章節 17: Round Two
Hearing the clamouring of guests entering the arena, Alice glanced past the gates and watched the influx of people slowly filling the arena seats. Now that she wasn't dropped into the arena immediately, she took the time to observe the VIP decks that hung above the arena.
It was connected by four bridges that stretched to the edge of the coliseum as she guessed there was possibly four rooms or one large room for many guests.
'Are they not afraid about their safety? What if the beast jumps up and breaks one of the bridges? If that happens the whole deck would crumble down.' Alice thought to herself as she didn't know why they would make such an illogical set up.
As the guests filled the seats, a familiar voice started to introduce the event as the main attraction appeared in the middle of the arena.
Shadows flickered under the spotlights before gathering in the centre. A man slowly crawled out and glanced towards the audience before giving a small bow.
He wore a large tattered robe that covered his entire body with golden chains around his arms. A variety of trinkets and pouches could be seen hidden around his body.
Raising his arms from under his robes, he revealed his forearms as black marking slowly revealed themselves before solidifying as a pair of elaborate Sigils that covered his entire forearm.
*CRACK!
Breaking through his skin, handles crafted from his own bones could be seen as he pulled out a pair of daggers. Once the daggers were removed, his skin started to repair itself and returned to normal.
'Is one of his powers to create daggers from his bones? Doesn't look like his actual bones are missing. Maybe it's making a set of duplicates.' Alice wondered to herself while the man demonstrated more of his talents.
Just like Lars, he is also a 3 Sigil bearer with his second ability seemingly to be the ability to increase his speed in shadows and move through them.
The third ability was unseen as Alice assumed it to be something that takes affect within the opponent.
'His power to move through shadows reminds me of the man who freed me… I wonder how many Sigils he has? If he could send me to the Abyss with ease then he should rather powerful.' Alice thought to herself.
Turning to her side, Alice noticed Lilia having a worried expression.
"Something wrong?"
"Hm? Oh just a little. If the main attraction is someone specialised in assassination, it might be a bit more annoying for us. Since that means he wouldn't have the power to go head to head with the main beast. If the beast turns its attention elsewhere during the fight, some of the slaves will be in trouble." Lilia frowned as Alice agreed with her worries.
Since he seemed to be an assassin, revealing himself would be throwing away his biggest advantage.
'Either way, his goal is to kill the Twilight Hunter, it's not something we should be concerned about. Our concern is the small beasts the coliseum chose for us. We have no idea what beasts they are. Lilia got some info but it's still uncertain.' Alice thought to herself.
Announcing the Assassins' name as Raine, the announcer called for all the slaves to enter the arena.
The sound of gears turning could be heard as the metal gates dropped down, allowing the slaves to enter the arena.
Looking at each other, both Alice and Lilia nodded as they made their way inside.
Their first goal is to find an advantageous location away from the others. If they group up with too many people, it's asking for trouble. There's no guarantee that one of the others wouldn't push them from behind or use them as meat shields.
It's better for the two of them to rely on each other without others.
With the arena now transformed into somewhat of a labyrinth with splitting paths, tall walls and dead ends, the two eventually decided on hiding near the edges. It reduces the areas where they could be attacked from while the other slaves seemed to have split into their own groups.
There was a total of 30 slaves within the arena this time, not including the main attraction. But considering the beasts were going to be harder this round, it was a way to stop it from being a one-sided massacre.
With all the contestants ready inside the arena, the announcer signalled for the beasts to be released as Raine blended with the shadows and disappeared from the arena.
He wanted to take the main beast by surprise so it wouldn't be good if the beast saw him at the start.
Crouching near the edge of the walls, Alice poked her head out so that she could see what kind of beast they were going against.
One by one, metal cages were dropped down into the arena and there seemed to be around 20 small cages and one large cage, meaning each beast aside from the main one had to handle more than one slave on average.
As the cage doors opened with a slam, Alice was able to see what kind of beast they had to fight against.
