MOONLIGHT NINJA

MOONLIGHT NINJA CHAPTER 9

Chapter 9

The arena was situated at the right side of the market, it was about a few kilometers away from the imperial palace.

High rectangular-shaped stone walls, painted in ivory, surrounded the arena. The massive entrance was made of heavy wood sculpted with the big imperial dragon emblem, and was painted in orange except for the emblem which was done in gold. The big knobs were dragon's head made of brass. A multi-inclined gabled roof, made of blue ceramic tiles, covered just the width of the huge entrance doors.

The arena was very huge with several bleachers that could accommodate more than a thousand people. It was divided into four wings: North, South, East and West. Each wing had a tower where a guard was assigned to look for any discord except the East wing tower. If any disturbance was observed, the guard assigned in the tower would hit the big gong to warn the other guards. There were several rooms in the arena namely: book-keeping room where the monies and lists were kept, two arsenals, warriors' lair and the guards' chamber.

The East wing tower, the biggest, was made for the exclusive use of the Emperor and his officials. It was the only tower that had a roof which was done in pagoda-style though each layer had carvings that looked like dragon's claws at the tips. The walls were painted bright red and the entablatures were gilded dragon's head.

The main attraction of the arena was the area where the warriors fought - the battle stage. It was a big circular stage made of stone bricks with red marble tiles on top. The size was about 3 feet long with a radius of 1 kilometer.

As opposition to its main use, the arena connoted a wide sense of architectural grandeur primarily to please the Emperor. If not for the battle stage, you couldn't feel any suggestion of violence. In fact, the way the sun's ray kissed the ground almost made it a picturesque scene - a paradoxical implication.

The excited people stood from their bleachers ignoring the heat that was furiously licking their skin. As the gong was hit again followed by the sounds of the firecrackers, screams of anticipation grew three pitches high.

The people who did not make it to the registration hastened in finalizing their illegal bets. Others were more of spectators probably due to lack of funds or distaste for gambling or, maybe, for mere curiosity of knowing who would become the next champion; but some watched primarily to divert themselves from their patterned drudgery. And, let us not forget, some people came to take advantage of the event to thrive in their dirty and nasty businesses.

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By the time that the sound of the firecrackers stopped, Jinzhou Lu Wang Wei climbed on the battle stage after his name was called. The first thing he did was to bow respectfully to the Emperor and his officials at the direction of the magnificent East wing tower; the Emperor, in turn, raised his hand to acknowledge Jinzhou Lu Wang Wei. After the Emperor's acknowledgement, he did the customary warrior's bow to the cheering people.

Yan Mei Ling was extremely shocked to find out who Jinzhou Lu Wang Wei was. She could never forget that face. How could she, when he was the arrogant and reckless man who almost killed her with his horse at the town market. The anger she felt for him during that almost tragic day came back, making her feel desperate to bring him down to his knees.

'I'm going to taint your seemingly immaculately honor', she remembered the promise she made to herself. But she needed to control the anger that had gripped her heart or else it would blind her and, eventually, distract her focus.

Yan Mei Ling was so absorbed in her thoughts that she did not hear the announcer calling for her name.

"Where is the ninja boy? What took him so long?" someone from the crowd fulminated impatiently. The other people become frustrated and started shouting for the Ninja Boy to come out.