Chapter 9 - Tournament of Titans (2)

 "The match will be between Prince Kal and Prince Loki."

Odin's announcement caused several reactions, for himself a slight frown at the thought of his sons fighting each other, for the crowd they exploded into cheers combined with chants for the competitors and finally, it caused every single one of their friends to look at either Kal or Loki.

Kal for his part looked over towards Loki, who was busy fixing his vambraces hardly paying attention to the crowd or the observers around him. He caught Kal looking at him and just gave Kal his usual playful smile, and wink.

Loki was perhaps in the best shape of all the fighters except for Kal, his armour barely had any starches upon it, and apart from exhaustion combined with a little sweat his brother was unscathed.

Which made sense Loki dealt in magic and misdirection, he never got into a slugging match, like Kal or Thor and when he did it was either because he was in serious trouble or was playing with you.

"Try not to hurt him too much." Thor patted Kal on the shoulder as he started heading towards the centre of the arena.

Sif and Fandral merely gave nods of encouragement to both princes not wishing to pick sides, whilst Kal returned their nods, Loki simply sauntered past them.

"Good luck and keep your guard up," Haldor advised whilst Kal passed him, Haldor's eyes however were fixed on Loki who was looking calm as ever.

The two princes took their spots opposite each other in the centre of the ring, Kal was armed with a sword whilst Loki merely stood unarmed. Seeing the two one would think the match horribly unbalanced.

However, Kal knew better than that, Loki was never truly defenceless, his brother's skill with a blade and magic was not something one simply dismissed.

The arena was quiet for a moment as everyone waited with bated breath for the match to begin, the only sound Kal focused on however was the steady breathing of his brother.

Then the sound of Gungnir broke the silence, as Odin signalled for the match to begin.

Kal didn't move, he knew it was what Loki would expect him to do, explode forward in a burst of speed to try and end the match in one strike, just like he and Thor usually did. So instead, he waited and began sidestepping keeping his eyes on Loki, not wanting to play whatever game Loki was cooking up.

His brother merely smiled at Kal's caution and tipped his head to his little brother.

Loki also began to sidestep matching Kal's movement, if with a bit more flourish and style than his younger brother, causing the two to start circling the centre of the arena.

Kal's breathing was steady he knew the match would all be about keeping Loki in front of him and not allowing his brother a chance to play his tricks. Whilst Kal was difficult to injure and healed fast, he hated magic as it affected him the same as everyone else, something Loki was aware of.

'Okay, keep circling wait for an opening and when he gives you one stri- DAM IT' Kal's thoughts had distracted him for a moment and in that split second Loki suddenly disappeared from his vision. Causing Kal to curse at his own foolishness.

Kal reached out with his hearing to try and find his brother, which was an immediate mistake as he was suddenly overwhelmed by a high pitch screeching noise. A curtsey of Loki's magic.

"Ahh!" Kal opened his eyes at the pain and swung wildly around him expecting an attack.

Suddenly he felt a slice and stab in his side as Loki appeared, rushing past him striking just underneath Kal's outstretched arms as he went by and then before Kal could react he disappeared again.

Kal swung at where his brother had been but connected with nothing but air, he tried using his vision to find Loki, but this time was met with a blinding flash of light. Which caused him to stumble backwards flailing his sword about as he went.

Kal hated magic.

Another series of strikes struck Kal as he was blinded, this time they were more forceful and one of Kal's shoulder guards came off.

Kal was still trying to refocus his vision, whatever spell Loki was using had been effective, Kal had to give him that when he felt something hot strike his back.

The blast flung Kal forward and he landed face forward he quickly rolled onto his back and leapt up. His cloak was ablaze with a strange green fire that Kal could feel was burning him, forcing him to discard the crimson material.

"What in the name of Helheim was that a fireball really?" Kal stated as his vision refocused.

"Energy projection brother practised it just for yo-" Loki smugly replied his voice oozing with pride at his performance so far.

However, Loki was cut off when Kal's foot suddenly connected with his chest sending him flying into the side of the arena wall, causing his concealment spell to fail. His arrogance in flaunting his achievement allowing Kal to find him despite his spell.

Loki had barely time to recover, rolling out of the way as Kal descended upon him barely moving in time as Kal's sword struck the ground just where he had been causing it to fracture under the blow.

