THE SWORD OF EBENEZER

BARBARIA

Not quite far from the circle of the Dark Forest, the forest that isolated the White City from reality  is the home of traders, sadists and barbarians. A place that leaves no room for silence and peace.

CEDRIC'S POV

I looked around and examined the place. It's not like it's my first time to be in this place since I've been here many times. The streets were crowded with people, there's yelling, laughing, screaming and all sort of noise. It's as chaotic as hell. If you are new in that place, you'll probably swear not to come back unless you won't be tempted  by those scarlet women with price tags in their boobs. Then one came to us who's too old for the job. "Hey pretty boy", said the scarlet woman as I and Prim walk down the street. Prim grimaced as if he had eaten a cockroach and said," Excuse me lady, we're not interested." I was amused at his reaction and he continued," So if you don't mind..." while gesturing the woman to make way. The woman made a way for us and we continued walking till we reached the Sports Center. It's a colosseum with two gates. The wide one was situated at the front of the coloseum while the narrow gate was at the back. the wide gate's for the spectators while the narrow gate's for the players or known as 'the warriors". The coloseum was round and was huge and full of people. When we reached there, there was loud yelling and screaming. When we're about to enter a huge, robust black man with an axe on his back blocked our way and demanded, "Trade for identity."..."and here we are again", I muttered to myself as the black man glared at me. Prim frowned at me and looked at the black man and said, " Could you please...". I cut him off before his big mouth could get us into trouble and said," This means that if you're going to enlist as a warrior, you have to trade something in exchange for being a warrior. This "something" would also be your insignia. It's therefore needed that this insignia of yourself is unique from others for you to be identified from them." I said to him as a matter of fact and he said, " Cool"...then he looked the black man straight in the eye and said, "This is the Fire Dagger: the insignia of Primthius, the pulchritudinous warrior." I rolled my eyes at his remark and trade my medallion not wanting to loose my sword. Then he turned to me frowning, " Why did you trade your medallion you idiot, it is worth a sentiment!", he said sarcastically. " Just shut up and get ready for yourself to get killed now that you don't have a mini tiny knife to defend yourself", I said to him cooly.. I walked passed him as I heard him cursed himself.  It's true though that the medallion is a priced possesion of mine. It's a silver medallion with an engraved oak tree  within a triangle. I had it since then and my father once told me not to loose it for one day I'll be needing it. Guess that lucky day is today.

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PRIM'S POV

" Bloody monster!" How could i've been so stupid but let's see, maybe I was not that stupid at all. Who knows, I don't even need a weapon this time to survive. If this turns out to be  a battle of gorgeosness and awesomeness, I say, they better back off before I put them to shame and laugh at their faces!Now I'm smiling to myself like an idiot but NO, I AM NOT AN IDIOT, not even close. That man staring at me is the dickhead or maybe he's not as manly as he looks and he has a thing for me. Nasty, I would rather have spiders and cockroaches on me. Sweet Lord what am I thinking! I looked at him: the black man frowned, "what's yoh problem ma'an, having eyesight problems?" I said walking at him and brushing off  and he yelled at me, "Dick, yoh wish for death to come to yoh. I'm sure yoh won't be comin out alive!" I heard him laughed and he just called me a dick! That man is going to pay. I turned and shouted  back " Is that a threat? Man, this is already my 12th death wish and here I am still a macho. I will get out alive and you better say your prayers now cause after this you'll gonna pay for calling me a BAD WORD." I turned towards the entrance and the noise was getting worse. The crowd's already going frenzy and they haven't seen me yet. " This whole place will gonna go down and they'll wet their pants. This is exciting. I can't wait to see their reaction after my grand entrance", I said my thoughts aloud. I made my entrance and all went quiet.

I always know I am that awesome. I'm a bad man, they were all petrified! Cedric looked and rolled his eyes at me like he had read my thoughts. I looked at him incredulously and said...."Thought it's easy to silence a deafening mad crowd? Well I just did the impossible which would have burned all your calories." He returned an incredulous look and said " You thought they went quiet because you made your entrance?" I could see his holding himself from laughing out loud. I was getting slightly annoyed at Cedric so I looked around and realized that the crowd had been silent for awhile and their attention were fixed on something. It wasn't something, I realized. It was someone whose body was covered with black cloth. It was  a kid to be exact. I can make it out through his small frame.  Then two men came and made him face the gallows. Ropes were tied loosely around his neck and I felt like squeezing those two men with the rope. How cruel and coward, I thought as I gritted my teeth in anger. Then the cloth was remove and HE was a girl that looked wretched and helpless. I blurted out unable to restrain some part of my anger, " Hey you two ugly Frankenstein! why would you just fight like a man, release the girl, let's have a match and who knows you'll get better faces after i print my ass on them!" My voice echoing as silence prevailed then in a sudden the crowd became alive and everone was cheering. I looked at Ced and shouted at him so he can hear me, " She does'nt deserve that. That's so cruel, we need to do something. Be a hero for once Ced!" Ced shouted back to me, " We're in Barbaria Prim, we are in the COLOSSEUM, expect the unexpected!"

There's a picture of the colosseum at the side-------- ------------------------------------------------------------

CEDRIC"S POV

The crowd of people cheered loudly and savagely to us: the warriors. A warrior is a person who enlist to engage in "Trice", a game which has an instant mechanism. There's no fixed process on how the game should be  played. Its rules defend on the kind of challenge and its challenge depend on the game maker's caprice. Somehow,  things remained fixed. The victor will be rewarded with power and the losers who'd survive will be either taken as captives or will be feed to the hungry lions.. Any Victor who fails to follow the rules presented prior to the actual game will be considered a loser despite of technically winning against competitors. The drum started rolling loudly and the crow yelled more savagely without a pause. The "warriors" steped forward, formed a row as the announcer from above officially started the game.