Legend Of Pandora

Chapter VI: A Brawl Of Blood

The time has come, and the battle for the role of lord has begun. Shae stuck to the plan, and immediately went to the left side of the arena. She had a Longsword at her hands, which was not typical to Bloodmixian females, especially her. She despised fighting.
In her opinion, fighting is the least creative and effective way of war.
Brutality was in the nature of mankind, though, and most people disagreed with her.
Heeshe never expressed his opinion clearly, but Shae knew he just didn’t want to argue with her. Heeshe wasn’t a good fighter, but he secretly wanted and aspired to be one.

Speaking of Heeshe, he was loyal to the plan as well. He went to the right edge of the village, and hoped the plan would work.

“Hello, monkey.” Said a voice behind him. It was Leone, one of Ratte’s chosen.
His golden fur shined in the sunlight. The heat was unbearable this day, and You could see Leone was sweating.
The two took out their swords.
“I’m sorry I’ll have to kill you.” He said.
Heeshe lifted his sword.
“Not sorry for you, though.” He continued. “For your twin, Shae. She will be so sad when she hears you died..”
Leone lifted his sword, too.

“Don’t worry, I’ll kill her before she knows.”

Leone ran directly towards Heeshe. He swung his sword, but Heeshe blocked it.
“Enough with the trash talk, Leone.” He said.  “If you want to kill me, fight.”
“With pleasure.” Answered Leone.
Heeshe tried to strike, but Leone dodged and attacked.
Luckily Heeshe managed to block again.

Leone kicked Heeshe and pushed him to the ground. Leone attacked, but Heeshe blocked once again. Just barely, though. The tip of  Leone’s sword was inches away from Heeshe’s face.

Leone pushed his sword harder, and Heeshe’s grip was weakening. His hands were sweaty and the handle was about to slide off.
Leone kicked Heeshe’s hand and his sword fell to the ground. Heeshe tried to take it back, but Leone got his foot on top of his arm so he could not move it.

Leone raised his sword, preparing to kill Heeshe—but then a sword had gone through his belly and went out the other side.
It was Wolfe. It was quite embarrassing that he saw him defeated like that, but he was thankful for Wolfe saving his life.

Heeshe took his sword and got up. “Thanks, sir.”

* * *

Shae was walking around the left edge of the village. She looked in all directions—Expecting an enemy to strike. She was very nervous. This was her first actual fight- and she would die if her team failed.

And if her team did win- Heeshe would die.
Then, she heard a sound to her right. Her teammate, Quara, was running away from someone.
It was Ratte himself. Shae knew that he is not very good at fighting, but she and Quara wasn’t very good as well.
Quara attacked. Ratte blocked and walked backwards, then attacked.
Quara missed the block, and the sword hit her. She fell to the dirty, blood-soaked soil and was unable to move. Shae took Quara’s sword and now had two weapons. Ratte swung his sword at her and she blocked with one sword and attacked with the other.
The arm holding the blocking sword was aching. The pain of the blow went through her arm like a wave of suffering. Though she managed to hit Ratte and he fell. She lifted the two swords in victory, and slashed Ratte’s head off his neck.

One candidate down. She thought. It was the first time she had taken a human’s life, but she didn’t have enough time to think of it. “Good job, Shae.” Said Phoenix, who was watching the fight. “Why do you stay here, though? The other side has much more people to fight.” She questioned.
“My brother I there, too. If I see him, I’ll have to fight him to the death.”  She confessed.

“I see.” Phoenix replied. “Though you know the rules. If you are not willing to fight, you will be executed.”

“You are right, I am sorry.” Shae said.
She ran to the right side, and had a plan. She would bait the fighters to her side, and hope Heeshe wasn’t among them.

* * *

Haeie has heard that his favorite candidate, Ratte, has been killed.
He thought that if Phoenix won, their clan will end up starving to death or slain by the serpents because they will be unwilling to fight.

On the other hand, if Wolfe won, he would likely be cast out of the village and fed to the wolves, because Wolfe will likely think they can spare one doctor in order to not starve.

If Ratte does not win, no one does, He thought.
Haeie snuck to the lord’s place. It was not guarded, like he expected. They wouldn’t think someone will try to get in there while a brutal brawl was happening all across the village.

Haeie had a plan. He had to stop the brawl before someone won it. The best way to do so, was activating Pandora’s box. He knew how dumb that sounded. It could destroy the village, but so do Phoenix or Wolfe if they win.

He found it in a vault , next to the lord’s seat, which was a leather chair, with edges made out of pure gold. He had the urge to try and sit on it, but he would not waste time.

Pandora’s box was heavier than he had expected. It was made out of iron, and unlike a usual box, had two different openings. One at the side and one at the top. It was much heavier than anything that could fit in such a small box. It almost seemed as if it was larger from the inside.

After looking at it for a while, he slowly started opening it. He was extremely nervous, though it had to be done. He opened it.

A wave of fire  burst out of it, and Haeie could feel the blood in him boiling. The building collapsed, and Haeie passed away from the heat and the hundreds of tiny pieces of concrete falling on him.

What have I done?  Was his last thought, before he turned into ash from the heat released from the box.

* * *

Heeshe was fighting Ocop of Phoenix’s team. He was a tough one to fight, and almost killed Heeshe on multiple occasions.

Suddenly, a sword was thrown in the air and cut through Ocop’s head like a spear. Shae did it. Heeshe and Shae looked at each other for a few seconds, silently.

Shae looked over at Ocop’s body, and realized she had killed her own teammate, which is a betrayal to Phoenix and an action she would be executed for.

“What are you doing in the right side of the arena?” Heeshe asked, and was slightly mad at Shae for coming there.

“Saving you.” She replied. “Also, Phoenix noticed what I was doing and I would have been executed for it.”

“You are going to have to fight me now.” Heeshe said.

They both lifted their swords in order to fight, but couldn’t do it.
Suddenly, Wolfe appeared next to Heeshe.

“What’s the matter? Fight her.” He said.

“She’s my sister”, Heeshe said
“Teaming with an enemy would get you both executed.” Said Wolfe.
“Either both of you die, or only one does.”

Both of the twins knew Wolfe was right, but they still couldn’t do it.
Wolfe attacked Shae himself. He hit her in the face and knocked her down to the ground, took out her sword and lifted his in order to kill her.

Suddenly, Heeshe noticed something strange in the horizon. A huge fire, near the lord’s house.
“Uhh… Wolfe? You might want to see this.” He said.
“Don’t try to distract me, boy.” Wolfe replied.
The lord’s house collapsed, and made a loud impact noise.
Wolfe looked up from Shae to see what was going on.
“What the hell is happening?” He asked Heeshe.
“I don’t know.” He replied.

Heeshe helped Shae get up and the three rushed to the fire to see what has happened.