Note: This chapter has not gone to my editors and events may change before final release. The below is also unedited and in a raw non-polished form.

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“Toaby?” Tom questioned.

“Theres no time. That webbing won’t last long.” Toaby looked at all five attackers. They were struggling to get free and each of them had a red outline. They’re marked. Time to lay down the law, but first. “Hiro, Sam, circle around them and cut off their escape.”

“Got it.” Hiro pulled his blade and ran around them, Sam right behind him.

“When we get free, we’re going to…” One of the struggling men started to say but Toaby cut him off.

“You’re going to do nothing. I’m the arbiter and your crime span is over.”

“The arbiter? I thought those messages were a joke.” Another one man replied.

“Shut up, Steve. He’s one guy.” The webbing faded. “And now, he's a dead guy.”

Toaby tossed an axe that landed in the speaker’s chest. Stunned, his companions drew their weapons. Toaby activated his glove, and the men watched as his axe flew back into his hand. He was really hoping he had just finished off one of their attackers, but the man just looked pissed as blood coated him.

“You get one chance! I challenge you to a trail by combat. You vs me. If you win, I will forgive all your crimes, your marks will be removed and we’ll let you walk away. If I win, you get double marks and go straight to Helheim!”

“What the hell is a trail by…” The man’s eyes went distant. “Ohhh… I see. How about this then?”

Brad has edited your trail by combat conditions. Please review the new conditions.

Win: Brad and his party will receive double their current marks before being sent to Helheim for penance.

Loss: Crimes will be forgiven, all marks will be removed, the arbiter will guarantee your release and will forfeit his equipment.

“I want those magic gloves.” The man, who Toaby now knew as Brad, called over.

Toaby edited the conditions one more time.

You have challenged Brad to a trail by combat for multiple crimes.

Win: Brad and his party will receive double their current marks before being sent to Helheim for penance. Upon rebirth, Brad and his party will be placed in random locations on Midgard. None of these locations will be within 100 miles of the settlement.

Loss: Crimes will be forgiven, all marks will be removed, the arbiter will guarantee your release and will forfeit his equipment.

Brad looked at the conditions and showed his group. One of them commented, “So you just have to kill that one guy?” Brad nodded. “Take the deal.” After downing a small red vial, Brad’s chest wound stopped bleeding. A moment later, it stitched itself back together. The skin was smooth, pink and healed. “Let’s do this, lawman!”

“I really hope this ‘lawman’ nickname doesn’t stick.” Toaby muttered to himself before the trail system notice popped into view.

Trail by combat, accepted!

Trail will commence in 5… 4… 3…

After the countdown hit zero, everyone present vanished in a kaleidoscope of colors.

Quest updated! New Laws - Number of times a law was enforced: 2/10

Congratulations! You have increased your Trail by Combat skill to 3. You can now use this ability every 12 hours.

Toaby reappeared on one edge of the coliseum, opposite Brad. To his surprise, the stands weren’t empty like before. Not only were the other raiders and his party members there, including Tom and Sebastian, there were two Gods present. One he recognized, Heimdall, but the other was one he hadn’t met yet.

The unknown God was just as tall as Heimdall, but differed greatly in appearance. For starters, his skin was olive, and he had long golden hair. He was wearing a golden robe with matching, slighter darker toned, cape attached to silver clasps on his shoulders. A large silver insignia or an axe in an elaborate circle covered the body of his robe. His entire body emanated visible white light. It was bright, but for some reason it didn’t bother his eyes to stare at it.

He wanted to continue looking at and examining the new God, but Brad’s shout demanded attention.

“Nice place you got here. Can’t wait to cover it in your blood!”

The new God stood from his massive seat and raised an arm. When he slammed it down, he screamed, “Fight!”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Kick his ass, Toaby!” Sam shouted from the stands.

“Gut him like a fish, Brad!” One raider screamed for all to hear.

Toaby sized up his opponent. Something he probably should have done before issuing the challenge, but he was acting in the heat of the moment in an attempt to save his fellow settlers from fighting and potentially dieing. Brad had worn leather armor on and appeared to be fairly muscular.

“Time to die.” Brad pulled his weapon from his inventory.

His sword could only be referred to as a bastard of a sword. The blade was almost as tall as the man wielding it, and nearly a foot thick. Toaby didn’t know how the man was even managing to hold it straight up.

“Overcompensating?” Toaby jested in an attempt to throw the man off guard.

“You wanna die that badly, huh?” Brad charged forward.

His speed shocked Toaby. Looks like those muscles aren’t for show. He thought as he leapt to the side. Rolling and getting to his feet, he tossed an axe at his attacker. Brad deflected it with ease. All he had to do was turn his blade to its side, its size covered nearly his entire body when he did.

This is going to be more difficult than I thought. Brad was back on him and slashing his sword down in a vertical strike. Knowing he couldn’t block the blow, he raised his remaining axe up to try to deflect it. His axe screeched as it slid across the blade. Pushing his full strength into it, he could knock it off course.

The sword slammed into the ground mere inches from him. The power behind the attack was enough to kick up a storm of dirt. Toaby got a feeling that Brad would follow up with an upward slash. Trusting his feelings, he spun on his feet and swung wide with his axe.

