Jasper smiled bitterly as he failed to hide one of the corpses so that they would've challenged an incorrect number of spirits. It seemed they had been counting carefully since approaching them.
Hitch and Cory looked worried, and Oliver looked to Jasper. It seemed the calculating guy had planned for Jasper to work some magic.
Jasper whispered to Oliver, "What do I say? I've never done this before."
Oliver stuck his neck out, "Are you helpless? Ask him how many he wants!" He snapped. Jasper recoiled back. It seemed Oliver wasn't as cool-headed as he thought. The whole group seemed fearful of these challenges.
There's rightful fear of being challenged with all the risk and low reward, but they had also expressed fear of challenging others. He understood their fear and would move forward with a little more caution for their sake.
He straightened his back and stared down the opposing group's leader. "How many people?" He asked. His tone was more serious than usual as this was his first chance to show his group why they should believe in him. His head still swirled with different ways he could do this.
The leader let out a bark of laughter. "I will allow you to choose. A group of four should be able to risk as much as they want for 7 cores. I don't want to ruin your chances in this challenge." He said.
Jasper frowned. The man said it almost like he was expecting thanks, or like he thought everyone who heard him thought he was soo benevolent. Jasper smirked as he settled on his plan of attack. "We'll do 4 on 4. I'll be going first." Jasper said with a smile.
There was a bunch of movement and unhappy noises coming from the rest of the group, but Jasper kept his eyes level on the leader. Multi-person duels used a king-of-the-hill kind of ruleset. The first people to go out will spar until one wins. The losing team would replace the fighter, and the winning team would have the first fighter go again.
So one person could win alone if they could consecutively get victories against all four opponents. "Are you sure? Your group doesn't seem to agree." The leader said patronizingly to Jasper.
Jasper smiled. "I'm 100%. They don't need to worry about a damn thing." He said. He pulled his sword from his belt and readied his shield. "Who's first?" He asked. His golden eyes scanned the group across from him.
They seemed like competent spirit tamers. But he didn't see anything that might concern him. He knew that there were people who were extraordinary but seemed average at first glance. The detection of a serious opponent had been a lesson his father had taught him more times than he knew.
He'd heard stories about his father soloing groups 4 times bigger than this. Of course, Jasper had to start somewhere. The leader shrugged at Jasper's words and turned to a group member. They stood right next to the leader, and Jasper got major second-in-command vibes from him.
Before Jasper had accepted the fight, he understood things about the rules. Duel challenges weren't meant to be fought too intensely. Jasper's prediction of how people would forfeit duels was on point. He'd guessed that people fighting in duels would admit defeat the second the fight reached a point where it wasn't worth the spoils.
Even 8v8s lasted less than 20 minutes. All he had to do was make the other person realize fighting him wasn't worth it. The man walked across from Jasper as each group backed up. Jasper rolled his shoulders as the man readied himself.
He held two daggers in his hands, and Jasper saw a couple more daggers strapped in sheaths to the man's lower leg. Jasper wasn't sure how to start these matches, so he looked toward his enemies to see if they would.
After an awkward moment passed, Jasper scooped a small rock off the boulder. "When this hits the ground, we can start." He said before launching the rock into the air between them. Tension filled the air for a few seconds until the rock clanged against a boulder.
The two young tamers ran across the boulders with decent efficiency. Jasper admitted that his opponent seemed more comfortable with the terrain than the rest of his team. As they met in the middle, a clang sounded out. Jasper's sword was wedged between the tamer's daggers.
They struggled in a contest of strength for a moment before the man tried to wrench the sword from Jasper's grasp. Jasper's wrist contorted before he decided to release his weapon. The man's daggers readied themselves for an attack on Jasper, but failed to find any opening.
Jasper's shield remained in front of him, and his stance held no exploits. His fingers curled and uncurled in his unarmed hand. A moment passed as the tamer looked for an opening. Jasper lunged forward and swung his shield arm down, smashing straight into the man's defending dagger.
Jasper's power pushed through the dagger and smashed into the man's knuckles. The other dagger moved quickly and maneuvered around Jasper's shield. Its blade reached toward his side before it was stopped by Jasper's unarmed hand.
The two tamers grunted as this close combat became more intense. Their arms were at a standstill, but a hook from Jasper's shield arm completely threw the man to the ground. His damaged knuckles couldn't get in the way of the attack.
The tamer tumbled to the ground, where Jasper was hot on his tail. He threw his hands up and shouted. "I concede!" His hand held the side of his head where Jasper had hit him. Jasper came to a sliding stop. He smiled and offered a hand to his opponent.
Though he'd resigned to embarrassing this team, he respected the fight. The man was quite strong and could match Jasper's strength. He grasped Jasper's hand and pulled himself to his feet. Jasper gave him a slight nod, "You're strong." He said.
The tamer grunted. "You are too." He turned and walked back toward his group. Jasper watched him shake his head as he walked toward his group. The reactions amongst the other group were mixed, but Jasper smiled.
He turned to his group. "This is good. That must've been either their strongest or second strongest." He said. The way they seem shaken up right now proves it. The only one focusing on the fights ahead is the leader.
His eyes were narrow, and it seemed he realized the scope of the situation. They weren't just trying to make some easy money off a smaller group now. They were fighting to spend as little energy on this duel as possible now.
The leader narrowed his eyes and waved his hand. "We concede the entire duel." He announced. One of his groupmates placed a core in his hand. "We've only gotten one core so far, so we cannot fulfill the four items you're owed." He explained as he tossed an earth core to Jasper.
The risk that comes with being a challenger in the duel is that if you lose, you owe an amount equal to the number of people per side who would've participated. A simpler way of describing that would be that since this duel was a 4v4, the losing challengers owe 4 'items'.
Mostly the items were cores, but sometimes spell crystals or other things could be counted. The group quickly turned around and started heading toward the mountain of boulders that Jasper was heading toward. Jasper looked around to his groupmates.
He hadn't really been looking at them since the beginning of the duel. "Can you guys gather the spirit cores before anyone else challenges us?" Jasper asked. He tucked the one core away.
"That guy seemed pretty strong." Hitch commented.
"He was. I hope they were decently high on the leaderboard. If not, I'm gonna have to get stronger fast. I didn't expect him to concede the duel though. It was wise." Jasper said.
Cory had a wide smile on and clasped Jasper on the shoulder. "You're strong, believe me. With you on this team, things are different." He encouraged. Jasper nodded and looked to Oliver. He hadn't said anything since the duel was accepted. Oliver looked at Jasper. His eyes just watched him, and his expression remained unchanging.
Jasper shrugged the oddness off and turned to the mountain of boulders. It seemed to be a hot spot as people looked like ants running toward an ant hill.
He pointed and spoke. "That's our goal for now. We consistently get cores and pace ourselves. This will be a marathon."