The final is about to begin and both our heroes are determined to win. Probably.

As Siegrain walked out to start the match that was either his last or second to last it finally hit him. He could be the next king! He might end up marrying the oldest of the three princesses; one who he had never seen before and didn't know. Siegrain hadn't imagined he would marry someone he didn't know. He hadn't exactly thought much of marriage at all, but never had he expected it to be like this. And of all the people he could marry in the kingdom whom he didn't know, he would be offered the hand of the future queen, meaning he would be the next king.

Did he really want to take that responsibility?

He was just a nobody, he didn't know anything about ruling a country. The only things he was good at was cleaning, cooking and keeping his brothers from fighting. Taking out the last part, he was more befitted to work as a servant in the castle.

As Siegrain was making his way to the referees and the opponent, thoughts of what winning really meant kept spinning around in his head. Perhaps he was better of losing.

Coming to a stop, Siegrain took his opponent in. He was very short, shorter than Siegrain himself and Siegrain didn't consider himself to be tall. Seemed to be slightly below average in size; not just length but his broadness as well. Siegrain guessed the male had to be very quick and skilled since he was most likely lacking in strength.

"Get ready", the blonde referee spoke up immediately upon their arrival and Siegrain couldn't help but thinking he still hadn't made up his mind. But he mimicked Ezra Titan's moves by unsheathing his sword and taking his stance. Both referees backed away before the other one, the one who hadn't spoken yet, called for them to begin.

His opponent wasted no time but lashed out on him right away with incredible speed. However, Siegrain wasn't slow himself and blocked him efficiently. But he was aware he was on the defensive – he was still indecisive.

Trying to figure out what was the right decision while trying to concentrate on defending himself turned out to be harder than he expected. And not a very wise idea either.

As he was going to flick his opponent's sword away, he miscalculated and hit Ezra's sword-wielding arm. The sound of his sword slicing a gap in Ezra's armor was deafening and blood tainted his sword. Horrified he stared at the wound.

A moment of silence followed were everyone awaited what would happen.

"Referee´s call: no rule break, the wound is decided to be unintentional. The fight continues if both participants are capable."

Siegrain waited for his opponent to make a move. Could he still fight with a wound in his arm? To Siegrain's surprise, Ezra moved his sword to the other hand, the unwounded arm, and raised the sword. Siegrain couldn't help feeling a grin spreading across his face as it finally hit him what a match he had to look forward to. This wasn't just anyone in the tournament, and not one of his brothers, but a total stranger whom clearly was a skilled swordsman. And realizing this filled his chest with excitement. He had no idea where this feeling had come from but during the whole tournament he had experienced these strange feelings about fighting – excitement, pride and nostalgia. He had discovered that he was surprisingly good at something he hadn't known he was capable of and the thought thrilled him.

He had known he must have had a life before he started living with the Dragbuster's, but during the last few weeks he had come across something from it which certainly was something special. Weird, sure. But also a pleasant surprise – to learn something more about himself and his identity, even if it still was a big mystery.

This time Siegrain was the first to attack. Not on full strength, he wanted to test his opponent's skills a bit more before going full force. But now he had decided – he wanted to try and win this fight. If he changed his mind about the whole king business, he could always lose against the princess on purpose.

As expected his opponent was quick to block and try an attack of his own, but Siegrain counter-attacked. They kept going back and forth, none of them gaining an advantage. Ezra feinted a blow with his sword at one side while charging a kick on the other. Siegrain easily saw through the maneuver and brushed his opponent's sword away at the same time as he moved in closer to Ezra. Siegrain tried to elbow Ezra in the body, hoping to throw him completely off balance but Ezra surprised him by jumping backwards on the foot still standing on solid ground. The jump itself was completely breath-taking – starting in the way Ezra somehow managed to jump backwards after pushing so much force forward, to the length he got on just one leg – not forgetting how graceful the jump looked; more befitting in a ballet than a swords fight – finishing with the fact that Ezra landed in complete balance.

However, Siegrain had no breath to be taken away as he was panting for air. This was the hardest fight he had had so far and he was pleased to have noticed that Ezra was about as much in lack of air as he himself was.

Both of them charged in for another attack and soon they were back to the same pattern with none of them gaining an advantage. Occasionally one of them tried to break the pattern by doing something unexpected, one move more risky than the previous, but the two of them were so skilled that it didn't make a difference.

And in the midst of it all, Siegrain realized he would have to lose. Because when the clock struck five o'clock, his sword and armor would disappear. Even if they didn't enhance his fighting skills, he would be accused of cheating, obviously. Maybe they would even throw him in prison or have him executed or tortured until he revealed how he could possibly have done it.

The time had seemed to slow down as Siegrain was realizing all this. His opponent had kicked off the ground and was now aiming a hard kick towards his wrist and this would be his chance to fake a loss. His timing was a bit off – he dropped the sword just before the foot hit his wrist, but no one would notice.

The arena – which had gone silent for a moment – exploded with cheers for the winner of the finals.

"Good luck", Siegrain said before he quickly scurried away from the tournament grounds. He had no idea how much the clock was, but he had to be home before five or his horse would return back and he wouldn't be able to get home.

The awaited final between our two heroes! I hope you're not too disappointed. I would love to know what you think so if you have time and energy, please leave a review!

We are very close to the ending now...