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It was sweet, but Lawrence had no delusions about winning the King of the Hill Event. He figured even with Tidas’ training, the one out of the three brothers that was most likely to win was Marco.

Tidas had trained his body along side his Tank trait for the majority of his life. Marco had lost his magic at a young age, so he’d been training his body for nearly fifteen years. Tidas was scrawny as a child, but Marco hadn’t been small for as long as Lawrence could remember.

Each brother was roughly five years apart, give or take a few months. Marco had ten years on Tidas to begin with. He’d gotten even more ridiculous about his physical strength after he’d lost his magic. To the point of paying outrageous amounts of money to bring in grappling and fighting masters from all over the Star Continent.

Lawrence’s brother’s abilities were so great that their father had forbid him from entering any of the wrestling contests. When he thought about it seriously, the world was quite lucky Marco had lost his powers..

Squeezing Shasta in his arms, Lawrence smiled and said; “Thank you for your faith in me, my love.. Just, don’t get your hopes up too high.”

Shasta frowned; “I Know you can beat Tidas! He’s not as big and bad as everyone-”

“Who’s big and bad now?” Tidas asked like he didn’t just hear everything clearly, just to mess with her a bit.

Shasta flustered for a couple seconds before retorting; “I was saying that you’re not as big and bad as everyone Thinks you are!”

.....

Tidas laughed as he wrapped his arm around Skye’s waist; “At least you’re honest.. Still wrong, but honest. Do you think you’ll beat me tomorrow?”

Lawrence laughed hesitantly; “Maybe, but I don’t think either of us will win tomorrow, to follow suit with Shasta.”

Tidas quirked his eyebrow at his older brother; “Ok, I’ll bite: then who do you honestly think will win tomorrow?”

Lawrence flashed a weak smile as he replied; “Marco..”

All joviality instantly left Tidas as he stared at his brother. They locked eyes as if having a silent conversation, then Tidas held up his fist with a slightly wicked grin on his face. Lawrence returned the smile with his own, then lightly tapped his little brother’s knuckles in solidarity.

The four stood for a few more minutes talking about the sword fights as they took place. Zas eventually came over and said hello, but he was the main judge for most of the events. Shasta had been requested as Lawrence’s personal guard, so she couldn’t exactly help him. Tidas was in charge of a bunch of other things, so he couldn’t really help either.

It turned out to be more venting than an actual conversation. From his lack of help, to the ‘lack of skill and finesse’ in the competitors; Zas lamented. Skye had offered to help him with whatever she could, but there wasn’t anything she could really do(as far as he knew).

Thinking of one thing she could do, Skye reached out with her hand and healed Zas’ fatigue. He thanked her profusely for it and the offer, in an attempt to guilt Tidas or Shasta, but they didn’t budge.

Zas knew it wouldn’t work, but; “A guy’s gotta try, right?”

It was the last thing the general had said as he walked away, and the twins joined them after their lessons. Zas was in a better condition all around now, but he still wished thhe had help. ‘Maybe I can hunt down Klaus and Ronnie-no. They’re probably still mad at me for asking that favor..’

‘I wonder if Skye would back out of the trials on her own if I asked? Probably not, but I’m out of ideas, and I’m running out of time.. I’ll have to try..’

As the last two fighters stepped into the circle, Zas cleared his head of all thoughts except the task at hand. As he inspected their swords and equipment before the fight, Zas realized that one of the competitor’s swords was loose around it’s hilt. The blade clanked slightly as he shook it side to side.

“Who checked this blade for you?” Zas asked in a deeper tone than the competitor was expecting.

Standing at attention, the young man replied; “I’m not sure, sir. I just saw the inspection tag and the green mark on it indicating that it had been cleared for use.. Is it no good?”

Zas’ eyes zeroed in on a mark along the hilt. The sword had been strategically tampered with. The mark would most likely look like a regular scrape to a regular person. Only someone who was familiar with the directional marks created from parrying would be able to tell.

Zas had watched the entire Sword Fighting Event because he was the judge. He knew the young man’s style, and knew right from the start that he’d place high. The man was named Wendel Thorton, and he was the son of a commoner who worked in the orchard at Dragonhorn.

Wendel’s uncle was in the General Infantry, and he looked up to Zas as his hero. Having no magic, he couldn’t join the RMC directly. But it was common for even non-magic personnel to be assigned to the RMC if their skills were far beyond average.

