Omen: 11, 18

  ‘I should increase my bets,’ Adam thought. ‘If I split some of the winnings between everyone, even two hundred gold will be too little. I should at least give them all a tiny bit, but Nobby and Brittany should get the most since…’ Adam wasn’t sure why they should get the most. ‘Sihey were the first to believe in me?’

  Adam sighed. ‘I ’t bet too much, I? Won’t the are annoyed with me? I wonder what the biggest bets amount to. There’s no way we’ve broken that when the Duchess swing around tens of thousands of gold with ease.’

  “Chief Executive Officer Kitool!” came the shout from one side, before it was repeated.

  “Chief Executive Officer Jaygak!” came the shout from the other side, before it was repeated.

  Adam furrowed his brows. ‘What?’

  ‘What?’ Jaygak thought, frowning as she stared at Kitool opposite her. She gathered they’d have faced each other like this, but to think it would be so soon. ‘I should have guessed since my luck had been so good.’

  Jaygak and Kitool circled around the arena, while everyone was beginning to pce their bets.

  ‘Probably Kitoht?’ Adam thought, feeling the gazes of his panions sear into his soul. Adam crossed his arms, and did not make a motion.

  A worker passed by their table, pausing. “Are you not wishing to bet?”

  “No,” Adam replied, simply.

  Rick met Remy’s eyes, and the pair remained silent, not moving to bet their oher Iyrman.

  “Who do you think will win?” Vonda asked.

  “The Iyrman,” Adam replied, simply.

  Vonda smiled, w if she should tease Adam more, but she decided against it.

  Jaygak and Kitool met in the tre of the arena, while the bets had beehe bets were fairly even, with a slight edge towards Kitool, since she had faced against plenty of oppos wearing heavy armour, though none had been Iyrmen.

  Jurot crossed his arms as he watched the fight from the wall. He had essentially forced him way into the wall to watch it, the same as Timojin and Amokan, who stood on the opposite side. They each thought against who was going to win, instead fog on the pair ahead of them.

  Jaygak held Stormdrake in hand, gripping it tight, tighter than she had ever done so before. Kitool held Tigerstaff, pointing it towards her best friend. She inhaled sharply, before letting out a soft breath.

  The guards shouted for the pair to begin, but her moved. A sed passed. Two seds. Three seds. The three seds felt almost like ay, and the entire arena was eerily quiet. The sounds of distant fighting from the arenas could barely be heard.

  The tension snapped.

  Jaygak exploded forward, f her body to move as quickly as it possibly could, swinging Stormdrake down, trying to cut her best friend in half. Her bde stopped, frozen, mere timetres from the ground, crag with lightning. Tigerstaff pressed firmly against the Iyrman’s neck, and though Jaygak tried to force her body to react, her entire body was seized by Kitool’s blow.

  The lithe Iyrman inhaled and exhaled tiny breaths as her staff showered against her best friend, denting her armour. Kitool smmed the quarter staff into the earth, hoisting herself up as she kicked Jaygak against her gut, f the Iyrman into the air, the young woman still frozen in her position as she nded against her side. After a moment passed, Jaygak’s body slumped to the side as it caught up with her mind, which had fallen unscious.

  Adam stared at Kitool, who exhaled, holding Tigerstaff in both hands in front of her as she bowed her head over Jaygak’s unscious body. ‘She showed no mercy what so ever.’ Adam’s brow became wet with sweat as he thought about how terrifying Kitool was with her staff. ‘No,’ Adam thought, remembering the st time they had fought. ‘She was terrifying before too.’

  The crowd revealed its shock through its wild roars and whistles. Kitool, however, did not circle around the arena, instead she waited fuardian to arrive to heal the Iyrman slightly.

  Jaygak came to, uhe shadow of Kitool’s form, which blocked out the blinding sun. Jaygak sighed, staring up at her closest panion, who had so brutally beaten her. “You couldn’t even allow me a single blow?”

  “I was afraid of your strike,” Kitool admitted. Even if Jaygak was sidered the weakest of the four, she was still a force to be reed with. Even Kitool wasn’t fident in fag Jaygak, especially when she possessed Stormdrake.

