102 Showman

Tong Huakun stared at Jack with wide eyes before Bai Maolong exclaimed "Great idea, Jack! Too bad I can't fight anyone." and snapped her out of her stunned silence.

"Why do you want to let the other Tribes know about this duel?" She asked as she studied the youthful face. At times, she felt like she knew this strange cultivator quite well, but at others, he would do something which would make her think that she knew nothing at all.

Jack looked at her and said "To let everyone know that you'll be protected by us. I will force them to think twice about the cost of attacking the Haechi Tribe."

From the side, Ran Huankuo had a hint of hope in his voice when he asked "What if you die?"

Jack shrugged his shoulders, said "Then I guess you'll have to make do without me.", and started walking towards the Haechi representative's house.

In the evening, both Ma Ruiman and old Long proclaimed him insane for agreeing to the duel, but after they calmed down they agreed that it had the potential to get their name out there.

During the day, Old Long managed to procure enough supplies for another couple of months, He even acquired around twenty kilos of Deep Water Iron, but they had little luck with finding lumber.

Tong Huakun spent the entire day sending Haechi Tribe warriors around the Tribal Assembly to spread the news about the death match to their allies. At first, she disagreed with the whole affair, but after spending the day talking it up, she became as excited as Bai Maolong and couldn't wait for tomorrow to come.

On the next morning, Jack asked Tong Huakun to show him where the fight would happen.

She led him towards the west and stopped at a natural basin in the barren landscape.

With the wind blowing from the west towards the White River, Jack could smell the familiar scent of dried blood a lot earlier than they reached the dueling grounds. The earth and rocks in the basin had a dark red, almost brown, tint that the seldom falling rain couldn't wash away.

The basin gave him a strong feeling of being back in the hands of his enemies and having to fight for his life each day in the pit.

"…ck, Jack!" Tong Huakun's voice came to him like she spoke from the inside of a well. It took her a few tries to call him back from his recollections and look away from the basin.

Her eyes showed her concern when she asked "What happened? Have the dueling grounds made you reconsider this foolish plan of yours?"

Jack shook his head to clear it and said "No, just got lost in a memory. Can you please repeat what you were saying earlier?"

Tong Huakun watched him for a moment longer before she sighed and repeated "The reason we use this basin is that you can't see the Tribal Assembly from inside of it. Every member of the Tribes is forbidden from spilling blood while in sight of the Assembly. So if it looks bad for you, just run to the top."

Jack gave her a fond smile and said "Thank you for your concern, but I would rather die than be known as a coward for the rest of my life."

He saw a hint of admiration in her eyes and thought 'What would she think if she knew that I would rather crawl like a worm out of that hole than die in it?'

With a shake of his head, he dismissed the flight of fancy and studied the basin. It didn't have much than barren earth, rocks, and dried blood in it. Making him feel relieved that the Tribes didn't have anything up their sleeves.

Soon after, they returned to the White River family's rented house and talked about their plans for the day.

Jack had a private conversation with old Long before he sent him and Ma Ruiman to talk to their merchant contacts and make them interested in the fight. He had old Long leave the Star Bag back with him because he needed it for the pregame show.

Tong Huakun left the house shortly after. She got instructions to try and get some more people interested in the deathmatch and to join them at the dueling grounds at midday with the rest of the Haechi tribe.

That left Bai Maolong and Jack in the house. For the rest of the morning, Bai Maolong helped out with some warm-up exercises and light sparing.

Just as midday came around, Jack took off his clothes, took the Star Bag, and closed himself in a cleared out room of the rented house. When he exited the room, he had his clothes back on and looked like nothing happened.

He looked at his pacing friend and sat down at the main room's table with a satisfied sigh.

Bai Maolong stopped pacing and asked "What are you doing? We need to hurry or we'll be late."

Jack waved a dismissive hand and said "It's called being fashionably late. Plus, I haven't sat on a proper chair in a while. Let me enjoy this."

At the dueling grounds, the Lolin representative looked at the distant Ran Huankuo and shouted "Where is your mercenary, Haechi? Don't tell me that he fled back to the other side!?"

Raucous laughter came from the side of the basin where the Lolin Tribe stood. All around the basin people looked over to the Haechi tribe with ridicule in their eyes, even some of their allies showed disapproval.

Ran Huankuo met the eyes of the almost five hundred people strong crowd for a few seconds before he turned to Tong Huakun and hissed "Where is he?!"

"I am giving two to one odds on the Lolin second in command! There will be a payout even if the Haechi mercenary does not show up. If you still have any hope for him you can place your bets on nine to one odds and pray for a miracle." A familiar voice announced from a group of merchants.

Tong Huakun had to stop her annoyed glare as she looked at her superior and opened her mouth.

Just before she could say anything in Jack's defense, a few people started a commotion which spread to the rest of the gathered crowd.

Tong Huakun followed their gazes and saw two figures walking towards the dueling grounds.

She pushed her spirit energy into her eyes and saw one handsome young man with short hair, dressed in dirty white robes, grinning from ear to ear and bursting with energy.

The short-haired teen next to him had a beautiful Haechi leather coat and a relaxed expression on his face. In each hand, he carried a severed head by their long hair. The heads looked like they were just recently removed from their bodies.

