Chapter 5 - 5

Chapter 5 

Title: Fight of the Flower Knights!

….

Looking at Maggy's dead body my hand went towards a small pouch in my waist and I took out a cloth and started cleaning the short blade that I had used to kill Maggy.

Her dead eyes were still open in shock and seemed to stare out into open space. If it wasn't for the slit throat and the slow coming paleness of her face, one could have mistaken her for alive.

'Maybe she was alive?' I wondered but knew that Blood Magic was dangerous and in this world, people could be revived.

I knew the woman down in front of me would never see the light of day again. Her death would be absolute, and her body would be burnt. I wasn't taking any chances on the matter.

None of that mattered now, but what did matter was my next step. Should I go to the Vale? There would be Eddard Stark and Robbert Baratheon, it would be good to meet the young men soon to establish a good relationship.

No, it would be too soon to do something like that, this year wouldn't be the best either. So instead, I should go South. I need to go south to The Reach, the place where knights prance around in Tourneys. Will have to win me some glory there too before I start enacting a main plan to power.

Also, the Reach is the place where if a couple of people went missing, no one would notice. After all, everyone is distracted by the tourneys. Having learned the most theoretical part of Blood Magic, now I need to get down to the practical part, and that requires the sacrifice of life and flesh. Something that I wasn't willing to do in this place, after all, Tywin isn't a good target to get on the bad side of.

…

…

-General POV- 

The first detour he took was to the Riverlands, after all, that was the place where his father's banner's rested. He would never call the place home, but it still was the land that he knew the best. Arthur knew the people here, they were all a little not learned in his eyes, fighting for a land that will always be in the middle of the conflict. If the small folk knew of the lands outside their villages then they would go and live in the Reach, where food is plenty and no real war will take place on their lands. Unlike the Riverlands, where every single major war had ruined the lands.

Still, though, the political side of things and the suffering of people other than him didn't matter. Though if they were his people, then he wouldn't let them suffer, because who knew when the next war came around… or a revolution. Being needlessly cruel to those below you was stupid.

People in power could never understand how the weak fought. That was the weakness that Arthur wanted to avoid at all costs. Thankfully, in his previous life, he always had been at the bottom of society. Only due to his shrewdness was he able to climb up the social ladder.

As he rode toward a walled city, he smiled. "C'mon boys, we have arrived at Stoney Sept."

Arthur lets his men go and rest while calling over the healer. "Let's go to a tavern. There has to be some news about the happenings around here."

The healer Lyon nodded and came with him. "Yes, m'lord."

"No need to speak like the small folk here and no need to call me lord either," Arthur said as he walked in tow with his healer. Usually why he had his subordinates talk with small folk so no bandits would attack them at full power. After all, not only do Lords have riches, but they also had trained men. So anyone attacking those kinds of people would be able to kill Arthur's entourage without difficulty.

But while in cities, he didn't like his subordinates usually calling him Lord. Because that would attract all different kinds of attention, plus it wasn't like bandits were forbidden in town. Most of them were unknown since they killed anyone who saw them. Also seeing some Lord with so few guards might give men enough bravery to attack him for his riches.

Still, though, he entered the tavern and acted as if he belonged there. "Can I get a mug of ale and a chicken?"

"Yes sir-" he waved the serving girl off before she could say anything anymore. He knew that while most inns worked like normal inns, the real profit came from the prostitution on the side. Usually, the owner's daughter or wife would spread her legs for some no-name knight that might visit this place.

It wasn't a good life, so what? At least they earn some money from this instead of the knight breaking his daughter's face and then raping her.

The world wasn't kind, Arthur knew that. So living in this world as a good man is like playing a game in hell mode. There was no place for needless kindness. Though stupid cruelty was also not a smart thing, you don't want people to hate you so much that they would give their lives to kill you.

Still, though, Arthur amongst all the noise around him concentrated on any useful news the men were talking about.

"Didn't you hear? Some men have been forming a bandit group around here. The Lord has declared that he will capture them before the Night's Watch comes around in the next cycle," said one of the men in the tavern. His hoity voice showed that he was drunk.

"Seems like the Night's Watch will get its new group of thrives and rapists."

"Well, Lord Smallwood doesn't have a lot of time for that, a week at best."

"Peh! They are just some bandits in rags and kitchen knives, I doubt they could even last a day against well-armed knights."

"So what? Even a knight in full armor can be killed with a kitchen knife if the blade stabs in the right place!"

Hearing this Arthur immediately thought of adjusting his plans. But that wasn't a desirable outcome. Also, he planned to have some Blood Rituals done soon, he couldn't dwindle around here anymore.

Still, though, he knew when a dangerous situation was about and how to dodge these pitfalls in life. After all, if he went and recklessly traveled, just one wrong move and he would die. Unlike movies where enemies attack one by one, in reality, they all attacked at once and humans didn't have eyes on the back of their heads. Even the best swordsman could be killed by four competent men. They don't even have to be good at using weapons, just be competent with them.

