Duel

Constance then faces towards the direction of his men; all are wanting to fight. For the knights of Arignon, fighting and winning in front of a large crowd is a great honor. As the fief and lands of the Margravate is in the continent of Evicella, who enjoys fighting and showing off their skills in combat.

"Who wants to taunt and maybe fight these hairy northerners?"

Constance asks his knight retainers. All the Arignon knights wanted to volunteer to fight in this duel to make a name for themselves in the North. Constance is already the White Wolf while Emile is the Black Wolf during the northern campaign for their amazing feats and achievements in the battles.

"As the oldest man in the group, I would be the one to go." Sir Markus said first, even though he is nearing fifty years old, he is still a capable and experienced knight that can in even grounds against those who are younger than him by twenty years.

"Sir Markus, you should give this chance to the young ones, it is time to rest your laurels." Sir Roderick commented.

"Hey, I am the one who suggests it, so it should be me to go there and fight." Sir John retorted to the two.

The three then look to Constance if who he chose to send to fight. Constance only smiles as he has already decided who would fight for the empire.

"Sir John, is your blade ready to hack some Nors.?"

"Yes, my lord, I would get you one."

Constance chooses Sir John as he is the one who gave him the idea and he trusts that he will not let him down and win the fight. Sir John gets his spear and rides his toward the enemy lines.

Both sides become silents as Sir John rides to the middle of the battlefield alone. Then Sir John raises and points his spear as he rides towards the Nors, taunting them for a fight.

"I John Mellek, son of Brad Mellek and a knight of Arignon, challenges a duel to the death!"

The Nors become silent as they didn't expect that the Aquintanians would be the one to initiate a duel against them. But after a few seconds, they shout and bang their shields with their weapons, everyone wants to fight in the duel.

Sir John Mellek only laughs at the cursing of the Nors and taunts them more by throwing one of his spare spears to the ground near the Nors warriors.

"Who is going to fight me? WHO IS GOING TO FIGHT ME?!" Sir John Mellek shouts to the Nors, earning their ire and disdain but the cheers and support of the eighth legion. The imperial knights are still skeptical but remain silent and waiting for what would happen next.

And everyone would not wait for long, the Nors give way to a huge man carrying a huge axe towards the Aquintanian war. He rides the horse confidently with the cheering of his fellow Nors warriors. He raises his fist as the Nors cheers for him and is also taunting Sir John Mellek.

The Nors warrior then immediately a few paces away from Sir John Mellek and points his axe to the knight.

"Let us fight without our horses knight."

"Your name warrior?"

Both Sir John and the Nors warrior went down from their horses. Sir John picks a sword and shield while the Nors warrior chooses the huge axe that he is holding and a large round shield.

Sir John is wearing a full gambeson armor suitable for winter weather and a steel breastplate top of the gambeson to add more protection while the Nors warrior is confident only wearing heavy fur and clothing to negate the coldness and hasn't wear any heavy armor.

"Njal, son of Knud, yours?"

"John Mellek, son of Brad." Sir John Mellek replies. He slaps his horse to run back to the Aquintanian lines as they decide to fight on foot.

"A fight to the death?" Njal asks.

"A fight to the death." Sir John Mellek replies. It is better to fight until the death as it is clear who would be the winner in the duel, the only one remaining alive.

Both of them walk away and distance themselves at about ten paces from each other. In their combat stance, both look at their opponents with deathly gaze, both men understands that the enemy they are facing is an experienced warrior who had taken a lot of lives.

"Whenever you are ready." Sir John Mellek said, in a combat stance, his shield on his left hand and his sword on his right.

The battlefield become silent as the two men are starting to approach each other with the desire to kill. Njal is physically stronger and larger than Sir John Mellek, but he is much more protected than his enemy and also much faster.

They are circling each other; both are looking for an opportunity of weakness and to attack the enemy in the best time. None came as both are very cautious about making any mistakes.

Njal, tired of waiting for any opportunity, charged forward and swung his axe from above with his shield forward. Sir John seeing the coming axe, immediately raise his shield to block the attack and swing his sword sideward to slash Njal at his waist. Njal covers his side with his shield and his axe is block by John's shield. Both took a step backward to give some room to connect their next attack.

Sir John's metal shield is still being damaged because of the strong force of the axe, luckily, he is not using a wooden shield that would surely be destroyed after that slash.

They both attack again bashing their shields with one another and try to look for any weak points. They thrust, hack and swing their weapons trying to subdue the other, both managed to use many attacks before both of them lost their shields.

Sir John shields are thrown away from an impact while Njal's shield are hack into pieces by the salvo of attacks.

Without his shield, Sir John is having a hard time as he can't block any slash and hack from the axe. He backs away trying to gain some distance as his sword has a longer range than the axe, but Njal won't let him have that chance.

Suddenly, Sir John lost his balance after blocking the axe with his sword and Njal sees the opportunity to raise his axe with both hands to slash Sir John from above as Sir John is still disorientated from that attack.

Everything seems to run in slow motion for Sir John and his hands just move in instinct, thrusting his swords towards Njal's chest. His sword thrust into the chest of Njal, dark blood is gushing from Njal's chest, and he blurt blood from his mouth. Sir John's face is sprayed with blood and the white snowy ground is replaced by dark red blood.

The duel is over.