Second largest fight on record

Winter was productive for the house. Training went very smoothly and it had the added benefit of clearing more land for the farmers to plant as the days warmed again and the frost receded. The houses still didn't understand but they didn't make the same mistake after the spring planting began. I wore the men out trying to get more planted then the farms could normally ever hope to harvest.

The men never questioned me around each other. They spent most of their time asking each other if they understood what I might be thinking. Which worked well for me. The mother knew what traits I looked for in my brothers, and if she got a new boy that met them she would send them to the branch house. Not many men from the houses met my standards, but it was enough to keep our four man teams at about 7 or 8. If the house had to buy any of the boys from the farm they came straight to the branch house. So far none of the other houses had complained, but I wasn't counting on that staying that way.

It was three days after the planting that I got a letter from the mother telling me about a proposed fight. Five houses want to try a four on four in a royal style, but it was clear that it was going to be the five houses vs us until they killed our men and then they would fight each other. I read the terms, they weren't bad considering.

I wrote her back to ask for 13 people for each side but agree if they will take 9 or more. For the same terms. I would like two weeks to organize our fighters but that will be from today, not from when the fight is finalized if she wants. My brothers had stared at me as I told them what I was thinking at dinner. The women had even quieted to listen.

"That is over the 30 men that was set as the limit for an arena."

"30 isn't the limit for an arena, it is the limit for the black stone. There are bigger arenas."

"That sounds like it will be courting death, something fierce."

I looked over at the messenger that had become as much a part of the house as any chair, "I am more worried about what our lord will think of such a fight."

The messenger raised an eyebrow and laughed, "It wouldn't be like your last fight, these fighters will be taken from fights that they would have been in anyway. Basically if a house takes you up on this exchange, we would be looking at a whole month's worth of blood-" The messenger's eyes lost what was going on in the room in the middle of his sentence. I held my hand up in the wait sign when one of my brothers was going to talk to the man. My brothers broke out into many hushed conversations but they didn't bother the messenger.

The messenger blinked a few times. "That was not what I was expecting." The messenger looked back at me, "There has been a law change that is to be announced as soon as possible to all the leaders of the houses." My brothers stopped their whispering and looked at the messenger. The law didn't change often, clearly this was in response to the possible terms of this fight. That had to have every man here thinking about what they might have said near the messenger without thinking as they had all gotten used to the man being around. "In a fight with 30 or more fighters the law will be a quarter of fighters must pay the blood price that day all others can be taken as collared slaves, so long as there are at least 4 victors. Otherwise, all fallen will go to the blood price, and all fights for the houses included in the fight will be suspended for two months. Any slaves will go to the house but the house must cover the debt of their men if they cannot fight for two months because of this action."

Wow, that would be a gamble. That would cut down on entrants into this type of battle. I hadn't taken my eyes from the messenger as he talked. "If you were sure you were going to win, it would be worth the risk because the surplus should cover most of your men if you did have to pay for two months without fighting. I am heartened that our lord has seen fit to remove the burden of the risk from the men fighting and give it to the people in control of the house. I am still sure about the ability of Estro but I won't order anyone to take up this fight. If you want to see if I am right, be in the large room at sunrise tomorrow. Training starts then and when I get a final count on what this fight will be I will pick the ones that have best mastered the fighting style."

I made sure my closest team understood that I would need them to help me. I was expecting an empty room but us ten when I got up the next day. I was surprised by how many of the men wanted a role in this fight. 20 men were ready. I got them started before taking a moment to write to our mother again to tell her that I knew about the new law and that it didn't change anything within the branch house and the willingness of the men to fight in such a match, but I understood that she had a much harder choice to make.

Three days later I got a letter back. The mother had gotten the terms set it would be 11 on all sides, but one house had dropped out. They thought 11 would mess up my dynamics the most, since everyone trained in four man teams. The fight was a month out, so that the houses could clear a month of fighting and not have many forfeits on their docket if anything goes wrong.

My wives were both starting to show, just a little. Their brothers and the other sisters were happy for them. They weren't the only women showing growth. During the day the house was more empty then full as most of the women took one or two men out. After that fight was announced the 20 men that were training stayed home but everyone else was happy with the ability to go out.

That night I asked Bella and Isa if the priests were still escorting them. They had told me they were and it made me feel a bit better. There was something itching between my shoulder blades though and I went over what they should do if for some reason the priest was incapacitated while they were out and they found themselves in trouble. The messenger had smiled when I told him what I wanted. He thought it was just me being overprotective and it was but I couldn't shake the feeling, that something was wrong.

The time flew faster then I thought it should. What was it about having something to do that made time hit fast forward? I had picked the 11 men to form our team for the fight. My wives didn't like it much since their three brothers were all on it, but they were among the best. They couldn't argue that they shouldn't be or that this fight wasn't worth the risk. It did mean that they would not be at the arena, though.

They hated watching the men fight, they knew and felt a connection to all of them but their brothers they would not watch. When they had a fight, the girls would almost always go to the market. They rarely bought anything but being in the busy place helped take their mind off what might happen to their brothers.

Bella was having some late stage sickness that morning but Isa still wanted to go. It was the day of the fight but Isa would have a priest with her and most of the town would be watching this fight, there shouldn't be anything to worry about. It still didn't ease my feelings, but this would be a dangerous match and that had to be what was bothering me.

I was in the group of men walking to the arena. We were carrying on like it was a holiday and for us it was. Fights had less work then normal days. When I got to the arena a priest asked me and the messenger to follow him. I let my men go to the gate as we followed the priest. The priest led us to a raised outer ring. It was closer to the fighting then the observation seating but it was farther than the ring normally was. The arena was much bigger then even the black stone had been. I watched as my unit moved out onto the sand floor of the arena and their opponents moved into their side. This was a royal arena built for ten to 20 houses to fight at the same time. So it had 21 gates. This upper, outer ring had even been marked off to keep the guards away from each other. The stands where as full as they had been for my fight. I stopped as my eyes found a covered box in the middle of the stands. I could see black flames rolling out from it but they were controlled.

The crowd quieted as they noticed me bow to the dark box. My unit took their cue from me and knelt to the darkened box. I could almost swear our lord smiled a little before he waved a gloved hand from the box. The arena was covered by a very large tarp. How the priests managed the clothes was beyond me but they always did. Even still our lord kept himself covered while out during the day.

Our lord signaled the start to the fight and the horn blew. My men probably seemed out of position to the other men in the arena. 55 people was a lot to keep track of, since my brothers knew the other 44 would be coming after them first, they could pick the terian and wait for them.

They had formed a tight circle on their side of the arena. There were already a few bodies from men who had tried to just rush the outnumbered group. Some of the opposition seemed to be probing for a weak point in the circle. This fight was going to take longer. The houses weren't as slow about group fighting as they used to be.

Only five more men had fallen before our lord drew everyone's attention by standing up and shouting something. The fight below stopped as the black flames moved between all the fighters and the fighters looked up at our lord. Our lord's teeth flashed as the black flames covered all the exits but the one behind me. The flames froze as he looked at me. Most of the humans were on the ground already. "Miracle, go find Isa, now!"