Loki tried to strike Kal with his blades whilst he was overextended but Kal twisted with unnatural speed parrying the blows.

More pain erupted in his chest, as Kal's free hand slammed into his chest sending him flying again this time he blacked out for a moment when he hit another of the arena's walls.

The crowd was now on their feet cheering like mad for Kal to finish the fight, an event that caused Frigga to wince both at how blood-crazed the crowd could get at times and the blows her sons were inflicting on each other.

Kal moved forward again but this time did not follow with another strike instead he merely lifted his blade slightly pointing the tip to the now kneeling Loki.

"Yield brother, you fought well but you can't beat me," Kal stated calmly as he looked down at his elder brother, wincing slightly as Loki coughed up blood.

"Think so?" Loki merely replied with a grin.

The action caused Kal to frown but suddenly heard a buzzing noise underneath him, he looked down and saw one of Loki's hands was on the ground, a trail of green magic was emanating from it. The trail formed a circle at Kal's feet with Asgardian runes glowing.

"Oh, Sorðinn" Kal cursed as the ground beneath him exploded in green fire sending him first into the air and then crashing back to the floor.

Loki seized the opportunity and sprinted over to where Kal had fallen.

Kal was on his back, dazed, and for the first time in a while was feeling real pain, most of his armour had been seared off or just blown away, his sword had left his hand landing how knew were leaving him almost naked.

Loki not wanting to take chances quickly created multiple illusions of himself and surrounded Kal each one bearing a dagger at his fallen brother.

He was about to demand Kal yield when the ground shook violently cracking beneath his feet causing him to stumble to the ground and for his illusionary selves to disappear.

The shaking lasted several whole minutes and even Odin had to steady himself on his seat, tiny pieces of rubble falling from the ceiling.

The cause of the quake was Kal, who at landing, feeling immense pain and seeing multiple Loki's standing over him had had enough, so with one fist had struck the ground with all his might.

Now, the quake lasted longer than he had expected and the cracks that formed ran nearly the entire length of the arena floor were unexpected, but he could worry about that in a little bit.

Kal rose like a spirit of vengeance moving so quickly that even to Odin Kal suddenly appeared before Loki. Kal simply bent down and lift his brother by the throat with one hand then reeled back his other hand in a fist and struck.

The blow was loud and final, with Loki going limp as he was rendered unconscious, the glow of magic surrounded Loki and he disappeared from the field transported to the healing room.

A few moments of silence occurred before the sound of the crowd roaring could be heard at Kal's victory. Kal for his part shook his head and felt the sunlight strike him as his wounds healed and faded leaving not even a scar.

He turned to face the box and remembering that he had taken her favour which was now ash due to Loki's spell, he gave the Lady Sigyn a deep and respectful bow, to make up for the loss.

One at which her regal and noble nature cracked as she blushed a deep crimson, returning the gesture with a flustered bow.

Kal was initially not sure why his bow had invoked such a reaction, however as he moved back towards his friend, he realised that apart from a vambrace on his right forearm and some of his trousers he was nearly naked.

Kal was now blushing as he tried to cover himself as he felt the eyes of many Asgardians upon him.

Upon returning to his friends Thor was no help as he merely grinned at his little brother whilst giving a boisterous laugh. It was Haldor that took pity on him and threw his friend a cloak.

"You just had to lose your shirt, didn't you?" Haldor laughed, as he moved to give his friend a place to sit.

Kal paid little to the other matches, as he replaced his armour and weapon, but kept track of the victors.

Sif had faced Tyr and after a duel of blinding speed and feats of athletic prowess, Sif managed to claim victor, by the skin her of teeth when she got past the general's guard and delivered a blow to the side of his head.

Haldor had the misfortunate of drawing Thor for an opponent, a fact which caused him to violently swear at before moving onto the field.

As predicted Thor won the match but Haldor had made a good showing, even landing a blow before Thor struck him so hard Haldor was unconscious before he hit the floor.

Fandral had lost to an aged warrior called Einhar, a former berserker who despite Fandral almost cutting him to pieces with the number of blows, would simply not go down. The old berserker just powered through the pain and eventually won by pommelling Fandral into the ground.

