The biggest competition was the Swordsman Challenge. It was similar to the Gladiator Circle but was battled inside a ten-foot circle. To win you had to defeat your opponent by “killing” him three times, or making him leave the circle three times. You only had your sword, shield, and dagger. The other competition Rex had won was of course the huge Gladiators Circle Tournament at the end of the year, when all of the post-season tournaments were held.
Orazior and Lamden were also very gifted swordsmen but were often overlooked because they kept coming in second or third to Rex. They just couldn’t quite get that victory over him. However, they seemed to enjoy watching Rex as they saw Trance enter the competition. Both of them got together and watched as Trance arrived and registered for the first invitational tournament of the year. They seemed to know that they probably wouldn’t win again, Rex was still so very good, yet they had hope that since Trance had beaten Rex at defending a castle that he might beat him here.
There had been a great debate about this first invitational tournament. Some of the judges from the White Knight school didn’t want the Gray Mountain Warriors to be invited. They said that they only wanted the best, and the Warriors had been ranked fifteenth overall last year. Amazingly, the deciding vote to allow them to be invited to come and compete was from a judge representing the Black Knights. He stated that their record was so impressive this year and such a huge improvement that they had truly earned the right to be invited.
Trance was nervous about the singles competitions and wondered how he’d do. In archery he had to shoot at a variety of targets, some circular as he was used to, and some shaped like knights. He was happy to make it to the third round, but missed the quarterfinals by ten points. He was better with his ax in the ax man tournament. He made it clear up to the semifinals. But the knight he faced in the match was from the White Knights and was extremely aggressive. He knocked him out of the circle three times to his one kill. Now the event everyone was anticipating, the Swordsman Challenge.
Once again there was a great discussion as the participants were being given a ranking and then placed appropriately in the bracket. As last year’s overall winner Rex was given the number one position, yet many thought that Trance should be number four or even lower. In a strange twist it was once again the judge from the Black Knights that said that Trance had proved himself with a sword in all of his battles so far and had been very impressive. He noted that the Gray Mountain Warriors were as yet unbeaten under Trance, and that Trance had not even been eliminated in any battle yet. His reason won over the majority and Trance was placed in the number two position at the bottom of the bracket.
Trance saw the huge screen that had been set up to show the bracket for the Swordsman Challenge and saw that he was number two in rank out of sixty-four competitors. He easily advanced to the second round and had a fairly even contest to advance to be in the top sixteen. One of the White Knights was his next opponent, who seemed to be very zealous in coming after him. Trance had to use all of his skill to defeat him. He shook slightly. Was Rex that relentless to get him out of the tournament?
His next opponent was Lamden. Lamden, he discovered, was nobler and more gracious than most of the competition he had faced. It seemed that Lamden really appreciated Trance’s skill and bearing. They had a rather even match with one of them first scoring and then the other one. It was a really fair battle and drew a rather large crowd as the two competed and stood toe-to-toe matching every swing. Suddenly Trance lost his shield to one rather lucky blow by Lamden, so he quickly drew his dagger and used it as both shield and weapon. Moments later Trance scored his third “kill” and won.
“Congratulations,” said Lamden after he lost. He was sincere and stepped forward and shook Trance’s hand.
Now he was in the second semifinal. He watched Rex approach the first semifinal against Orazior. Both participants knew each other quite well and battled rather fiercely. Rex took the early lead, but Orazior came back and twice nearly won. However, Rex proved that he was a fantastic swordsman and won the match. Orazior tried to be a good sportsman and reached out his hand only to see Rex sheath his sword and rather arrogantly stalk away and whisper something to Trance’s opponent, a knight from the Harmon Hawks.
Trance was rather suspicious and approached his match rather cautiously. It took only moments for his suspicion to be accurate. The knight from the Harmon Hawks just charged straight at him, swinging wildly and out just to hurt him. Trance had a bright idea and let his opponent just charge and run himself right out of the circle. This worked twice and then the two actually dueled. Trance defeated his opponent, and then they dueled again. Trance barley won this time and was now on the verge of facing Rex in the final.
The Harmon Hawk ran at Trance this time and hit him shoulder to shoulder and Trance lost his balance and was knocked out of the circle. Trance got up and got ready to go again and saw that his opponent was bent on repeating his strategy and this time sidestepped the charging guy. The Harman Hawk saw that he had missed and came to a screeching halt at the edge of the circle. As he teetered there Trance turned to him and took his sword and swatted the guy on his backside with the flat of his sword and saw him lurch and step out of the circle. Trance was now going to get the match everyone was looking forward to seeing, even as the Harmon Hawk pleaded his case that Trance had somehow cheated him.
Rex was definitely not pleased. He had tried everything he could to get Trance eliminated from the contest. Now he’d have to face him. Oh well, now he could prove once and for all that he was the best, and that the Earth boy had just been lucky.
They approached the circle and saluted the judges, acknowledged the crowd, and then bowed to the royal box. Trance noticed that Rex was sporting a dark red lady’s favor on his left arm. Rex had probably received it from Corena some time ago and he wanted everyone to remember that he was still her suitor. Then suddenly from the box Corena stood and made a motion to the judge in charge.
