"Oh, we were all meeting today, so that's why you brought me." Reon said to Giovanni who didn't respond. Reon quickly noticed Isha's presence, which was different from the rest.
"Hello Guildmaster, and everyone else I haven't had the chance to meet yet." Reon waved. "I'm Reon DeValt, I've heard about you all already too."
Isha stared for a second then spoke. "Silva said you came to the guild hall a few days ago. Why didn't you come to introduce yourself then?"
Reon almost smirked as he looked at Isha.
"I was preparing for the Trial of Ten. Why did you call me here, Guildmaster?" he said.
"Well, I wondered if it was worth losing our previous 10th rank to you. Raya said it would be good to gaugue you myself. This is your chance to prove yourself to us. If you can't we'll expect you to forfeit your tokens in the trial of ten." She said.
Some of the members nodded at those last words, and now looked at Reon, giving him the room. Reon turned his head saw Raya smiling, giving him a thumbs up.
It was unusual but Reon took a step forward at the opposite end of the table to Isha and spoke.
" I assume you all know Dai GreyAllen?" Reon asked rhetorically.
"I'm not as strong as him yet, but I'm stronger than most of you, and even if I wasn't, I wouldn't surrender in the trial of ten. I'll try my best to advance to the top 10 even if I have to take some of you out of the tournament. I won't try to kill any of you, however, if you choose to attack me, remember the fate of Sujin before you do. He would be alive today if he hadn't tried to kill me." Reon said before taking a seat.
Silva felt the tension in the silent room. Suddenly, most of the elite members burst out laughing.
Waina, Talt, Falutia, Rigor, Hyo, Briand, and Giovani all laughed hysterically.
Only Isha didn't make an expression. She just observed, while Raya smiled at Reon out of respect.
Reon smiled too.
The laughing continued for a time and Raya got annoyed as he considered Reon a friend and benefactor. He quietly slipped Isha a piece of paper he had in his pouch.
Isha raised an eyebrow at this. She'd known Raya. This was unusual, but she decided to open the folded paper and saw it was a duel contract. As she began to read the terms her eyes widened.
As the seven elite members continued laughing, they were caught off guard.
"Everybody, shut the fuck up!" Isha yelled.
Immediately they went silent and confused.
"Raya is this real? Don't bullshit with this." she said.
"Yes, I swear on my honor, it's real." Raya replied.
"Then why hasn't it been enforced yet?" Isha asked.
"I don't know. I was just a spectator of the arrangement. Ask Reon." said Raya.
The rest of the group was intrigued now.
"Reon, why haven't you enforced this duel contract yet what with the trial of ten right around the corner." Isha said.
Reon looked at the paper. "Oh yeah, well, I guess I just forgot. I was off on a mission for a few months, and now I'm a 3-Star warrior, so is that contract even good anymore?"
"You- . . . The contracts terms are absolute. It wound't matter if you were a 4 or 5 star fighter. If you win two of Raider Corps elite members will be forced to join our guild."
The rest were shocked to hear this.
"Raya, Reon, and Silva, come on, we're going to the village lord right now to enforce this contract." said Isha.
"Ok Isha. But are you sure he'll enforce it right now. He'll know it would give us an advantage in the tournament." asked Raya.
"You must not know the village lord very well, Raya." Isha handed the duel contract copy over to Silva.
Siva read the paper.
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Let it be known that this document serves as an official and binding Duel Contract, written and agreed upon within the carriage bound for the Port-Town of Cradle. The undersigned hereby recognize this contract as absolute, upheld by the laws and traditions of Akram, where the word of the duel is final and cannot be reversed, withdrawn, or altered once signed.
We, the undersigned, declare the following terms:
That Reon Devalt, representing the Flyers Guild, shall engage in a sanctioned duel against two (2) 2-Star Warriors of the Raider Corps Guild, both to be faced at the same time in a single engagement.
Should Reon Devalt achieve victory over both opponents, the undersigned elite members of the Raider Corps Guild, Spryta Lockheed and Gole Kammerstadt, shall immediately and without protest renounce their membership from the Raider Corps Guild and swear allegiance to the Flyers Guild, serving thereafter under its banner and command.
However, should Reon Devalt suffer defeat in said duel, he shall forfeit his freedom and become a lifetime servant of Spryta Lockheed, bound to her will by the laws of Akram and by his own hand in agreement.
This contract, once signed, is irreversible. It holds power by the strength of oath and the honor of warriors. No word, threat, or circumstance may undo it. Each signer shall retain a copy of this document, ensuring that the contract may never be denied nor destroyed without collective consent of all parties.
Signed this day, by our own hand and will:
Reon Devalt — Challenger of the Flyers Guild
Spryta Lockheed — Raider Corps Guild
Gole Kammerstadt — Raider Corps Guild
Raya Sprawley — Witness, Flyers Guild
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Just as Isha had no doubt, upon seeing the contract Dai immediately enforced it.
