The next two weeks was filled with construction and lots of therapy. For the first time in his life Malcolm felt like his business could actually lead to somewhere. People from Laire village, and the other two villages Bloom and Vineyard village were talking about this new arena. The posters that were generously posted all through their village caught their sight. Some really impatient folks even paid ahead of time to participate in the arena which made Malcolm ecstatic.
On the second try at an Opening day, hundreds of people showed up from the different villages. The opening act was Maryline showing off her proficiency in fire magic which garnered a lot of ooos and ahhhs. There were 5 challenges on this day. the first 4 ended quite anticlimactic but it was still entertaining to watch. The last battle was between Teacher Zen and Solomon. Most people did not expect this fight to last long but against other people expectations, Solomon had a lot of skill. He was not as proficient with metal as Zen and Maryline was with fire but he made it up with his hammer and buff physic.
There were two highlights to the fight. The first was close to the beginning when they both released their auras. Most people knew that Teacher Zen's strength level was at the late stage of E but almost no one knew that Solomon was also a late stage level E power user as well. This caused an uproar 'Wait isn't he a blacksmith, why is he so strong, eh.. even his biceps have biceps ...'After this, many people were anticipating the difficult battle ahead.
As the audience expected, the next hour was a gruesome back and forth between the two Power users. Solomon held the advantage of his hammer and bulky body which reduced the impact of Zen's mostly hand and feet techniques. Zen held his own using his knowledge of martial arts and his almost perfect looking control of the fire elements. Sadly, by the 200th blow, the impact of Solomon's Blacksmith hammer started to put weight on Zen. The second highlight of the battle happened just when the audience thought that Solomon was going to win.
Zen's body started to show a tint of blue. His black eyes turned blue as blue flames condensed into his two arms and blew Solomon out of the rink. The crowd went silent after this. The crowd only started to clap once Zen bowed and left the stage. it was first just a few but soon thunderous roars of shock and adrenaline filled the air. That fight...was epic.
Although Solomon was a little disappointed that Zen had not gone all out from the beginning, he was glad he finally stretched his muscles a bit after being retired for so long.
It was only a matter of days before the hundreds of people that came every week for the arena became thousands of people! After 2 months of business, the Arena was only getting more popular, even people from bigger Towns close to their area started to sneak a glance at what was going on in the villages close to the dark dangerous forest.
It was the first day of the 9th month of the 3016th year. Since it was the start the Libra cycle, everyone expected it to be windy and rainy all month. The children of Laire village would usually feel down on these kinds of months but not today. Today was the day the adventurers of a nearby Town would come back from their 2-month expedition in the dark forest. At the time of their expedition, the arena had just opened and the children who would usually see the adventurers off were preoccupied. Due to change in weather, the arena took a week off to begin building a better shelter for their audience and competitors.
Just when these kids were preparing to mop inside all week, they got the news that the adventurers were coming to Laire again. Without delay the Laire children told their friends, and their friends told their friends and before you know it, children from 5 to 18 range were piled up in front of the village entrance. Right in the front of this blob of snot, hormones and screaming was Maryline and Elijah. After just 4 months, Maryline had advanced to Level G4 while Elijah had just broken through to G7 a week ago.
These siblings have long been renowned by all the kids as the Fire brother and sister. Their status was almost as high as the senior high schoolers and they were about as strong as them too. Way in the back of the line was Don reading a book about management. After helping Malcolm open the Tri village arena, he was made the main designer and co-manager of the arena. Although he did not do much more then help give Malcolm low self-esteem every week, he got a paycheck every month which he gives to his parents for safe keeping.
As Don was starting to struggle to read his book, his arm was grabbed by someone from the crowd. It did not take long before a wave of children started to get hit by Don's dragged body.
"owie that hurt"
"Hey! What are you doing?"
"Who just hit me?"
The children were growing restless until Elijah and Don popped out of the swarm. Don was still a little dizzy from the ride. Elijah on the other hand, just patted the dust off like it was just a thing he did naturally. The kids quietened down when they saw who it was. 'Oh it's the Flame siblings brother' 'He came today? did not even notice...''I wish Elijah and Maryline where my siblings'
Although many of the children did not really consider Don as much of anything, they could not help but be jealous of him. Don only glanced at them for a bit before looking at his brother's arrogant face.
"Yo squirtle, if you were having trouble getting to the front all you had to do was scream, GREAT BIG BROTHER OF LAIRE VILLAGE. SAVE YOUR POOR DEFENSELESS AND FRAGILE LITTLE BROTHER FROM THE MOB OF CHILDREN! If you do that, I'll be there in a jiffy" Elijah than winked at Don and stood in a very cool pose.
Don just looked at his brother flabbergasted 'Maybe his brains have finally turned to just muscles' he thought. The other children were also speechless. 'This trait of his, if only he could erase it then maybe he would be more popular' many teenagers thought.
Before they could delve too deep into this, they started hearing countless horse footsteps. They had finally arrived. The adventurers had arrived. subconsciously they started to stiffen in anticipation.
The kids started screaming in excitement. Although this is not the first time that adventurers had stayed in Laire village, this is one of the first times that really big town adventurers came to Laire Village. the last time this happened, most of them couldn't even name all 12 continents.
As the shadows became more visible, the first thing the kids noticed was the huge silhouette of a black knight suit. This giant knight also had a huge shield. As the shield became more visible, the kids notice that there was a symbol on it. it was a circle with a black line in the middle and a fancy bolded "B" on the right side of the circle. They did not know what the B meant but since it was bolded, it must be important then.
After the children stopped eyeing black silhouette, they noticed the 11 other knights coming their way. Other than the black knight with a huge shield, there was also a visible figure of a women in a black armor robe and between these two was a knight with a finely made sword and blue armor on. the other knight wore grey armor and sort of faded in the back ground. After years of watching knights come in and out of their village they could guess that the 2 black knights and the blue knight were the leaders of this operation.
The Blue armored knight who was leading the group only stopped his horse when he was 1 meter from the kids. He then made an arm motion which stopped the rest shortly after. Without delay he got off his horse and took off his helmet. It would not be a lie to say that all the girls in that very instant fell in love and fell in love hard.
Mysterious grey eyes, golden brown hair curled to perfection and an ever alluring smile. If it were not for their last strand of will power, they would have all fainted from shock.
As he saw some of the girl's reactions he could not help but chuckle. This happened to much for him to care at this point. For some that chuckle had pierced true their last defenses and many had fallen that day. Without even batting an eye, the blue knight started to speak.
"Hello children of Laire village, I am Bart Beach the grandson of Beach town's number one founder. I think we may have arrived a little earlier than expected from our expedition. Is your Chief here? I would like to discuss a few things with him"
After hearing this a few girls decided to get Chief Mayweather. Anything was better than staring at the sun for too long. Most of the kids looked at him in awe, an adventurer, a noble and still fresh looking. Most of the kids became relaxed once they saw his face. Unlike the others, the usually relaxed Don tensed up.