The tourney was in the last half now, as with all of the non skilled participants already being out of the matches. The jousting list held the big names such as, Brandon Stark, Arthur Dayne, Rhaegar Targaryen, Barristan Selmy, Jaime Lannister, Gerold Hightower, Lewyn Martell, and Jonothor Darry. Of course there were other fighters but no one matched them in fame. The final jousting matches planned to happen on the very last day, as the most anticipated competition of the tourney.
The melee included the likes of Brandon Stark, Eddard Stark, Benjen Stark, Jon Umber a northern lord earning his famed during his first melee, Gregor Clegane with his massive size for a 16 year old boy earning the moniker, the Mountain, Arthur Dayne, Rhaegar Targaryen, Barristan Selmy, Jaime Lannister, Gerold Hightower, Lewyn Martell, and Jonothor Darry. Other less famous participants included Howland Reed, Syrio Forel, and Tristifer Mudd. Melee finals were to be held the second to last day of the tourney.
Archery competition also held some impressive archers, one even coming from the North after receiving fourth place in the Proving Day. The Northerner would just barely lose, receiving second place.
The singing competition was decided a day ago, with Rhaegar Targaryen as the winner. Some of the small folk and nobles voted for Eddard, but around 40% of the vote went to Rhaegar on the 12th day of the tournament. Eddard had no real ambitions to win the singing competition, only participating because he was forced to, so he wasn't particularly phased by it.
Wrestling competitions had famous names like Brandon Stark, Eddard Stark, Jon Umber, with Gregor Clegane as the only southern participants who weren't eliminated.
Knife throwing included some famous sellswords from Essos, but here in Westeros where knife throwing isn't very popular, they were relatively unknown. The sellsword Tregan Faenyr, from the Golden Company, won the knife throwing competition on the 11th day.
Spear fighting only held one interesting name, which was Oberyn "the Red Viper", who had decimated his previous competition.
Oberyn Martell had the typical features of a salty Dornishmen. He is a tall, slender, graceful, and fit man, and has a lined and saturnine face with thin eyebrows, black "viper" eyes and a sharp nose. His hair is lustrous and black with only a few silver streaks and recedes from his brow into a widow's peak. He had a lean athletic build, meant for speed rather than strength. He strolled confidently out to the courtyard amongst the other competition, lightly twirling around his spear, whistling a random tune. His spear was made of Ironwood and castle forged steel of great quality. The grip was made with soft leather molded into the shape of his hand and built with a perfect weight balance for him.
This was to be his final match, and the only match which he was excited for. He was going to have to fight a freed Pentoish pit fighter, named Bloodspear. Oberyn had heard of him, during his travels to Essos. He now had the chance to see which continent had the best spearmen, Essos or Westeros.
Spear fighting was held in a one on one dueling fashion rather than the melee style, meaning that it was purely a test of skill, without the need of battlefield awareness. He looked up and examined his opponent, something that he had learnt to do during his travels and spotted that Bloodspear was built heavier and taller than Oberyn, meaning that he was at a disadvantage for weight and reach. Bloodspear's spear also looked heavier than his, but Oberyn knew that his was of slightly higher quality.
He savagely grinned as the horn sounded. He ran forward with a quick thrust, testing the waters to find Bloodspear bring up his spear in defence. A loud crack rang through the air and the two spears hit. Bloodspear quickly retaliated with an overhead swing downward. Oberyn instead of blocking the attack side stepped away, whilst swiping his own spear in a sideways swing in retaliation. Once again, Bloodspear blocked it with his superior strength. But Oberyn kept up his offense, bringing up the butt of his spear over in an attempt to surprise his opponent. To his surprise, the pit fighter instead of moving his head back, awkwardly stepped back to block Oberyn's attack with his spear.
