The Lucky Ones

Chapter Fifty-Two: The Tournament.

I walked over to the weapon rack and grabbed two katanas. I strapped them onto my back and pulled them out, taking only a quick second to glimpse at the detailed designs on the handles. The handles were gold and were securely welded to the silver blades that were sharper than a cunning tongue. I adjusted them in my hands and got a feel for how light they were.

I got into a defensive position as the first enemy popped up in the Arena. It seemed almost like a video game. The opponents flickered and showed up, each in their own attacking positions. The first enemy was just a random woman that I had never met.

I walked up to her and swung one of the blades towards her neck, decapitating her within an instant. More random strangers appeared. I had eliminated all of them with no problems. Once they died, their bodies collapsed and flickered out of sight. I heard a drum beating an low, intense rhythm.

"Let the next stage begin." Ciano stated. I raised a confused brow. There were stages?

A circle of people popped up around me. They all looked familiar. I gasped slightly in shock to see that they were people from school. I knew what this stage was all about.

Seeing if you could defeat the ones you grew up around, friends or strangers.

Amongst the people from my past, I saw Janette, Steven, and Mikey from Harvard's campus. The ones from 9th grade. Even though I watched them die, it still hurt to know that I had to be the one to kill them. Well, kill their clones, anyway.

Each clone was holding some sort of weapon. Some were holding spears, some were holding axes, and others were holding other tools of death. I blinked a couple of times and tightly gripped the sword handles. All I had to do was kill them and the stage would be another step closer to being over.

I took a small deep breath and swung at all of the people. They were weak, I defeated them all in under a minute. Humans really were the weakest of all creatures. But it hurt to "kill" the people I grew up around. The drum sounded again. The next stage was beginning.

The oncoming stage was seeing if I could face some of my fears. I was not ready for it.

The swords in my hands disappeared, and I was teleported to the entrance side of the Arena. The whole bottom level filled up with those stupid puppets from the Saw movies. I was somehow able to overcome that fear and make my way through the crowd of creepy dolls, reaching the other side and retrieving a weapon that would wipe them out within seconds.

After the puppets were eliminated, the audience roared. I grinned slightly and grabbed a battle axe, preparing for the next opponent.

A giant tarantula that took up half the Arena's bottom level appeared on the ground. I became paralyzed standing up. I was completely petrified by spiders of any sort. Especially Carrolla, the biggest spider in all of Kinisha. She lived somewhere in the East, and I never thought about going to pay her a visit.

I shot my eyes up to Sans and the others in the crowd. He, along with the rest of my friends, were looking at me with hope. I clenched my jaw and let adrenaline take over my body. I wasn't going to let a spider ruin my chance of becoming the Queen of Kinisha, the Goddess of Light.

I gave a battlecry and broke out of my paralysis, charging at the ginormous spider. I slammed the axe against her back right leg, and she let out an ear-shattering screech. The crowd cringed and plugged their ears, including Sans. Carrolla turned around, giant tarantula feet stomping around, kicked the axe out of my hand, but I ran and slid under her abdomen. I stopped right under her, and I used magic to force a spear into my hand. Once it was in my grasp, I thrust the spearhead into the arachnid's abdomen and rolled out from under her. She screeched louder than she did before and eventually fell onto the floor. I wiped my brow and smiled.