When I awoke, I was in a bed and several curtains are covering my surroundings and my body was covered in bandages. I tried moving around to only feel staggering pain. I didn't realize until now that there was someone beside the bed and I fixed my eyes to see the person properly, to my surprise it was Cherri! I haven't seen her in a long time and there she was dozing off. Trying to get up whilst ignoring the pain which is nothing my now, I sat up in a sitting position and examined my surroundings, there were several people outside the curtains to where I 'am. They opened the curtain and I was so glad that the others looked okay! Some of them with little bruises here and there but they looked fine.
"Yo! You look better than ever!" proclaimed Nile
"What an amazing round!" shouted the two girls in unison
"SHHHHHHH! Someone is sleeping here!"
Once they covered their mouths a certain someone beside me started moving and woke up. I looked at the waking up Cherri only to return to my teammate's eyes wide open.
"Second Princess!" they shouted in unison
"SHhhhhhh! Don't make a scene here! Geez! You guys need to relax."
"Sorry about that!"
"Hey Cherri, thanks for looking after me!"
"Tarus! You're finally awake! You made me worry!" she pouted.
"H-hey don't be mad! I just did my best in the match!"
"Hmph!"
"E-excuse me, your highness! But we need to get Tarus prepared for his next match...." Lilly butted in.
"No need to be so formal! We know Tarus after all!"
"I appreciate it, your highness!"
"Well then Tarus, I shall take my leave then! Talk to you some other time!"
I'm dumbfounded, there are so many things that I don't know about Cherri, as if she was someone else....that's not the Cherri that I know and cherish...
"Tarus! How many times am I gonna call you?!"
"Lilly please relax! Tarus is still recovering from his wounds." Nile said
"B-but we need to get him ready for the next round!"
"Lilly sometimes you surely don't worry about your teammates...."
"I-I'm sorry, please forgive me...."
"Guys it's fine now! I'm gonna get ready for the next round, by the way, what is it about?"
"You need to team up with someone else, so it's basically 2v2 but the other team teamed up with someone they know."
"Well that's kind of unfair....oh well what can you do..."
"Yeah....."
"How're your matches guys?"
"I managed to win!" proclaimed Nile
"I lost...sorry..." said Mandy
"Tch, why do I have to tell you??" as expected of Heph
"I also won!" said cheerfully the one and only gorilla Lilly.
"Well that's nice and sorry for the ones who lost just be happy and try your best next time.....and how did my match go?"
"W-well, erm...you scored the highest!"
"H-HUH?!"
"Good job new kid!" said Nile
"Congrats!" cheerfully said by mandy...KAWAII!
"You just got lucky this time bastard!" said the one and only Heph
"Well I'm surprised, I thought it was a tie....soo anyway, who's the other one participating in the duel with me?"
"It's the masked person, he's one of the most mysterious people here." explained Lilly
Oh so its her huh....knowing that she is the most puzzling person here, guess I got lucky knowing her real gender and face. Well at least someone I know or barely know is gonna be my teammate in the next round.
"Tarus! You should get ready!"
"Yes, I will!"
I went to a locker room where Mandy said to get my new gear and armor. Along the way some faces looked at me as I passed by them, I didn't want any attention. At the entrance of the room someone was there waiting for me, it was her! She was wearing her mask as usual then I waved at her and looks like I got her attention, she quickly ran inside the locker room and there was a panel which glowed blue and is probably for males only. I quickly followed in after her and when I got inside there were several lockers, I used the key Mandy gave me and I found the number with it. I opened the locker and got the armor and gear inside, then after wearing it I started looking for her, she was nowhere around. I tried searching the opened vacant lockers to find nothing. How did she disappear quickly?
"If you don't appear, I'm gonna spread some weird rumors about you!" I shouted in hopes of her revealing herself
"Please! Anything but that!" she shouted worriedly
"Well your lucky no one's in here, anyway I'm Tarus! I know we already introduced our names but it's better to be sure!"
"I'm Kasu...."
"I guess we're gonna be teammates in the upcoming round! I look forward to working with ya!"
