6. Don't flinch

In the stage where the wealthy man and the ranked hunters were seating along with their wives, excites themselves as the battle begins.

Kasel and Esme picks up their weapons after their conversation the moment the combat started, the arena was quite big and round so their opponents will take time to run into them.

In this arena the walls are too high and the white ground is too thick and bloods are all over it, broken weapons, chair debris, including lost pieces of teeth.

The two hunters in the opposing team charge towards them, but Esme is not yet sure of what to do so she stays just behind Kasel.

Both sides begins to clash inside the ring and the crowd cheers spontaneously.

"Stay behind me but keep your distance." Kasel yells to Esme while attacking the opponent with the battle-axe he wielded.

The other hunter, with long dual swords, jumps to interfere the clash, but Kasel's quick reflex still saves him from being hit and defeated.

"Get the woman, you damn fool." the hunter with the battleaxe demanded furiously as he being interrupted by his partner.

Esme shoots her arrow to the hunter with the battle-axe trying to help Kasel but got deflected with the other hunter using his long dual swords. The woman instantly got devastated as her attack was parried but she tried to shoot another arrow, not giving up of winning this dula. She had to. They had to.

The crowd's cheers were loud, but the wind of every strike and the piercing sounds of the swords was even louder.

The battle begins to be more and more interesting as Kasel and Esme became determined to win, and so does the opponent. Their fight became even more serious and blood, sweat, and tears were already dropping. They need to escape the arena, but the only way is to win.

The people watching from the risers start to bet who wins and who loses in that tournament. They handed kuarta to each other for the head of the losing team inside the ring, foretelling who is which in the combat and along with the cheer of these people was the sound of jingling coins.

"Now there's the greed of these people." one hunter on the stage risers silently whispers about the bidding and betting of the crowd.

Esme shoots her arrows again while Kasel and the other hunter with the battle-axe were busy clashing and striking, the metal sound of each strike sparks.

The dual-sword hunter tries to get near Esme, striking his swords to her, but she swiftly flips back and avoided the hunter, she then draws her arrow and shoots it before she can even land back on the ground amazingly.

But her enemy parried it in high-speed.

Kasel and the battle-axe hunter had a never-ending clash but neither of them had thought of giving up, no matter how much they wanted to rest, they needed the heads of their opponent. The hunter swings his axe heavily in hopes of attaining his goal, but Kasel blocks it, causing him to step back by force.

The battle between a sundang weilder and the battle-axe hunter energizes the people inside the arena. They shouted in awe and amusement, impatiently waiting for the winner to draw last blood. The platform becomes so busy for the staking they made.

Esme still evades the attacks from the dual sword hunter with acrobatic movements and defenses. Kasel cannot believe his eyes as he took a glance of her fighting seriously, swiftly dodging each attempted attack from the enemy. Apparently, Kasel does not need to worry as he thought he should be. Maybe the woman was not as weak as he thought. Now that he witnessed the Esme's combat skills, he realizes he was wrong all along.

The battleaxe hunter madly roars and strikes Kasel again with its full strength, a strength beyond a human's limits. But Kasel has always been sly enough to block his strikes. Comparing the hunter to Kasel, he is much slower than the one who wields sundang. Kasel's weapon is too light to carry so he doesn't have any problem of slowing down and uses all his strength to attack and defend from the opponent.

He starts to swing his sundang, grabbing his chance to attack back. He stabs but gets blocked in an instant. However, he quickly turns his back to strike again with a heavy blow and yet, he was still blocked by the hunter. His opponent as tough and was not easy to fight with. He grits his teeth in frustration as he thinks of any better idea to defeat his opponent.

He jumps backward and stance steadily with his sundang on his left hand while his other hand was barehanded. He smirks out of amusement. "I did not expect to enjoy this, you guys fight fair enough. You are indeed a remarkable opponent, don't you think?"

"Hmm..." The hunter grunts and grins seriously. "Don't flinch." he says as he swings his axe, with much more strength and force than before and Kasel still blocks it but just as he thought his defenses were perfect, little did he know that the battle-axe his opponent was wielding has a little sharp point on its end and when the hunter pulls it, it scratches the cloth around the arm of Kasel and went loose.

Esme took a glance as she noticed what just happened and saw the mark but Kasel rolls quickly back, picks up the cloth and tied it up back again, hiding what he needs to hide and acts like nothing happened, like no one saw it as he hopes so.

The battle-axe hunter also saw the mark and begins to slow down but tries his best not to show any compassion to Kasel as he saw him enjoying the fight. He shouts again to his partner. "Bosmo, don't slow down!"

Bosmo, the dual-sword hunter, became so mad because he can not hit the woman with his lack of speed. Esme was much faster than he is and that fact ruined his ego and infuriated him even more.

Esme runs to the chair for a headstart and rolls in the air while drawing her arrows three at the same time from her quiver, she shoots them together in one pull and hits the dual sword hunter on his shoulder, the other arrow hits the ground and the other arrow that was supposed to hit the battle-axe hunter was caught by his barehand. Esme tuts as she fails to hit her taget once again.

Kasel's face where surprised but on the other hand, he wonders how the man caught arrow with his barehand, it must have been a trick or a spell to do that.

He then randomly swings his sundang with an immediate reaction, forming dust around him like he controlls the wind.

"Enough." the battle-axe hunter roars. Kasel quickly stands straight and behaves as if he felt fear a bit.

A bit?

The people suddenly stop cheering when they noticed no one was moving to fight anymore.

"The battle has finished my comrade is down I declare defeat." He yielded.

Kasel amd Esme looks at each other in confusion, wondering what has happened.

But the crowd didn't want the tournament to end like that. They start booing and yelling for combat to continue, and they begin to clamor again.

"Kill!"

"Beat them to death!"

"Chop of their heads and butcher them!"

The yells startto get louder uncontrollably.

Then, a man walks in the risers towards the wealthy man and whispers in his ears.

The wealthy man then shouts after, causing the crowd to fall in silence and announces the fight is draw, and that it continues tomorrow, knowing that these fighters are skillful and not to be underestimated.

The crowd boos as the gates of each sides open for the fighters to go back stage to rest.

Kasel and the battleaxe hunter looked at each other as the hunter picked up his comrade by the collar at the back of his neck, dragging him to the opened wall. Kasel and that hunter stares at each other, piercing each other with their glares until they were nowhere in sight.

"The darkest side of it's nature." Kasel whispers looking around the crowd on their benches while thinking about the recruitment they said back in the tribe.

Esme gets stunned as Kasel walks with a fierce look and glaring eyes on his face as they went back to the opened wall and decided not to dare talk to him.

Then annouces the next battle.