The fight continued, with Oberyn sidestepping, ducking, jumping and backstepping away from attacks, and continuing to have all his attacks blocked. Oberyn used his signature move to dodge and weave one of Bloodspears combo attacks. With amazing acrobatics, he flipped away from an attack coming from an awkward angle. After the original mess up from Bloodspear, his form seemed flawless, favoring blocks instead of dodging. As the fight dragged on into the five minutes mark, the audience began to believe that Oberyn would lose due to the fact that the battle was dragging on into a war of attrition. However, Oberyn looked positively smug even as sweat rolled to his face, whilst his opponent was barely winded.
Bloodspear brought up his spear to block an overhead swing, but his eyes widened in surprise when his spear broke, snapped in half, in his own hands. The superior quality of Oberyn's steel led to the wood of the spear, to slowly continually get chipped. Supported by the fact that Bloodspear only ever blocked Oberyn's offence, rather than dodging, his spear was weakened until with one mighty swing broke the spear. Using the surprise to his advantage, Oberyn quickly flicked his spear under Bloodspear's neck and quickly stopped himself before he dealt a mortal blow. The horn sounded declaring Oberyn Martell the winner. Oberyn smirked at his defeated foe, grinning at him before turning his back to claim the gold from his winning prize, as the crowd screamed for the Red Viper, excited for such an amazing match.
Eddard cursed his luck for the Wrestling match, as he stood in the ring. The semi-final match was between him and Gregor Clegane, a man taller than even Jon "Greatjon" Umber who is said to have giant's blood. He has the strength to wield a greatsword with one hand and swing it around like a normal longsword, and he would need to face him in a wrestling match. Eddard knew he had the better technique but he was completely overshadowed in strength, reach, and size.
Knowing that the only way he could take down the Mountain was by surprise, he quickly charged at Gregor as soon as the horn rang signaling the start of the match. Gregor's eyes widened in surprise, and swung his arms around in an attempt to catch Eddard. Eddard quickly duck underneath the side swipe, and grabbed him by the shoulder, with his leg wrapped around the back of Gregor's legs, a perfectly executed move. They were near the edge of the ring, so as soon as Gregor fell backwards, he would be out of the match. Eddard heaved with all his strength, putting in his momentum, legs, arms and back into this move.
But as Eddard heaved, Gregor stood tall. Attempting to push Gregor was like attempting to bend a boulder. Gregor then pushed back, throwing Eddard to the ground. Eddard was barely able to roll backwards and get back on his feet, as Gregor charged at Eddard. Eddard side stepped Gregor, as he charged in an almost bullish fashion, before kicking him in the back, hoping that Gregor would be pushed out of the line. Gregor barely stumbled, before turning back around to face Eddard. And thus began a cat and mouse chase between Eddard and Gregor. Eddard could do no real harm to Gregor, but Gregor could not even catch Eddard.
Eddard was tiring though, having to bob and weave, against the harsh swings of Gregor, and it was easily visible with his heavy breathing. Eddard knew he had to finish the match here, and so he charged forward for his last attack, with a full double leg take down. Gregor, to his surprise, almost fell, but not before grabbing Eddard's side and flipping him around, and making him hit the ground first.
Due to this technicality, Gregor was declared the winner of the fight. But Gregor was bruised and battered from his long winded fight with Eddard. And even though he had won the match, his landing against the ground as anything but soft. He would get five minutes resting time before having to face Brandon Stark who had yet to lose a fight.
Brandon stepped into the ring confidently. He knew that he had this match if he played it smartly. Gregor, even with his immense strength, was tiring and Brandon had just barely broken a sweat.
Brandon began to taunt Gregor, "Would you look at that! He sure is built like a rock! Maybe he is as stupid as one! Can you even understand what I am saying?"
Gregor was never the calmest man. Already furious at Eddard for injuring him so badly, and almost losing to him, he snapped with Brandons taunts. Bellowing like a bull, he charged at Brandon at full speed.
Brandon smirked and ducked underneath his flailing arms. They were still near the middle of the ring, so he only lightly kicked Gregor in the back to piss him off further. When Gregor turned around, he saw Brandon seeming yawn in boredom. Gregor saw red, and charged at Brandon, who jumped and rolled to the side to avoid the tackle. Gregor quickly swiveled back towards Brandon, and witnessed him stretching his arms high, taunting Gregor to once again try and tackle him.
