Straf asks. Cycelia tilts her head at his question. The people behind her flow up the stairs to the betting tables.

「I was just playing a little with the saying… You know, Redwing」

「Huh?」

Straf squints at her, his confusion only deepening further.

「Wait, you don't know?」

「Know what? Lia, you're making it sound like I'm missing an important plot point. Let's get my gold, and then explain.」

「What-? Okay…」

She furrows her brow and moves out of his way. Straf and Cycelia climb up the stairs, queuing up behind the crowd. They pick up their meager winnings caused by the mostly even odds, then return to their seats.

「Ah… You risked so much for so little…」

「Meh. So, what was that about Redwing and luck?」

Straf shrugs, and glances at Cycelia. Her eyebrows raise a little.

「I thought it was common knowledge. Are there no dragons in your kingdom, Straf?」

「You mean flying beasts that spew death everywhere?」

「Yes-」

「Oh no, they're all over.」

「What!?」

「Yeah, you'd love 'em. They're great.」

Straf smirks and nods with his arms crossed. Cycelia stares at him in wide-eyed shock, mouth agape.

《Is this… Is this why he's so stupidly powerful!? Dragons are everywhere in his kingdom, and they're not even a threat to them!? Why haven't I heard of his homeland!? And I just happened to randomly run into him!? Dragon's luck!》

「What about those dragons, then?」

He raises his eyebrow, looking at Cycelia. She quickly collects herself.

「Well in our kingdom… Most everywhere, really, dragons are considered naturally lucky creatures. That's why I'm surprised you never heard of this.」

「Oh yeah, wasn't your name Redwing? Why'd you bring that up?」

Straf's eyes drift upward at the sky as he thinks.

「I thought you'd know that as well, Straf. I guess your kingdom really is distant.」

「Oh yeah, it's far off. There's no way you'll make it there. Not without outside help.」

Straf stresses the last words of his sentence, staring with disdain at the clouds floating high above.

「…Anyhow, it's common knowledge in the kingdom that my family, the Redwing dynasty-」

She lifts her fingers as she begins to explain. However, the announcer interrupts Cycelia, and the both of them look down towards the arena.

「…And the man you have been waiting for! Klaw the Head-taker!」

「Ah, there he is. The token bad guy of the tournament. Bet he'll make it to the semi-finals at least.」

Straf looks at the giant of a man walk into the bloody arena. He carries with him a massive executioner's sword on his shoulder. It's very wide, rusted, and coated with old blood. Its tip is a blunt half-circle extending out of the blade, forming something akin to a hook.

Klaw the Head-taker stretches his free arm out to the side, allowing the audience to shower him with cheers. Some of the spectators already rush out of their seats and run up the stairs.

「And his opponent is… Hated by Wulf the Northerner, and most likely quite a lot of you as well, ladies and gentlemen!」

The announcer points his finger across the vast number of the spectators above.

「Be right back.」

「What!? Where are you going!? Straf, the fight is about to start!」

「I gotta take a leak. Let me know if I miss something interesting.」

Straf walks up the stairs with his hands in his pockets.

「…The silent, the evasive, the masked, and quite possibly a little cowardly… Sturm! The bets are now open, ladies and gentlemen! I suspect which of the contestants may be the fan favorite here!」

Cycelia gets up, trying to squeeze past the massive crowd gathered at the stairs. A man walks up behind the announcer, and whispers into his ear.

「…Ladies and gentlemen, please do not rush! The betting period will be briefly extended to meet your demand while we wait for contestant Sturm!」

After a lot of pushing, shoving, and shouting from the crowd, Cycelia finally manages to get to the betting table herself.

「Klaw or Sturm?」

「S-」

She hesitates, clutching onto her coins.

《…Is it really the right choice? That Klaw man is a hardened killer… Can Sturm really win against someone like that by just running around?》

「Lady, you should have thought about it at your seat. Klaw or Sturm? Otherwise let someone else bet-」

Thud.

「Sturm! What are the odds?」

She slams her hand on the betting table. When she pulls it away, she reveals 3 gold coins. The shaved-bald bookmaker raises his eyebrows and grimaces with his lips in surprise, nodding a little. He swipes the coins and throws them into a box full of them.

「Contrarian, huh? As of your bet, 7 to 1. That's a pretty coin for you, if that gutless fucker keeps his head. Next!」

「Woah…」

Cycelia mutters out, taking her bet tokens with her as she walks away.