Corena had a quiet talk with the judge, and then stood by the rail with a silver silk scarf in her hand. The judge turned and made a signal for silence. The arena went silent as Rex looked on excited and expectantly, and Trance looked anywhere but in her direction.
“Trance,” that beautiful sweet voice carried over to Trance and he turned, shocked and surprised.
Corena signaled for him to step toward her. He did so very nervously and feeling everyone in the stadium watching him. He stopped right in front of her and waited, not sure yet what was going to happen. With swift deliberate movement she reached out and tied the scarf to his left arm. Before he could think or do anything else she had rather quickly kissed him on the cheek. He blushed and was stunned. As he turned he caught Rex’s eye and saw him swell with rage.
The two competitors took their places in the circle and the match began. Rex was wild and charged Trance and rammed him out of the circle. They took their positions again, and this time Trance sidestepped Rex and sent him out of the circle.
The next point was won by Trance as they now dueled. Rex won the next two points, one shove out, and by defeating Trance. Trance redeemed himself by defeating Rex in their next duel.
“Hey Trance, you’re pretty good using your shield and dagger blocking blows and defending yourself. How about we leave our shield and daggers out of this, and just use our swords,” said Rex as he sneered and cast his shield and dagger aside and raised his sword.
Trance was curious and slightly unnerved. What was Rex up to? He made up his mind to face Rex with just his sword and see who the best swordsman was.
The crowd seemed to move to the edge of their seats as they witnessed the exchange and saw Trance set his shield and dagger aside as well. It was as if they sensed that they were about to see something special. These were the current best swordsmen in school and their match was even. This duel might settle the matter as to who was truly the best.
Trance took up his
position in the circle and faced Rex. He raised his sword and waited for the signal to start. The signal was given and he was surprised that Rex didn’t come after him right away as he thought he might. Instead Rex moved rather deliberately and seemed to be baiting Trance to come after him. But Trance held his sword at the ready and in a defensive position. Finally Rex couldn’t stand it and brought his sword down to find it blocked by Trance and the duel was on.
Clash, clash, clash went the swords and they met over and over again. Both of them were excellent swordsmen. Their swords really did seem to be a part of them as they moved in the circle and battled. Trance showed that he could use his sword with two hands on the hilt for more power, and he could then on impulse swing the sword with more finesse with just his right hand. He wasn’t as efficient with his left.
When the sword was in his left hand Rex really pressed his advantage. Trance would then quickly recover and use both hands to beat Rex back. Rex didn’t seem to have a weakness with his sword; however, his technique was sloppier and more uncontrolled.
Both boys were panting as their duel went on and they became exhausted. With more and more wild swings they now stumbled around the circle, now looking for any sign of weakness. Finally Trance saw an opening and took advantage. With two swift and powerful blows he knocked Rex’s sword off to the right and then had the thrust that was the “death blow” to Rex.
The crowd roared and cheered as Trance staggered slightly and was congratulated by a vast number of people. Even as he was elated at winning the Swordsman Challenge, he knew that there was another event that he had to enter and participate in, the Gladiators Circle tournament. As he went and sat down to rest while the other individual weapon events finished up, he found that he was sitting next to the boy that had won the Alternate Weapons Challenge.
The boy’s name was Hamon, and he was the warhammer-wielding captain of the Amorites. He stood six feet tall with fairly broad shoulders and moderately large arms. He had dark brown hair and blue eyes that were rather perceptive. “Hello,” he said in greeting. “I saw your match with Rex. I want to congratulate you on beating that guy. A lot of us were really rooting for you.”
“Thanks,” replied Trance still breathing heavily.
“My name is Hamon,” he said, introducing himself and extending his hand. Trance shook it and introduced himself. “So you’re the Earth boy I’ve heard so much about. I’m impressed; you’re a very good swordsman. Your archery needs some more practice, but you’re not too bad with an ax,” said Hamon as politely as possible.
“Thanks. I know that I need to practice more on my archery. I’m trying to get into the Golden Griffins so I needed to have a third weapon. I figure an ax would be a really good second to have. You have a very interesting weapon. How did you choose your hammer?” Trance said conversationally and pleasantly.
“This?” Hamon said, indicating his warhammer. The wooden hammerhead was carved and resembled a smooth angular sledgehammer head that was attached to a sixteen-inch long handle. “I chose this as my main weapon in memory of my grandfather. He was a weapon smith and forged a lot of weapons and used a hammer similar to this one in his shop. I used to go visit him when I was a child and played with his hammers a lot.
“I’m trying to get in the Golden Griffins also. My grandfather made me the warhammer I’ll use when I join,” Hamon happily explained, and then felt a tear form at the corner of his eye as he went on. “He made the hammer when I became team captain and told him about my dream to be in the Golden Griffins. He passed away four days after completing it and getting it approved for me in advance. That was last year.”