Furious, Gregor once again ran to tackle him. However, Brandon had a different aura about him this time. His eyes narrowed, watching Gregor charge at him. He lighty ducked underneath his right arm and kicked Gregor's right leg out from underneath him, while pushing him on the back, sending him sprawling to the ground. Gregor was unable to stop, due to his moment, was forced to eat dirt. The ground shook from his fall and the crowd was utterly silent.
Benjen was laughing in glee, as he won around 5000 Golden Wolves in total from 5 different people from bets.
Gregor got up quickly in rage and attempted to tackle Brandon, who had his back turned towards him.
Eddard quickly yelled " Get down Brandon!"
Brandon hearing his brother's warning, immediatly ducked and watched as Gregor's arms flew over his head. Brandon's fueled by his wolfsblood, honed instincts, and years of practice, quickly turned around and dealt a devastating straight to Gregor's exposed stomach. It connected with a meaty smack, and Gregor had the wind knocked out of his body. Brandon followed his attack up with a light jab, right on to Gregor's nose, breaking it with a loud crack. Gregor's brain cleared with the pain and he swung his arms madly.
Brandon though was having no trouble. He had gotten into more than a dozen brawls with both the commoners and the noble's sons. He had also received training from the Wintersguard, in hand to hand combat. He ducked underneath Gregor's madly lashing and delivered a devastating right uppercut. It was only due to Gregor's immense strength, toughness, and anger driven determination that he was still standing, but his visions started to blur. However, Gregor surprised Brandon when he lashed out with his feet, nearly sending Brandon flying. However, Saber stepped in and deflected his mighty kick. Gregor charged, screaming bloody murder, and the crowd drew a breath, understanding the tensions between the North and South was very high. Eddard jumped into the stands and kicked Gregor in the back. Gregor stumbled forward and turned to look at Eddard. The two brothers and Servant Saber fought in perfect unison due to their constant training, with Brandon and Saber kicking in Gregor's knees as Eddard smashed in his face. The audience watched in awe, as the trio dodged around all of Gregor's attack, before Saber completely knocked him out with the pommel of his sword, unwilling to kill an heir to a Southern family and start a war.
The smallfolk went wild, screaming and yelling in joy and entertainment, and all of the southern lords breathed a sigh of relief. The Whent's men quickly moved to Gregor to drag him to a healer and throw him out of the tourney for attacking Prince Brandon after the match was over. Brandon was given his 20,000 Wolves as his winnings, with Eddard receiving 10,000 wolves meant to go to Gregor.
The melee finals took place on the second to last day of the tourney. Eddard Stark was fully healed from his fights against Gregor. He donned his armor, which was a slightly decorative armor, engraved with a wolf's design and grabbed a Valyrian Greatsword named Greatfang, recovered by House Belaerys and stored within the legendary vaults of Winterfell. The blade was not as famous as Titan's Bite or as Ice, nor did it have the ancient magical imbuement of magic, but it was still a sword many Houses would kill to have. He entered the field with his brothers and saw Jaime, with his golden lion armour, on the other side of the field and the 6 of the King's Guard with their white armour. He then saw Brandon glaring at Rhaegar with his ruby crusted black armour.
The best fighters of Westeros were all in the same location, preparing for what would be one of the greatest melee in history. The horn sounded and chaos ensued. Brandon immediately charged into the fray, knocking and beating down men. Eddard was quickly engaged by Yohn Royce in his famous runed bronze armour, who while skilled was quickly dispatched. He waded through hordes of men, knocking them back, throwing, disarming, and beating around a dozen men, before the field was cleared. Eddard had a small cut on his cheek. Jaime had a bruise forming on the side of his head, and only Ser Arthur and Brandon looked fine, with seemingly no injuries.