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《That's like… Almost my entire pocket money for the quarter! But if I lose… Is Straf going to be mad? I just have a good feeling about that masked person…》

She stares pensively at the black metal squares in her hand as she returns to her seat…

…

In the private booth, Falcon and Willow watch the cloaked, masked man walk into the arena with his sword drawn. Falcon sighs.

「Willow… Don't tell me you seriously think this guy might win. Didn't you see his match yesterday? Or were you taking your grandpa nap while he was running around, and you're too embarrassed to admit it?」

Falcon leans towards Willow, resting his elbow on his chair's armrest.

「I didn't say he might win, Falcon. I just said that he's on the short list you made me put together, off the top of my head. And allow me to remind you, that the Head-taker is on that list as well.」

Klaw grins, and starts chuckling to himself. He takes his hand up to his throat, and swipes across it with his thumb out. Sturm doesn't react, or even move at all. Only the tip of his sword sticks out from beneath his cape.

「Okay. Want to bet then, Willow?」

「Falcon, I already told you-」

「Just for fun, between the two of us. How about it? Or are you that much of a stick in the mud?」

「…Fine. What are we betting on?」

「Listening to the serfs' complaints. If you win, I take over for you. If I win, you take over for me.」

「Fair. Who do you bet on, then?」

「Heh. Klaw, obviously.」

The young man scoffs and looks away, towards the arena.

「I expected as much. I have a reason to believe Sturm will win, but…」

The old man strokes his beard.

「But?」

「But as I said, it's far too early to tell. If my theory has any grounding in reality, I will find that out in this match.」

Willow says, then leans onto his staff as he sits. The announcer points his palm to Klaw the Head-taker.

「Ladies and gentlemen! While we wait a little longer, here are some trivia about our combatants! When we asked Klaw the Head-taker about what he likes to do to relax, 「Killing.」 was the answer! We asked Sturm the same question, but he refused to say a word!」

The announcer points his palm to Sturm as he stands there, while amusing the audience with some tidbits. The audience jeers when he starts talking about Sturm.

「Contestant Klaw hails from the harsh, mountainous kingdom to the south! He said he might return to Tarrenkar after the tournament, because there are still people he'd like to behead there!」

The announcer once again points his palm to Klaw. The audience cheers and claps.

「On the other hand… We have no clue where contestant Sturm is from! Though I suspect they may hold foot race competitions there!」

The audience jeers at first, but then they transition into chuckling as the announcer jests. The man from before returns, and he whispers into the announcer's ear again.

「Ladies and gentlemen, the bets will be closing momentarily! Will Contestant Sturm outrun his opponent!? Or will Klaw the Head-taker cause another fatality!? Regardless, the winner will move onto the quarter-finals, where he will face even harsher competition!」

「Well, this will be good. Don't get too excited gramps, your heart might give.」

Falcon jokes and chuckles under his breath.

「Don't get too heart-broken by the results, Falcon…」

Willow only takes a glance at him, without turning his head away.

「Combatants, prepare yourselves!」

The announcer lifts his arms up. The arena goes silent for a brief moment.

「Fight!」

Gonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggg…

The huge armored man wastes no time, taking wide steps. Klaw is in no rush, walking towards Sturm. Sturm continues to stand like a statue as Klaw grips his massive sword with both of his hands. The crowd's cheers turn into loud jeers as the masked man backpedals again.

「And there it is again. I hope you're not asleep, gramps.」

Falcon sighs with his arms crossed as he watches Sturm run around the arena. Klaw refuses to run after him, walking in a straight path towards him instead.

「Ladies and gentlemen, it's a curious thing that contestant Sturm managed to muster up enough courage to face his opponent in the arena, but appears to lack confidence to fight him directly!」

The announcer only thinly veils his mockery. Klaw is frustrated, walking towards the backpedaling wolf-masked man for quite some time now. The Head-taker spreads his arms apart in exasperation, his massive sword barely shifts his center of mass.

The man appears behind the announcer again, and whispers something into his ear. The announcer nods.

「Contestant Sturm! A decision has been made to take any further running from your opponent as intent to surrender! If you do not attempt to defeat contestant Klaw, you will forfeit the match!」

The announcer exclaims, pointing at Sturm. Sturm stops hopping back. Klaw glances at the announcer above, then smugly grins at his enemy. He invites Sturm towards him with a wave of his hand, nodding. The audience cheers and claps, making their satisfaction from the decision known.

