6 Chapter 6: Fight of the Flower Knights II

( Arthur POV )

I now have a Blood Animal Familiar. It wasn't like your average animal companion, like the Stark's dire wolves. This Blood Ritual allowing me to see from the hawk's eyes is only a bonus because its real ability was something different.

I concentrated and suddenly my vision changed, even though there was very little light around I could see through the cracks in the ceiling every detail on them.

A hawk-like vision was my new ability. Nothing special, just enhanced vision to be as good as a hawk's, maybe a little better. Now, this might not seem much but coupled with my archery, it becomes something incredible.

I can't measure exactly, but hawks can see small details in their prey even from 1.6 km (~1 mile) away. So pretty much, no bows in this age could even shoot that far, meaning within my zone I would be able to snipe people easily.

Though I will need some practice first since I had never shot so far before.

When a reliable accuracy chance is made, then the bow's range around me will become a death zone for anyone who decided to attack with melee weapons.

I was far from being invincible in battle or anything like that, but now I at least had some comfort at being able to kill some people and not be scared by some no-name bandits.

Now I had something that gave me an advantage, especially seeing how many fighters the opponent had. Being able to see through the eyes of a hawk was useful too, even if it was just a side effect of the ritual.

…

Three days later, and the bandits were all eliminated single-handedly by me, Arthur the Unbeatable. A title that would change as soon as I lost in battle, but something like that wouldn't happen any time soon.

After all, killing over twenty bandits by myself was quite the feat. Of course, people might be imagining some battle where I used skills never seen before. But the reality of it was that I picked them up one by one, killing them from a distance with guerrilla warfare. Never even meeting one of them in close combat.

Of course, the bards sang about my legendary skills with a sword and how I slid the bandits that way… which is perfect for me. Because the fewer people know about my skill set, the better it is.

Also while experimenting, I discovered many things about my new ability. And it was way more useful than something like Flame Resistance, which is rarely ever useful.

But my [Hawk Eye] ability could be used in every situation. Even close combat allowed me to see better and react faster due to how I catch on small visual hints before an attack even happened. A twitch of the shoulder armor is enough to show me how and where the slash will go.

Still needs some work to stop myself from reacting to feint attacks too. But that will take some time to get at such a level. Still though, one on one, I doubt attacks will take me by surprise.

Everything would be within my sight. Still, arrogance has been many people's downfall, so I don't wanna be one of those losers too arrogant to recognize my mistakes.

I understand that I am nowhere near invincible and can easily be countered if not careful. But for my fighting style, these abilities are way better than Fire Resistance of the Targaryens.

…

( General POV )

In the Reach, a place known for its big yields in food and a huge army. Mace, the Lord Paramount of the Reach looked with excitement at the tourney grounds. He had heard Arthur Frey had come to participate in the tourney and that was something big.

Recently the man had been to the Hightower and visited the Citadel. The Unbeatable Arthur, they say that no matter what fight, no matter the numbers, Arthur Frey would win. That title still stood strong, meaning that the man still hadn't lost in a fight, he had built something like a legendary reputation.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN AFTER THE AXE THROWING WE HAVE THE MELEE!" The announcer yelled out.

Everyone looked at the fields and tried to spot a shield with a red hawk on it. And there it was, in a confident stride, a fully armored Arthur Frey came up. He looked at the stand Mace Tyrell and the Lord Paramount waved excitedly like a young child meeting his superhero in real life.

"Pipe down you buffoon." Said Olenna, looking at her son in disappointment. "Stop making yourself look like a fool. You are a Lord Paramount, not some maid who wants to get on the sheets with a knight."

Mace flushed in embarrassment and sat down with a shameful look. This made Olenna snort in annoyance once again, she wished her son at least had a backbone to fight back against her. But he didn't have that either.

'What a disappointment.' Thought the old Queen of Thorns. Normally she wouldn't attend tourneys, she found them boring, to be honest. Yet, this tourney had a special person joining in. She couldn't help but contemplate about such a man. 'The Undefeated, the Bloody Hawk, they call him many names.