For a tense moment everything remained still, until Brandon charged at Rhaegar. Kicking the fight off once more Eddard moved to intercept Jaime, who moved to attack Brandon. Jaime, like the last fight, moved to attack first. Jabbing forward, Jaime tested Eddard, who quickly deflected the attack away with ease, their battle kicking off once more.
Arthur watched his prince get engaged by Brandon but could do nothing, as he was engaged by 6 men at once. Howland Reed, Jon Umber, William Dustin, Tristifer Mudd, Syrio Forel, with one nameless hedge knight worked together to take down the two greatest fighters. Ser Darry, Ser Hightower and Prince Martell were knocked out of the final match and only Ser Barristain remained with him. Whilst they were the two best fighters under Targaryen rule, the six men challenging them were no slouches either and had the greater number on their side.
Arthur protected Barristain who was engaged with three of the men, from getting attacked in the back. Arthur jumped forward with Dawn in his hand and engaged three of the fighters as well, in an impressive dance of steel.
Brandon wore his grey Wolf's armour, similar to Eddard's in design, but with a helmet in the shape of a snarling wolf, whilst Rhaegar had his night-black plate armor, with the three-headed dragon of House Targaryen decorated in rubies on its breastplate. Underneath the plate he wore golden ringmail. Rhaegar also wore his decorated helm with gold, orange, and red silken streamers resembling flames. Brandon's wolf blood howled and charged at Rhaegar. The future two kings of the two Kingdoms of Westeros met with a clash of steel.
Arthur deflected Howland's trident to the side, as it shot towards him. But before he could capitalize upon his newfound opening, Greatjon swung his gigantic greatsword down upon Arthur's side. Arthur quickly raised his greatsword Dawn to deflect and quickly twisted his body to dodge the hedge knight's longsword. He pushed Jon's sword away, before swinging downward with all his might, to knock out the hedge knights sword out of his hand. With his shock of being disarmed so easily, Arthur was able to swing the flat side of Dawn against the man's helmet. A loud crack rang through the yard, and the hedge knight fell to the ground.
Greatjon seeing the hedge knight go down, body slammed Arthur to give Howland and himself more room to engage Arthur. Soon Howland and Jon fell into a pattern. Jon would block and engage Arthur, with Howland poking at Arthur's kinks within his armour to keep him preoccupied. Arthur would be constantly on the defensive, as even when he was able to push Greatjon away Howland would always provide Jon enough time to recover.
Ser Barristan was engaged by William, Syrio, and Tristifer. William, Syrio, and Tristifer were able to work together and form a formidable team.
He turned to block Tristifer's longsword and dodge Syrio's needle-like blade by twisting his torso in nearly 180 degrees. Barristan learnt after the first tangle with Syrio to not try and block the blade, as he will just move his blade like water and cut him on his weak points. Barristan stepped right up to Tristifer, grabbing him by the arm and threw him straight over his shoulder, completely knocking the wind out of the man, before lightly tapping his blade to Tristifers neck. This closing of distance prevented William from being able to attack him, due to his fear of cutting his friend.
Syrio and William faced Barristan, Syrio began to fire quick jabs towards Barristan, who dodged all of them and in a quick flurry of steel, knocked the needle-like blade out of his hand. However, Syrio was not to be deterred as he pulled out his dagger and slipped under Barristan's swing, and attempted to slip his knife under his throat. Barristan had predicted the move and brought up his steel bracers and knocked the hand and knife away, leaving him open to be spartan kicked away. William then charged into the fray to engage Barristan. William was a skilled tactician and swordsman, and he knew instantly he was out of his depth against the raw skill of Barristan. He could barely hold off Barristan's surprising strength, speed, and skill.
Whilst this was happening Syrio moved to try to help Jon and Howland deal with Arthur, knowing that they couldn't beat Barristain. Arthur looked up in surprise to see a thin flash of steel jabbing at all of his weak points. Arthur's reflexes and training allowed him to duck, twist, and dodge all of the attacks, but before he could retaliate, Tristifer jumped into the fight, swinging his longsword down upon Arthur's head. Dawn flashed upwards to block the longsword, but before he could disarm Jon charged in and once again body slammed Arthur to the ground.
