- Roxie's POV -
I am sitting in a stadium that looks like a Colosseum. Except, none of the buildings was damaged. This elliptical place is called the amphitheater or by its original name, the Flavian Amphitheater. This is a place to watch the show as well as to fight with the students.
It is said that this stadium is built to train the students in order to expose their true power.
I don't know if it's true or not, all I see are people trying to be stronger. Their pride is huge than their side of humanity. It is depicted well on their faces as they watched their opponents knocked out on the ground.
~⧫~
My surroundings are densely packed with people watching the matches.
The girls who were watching beside me, told me all the names of the contestants. Sadly, I couldn't easily remember their names. But, the important thing is I know who will I deal with later, right?
I'm just going to use my senses to guess who the people are in the match.
The match was almost over when the winner knocked out his opponent and raised his hand while screaming. His opponent was lying on the ground unconscious, as his body was bleeding everywhere. Many spectators then stood up cheering for the winner.
I swallowed hard as I thought if I had to stand with my first opponent someday in the middle of this match. What will be their reactions if I lose?
I can't imagine that.
I can't imagine it at all.
As in Rome when the gladiator's match was held, a lot of the spectators wildly screamed. They were cheering when one of the gladiators had won, and the other gladiator was almost dead -- real dead. They didn't care who would lose as long as you have a winner. Then the match would end fairly.
I couldn't imagine if it were to happen to me.
This time in the arena, the competitors I saw were people with tremendous power. They beat up their opponents senselessly.
If the match kept going as the bleeding opponent still managed to rise, perhaps they would be dead.
Luckily, the match did not badly injure the people.
But leaving them with a broken bone, a little wounded, then yes.
Just as the WWE rules, it will be counted 10 seconds before the opponent is declared a K.O.
I watched this tournament with the girls. Their reaction to this afternoon's tournament was the same as I did, initially surprised and progressively transformed into horror.
Why do we have such a practical match? I don't understand any of this in my new school.
It's like asking for an early death.
"Alright, the previous match is over. Now we move on to the next match that will be done by our Fire Prince, Demitri!!!" The host announced while pointing towards the entrance to the arena.
The crowd cheered more extreme than usual.
I don't know who this Demitri is and I'm going to ask Frey who is sitting right beside me.
"Frey, who is Demitri?" I asked her.
Frey turned her head, she looked at me in confusion.
"What??" She brought her face closer while narrowing her eyes at me.
"Who is Demitri ?!" I shouted.
When she understood what I was asking, she brought her mouth to my ear while covering her side mouth with her left hand.
"We can't talk about him carelessly here," she whispered.
She then looked around to check if anyone heard them. However, the situation was safe when she saw the people were still busy shouting for Demitri.
She then continued, "He is the Crown Prince of the Ederis Kingdom, known as the Fire Kingdom. He's also in one of the popular groups that Livy told you yesterday. His name is Demetrius Nikolai Estevan Douglas. His power is an element of fire, currently he's the second youngest master of it after his father,"
She continued again, "And... he's right over there," Frey whispered as she pointed to the arena.
Then I saw a male figure about 185cm tall, dressed in a black leather jacket, plain black t-shirt, black jeans ripped at the knees, and Reyl Rockmantic Black shoes.
Then, I stared at his face, which was lined with strong jaws, messy black hair, sharp nose, and amber eyes that were like a fire. If I want to be honest, he sure is handsome at the level of an ancient Greek god.
I can't deny that with his face and lean body. Who knows what he has underneath those clothes, I can't go into more body detail because I haven't seen the inside---
Shoot, I don't mean it like that!
What am I thinking?!
I groaned, 'Ugh, forget it,'
I shook my head, blinked, and then looked back at the arena.
Suddenly the owner of those amber eyes looked at me.
I blinked my eyes twice to see if he really saw me - or the person behind me, I looked back to see a boy was screaming excitedly, making my ears throb with pain.
Then I turned my head back to the arena and saw he was still looking at me, placing both hands in his jeans. I furrowed my brows.
'What is wrong with that guy?'
I patted Frey's hand beside me while still looking at Demitri.
"Frey, why is he looking at me?"
Frey looked at me in confusion then looked where my eyes were headed. She then saw Demitri having an eye-to-eye contest with me.
"What the heck?"
Frey squinted her eyes, then suddenly Demitri broke our eye contest and continued walking to the center of the arena.
'He's so weird,' I thought irritably.
"Roxie, you just went against rule number one that Livy talked about," Frey whispered near my ear in a worried tone.
"What would happen if someone looked him in the eye?" I asked in a whisper to Frey in surprise.
"He would -"
Suddenly Frey and I suddenly had to turn our attention to the arena. As the sound of the air horn was heard again with a loud sound, indicating the opposing player was about to enter.
"Let's welcome our opposing player to Prince Demitri, Hollow Nighthawk !!!"
I saw a thin boy walking into the middle of the arena at the far end of the opposite entrance. He's dressed in shiny black leather with a mask-like, a, um, a hawk. His clothes are dark and very tight, he lives up to his character name.
