Where the old Astera and Stellar bring back for each memories of what it felt like fighting as defenders for the monsters they once were.

No one's POV:
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Aldo wasted no time and dashed towards Alter ready to smack him with his cane. The skeleton blocked the attack easily and next swung his own cane at the beaver, who stepped to the right and then he jumped up high to hit his opponent with a rotating flying kick in the face. Luckily for Alter he was fast enough to bend slightly backwards.

The kick had almost scratched the surface of his face. The 2 exchanged swings and hits and the hype was high for the pirates who were witnessing this. 1 and a half minute later then, as Aldo had attempted to hit again Alter and jumped backwards, before he could land, much to his shock Alter threw his cane at him.

It smacked him right in the forehead and the beaver stumbled back, dizzy from the hit as he had gotten. Before he knew it, Alter had thrown him on the floor, who grabbed again his cane and pressed the one tip of it against his opponent's throat.

"1! 2! 3! 4!" Adrian started counting. But on 5 Alter suddenly stepped back and allowed Aldo to stand up. Ignoring everyone's confused faces, the skeleton dusted himself off with a smug and chill grin.

"1-0." He said. Aldo scoffed and rubbed his neck.

"Turno 2." He held his cane vertically in front of him and from the tips popped out small, sharp, metallic heads.

Now the cane had become a double-headed spear. Alter's smile dissappeared as he sighed and swung his cane twice, soon turning the same as Aldo's. The 2 collided again and exchanged hits.

The amount of times each of the opponents were this close getting slashed or stabbed by any of the metal tips were causing the pirates to hold their breaths, flinch, and agonize, waiting for the moment blood was going to get spilled.

And indeed, after 2 minutes of their second round, Aldo ran up to Alter and pretended to throw his spear at him. He was so convincing Alter really did go for the dodge. Instead Aldo pressed the one tip of his spear on the floor, barely stabbing it.

The weapon bended making momentarily a curve, one that as soon as it went on becoming a straight line as it originally was, threw Aldo a little higher than Alter. The 🦫 did a flip and his foot went down Alter's skull. The priest fell forward from the hit, groaning from the headache he had gotten.

He wasn't going to prevent get his head back in the game quickly enough, as Aldo, who had grabbed his spear with both hands from one side swung it horizontally and hit the tall skeleton on his knees causing him to fall prone.

Then fast like the wind he held his spear above his head and stabbed Alter on his right ankle. Geno could see the frustration and sudden pain written all over the Astera's face as he slammed his fist on the floor and mainly his right eyesocket glowed an intensive cobalt, his teeth seemingly ready to break from how much he was clenching them.

"1? 2? 3?" Adrian started counting in a questioning way.

On 3 Aldo stepped back, gathered back his weapon and left Alter trying to stand up. On 8 he managed to get up and support himself on his cane rather shakily. He stared at Aldo trying to swallow back his pain. The Animalistic looked at him with a smug face.

"1-1 fancy dancer." He mocked. "Give up while you still can."

"C' mon Al!" Geno whispered in agony. Alter scoffed pained at Aldo and balancing himself mainly on his left leg held his cane on his right hand.

"Make me." He challenged his opponent as he was stabbing it on the floor. Aldo chuckled and stabbed down his own cane too.

"As you wish." And he attacked.

At first sight it seemed as if the 3rd round of fighting they had was about beating each other in melee combat. But soon enough Geno was going to observe that the goal was something else. Aldo wasn't trying to hit Alter as much as he was trying to get past him.

The taller was circling around his cane. He was defending it! Even though the priest was injured, he still managed to block the smaller monster's path. At some point however, Aldo managed to kick Alter on his knee again, pivot him and dash at the tall cane.

"SH*T!" Geno yelped as he was invested in this fight, receiving the startled faces of many of the pirates. Inches away from Aldo touching the cane, Alter suddenly reached backwards and grabbed the small Animalistic by his tail.

The beaver struggled to reach the cane while flailing his tail aggressively. By struggling he did manage to drag Alter with him despite his efforts to keep him away from the taller cane.

"You've lost Astera!" The Animalistic said triumphantly as he moved his leg to kick the cane. At the same time exactly he was doing so and the weapon was in the air, Alter suddenly growled lowly and grabbed the beaver monster's tail with both hands.

And then, with a louder roar of effort, he threw Aldo ahead and towards the second smaller cane that was still standing on the floor's deck. The smaller collided with his cane and they both fell on the floor just before Alter's cane could touch down.

