothing he had experienced so far. It also made him realize just how lucky he was during the crash. If this was the standard of fighting for adults he had a long, Long way to go.