Homesteading in a fantasy world

"Who let the country pumpkin like you eat here?" the Queen's bodyguard said. I immediately stood up and pushed him back. The surprise on his face was satisfying.

"How dare you. I want this person kicked out, and I want him to buy everyone in this establishment a free meal and a drink for disturbing us all," I said in a loud but not screaming tone.

He recovered quickly and smiled at me. "You were the one to disturb us, and I demand compensation. Your smell ruined our mood, and I want you to kneel, apologize, and then leave and never return."

He seemed to have quite a few people with him, but only the people around him were encouraging him. Everyone else looked at him like he was crazy. He wanted to push me so I would look like the bad guy, but I wasn’t going to allow him to play the hurt party and to be honest both of our acting needed work.

"You are mad, but you have also dishonored me. You threw out baseless accusations, and I’m pretty sure most of the people here would back me on that, but why ruin everyone else’s time? Let's let our blades do the talking. For the dishonor you have shown me, I challenge you to a duel to the death."

I could see the annoyance in people’s eyes when I mentioned that most would side with me because if this went to a trial, they would all need to show up. As I ended my declaration, their looks turned into more predatory ones, and they stopped looking at me and looked towards the Queen's bodyguard.

He, however, was completely confused, but with so many high-ranked people looking at him with malice, he didn't have time to properly think things through. "I accept your challenge," he said. After he finished saying that, I think he started to understand that something was truly wrong.

"Let us fight a week from now in the dueling arena in this city," the Queen’s bodyguard proclaimed, yet I immediately started to shake my head no.

"No, that won't do. I need my honor restored today. We will either fight on the street or in the dueling arena, but we will fight today. I am willing to wait a few hours to get this made official, but only a few hours. The choice is yours, bootlicker."

The last word made his anger return. I had guessed correctly then; he did not like it when someone pointed out that a famous person of his rank was nothing more than a bodyguard, even if it was his choice.

Just before anyone could continue, a few people popped into the establishment, and they looked like they were ready to fight. They were the guard force, and I could also hear a lot of people running towards this place, most likely also guards.

Someone must have notified them about the disturbance going on. The guards looked a little bit confused as there didn’t seem to be a fight going on. Then, an individual shrouded in blackness appeared and whispered something into the head guard’s ear. Immediately the guard looked towards me and then the Queen's Bodyguard.

"There will be no fight on the street, is that understood?" came a very low and threatening voice from what seemed to be the guard in charge. "My honor is challenged…" I was only able to get out before I was interrupted by the head guard.

"Since the challenge has already been accepted, we will organize the duel, but to the death. Is that really necessary?" he asked, looking at me. "Well, I am willing to compromise if he strips completely naked after I win and then takes a walk of shame around the city," I said.

My words silenced the whole place. Yet I could see the head guard letting out a barely noticeable sigh of relief. "No, the duel will be to the death," announced the Queen's bodyguard.

"So be it," I said after a small pause. I did try to look a little bit worried, but I don’t know if it worked or not. At least he was confident enough to continue and try to kill me. I needed him to be at least a bit more confident; otherwise, he might be too suspicious.

The head guard looked truly disappointed, but he seemed to be doing a good job, as it was only an hour and a half later before we were in the middle of a Colosseum-type arena that was filling up quite fast as the word spread about what was going on.

We were separated by about 50 meters, but the man in front of me now looked completely different. He was holding a long sword that constantly gave off a cold aura. His armor looked intimidating, not because of how it looked – it was almost full plate armor – but because of how it felt to my senses. It was definitely rank three, and with the amount of strength I felt from it, I wasn’t sure I could pierce it.

I pulled out my helmet from my tattoo storage and put it on. Then I pulled out my sword, my glorious two-handed sword that I crafted myself. It almost seemed to sing as I moved it through the air, getting my muscles heated up. It could sense my intentions and it wanted to taste a strong opponent.

My opponent, however, smirked at my blade. I knew he had an incredible reputation for being able to destroy blades. It seemed that he might have an ability that helps the shatter enchantment be even stronger, but I was confident I would be able to handle it.

***

The stands filled quickly. The only reason the guards were so willing to accept this duel, even if they didn't want it to end with a death, was because every person needed to pay for entrance to be able to see this fight.