Brad did indeed attempt an upward slash, but Toaby was already behind him. He gritted his teeth when Toaby scored a glancing slash across his back. His worn out armor not enough to stop the axe blade.

You deal 2 slashing damage to Brad.

Nice! Is all Toaby managed to think before the fist to his face sent him flying, clearing his head of any thoughts other than those of pain.

Brad has punched you for 5 blunt damage.

You have broken your nose. You will be unable to smell correctly until it is healed.

Fuck. If a punch did five damage, that sword could likely two-shot me. I have to be… Toaby jumped to the side and rolled. Brad wasn’t going to give him any time to think. I’m still a bit quicker. I just need to think.

“Come on, Toaby!” Sam screamed.

“You have this. Remember the guardian? This guy should be a breeze.” Hiro shouted encouragement.

The guardian… Toaby had an idea. Instead of running away, he ran toward Brad. The change in motion was a little jarring for his attacker, but he stayed the course. Brad slashed down again, this time at a diagonal angle to make it harder to dodge or deflect.

Toaby charged in and leapt over the strike. He kicked off Brad and flew past him, coming to a roll as he landed. Using his momentum, he got to his feet from the roll and continued to run.

“He’s running away? What a coward. Finish him, Brad!” Another raider added.

Running up to his axe, he scooped it up and turned. Brad was only ten or twelve feet away and sprinting hard to catch him. Toaby tossed an axe, forcing Brad to stop and deflect. As soon as he did, Toaby threw his second one. Brad only made it another step before stopping and deflecting the other. When he noticed Toaby was weaponless, he walked forward instead of running.

“Was the first attack supposed to throw me off guard? Man, you’re going to make me feel bad. It’s like killing a child. You’re useless.” Brad chuckled.

“You’re the man, Brad!” One of his comrades shouted.

Toaby bent low and took off like a rocket. Brad instantly got back into a battle posture and raised his blade above his head. Leaping forward, Toaby extended both his hands as if he was getting ready to attempt a tackle.

“Ha! Not going to work, small fry. You’re to weak and slow for…” Brad flew forward, knocked off balance.

Toaby took that opportunity to ball his hands up into fists and deliver a double punch to his gut, knocking the wind out of Brad. The muscular man dropped his sword in favor of grabbing his gut. Toaby walked around him and retrieved his two weapons that were sticking out of Brad’s back.

“Not bad for a small fry, huh?” Toaby taunted him.

Blood was pouring down Brad’s back, and Toaby took full advantage of the man’s temporary confusion. He slashed downward, but Brad recovered much quicker than Toaby thought he would. Raising an armored forearm, Brad absorbed the attacks. They clearly hurt him and blood was soaking down the man’s gauntlet, but Toaby’s attack wasn’t nearly enough to finish him.

A sharp pain shot through his side. Brad had swung his blade single handed and embedded it in Toaby’s side.

“You’re lucky I wasn’t using both hands. I would have cut you clean in half, you bastard!” Brad shouted in anger.

Toaby tasted iron as blood filled his mouth. Fuck, this hurts. Brad tried pulling his arm free, but Toaby held his ground. He twitched in pain as Brad pushed the blade in deeper. Letting the blood pool in his mouth, Toaby spat it into Brad’s eyes before kicking him between his legs. All the men in the stands, including the two Gods, winced as Brad let out a high-pitched howl of pain.

Pulling his axes free from Brad’s flesh, Toaby drove them down hard into his opponent's shoulders. With a few clean swipes, as his own hit points depleted to dangerously low levels, Toaby finished his opponent off with a slash to his throat.

The unnamed God rose from his seat and clapped. Toaby’s party joined in on the celebration, while the raiders all looked worryingly at one another. An enormous banner appeared in the sky above Toaby’s head, declaring him the victor with trumpets blasting fanfare.

Toaby reviewed the combat related notifications, noticing that Brad’s single sword swing did over twenty points of damage. The bleed effect adding another ten before Toaby could finish Brad off. Toaby’s low blow scored him only two damage but actually had a disorientation buff associated with it.

You have inflicted Brad with disorientation. He is momentarily unable to concentrate on any action.

After clearing the pure combat notifications from view, he pulled up all the skill related ones.

Congratulations! You have increased your Throwing Mastery skill to 5.

Congratulations! You have increased your Axe Mastery skill to 4.

Congratulations! You have increased your Battle Wise skill to 2.

Congratulations! You have learned the spirit skill Dirty Fighting.

Dirty Fighting: While some people fight with honor, you fight to win. Looks like all these criminals are rubbing off on you. Maybe I’ll even start to like you. Probably not, but who knows? Provides a 1% critical chance bonus per skill level when using a dirty fighting tactic.

Not exactly an impressive skill, but Loki’s right. I will fight to win. Toaby looked around. They were all still in the arena. Last time they were teleported back instantly. Now that he took a quick glance around, he noticed he was alone in said arena. That was, he was alone with the unnamed new God.

The God approached him and placed a hand on his chest. “Hello, Toaby. I am Forseti and I believe it’s time for us to speak.”