A second later, a horrible howl came from the direction of the gathered Lolin as the huge second in command tried to charge at Jack. Only the intervention of his Tribe's representative saved him from getting killed by the rest of the tribes or the White River family.

"The third and fourth in command of the Lolin Tribe! No wonder they requested this duel." "That foreigner took their heads as trophies." "The Lolin Tribe will exterminate his entire family for this." voices from the crowd sounded in Tong Huakun's ears, but she ignored them and kept staring at the relaxed way that the teen she thought she knew carried the two severed heads.

A cold shiver ran down her spine as she thought 'What have I done?', then a second later she glanced at the Lolin tribesmen and added 'At least they're on our side.'

Jack heard old Long's voice announce "All wagers are final and betting is closed." and chuckled.

"What are you laughing at, you sick bastard!?" the large man from the Lolin Tribe roared at him.

Jack looked at him with a smirk and said "Nothing special, just a joke. I'll tell it to you later. Oh wait, right, you'll be dead later." With that, he dropped the smirk and threw the two severed heads at Bai Maolong's feet to curses from the Lolin tribe.

Bai Maolong laughed, picked the heads up, and stored them in the old Star Bag that Jack gave him for safekeeping.

With a careless look at his opponent, Jack asked "Shall we?", jumped down into the basin, and started bouncing on the balls of his feet while he raised his hands up in a boxer's guard.

The Lolin representative watched Jack with narrowed eyes, but still released his hold on his second in command and allowed him entrance into the dueling grounds.

The large man let out a furious howl as he slammed down onto the ground. He ripped the mask from his face and revealed his bright red one.

Jack could see hints of similarities between him and the man he killed, but rage contorted the large man's face too much to say anything for sure.

With a growl, the large man executed the Lolin's body strengthening technique and charged straight at the bouncing Jack.

For all of his mass, the Lolin second in command had decent speed and reached his target in a couple of seconds. Unfortunately for him, his target moved faster.

Jack burst out with his prepared Moon Step and ducked to the left side of the charging man. In the next moment, he extended a few threads of spirit energy from his chest and formed the strongest Air Blast spell that he could, while he also switched from Moon Step to Chaotic Hawk Assault in his legs.

The large man just started turning towards his elusive prey, when a blast of wind made him stumble a little to the side and exposed his fully extended left leg.

With a quick and powerful stomp, Jack crushed the large man's knee.

Although the Lolin's body strengthening technique made their body tougher, it still couldn't help with the ligaments in their joints. From what Jack could sense in the first fight it only worked on the top layers of skin and muscles.

The Lolin second in command let out a cry of pain as his left leg bent in a way it wasn't supposed to. He waved a claw-like hand at his nearby enemy, but the dangerous prey managed to escape with a few dance-like steps.

Jack watched as the large man tried and failed to stand on the injured leg and started his assault.

With his mobility ruined, all the large man could hope for was that his opponent would make a mistake and let himself get dragged into a contest of strength.

Jack didn't give him that opportunity. For the next few minutes, he dashed around the limping hulk and tortured him with quick kicks from a distance. Even though the large man had greater reach than his opponent, Jack's legs were still longer and quicker.

When he finally spent all of his spirit energy on the body strengthening spell, the Lolin second in command sighed and waited for the next attack.

It came a second later in the form of a kick to the back.

As he spat out blood, a second kick followed the first and forced him to his knees.

Jack kept kicking his opponent in the back until he lay prostrated on the ground and moaning while spittle and blood oozed out of his mouth.

He walked up to the front of the fallen giant and raised a leg up high. With a look up into the raging eyes of the Lolin representative, he stomped down on the neck of the fallen man and ended his life with a loud *crack*.

The crowd watching the duel let out a collective sigh that they felt they had held in ever since Jack crippled his opponent.

He looked up at the mass of unfamiliar faces for a second before he looked down at his hands and said "Damn, I didn't use these for anything. I guess it's time to make them earn their keep."

With that, he walked over to a sharp-looking rock and picked it up.

When he started heading back towards the prostrated corpse, he felt a buildup of spirit energy behind him.

Just as he thought about looking back at it, he heard the voice of Ran Huankuo say "Try something, Lolin, and we're going into that pit after them."

An instant later, the buildup of spirit energy stopped and Jack continued to walk towards the corpse.

It took him four sharp rocks to hack through the thick neck of the former second in command of the Lolin.

When he did, he grabbed the head by the hair and stood up.

None from the crowd left the show while he did his grizzly act. He saw a sickness building in some of their eyes, but they still stayed and watched.

"I am Jack Song, leader of the mercenary company Immortals' Lament. We will be protecting the Haechi caravans from now on. Anyone who tries to raid them shouldn't expect anything else than what you saw here today. If you doubt my words, just ask the Lolin how their last raid went." Jack said and saw all the eyes locked on his bloody figure dart to the Lolin and back to him.

"If you think that you need protection for your Tribe's caravans, contact the Haechi and we can arrange a deal similar to the one they have. Our rates might seem harsh, but they are a lot better than losing all of your goods when your caravan gets…" he stopped talking, looked down at his belly, and added "Oh."

When he looked back up he finished with "For additional information feel free to ask the Haechi representative."

After that, he threw the severed head to the side, sat down on a large rock, and closed his eyes while spirit energy started swirling around him.