I reached out my hand for a handshake and she nervously did too, her tiny hand was oversized by mine and I kind of felt bad. She was very nervous as she was showing it through her intense shaking.
"H-hey calm down! I'm sorry about what I said, I just wanted to talk to you!"
"O-oh...."
"Here we can have an agreement! I think you liked the rice porridge back then."
When she heard the rice porridge she acted like a dog with its tail wagging indicating that she does, her face suddenly reddened.
"If you can calm down and work with me in the competition and win then I'll cook the rice porridge for ya as long as I live!"
"D-DEAL!" she shouted
"Well then! Let's go out and prepare."
"Mhm!"
We checked each other's equipment as Kasu was still wearing her tuxedo and mask to hide her identity, she had a silver breastplate on with some designs symbolizing wind and she had an estoc in her hip belt. She had her crown floating above her head and it looked like she got 3 of the 4 elements, she has air, water, and earth and the only missing was the fire.
"Wow, you sure are amazing having 3 of the 4 elements!"
"N-not a-as amazing as you...Sir Tarus..."
"'Sir Tarus'? W-wait a minute, nope not happening. Just call me Tarus, your too polite."
"As you wish Si- Tarus..."
I should get the opportunity to get more crown fragments as soon as possible because I can't just rely on the 8th sin all the time but that's all I have right now and some of my teammates with Lilly almost had the complete set of all of them. I need to get even stronger as fast as possible! Kasu's hair was tied up into a round thing on the back of her head, probably to not disturb her during combat. As I was admiring the way she looks and dressed the loudspeaker announced our names and we got on the stage the crowds were cheering and to my surprise, the enemies were the 2 remaining arrogant nobles! They kept on coming, what bad luck.
"Heh, look what we have here!" said one of the arrogant nobles
"What a sweet chance for revenge!"
"Tsk." Kasu clicked her tongue
I remained silent and ignored them as the competition was about to start. The bell then rang and the 2 nobles quickly rushed to our position with their great words in hand. Then as they arrived in front of us they circled around us dropped something. I was a bit curious about it but my intent stopped me.
"Tarus, don't touch anything that they drop, they're probably using some type of micro poison pouch, one's triggered it will release a deadly cloud of poison not only blocking your vision but infecting you and you will feel severe pain that makes you want to die after a couple of seconds."
"Thanks for the heads-up!"
The 2 nobles were still running around the stadium spreading micro poison pouches to make our footwork more difficult, now we had to look at where we were gonna step to make sure we didn't trigger one. Kasu with her graceful footsteps quickly and carefully ran through the arena to where one of the nobles were. The one she was targeting was the skinny one holding a great sword the same as his size. Then I felt huge footsteps coming my way to only be able to dodge the sweep of this great sword, it sliced off a few hairs from me. Good thing I was able to dodge it. I attacked back with a few slices from the Nemax sword and the weight was much heavier than the holy sword that I fought with. I greeted my teeth and bared the pain of my legs being pushed harder into the ground as seconds passed by. I made a risky move by removing the Nemax sword from blocking his great sword, I quickly dodged it as the Nemax sword glided along the blade of the great sword. I was aiming for his head then I stepped on something crunchy on the ground. We both stopped moving as the tip of the Nemax was inches away from his neck, he let out a creepy grin on his face indicating that something good happened for him. I looked over at Kasu and she was running to me with her hand reached out and shouting something I couldn't catch. Once I lifted up my foot there was suddenly an explosion of purple gas which is probably the poison, I didn't think quick enough and I tried to inhale but I couldn't breathe. I only then realized that Kasu was covering my face with a cloth instead of covering her own mouth.
"I know we've just met but....her majesty needs you....and thank you for the rice porridge....sorry I couldn't finish my end of the deal...."
She whispered to me with tears flowing out of her eyes.....there was nothing else on my mind but...KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL.
[Well, Well, Well, what do we have here...KEKEKE]
[Seems that he has lost his mind]
[I'll choose this boy then! Don't you mind "Zeichi"? KEKEKE]
[Go for it.]
[Wise choice...KEKEKE]
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Author's Note: Another one....
Pls comment xD