Once back in the city, Jak, Daxter, and Shining made their way towards Damas' tower, only for Pecker to tell them he wasn't presently available to speak. "He said something about meeting with one of his agents and for me to mind my own business!" Pecker complained. "I know he's King here and all, but does he have to-AWK!- be so rude?"
"Did he leave you any messages for us?" Jak demanded.
"Apparently, Kleiver has a task for you at the city's ocean side," Pecker replied. "He didn't say anything else."
"An ocean?" Daxter asked, shocked. "Huh, this place really is like Sandover..." He sighed. "Great, now I'm homesick."
"Let's go see what the fat bastard wants," Shining grumbled.
By the time the trio found Kleiver, it had already gotten dark. He seemed to find this amusing. "Ain't it time for you ankle-biters' naps?" he joked.
"Two of us could make that literal without bending far," Shining growled.
"And we will if you don't take us seriously," Daxter added angrily. "But we'll aim for something other than your ankles!"
As Kleiver blanched, Jak rolled his eyes. "Just what are we here for?"
Kleiver gestured over his shoulder at a large artillery placement atop a jutting rock spire. "That gun turret used to be the only thing protecting us from the desert," he explained. "I used to be tall poppy on that baby. King Damas wants to see if you can beat my score."
"Can do," Jak replied readily, cricking his knuckles. Turning, he climbed the spire to the turret.
Shining and Daxter watched from below as Jak quickly shot every disk launched out of the sky, spinning accurately to catch each one as it came up out of the water. Once he'd broken the high score, he came down. Grumbling, Kleiver handed over the trophy, a Light Eco Crystal.
"King Damas has a special challenger for your third Battle Challenge," he mentioned as he turned to go. "You should probably get up there."
Nodding, Jak led the way up to the arena.
Once in the arena, they found a Vulcan Fury modifier for their Morph Guns waiting for them. Once they had them equipped, Damas began his announcement. "This next round is a fight to the death! Perform admirably, and you will be true citizens of Spargus! Fail, and only the desert awaits you."
The trio readily made their way down below to the arena itself, which was now a metal walkway surrounding a 2x2 square grid of lava. As before, waves of troops leapt out to attack them, and the three friends fought back with their various weapon skills. Every so often, an alarm would sound, and the walkway would start to lower into the lava, and the three made their way to platforms in the corners that rose up with the alarm, allowing them to escape the lava and rearm.
At one point, Jak had taken more damage than he had expected he would, and discovered the nature of his first Light Eco power, which allowed him to burn the Light Eco in his body to convert it to Green Eco, restoring his energy and accelerating his healing.
As the thirtieth opponent fell, the trio made their way around a corner to find their last one. However, the identity of their opponent startled them. "Sig?" Jak gasped out in shock.
"Jak?" Sig proclaimed, just as stunned. "Daxter? Shining?" His voice became more pleased as he rattled off names.
"SIG!" Daxter shouted happily, looking ready to hug him.
"Well, you three are looking sorrier than ever," Sig greeted warmly.
"...so now we're supposed to try and kill each other?" Jak asked.
"Yup, that's the rule," Sig replied.
Jak looked down the barrel of his gun at Sig. "...I think I have a way around that," he murmured. "Follow my lead." With that, he returned his Morph Gun to his back. When Sig mimicked with his customized Peacemaker lance, Jak lunged, knocking Sig to the metal walkway.
Grinning, Sig leapt to his feet, closing for hand to hand combat. Up above, Damas stared in confusion. "Why did they put their weapons away?" he asked, confused.
"My guess?" Pecker replied. "Because they respect each other too much as friends and warriors to let it end with bullets."
"Perhaps," Damas admitted as he watched the two trade blows with fists and feet. As he watched, however, it quickly became plain where the advantage lay. While Sig was an old campaigner and skilled with any number of weapons, battle with Metalheads and other desert threats rarely, if ever, devolved to hand to hand. As tough as he was, in close quarters he was a brawler at best. Jak, however, had learned hand to hand combat as a primary fighting skill against Lurkers and the like in Sandover, and guns were a late addition he'd adapted to. Even with the Eco weapon tech available now, Jak was clearly more at home with fists, feet, and blades than guns...and he had far more staying power than Sig, even not counting the Light Eco boosting it.
Before long, Jak had Sig knocked on his back and leapt. Pinning the older warrior to the walkway, Jak drew his hand back, the Dark claws coming out...and froze. As Sig waited for the death blow, Jak looked up at Damas.
Damas stared down at him. "What is he doing now?" he wondered.
Pecker looked down, analyzing the situation. "...he has won, that is a given," Pecker explained. "Whether or not he kills Sig, the victory is plain. However, Sig is still a valuable agent...and Jak's friend. He is waiting on you, as both his King and his father, to make a decision. Does Sig live or die?"
Damas let the words sink in, rubbing his chin. As King, he did have final say in these matters, and there had been times where he'd ended arena matches without death for various reasons in the past. With such an absolute victory, there was no reason Damas couldn't show Sig mercy, telling Jak that Sig's contributions were still too valuable to lose. Or he could stick to the rules of the arena...and teach Jak that the sacrifice of friends was worthy of survival.
Coming to his feet, Damas came to his decision. Holding out his clenched fist, as King and as a father...he raised his thumb upward.
Jak sighed in relief as he put his claws away, pulling Sig to his feet. Sig shook his head in wonder. "Scared me half to death there, Jak. Glad you knew what you were doing." He paused as he noticed just how relieved Jak looked. "You...did know what you were doing, right?"
Jak shrugged.
Sig stared, swallowing convulsively. "...remind me to never play cards with you. Your poker face is scary good."