CHAPTER 21: ROUND 23

Her eyes widened and she gritted her teeth in pain as her stomach was being pierced by a crystal that was extending from the boy’s right palm.

She stopped time before the damage could increase, wrenched the crystal off his palm, and started hitting every single part of his body in anger with the crystal. She gritted her teeth, her body enveloped in sweat, she was in pain. Her time stop ability was taking a toll on her as well as the stab wound, and her lungs were screaming for oxygen.

One of the drawbacks of using her ability was that when she stopped time, everything except her is brought to a standstill, even air, so she was on the verge of suffocating due to the lack of oxygen in her lungs as she didn’t plan to use her ability and just did so to escape being impaled. With a last burst of strength, she went behind him and delivered a final hit onto his head with all her might before deactivating her ability.

The boy slumped onto the arena floor, spurting blood from his mouth as he passed out. The girl dropped to the ground, her left hand supporting her frame, preventing her body from hitting the arena floor, her right hand holding the stab wound tightly, drops of blood dripping from it to the ground, she was gasping for air and sweating profusely.

"Yeah!" Xenon screamed into the silent amphitheatre, the crowd that had fallen silent, anticipating the outcome of the match between the purple haired girl and crystal boy was aroused by his voice and they joined in the cheer. The crowds reaction surprised Xenon, he had thought he and the professors were the only ones paying attention to that particular match.

’Seems like everyone was as bored as I am and were looking for a good match as well’ He grinned.

— — —

’Ouuuuch! This hurts so much.’ Arnetta, the purple haired girl screamed inwards, putting more pressure on the wound the crystal boy gave her to stop the bleeding. She was hungrily devouring the oxygen around her and she was soaked in sweat, some dripping from her forehead onto the ground.

She heard someone scream ’Yeah’ and was jolted awake to her surroundings, she noticed the crowd was unusually silent, and when she looked tried to look up, the whole crowd broke the silence and cheered... for her.

’What are they cheering for me for?’. She asked herself then remembered that in all the previous rounds the matches were somewhat bland. She rose to her feet after much struggle and bowed slightly still clutching the stab wound, trying not to fall over from exhaustion.

’I am sure the upcoming matches will offer better entertainment, so I’ll bask in their attention for now before I am forgotten.’

She tried to smile but winced from the pain in her stomach as she felt her body leave the ground.

Miss Felicity, who was in charge of healing wounded contestants pulled Arnetta and her passed out opponent from the ground with her telekinetic ability as she had done with previous injured contestants. She raised them up to the fifth floor and dropped them gently in front of her, they were a few people waiting for their turn to be healed but were made to wait as their case wasn’t as serious as Arnetta’s and her opponent.

"Silenceeeee!" Professor Arkham boomed, not in the heads of the crowds this time. "What do you all cheer for? Remember this is not a venue for entertainment but an examination. You are cheering not for your comrade but your opponent, most of you have failed while she might have very well passed but you bare your teeth shamelessly and hit your palms together all just to back home by the end of the day achieving nothing, she won’t even remember any of you. We didn’t bring you here today the cheer so stop wasting our precious time and give us proof that you’re worth the time" The crowd fell silent for the professor’s remark.

"Ouch!" Xenon muttered as he felt the weight of the words, he was essentially the one who started the cheer. He glanced at the place where the healer sat and saw she was healing the girl already, he turned back to the crowd as the fifth round was over and new contestants were being called unto the arena.

"Let’s hope another good one happens" He muttered in excitement.

— — —

The contestants put more effort in their clashes from the 6th round onwards, becoming more interesting as the rounds go by, but nothing has captured the attention of the crowd like Arnetta’s match.

"Come on, is her’s the only interesting match that’ll happen today?" Xenon muttered as he slumped against the stone bars again, his excitement has died down once more after nothing captivating happened in the preceding matches. Of course they’re were some good ones, even the professors were more lively now, but Xenon was seeking for the thrill he experienced in Arnetta’s match and his hopes were getting dashed once more.

"I will call the names of the contestants in the 23rd round now and you are to take your place on the arena to start the round!" Professor Arkham’s voice rung out. He called another 50 contestants.

Of the 50 he called there was a girl with red hair that stood out, both because she was the only red head in the amphitheatre and because people were avoiding her.

"Why is everyone avoiding her? Is she very strong or something?" Xenon said absent mindedly studying her figure.

"Were you born yesterday?" a random boy stood beside Xenon attempting to answer the question. "You should know of course that people generally avoid red heads, because it is said that people with red hair invites the wrath of spirits and so everyone tends to avoid them."

"I believe it’s just rubbish, my mother and little brother were born with red hair and they’re doing very fine to me. I think people just made the red hair thing up because of the white and blue hair phenomenon." The boy continued.

"Which is?" Xenon asked.

"People sporting white or blue hair are known to have great affinity to spirits. But the former attracts all kinds of spirits, be it good or bad, while the latter only attracts positive reactions from favourable spirits." The boy answered.

"In this world, your hair colour could make or break you, as the reds are usually at a disadvantage, the whites are in the middle, while the blues are almost always favoured." The boy explained.

"Wow!" Xenon could only say as the boy walked away. "No wonder everyone likes Skye but most hates me. I’m the white haired boy who brought bad luck while she’s the adorable white angel". Xenon scoffed. "Anyway, I can smell a thrilling match coming up." Xenon grinned, rubbing his palms together as he licked his lips.

