The World of Emns 2: Arena

Chapter 9: Showtime

Everyone was stunned. It wasn't until Reyna was already walking back up the stairs that the arena slowly erupted into applause. It was hard for anyone to register what happened exactly. The only thing that was clear was that Reyna beat her opponent. It wasn't until after a guard woke Melissa up, though, that all win conditions of the fight were met. (Olivia had half a thought Melissa might have been dead.)

Reyna had not said a word yet, and sat down next to Sascia. She placed her hand on Reyna's head, and softly pat it through the hood. Then, she took her hand back to sign something at the young girl. To Olivia, at least, she looked to be in her early teens, if barely.

"Thank you," a soft, hesitant voice said from under Reyna's hood. Was she shy? Even after an utter win like that?

Melissa had also returned to the seats, and sat down next to Hugo.

"I lost completely," she said, sounding devastated and close to tears.

Hugo shook his head. "Nothing you could have done, lass. We don't even know what happened. Regardless, I lost too. Don't take it so hard."

"No, I still have a lot to learn," Olivia could hear her squick before Miss Kasike's voice interrupted the conversation again.

"Well, after that wonderful match, we move on quicker than expected! Up next, Wynn Caladrius Vs Kaya Tairens!"

The tiefling prince hopped up from his seat. Before he walked up, he held his hand out towards Kyzer. It looked like a parent waiting for their child to grab their hand. Instead, Kyzer smacked, for what seems to be as hard as he could, against Wynn's hand. He then leaned back in his seat again.

"If you're going to give them a show, you might as well give them a good one," Kyzer spoke.

A laugh could be heard from the back seat. It came from who Olivia believed to be Alexander von Masterno. The man who had two ladies around his arms in the lobby earlier. "You dragon folk are a hoot," the man bellowed as he gave them a dirty look with a gross smile on his face. He had purposefully tilted his head up so he could point his eyes down on them. "That Kyzer guy managed to beat a newbie of the Fynlone mage squad? So what? If you ask me, our team of knights needs to keep a better recruiting system."

Sascia made a hand gesture towards Alexander that Olivia did not need to know sign language for.

"Be careful there, little girl," Alexander said with a most disdainful tone in his voice. He might have a somewhat deep voice, but it still felt like scraping glass over a stone floor. "My younger brother, Drystan Nightingale, is your financial backer. One word and I can make sure you can say goodbye to the proud eagle on your cape."

Wynn raised an eyebrow. "If you're brothers, why do you have different surnames?"

"I kept our wonderful family's name. Meanwhile Drystan married that Arlette Nightingale. Changed his name and everything to make sure he would be the next family head, since Arlette was the only child the Nightingales had. Normally I would have denounced it, but he inherited a fortune and even got a wonderful son out of it named after yours truly. A far better heir for him than that bastard of a daughter he got by accident."

Olivia knew these names. It took her a while, but she was sure of it. This man, Alexander von Masterno, was Nyx's uncle.

"Nyx is a wonderful girl! Don't you badmouth her," Olivia yelled out.

Alexander seemed to be so surprised, he even forgot to try and look down on people as he looked Olivia directly in the face.

"Now how do you know my dear old niece by name?"

"I-"

Olivia was sweating. Did she say things she should not have said?

"She's a friend," Steven replied casually. "A good friend of ours. We met last summer, spent a few weeks together, and went our separate ways. No idea where she is now."