As Luke took his starting spot in the grand arena, Leo just blankly stared at his brother as he wondered if he could really lift his hand against him?
Way back when the two were very small kids, Leo and Luke used to fight all the time amongst each other and since Luke was bigger and much stronger, he used to always come out on top of those fights, however, ever since their father left, Luke and Leo had never fought a day in their life.
Forced to become mature early, Luke became the head of the house as a young teenager and became very patient with Leo.
Filling in the shoes of a father, he was tolerant of his younger brother's childishness and never hit him physically no matter what mischief he pulled off.
Leo too, having immense love and respect for Luke never disrespected him or disobeyed him, as he accepted his position as the leader of the house and accepted his judgment as the final verdict on most matters.
Had it been anyone but his brother, Leo wouldn't have hesitated for a moment to strike. However, deep down, he knew that no matter how much he wanted to be ruthless, he couldn't treat Luke with the same severity he showed to his other opponents, as his hands began to shiver before the start of the fight.
'Brother please forgive me… I would never hit you if it wasn't for my own survival' Leo thought as he stared blankly at his brother, not realizing that the referee had already finished explaining the rules to Luke and was now looking at him, waiting for his confirmation that he was ready to start the match.
"Contestant…. Contestant!" The referee pestered, trying to snap Leo back to reality, as only after the fifth shout, did Leo finally register his voice and looked towards him.
"Are you ready, contestant?" The referee asked, as Leo jolted back to reality and began to jump lightly on his feet as he nodded his head.
"Yes I'm ready" he said, as the referee gave him a curt nod before signaling the start of the fight.
"BEGIN-" The referee shouted, as the crowd erupted into cheers.
From the get-go, Leo dashed towards Luke, who planted his feet and got into a defensive stance.
*Shingg*
*SCREECH*
Moving at a near blinding speed, Leo launched a volley of high speed dagger throws and attacks, as from the very first exchange of the match, Luke was pushed on the backfoot as he could barely see the shadow of the attacks Leo launched as he frantically waved his shield to deflect them.
'So fast…' he thought, as he couldn't even track the movement of his feet as he appeared from place to place, trying to open up his defenses.
*Shua*
*Shua*
Dodging two daggers by a narrow margin, Luke slowly began to move closer to Leo, as he tried to shorten the distance between himself and him, so that he couldn't have as much freedom of movement to throw his daggers from beyond his swords striking range, however, he soon realized that his attempts of closing the gap with his turtle like speed was futile, as Leo was able to maintain the gap between them without breaking a sweat as he would only slightly adjust his footwork everytime Luke would take a step to keep the gap constant.
********
( Meanwhile Ben )
Ben watched the finals with his arms crossed.
He knew that Leo was facing his own brother in the finals, since he had seen Luke's face before and asked Leo about his connection to him, however, he did not expect his disciple to go so soft on his opponent just because he was his brother.
While the crowd could not see it. Ben could see it clearly.
Leo had a 100 different chances to close in the gap between himself and his opponent and slip past his defense to stab him, however, he was deliberately fighting from afar, as if he was afraid of getting his hands wet from his enemy's blood.
"Come on lad, you haven't come so far in this tournament to fight like a pussy today. Give him hell" Ben shouted, as the audience members around him looked at him as if he were crazy.
"Oh shit it, ya old man, what do you know about fighting? If he goes in for the stab and gets caught for a suplex he's a dead man.
It's safer to fight from a distance" another middle aged man sitting near Ben said, as Ben felt his left eye flutter when he heard those words.
It was funny how bold ignorance made a man, as the middle aged man had no idea that he was giving fighting advise to Ben Fucking Faulkner.
Keeping his calm, Ben kept his focus on the fight as he tried to suppress his rage to not cause an unnecessary incident.
*******
( Meanwhile, Cervantez )
Cervantez sat in the upper pavilion stands to watch the finals alongside the guild members Tor, Lysa, Cola, Toni and Amanda.
Everyone clapped and cheered for Luke passionately since the start of the fight, however, only Cervantez kept frowning from the word 'Go', as just like Ben, he too was baffled by 'The Boss's' unusual fighting style today.
The Boss lacked his usual ruthless aggression in this fight and seemed to be hesitant and distracted.
His daggers, which usually aimed at the throat and heart of the opponent, were aiming for the opponent's limbs today and Cervantez could not understand the reason behind this sudden shift in his fighting approach.
'Just what is his plan? Is this all an elaborate act to force Luke into committing a mistake? Or is he just off today?' Cervantez wondered as he watched the match progress while sitting on the absolute edge of his seat.
—-----
/// A/N - My apologies for the late update today, however, it was a Champions League finals night and I got tied up supporting my favorite team. ///