POV Of Ares Pridelyn
What's going on? I heard somebody ask. Murmurs and whispers escaped the lips of the confused crowd around me. All of the fighters had stopped fighting. Instead, they had nearly frozen in place. Some of their lips quivered or mouths dropped open. Their eyes widened as if their hearts had just dropped.
"What the hell?" A man blurted out.
An uneasy presence filled the arena. I could feel it slowly drowning me. A tremble overcame me and the hairs on my skin stood up. That's when I saw it.
Thump.
I looked up at the intimidating figure through the hologram. I could feel its presence resting even more heavily upon me. It reeked of malice and intimidation.
Thump.
The hologram began to glitch. It rippled and faded in and out. As it glitched, I noticed the faces of the crowd across from me. They were no longer looking at the hologram. Their faces twisted and turned with pure horror.
Thump.
I snapped my head back to see what had stolen their attention. My eyes darted ahead in the distance. A burning chill wrapped around my body. My skin felt sensitive to the touch and I could feel everything almost stopping in time.
The world around me seemed to slow, and in that very instance, I realized the danger that was marching from afar. It was coming, and it was coming quickly. With every step, it covered a large amount of ground.
It was another golem. This time there was no doubt. This wasn't a performance or an illusion put on by one of the mages. This was an attack.
Thump.
Gritting my teeth, I realized I had to take action fast. Otherwise, that would be the end of us. Unlike the other golem, this one was very near and very close. Also, unlike the other arena, we weren't surrounded by dozens of powerful mages who could pose as a solution.
I watched for another moment as the golem approached. Instinctively, I grabbed Romeo and Mia's arms. It wasn't until the kids screamed out, "ouch" that I realized I was hurting them.
"I'm sorry," I responded.
The last thing I needed was to further alert the kids of our impending doom. Even the mages in the tournament looked scared. We stand no chance at all. The only plausible option was to run. We needed to run.
Thump!
The golem was closing in now. It was only a couple of meters away before the rest of the arena had noticed it. Screams echoed off each other and created a sweeping cry of distress. A panic broke out and the crowd dispersed into every direction.
"Help me!"
"Help!"
"Please!"
"I don't want to die."
That's when I realized in the midst of the chaos, people from outside the arena were also screaming and crying out. My eyes widened as the golem took another step. Beneath its foot was a deeply ingrained footprint that crumbled the ground away. Its victims laid flattened amongst the broken-up rubble inside of it.
The evening sky mourned over the people of the Star Kingdom, blushing a deep red. Smoke danced around in the stale wind. The cries began to wither down. I looked around to see what could have possibly silenced the people.
Thump!
There was nothing else around but the 45 meters of doom now looming above us. Perhaps shock had finally ran its course and the people were no longer able to process what was happening. That's what I had thought until I noticed the dazed looks shooting across everybody's faces. They were no longer in the motion of an escape. Their panic had resolved into a humble confusion in which they looked around as if they had lost something.
The air around me was suddenly harder to breathe. I began panting and cycling breaths in and out of my mouth. My throat felt dry and my lungs began to burn. My head felt light with a slight numbness.
Glancing over to my sides, I noticed Mia and Romeo were also dazed. They weren't responsive, but they were still breathing and blinking. Something's wrong, I thought. Gritting my teeth and tightening my grip on the kids, I began to run. I dragged them along with me through the standing crowd until we had reached the bottom of the arena where the exit was.
It was barely visible as a blockade of other people filled it. Behind us was the golem which had made its landfall on the arena. With a massive step, it took off part of the back section of the arena. Dust puffed out in a laborious cloud from the debris hitting the floor and sinking into its footstep. Whatever victims that had survived and barely avoided its step of death were left with a massive opening in the broken structure of the arena. Most of them began to fall backward to their demise and flailed their arms. I could hear all of their screams.
Shit, I thought. It's too late...
A person running nearby dropped to the ground as a hole ruptured through her chest. My eyes dropped to her body. The shock had awoken Mia and Romeo from the mysterious trance that they were in. They gasped. Quickly, I covered their mouths. A few others around us also appeared to fall with similar holes digging through their bodies. I made eye contact with the kids and tried to reassure them.
"Everything's going to be okay?" I said slowly and nodded my head. It was far from the truth, but our only chance at surviving was to stay optimistic. They nodded their heads in understanding. "Okay."
We continued to run and dodge all of the obstacles in the way of the exit. People on the ground with us were being struck down while people from the top of the arena continued to fall to their deaths. We also had to be cautious of the other groups of people running along with us.
Outside of the arena, we saw the true devastation of the town. Fire, debris, and smoke were everywhere. I saw the limbs of numerous bodies buried underneath the debris. More bodies laid on top of the debris and out in the middle of the streets. Trails of blood streaked the ground from some of the casualties who had tried to fled.
As we kept running, we noticed the air partially expanding. It was just a bit easier to breathe now but still difficult. I noticed a mysterious man a couple of hundred feet away. He had a malicious smirk and eyes that looked down on everybody he laid sight on. His hand was extended toward us. My eyes widened.
This isn't good, I thought.
A sudden and concentrated gust of wind swirled before his palm. He then launched a sharp blow which struck down a nearby man running alongside me. However, this time it wasn't just a simple hole. The man's upper half was blown off from the rest of his body. His torso flew up in the air.
The kids jittered. I could feel their body fighting to shut down in response to the immediate trauma. Their nerves ran rampant and their pulses throbbed heavily. Yet, we kept running. There was no other choice. I have to keep moving forward. In front of us awaited death, but behind us also was an inevitable doom.
Pushing forward, I ran faster. Sheer determination and will guided me forward until I was knocked down as if I had run into a wall.
An invisible barrier? I thought.
I scrambled back up and placed my hand out. The area in front of it was solid. I couldn't phase through or continue to move forward. Bringing my other hand to the barrier. I began to pound against it with my fist.
Thump!
Shit, I thought.