They had long elongated bodies with a large muscular torso. Dark grey muscles similar to what she saw with the Abyss Hounds. Connected to the torso was two large humanoid arms with claws on the end and bones erupting from their forearms up to their elbows. Aside from the arms, they had 3 pairs of insectoid legs attached to their serpentine bodies that ended with a tail.
A myriad of dark crystals pierced out of their back that hummed with a purple glow. On their head was a large skeletal helmet that didn't have any openings for their eyes. A forked tongue flicked out from the gaps of the skull as Alice swallowed her saliva.
"Do you think you can kill in one go?" Alice asked as Lilia was behind her.
"With that much armour? No. Unless we can get a hit on the stomach area, it'll be hard for me to kill them." Lilia frowned as this was different from what she heard. The guards whispered rumours of a beast without armour and two tails, not whatever this was.
Letting out a hissing sound as though communicating with each other, they slowly clawed their way towards the labyrinth of tall walls.
Meanwhile, the large cage opened and the beast within caused Alice to furrow her brows.
She was somewhat familiar with what the Twilight Hunter looks like but this did not match the head scientist's description of it.
It was much bigger than she expected and white chitin armour covered it from head to toe. Large red eyes, scythe like legs that was dyed a deep red at the edges and a large red pattern that covered its entire body.
On its back, a myriad of crystals could be seen similar to the earlier beasts that had appeared.
'Apparently, a normal Twilight Hunter should have dark armour. Is this one a mutation? A variant?' Alice thought to herself.
From above, the announcer explained that the beast was indeed a Twilight Hunter while the smaller beasts were called Dusk Reapers.
"Say Alice, didn't you say the Twilight Hunter had dark armour? Why is this one white and red?" Lilia asked. Sweat covered her palms as she felt nervous just being in the presence of such a beast.
"Don't know. Maybe a variant of Twilight Hunter." Alice shook her head. She didn't know what kind of power this new variant would bring but it didn't give her a good feeling, especially when the Assassin was now missing from the arena.
While Alice and Lilia were contemplating their options, the Twilight Hunter narrowed its beady eyes and scanned its gaze across the arena. It could tell there was another presence watching it from the shadows but it didn't know where. However, it's attention was dragged away by a strange aura it was feeling. Something that could also be a threat towards it.
Snapping its head towards Alice's location, it let out a low screech as Alice felt a chill down her spine.
Tapping her legs a few times, several Dusk Reapers started to make their way towards Alice's location.
Seeing their shadows flickering past the ground, Alice knew were in trouble and grabbed Lilia by the wrist.
"RUN!" She shouted out in a panic.
*BANG!!!
Just as they moved, the body of a Dusk Reaper dropped down from above right where they were a moment ago.
*HISSS!!!
Letting out a threatening hiss, it clawed towards the two of them as Alice turned around with her spear in hand and aimed it towards its mouth.
It didn't expect Alice's retaliation as emerald blood splattered across the walls. Swinging its head, Alice was flung up as she was unable to keep it restrained.
"ALICE!" Shouting out in surprise, Lilia gritted her teeth and narrowed her eye towards the beast.
Crouching down low, she dashed towards its neck while it was trying to pull the spear out. Cutting the beast once in the armpit, she tore through one of its tendons before stabbing her spare dagger under the skull armour it had on its head.
Injured from the sudden attack, it lashed its tail towards Lilia and smacked her towards Alice's location.
Unfortunately, Lilia was unable to retrieve the dagger she left in the beast's head but she didn't care. Sliding on her feet, she ran over to Alice and helped her up.
"Are you okay?" She asked, wanting to make sure Alice wasn't harmed too much.
"Can move. Though rotation is limited." Alice frowned while feeling pain across her torso.
Before they could retrieve their weapons, they watched as two more Dusk Hunters climbed above the walls and turned their heads towards the duo.
Now that it was a three vs two situation, both Alice and Lilia took a step back with a frown on their faces.
It was now harder to retrieve their weapons from the body of the first Dusk Hunter that was still alive.
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