Except for Frey, it was as if he wanted to distance himself from the family, so what's his goal? What's he reaching at? Ever since he had come to the Reach, he hasn't even entered a brother once. One might suspect that he would be into men, but in The Reach, there were brothels for that too. Yet he didn't enter those either.'

Arthur Frey was quite a dilemma to Olenna Tyrell. He was building a fortune by winning tourneys, one after the other. Some even joked that as long as he was in a Tourney, then it was better to aim for 2nd place. 1st place was already stamped for the undefeated man.

Still though, that fortune, where was it going? Even while he had been in the Reach, Olenna had no idea where Arthur's money went. Normally a man who lived by the sword would be wasting his gold in feasts and women. Yet he wasn't…

At the same time, by now Arthur had earned so much gold that he couldn't just keep bringing it around with him sneakily. But that was it, even in the Reach where Olenna had many spies on Alex all day and night, there was no strange behavior that saluted to him annexing his gold somewhere.

Olenna had contemplated asking the Iron Bank if maybe Arthur hid his gold there. But she knew that would be a fool's errand since the Braavos Bank would never sell their clients out, or else their reputation would be ruined. That would also ruin their business and no one would want to make deals with them.

…

On the other hand, as Olenna was thinking those thoughts, Arthur was inside the wooden colosseum-like structure. Where he and another nineteen men were in full armor and ready to bash each other.

Arthur had a shield with a red hawk on a green and black field painted on it and a normal one-handed sword which was a little on the heavy side. His armor also seemed normal, and the only thing that seemed out of place was just how clean it was. The armor seemed to reflect the sun's rays like a mirror.

Of course, this just perfectly would hinder Arthur's opponents when they fought against him. No one would believe that he did it intentionally, and if anyone said otherwise, people would refute them as Arthur was known through the lands as a knight of honor.

This all fit Arthur's agenda. He had helped people all around the seven kingdoms and even hunted down bandits for free. If anyone tried to refute that, then they would be outed as liars. After all, they couldn't silence so many villages and towns that he had helped.

Of course, Arthur never did anything that didn't benefit him in some ways. The bandit hunts done in the name of the Seven and Justice were just another one of those things. Since no one seemed to question where the bandit's corpses went. Due to this, Arthur always had some sacrifices on hand for his Blood Magic.

"Begin!" Yelled out the announcer, causing the crowd to cheer in happiness and the knights in the ground to start moving.

Everyone got ready to look at Arthur, who was the biggest threat in the Tourney. But sadly for them, he had already moved to fight the knight closest to him.

Arthur hit the knight's hand with the wide part of his sword, causing the man to drop his weapon.

Baam!

In that split second that the other knight was in pain, Arthur used his shield and bashed the man's head, that even due to his helmet, it knocked the man down. He then kicked the knight's sword away and went to his next enemy.

Arthur saw a man approaching him and was grateful that these fights in Tourneys had the unspoken rule to not attack someone when they were already fighting an enemy.

This rule was especially withheld in the Reach, after all, it would be an unknightly thing to do. That was why many Lords called Tourneys a knight's playing war. Especially since rarely anyone died at these events.

The second knight came running at Arthur full of ferocity, and he swung the sword. Arthur knew that if he tried to block it with his shield, then his arm would swell due to the strength of the hit.

So in the split second, he sidestepped and as the weapon slashed in front of him, he used his sword with all the strength he could muster and hit the sword of the man who had slashed the ground.

Clang!

The other knight's sword flew away, Arthur's power was quite something to behold at this time as he trained by modern techniques and had a relatively modern diet.

Both meat and vegetables were needed for him to get this kind of muscle strength. As he traveled, he bought quite some chickens from the farmers and hunted a lot of rabbits too.

The fight wasn't over so Arthur got ready to hit with the blunt side of his sword the man's whose weapon flew away.

But the man put his hands up and hurriedly said. "I surrender!"

Arthur looked around and saw ten people were still left in the Melee Tourney. They each picked a fight against one person honorably.

