Al' Aero was a rare metallic color like his father, he was a golden Dragonoid. His eyes were a royal purple and had slit-like pupils, as were common with many reptilian races. Unlike the others, though, he did not tower over elves and humans. He stood about even with Rox. Similarly, he was also far leaner than the other dragonoids were. This seemed to be a trait of golden and rainbow-scaled dragonoids, although it was unknown what led to this kind of evolution. In battle races, such as the dragonoids, this would normally lead to him being discriminated against. However, Rox noticed that it seemed to be the opposite in this case. He also noticed that Al' Aero had a curved sword at his side and a buckler shield on his back, both made of orichalcum. The dark-green, almost black, metal shined as if the sun were beating down on it despite there being very little light breaking through the tree-tops and constant fog.
“Al' Aero, my son. I am glad to see you well on this day. We, the council, have found you a worthy opponent and ally as you have asked. If it pleases you, test his prowess with your own blade to see if my eye has judged correctly.” His father, Al' Kari, said once the younger Dragonoid had arrived.
The golden figure looked at his father and nodded his affirmation, turning his gaze to Rox. When he spoke, his voice was oddly human, rather than the deep gravelly voices that most of his race had. “Hello, long have we had our eyes on you as my coming-of-age opponent. Although, I'm sure my father did not fill you in on that part. My name is Al' Aero, I am the Dragonoid's acting chief of combat squads, or at least I will be after we fight, if the council deems it a worthy battle. Ever since I was born, my father had kept an eye on you in this forest. You, who seems to be able to hold his own in this place despite the troubles you've had since you entered our territory. I hope that you will not disappoint.” After he finished his introduction he put one scaled hand out. It looked like a human's in every way, except for the scales and claws.
Rox nodded to him and shook his hand. “That's a long time to be watching a man trapped in a room, unable to use his five senses. Nonetheless, I'm flattered. My name is Rox Nihil, I regretfully called this forest 'home' for a while, thank you for waiting for me to regain my composure to come asking for a fight.”
When he had finished speaking, a new light had started to shine behind the eyes of Al' Aero. The eyes of a warrior ready to fight the opponent in front of him. “Now, with formalities out of the way. Shall we begin?” Once he had spoken, the council began to spread out.
They formed a circle around the two with a diameter of roughly fifty meters. A small arena for their duel. Al' Aero took a position on one side of the circle, Rox stood on the opposite end. Kara watched with bated breath from outside the circle as the two of them stared each other down, waiting for a signal to begin. The circle of dragonoids began to chant something and a moment later, a barrier seemed to form a dome around the two fighters.
Into the center walked a blue female from the council. She stood at about the same height as Al' Aero and had hair, rather than horns, that fell down to her shoulders. However, the hair seemed crystalline in structure since it refracted light. If Rox had to guess, among the dragonoids she would be considered quite the beauty. She spoke with a surprisingly high-pitched tone, like that of a young girl. Not at all like the gravelly voices of the men. “I shall watch over this fight as the judge. There are only three rules: No leaving the circle. The fight stops when I say. My word is law.” She looked between the two fighters, they both nodded in understanding, then she stepped back into the circle and shouted, “Begin!”
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As soon as the fight began, the ground cracked beneath Al' Aero's clawed feet as he kicked off with power. In the split second it took for him to fly over the ground towards his opponent, he drew his curved sword and buckler. As he reached Rox, he brought down his sword vertically with all of the power of his launch behind it.
Rox chose not to draw his blade and instead barely managed to sidestep the blow. As the sword made contact with the ground it caused a quake and a small crater the size of a melon was left behind. Taking advantage of the opening left by the all-out swing, Rox spread his legs out into a more solid stance and brought both of his arms down to slam the Dragonoid into the ground as hard as he could. Unfortunately, the reptile was quicker than expected and managed to dodge it, almost. Rox clipped the shoulder of his opponent as he escaped the attack and a loud crunch could be heard from Al' Aero's right shoulder. His buckler fell to the ground and his arm went limp. Rox went for a follow-up punch, however, the golden figure recovered much quicker than expected and easily dodged it.
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Al' Aero twisted past the punch and swung his good arm trying to get his neck with the blade. Rox avoided this easily by ducking underneath it and made an attempt to rise back up with an uppercut, however, the hilt of his opponent's weapon slammed into the back of his head. The neck attack was merely a feint to force Rox into a position where he couldn't see his opponent's true attack.