The other victor was a warrior named Lodur, who Kal had heard his father talk of and remembered something about the man being an old companion of his father. He was impressive, fighting similar to Sif with speed and agility, wearing nothing but a simple tabard for armour and a short sword for a weapon.

The remaining 5 competitors were allowed a few moments left as they sorted out the final matches, as one person would have to fight twice before the Duel of the Titans could commence.

It took a while but Odin finally rose and announced that Einhar and Lodur would fight first, the victor to face Thor, whilst Kal would face the Lady Sif.

Kal turned to Sif who was as usual was nonsense, she was patching her armour and sharping in her sword. She twirled it a few times to make sure the balance was right, and then went back to sharpening it.

The match between Einhar and Lodur was one of pure skill, Kal was slightly in awe at both power and skill the aged Asgardian warriors wielded.

Einhar's rage was something to behold, he powered through like an unstoppable force, raining down blows that even Kal would be weary to take. The strikes were like little strikes of thunder, booming and causing the ground to explode when they missed Lodur and struck the earth.

Whilst Lodur was a blur, dodging and weaving with such grace that Kal believed the man at times had to be weightless, and when he struck it was precise and devasting. His cuts were small and looked superficial as he danced around his opponent.

The match however was over quickly as Lodur's strikes although they seemed small and inefficient, quickly overcame Einhar.

Each cut was targeted, a jab at Einhar's shoulder suddenly resulted in the loss of function, another at his leg resulted in the same. Eventually, Einhar was paralysed unable to move his limbs reeling on the floor at his defeat.

With their match over, Kal and Sif took their place both readying themselves for the match.

Sif although appearing her usual calm self on the surface was slightly panicking inside, as she faced Kal across from her.

She was under no illusions about the difference between the two, whilst she was a trained warrior Kal was still a prince of Asgard with the power she could never hope to match. She just prayed to her ancestors that they allowed her an honourable showing before Kal claimed victory.

That being said she didn't intend to make it easy on him. Whilst Kal was nearly impervious to harm he was not yet invulnerable and having watched Lodur fight she had gained an idea on how possibly to win.

Kal was a powerhouse of a young man but that made him brash and his technique overly simple, he either overwhelmed a target with furious blows or let them tire themselves out trying to hit him.

What he was not good at was improvising, as Loki had demonstrated during their fight. Kal never really had to adapt to something he just changed between his two tactics until one worked, which meant to beat him all Sif had to do was outsmart him.

That was the theory anyway, as the moment the match started Sif felt pain as Kal faster than she had ever seen before appeared before her and struck her with his sword.

The blow hit her fully in the side of her chest and sent her flying, with more pain following when she slammed into the arena walls, causing her to start seeing stars.

She shook her head trying to dispel the confusion from her head, however, as her sense came back to her Kal was again upon swinging his blade once more, this time she raised her own to block the strike.

The result though was her wrists feeling like they had fractured as she again flew through the air, this time though she managed to land on her feet and skid to a halt. She then had to roll out of the way as Kal descended on her for the third time, her act sparing her further pain as his strike missed her.

"Ahh" Sif groaned in frustration, she was quickly becoming tired of being thrown around like a doll and wanted to start attacking.

Taking the opportunity at Kal missing Sif whirled around and started her own offensive, starting a series of lighting fast strikes on Kal.

The offensive was short-lived, the first dozen strikes she made hit Kal squarely on his side but to her further frustration they did nothing.

Sif almost groaned at the result, she neither had Thor's power to harm Kal nor Loki's magical abilities, meaning that even if she found a weakness she did not have the capability to use it.

However, ever the warrior she continued on regardless of the futility of the act hoping that perhaps Kal would provide some kind of opening she could exploit.

For Kal, he was amazed at Sif's current tactics whilst her strikes were, unfortunately, doing little to aid her he was impressed by her lasting this long.

Each blow he had landed had caused bones to break, the one she had parried had fractured her wrists as well as torn muscles there. The fact she was standing would have been impressive but that she was still actively attacking was cause for amazement.

It was after the thirteenth strike she had made that Kal deflected her blade with his own and kicked her with his foot, sending her crashing into a wall and then falling to her knees.

Not wanting to prolong the match any further he sprinted forward before she could raise and knocked her onto her back. Placing a foot on her chest he levelled his blade at her throat in an effort to cause her to yield.

