10 chapters whoo!

As the platform neared its destination, the roar of the crowd grew deafening. William grew restless as he saw the stairs that led to the sands of the arena, get closer. Finally the platform came to a sudden halt, that almost knocked Rodrick off his feet.

As they ascended up the stairs, they were greeted by the blinding light of the sun. On the other side of the arena, William could see three other men walking in. His opponents.

“I want the big guy!” William said excitedly, as he jumped up and down.

“Are you sure about that?” Gjörn asked. Noticing the physique and size of William’s opponent was comparable to his own.

“I’ll be fine, he looks like he’ll be fun.” William gave Gjörn a toothy smile.

Gjörn just shrugged and looked over at the other two. There was a knight fully armored from head to toe with rusty plate armor, and a skinny man spinning a spear around in a skillful manner.

“I’ll take the armored man.” Gjörn said to Rodrick, who was shaking uncontrollably again. “The man with the spear won’t be as difficult for you as the knight.”

Rodrick swallowed hard and then nodded his head.

As the three planned their strategies, they heard the wild crowd suddenly go silent. They looked up to the platform where the King had his arm raised.

“Let the battle… Begin!” He yelled as he retracted his arm.

As soon as they heard that, William, Gjörn, and the three opponents rushed forward.

“I want the Orc!” The big man said.” But was cut off by William.

“Sorry to disappoint you.” William said in a smug tone. “But I’m going to be your opponent.”

“A boy?” The big man questioned. “I thought you were his sword bearer or something.”

“You’re going to wish I was.” William retorted. “I’m about to humiliate you in front of this large crowd, Then I might piss on your corpse.”

“Why you little!” The man yelled, as he swung his club at William, who leapt backwards to avoid it.

The knight saw that his large partner was occupied, so he decided to go after Gjörn. The Orc’s axe clashed with his sword.

“This must be my lucky day.” The knight said as he struggled with Gjörn. “I am a banished knight from Hera who had to settle for these fighting pits. If I bring your head back, they’ll give me a castle!”

“You may find my head a bit more difficult to lift than yours.” Gjörn retorted. He then pushed forward, knocking the knight on his back.

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“Are you only going to block?” The spearman asked in an annoyed tone as he poked and poked at Rodrick’s shield.

Rodrick didn’t answer, he kept his shield in front of that spear head at all times. Surprisingly able to keep up with the spearman’s speed.

The spearman tried lunging, spinning and lunging, and even a triple poke, but he was unable to touch Rodrick, who had completely ignored the sword he was holding on his right hand, and completely dedicated himself to blocking. Finally, the spearman decided to step back a few feet, and then charged at Rodrick with the spear held out over his head. Rodrick braces himself for impact. The spearmen however, planted the spearhead on the ground , and vault kicked Rodrick in the face, causing him to fall on his back, and knocking the sword off of his hand. The spearman saw his chance and lunged at Rodrick’s defenseless throat. Rodrick knew he had to react fast. He mustered enough strength to lift his shield up and swatted the spear away, inches before the spear could connect. The hit made the spearman lose balance, giving Rodrick enough time to get back on his feet and assume his defensive stance.

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William was having an easier time with his opponent. He knew the muscular brute was going to be slow, and he exploited it with ease.

“What’s the matter? Can’t hit a a child?” William taunted.

“Hold still!” The brute yelled. Swinging his club as fast as he could, but it wasn’t enough to even touch William, who was dodging just out of reach with each swing. William’s constant taunting made the brute more erratic, and those wild swings were beginning to tire him out.

“What’s the matter? Tired already?” William teased.

This made the brutes blood boil in anger. He lifted his club like a bat and swung it as fast as he could. William noticed that this particular swing was bad news and quickly dived over it, and rolled forward. His heart pounding fast.

“I should get serious now.” William thought. He then rushed at the brute and slid under his legs before he could react. Finally unsheathing his dagger from his back, he sliced at the brutes shins. This made the brute growl out in pain. He then desperately slammed his club down at William, who jumped out of the way, and landed on the club.

