Definitely obvious, but Lex trusted the sword on his hip to make everything work out just fine. Alexi, servant to house Lekari, was going to shoot better than any other entrant. As they approached the area the contest was being held, Lex approached the promoter and paid his entry fee. There were many other competitors, and by the look of it, a few were highly trained huntsman. Nobody would be expecting a mere servant to take the purse.
There were bookies taking bets, and the odds set for Lex to win were the worst. So he did what anyone that was confident they would win would do, he bet on himself. Not too much, just four gold, but with the odds as they were, he'd win two hundred gold pieces. The bookie smirked at Lex, who returned his smile with a genuine one of his own. Betting was soon closed, and the facilitator called out for the contestants to fall in line. They were numbered at random for their turn fire, and as luck would have it, Lex would go last.
Each round of firing would eliminate half of the entrants. Everyone stepped up with confidence at their turn, firing at the target ahead of them with a bow and arrows provided by the game coordinator. Well, no matter, it was better he not fire Heart Finder. He'd never tried firing it at an inanimate object. Perhaps this was his luck working for him, perhaps the bow would pierce the nearest heart to what he fired at. He stepped up, the thirty second, and final entrant to shoot. He took the bow, aimed at his target, and fired. He tried his best to not shoot to well, and his shot turned out to be the sixteenth best. He'd just barely made it to the second round, perfect.
The next round went much faster. He was sixteenth to go, and everyone had shot mostly as well as they had the round before. The crowd was barely paying attention when he stepped up. He carefully chose his arrow, to the annoyance of the coordinator, took his time aiming as well. When he finally fired, the crowd quickly quieted down. He had out shot eight of his opponents, and was in to the third round. The announcer called out his own shock, and that it was likely a fluke, and everything moved on. The third round was watched a bit more closely. As the first seven contestants fired, everyone watched raptly. Their shots were all very close, but one of the huntsman had fired his third bullseye, and everyone expected he'd win. Lex took up the bow at his turn and the crowd half watched, believing his placement a thing of luck. Perhaps it was. If his luck had not been working for him, he probably would have hit dead center with every shot. He was careful and precise in his method again, and he felt the top three contestants watching him. Suspecting his true skill. He took aim and fired, striking inside four of the other arrows. He placed as the last to move on to the next round again, something that now everyone believed he'd done on purpose.
His usual smile was absent from his face. Instead Lex, was stern of expression, he did not want to seem to be gloating. The crowd was half excited, and half grumbling. They of course wanted a good show, but many of them would lose money if he won, and he was going to win. The other three competitors did not look pleased either. Lex hoped that the competition between the three of them would keep them from uniting against him. One could hope. For the final four contestants, the competition changed. They would each get three shots, and one archer would be eliminated each time. The first man stepped up and drew selected his arrows and fired them in quick succession, clustering them tightly near the center. The second archer stepped up and followed the same process firing almost as well as the first. The third contestant took a bit more time with his selection of arrows, and firing them at the target. He shot better than the man before him, and knew he was safe.
Lex approached the firing line, took as much time as he had before, and fired his arrows precisely. His cluster was predictably just good enough to pass, and the eliminated archer cursed and stormed off. Lex was just glad he hadn't become hostile. When the next round began, the firing order was mixed up at random. Lex would fire second, just after the archer to have come in second the round before. The archer was clearly nervous when he stepped up, and he dropped one of the arrows as he was selecting for his shots. Finally, he found the nerve to collect himself, and he fired his arrows. The starting shot was a bullseye, his first of the competition, the second, right next to it. It appeared that the pressure was serving him well, until he let his third shot fly. It was off by quite a bit, and he deflated in disappointment. He walked away from the competition, not even waiting to see the outcome. He knew that he'd be eliminated. Lex came up, made his three shots with a lot less consideration, easily having a better score than the man before him. The huntsman, made three nearly perfect shots, not relaxing even with such an easy pass.
Being that last two competitors, Lex and the huntsman were made to shake hands. Then they were to take turns firing. One shot each, back and forth, until there was a clear victor. The huntsman, having shot best the whole contest, was given the choice of to shoot first or second, and he chose second. Lex took up his position, drew his arrow, and fired without much effort. His shot was good, but not expert. The huntsman fired with his usual calculation, putting his arrow beside Lex's, purposefully drawing out the game. Lex, shot his next arrow, and it struck just inside, the huntsman's. So it went, for three more shots each, the arrows just barely inside the previous, until the huntsman struck a bullseye. The crowd had been silent up until now, and many thought the competition over, that Alexi, servant of house Lekari had lost, but he amazed them all into stunned silence. He stepped up, drew an arrow at random, drew back, looked over to where Maya watched from, and let fly without looking. His arrow struck true, splitting down the shaft of the huntsman's and driving into the target.
After a few moments of silence the noise exploded all around, and the announcer had to shout to get the people to calm down. The huntsman had another shot. He stepped up, aimed with great precision, and fired. His arrow struck next to Lex's knocking it from the target, and kept the contest going. Lex stepped up, grabbed an arrow without consideration, and fired. Again he split the shaft of the huntsman's arrow. The huntsman, was not pleased as he stepped up and fired again. His arrow struck against Lex's again, but this time it did not hold, and Lex's did. He was defeated. The crowd went wild, and Lex turned to bow to them. As he did, he saw a few faces looking past him with shock, and he knew he was in danger. He spun around, contest bow still in hand, drawing an arrow from his own quiver, and firing on instinct. His shot collided with the arrow speeding at him, and the huntsman stood in dumbfounded shock. Another arrow to bow string and Lex let fly, then another right behind. The first pierced the huntsman's hand, the second his knee. Guards rushed in to grab the now wounded man, as he still attempted to flee.
"Ladies and Gentleman," the announcer cried out through the noise, his voice magically amplified, "our winner, and hero of the day! Alexi of house Lekari!"