Sif struggled for a few moments and even drew a dagger trying to stab Kal's leg which simply broke when it connected with his almost impervious skin.

"Sif please just yield." Kal's voice was one of concern as he did not want to hurt his friend any more than he had.

Sif struggled and tried to pry his foot from her chest but seeing the futility of the act merely slumped beneath him.

"Fine, I yield." She stated with a groan.

At which Kal offered a hand to lift her up which she took, and as he pulled her up, after which he raised her hand up with his causing the crowd to burst into a roar. Causing a smile to appear on Sif's face as she heard the crowd start chanting her name.

"Thank you, Kal. Not believe this will make me go easier on you, next time I will be victorious." Sif stated as they released their hand offering Kal a small bow as she then departed towards the benches.

"I would not have it any other way," Kal stated with a smile.

He quickly provided his own bow to the royal box and then departed the field to allow Thor and the warrior Lodur to battle.

Kal watched hoping to gain insight into his own fight with Thor as he was sure his brother would be victorious even if Lodur had millenniums of experience on him.

As the match started Kal suspected that the match was like watching his and Sif's fight just with different players. Thor opened up with a powerful and fast attack that Lodur was unable to block fully.

The lightly armoured aged warrior was sent flying, however where Sif had crashed into the wall Lodur had stabilised allowing him to instead skid to a halt just short of the warrior.

He then even parried Thor's next blow, who was laughing like a child at yule full of glee at the joy he was having.

Lodur made a valiant effort, but it was clear that he no longer possessed the skills he once had in youth, he was not able to recover like Sif had or dodge out of the way as she did. Instead, he could only parry or take the blows Thor dealt out.

Even then though the match was not a quick affair, whereas when Sif paired the blows she was static in her defence Lodur redirected Thor blows cancelling out most of the force of them before they caused him harm.

It was a slow process, but Thor's strikes were clearly beginning to drain the aged Asgardian, little by little Lodur became slower his reactions more sluggish and Thor's continuous assault insured that he was left no opening to attack the Prince.

In the end, Thor force Lodur to one knee, the aged Asgardian signalled for the prince to halt by raising one of his hands as he panted kneeling on the floor.

"Well fought my prince, well fought. Thank you for a glorious contest, I yield." Lodur conceded between laboured breathes

"No, thank you! That match was most enjoyable." Thor boomed his smile wide on his face.

Thor then turned and lifted his arms in victory causing the crowd to chant his names in massive roars, as Lodur quietly limped off the field to be attended to his wounds. His route made him pass Kal and as he did, Kal could not help but bow his head a little at the aged warrior.

Lodur smiled at the prince and gave a bow of his head in return, Kal hoped that when ages passed for him and his days of glories had passed that someone would be afforded the same honour of respect.

"FOR ASGARD!" Thor's roar caused even more noise from the crowd as he was still celebrating his victory.

Kal sighed at his brother's antics, humility was a word that Kal suspected was not in his brother's vocabulary.

Thor's celebration was allowed to last a few more minutes until Odin's raise from his seat and striking Gungnir on the ground caused the arena to fall silent.

"Many have honoured us these past two days, glory has been won, songs shall be song of valiant deeds." Odin's voice was projected all across the arena clearly.

"However, we still have one last event to go, a final bout to decide Asgard's Champion! It will commence after a short rest to allow the two contenders to prepare."

At Odin's declaration, the crowd exploded once more, with both Kal's and Thor's names being chanted by the enthralled crowd.

Kal gave polite waves and bows from his place at the Arena's edges whilst Thor was never one to pass up an opportunity, began showboating as he left the centre of the arena.

Kal took the short rest to sharpen his blade, fix his armour, as well as pick up a shield whilst he had not needed one before he felt it might prove of use against Thor.

In truth, he was slightly nervous, whilst he and Thor had fought in the past it was only ever friendly sparring matches and neither had truly sort to harm the other or use their full strength. This time however would be different there would be no holding back and that worried him slightly.

Kal was difficult to harm and arguably as strong as Thor but that was the issue he did not know who in fact was stronger.

Thor had proven himself able to match Kal every time they sparred, and his brother was able to wound him if only a little, but that was training, and Thor had never pushed that advantage. So, the question was what would happen now.

