Rise in the Arena (Part 1)

Chapter 7

Rise in the Arena

Andrei Gavrila

Chapter VII

            The bells rang throughout the city. Everyone gathered for the first fight. The seats were full and there wasn’t enough space for everyone. Mendrax walked the quiet halls of his personal mansion inside the Arena. He knew how was going to fight in the first game, so did all of his trusted officials. He met his two other advisors and they walked together to the balcony. His advisors sat on the chairs and he walked towards the edge of the balcony. He spoke loudly in order to be heard.

            “Welcome to the first fight of the Arena. Today we are going to see two teams fight each other. One of them will lose and the other will win, or in a special case they will both lose.” he went on, he talked about the rules and the training the competitors had.

            Biol was full of stress. He felt the sweat on his forehead. His left hand was holding the sword’s grip tightly, his sword was still in its hilt at his side but he was ready to use it. Sicarius was next to him. He wasn’t so scared but he was ready to punch someone. They were following a guard. He was escorting them. They walked up some stairs and then they were outside.

            The Arena seemed different than the day before, or was it because of the angle. Biol and Sicarius started looking for two empty seats in the officials’ part of the Arena. They were outside but the part of the slope they were on was close to the tower with Mendrax’s balcony.

            They heard Mendrax talk. He was talking about the rules. He finished and sat down. A gate to the Arena opened and a chariot arrived. Riding it was the man who stood on the box with a list yesterday. He was wearing a blue plover with red vertical stripes, he had a short mustache and his hair was black. He had a different list today. His chariot stopped in the middle.

            “As for the first fight we picked the competitors randomly. What we have is Jungle versus Lowlands. Lowlands versus Jungle. Good luck.” His chariot left the Arena and two other gates opened. The two people who represented Jungle came out, they looked the same like yesterday the only difference was that the one with the scarf had his scarf over his mouth and nose. From the other gate the people representing Lowlands came. They were two men. One of them was in blue pants with a white shirt and a brown vest over and a cap over his skinny head, his weapon was a spear and a shield. The other one had a chainmail with a brown vest over it, his weapon was a scimitar and a one hand crossbow, and he also had a cap over his head.

            The Jungle, it was in the west. It was a large tropical forest with a long river passing through it. People have settled there and built castles but the original inhabitants still lived in huts and trees. They were used to hunting and running fast and they were also known for being extremely agile.

            The Lowlands were in the south of the Jungle. They were closer to the center. The people there had houses made out of wood and stone and they were mostly farmers. Those lands were well known for having some of the best homemade foods and drinks.

            The fight started with the hearing of the trumpets followed by some drums. The two teams were far away from each other, around one hundred meters. They walked slowly towards each other and one of the people from the Jungle took out his bow. He armed it and aimed at one of the Lowlanders. He fired but the Lowlander guarded himself with his shield.

            Fifty meters was the distance now. The Jungle man with two knifes started sprinting towards the Lowlander with the scimitar. They closed on each other really fast. When they were ten meters away the Lowlander fired his crossbow. The arrow flew through the air really fast and it ripped the Jungle man’s undershirt. The Jungle man sprinted and slid at the bottom of the Lowlander. While sliding on the ground he used his knifes to cut the man’s leg. The Lowlander screamed in pain and fell on one knee. Then the Jungle man went behind him and placed his knifes at the man’s throat. The audience gasped. The Jungle man placed his knifes back in their hilt and walked away from the headless corpse.