Sturm begins walking towards Klaw. A serious, focused, grim glare appears on his face as he puts both of his hands on his executioner's sword again. Due to the range advantage, he slashes at his opponent first. Sturm narrowly dodges, leaning backwards out of the way. He slashes at a gap in the Head-taker's armor, but he proves to be more nimble than most would think.

Klaw side-steps out of the way of the blade. He takes a powerful overhead swing at his cloaked opponent, but he pirouettes out of the way, his green cloak fluttering slightly as it spins with him. The audience cheers as Klaw lets one of his hands go of the weapon, and tries to punch Sturm in his metal wolf face. He hops away out of range, displaying excellent reflexes by dodging the sudden strike. Sturm steps back in with a riposte aimed at his enemy's sword hand, but the Head-Taker yanks the sword up and out of the dirt.

Clang!

Klaw's eyes widen as he loses his balance momentarily. He readjusts the grip on his sword after Sturm's blade bounced off from its flat, blocking the vicious slash just in time.

「Hm…」

The old man hums to himself. Falcon's smug smirk has been wiped from his face since the event organizer's decision regarding Sturm's evasive behavior.

「Well… I guess he's not that bad, now that he's fighting. Nothing really impressive, though.」

The young man nods a little as he watches the bout unfold closely, conceding to Willow's keen eye. Sturm goes on offensive, stabbing away at Klaw's vitals in the gaps of his armor. Despite the rigid and heavy armor set on him, he dodges in a quite agile fashion, much to the audience's joy.

「Ladies and gentlemen! It seems contestant Sturm had performance anxiety! Now that he has no choice but to fight, he's giving contestant Klaw quite the right indeed! But will he remain on the back foot forever!?」

Seemingly getting a feel for his enemy's movements and timings, he grins as he prepares a counter attack.

「Now watch closely gramps, your boy is about to eat it, just like the last guy did-」

Sturm throws a stab at Klaw's throat, and Klaw leans backwards with a smug grin, adjusting the grip on his sword. The audience immediately goes silent. Klaw's smug grin twists into surprised shock as he looks at the blade lodged below his chin, flowing red with blood. His eyes roll back, and he collapses backwards.

Clunk!

The entire arena is silent. The announcer stares at the scene, unsure what to say. Sturm is frozen in a stabbing pose. His mask moves. For just a moment, he seemingly looks at his partially closed hand, shaped as if it were still gripping the sword. He lowers his arm and swings his hand to hide beneath his cloak with a dramatic flourish, as he stands over the hulk of a man with the sword sticking out of his throat, hilt up towards the sky.

「Ah- Uh- Hit the gong!」

The announcer manages to shake the shock off, and waves his hand up and off to the side, above the audience.

「…What the fuck!? Bullshit!」

Falcon exclaims in disbelief at his loss and kicks the ground. Willow only chuckles out of his nose.

「…As expected, as it was surprising.」

The old man sighs as he says.

Gonnnnnnng!

Even the gong sounds surprised, as the audience slowly starts to jeer and clap, at 80 to 20 ratio. A team of healers runs up to Klaw. Sturm pulls his weapon out with a spray of blood, and shakes the stains off the sword onto the sand, while heading for the exit.

「Ladies and gentlemen, what an upset! That looked grisly! Do we have a fatality!?」

The healers stick their palms out at Klaw, but no green glow appears. One of the healers puts his hands above his head and waves them, crossing them as he does with each swing.

「Looks like Klaw the Head-taker's plans to take more heads in his homeland have been interrupted by the masked challenger! We now have two fatalities in the tournament so far! And it may not be the last one yet!」

The healers put Klaw onto a stretcher, and strain greatly as they carry him out of the arena. His limp arm flops about with each step they take.

「Ladies and gentlemen! For those who have missed it, and it was easy to do so… It seems contestant Sturm lulled us all into not deeming him a threat! He feigned stabs at the late contestant Klaw's vitals, only to use his sword as a throwing weapon! The combatants must expect the unexpected, or they will end like Klaw the Head-taker!」

The announcer points at the exit Sturm took, excitedly shouting. The angry grumbling from the audience is almost matched by the cheers and clapping at this point.

「And the winner of this bout is, undoubtedly, contestant Sturm! Ladies and gentlemen, you will see him in the quarter-finals tomorrow! Will he continue to feign his cowardice, or will he show us a hidden power!?」