Kal's musing was interrupted when someone picked up a shield next to him, Kal turned and was surprised to find the Lady Sigyn had descended into the arena. She held up the shield perfectly to allow Kal to slip his hand into the hold.

As Kal's hand slipped into the shield hold, Sigyn without asking started to tighten the straps and adjusted the shield, once she was finished she stepped back and turned to pick up his sword.

With her back to him for a moment, Kal moved his arm bearing the shield and found that it was perfect, just tight enough that he could hold it without issue yet loose enough that he could discard it if needed.

He quickly stopped moving his arm when Sigyn turned to face him holding his sword out for him to take which he did so.

"Uh thank you, Lady Sigyn." Kal said a little awkwardly.

"You are most welcome your highness, it is the least I could do for the man that carries my favour. It is my duty as a Lady" Her voice was formal and refined, a small smile lined her lips.

She then gave a small curtsy and then produced another of her favours to tie to his arm.

"Well yes, thank you. I will try to bring you honour." Kal's words were clunky and made him wince at how he sounded.

"The honour is mine, my prince." Sigyn moved forward and placed a small kiss on his cheek as she left to retake her seat.

The action caused the crowd near him to cheer, and several young maidens to sigh at the romantic scene.

Kal however was just feeling awkward and trying his best to keep a polite smile on his face. He had nothing against the Lady Sigyn, she was good company at a formal event or meal, but Kal in truth had only taken her favour to avoid one of Amora's schemes.

To him, Lady Sigyn and Amora were the opposite ends of the spectrums of the Ladies of the court. Amora was all schemes, scandals and seductions trying to gain position by getting the right man. Whilst Sigyn was all protocol, obligation, and sophisticated talk, doing her duty as a Lady of Asgard.

Both of which held little appeal for Kal, but when forced to choose, he went for Sigyn's bland boring sense of duty over Amora's schemes that always lead to trouble.

His small side scene played out Kal saw that the time for the Duel of the titans was approaching, and so marched to the centre of the Arena.

"Prince Kal and Prince Thor are you ready?" Odin asked his sons as they took their position.

Both nodded, Kal a bit more focused than Thor who was grinning like mad.

"Very Well BEGIN!"

Kal had learnt three fundamental facts since the start of the match; One, Thor had been holding back, Two, he currently was only NEARLY impervious to harm, and Three, real fighting was painful.

Any semblance of technique had been abandoned quickly, as the two princes ended up in a slugging match to see who would falter first.

Thor's armour was in tatters as a result of Kal's relentless assaults, his torso was covered in cuts, he could no longer see out of his left eye due to the swelling, he was sure his right arm was broken and the knuckles on his fist were bloody.

Yet Thor gladly endured it all, his little brother's assault had been spectacular to behold and painful to endure. Thor was proud of his little brother, Kal was moving as fluidly as a river, as swift as the wind and was hitting like a bilgesnipe.

Thor was laughing as his brother's blade struck him in the side, he quickly dropped his arm to trap the blade there, although painful it was necessary as it allowed Thor to again unleash his own battering on his little brother.

Kal for his part was fairing a little better than Thor, whilst he was arguably sturdier and equal to his brother in strength, Thor had actual combat experience and it was showing.

For every blow, Kal had landed Thor had returned three and with such unrelenting fury that Kal had no time to heal. His armour like Thor's was in shambles, his shield had been destroyed in Thor's opening salvo and his body was covered in cuts and bruises as well.

His blade moved like lighting, striking Kal's side repeatably in the same spot and then went for one of Kal's legs hammering away at it trying to and disable his brother's ability to rapidly move.

Thor had discovered that if he focused his strikes repeatably in one spot he could cause lasting damage to his little brother, expanding the small bruises and cuts he could inflict into actual wounds. The repeating strikes prevented his brother from healing as he normally would, thus leading to their tattered stakes of both opponents.

However, despite the brutality of the match, Kal was enjoying himself as well he was sore, bleeding, tried and loving every second of it.

Kal had struggled with understanding the thrill Thor and the others always talked about when they discussed battle or fighting, to Kal fighting was all work and in honesty was too easy most of the time.

