And the third day began, the arena lost into darkness. But the lights quickly went and Bourgoistic was at the center of the arena. He was looking at the ground, to see if they properly cleaned it. Behind him, a bear with a monocle was smoking a long cigarette.

"Please, don't smoke, don't ruin the ground..." said Bourgoistic, annoyed.

"Oh, don't worry, my dear, I have a little bag for the ashes."

"Your money bag?"

"Ah... Ah... No... Yes. But it's a special little pocket. You know, ashes are good for my plant."

"Oh, okay. Didn't know you have a plant."

"Normal, I didn't talk about it. So, what about the bets?"

"The two last days were vraiment entertaining and I feel that this one is going to be as well. And, for the bets? Hmmm... It's going to be a hard choice, even if I have my hypothesis on the two finalist."

"And who are they?"

Bourgoistic turned towards Money Bag and, with a smile:

"Oh, I think you know..."

The Earth Dragon fell on the ground.

"And the winner is... Uogh! Bravo! Très beau combat!"

Qualt was warming himself up: it was going to be his turn. His adversary, here, was the young cheetah. He didn't want to enter the arena. He knew that he was going to kill him. This kid was maybe strong but his experience in this fight wasn't enough. He watched him and he saw that some of his placements, some of his moves too, were not really good and so his equilibrium could be lethal for him. He could make too many false moves. And for fuck's sake! It was just a child!

But no time to think and to complain anymore: now was the time to enter the arena and to fight.

And so he did it, putting his paws on the ground under the eyes of Gloria and under the eyes of the mother of the cheetah he was going to kill. The crocodile made the presentations and the young cheetah entered.

Presentations once again (even if the public knew the two fighters) and the brawl began.

Qualt took one of his dagger-horn at his right paw and was ready to defend himself against the Œl's bastard sword. He was bigger than the cheetah and this last was a bit impressed just as scared. But he had an advantage: Œl was faster and so his strikes would be deadly. His attention had to really be focused on it. Therefore, he was on his guards.

Œl attacked first and tried to slash Qualt! He made a horizontal move and Ironhorns had difficulties to parry. But he did parry. So he tried to punch the cheetah in the guts with his free paw but he dodged by jumping back! It was a good opportunity for the ice dragon to use his element and a cool beam touched Œl! It created damages but it wasn't enough: the sword took the majority. Now, it was bigger, heavier, so the cheetah had to hold it with his two hands. This one attacked again! He made a powerful move that destabilized Ironhorns! He tried another move but Qualt crouched and took the other dagger to parry! Now that his adversary was very close, he used his tail and pull him onto the ground! He then got up and threw his sword away before putting one of his dagger under the Œl's throat.

The two looked at each other right into the eyes. One was scared and desperate, knowing his fate, while the other was cold and extremely sorry at the same time.

And the public yelled.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

Qualt took a big inspiration.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

And he stood paralyzed while the screams of the public resonated in his head. But with another voice...

"Kill... Kill... Kill..."

His eyes were now livid! He tried but failed to move... He heard voices, whispers...

"Kill... Kill... Kill..."

Just as if Madness itself was right behind him, holding his dagger and whispering those terrible words.

No... No! He didn't want to end like this! He didn't want to end like this darker! He didn't want to be as monstrous as the one he called Myst!

"Kill... Kill... Kill..."

"NO!" he yelled!

He planted his dagger on the ground and a deadly silence surrounded him. The public was shocked.

Ironhorns was sweating and his breath was jerky.

"I won't kill him!"

He, then, got away from Œl taking and putting back the daggers to their place, to make them horns again. And he turned his head into the Bourgoistic's direction to see his dark look. But he didn't care: he preferred death rather than ending like a darker. So he moved to the gate and, with a grave and threatening voice, he said:

"Open it."

A silence...

"Open it!"

A blue aura appeared in his mouth and the gate was, a few second after, open.

So he went to his chamber, preferring to be all alone, not daring to watch the other fights and not daring to look at Gloria or at the Œl's mother... or even at Bourgoistic once again this day. But, of what he was sure of, he had to be careful now.

He learn later that day that he was the true winner of the fight. And he heard of the two other brawls.

So the semi-final would be Uogh versus him... and Martin versus Milhrio.