Watching the seventeen year old lad had assured Zas of his talent and competence. He assumed that the rigged sword was the work of someone who didn’t want the noble on the other side of him to lose to a commoner.

The sword fights and jousting were always won by nobility. It was a point of pride to them since those two events were originally only meant for nobles to enter. Before Tiberius’ time; the Shot Put, archery, sword fighting, and the King of the Hill Event were all reserved for nobility.

Tidas’ ancestor had disbanded the regulations preventing commoners from entering, but the nobles made it a point to retain the title yearly. It was one of the main reasons judges with heightened vision were required. They didn’t always go about it fairly, so equipment inspections and impartial judges were required for every event now.

As Zas looked at the blade, he told Wendel to get a new sword. Once the boy took of to the equipment station, Zas glared at the other competitor as he asked; “Did you know about this?! Because you could’ve killed him if you’d swung down hard enough to make the hilt split.”

The man’s eyes grew wide with fear; “I-I swear it wasn’t me, sir! I was over by the-”

“I didn’t ask if you did it, I asked if you Knew about it! Who was it?!”

When the man hesitated to answer, Zas let a low growl slip as he said; “Give me a name or I will take you head Off of your shoulders right now..”

The man took a step back as he spoke with a shaky voice; “I don’t know! I swear! My father just told me to keep swinging as hard as I could! He didn’t tell me I was going to Kill someone! I don’t want to do that! He’s just a kid!”

The man before Zas had a good twelve years or so on Wendel, so it made sense he’d see the lad as a child. ‘How can nobles be so cold-blooded over such trivial thing as winning a stupid contest?! He didn’t even tell his son that he’d be committing murder..’

Zas’ countenance eased up considerably at the man’s honest shock and fear. His eyes and body language told Zas he wasn’t lying, and that he truly felt sickened by his father’s deception. He clasped the man on the shoulder and apologized for his assumption of compliance. He just figured that man knew what he was doing..

After Wendel went through two more swords, Zas went and pick one for him. Four out of the six swords available to him were damaged or bent. Having had his fill of the situation, Zas grabbed one from the other man’s sword selection.

Since he was a noble, the man had top-of-the-line swords available to him. Wendel had never seen such a fine piece of steel before, and looked like a kid who’d just opened up his Yuletide gift. Taking their positions, Zas started the match... It was over within ten minutes.

The Obstacle Run was the next event, and that was the one Shasta was participating in. Right as Wendel knocked the noble out of the ring, Shasta bid her farewells, and took of to get her Sealing Stone Bracelet on. She refused to even touch it until the competition was nearly starting.

Because Fae originally come from the source of all magic, the Sealing Stone effected them twice as bad. Instead of just sealing away their magic, the stone literally ate away at their physical endurance, too. It wasn’t exactly fair, but there was no other alternative to making sure no magic was used during the games.

As Shasta walked up to the starting line with a sluggish expression, Victor and Anna yelled to her; “You can do it Shasta! You’re the best!”

With her cocky attitude returning, the competitors on either side of Shasta slowly inched away from her as she let a low growl of anticipation slip out. The area was eerily silent, then a loud ‘pop’ from a gun went off...

Shasta took off like running was her natural state of being. Skye watched as she kept her back straight, and let the force of her movements help propel her along. Magic or not, Shasta was still most likely the fastest person in Alcon.

As they came down the stretch, the first obstacles became completely visible. Shasta leaped over the hurdles, looking more like a free wild cat on the hunt that a competitor. The glint in her eyes and the smirk on her face told Lawrence all he needed to know.. Shasta was enjoying herself.

Skye and Tidas knew the look, too. Tidas from during actual combat, and Skye from training, but they both recognized it.. Shasta loved to let loose, and that was exactly what she was doing. Without Tidas competing, there wasn’t any worthy challengers.. Or so she thought.

Right as she passed Lawrence and the others, she noticed the surprise on their faces as their eyes fell shortly behind her. That was when she noticed the sound of footfalls relatively close behind her. As she peaked over her shoulder, Shasta was shocked to see a man dressed in a traditional Highlander kilt coming up Fast behind her.

As she pumped her legs, Shasta heard Skye screaming at the top of her lungs; “Petrie?! What The Bloody Hell Are Ye DOIN’ HERE?!”