That's why Arthur had plans for a Blood Ritual to be made soon. Because while it wouldn't make him someone unbeatable, he hoped that this would help him at least not die a dumb death for some dumb reason. Like a drunk farmer suddenly butchering him with a pitchfork. 

Still though, with these thoughts in mind. Arthur couldn't just roll over and let things happen slowly. After all, there were benefits to be had here.

"Excuse me, good sirs," Arthur interfered to two of the men talking on a table in a slurred manner. Showing that they were drunk already. They looked at him with annoyance, but Arthur's friendly smile seemed to wash away any annoyance they might have. Or maybe it was the nasty long sword on his back?  

"Sorry for interrupting your drinks. I will buy you two mugs of ale as compensation." He half-heartedly apologized while offering them men new drinks. 

This made the rugged-looking me smile a little. "That's good of yah."

"I guess polite men aren't a thing of legend anymore." Said the other man, while this one seemed rugged too, as Arthur looked closer he noticed that this man had experience dealing with nobles.

"What can I say? Momma raised me to be polite to strangers. Who knew, maybe they would be polite to you too," Arthur mentioned. "If the good people of the seven aren't here to help each other out. Then this world would surely be a bleaker place."

"Hahahaha, ya right there lad," said the drunk rugged man. 

"Well, so can you be polite to me for another two mugs of ale. I am sure the serving girl can accommodate." Arthur smiled. "I am quite curious about these new bandits and how the town planned to deal with it. Did the Lord say anything about it?"

The other less rugged drunk man chucked. "Lords? They couldn't give a rat's arse for 

happens down here. Those Lords think of themselves so high in the sky that they can't even see the little folk like us. Sometimes it's good for certain businesses."

"And small-time bandits like this thrive on these blinded Lords, right?" Jokingly added Arthur, making the men chuckle. "Still though, I heard that some kind of local militia was being formed to combat the bandits. What's that about?"

"Oh, you know, the town people have rallied together to kill the bandits. Still, though, I wouldn't trust these two-bit people with forks to go about killing bandits. One of those scrums could get rid of the whole of them."

Arthur chuckled at the mention of the joke. He knew that the man before him didn't know shit about battles, yet had the balls to insult others. Small folks, no matter how untrained, can be dangerous once you put a sword in their hand. Anyone can be dangerous with a weapon though.

…

It took about ten minutes for Arthur to get the information that he wanted out of the drunk man. It was quite tiring. But he needed the info so he wouldn't go into any situation blindly.

Going in without a strategy was what got people killed. But still, Arthur thought about what he should do when he thought about looking for a pet shop around here. 

It didn't take long for him to find a pet shop, it had dogs, cats, owls, even ravens, and other birds.

Arthur wasn't interested in any other thing and instead looked for a hawk, one that he easily got. It was a normal brown color and nothing seemed special about it. Well, it didn't need to be special for what Arthur had plans to do with it.

He looked around and saw many beggars on the streets, something that wasn't uncommon in any city. Especially in a medieval world like this, many war veterans were maimed and couldn't support themselves.

So Arthur, with a smile on his face approached the men. "Excuse me, I have a friend who is writing a book about war. He is willing to pay 10 coppers for any injured veteran of war, so who would be willing to take the offer? We even have bread, don't  worry we will offer you all salt and bread as your guest rights."

…

A couple of hours later and corpses of homeless men were skewered in the outskirts of the town, in an abandoned warehouse. Arthur had surveyed this place over a dozen times and even bribed some of the guards to be a little laxer on their patrols for the day and they could go and get some ale with the money he gave them.

Arthur didn't care about guest rights or any other tradition of a savage world. He would rather look after himself and make a situation beneficial by abusing these people's naive following of tradition.

The corpses were over a dozen and there was bȧrėly any light in the warehouse. A strange pattern had been drawn on the ground by using the blood of the corpses. It looked like a star with a reverse question mark in the middle with a circle encompassing them all.

Arthur then put the hawk that he had put to sleep in the middle and whispered under his breath in a strange language. 

The blood then floated from the corpses, turning them all into empty husks, with no blood left in their bodies as it floated away from their cut necks. 

The blood all floated towards the hawk and seemingly got absorbed by the creature, which turned slightly larder. Its feathers turned red and its beaks black as coal. The hawk's eyes suddenly opened and they were white and looked at Arthur. 

This ability was similar to skin-changing, though Arthur didn't have the talent for the Northern magic skill that was inborn in one in a thousand people. Still, though, that didn't change anything for ambitious people like Arthur as an ability useful like this wouldn't be able to escape his grasp.

And once he opened his eyes… Arthur's smirk widened even further. Finally, he had something to call a special ability. A skill that could give him an advantage against other people and usable in a fight.

...

-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. 

P.P.S: His Hawk-like vision is good in close quarters to combat too. And he isn't helpless either, and has abilities that would give him a huge advantage. Especially his ability to look through the eyes of his hawk. This way he can tell how many people his enemy had and where they were moving.. Of course these abilities weren't given, and he wasn't born with them, instead Arthur earned these abilities by himself and his hard work.