His opponents stood still like statues and crumbled like paper when struck, so he had never really gotten any joy from it.

Until now, Kal was tired, his body ached, his muscles were on fire, and he was in so much pain he wanted to blackout. Yet in spite of all that he was having fun, he felt the rush of adrenaline in his blood for the first time, a fire in his heart that demanded victory and every blow he took or dealt out was given with the jubilation that he was for once fully committed.

Kal laughed as kicked his brother off of him to release his arm and then sprinted forward to attack Thor whilst he was down, unleashing a series of blows on his brother's torso's that Thor took with a laugh.

Thor blocked then stood up and the two began hammering away at each other neither carrying to block nor parry only focusing on beating their opponent into the ground.

Kal could swear Thor was moving so fast that he could see sparks of lightning coming off his brother like a tiny storm was raging under his skin. Whilst to Thor he would swear that Kal looked like a burning star almost glowing as if a sun burned under his brother's skin.

The two battled for what seemed like an eternity with the crowd watching enraptured with the spectacle cheering and screaming at every blow, all waiting for something to give.

It finally did, Kal landed a sharp blow that struck Thor in the rips causing the prince to spin to the floor, Kal winced as he heard Thor's ribs finally shatter his brother failing into a heap before him causing the crowd to roar.

Kal was smiling in victory as Thor went down, the blow finally ending the brutal contest between the princes.

Expect it did not.

The crowd who were already roaring Kal's name suddenly went silent as Thor unbelievably got back up.

"Good strike" was all Thor said as he spat out a mouth full of blood.

Kal was almost too stunned to move, he could hear Thor's bones fracturing as charged forward and could see the damage his brother was doing just by moving.

Kal jaggedly blocked Thor's attack he could feel the weakness behind Thor's strike, his brother strength was failing fast, and not wanting to prolong the fight Kal struck Thor in the head with his fist with an almighty blow.

Blood spurted forth as Kal both saw and heard Thor's nose shatter and his skull fracture slightly, Kal winced his blow was harder than he had wanted but was glad that it would end the fight prevent Thor from further injuring himself.

Expect Thor again did not stay down, he coughed out even blood and when he returned to his feet he was swaying. To Kal's eyes, Thor looked like death, his nose was a bloody pulp, his eye was swollen, almost all his bones were fractured and Kal was sure Thor had punctured a lung.

Yet, Thor still charged again striking at Kal who this time took the blow, there was barely any force to it and with all the gentleness he could muster struck Thor in the chest to knock him down and end the match.

However, like before Thor once more rose ignoring both the pain and harm he was doing to himself by simply moving. Whilst Kal was not fine by any standards he was now far better than Thor and was even beginning to heal making Thor's actions more doomed.

Kal repeated his previous action but again Thor rose, causing the crowd to go insane with noise at his actions, cheering and screaming their prince as he struggled on.

Yet whilst the crowd loved it, the same could not be said for Kal or his parent. Frigga had turned away not wanting to see Thor in such a state and Odin was on the edge of his seat his kingly restraint almost gone as he was ready to end the match.

However, their compared to Kal who when Thor attacked once more griped his brother almost holding him up to whisper.

"Brother please stay down." Kal pleaded to look in the bloody mess that had once been Thor's face.

In response, Thor smiled or at least attempted to and whilst spurting blood from his lips stated, "And miss the fun never."

Despite his bravado, Kal could tell two things; firstly, Thor was in immense pain and secondly, whilst there was breathe in his body Thor would never quit a fight.

Kal was both horrified and in awe of his brother at that moment. Kal always knew Thor was stubborn and a bit prideful, but it never connected for Kal until that moment that for Thor he had to win no matter what.

It didn't matter Kal was sturdier than Thor or healed quicker or that Kal was arguably stronger than him, Thor was the crown prince and the older which meant he had to win. Everyone expected it, in the name of Valhalla even Kal had expected Thor to win if he was being honest.

Except now he wasn't going to win, Kal was, and Thor driven either by pride or a sense of obligation was breaking himself upon that realisation.

Kal dodged another attack from Thor and sidestepped his older brother, he had given up on attacking Thor as doing so did nothing but injure Thor more. Kal was running out of options and getting desperate to finish the fight, however, he had no idea how to as no matter what he did Thor was just getting back up.