Thankfully without getting stabbed by the sharp ends that were still there of course. Moments of silence befell in the Unfairdictable Circle, as no one was sure at this point what kind of combat game Alter and Aldo had played and how was the winner determined.

Adrian approached Aldo first, bended above him. There the beaver seemed to be saying something as he slowly sat up. The minotaur seemed to think for a moment and whatever answer he had given, caused Aldo to cuss in Italian in frustration right after.

He had turned to look at Alter, who was sitting on the floor too covering his face with one hand while with the other he was gripping his ribcage. Ramirez walked in and Geno followed behind. They both went for the taller skeleton.

"Al! Do you need help?" The smol asked frantically.

"I need some spacə. §τəρ ɓæcƙ." Alter said in an unstable voice.

"You need to calm the f*ck down. The duel is over. You don't have to be alert of anything anymore." Ignoring his request the canine monster went to check on the tall skeleton's stabbed ankle casually. Just on the first touch, there Alter suddenly snapped his head at the dog and threw fire at him from his mouth.

"EEEK!" Geno did as he saw Ramirez' head melting off, a blob of fur, blood and metal.

The doctor stood up and raised hands in the air in frustration as if he wasn't almost headless. Much to Geno's surprise and shock in a few seconds he saw the dog's head slowly going back to it's previous shape as if nothing had happened. After rotating his ears and straightening his snout, he shot a glare at Alter.

"In 80 years I will not be able to do that anymore, if I live for so long. Cure-se com a magia de cura que você não tem então!" He said and walked towards Aldo. Geno stared at Alter surprised.

"Why didja do that?!"

"Thə ρυρργ ıs gıvıŋ' œŋ mγ nərvəs." The skeleton replied. Geno realised in that moment what was going on.

"Tréla! Alter needed the medical care. Stay down next time." He said and shot a glare at the guardian, who looked away scoffing. The siren walked towards Ramirez and asked to get bandages.

"And do you know how to treat a bleeding wound?" He asked.

"Might as well I learn from you, unless you're way too arrogant to show me." Geno spoke back. Aldo groaned and snatched 2 bandage rolls from Ramirez.

"Hey!"

"Don't mind grumbles. I'll show you Geno. Come on." The beaver said coldly as he signed Geno to follow. The 2 smols approached Alter, who was still looking down sulking. "As much as I'm frustrated I was THIS close on winning, that was a great fight. Didn't think you Asteras could resolve in such violent measures to win."

"Didn't know myself either. I'm sorry for the emotion that came over me." Alter said in a sad tone. Aldo pressed his lips together thoughtful as he was just treating the skeleton's ankle, leaving space for Geno to watch. Soon the bandaging was done and the beaver took the taller cane in his hands. He gave it to Alter with a smile.

"Good fight either way. Come on, stand up. And good luck balancing yourself on the next fights." He said. Instead of standing up, Alter kneeled in front of the beaver and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Thanks for that. For remindin' me of how it felt on my old days fightin', whether for training, whether against real opponents."

"You're welcome. I needed that too. Plus, what fun will be if you're the only cool warrior on the ship?" Aldo asked and his smile grew bigger as he tapped Alter's hand that was on his shoulder twice.

The 2 nodded and the beaver walked towards Adrian with hands on his nape, definitely enjoying the surprised faces of the pirates who now knew their priest wasn't the only one who had been hiding their greatest capabilities all this time.

"Sooo, who won? Whoever won the most rounds? Cause ya obviously fought with your canes for 3." Geno said as he was watching Alter standing up, soon his hand reaching to pet the top of the siren's skull.

"Yes, that's how it's determined. The fighting systems might have slightly changed in Italia when Master Alvino brought 'em for the first time there, but the games stayed the same. What ya witnessed is training of the Astera warriors. When Asteras fight against each other for practice, they separate these fights to 3. We used to call 'em 'situations'. The first is called Pacifist. It's the one Asteras prefer the most, unlike Stellars. We don't fight our opponent to cause great harm, we only apprehend. The second situation is called Merciless."

"And lemme guess, Stellars LOVE this one. Aldo told me about himself as Stellar, they had no problem with injuring and killin'."

