Illo tells the story of a young man who goes to battle to win the hand of a tribal princess who is his childhood love. She visits him and watches him get ready for battle; while helping him get ready, she gives him a keepsake for good luck. The battle is fought in a dark pit with 10 men and the last man standing wins the princess. Each man can either be killed or maimed so he cannot fight again. He kills a few men and there are two people left in the pit. She realizes while he is fighting that she doesn’t like the person the battle is turning him to. He realizes during the fight that he doesn’t like what killing is turning him into. He wounds the last man (probably a friend) and turns his back and he gets stabbed in the back. The woman locks herself in the room and prepares his body to be buried, takes back her locket/bracelet but is now married to the winner of the fight.