As with Lord Gregory’s entrance, a long string of torches was weaving towards the circle, but every few moments, fire blasted skyward, lighting the huge combatant, and the four, red painted fire breathers who we’re taking turns exhaling the flames before him. In the bright explosions of light, the rectangular Seaward Kingdom banner, an orange sun rising from a blue sea, reflected clearly and proudly, and a new chant began to form to the rhythmic beat of the drummers.
“EASTERN BEAST! EASTERN BEAST! EASTERN BEAST!” This mantra slowly, but steadily, overtook the Lion Lord’s chant, as the other eastern kingdom folk, from Valleya, Dakahn, Wildermont, and Highwander all joined in.
The event was turning into an East versus West grudge battle, which brought the intensity level of the crowd up to a fevered pitch. The betting became furious. The eastern kingdoms, well known for their constant squabbling amongst each other over borders, trade tariffs, and river crossing rights, pushed their differences to the side for the moment to cheer on the Seaward fighter. Nearly all of the people from the eastern kingdoms wanted to see the overbearing Kingdom of Westland’s favorite fighter go down.
By the time Bludgeon stepped into the circle, the chant for him was completely drowning out the voices of the people still cheering for Lord Gregory. Two of the red and black painted fire breathers, sent up simultaneous pillars of flame for the monster to pass between as he entered the fighting circle. The crowd exploded into screams and cheers. The people that had fallen with the scaffolding were long forgotten as the two brawlers paced around the fighting circle, flexing and stretching their massive muscles.
Bludgeon was a bit larger than Lord Gregory, Hyden saw, but the Valleyan Stallion had been bigger too. Hyden had been planning to root for the Lion Lord, until he learned about Gerard’s foolish bet. If Gerard lost his wager, his entire harvest this year, and the risk of making it, would’ve been for nothing. The idea of risking that much coin on a gamble disturbed Hyden. He could see betting enough to make the fight more exciting, but the amount Gerard had wagered was extreme. He found himself wanting the giant tattoo covered Seawardsman to win, just so that Gerard didn’t lose all of his money. He glanced at his brother. Gerard was on the edge of his seat with excitement radiating from him like heat from a forge fire. It made Hyden smile despite his concern over Gerard’s purse.
“I hope you win!” Hyden yelled, but Gerard didn’t hear him.
Hyden looked back to the fighting circle, and saw why Gerard wasn’t paying any attention to him. Shaella was down there among the fire breathers, wearing a hooded cloak that didn’t quite conceal the bulge of her sword hilt, or the swell of her ample bosom. She threw the hood back, and her face was the most beautiful thing visible in the entire crowd. She spoke a few words to Bludgeon, and then she was pulled out of the roped off area by another tattoo covered Seawardsman, just before the Wildermont Redwolf soldiers began clearing the circle for the Brawl.
As soon as the ring was cleared, the Redwolf guards took up positions spaced evenly around the battleground. Each of them turned their bladed pike to a horizontal position, and then passed the tip end of it to the guard on his left. When the synchronized maneuver was finished, each soldier had the butt end of his own spear in his left hand, and the business end of his neighbor’s spear in his right. The pike shafts created a waist high rail that was intended to keep the pressing onlookers out of the fray.
There were very few rules to the Brawl. The main rule was that were no weapons that were to be used by the brawlers. Other than that, it was a battle to the death, unless one of the fighters yielded, or was incapacitated due to unconsciousness, or severe injury. Once a fighter yielded, the other man couldn’t continue to beat on him. If a fighter went down, and lay still for any length of time, he could not be molested until he made it back to his feet. Biting, eye gouging, hair pulling, and blows below the belt, were sometimes booed by the crowd, but were all legal maneuvers.
A hush fell over the crowd as the two combatants began to slowly circle around each other. When his back was to them, Hyden saw that Bludgeon’s tattoos formed the skeletal shape of a winged creature, whose skull and beak climbed over the top of the man’s head. Its wings and body spread out across his back, the wing tips reached around the back of his arms to his elbows. When Bludgeon’s arms were held at his side, the wings looked to be pulled back, as if the creature were in a dive. When he threw out his arms to dart in at the Lion Lord, it looked as if the tattooed skeleton was spreading out its wings to take flight.