Kal could also hear the crowd beginning to murmur the cheering starting to die down as they watched Thor begin to flail about trying to strike Kal. All of which made it worse for Kal as all he could hear was the people starting to doubt and pity Thor.

As Kal watched Thor almost fall to his knees trying to him, he knew what he had to do to end the fight.

Kal squared off against Thor providing Thor with an easy target to hit and seemed to start attacking his brother again causing the murmuring to increase as they saw this as the end of Thor's battle.

Thor responded by summoning the last of his strength and swinging with his remaining might at his little brother's head sparks of electricity dancing on his blade as it cut through the air. In truth, he knew the blow would be weak and that Kal would dodge it.

However, he was shocked when it struck Kal cleanly on the side of his head the blade shattering on impact, and Kal went down with an ungraceful fall.

The entire arena went silent as Kal crumbled to the ground at Thor's feet, Thor readied himself as best he could, raising his fist to continue the fight for when Kal rose. Except Kal did not raise he stayed down at Thor's feet shallow breathing the only indication he was alive.

Thor was about to check on his brother when he heard the familiar sound of his father striking Gungnir to grab everyone's attention.

"People of Asgard I give to you your champion PRINCE THOR!" Odin announced.

The reaction was immediate the crowd who had been so quiet and murmuring doubts about Thor, exploded back into life a wave of noise overcoming Thor who was stunned at his victory.

Thor merely raised his arms to his side and basked in the warmth of victory, not noticing the smile on Kal's face or the smile on his mother's face.

Kal waited a few moments after he heard his father's announcement before he 'groggily' got up again, shaking his head as he rose.

"What happened?" Kal stated as he rose to his feet, causing Thor to turn to face him.

Thor merely enveloped Kal in a hug and lifted his little brother off the ground spinning him causing the crowd to roar again.

"A battle for the sagas my brother that is what has happened!" Thor stated in delight, he placed Kal back on the ground and took Kal's hand and raised it in triumph alongside his own.

The action caused an even greater roar from the crowd, a roar that continued even as Kal left the field returning back to the tunnel where he had first exited.

As Kal entered his changing room he was suddenly greeted by two figures he had not expected. One was his mother Frigga, and the other was the Lady Sigyn, who was holding a small bowl and cloth.

It was his mother that moved first wrapping him in a tight embrace filled with love and affection, which Kal returned already feeling better as a result of the hug.

"I am so proud of you," Frigga whispered into his ear, a deep pride in her voice.

"Thanks, I tried my best," Kal stated as he winced slightly from the pain in his ribs.

"I know you did my dear, but I am even more proud of you for giving Thor the match," Frigga stated quietly as they separated so that Sigyn did not overhear.

"Mother Thor won all on his ow-" Kal tried to state.

"Hush now, as I said I am proud of you and so is your father," Frigga stated with a proud smile "Now the Lady Sigyn wishes to attend to your wounds."

"Oh no that's not really nes-" Kal tried to protest but a quick jab to his ribs by his mother prevented that.

"Lady Sigyn my son would be delighted to have your aid," Frigga stated in her queenlike manner before she turned to whisper to her son.

"Hush darling, let the poor dear help you she was very upset at witnessing your injuries you know."

"My prince." Sigyn stated giving a small curtesy as she came before him, she did not meet his eye, but he could see a ghost of a smile on her face.

"Uh Lady Sigyn, thank you for your help," Kal stated awkwardly, causing a polite giggle from Sigyn.

"The prince is too kind. It is my honour and duty to help" Sigyn stated formally her eyes still not meeting Kal's as she set the bowl down to start attending to him.

"Well, I will leave you two to it," Frigga stated as she left, giving Kal a knowing smile and nod towards Sigyn.

Kal gave her a polite as she left whilst resisting groaning at his mother's subtle insinuation, knowing full well that his mother very much like the Lady Sigyn, especially as a prospect for the future. Something that Frigga was starting to talk to her son's more about every day.

Having lost one battle of the day and not wanting to start another, Kal merely sighed after his mother left them alone and act that caused Sigyn to look at him with confusion forcing him to smile at her.

'I really need to get off Asgard' Kal thought as he forced himself to stay polite. 'I wonder what Midgard is like?'