Arthur rolled backwards and slid back onto his feet immediately, but he knew he was at a disadvantage. Jon led the charge against Arthur, who was able to fend off Jon's immense strength, with only a slight trouble and then face Howland's tricky jabs with his trident. But before he could finish the two of them off, Syrio's entered the fight with his unique fighting style, a style which Arthur had yet to get used to. With Arthur constantly on the backfoot with no openings, it seemed as though Arthur was about to lose to the combined assault. Just as Arthur was about to be disarmed from Jon's mighty swing, Barristan blocked Jon's greatsword, returning back into the fray to fight the four of them together, with William having been finally knocked out against Barristan.
After deflecting Jaime's jab, Eddard quickly ducked underneath Jaime's follow up swing and pushed him away, giving himself more room to use his greatsword. He then blocked Jaime's spinning swing and slashed at Jaime's face. Jaime was able to lean back and dodge the blade, coming back with a grin. Jaime started fainting a downward slash, but quickly changed his angle forcing Eddard to block. Their blades locked together and Jaime was straining to meet Eddard's slightly superior strength.
Eddard then said "Having trouble there, Lannister?"
Jaime angrily broke the lock and reengaged. Eddard swung a upwards diagonal strike, which Jaime deflected and retaliated with a horizontal head-high swipe. Eddard guided the strike away from him and punched Jaime hoping to nail him with his sword guard and give him more room. It worked, as Jaime was forced to back peddle, giving Eddard enough room to start using Greatfang more efficiently.
Jaime couldn't even approach Eddard now that he was warmed up and able to use his sword to its maximum potential. Jaime kept blocking, slashing, jabbing, deflecting, and stepping towards Eddard in a hope to get inside of Eddard's guard, but Eddard kept him at bay with his greatsword and clever footwork. The only reason why the fight wasn't over was because Eddard couldn't overwhelm Jaime's defenses as he had hoped.
But as Jaime blocked and slashed, dodged and jabbed, he was wasting energy. He could feel himself becoming more and more sluggish, more and more tired. A bead of sweat slowly rolled down his forehead as he deflected the Valyrian Greatsword.
Brandon jumped at Rhaegar throwing an overhead swing. Rhaegar blocked the swing, but was unprepared for Brandon's metaled fist to smash into his helmet. Rhaegar stumbled around as his head rang from the attack, he looked up to see Brandon swinging for his neck and instinctively blocked the attack. He then lashed out, which didn't even require a thought, as he was drilled for hours and hours till each swing became robotic.
Brandon swung at the man, who lusted after his sweet sister planning on beating him down to a pulp. He never let up his continuous stream of attacks, as Rhaegar hastily blocked and deflected each shot, never even getting to attack back.
Brandon spun behind Rhaegar and kicked in his knee and then kicked him into the ground.
He then said "I thought the Dragon Prince was skilled at fighting! Is this the best he can do?!" he then turned to the crowd and saw them silent from shock at the defeated prince. He screamed "IS THIS THE BEST THE SOUTH HAS TO OFFER!? THE BEST FIGHTER OF OUR AGE!?"
The small folk burst into cheers screaming "Brandon! Brandon! Brandon!"
Rhaegar with his face in the mud, his eyes blazed with pure anger. His Targaryen side came roaring out, screaming for blood and in pure rage and fire, shot back up, completely ignoring his pounding head. Brandon had awoken the dragon within Rhaegar and his madness started to show more directly.
Brandon quickly turned around after hearing Rhaegar get up and was barely able to block Rhaegar's maddened swing. Brandon was then put on the defensive, dodging and deflecting Rhaegar's raged filled swing. Brandon tried to retaliate and swing at Rhaegar, but Rhaegar just blocked the attack and kneed Brandon in the gut, knocking the air out of his lungs. But when Rhaegar tried to chop Brandon's head off, Brandon just turned and tackled Rhaegar into the ground. They rolled on top of each other, trying to get on top and beat the other man to a pulp.
