Fighting the Hound part-2

At this point, Jason's anger surged up as he gripped his sword hilt tightly. Those yellow eyes had a fierce look to them as Sandor readied for a final blow with his blade. With adrenaline pumping through him, he ignored the pain and push his reflexes to more supernatural limits. With only one hand grasping his sword, he swung out just as Sandor's brought his blade down at him. For Jason, everything was in slow motion yet for the crowd and the Hound it was lightning fast. Despite the raw strength behind that attack, the Hound's blade was parried with a resounding clang, forcing the towering man to break his guard stance. Jason sprung up to his feet before pressing his left hand onto Sandor's armour, a little stormlight leaked from his heart.

It was a stupid move to use a stormlight with so many people around, yet raw combat instinct just pushed Jason on. Yet he stopped before doing something too flashy at this moment as the push was unleashed yet it did little more than knock Sandor roughly to the ground. At that point, Jason realized his hasty mistake as he'd look at the Hound, who groaned from the hard fall and struggling to get up. He knew if he had put such focus into a stormlight like that he would have had the man smashed into the nearby wall and half the gathered crowd knocked to the ground. Probably even crush Sandor's ribcage with the energy being point-blank as well.

"Aghh…what…what the hell was that?!" Sandor gasped as he'd stagger up, fumbling to get his visor up as a look of shocked confusion showed on his face. He saw a faint blue light escaping Jason's nostrils.

Indeed, the crowd was just as confused at what had just happened.

"It was so sudden."

"Was there some kind of flash?"

"No that was a trick of the light from the swords!"

The Surgebinder realized he had to make an excuse fast. "Nothing…I just shoved you," Jason muttered, as he'd catch his breath before sheathing his blade while the crowd cheered at the fierce duel concluding.

"No fucking way!" The Hound growled as he stomped forward, making Jason tense up. "You hardly tensed up. Didn't even pull your arm back! No one is that strong…well…maybe him."

Jason remained silent, eyes narrowing in frustration towards the gruff man, curious at who 'him' was. "Maybe you just tripped. Everything happened quite fast after all."

Before the Hound could argue any further, Joffrey spoke up to get their attention. "Done already? I thought there be more…after all, you two seemed to be at each other's throats."

Jason didn't answer back, only giving a sharp look to the prince who flinches at the cold glare. Sandor seemed to snap out of his angry state, realizing the Surgebinder was moments from snapping back at the young royal. "Decided it's a draw. Besides rather not bloodier ourselves for the feast." He explained to Joffrey.

"Heh…be improper to have you two prancing around cut up and bleeding." Pausing the prince gave a small grin as an idea came to mind. "Then Jason and you should fight again, yet this time at the upcoming tournament! That would be a spectacular scene for all the people to see right?" The gathered crowd would mutter and nod in agreement. "Maybe have your brother join the fray to make things more exciting."

The mention of the Hound's sibling drew two emotions to the scarred man, fear and anger. This time it was Jason's turn to intervene. "You make a good point prince. If your father allows it I'll take part in a match during the event." He quickly answered back.

"Good. At least now I have something to look forward in the coming months." The prince looked between the two men before nodding. "You're dismissed. Hound, consider yourself free for the rest of the day and night. I don't need you breathing down my neck during the feast."

At this point, Sandor had calmed himself as he'd give a sigh and a small nod. "Thank you sire…" He grumbled, obviously bothered by the boy's suggestions about the tournament.

With that, Joffrey turned to his servants as he gave some quick orders for them to get back to work and hurried off to check through his belongings.

Jason and Sandor looked at each other, both still catching their breath after that violent duel yet left them both tense still. "Guess your reputation of being dishonourable is true. You fucking kicked me while I was down." Jason muttered under his breath.

"Well, you bloody cheated with that... light thing." The Hound growled back clenching one fist as if ready to strike at the Surgebinder. "But you know what. Cheat or not you gave me a challenge for once and got the brat off my back. I'm thankful for that at least." His hand dropped and he'd step away from Jason to tug his helmet off, getting his unkempt hair all over his scarred face. "So, for now, we're even." Moving aside, he got a flask from his pack and gulp it down, no doubt booze to numb the pain he felt. "Anyway off with you. Like to enjoy some damn peace and quiet while I can."

Jason rubbed his bruised shoulder, nodding in agreement. "Enjoy your evening then Sandor." He'd move to leave the sparring circle, yet did notice the man look to him with a confused look, not being expected to be called his true name.

Once inside the Guest House, Jason gave a low groan as the pain kicked in after that fight. "Hate having to hold back." He muttered, yet he did think over how had reacted. He needed to get gemstones for storing stormlight, his heart couldn't store enough for long combat. At this rate, he felt stormlight wouldn't be reliable even if the situation was dire. Moving up to his room, Jason moved to his bed. While he could heal quickly naturally, he didn't want to go through the evening sore and bruised. Taking a bit of stormlight to relax. With the soreness easing away, he'd take some time to clean himself off from the duel, washing off the sweaty and dirty skin with a wet rag before changing into fresh clothes. By the time he was changed, his shoulder could flex just fine and his fingers no longer cracked from the slight movement.

For now, he'd take some time to rest, sitting at his desk to read over another book to quickly pass the time until the nightfall came.