The World of Emns 2: Arena

Chapter 6: The mechanical beast's heart

t Olivia was properly looking at it, the oval stone podium had red markingings etched into it. On each side was a circle, which most likely indicated where each participant was supposed to start their fight. Other than that, it looked to be a decoration of a serpent tail that slid across the floor.

Arty and Steven both took place in the circles. Arty, who had a small crossbow connected to his arm seemed to be loading a bolt into it, while Steven pulled his dragonslayer sword from its sheath and tightly grasped the handle with both hands.

It took the crowd a bit to calm down from their yelling and cheering. It confused Olivia a bit, since nothing had happened yet. Altogether she wasn't sure how exciting it would be to see other people fight for sport, but it would be something she could find out soon enough. The crowd had finally stopped cheering, and a silence fell over the arena.

"Ready, set... and go!"

Steven barely managed to dodge out of the way of an arrow aimed to pierce his arm. Instinctively, Olivia could see one of his hands reach for his shoulder. The very same shoulder that Akros the bounty hunter had pierced with an arrow half a year prior.

Arty was already busy loading the next arrow into his crossbow before Steven recovered. "Get him Perseverance," he said. To this, the mechanical dog started sprinting forward towards the lightning mage.

Steven took a deep breath, gritted his teeth, and ran forward. But it was nothing like how he trained with Olivia. He was fast. Far faster than her. Faster than she'd ever seen a human run. His body was coated in his lightning, but not the thin layer Olivia was used to. Large sea-green lightning bolts that crawled up his arms and legs. His eyes shone bright green, not in their usual colour but lighter. In a matter of seconds, Steven had crossed halfway across the arena before Olivia could even progress what was happening.

Perseverance, the dog, jumped at Steven, but fairly carefree he managed to dodge it with a spin. He then sprinted forward further, and not five seconds later, was standing a mere foot away from Arty, who was panicked. The artificer raised his arm to point the crossbow at Steven's face, but the lightning mage's left fist was already shoved into his stomach.

The crowd went wild, but as Steven went in for a second hit, Perseverance ran back for his creator, and used one of its legs to slash across Steven's back.

The screens at the side, which moments ago were displaying the brackets for the competition, were now zoomed in shots of the fight happening in front of them. It made it a lot easier to keep up with the details of what was happening.

Steven kicked Arty away and focussed on the dog. He wrapped both hands around the handle of his blade, and slashed at the underside of the creature, raising his sword up. A flash of lightning shot into the air alongside his motion, and Perseverance limped back.

Its chest, which was now more exposed, had an ominous red glow to it. A glowing red stone seemed to be the core of the mechanical beast. A red stone that was exactly like the one that was the core of the black shadow creature in the forest of Leafa. Like the thing that killed Siedrain Marellus.

Steven's eyes flashed, even more than before, and his expression turned to anger. Arty had recovered by this point, and aimed his crossbow at Steven's head.

"Don't hurt him," Arty shouted. This gave him away, as right before the arrow would have landed in his back. Steven had turned and just in time (with his increased movement speed) blocked the arrow against his sword. The tip of the arrow shattered against the blade, which itself looked undamaged. It was one of the first times Olivia started to understand how impressive the crafts of that sword were.

The lightning mage turned back to the mechanical dog and raised his sword, ready to pierce it directly into the creature's core.

"It's alive! It has a soul!"

It looked as if Steven had destroyed Arty's creation completely. Yet, at the final moment, with Arty's warning, he managed to ever so slightly bend the direction of the sword, missing the glowing red core by nothing more than an inch.

Instead, the dragon slayer sword effortlessly splintered though the dog's back leg, and landed into the stone floor. Another lightning flashed followed the sword's direction, singing the arena behind the dog, and shattering the dog's leg into many pieces.

The crowd had gone silent. So had the other champions beside Olivia, who were chatting casually before.

Steven pulled his sword back, leaving Perseverance to fall over, both of its right legs broken. Arty had fallen to his knees in despair and seemed close to tears, until he realised Steven had missed the core. He scrambled to his feet and ran up to the artificial dog.

For a few moments, he examined the creature, specifically the core.

"Thank you," he finally spoke aloud. Then, he stood up. Steven still has his sword in his hand but seemed to be waiting patiently to see what Arty would do next.

"I surrender," the scientist said. "I'm not strong enough to beat Steven Kaynes."

The crowd mumbled confused. Then a few voices went loud, then a loud cheering once again perked up from the stands. Steven and Arty seemed to be talking to one another, but since the screens had turned back to show the brackets (Arty's name had now been crossed out) the sound of their conversation was also no longer broadcasted around the arena.

A minute later, one of the arena staff ran over to the two fighters, and handed each of them a potion, which then drank. Then, with Arty grabbing the front, and Steven grabbing the back, they carried Perseverance as they returned to their seats in the stands.

As they came within earshot, Olivia could hear Steven speak to Arty.

"And you promise to tell me exactly what the red core is?"

Arty nodded. "Only because you spared Perseverance. But I'll do it later, after the next fighting is done."

Steven helped drop the dog off on the first bench up the stairs, where no-one else was currently sitting. Then, he walked over to Olivia. Kaya jumped out as well, flinging her arm over his shoulder as she punched her fist against his chest.

"Good job on the first fight, Steven. You're strong as hell!"

Olivia smiled as Steven looked her in the eyes.

"Yeah, you are," she agreed. "You really do keep impressing me, Steven," she said as she could feel her heart flutter.

She wasn't sure before, but Olivia understood it now. Watching amazing mages fight really was a spectacle.