The two boys talked on and soon were becoming good friends. As they talked Gracer and Zam came by to congratulate Trance and soon joined the conversation. Then some of Hamon’s friends came up and congratulated Trance. The main point of the conversation was Trance beating Rex to win the Swordsman Challenge. They could tell that Rex was furious about being beaten, especially by a boy from Earth. Several of the swordsmen complained about Rex in the competitions, because Rex seemed to go out of his way to win everything and make himself look great at their expense. They laughed at the fact that he wasn’t the center of attention any more. They had noticed that many of the judges and recruiters were paying more attention to Trance at the moment.
Trance kept his modesty and tried to direct attention to the other swordsmen and gave them some helpful hints that might help them be better swordsmen. He took the time to demonstrate some of his moves and indicated that they could do them and have just as much success as he was having. Hamon, Gracer, and Zam could easily see that their friend would make a very good leader. They saw how humble Trance was, it wasn’t an act, and they watched as he tried to build the other swordsmen and other knights up to be better and have more success.
Their small group grew larger as they started practicing together, trying to get each other ready for the last tournament, the coveted Gladiator Circle event. They knew that only sixty-four of them would be entered. Trance, Zam, Mandor, Gracer, and Hamon all figured that they would be in the running as well as Orazior. Sure enough they were in and pretty well scattered through the brackets.
Rex was once again the number one seed; however, Trance was surprisingly ranked as tenth. He didn’t worry about this, after all he figured that many of the other knights from the other schools had been in longer than him and had really worked hard to make it this far. Trance was pleased to see that Hamon was in the second position. He knew that he might have to face his new friend in the tournament, but that was okay. He’d rather lose to Hamon than face Rex again and lose.
The tournament started and Trance saw Rex easily advance to the second round. He rooted for his friends and saw all of them advance as well. His turn came and he advanced, too easily he thought. His opponent came at him so recklessly that he literally ran himself out of the circle three times in a row. This made Trance rather uneasy. Obviously he was pleased to advance, yet it seemed that Rex was working behind the scenes to get Trance eliminated from the competitions. Another thought that troubled him was that he didn’t want to get a big head. He wanted to remain humble and wanted any success he had to be well earned.
The second round also saw that every one advanced to the third round. This was a rough round. Orazior beat Zam to advance to the quarterfinals; also Gracer defeated Mandor to advance. Trance had a brutal match. He won but felt he had just escaped being knocked out of the running. Hamon also advanced. Rex kept plowing his way through to the quarterfinals.
Now the top eight boy knights did their best to shine this early in the year to start impressing the recruiters for the various branches of the planetary knights. Rex had a harder time advancing this time, as his opponent was Lamden, the captain of the Black Knights. Orazior advanced over Gracer, and Trance was hard-pressed to advance over one of the boys he had practiced with. Hamon won and was excited that his new friend had advanced. Both boys greeted each other and knew that this was the way the game was played. Sometimes you had to face your friend in a match and just let the better knight win.
It almost seemed like destiny for Rex to win his way to the final where he bowed and showed off to the crowd trying to get as much attention back on him as possible. Trance and Hamon had one of the most exciting matches seen in any contest. They moved and struck at each other with such precision that it seemed as though either one could easily beat Rex, or anybody else for that matter.
The pair were so evenly matched that some people wondered if they would draw with each other. If so, by rule they would both be awarded second place, and Rex would be declared the winner. But before the draw rule could apply Trance felt he got lucky, but in reality Hamon was getting rather exhausted from competing in so many matches that he let his guard down at the wrong moment, and Trance acted and won.
Now once again Rex had to face his new nemesis, Trance. Like their last encounter Rex tried to pus
h and shove and bully Trance. This strategy no longer worked and Trance met him move for move and maintained his composure. They dueled and to Rex’s rage and displeasure Trance proved to be his equal. They fought till they were completely tied, and the next point in any category would settle the match.
They had used all of the weapons around the circle so the match would have to be settled with a shove out or wrestling pin. Rex charged in at Trance and grappled with him, trying to shove him out or knock him down. Trance quickly thought about how to protect himself and suddenly had a thought. He decided to try a move one of his favorite pro wrestlers used and see if it might work. Quickly he spun his back to Rex, grabbed his head a certain way against his shoulder and with two deep knee bends and a sudden drop to his butt Trance brought Rex crashing down and stunned long enough to be pinned.
The celebration at the stadium took quite a while to clear. Trance had won two top awards early in the year. Hamon and Orazior along with Zam and Gracer hoisted Trance on their shoulders and carried him around the stadium. Trance was elated. He had now really established himself as a very good knight. The recruiters were excited as they approached him and tried to interest him in the branch of knights they were representing. Trance made it quite clear that he had made up his mind that he wanted to join the Golden Griffins. The recruiter for the Golden Griffins was delighted and promised to get the process started for Trance to sign up after he graduated.
***
A week after the invitational tournaments Trance and his team traveled to the Amorites to take on his friend Hamon and his team. Trance had planned out his strategy with his team and felt he was really prepared for their battle. The Amorites had tough looking armor and were disciplined. Trance felt for the first time that both sides were very evenly matched.
Space Knights: The Arrival Page 17