'What a strange name,' I thought.
The people around laughed at him immediately. To my left, only Jessie was laughing at him, the other girls were silent. I don't want to be quick to make judgments when I don't know the ability of his powers.
"Well, this match will start in ..."
The audience also followed chanting a countdown. Frey and the others just sitting there watching. Except, Jessie was the most self-excited.
"5 ..."
"4 ..."
"3 ..."
"2 ..."
"1 ..."
The old church bell sounds, indicating the start of the match.
The Nighthawk ran headfirst towards Demitri. He took out long claws from his fingers. His eyes also turned red, forming into slit eyes.
Demitri remained where he was, unmoved. He continued to wait until the Nighthawk came to him. When the Nighthawk got close to Demitri's face, he tried to scratch his face. However, Demitri bent down and kicked his leg casually, and the man fell down.
People once again laughed at him.
The Nighthawk rose again and attempted to claw Demitri's body. However, it still didn't work because Demitri is good at dodging. He did it for five times, the result is the same. I'm starting to feel sorry for that person.
The Nighthawk was getting tired of repeating the same move. He finally stopped to catch his breath.
At the same time, Demitri took the perfect timing, he quickly slipped behind the Nighthawk, then held both his hands, and hit him in the neck. The Nighthawk then fell unconscious.
And the countdown time to end the match starts. Everyone cheered in joy as they followed chanting the countdown together.
"10 ..."
"9 ..."
"8 ..."
"7 ..."
"6 ..."
"5 ..."
"4 ..."
"3 ..."
"2 ..."
"1 ..."
"K.O !!!"
The crowd cheered again because Demitri defeated his opponent so easily.
I sighed, feeling bored because I didn't see anything interesting in this round. I told Frey that I had to go to the toilet. Slowly, I walked sideways between the people who stood by the barrier. And I was finally relieved to reach the women's toilet.
A while later, I finished my business in the toilet then walked out into the empty corridor, where no single person went to the toilet for normal reasons like me. They are still busy watching the tournament. Their voices cheering in the background could be heard, echoed on the building's walls.
I kept walking looking down while thinking about my mother's words. I should set my goal to find my father here, and digging up any information there is about him. I can't be careless. But, where could I get the source of the information? Beatrice?
I wondered if I should just ask her.
Suddenly I was hit by a wall, which made me fall backward with my butt dropped to the floor first. I automatically stood up again and brushed the dust off my jeans.
"Hey, watch your way. Don't you have eyes?" asked someone angrily in front of me.
Then I saw Prince Demitri's figure standing before me as he glares at me.
'Damn, why of all people it has to be him.' I cursed in my head.
"S-sorry," I said without looking at him in the eye.
"Tch, all girls are the same. You purposely bumped into me to get my attention, didn't you?" he asked coldly.
Somehow the question bothers me. I boldly looked back at his amber eyes that I had previously participated in an eye-to-eye contest with him in the arena.
"Excuse me?? How could I suddenly bumped into you just to try to get your attention? Where did you get that theory? Dude, we just met!"
I was furious with him who judged me carelessly. How dare he compared me with most of the girls in this school.
He scoffed, "Well, aren't you the same as them? Kinds like you make me sick,"
I gaped my mouth at him.
'H-how dare him?!'
"Oh, you were so brave to stare at me earlier. Be grateful I still gave you a chance to live," He said as he walked closer to my ear, then walked off to the toilet.
I clenched both my hands, I truly don't accept being judged like that. Then, I quickly turned around and walked towards him who was still walking. Then, I lunged at him.
He fell facedown, while I crushed him above.
"You. Are. Being. So. Disrespectful. To. Women," I said one by one each word while whacking his head.
He then turned around and tried to put me down.
"Get off me, you little girl. Before I used violence to you," he growled while holding my hands.
"Try me then! I'm not scared!" I challenged him.
He snorted, "Suit yourself," His amber eyes then lit up.
His fists let out a fire and he forcefully tried to grab my hand, then attempted to get rid of me that's on top of him.
May I just say, my hands are freaking burning!
I can feel my wrists starting to turn red. But I'm still trying to fight it. My sweat started to pour out of my head. I tried to hold back, but my anger remained.
This kid needs to be beaten properly, so he can know that not all women are the same.
I kept pushing his grips so I could hit his head again.
I suddenly felt my whole body turn cold. As if there is a fresh air washing through it. I also felt that my wrists were no longer sore from the burn.
I saw Demitri's eyes flinch as he was surprised to see mine.
I don't know what he saw from my eyes, but I know one thing's for sure that I really want to beat this son of a gun.
Both of our hands seemed to be evaporating, emitting black smoke like a fire ignited with water.
"What are you?"
I chuckled wickedly, "Me? I'm your worst nightmare, sweetheart,"
'I know what I'm saying is cringe-worthy. Shut up.'
Before I nearly brought my fist to his head, we were already stopped by someone's voice.
~ • ~