"CHERRRRRRRRIII!"
I finally found her, but she bruised so badly probably because of the "training" in this place-
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Before I could even finish completing my thoughts a sudden throbbing sensation was coming from my hands to see them missing...they sliced off cleanly.
"GET YOUR FILTHY MONGREL HANDS OFF THE SECOND PRINCESS!" said the announcer atop the stage.
Second Princess?! I stood there baffled by what's going on. Cherri never mentioned that she was a princess of some sort. Well if I considered her sister Ellaine to be the real Princess then there's a possibility that Cherri is the second Princess. After clearing the jumbled-up thoughts in my mind someone used a man catcher which is a stick with a circled end to grab someone's neck, but this man catcher had spikes inside the circle so it pierced my neck and I was knocked out in a few seconds. When I awoke everything was dark and I felt as if my body was stuck to a chair with fasteners. To my dismay, I was back in the room with the chair in it.
"Now...now, what do we have here?" Chuckled the very familiar creepy voice.
A sudden realization that the bald man was back and he chuckled creepily as the footsteps kept getting closer. I received a strike to my stomach area and several more following whilst he was feeling displeased.
"HAHAHAHAHA...YOU JUST HAD TO LAY YOUR FILTHY HANDS ON HER HIGHNESS THE 2ND PRINCESS, NOW YOUR GONNA GET CAPITAL PUNISHMENT! BUT BEFORE THAT LET ME ENJOY RIPPING APART YOUR LIMBS LIKE YESTERDAY...KEKEKEKE WAHAHAHAHA!"
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"
They kept on ripping apart my limbs and sometimes even lodging a sword to my head...I don't know what's keeping me alive...please let this end. I was wasted after a couple of hours of going through that...I didn't even have the energy to cry so it was pointless.....until.
"STOP, WHAT YOUR DOING!" shouted a distinctive female voice that brought me to tears.
"Ch-Che-rr-i?"
With my remaining willpower, I tried to call her name with my Hoarse voice.
"Second Princess! What are your reasons to be here your highness?" said the bald man.
"I SAID STOP WHAT YOUR DOING! REMOVE THE SHACKLES RIGHT NOW AND SET HIM FREE OR FACE THE RATH OF MY FA-"
She was caught off speaking and an unfamiliar cool and cold voice spoke.
"That should be enough for today, your highness. Just because your the 2nd Princess doesn't mean you can do anything that you want!"
The cool voice shouted back at her and I heard the sound of a jet fast but powerful slap.....
"We shall take our leave now, I suggest you dismiss operations for the day."
"Y-yes we will Sir Zeksis Atlea of the 8 shining chief generals!"
Shining chief generals? Like I could care about that now!
"CHERIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!" with my new grown hands reaching out to her
"LET HER GOOOOOO!! CORROSION!"
With my newfound technique, I corroded the whole room and covered it with a pitch-black coating and the walls started to crumble and everything that was affected started to decompose and wither away. Everyone in the room except for me, Cherri, and this Zeksis guy disappeared into nothingness. I stood up on my new grown feet and I could barely move them, I fell to the ground and started crawling with my arms. With blood gushing out of my wounds the pain was nothing compared to the feeling of getting my limbs cut off.
"C-he-rr-i-"
I could barely do anything anymore, I just want this suffering to end....what did I even do to deserve this kind of punishment....all I wanted was to live a humble and peaceful life in the village....that was all gone now.
[k1d y0u dID g0od...yOu ShAlL R3cEivE.....The Weeping shadow....]
I felt as if I was floating atop the clouds and the thing I was laying on was as comfortable as the beds I had back home in the village....so nostalgic. I opened my sleepy eyes and I was welcomed with the warm feeling of someone touching my hands. Cherri was in deep sleep sitting beside the soft comfortable bed whilst holding my numb hands with her warm tiny fingers. I was in a room that has pink walls with various designs and some interesting paintings of scenery along the walls, if I could I would stand up and look at the paintings but as of now, I can't move a single inch because a certain someone was holding my hands and I didn't want to disturb the sleeping princess. She started mumbling in her sleep and started to call my name.
"Taruuuuuuuss....Taruuuuuuuuuuuus."
The way she called my name was so adorable so I patted her head, then she awoke with watery eyes and she started yawning. SHE WAS SO ADORABLE!! Her plump cheeks redden a little and she spoke in a sheepish voice.
"Tarus.....that's enough.....this is embarrassing...."
"Ah..sorry about that! I just missed doing this to you and it felt nostalgic..."