In the regular world, it wouldn't bring in much, but here basically everything cost monster cores, especially watching a high-rank fight. The reason they didn't want death duels was that it was politically complicated, but it wasn't their job to completely stop it.

So, on a dark night, two men stood 50 meters from each other on a sandy floor, illuminated by large bonfires. As the minutes ticked by, the atmosphere continued to get heavier until finally, a bell was rung.

The very next moment, the two people rushed at each other. To a regular person, it would look like they were standing one moment and the next they were in the middle of the arena, their blades connected as they tried to overpower each other.

Both sides pushed at each other, but it only took a moment before Rich started to overpower his opponent. The grimace on the opponent's face said it all. Cheers, boos, and general excited noises were heard as the fight didn't end with one strike.

The blades started to clash, but they weren’t swings of blade masters. Both were still quite decent with sword fighting, yet one was quite rusty, being more accustomed to breaking enemy swords, and the other simply overpowering his opponents.

The blades clashed, sparking and screaming every time they touched, yet both would not give up. The first exchange lasted for only 10 seconds, yet the opponents didn’t separate. Instead, they continued to try to outmaneuver one another with swordplay.

The thing that changed was that they started to do other things as well. The Queen’s bodyguard was the first to act, using an ability that slowed enemies in his vicinity.

It unfortunately worked by creating layers of ice on an enemy to slow them down, but Rich simply broke the forming ice with his movements. Slowly his body seemed to be heating up, helping him move even faster.

Rich didn't take this lying down and started to use his energy control to start disrupting his enemy's movement and sometimes even interrupting his sword's movements. This allowed for the first proper attack to land on the Queen’s bodyguard, yet his armor was too tough for Rich to get through using a slash attack.

The Queen’s bodyguard was also able to get in some attacks, but Rich's defenses were good, and even with his lower-rank armor, he was able to easily defend.

The crowd once again cheered as they knew they were going to see a truly intense fight. Rich could've used more of his varying abilities, but he didn’t want to reveal his trump cards too soon, so he needed to wait for the proper moment to truly gain the advantage.

About half a minute into the fight, Rich was finally able to set up a piercing attack, and for a moment, everyone held their breath as the tip seemed to catch the metal of the armor. Yet, it was only for a moment before it was diverted and harmlessly slid off.

For the first time since the start of the battle, both separated. Both of them were breathing heavily as they had gone all out and used everything their bodies had. Their stamina, however, was far from depleted. Both re-engaged almost immediately.

This time, both were using even more energy, and soon the entire arena was flooded with their domains. Rich was the one dominating, while the Queen’s bodyguard was a bright area of defiance inside Rich's domain.

This helped Rich dominate the engagement, and he was able to get in another hit, but this time his sword seemed to do a different type of damage. Rich was using one of his abilities to make his attacks deal blunt damage, bypassing a lot of the armor's defenses.

The Queen’s bodyguard responded by starting to drop the surrounding temperature, and with every degree closer to the freezing point, he seemed to be getting faster and stronger.

Still, the damage was starting to accumulate, so the Queen's bodyguard wanted to change his tactic. He tried to make distance so he could use his beam-type ability, yet he could not get enough time to properly activate it.

The fight continued, yet whatever the Queen's bodyguard tried to do, it was too little. He had gotten off his beam once, and that was the first time he was able to draw Rich’s blood, but it wasn't enough.

Soon, the damage started to affect the Queen’s bodyguard's speed. Rich tried to end the fight there, but he still couldn’t pierce through the armor. Whenever he tried to hit the soft spots, the Queen’s bodyguard pulled himself together and was able to divert the attacks.

A large portion of the crowd loved the brutality, as Rich basically needed to bash his opponent to death. The other half was calling for the end of the fight, as a clear victor had already been shown.

Rich continued to use his abilities to the maximum, and with every strike, he could hear the damage he was doing. That was another rib broken, and then Rich could see the trickle of blood coming from the mouth of his opponent.

Two more strikes, and his opponent was now kneeling in front of him, his sword dropped. Rich didn't give him mercy, and before the fight could be stopped, he was finally able to get through a weak spot in the armor that connected the headpiece and the chest piece.

He thrust his sword deep. The Queen’s guard only lasted another second before he died, regret at failing his queen the last thing on his mind.