  Jaygak huffed. Kitool didn’t offer her hand to Jaygak, uanding that her friend would have just been annoyed by the gesture, and watched as the Devilkin flexed her body, regaining some of her strength, before she sat up. Jaygak panted for a few moments before she stood, sheathing the bde she had refused to let go even in her unscious state. She returned back to the wall, and so had Kitool, who hadn’t pleted a p of victory as they had all done previously, much to the crowd’s dismay. The trio of Iyrmen had long disappeared from the wall.

  ‘I just wao hit you once before I surrendered,’ Jaygak thought, sighing as she returo the group.

  Adam frowned. ‘Is Jaygak still going to pce?’ The tour was a little weird in that it worked with both a bracket and point system. He was uo his head around it, though Jurot and the others seemed to uand it.

  As Jaygak dropped beside Adam, she huffed. Adam wasn’t sure what to say, so instead he motioo a worker, and ordered three bottles of wine, one for the table, one for Jaygak, and one for...

  Adam gnced around, his brows furrowed. “Where are Lud Mara?”

  “They’re watg from atop the gates,” Kitool expined, settling herself beside Jaygak.

  “Atop the gates?”

  “There is a small area above the gates, for special guests,” Kitool said, her voice emphasising the st set of words.

  “Ah,” Adam said. “Are they safe?”

  “Yes,” Kitool said.

  “How you be so sure?”

  “They are with Yellow Turban.”

  “Ah.”

  The wine was brought, for a princely sum of sixty gold. Adam realised they only he two bottles, but decided against sending one back. “Thank you.” He handed otle to the youth, while Adam shared the bottle with Kitool and the other adults, and allowed Jaygak to drink from her own bottle.

  An awkwardness set with the group as Jaygak drank and drank, while the others rexed, watg the fights as they ate the food of the arena. Adam wondered if they should keep watg the rest of the fights. He was beginning to get burnt out oour, even if many of the warriors iher ranges were great.

  ‘Aren’t the fights only going to get better now? Sihey’re be fag only the greatest of warriors?’ Adam wasn’t sure how it worked exactly, but he assumed that the quality of the fights were going to increase, and the fights were going to beore even.

  “Whoa,” Adam said, looking at Jurot as he returned from his fight. “You look like crap.”

  Jurot, whose hair was dishevelled, and was bandaged by the arena’s priests, sat down opposite Adam. “The Order of Ice Bdes gave their Rage Dancer a set of magical items which almost matched Phantom and Mighty Roar.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “They must have bet on Logan,” Jurot said.

  “I didn’t hear any thunder.”

  “I did not o use it.”

  Adam smiled. ‘Hehe. That’s my brother.’

  “Logan wielded Third Ice,” Jurot said.

  Brittany almost spat out her drink, wiping her mouth quickly as she stared at Jurot. “Third Ice? The sword made from the Silver Dragon Queen of the North?”

  “Yes,” Jurot replied.

  Jaygak sobered up from hearing the name of the bde, and exged a look with Kitool. Third Ice?

  ‘What?’ Adam thought. “Silver Dragon Queen of the North?”

  “Antalia, Queen Silvari’s mother,” Jurot expined. “She was hunted down by the White Dragon Knights, though the price was their utter demise, and a great shift which rocked the ey of the north. The King of Aldnd at the time mao assist the Bow family in stabilising the region, before they were able to force their way into Drakkenn to sad raze much of its southern region. Drakkenn has barely recovered since.”

  “Third Ice is made of Antalia?”

  Jurot nodded. “Third Ice is the weakest of the Three Bdes of Ice. First Ice, Sed Ice, Third Ice. Third Ice is a Greater Enhanced bde. Sed Ice is a Legendary Enhanced Bde. First Ice is an Artefact.”

  Adam whistled. “Damn.”

  “Logan must be a didate to bee the Grand ander of the Order, or he would be uo wield Third Ice as an Expert.”

  “And you, Jurot, son of Sonarot, have beaten him?” Adam asked.

  “Yes,” Jurot replied, a shadow of a smile appearing on his face.

  Poor Jaygak.