Jaime was drenched in sweat and breathing deeply. They clashed blades for around 8 minutes now and Eddard was looking to finish the fight and help out his fellow Northerners against the two greatest fighters in the south. So instead of keeping Jaime at bay, Eddard slowly created a purposeful opening in his defence for Jaime to exploit. Jaime, clouded by his frustration, noticed the opening and decided to just go straight for it and not even think about the sudden appearance of a weakness. Jaime jabbed forward hoping to hit Eddard or at least get into his guard, but he was unprepared when Eddard twisted his body to dodge the blade.
Jaime had overswung and his momentum carried him forward to the Valyrian greatsword which he held underneath his chin. Knowing that he lost, Jaime dropped his weapon and walked out of the stage in anger, vowing to train harder and kill Eddard when he could, for embarrassing him.
Eddard ran to join the fight against Arthur and Barristain and jumped in to block Dawn from cutting Howland Reed down. Eddard pushed dawn back with all his might only to be stopped and unable to push Arthur back. Arthur quickly disengaged as he saw Jon charge at him. He sidestepped Jon's charge and kicked his legs out from under him and pointed his blade at the back of Jon's neck while Barristain kept the rest of them engaged.
Arthur then struck an overhead swing at Eddard. Eddard had to quickly bring up his blade horizontally to block the blade. Expecting this, Arthur kicked at Eddard's leg, forcing him on the backstep. However, Arthur was once again prevented from capitalizing as Arthur was forced to duck underneath Howland's trident and kicked him in the side and sent him flying towards Syrio. Syrio was unperturbed and sidestepped the man with the fluidity of water, and jabbed at Arthur. Arthur quickly dodged and weaved his attack, as Syrio bought Howland time to get up.
Eddard charged at Barristain and began their duel, with their blades clashing. Barristain was the better fighter, but Eddard with his Northern build was stronger and taller. Not only that Ser Barristain had passed his fortieth nameday and while still being stronger than most of the younger knights, he was not as strong as he used to be. So with their blades locked Eddard had the slight advantage. Barristain quickly noticed this disengaged and dodged Eddard's follow up attack.
Barristain was a more skilled fighter and he gained ground against Eddard, who was slowly but surely having to back off. Eddard, decided to use one of his dirty tricks he had learnt during his time in Braavos. Eddard was an honorable man in every case but in battle. He had adopted the Stark belief that while important, life should always be given a higher priority.
Eddard allowed Barristain to knock him down to the ground and as Barristain thought he had the victory, threw a handful of dirt he had picked up at Barristain's eye. Blinded, Barristain was unable to see Eddard blow to the stomach. Barristain's armour protected the majority of damage, but he was still forced backwards and was unable to see Eddard's foot crashing into Barristain's chest which finally sent him flying.
Barristain's helmet was knocked off his head from the blow, allowing Barristain to quickly wipe his eyes clean, using the small tears dripping out, to clean away the dirt. Barristain quickly got up and engaged Eddard again, but now being more wary of surprise attacks. Eddard even after landing solid blows on Barristain's body was still losing and he was unable to use any more of his tricks to gain an advantage.
As they engaged again for another 3 minutes, Eddard was once again clearly losing, after 50 blows was unable to stop Barristain's foot from kicking him back a meter. However, the action proved beneficial to Eddard, as it cleared him from getting hit by Howland Reed, who came flying and crashed straight at Barristain. Howland had been sent flying away as he was kicked by Arthur. Barristain was completely surprised and was unable to block Howland and came crashing down to the ground with him. Taking advantage of the situation Eddard quickly got up and ran forward and put his sword underneath Barristan's neck and knocked him out of the fight. Eddard helped Howland Reed up and went to attack Arthur together.