This was pretty much common courtesy, so fighters didn't gang up on one man and weren't staged. Staging a fight in this Tourney would be the same as spitting on the Tyrell's face, so no one would do something like that.

All these analytical thoughts went on in Arthur's head, his body moved instinctively as he could see even the smallest of movements with his eyes and predicted where the next move would come from.

Arthur's next opponent was a man in full heavy and bulky parkour. Immediately Arthur could tell that the guy in front of him was an amateur, having this much weight during a fight while good for defense, it would tire you out way too quickly.

During these Tourneys, Arthur mostly wore different kinds of chainmail. They were lighter and generally better for these kinds of situations, after all, this wasn't a real war. Just some men fighting, and there was no need for heavy armor.

"You seem tired already. Maybe you should take a rest?" Arthur mocked his opponent. Trying to agitate him.

Arthur loved his eyesight, normally people wouldn't be able to tell who was tired under all that armor. But with his eagle-like vision, he could see even the smallest details from the cracks of the armor and rigid movements.

"Shut the hell up!" Yelled the man in anger, as he charged at Arthur. But the latter easily dodged the man's swing and used his own momentum to trip his opponent.

Arthur then pointed his sword between the crack of the armor of his downed opponent.

"I give up." Said the man hurriedly.

'The Reach really has some wimpy flower knights.' Arthur couldn't help but contemplate.

Arthur then looked at the other people left and immediately dropped his shield and pulled out another sword. Now, this has become a five-way fight. He needed to be going all out during this, and not concerning himself with defense too much.

He immediately went on the offensive against another knight and he slashed at him with one sword. The knight blocked the slash with his shield but Arthur used that single second that the opponent was concentrating on blocking the initial slash.

Then Arthur pointed his other sword at the man's throat from the space between his armor and helmet.

The other three men left looked at Arthur and then another one charged at him, ready to slash and dice. Arthur dropped one of his swords and stepped sideways. Then he grabbed his sword with both hands and used it like a baseball bat.

Baaam!

He hit the man's helmet, denting it and knocking his opponent out cold.

Arthur could hear the crowd cheering for him.

"Amazing!"

"The strongest knight!"

"WoOhOo!"

Normally people would be distracted by the yells, but Arthur didn't mind them and looked to use the yells to his advantage.

He looked at the other two knights who were fighting amongst themselves and could immediately see critical flaws in them.

Arthur was able to determine that the one with the light armor was going to lose. He didn't have any experience fighting against armored men.

By his estimation, to Arthur, the knights in this region were probably the weakest in the Seven Kingdoms.

'They really are just flower knights.' Thought Arthur. 'They look good but are shit at fighting.'

Arthur then found his shield and picked it up.

After their battle was over, the armored knight came towards Arthur at a slow pace and he seemed to be careful.

But Arthur ran towards him and feinted a slash he brought up his shield but, instead of slashing, he used his shield to ram into his opponent.

Bang!

The opponent fell to the ground and Arthur could see his opponent was immediately about to throw his shield on Arthur's face but he used his feet to step on the man's hands and pointed his sword at his opponent's throat.

"And the winner, My Lords and Ladies is... 'The Undefeated' Arthur Frey!" Yelled out the announcer excitedly. The crowd went wild, but Arthur zoned them out. He had just earned 900 Gold Dragons from the Meele, and another 300 from the Archery Competition.

Arthur acted like he didn't care about the money and looked at Mace Tyrell and Olenna. They had their own stand with the best view of the Tourney.

He could feel the old woman's eyes look at him like a predator who was stalking his prey.

The first thoughts that came to Arthur's mind when he saw the Queen of Thorns were. 'What a dangerous woman.'

…

A/N: Arthur ain't some mythical fighter who can defeat his enemy with one slash. Instead, the fights are grittier and more realistic, as each fight, for them to end fast there needed to be a strategic win for Arthur and also a decisive blow.

Still, though, he is planning something and Olenna has caught on to him that something was strange.

P.S: Though Arthur is having a modern diet and exercise, this makes him strong for someone his size (by medieval standards). But it doesn't make him someone as strong as the mountain physically.