"Hmph!" She pouted.
There was a knocking on the door and it opened ever so silently. The cool voice I heard somewhere entered. He was a slim but buff man and looked like he was in his early 20's, with long black hair covering his bangs, and his sharp but deadly looking eye's sent shivers crawling down my spine. He spoke in a cool tone.
"Your highness second Princess...His Greatness the Grandmaster is calling for you."
"Well then I need to get going Tarus, I know you have a lot of questions....but save it for later. I have important matters to attend to! See ya later!"
Cherri hastily left the room with me and the sharp-eyed dude. We stare into each other's eyes for a whole second until he broke the ice.
"Companion of Her highness the second princess, allow me to introduce myself. I'm Zeksis Altlea ranked 5th of the 8 Shining Chief Generals."
"Nice to meet you, my name is Tarus....."
"Ta-...Erhm...Sir Tarus if I may judge you...you have the skill to compete in the Duel competition....and I'm deeply sorry for the actions caused by Belgis!"
"Oh...I see..."
"I shall take on the responsibility and train you in the sword for your self-defense!"
"That'll be great! But my wounds haven't fully healed yet so I'm not sure when we can start."
"In 3 days you shall be fully healed and we shall start training right after that so that you can catch up and compete in the competition."
"I'll be in your care!"
After healing for 3 days I was finally back on my own 2 feet. I was in a field like area with a dome-shaped roof and I could see the sky and cloud or so that's what it looked like, they called it "Artificial Ether" or "Fake sky". It was too realistic for me, the whole room felt so spacious and the air was well simulated as if I was in a real plane. I trained with Zeksis from sun up to sundown. With the sound of clanking of metal swords, my sweaty palms let go of the heavy hunk of metal and I collapsed to the ground out of exhaustion. My slashing skills were good but I was told that I needed to put in more force and power. The area of dodging was my expertise so I mostly dodged the whole day but it took a lot of stamina so I was fatigued and my muscles were sore.
"Good work! Here have some energy drink."
He tossed me a metal cup which I have never heard of and used. The contents of this so-called "energy drink" was sweet with a little touch of sour. I drank the whole bottle or can in one go, feeling the coolness go from my mouth through my throat was refreshing.
"This is really good! What's this so-called energy drink?"
"Well it's basically juice but with some chemicals added. It was invented and formulated by His Greatness the Grandmasters researchers."
"I see."
"Well, then shall we go back? You must be tired from all the training. Once you get back take a shower first."
He tossed me a dry towel and on the way back I bumped into some rich-looking kids who were not paying attention to their surroundings. One of them was a curly-haired girl with a chest nut colored hair and brown eyes and she collided with me and fell down. I quickly got up and held out a hand to her to help her get back up. Once our fingertips touched my hand was about to be slapped by one of the noble boys in the group and I dodged him with this fast reaction speed of mine and got back to the lady who fell down and helped her back up.
"Look out!!" with her high-pitched voice she warned me.
"Thanks for the warning!"
I looked back and was about to be punched by the other kids, and in one swift move not only did I dodge but I had to carry princes the young lady to make sure she didn't get hurled at. Her face glowed with a bright pink color indicating that she was embarrassed.
"Let go of her you filthy scumbag!" shouted the spoiled nobles
I started running and I asked the young lady where to run to.
"Hey....uh, I'll call you princess for now....erm...where should we run to so we can avoid contact with those kids?"
"Princess?!" Her face brightened even more.
"Ehem! There should be a cellar nearby, take the flight of stairs in the left on the next corner and go down a couple of floors and we should reach it!"
With her detailed description, I ran as quickly as possible, avoiding some "Crewmen" along the way. It took me 5 minutes to get to the so-called cellar and when we arrived I stopped for a single second and my legs couldn't handle all the pain and I fell to the ground, but before we could hit the ground in one last spurt of energy I extended my arms as a cushion for the young lady to land on so she could avoid injuring herself. She let out a cute sound as she landed on my extended arms and blushed even harder than before.
"Kyaaaaaaaaa!" she screamed out of embarrassment.
"Shhhhhhhhhhhh!" I quickly covered her mouth with the towel and calmed her down.
A few seconds passed and it looked like she was finally calm.
"Are you okay? Sorry for the sudden things that happened!"
"Uhm...yeah I'm fine now!"
"Erm...my name is Tarus, may I have your name?"
"It's Ellaine."
"HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHH?!"
Author's Note: Had to fix this because of bad writing for the third time....bruh moment
Pls comment xD