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“I see that we’re all eager to begin!” the Lion Lawspeaker loudly observed. “It warms the heart to know that those who have come to my Tribe are not toothless cubs! However, here in the Lion Tribe, we are not barbarians, fighting chaotically and without care! Withdraw to the stands and let us prepare! We will truly begin in an hour!”

The tension wasn’t fully dissipated, but both Leon and the Thunderer, without looking away from each other, silently ordered their followers to back down, which they slowly did, though not without some grumbling and minor posturing.

Finally, the Thunderer smiled and said, “Let’s not let this come to unpleasantness. If this is what is required, then let us prove who’s the better man.”

“Easy to say for someone a full tier stronger than me,” Leon replied. “I’m willing to see what Menander has in mind, though.” He glanced at the Lion in question, who was busy getting the other Lion elders up into the stands—specifically, to a platform at the far end of the oval arena where Leon guessed the highest-ranked elders sat.

It didn’t take too much longer for Leon and the Thunderer to wrangle their people up to the platform, which Menander had covered to shield them from the sun.

“Now, then,” Menander boomed as Leon with his family, retainers, and supporters arrayed behind him, and the Thunderer’s likewise, stood before him, “let’s have us a contest, shall we?”

“I find it interesting that you’re deciding the course of your Tribe simply by force of arms,” one of the Bear elders said.

He was only eighth-tier, so when Menander fixed the elder in his gaze, the man did his best to put on a brave face, but he quickly paled and stumbled back until the Thunderer interposed himself between them.

“There have been enough distractions,” the Thunderer calmly stated. “I’m just happy that you’re finally going to speak with me, let alone give me a chance to make my case.”

Leon raised an eyebrow, interested in what exactly the Thunderer meant by that.

‘Have the Lions not been negotiating with him?’ he wondered.

“Just keep your people in line,” Menander growled. A moment later, he was back to what seemed to be his usual boisterous self. “Strength is measured in many ways! From one’s magic power to the literal strength of their arms! But what I’m more interested in seeing today is—in addition to physical and magical strength—the strength of your ability to assess your followers! I will have all of you duel each other to first blood—and first blood only!”

Menander went into more specifics, but it was clear that what he wanted was essentially a tournament, and had all of Leon and the Thunderer’s people separated into brackets. The Thunderer’s followers slightly outnumbered Leon’s, but on the whole, Leon’s people were stronger.

That gave Leon some confidence, but he couldn’t relax fully since Menander didn’t place him or the Thunderer in any of the brackets. It seemed that he was going to base his decision entirely on who’s side made it to the end.

Once the brackets were set up—the Lions did it so quickly and efficiently that Leon couldn’t help but think they did this often—each side separated to prepare themselves. The duels would begin in an hour.

Leon made the most of it, strategizing with his people about their opponents, going off what he could sense from their auras. He could make some educated guesses about what element they used, but nothing would be guaranteed. He just thanked their luck that the Thunderer had brought enough followers for most of his people to get equally-matched opponents.

Before that hour was over, however, Menander went to both Leon and the Thunderer and invited them over to the railing of the platform for a private discussion. The other Lion elders quickly set up some sound-dampening enchantments that ensured their conversation would be private, taking Leon by surprise.

“Surprising. Most enchantments of this nature are made around the entire box, not just a small part of it,” he said aloud.

“This place is the center of my Tribe,” Menander explained proudly as he affectionately rubbed the stone railing. “I met all of my wives in this hall. This is where we settle our disputes and plan our policies. We don’t talk like many of the others here, we decide how to proceed by way of arms! The truest expression of power in the universe!”

“Is this why you made me wait for days?” the Thunderer coolly asked.

Menander laughed and stared at the Thunderer like he was a child. “Our elders weren’t present upon your arrival. We weren’t waiting for you, we had to set aside our other business to come to this city. If you haven’t noticed, we are still at war…”

“You had assembled all elders present on the island two days ago. Yet you still denied me a meeting.”

“Is that true?” Leon asked curiously.

Menander scoffed. “Expecting us to drop everything for him and be ready for unexpected arrivals is the height of arrogance. It becomes hubris when one expects us to ‘support’ anyone over anyone else when all one brings is words. Do you have more than words, inheritor of the Thunderbird?”

Leon grinned and let silver-blue lightning dance across his body.

“Good,” Menander replied.

“If this is how it has to be, then this is how it will be,” the Thunderer stated neutrally, though Leon noticed a slight clenching of his jaw as his statement finished.

“The two of you will fight down there,” Menander said. “As will those of your supporters even if there are tier differences. This will be a test of skill as much as power. If there is a difference in tier, then we will activate our anti-magic field.”

Leon and the Thunderer exchanged a look. Though Leon couldn’t tell if the attitude was mirrored, he certainly felt his stomach drop at the prospect of fighting a tenth-tier mage. He’d fought such powerful beings before in both the Keeper and Tusk and both times he’d not come out particularly well.

