Book#4 -- A Good Day for Dark Min by Trey Stone

The lone figure trudged up the side of the hill, his seven foot frame
taking in huge strides with each step. Finally he reached the summit, just
as the sun broke over the rim of the horizon, spreading it's rays over the
town of Ciston. The figure then threw back his hood, revealing a pair of
horns, along with the rest of his minotaur features. He scanned down upon
the new empty city, the streets, the guild itself. Soon the day's battles
would begin, and all the bragging and boasting done in the past week would
be swept aside, the winners at the top, the losers on the bottom.
His gaze then wandered off to the right, where the swamp lay. Surely even
the Saurian Champion which had killed him there some time ago was sleeping
now. An almost imperceptible smile came to his face, as he unconsciously
felt for the scar that ran across his chest. Yes, someday when he had
gained enough experience, he would hunt the giant lizard man down and
return the favor, only the beast wouldn't have any god to resurrect it! He
smiled once again them made his way back down the hill, back to town, to
prepare for the coming battles.
It was now about an hour before the battles were to begin, so Dark Min had
to finish his errands quickly. First he stopped off at the temple and made
his usual 20 gold crown donation. His mysterious resurrection in the swamp
had changed his attitude regarding the whole good vs. evil thing. He had
always been pretty much neutral before, but now he felt a commitment to do
his part for the greater good, no matter how small.
Now he had to go to the guild hall to find his buddy Varthlokkur and place
a few bets. He rushed around the corner just as Toeless Ted, the infamous
town leper came hobbling in the opposite direction. At the last second,
Dark Min managed to get out of the way of the leper, his dexterity
surprising for a minotaur of his size. "Have you seen my pinkie?" Ted
moaned pitifully. "It was here just a second ago." But the leper's plea
fell on deaf ears as Dark Min had taken off down the street.
Eventually he made it to the guild hall, and found Varthlokkur. He shook
the elf's hand heartily, and they reminisced of their travels to the swamp
together for awhile. Finally Dark Min pulled out a rather large pouch and
handed it to the elf-mage. "Welp, here's the 100 I owe you. That's the last
of it. We'll talk about our plans for the tournament later. Gotta run."
Dark Min went off to place a few bets on some of the challenge fights for
the following week, then to the armory to suit up and make his last minute
preparations for the imminent battles.
"Nom the Buchanan versus Dark Min!" the crier shouted hoarsely across the
jam packed arena. The audience settled down now, turning their attention to
the match at hand. Dark Min stepped out onto the arena sands and glared at
Nom with malice. He had beaten the Dangerous Alliance member every single
time in one-on-one combat, and yet the fool continued to insist he was the
better of the two.
"Good luck, may we bring honor to both our families." Nom growled.
"Yeah, right," Dark Min thought, "I'll honor you with a spear through the
groin pal!"
Sadie, the guild leader, gave the signal, and the fight began. Dark Min got
himself into the proper fighting stance, instinct taking over. Taking
advantage of a slight hesitation, Nom stepped forward and swung with his
halberd. "Predictable, predictable." thought Dark Min as he easily parried
the attack with his short spear, then spun around and lunged towards the
out of position Nom, wounding him in body substantially. "Tis nothing but a
flesh wound." Nom growled in pain.
A few more attacks and parries were exchanged, but then Nom unleashed a
brutal cut with his pole-arm, punishing Dark Min in the left arm. His chain
mail took some of the damage, but the injury was serious. "Damn it, wake
up!" Dark Min chastised himself, wincing in pain from the blow.
The fight now began to heat up, each warrior managing to wound the other a
few times, the outcome unsure. The sun glared down on the two as they
circled each other, blood flowing from their open wounds and sweat from
their pores, the pain evident on each of the rival's faces. "Come on now,
one more shot and you've got this loser!" Dark Min thought, pushing the
pain out of his mind. Seeing an opening, Dark Min lunged, but Nom ducked
out of the way. Before Nom could react again though, Dark Min drove forward
once again, this time his spear slicing across his foe's head with maximum
force. Nom's legs buckled, as he struggled to keep consciousness, but
eventually he collapsed to the sand. The roar from the spectators was now
deafening, as Dark Min walked over to Nom's prostrate body. A scowl spread
across his face, then he broke his spear over his knee, threw the remains
onto Nom, spat, and walked off. "Yes," he thought, "today's gonna be a good
day."
The End

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