To the last man.
One dank, rainy night Geddoe and the rest of the defense force were huddling in a tree in hopes of escaping the ruthless rain. When Ace piped up, "I can't believe we were sent here of all places!"
"I can't believe you can complain so much you whiny punk!" countered Queen harshly. They were all loathing having to be sent to the marshes east of the Crystal Valley.
"What a pitiful bunch, eh Gau?" said a voice from the darkness.
"You can say that again." Replied another voice.
"Shouldn't we help them boss?" Said a third voice.
"Nah, we should poke 'em with sticks until they pass out." Answered the first voice.
*TWANG*
"What the hell! Are you psycho man?" Said the first voice.
"Sticks, eh Duke." Said Jacques stepping out of the shadows.
"Gah! Why do you do that?"
"Duke! What are you doing here?" Asked Jokers dodging a water droplet.
"Heard Geddoe was here and it sounded like fun."
"Don't mean to spoil your fun but we're on assignment. Go away." Geddoe finally said with irritation in his voice.
"No there is more to the reason I came here. Recently I came to discover a fact of my heritage that has never been known." Duke then held up his right hand and a flash of light appeared. There, above his hand stood the crest of the true Jongleur rune. Geddoe, Jacques, Queen, Ace, and Joker started busting up laughing at the site of Duke with a Jongleur rune. With a flick of the hand and a muttering of words Duke sent them all flying to the tree they were huddling in.
"Yes my family was a line of bards, surprisingly enough. But don't mock the rune, it is actually far more powerful than your lightning rune." Duke said with a smirk.
"We'll see." Said Geddoe swiftly as he raised his right hand and yelled "HAMMER OF RAIJIN"
"SONG OF GODS" Yelled Duke in return.
With a blinding flash of light the to warriors were flung back some 20 or 30 yards destroying everything in their path. With a gasp the teams ran to their corresponding captains and waited for a reply to their calls.
"Boss, Boss say something!" Screamed Ace.
"Duke wake up, Duke!" Shrieked Elaine sobbingly.
"I'm fine." They both said simultaneously. Standing, they both looked in bad condition.
"There is obviously no reason to battle trough rune alone, this'll be settled with swords…Engarde, Geddoe." Duke said mockingly as he drew his sword.
"RRRRAAAAHHHHHHRRRRRRR!!!" Yelled Geddoe as he ran at Duke, sword raised above his head. Duke through his sword up and blocked the deadly slash, launching Geddoe back several paces. Dashing forward, Duke went for a thrust at Geddoe's exposed stomach. Geddoe twirled sideways quickly while hitting Duke in the back of the neck with the butt end of his sword. Duke fell to the ground.
"Well, that was short lived." Geddoe said monotonously. "Let's continue on. We have work to do." As they began to walk away they heard.
"Fool, never turn your back to the enemy."
Geddoe, spinning on his heel just in time to see Duke running at him with rage in his eyes. "Die, fool, die!" Duke screamed angrily. Suddenly, they saw Duke fall to the ground with a thump. Noticing something jutting from his neck, Elaine cried, "What have you done? You worthless, assassin. You've killed Duke, you killed him."
"You'll pay Jacques, you'll pay." Said Gau with controlled rage in his voice.
"Let's go." With that being said the Southern Frontier Defense Force left with their heads down in grievance.
Jacques stopped and turned, "I didn't want to have to do that, he left me no choice. I'm sorry."
After that Duke finally knew who was the best in the defense force, undoubtedly Geddoe was on top never to leave his position as the best.
Written by: Twinfang