But if the Thunderer’s magic was going to be blocked, then there was at least a chance. From what he could tell, they would still have access to the magic within their bodies enhancing their physical capabilities, but they wouldn’t be able to manifest it as elemental magic. That would level the playing field somewhat, but the Thunderer would still have the advantage in their own duel.

Fortunately, the duel was only to first blood.

‘… Assuming no one cheats…’

“I have to say,” Leon said to the Thunderer, “I’m surprised that you’re going along with this. Isn’t this the exact sort of thing that you’ve been trying to stamp out?”

“With little success,” the Thunderer growled. “We should not be solving our problems with violence. Such methods ought to be reserved for our enemies and our enemies alone.”

“And who is our enemy?” Menander interjected. “The warriors across the sea, to be sure, but who else? Are we all friends here? It doesn’t seem that way to me. If someone comes into my halls and demands that I set aside my way of life to fit their notion of ‘civilization’, then they seem quite antagonistic to me. Why, someone who demands that I set aside my Tribe’s traditional methods of administering ourselves makes themselves an enemy of all Lions.”

Leon smiled at the man. “You and the Jaguar have much in common, I think.”

“Lysander is a good man,” Menander replied. “An honorable man. I look forward to seeing how he acquits himself in my arena.” He narrowed his eyes and focused much more fully on Leon. “He’s not the only one I look forward to assessing…”

“Why not fight him yourself, then?” the Thunderer asked as he leaned against the railing and stared down into the arena in what Leon took to be performative casualness. The Thunderer was trying to make himself seem nonchalant, but he kept both Leon and Menander in the corner of his eye the entire time.

“Crossing blades is one thing, seeing how one treats their enemy is another,” Menander replied. “He seeks my support. How one fights someone they’re trying to win over will be different to how they fight against a true opponent.” Menander grinned at the Thunderer, and Leon saw the ghost of a scowl cross the man-formerly-known-as Iron-Striker’s face.

“So be it,” the Thunderer whispered.

The rest of the hour of preparation passed quickly, and Leon and the Thunderer’s people were allowed to sit in the stands. Leon and the Thunderer themselves, however, sat with the Lion elders on the platform. Not even the Jaguar or any of the elders Leon or the Thunderer brought were afforded such privilege, though they sat next to the platform. There weren’t any private boxes in the arena, so being by the platform seemed to Leon to be the most prestigious and honorable place visiting guests could sit.

Once the time came, Menander stood up from his seat and addressed the small crowd. The Lions who’d been in the arena from the start had stayed, but there were less than a thousand of them, so the audience for these duels would be relatively small. The arena was large enough that Leon guessed even ninth-tier mages could fight in it comfortably, so even with hundreds of people, the place still felt practically dead.

“IT’S TIME!” he roared, his mane-like hair practically rippling as he seemed to throw his entire body behind his declaration. “IT IS TIME FOR US TO RESOLVE OUR CONFLICTS IN THE OLD WAY! IN THE TRUE WAY! IN THE WAY OF THE LION!”

The Lions in the stands began stamping their feet and shouting like elders of the other Tribes Leon had visited showing their approval in their gathering halls.

“WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, LET THE FIRST MATCH BEGIN!”

Menander took his seat as a projection of light appeared over the arena showing the current bracket: Alcander and a Ji Spider. Each was seventh-tier.

Alcander let out a full-bodied, “YES!” and leaped down to the sands, a look of glee writ large upon his face.

“I like that one,” Menander said. He made no such statement when Alcander’s opponent jumped down with much more grace.

Together, Alcander and the Spider turned to the platform, waiting for the signal to begin.

Silently, Leon smiled at his retainer and reached out with darkness magic, feeling grateful that with the opponents being of equal tier, the anti-magic hadn’t been activated.

[No matter who wins, I know you’ll bring honor to us all,] Leon whispered. [All the same, don’t lose.]

Alcander grinned and gave the platform—and Leon specifically—an exaggerated bow, which his opponent sneered at.

“THE DUEL ENDS AT FIRST BLOOD!” Menander repeated, his voice practically shaking the entire arena. “NOW GET TO IT! SHOW THE LIONS WHO’S STRONGER!”

Leon smiled as Alcander immediately went on the offense. He rocketed at the Spider with his ax already drawn and sparking with fire. Alcander brought his weapon down, and though the Spider dodged, the ax erupted in a torrent of flame that still enveloped him. However, a moment later, a shadow sped out of the fire and across the sand, and the Spider leaped out of it without anything more than a single singed hair.

Alcander swung his ax horizontally and sent a wave of fire at the Spider, which the Spider countered with a tendril of darkness whipping out from his shadow to cut the wave in half and slice across Alcander’s body. Alcander was thrown back, but his wyvernscale armor easily held and he remained on his feet.

Not wanting to give up the offense, Alcander surged forward again, his body seeming to ripple with the heat pouring off of him, and he unleashed a flurry of strikes at the Spider, each one sending another wave of fire at him. The Spider dodged and weaved, but even though he tried to strike back a couple times, he was forced to dive back into his shadow.

“Your spider doesn’t seem that experienced in battle,” Leon quietly said loudly enough for the Thunderer to hear above Alcander’s summoned explosions. “He’d be doing better if he were more aggressive.”