With not much else to do for 2 days until the tournament, the duel between the Flyers guild rookie and two 2-Star fighters from Raider Corps, became a main attraction for hundreds of warriors from both guild, especially after finding out what they were fighting for.
This was like a grudge match between both of the guilds.
Everyone gathered at the Crux Arena for the bout.
As soon as Dai called for the fight to start Reon rushed in without so much as drawing his weapon.
Both fighters from the Raider corps were experienced sword and shield users. Viewers were confused as to why Reon hadn't drawn his blade. But then they saw him disable the first fighter in seconds.
After weaving a swords swing he instantly grabbed the man's sword arm and punched his face knocking him down. The second fighter tried to quickly slash Reons back but instead he got tripped without even relizing, and saw a boot flying toward his face before his consciousness faded to black.
The 10 second match was quite anti climactic, but it exposed that Reon was definitely 3-Star.
Spryta and Gole were puzzled and ashamed. They didn't think that this terrible result was even possible, but Reon made it possible. As they agreed to in the contract they immediately left Raider Corps and Joined Flyers, where Isha immediately sent them on a mandatory mission in another District of Akram, assuring that they could not participate in the Trial of Ten for Crux.
Tthis was how things went sometimes.
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On the day of the tournament, hundreds of participants got 3 tokens each to battle with, and Dai announced that the tournament would commence. Some people immediately challenged others, and duels kicked off.
Reon wasn't in a hurry since he knew that the only way to lose was to lose all of your tokens. He watched some of the warriors fight it out. There was indeed a common technique used among many of Akram's warriors.
It was not weak by any means, but Reon figured they probably learned it at the academy and made their way by their own efforts rather than learning directly from a master.
The first person to challenge Reon was a person he did not recognize. A young teen like himself carrying a dagger with a fearful expression on his face. The young kid was looking back around him like he was being watched.
Then proceeded to rush at Reon. Reon easily averted the boy's knife slashes.
"This guy isn't even 2-Star fighter yet. Why would he challenge me? Because I'm the same age maybe." Reon thought.
He quickly punched the kid's gut which knocked him out from the pain. Reon took all of the kid's tokens, knowing that he was better off not being in the tournament to begin with.
Soon after someone laughed and walked out of a nearby ally towards Reon.
"Stupid kid couldn't even get one decent scratch in." another young man a bit older than Reon and the boy said.
He had black hair, and green eyes, and wore very nice armor.
"I'm challenging you now! Let's see how you fair against a Raider Corps Elite member!" the young man said proudly.
"Oh, your an elite from Raider Corps Guild? What rank are you?" Reon asked.
"I am the 7th rank member of the branch. Jamie TriaDane. You're the one who cost us two of our Elite members and forced them to switch over to your trashy guild. I'll kill you now to take revenge." said Jamie.
"How many tokens do you have Jamie? I only have 6 so far."
"It doesn't matter. Die."
Jamie bursted running towards Reon with a sword, as if he was weightless. Reon barely managed to unsheath his blade to block Jamie's sword.
When Reon blocked Jamie's sword it the blow was unexpectedly heavy for Reon.
Once again this happened and Reon had enough. He used Kinshi to see what was going on, and found out.
Jamie's energy was influencing the gravity around his body. Making him lighter and his blows heavier with precise timing.
"So you're manipulating gravity, huh? That's a pretty impressive technique honestly." said Reon.
"How the hell did he realize that?" Jamie thought. "No matter. You're dead for taking Spryta away from me."
Jamie rushed in towards Reon.
"Let me show you one of my techniques."
Nightmare Blade.
Jamie fell, feeling pain, he looked to his right and saw his right hand was chopped off. He felt shock opening his mouth wide.
"How dare you!" his rage spilt out until the pain set in, making him pass out.
"How dare I? It was too easy, Jamie, now lets see how many tokens you have." thought Reon.
Reon was shocked to see that Jamie had a pouch holding almost 70 tokens. There was no way that Jamie had fought all of those battles. He must have been given those tokens for some reason.
Reon walked away and found some people from the town, he asked them about Jamie TriaDane.
They looked surprised that Reon did not know. It turned out that Jamie was the mischievous eldest son of Magnum TriaDane, the manager of the Raider Corps Crux Branch.
"I see, no wonder he used such a bizzare technique." thought Reon.
Reon didn't take any more fights as he didn't need too. He now had plenty of tokens thanks to Jamie.
As the sun set the 1st day of the trial of ten was over. After all of the tokens were tallied up, it turned out that Reon did make the top 10. He had the 8th highest score. So from that point on only the 10th and the 9th medallion holder could actually challenge him.
Hundreds of warriors were out of the tournament now. Only about 200 remained and it was the 1st day only.
Raya saw Reon and asked how he did. Reon showed Raya his number 8 medallion, and Raya showed Reon his number 4 medallion. After fist bumping they both went home for the day.
Meanwhile the TriaDane family home was distraught at the fact that their son lost his hand.