— — —

Xenon decided to focus on the red head’s match and wasn’t disappointed.

The moment the words ’Begin’ left Professor Franz’ mouths Xenon tuned out all distractions and focused on the red head and her opponent.

"Hey, just a quick warning before we start." The red head’s opponent, a shirtless, bald boy donning oversized black trousers called out to her. "It’ll be better if you opt out now cause if the battle gets serious it might be dangerous for you, I have some peculiar abilities you see. Just saying."

The red head stared at him with her crimson eyes and said softly in a cracked voice. "Bring it on."

"Okay, I tried my best to warn you" The bald boy moved to the edge of their assigned stage and stood firmly with both of his legs spread out. On his bare back, his skin started to swell in four places, the swelling grew to four mounds of flesh which elongated and enlarged into tentacle–like tendrils, two positioned over his shoulders and the other two under his arms, they squirmed and shifted.

The red head just surveyed them with a blank expression, her face showing no hint of emotion. She outstretched her right arm and red flames shot out of her palm, the flames grew longer dancing on her palms as they coalesced and compressed into plasma.

She shaped the red plasma in her right hand into a gladius-like sword and waved her arm in air looking at her opponent as she teased him by showing some slashing and cutting moves with a subtle smile on her lips.

"I see." The bald boy grinned. "Let’s not keep the audience waiting!" His tentacles shot forward with incredible velocity towards her. She evaded the first, jumped over the second, landed and rolled to evade the third, sprang up and slashed the fourth. The first three she evaded came back at her, she stood her ground solidly and delivered swift strikes to the tentacles, cutting them up cleanly.

The severed tentacles withdrew, the surfaces of the cut bearing scorch marks dealt from the heat of the hot plasma.

"Hmmn, that hurts" The bald guy said, his face contorted. "Seems you won’t be easy game after all."

The withdrawn tentacles regenerated their cut tips, the severed parts squirmed on the arena floor before drying up into black husks.

He shot his tentacles towards her again, this time two more joining the assault. She waited for them and begun to cut them down, but unlike earlier, the bald guy didn’t retract his tentacles but regenerated them on the fly and continued the assault giving her no time to breathe.

The six tentacles came at her from all sides threatening to bring her down, nevertheless she continued her relentless slaughter. The bald boy changed his tactics, moving his tentacles in odd, uncoordinated manners. Her eyes followed the tentacles, confused by their erratic behaviour.

Under the cover of the other tentacles, three shot towards her, she noticed a second too late, they were heading for her head, chest and torso respectively.

There was no time to swing her sword so she outstretched her left palm, an enormous amount of red flames ignited and coagulated into a round shield over her left arm which she used to block the incoming tentacles, giving them a nasty burn in turn, the tentacles recoiled and she used that moment her surprise had granted her to break away from the confines of the tentacles and charge forward. The tentacles came after her but she swung her shield backwards, placing it on her back, protecting her rear as she continued running forwards.

Before she could get within reach two more tentacles grew from the boy’s back and shot forward to restrict her advance. She dissipated the shield on her back, charged forward in a burst of speed and sliced the tentacles into pieces, not pausing her advance.

By now the boy was well within her striking range, the boy was calling back his tentacles to protect him but they weren’t fast enough as her sword moved, aiming to sever his left arm.

The boy glared at her, as the gladius approached his shoulder joint. It hit but bounced back, throwing her off balance. He took the advantage and struck her three times repeatedly on her stomach with her tentacles, throwing her backwards a few feet.

She groaned in pain but managed to get to her feet, her eyes widened, shock was written on her face for a split second before turning to anger. The boy’s skin had turned into black steel from head to toe, excluding his tentacles, even his eyes, teeth and tongue were covered in steel. The boy charged forward with six tentacles bringing the fight to her this time around.

The red head breathe in and out deeply, her sword lost it form, reverting back into formless flames which spread out to her left arm, leaving both arms with equal portions before forming into bladed tonfas. Similar red flames appeared in various parts of her body coagulating over her forearms, chest, torso, thighs, calves, and back, forming a semblance of armour.

She also charged forward meeting the boy at the middle of the stage, they both screamed as they collided and clashed, her tonfas brought swift slashes to the ever regenerating tentacles and the boy’s iron body while guarding against blows from his fists which were heavy and swift enough to knock the wind out of a regular person in one strike.

The clash continued for several minutes with no clear dominator. The red head girl was covered in sweat, breathing heavily but showing no signs of slowing down and the boy’s iron body was covered in many shallow cuts and some fairly deep drawing bits of his blood, his tentacles were slower to regenerate now and his movement became sluggish.

"Ok! That does it!" He shouted and propelled himself backwards with his tentacles. As he landed, three of his six tentacles grew metal skins and shot forward even faster than before.

The girl who was shocked and tired couldn’t do a thing as the tentacles struck her, pain wrung through her, the audience gasped, blood rushed into her mouth and she vomited it onto the arena floor beside her right arm.

Her right arm, ’what is it doing on the floor?’ she asked herself, feeling a sudden fatigue come over her she dropped down to her knees, but only her right knee hit the ground, she looked down and saw what remained of her thigh dripping some red liquid.

’Is that blood mine? Why do I feel cold in my chest?’. She shifted her gaze to the space below her chest. ’Is that place usually empty?’ She asked herself, her senses going numb with each second.