The Thunderer sighed, but to Leon’s surprise, he said, “He would be. The Ji Spiders don’t often fight, so their warriors are less experienced than those from other Tribes.”

Menander snorted in amusement.

“I hope all your people aren’t going to be like this,” Leon said as Alcander caught up to the Spider’s fleeing shadow and plunged his hand into it, fire coursing over his skin. As Alcander tore the Spider elder from his shadow, Leon added, “It wouldn’t reflect well upon anyone if this is too weighted towards one side.”

Alcander threw his opponent down, blood pouring from a deep gash upon his cheek and numerous burns along his neck where Alcander had grabbed him.

“WELL DONE!” Menander roared as he went to his feet, the rest of the Lions in the stands screaming in excitement. “THE FIRST FIGHT GOES TO THE THUNDERBIRD!”

Again, the Lions in the crowd roared, and Leon’s supporters added their voices to the mix.

A moment later, it was Marcus’ turn, and he went down into the arena fully armored and armed with his thunder wood bow. His opponent was to be a seventh-tier Bear, and Leon felt some apprehension at seeing just how armored the Bear was. Alcander’s Spider opponent was inexperienced and too defensive for his own good, especially because his armor wasn’t up to Leon’s standard. This Bear was covered in enchanted steel from his toes to the crown of his head, though.

Menander announced the beginning of the fight, and Marcus followed Alcander’s example by immediately attacking. However, he didn’t use his light magic but instead loosed a lightning arrow at his opponent. It seemed the Bear had been waiting for just such a move as he dodged with more agility than the thickness of his armor and muscled bulk would imply, and stamped on the ground, causing the ground around Marcus’ feet to open up and cause him to stumble.

The Bear exploited this opening by charging, though moving so slowly that Marcus had more than enough time to leap into the air and continue shooting lightning arrows as the flight enchantments in his armor took over. He held nothing back and used large amounts of his power in his attacks, and every lightning arrow exploded with tremendous force upon the sand, turning much of it to glass. The Bear, however, was only hit a couple of times, and each time, Leon didn’t think the lightning penetrated his armor that well.

A silver lance appeared in the Bear’s hand, but instead of brandishing it or throwing it at Marcus, the Bear instead slammed the butt of the weapon into the ground and seized control of the arena’s sand. A twister appeared below Marcus and enveloped him in an instant, the raging sand interfering with his bow’s ability to form and loose lightning arrows.

So, Marcus charged forward, pulling the bow into his soul realm and conjuring a spear to match the Bear’s. His spear, forged by Leon over several days, glowed with white light, and the steel blade was augmented by a blade of light ten feet long. Marcus slammed his spear down upon the Bear, but to Leon’s surprise, the blade of light shattered upon making contact with the Bear’s silver spear, and Marcus had to hurriedly retreat as the Bear summoned a hand made of stone from the ground that almost caught him as he swooped down for his attack.

The Bear grinned and pulled the stone of the hand fully out of the ground and hurled it after Marcus. The stone exploded in the air, thousands of pieces of stone shrapnel filling the air around Marcus. Leon could hear each hit upon the armor he and Sid had made, and though he had full confidence both in it and in Marcus, he couldn’t help but clench his fists in anxiety.

A moment later, however, Marcus conjured a shield of light around him that blocked the Bear from hitting him with any more stone shrapnel, though the Bear certainly tried as every piece of stone that had been launched at Marcus came back around for another pass. Withstanding this fusillade, Marcus raised a hand and conjured an orb of white light that rapidly grew to several times the size of his head, and tiny beads of light began peeling themselves off of it to hover around him until he seemed to be the center of his own small universe. With a snap of his fingers, thousands of light beads fired themselves at the Bear, and not content to let his attack stay at that level, Marcus brandished his spear again and activated another enchantment, causing a beam of white light to erupt from the spearhead and slam into the Bear.

The Bear’s armor held up quite well, and as Marcus conjured his beam, the Bear summoned a wall of stone to block it and the rest of the beads. Marcus’ beam of light sliced clean through, but by then, the Bear had time to swing his own spear and conjure a wall of darkness that seemed to eat all of Marcus’ light. The wall only lasted for several seconds, but it was enough for Marcus to call off his attack.

As the wall of darkness fell, though, Marcus didn’t remain idle and instead threw his spear at the Bear, taking his opponent by surprise. The Bear dodged, but the spear altered trajectory and tracked him, not losing any force behind it. The Bear was forced to raise an arm to block, and the spear was only partially deflected, biting into the Bear’s armored forearm and coming away with a hint of red upon its blade.

The entire arena stared at the spear. It was clearly a superficial wound, but blood was blood. Menander got to his feet and before Marcus or the Bear could continue their contest, declared Marcus the winner.

Leon sighed in relief. Two rounds down, and both had gone his way. But the Thunderer didn’t seem too worried at this point, and his relatively relaxed demeanor had Leon worried. He had the impression that this tournament was going to get harder sooner than he’d like.