Learning that Monk and his army were not too far from them, unsettled them a little. They had only gathered a small force after all, for this type of expedition. They also knew that there was a chance that a fight might breakout, but not a full out war, not yet at least.

  The only thing that seemed to unsettle the nerves of the others so far, was the fact that the leaders were walking ahead confidently, and Ray, their king was there. Not just a king, but the Red dragon Sen. At first it seemed like a frightening thing.

  To have your leader be the one that caused so much trouble for the entire continent of Bronzeland, but soon they came to realize that Ray was on their side. This person that the whole content couldn't take out, was leading them into war.

  Eventually, the inevitable happens and after climbing on top of another large route, on to the other side, Monk and his army could be seen. This time he was wearing even better armour than before, it had a certain fine touch in craftsmanship. It was mainly black in colour with a purple tint. What most dark guild members wore, but it didn't look like regular beast gear, as all the rough edges seemed to be carved out of it.

  "Looks like someone got a promotion," Kyle commented, it was more based on how fancy he looked.

  Behind him, there were around one hundred or so Dark guild members. The Red dragons looked at each other nervously.

  Although, to their surprise when Monk had spotted them, he started to walk towards them casually, it was as if he didn't have any intention of attacking them at all, when he got midway, Monk stopped.

  "So, have you taken into consideration what we talked about earlier Martha?" Monk asked.

  This turned a lot of heads, Martha had already confirmed she had seen the camp, but mentioned no such thing about meeting up with them.

  'No, is Martha the one actually betraying us?' Kyle thought, looking at Harry to see if there was any reaction from him at all, but he just had this cold look on his face.

  "I can explain, honestly I was hoping this situation would be avoided in the first place." Martha explained. "I thought if we left early, we might not end up bumping into them. When I was hovering above, Monk had approached me and wanted to make a type of deal.

  "Right now, they are heading to the same fortress as us, and both parties have the same goal. To research what happened there and what. To make things a little interesting, Monk proposed another Duel. A one vs one battle and the winner would stay behind in the large forest for three days, while the other group could investigate."

  "Why didn't you tell us this then?" Jack asked.

  "Well, because for one, as I said before, I thought that perhaps we would get to the fortress before them, as for the second reason, there was a condition put in for the duel. That Ray was not allowed to participate."

  The proposal was a strange one, but when Ray looked at his people, he could see many of them were afraid by the fact that they would have to fight against a larger army. This was a good solution to avoid both sides clashing when there was no need to.

  With a quick look of his dragon eyes, he also noticed that none of these dark guild members were infected by the shadow. So it would just be humans killing other humans.

  "A three day advantage would do us greatly." Lenny said. "We will be able to discover whatever it was that destroyed the fortress, and perhaps use this against the shadow."

  "Yes, but that is only if we win, and we can't even use our strongest person in the duel." Martha replied back.

  The group discussed it a bit more, and finally came to the conclusion that they would accept the duel. At the end of the day, saving lives was most important to them, and this duel would do just that, however, they did have their own condition to make.

  Martha walked out to the front, to give the condition.

  "Since Ray won't be fighting, then we request that you, Monk the leader, won't be fighting either."

  "Fine." Monk said with no hesitation. 'I shall choose my best man, Tower." Monk called over.

  Out from the Dark guild members, a large man that was as thick as a large tree trunk and wielded a two handed axe came over.? Standing opposite Martha, he really did look like a tower.

  "And who will Tower be facing?" Monk asked.

  Going back to the other, they need more time to try and choose who.

  "Why don't you go for it Kyle?" Harry suggested. 'You did so well on the last duel, and you have been telling everyone you are our kingdom's best swordsman, I think you would be a great choice."

  Kyle was starting to wonder what he had even done to get on Harry's bad side.

  "Are you still holding a grudge because I betted on you in the All kingdom tournament?" Kyle asked.

  "Only someone as idiotic as you would hold a grudge for something so simple like that." Harry snapped back.

  "Will you two cool it!' Martha said, jumping in between.

  "Fine, I'll go and win this duel, just like I did before." Kyle said, taking the black raven and walking towards the centre.

  It seems like Harry's constant taunts had gotten the better of him.

  "Just a remind to everyone." Monk said. "That you should not jump into a duel like this one, even if you think there will be death."

  This comment in particular was aimed towards Ray, as everyone knew he had jumped in before.

  ****

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