Finding a tournament was not hard. The king still loved to watch good fights in the arena. Luckily for us, it was a simple, free-form contest. Any weapon or fighting style was allowed. There were a ton of people that wanted to be in the main draw. Everyone wanted to be in the sight of the king. Impressing him was the way to fast track your whole bloodline into royal favor. I made sure that Anthony and Fabien were nobles that had the king's attention with our performances in the tournaments. That was fine with us. Stomping the peasants and petty thugs made our profile rise. Molly beat several men with her grappling and speedy strikes. They hybrids were all dominant in all their qualifier matches. Len was the one that looked the most happy to be there though. Len wielded a practice longsword given to him by the MC. It was meant as a handicap. He probably would have crippled someone if it was a live weapon, so it was a blessing in disguise. Len knew this was his only chance. He was not going to hold back. I did not blame him. Betan and I were on the older side, but we got in too.
It was a standard draw of 128 people. Looking at the bracket, we had been diffused into the draw. That was a pretty good sign. In my day, we were bunched together in order to get most of us out by the quarterfinals. Everyone was able to shine. Maybe it was because I had such a good reputation. A fearsome reputation. People knew about the blood knights. I was indeed a Cutpurse Cutter. The first 2 rounds were very easy. Betan and I were veteran fighters that knew a lot of the tricks of the trade. It paid off to train so often and in so many disciplines. Some were things that none of these newbies had even thought of. Betan got to make use of the trident and net idea in the first round. I had no idea they even held tridents in the armory. It was kind of embarrassing how he was able to trap that kid. Betan then proceeded to bash and poke him with the trident in front of the crowd. The second round saw him using his usual longsword stance. I was able to find the cracks in my opponents defenses and exploit them. Molly was underestimated. She had the boost to speed and grappled.
