Dark Reincarnation: Nightshade

Chapter 42

                      Alice's POV

             "Ready little one?"

                         "Are you ever going to stop calling me little one?"

              "Probably not."

                          "Sigh.. yeah, I'm ready."

              "Close your eyes little one."

      Using spacial magic to teleport me and Rose, we instantly arrived just outside of the capital. I would have taken us right to the castle but seeing as how spacial magic isn't exactly common I figured it was best to just pop up where no one would see us.

      Since I had sent a letter in advance to inform the king of when we were supposed to arrive, one of his royal guards was waiting for us at the main gate. Once we had walked up to him he gestured for us to follow him.

       After about an two hours of walking through over crowded streets we were finally getting to the castle. There was a huge iron gate with multiple guards standing in front of it. As we approached the gate the guard we were following gestured for one of the other guards to open it.

      'This guy must be pretty high up the food chain for everyone to jump at his commands'

       He ended up leading us down a few hallways and through a huge set of double doors. As soon as we stepped through i couldn't help but be surprised. The room we walked into was obviously the throne room, seeing as how the king was seated on a throne at the far end.

       But what was actually surprising was the sheer size of the place. It has to be a football field wide and at least two across. On each wall, other then where the king sat, was what looked to be some kind of stone bleachers. And not a single seat was empty.

            "Ah, so the other fighter has arrived huh? If you would, walk to the center of the room. You as well Jole."

      Doing as the kings said, both me and the prince walk to the center of the room. He was staring daggers at me as he rubbed his wrist. Apparently someone had managed to reattach his hand. Lucky him I guess.

      Turning around I motioned for Rose to stay to the sidelines. And it's a good thing I did. Not long after, the king rose from his throne and extended his hands while saying an incantation. As soon as he was finished saying the spell the ground started to shake.

       Suddenly the entire room, except where the throne and the bleachers were, started to sink into the ground. When everything had stopped moving we were in what appeared to be an arena with spectators up high all around us.

             "Now then. Just to be official, I will now state the reasons and rules for this fight. Four weeks ago, my idiot son decided to try to force himself on a child. This lady here, managed to intervene.

    "But in doing so, seriously maimed my son. Now, the prince was clearly in the wrong, but she did assault a member of the royal family. So to give each the chance to come out of this on top, they will fight to the death.

     "Either my stupid second son will earn his pride back or this lovely little lady will earn her own prize. The rules for this death match, there is no backing out. The only way that platform will rise back up is when one of the two are dead. Now, as soon as the royal mages activate the shield to protect the spectators, the fight will start!"

      No sooner had he said that a shimmering green dome could be seen manifesting over the arena. Instantly the prince drew his sword and launched at me.

     Not feeling particularly threatened, I simply stood my ground, raised my hand and caught the blade mid swing. With a simple twist of my wrist I snapped the blade in two and couldn't help but giggle at the look on the princes face.

      Clearly seeing that he couldn't use his weapon anymore, he threw it aside and jumped back about twenty feet. Once he had a good amount of distance he started to throw fire balls at me, five at a time.

    Opening my mouth, I activated a cardinal sin spell: gluttony, and consumed the fire as it got close. The prince quickly followed up with strings of lightning shooting straight at me.

     Focusing on the lightning, I somehow failed to notice that had appeared behind me, moving so fast one could easily miss it if they weren't above A rank. As I turned to face him I found myself getting a roundhouse kick to the chest, effectively sending me flying back and into the arena wall.

     In a blink he was suddenly in front of me rapid firing spells of both fire and lightning. Every impact forcing me further into the wall. Once he finally stopped throwing spells at me, he looked me dead in the eyes.

             "I told you that you are a pathetic human. Not so tough now are you?" He stood there seemingly thinking about something. Then a sick twisted smile flashed across his face. "Don't worry, once your dead I'll gladly take care of that girl of yours. She'll make a lovely slut!"

       His laughter and insults suddenly went silent as he felt the amount of pressure and malice coming from the wall. Through the hole he made, by brute forcing me through it, he saw a bright purple glow coming from it as my anger rose to the over flow spot.

       With a boom from breaking the sound barrier, I zoomed out of the wall and found myself holding this prick up by the neck.

                "Threatening her will be the last thing you do.." I said while releasing a huge amount of killing intent. The prince struggled to break free to no avail. After saying that, my hand holding his neck started to heat up and you could smell the scent of burnt flesh.

     But instead of seeing fear in his eyes, I saw him smirk. He then elongated the claws on his hand to the size of daggers and swung his arm sideways, effectively slitting my throat.

      However, instead of letting him go or even slightly faltering, I just gave him a smirk of my own. Feeling the wound already closing, I looked him straight in the eye.

       'Ahhh.. there it is. Now I see real fear, delicious...'