Donovan rushed in on Ashton. He had no intention of making things easy for the kid, nor was he going to go listen to his crap anymore. Ashton, on the other hand, remained in his position. He could see Donovan rushing towards him with his rapier in his hand, and yet he just stood there.
A moment later Ashton threw his hands in the air and proudly proclaimed, "I give up."
All of a sudden the cheering from the crowds stopped. Neither Donovan nor the Mistress could process what had just happened there. All of them knew Ashton would be defeated but none of them had expected it to happen in such a manner.
As soon as Donovan was able to collect his thoughts, he became even more enraged. The entire point of this duel was to beat the crap out of the kid and now that he had willingly surrendered, there was no way he could do that.
Even though he had won, it didn't seem like a victory to him. If anything, it felt even more humiliating because Ashton managed to outsmart all of them.
"The hell you think you are doing!?" Donovan couldn't keep himself in check any longer, "Do you think this is some kind of joke?"
"What did I do wrong?" Ashton mumbled and started walking towards the edge of the stage, "I abided by the rules the mistress informed us about. One could lose by giving up, getting knocked out or being thrown off the stage. Now if you don't mind I have some packing to do."
By this time the crowd started whispering amongst itself. Technically, what they wanted had happened and the kid had not done anything wrong either, he just did as the rules stated. Donovan had won, as they had predicted.
But even then, they felt as they had been cheated on. Most, if not all of them, had been waiting for Donovan to teach the brat a lesson. However, before he could even touch the kid once, the match was already over? How the hell did that work?
Donovan quietly walked up to Ashton, but it was not like he could have touched the kid anymore. The duel and the training were the only two loopholes when Donovan could touch the kid with the intent of harming him.
However, now that Ashton was set to leave for the academy tomorrow, there was no need for him to train. Which meant that Donovan would not be able to teach him a lesson either.
Ashton sensed the werewolf walking up to him and turned around to face him in the eye. Ashton had given up on the duel not because he was afraid of losing or getting hurt. He did so because he did not see a point in fighting with someone while he was at disadvantage.
On top of that, this duel was nothing but a drag in his opinion. He could not give two fcks about Donovan's need to prove his masculinity in front of the entire city. Thus he stared right into Donovan's eyes without any fears.
It was a look that Donovan loathed with a passion. Ashton was someone who was much lower than him in ranks, and someone like him should have that look in their eyes. In other words, Donovan was the predator and Ashton was supposed to be the prey, but Ashton did not share the same thoughts as him.
"I didn't know a staring match also counted as a duel." Ashton chuckled and turned around for the final time to leave.
"You will wait right there!" This time it was the mistress who had an outburst, "You can give up if you wish, but the final decision remains with the referee and I reject your proposal to give up."
Everyone was stunned for the second time in a matter of minutes. Every single one of them had seen duels before and this was the first time they had heard of such a thing. Still, none of them tried to correct her for two reasons.
First, she was the mistress. She could do whatever she pleases to. And lastly, they too wanted to watch the duel. Thus they kept silent on the matter. A few of them did try to protest against the absurdity of the 'new' rule. But their voices were drowned in the sea of cheers and howls.
As for Ashton who was duelling for the first time in his life, he didn't know that the rule was a bogus one made by the mistress right on the spot.
He assumed what the Mistress said was true and let out a heavy sigh before turning towards her, "So the duel is still going on?"
"Yes-" The mistress nodded.
Ashton did not bother waiting for anything else the mistress had to say and grabbed Donovan's hand. A moment later, everything happened as fast as lightning. Ashton stepped in, turned around and rolled the man over on his shoulders by squatting down while pulling Donovan's hand and slamming him down... out of the arena.
It was a move the mistress had taught him while teaching him about martial arts. However, even she could not believe that not only he had mastered the move already, but also that he was able to execute it so easily.
Ashton had won that too by outsmarting all of them once again!