Syrio kept an unrelenting attack on every single weak point in Arthur's armour. However, Arthur had enough time to fully adapt to Syrio's fighting style. Using his greater graph of Syrio's style, he allowed the thin blade to slide along his gauntlet and punched Syrio in the stomach. With Syrio bent over, Arthur kneed him in the face throwing him back. Arthur then quickly put his blade underneath Syrio's neck, knocking him out of the fight. He immediately turned to face Eddard, who came charging through in hopes of stopping him from knocking Syrio out of the match.
Seeing how close Eddard was, instead of swinging his sword at him, Arthur attempted to punch Eddard in the face. Eddard ducked underneath the swing and swung at Arthur's exposed midriff. Predicting the attack, Arthur jumped away and slashed in an upwards diagonal motion, forcing Eddard sidestepped away from the attack. Eddard and Arthur and locked blades, as the black blade clashed with pale white each blade working to push the other out of its way. Sadly, Eddard was clearly weaker and winded from his previous fight against Barristan.
So Eddard was on the defensive, blocking, dodging, and in general just trying to stop Arthur's momentum. Deciding to cheat, Eddard kicked a small rock on the ground at Arthur. Arthur instinctively moved his head to the side as the rock flew past his ear. Arthur quickly backpedaled as the blade came at his neck. Furious at letting himself get distracted, Arthur quickly engaged Eddard and stopped his next blow. So Eddard was back to being on the defensive with no method of stopping Arthur, only just being able to keep him at bay.
Rhaegar's maddened state gave him a significant boost in strength, however, it removed his critical thinking ability, as Rhaegar believed he chose to engage Brandon on the ground rather than disengage and get up. It was a severe misjudgment on his part. Brandon was very adept at fighting without a weapon and he was a skilled wrestler, as it was a very popular sport in the North. Rhaegar learnt how to fight purely out of duty and while he had talent to become a very skilled fighter, he lacked the motivation to train himself at his maximum capability. Unlike him however, Brandon found great pleasure with the act of fighting, often arguing that one never feels as alive as they do whilst fighting.
Brandon rolled atop Rhaegar and fully mounted him, before beating him down, raining down blows upon blows, till Rhaegar couldn't stand up or fight back. Brandon then pulled out his dagger to put underneath Rhaegar's chin and officially knocked him out of the fight. However, Rhaegar ignored the rules and continued to struggle, so Brandon smashed the pommel of his dagger on Rhaegar's helmet both dazing and knocking the fire out of Rhaegar. Brandon shakily stood up to see Greatfang be yanked from Eddard's hand. Brandon quickly yanked Rhaegar's helm off and threw it at Arthur.
Arthur was about to put Dawn underneath Eddard's chin when a helm crashed into his head. Reeling back, Arthur was surprised to see Brandon right atop of him swinging Titan's Bite in an downwards arc. Blocking with Dawn, Arthur quickly attempted to overwhelm Brandon, but it was for naught as Brandon was able to keep up with Arthur. It was at this moment Arthur knew he had lost the fight. He was a superior fighter than Eddard and he could most likely beat Brandon in certain situations, but both of them together at the same time would be impossible, unless they had the worst Seven damned teamwork of the millennium.
As Arthur was engaged with Brandon, Eddard quickly picked up his blade and joined with his brother. Their teamwork was one of the most memorable parts of the tourney. They worked together as one, defending and attacking in perfect tandem. Arthur was very hard pressed to defend, yet alone attack at the duo. If Eddard and Howland had good teamwork, Eddard and Brandon had the teamwork that outshined it ten times. Eddard would instinctively duck as Brandon's blade swiped across, where Eddard's head previously was to surprise Arthur. Arthur would later tell others, it felt like he was fighting ten people instead of two.
Arthur in his last desperate attempt to defeat at least one of the Stark, blocked Eddard's blade and kicked Brandon in the leg to distract Brandon. He then kicked Eddard's knee in and put the blade against his throat for a second. He then quickly tried to back off, but Brandon quickly took advantage of the situation and put his blade underneath Arthur's chin a second later.
The horn rang and Brandon was declared the winner of the Melee. With Arthur coming in second and Eddard third. The crowd went wild, screaming in joy at witnessing such a magnificent melee.