"Exactly. It is meant to not just apprehend the opponent but make 'em completely unable to fight while suffering. We Asteras could cause blood to spill, but only if a fight was way too pressurin'. We weren't goin' for the kill. What Aldo did by stabbing my ankle is from the most merciful wounds to be done."

"Yikes. And what's the 3rd situation?"

"It's called Defence. A round meant to train and expand the skills of an Astera on defending someone unable to fight with whatever they got. Whoever makes the other's cane touch the floor completely, they win."

"And your very own cane is supposed to represent the one who can't fight?"

"Yep. After all, like I had said, an Asderçõa was the most important part of our identities as defenders of the monsters. If we lost it, even if we couldn't help it, then we couldn't be called Asteras anymore."

"If it's so important, what would you do if ya were in a situation where you could save whether a monster in danger or your Asderçõa from bein' lost forever?"

"Even if that could cost an Astera their title, the defence of the monsters is much higher than the cane." Alter answered without hesitation. "Sometimes we sacrifice more than just a weapon to save somebody. We even sacrifice our morals. Our beliefs..." He looked down with a bitter expression.

"Alter wins this round!" Adrian announced out loud. The 2 skeleton friends payed little to no attention to that as they were exiting the circle, with Alter's Asderçõa supporting him on his left and Geno to his right as his hand was pressing down gently the priest's to stay on his shoulder.

Of course the minotaur said that due to the tall skeleton's injury, if he didn't feel able to fight when he would be called again, he would be out. 5 fighters were out and 5 were staying in the Unfairdictable Circle: Dumaku, Michael, Ramirez, Alter and Geno.

Now as the remaining ones were making 2 pairs and one was left out, in such case, whoever's name would be picked last, he had to randomly pick one of the names of the 2 fighters who would win. Somebody was going to fight 2 times. Sounds unfair?

Well that's the Unfairdictable Circle, deal with it. The first pair was Dumaku against Ramirez, who almost killed the leopard, like with Plato and got forcefully separated by him, as once he had apprehend him with his spear, he threw it away and went on punching and biting.

The comments of the pirates were showing even more concern for the doctor's aggressiveness. But anyways, he was announced winner. Geno was up next against Michael and the smol had chosen the fight to be with magic. It was interesting for the siren to see more of Michael's magical abilities as human.

Most he had seen was the boy summoning tough gloves in his hands, but he could do more after all. For the first time Geno felt what it's like be controlled by orange magic. To be able control yourself against it was tough. And to think he was supposed to not be affected this much by it!

"As an earth monster with a hold on blue magic, you have the ability to resist easier than most magic that controls direction. That is, if you've learned standin' your ground well." Alter had taught him and damn, if he was having a hard time stay in the boundaries to not loose, he couldn't think how easily others would be thrown out by Michael. Despite him being a smol thin boi, he had given him a very good fight.

And he could resist well enough the blue magic when Geno would use it. In the end however the skeleton managed to throw Michael out of the boundaries and take the win without harming the human boy. They shook hands and Michael exited the circle to go back to Dave and on his shoulder.

"No mercy upon him, you must let the pain reach him to learn withstanding more of it in the future. The earlier he learns, the less he will bother." Ramirez had told the siren in a condemning tone and receiving the murderous glare of the tiger monster.

Now Alter was left. And whether Geno, whether Ramirez were going to fight him, as he had said that he was going to keep fighting even injured. Adrian presented the names of the 2 to Alter without him seeing on which paper each was. The tall skeleton turned his head away.

His hand touched and stirred the papers for a few agonising for Geno seconds. Eventually he held one in his hand and looked at the written. He closed his eyesockets and exhaled from his nose quietly as he crossed himself 3 times. Adrian looked at the name too and looked at the smol skeleton and the alsatian.

"Geno."

how is this fight gonna work when these 2 cannot harm each other, or else whatever they cause to each other will wound them 10 times worse? stay tuned to find out.

«Ocean Lovers my *ss» on ao3, fell version of cffap has 8 chapters published so far. cffap itself has 8 chapters edited and fixed. go back if you please to read them and freshen your memory. a few of ya already do this.

also you can go to the book «so yeah. mostly pictures of me and announcements» to read the most recent addition of mine that talks about my practice in the kindergarten. it's literally named «kindergarten practice» and it will show ya what it requires me to do that takes so much of my time to write chapters alongside my second book in greek, my editing on cffap from its beginning and the writting on ao3.

2760 words. stay safe and determined adorable baby beans. bye 👍🏽