“Time to end this.” William smirked. He then ran up the club, jumped onto the brutes shoulders and wrapped his legs around his head. Before the brute could pry him off, William buried his dagger into the brutes shoulders, over and over. The blood splattered over his face and his hands until William was covered in red. The brute gave off a weak groan as he fell to his knees.

“Good fight.” William whispered in his ears before slicing his throat open. Blood sprayed from his neck like a geyser before the brute finally died and fell forward.

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Gjörn seemed to be evenly matched with the knight. They spent much of their fight parrying each other’s attacks. Gjörn even dared to say the knight seemed to have an edge on him. The knight swung his sword, but Gjörn blocked with the handle. He then swung it horizontally but the night swiftly ducked out of the way and slashed Gjörn in the stomach.

“Urgh” Gjörn grunted as the slash made him loose his grip on his axe, and it flew out of his hands. The knight then saw his chance for glory and crashed his shield against the Orc’s face.

Gjörns head jerked sideways, but he slowly turned it back at the knight. Growling the entire time and giving a menacing look. The knight froze in fear as he saw Gjörn get back to his feet like the slash was just a paper cut. Gjörn punched the knight so hard his rusty helmet shatters to pieces. He then punched the dazed knight in the chest. The force causing his chest plate to cave in. The knight fell on his knees, and then his hands, and then his face. Coughing and chocking on blood that was oozing out of his mouth. Gjörn picked his war-axe back up and raised it over his head.

The knight, seeing his end was near coughed out some words that resembled “WAIT!” But Gjörn ignored his pleads and brought the axe down on his neck, causing his head to roll off his body. All as the crowd let out a loud “ooooooh”.

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Rodrick was still playing defense as the spearman was still poking and poking at him. Rodrick however remembered about how he defended himself by using the side of the shield to smack the spear away. He decided to try a similar tactic. He waited for the spearman to strike once more, but this time he dodged instead of blocking. Letting the spear scrape the left of the shield and veer off. Seeing his chance he bashed the Spears’s handle to his left, leaving his opponent completely open to an attack. Rodrick still didn’t have his sword on hand so he settled for a punch he put all his might in. He landed it plush on the spearman’s face. Making him stagger backwards, as the crowd roared. Rodrick however froze after landing the blow, amazed that it actually worked. This gave the spearman enough time to recover and now he was mad.

“I’m done playing your games!” He yelled. He then began attacking so fast, Rodrick could barely keep up.

His attacks began overwhelming Rodrick, and soon his shield shattered in front of him. Rodrick could only watch in horror as his lifeline was now in pieces.

“Now you’ll die you annoying-” the spearman started, but before he could finish he felt a giant hand grip his shoulder. He looked over his shoulder and saw Gjörn growling at him.

Rodrick eyes burst into tears when he saw him. The relief was too much for him to handle.

“Hey Orc!” William yelled in the distance. “Throw him over here!”

Gjörn listened and thrusted the spearman backwards, sending him flying over to William, who was lifting the dead brute’s heavy club over his head. When the spearman landed, all he saw was a kid covered in blood standing over him.

“Goodbye.” William said with a toothy smile that stood out because of the blood. He then swung the club over his head and smashed the spearman’s head into pieces. Leaving the club where his head once was.

At first the crowd was silent. William quickly rushed over to both Rodrick and Gjörn and lifted their hands up in triumph. The crowd began screaming praises.

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King Bravos’ jaw was dropped in amazement. The Orc was as impressive as he imagined, the boy blew his mind, the squire needed some work, but they managed to beat some fierce competitors.

“My lord?” Haytham asked in both a reverent and snobbish tone.

“When is their next fight?” The king asked in excitement.

Poor Rodrick

@mikesterman: "Chocked" needs to be "choked," and there's several instances where "brutes" needs to be "brute's." I still think they win too easy, but you're writing decent fight scenes. On to part 11.

@cbishop: will fix the grammar problems. As for them winning too easy, that’s a problem that isn’t going to last long.

I have 8 total arcs planned for this series, they are only on the first arc. These are small fries to gjörns brute force and William’s cunning. One of the only reasons they are doing doing this is so Rodrick can learn to fight.