Space Knights: The Arrival by Gregory Samuelson (buy e reader .TXT) 📕

“Congratulations,” said the surprised princess as she stood there breathing hard and gazing at him with admiration. She stood straighter and smiled and said, “Some fight huh?”

“Yeah,” Trance said breathing hard himself and feeling elated. He smiled back at her and extended his hand to her. She shook it and he felt a great amount of warmth in her touch.

***

While all this was going on several of the knights in the stands made many comments about who they thought should be the captain of the Grey Mountain Warriors, which was the school name for the knights.

“Your brother is a very creative and intelligent leader. His strategy was brilliant! Putting the spearmen in front of the archers to protect them and them having the other boys behind in files looked fantastic. We could do this on the field and really do a number on the Boulthorians next time they attack,” said an excited knight to Kyle’s right.

Other comments were made about Trance and other knights that had fought by their sponsoring knights. They then wrote down on small pieces of paper who they thought should be the team captain and then handed them to Neklon before they left.

***

Back on the field more congratulations were given and hands shook. Many of the boys were impressed by Trance’s fighting skills, especially the way he had used both his sword and dagger at the same time. Maybe, just maybe, they could get him to teach them that strategy. They couldn’t wait to use the strategy on other knights once their regular schedule started.

***

A new day came and found Trance discussing how to use both a main weapon and a dagger at the same time with his fellow knights. At the knight class that day Neklon was to announce the results of the recommendations for team captain.

“There is a four-way tie for captain. The boys most thought should be captain are Gracer, Zam, Mandor, and Trance,” Neklon said. This was followed by the customary applause. “I applaud you four. You really did an excellent job. Now we need to decide which one of you will get to be captain this year. It has been quite a while since this school had more than two prospective captains. So even though Zam was captain last year, he’ll have to fight to be captain again this year. Since this is sort of a special occasion I’ve decided that we’ll use the Gladiator’s Circle Tournament to decide who will be this year’s captain.”

In the midst of the cheers Trance asked, “What’s a Gladiator’s Circle?”

“A Gladiator’s Circle is a twenty foot diameter circle where you and your opponent fight. On the outside of the circle there are one of each weapon, plus your weapons and his. It’s simple, you win by one of three ways; you either kill him three times, wrestling pin him three times, or push him out of the circle three times. But there is a catch. After you score a victory, whether kill, pin, or shove out, all of the weapons that were used leading up to that particular victory are removed and are no longer available for the rest of the match,” explained Gracer.

“Sounds easy,” said Trance, who was now excited that he would have to earn the title of captain like the other three. He knew that he was at a disadvantage. The other three candidates had competed in numerous Gladiators’ Circle matches. He was about to compete in his first.

“Now,” said Neklon, getting the class back in line, “there are four pieces of paper in this helmet.” He picked the helmet up and shook it. “Two of the papers have an ‘X’ on them and two are blank. Each of you four will reach in and take a piece of paper. The pair with the ‘X’ will compete and go first. Likewise the pair that gets the blank papers will compete second, and then the winners will battle for the position of captain. Alright, let’s go to the field and find out who will lead us this year.”

The class went outside and walked toward the painted circle on the far end of the sports field. Neklon led the way to the spot, had the class sit down and called the four candidates up and had them reach into the helmet and select a paper. Mandor and Trance drew the ‘X’ papers, and Gracer and Zam got the blank papers. With the drawing out of the way Neklon directed a couple of the other boys in class to place the weapons around the circle from a barrel of old used school weapons and then Trance and Mandor placed their own weapons outside the circle.

Neklon assigned three boys to be scorekeepers and had Trance and Mandor enter the circle and get ready to start the match. Neklon then signaled the match to start by jabbing his right arm forward.

Almost immediately the two boys went for a weapon, Trance took up a mace and Mandor grabbed his spear. They circled each other trying to find a good striking angle to start after the other with. Mandor finally jabbed forward at the unsuspecting Trance, who instantly made an attempt to block the blow. He was unsuccessful and the boy responsible for keeping track of the kill points awarded Mandor one point in that category.

The weapons were removed and they started again. This time Trance did not grab a weapon; instead he went straight after Mandor in a wrestling match. He won, and they went after each other a third time. With the extra spear Mandor forced Trance out of the circle, giving him a point in that category. Mandor, now with a slight edge over Trance, took his ax and came at him. Trance defended himself with the extra sword. Mandor won by killing Trance, one more point in that category. If Mandor killed Trance again then he would win. Trance knew this and