Disoriented, Rox was unprepared for Aero's next attack which came immediately after. A swift knee to his gut. The blow powerful enough that it displaced the air after it landed and Rox felt two of his ribs shatter, but stomached the pain and grabbed the leg with a vice grip. He fell sideways and twisted his body to try and dislocate, or break, the Dragonoid's left leg. Al' Aero twisted his body with Rox, but was off balance from the strike he had landed and sudden counter-attack. Unable to prevent all the damage, Rox managed to snap the lizard's leg.
They both fell to the ground, panting, injured. Not even ten seconds had passed, yet the two even opponents had already caused several severe injuries to each other. Both men forced themselves to their feet, smirks on their faces, ignoring the pain. Rox with two ribs in pieces, blue blood streaming from his mouth from internal bleeding. Al' Aero with a broken shoulder and leg, standing on his good one with sword at the ready, his shield abandoned on the ground.
Rox made the first move this time, dashing to the best of his ability towards the immobile enemy. As he neared, Al' Aero swung his sword quickly towards Rox, however, it was deflected as if it were part of the plan. Rox negated the attack by grabbing the wrist of his enemy's sword arm and pulled it towards him, bringing the poorly balanced Dragonoid right into the path of Rox's elbow. Solid contact was made with the jaw of the gold-scaled opponent, but his head was also knocked back with such force that his neck might have also broken. He immediately fell back onto the ground.
It seemed the bout was over when Al' Aero had fallen, but when he had it was seen that his orichalcum sword was lodged deep in Rox's left side. Both men were once again on the ground, only another ten seconds had passed along with their consciousness. Immediately the blue council member from earlier called for the barrier chant to cease and she declared the match a draw. She rushed towards both fighters to check their vital signs and pull the sword from Rox. Kara cast healing magic on the both of them at the highest potency that she currently could.
The wounds of the men both healed up quickly, however, any blood they lost could not be restored by the healing. The two of them remained unconscious even after the danger to their lives had ended. Once it was clear that both were safe, everyone released a breath of relief. One that they had all been holding from the moment the fight had begun. From beginning to end, the fight and healing only took roughly a minute, but it had felt like an eternity to those that were present.
The council leader, Al' Kari, spoke to Kara after everything was over. “I would say he did perfectly sufficient. The official statement was a draw, but in my eyes, Rox was the victor. He was unarmed and, unlike us, has no claws to act as weapons. He did not draw his weapon, even at the end. He clearly held back, which I appreciate as a father. Yet, am disappointed at the same time, that my son could not make him draw it.” The tall silver man shook his head, trying to make sense of his conflicting feelings.
Kara, still a bit shaken, spoke as evenly as she could, “That's the most serious I've seen Rox since we met. I've seen that man cut off his own arm with no second thought. I usually see fighting such as this as barbaric, but that was quite the spectacle. I've heard that fights between high-level opponents end in an instant and I feel that I've seen that in person today.”
Al' Kari nodded several times, listening to her words. “I shall tell my son to take pride in that when he regains consciousness, then.” He then adopted a more business-like tone, “You have fulfilled the first part of our bargain and so I shall bestow your rewards when your ally comes to. As for the second part, the captive is being held at the bottom of a world-dungeon not far from here. We shall provide a map to the location.” He took a step forward to go to his son's bedside, then paused, as if a thought had occurred to him, “This will likely be perilous. If there is anyone you wish to say goodbye to, you should do it before you set out. If you succeed, we will bestow you the greatest gift that our race possibly can. We will also be willing to sign a contract of eternal peace with the other mortal races as a show of faith.”
Kara was wide-eyed as the old Dragonoid stepped away. If the dragonoids signed a contract of eternal peace, they would no longer be considered 'monsters' and henceforth be considered one of the mortal races like elves or humans. This would be a turning point in history and would also put her one step closer to her goal of helping mortals become able to defend themselves from the gods without the assistance of other god-like beings. This was the kind of breakthrough she had been searching for, this was one of the answers. It would also put her one step closer to using the type of magic that Rox had promised her.
A bright smile on her face, she followed Al' Kari's example and sat at Rox's bedside. She took his hand in hers as she sat with him. “I'll do this one time for you, because of the opportunity you've given me. Don't think you're special or something.” She whispered under her breath to him, or perhaps, herself.