I turned around, in front of me now I had a girl of about the same age as me, short, with brown hair and eyes and very fair complexion, she was wearing a black yukata with white and pink floral motifs, modified to be more comfortable during a fight.
"What's your name?"
"Um? ... Zeto ... and who are you? "
"Well, Zeto, do you know that by acting like this you risk a lot?"
I did not understand what she wanted from me; among other things she had not even introduced herself.
"Why, what was I doing wrong?"
"You were checking the exits here and there, the guards' shifts, weren't you?"
'Well, I have to admit that she has a good eye'
"I'm not understanding you ..."
"You want to play dumb, huh? It doesn't work with me, and anyway, I'm just trying to help you, if they see you doing this the hawks in the Arena will surely point you out to whoever is responsible ... "
" Hawks? "
"You're a new one, aren't you?"
I nodded.
"Ahh, you see, all the corridors are constantly monitored by cameras not visible to the naked eye ..."
"Oh, really? So maybe I should thank you… are there other things you know about the Arena that you can tell me? "
"Hmm ... I can only give you this warning, never get involved in the business of the Arena, don't look around and focus on the battles ... well, now I have to go."
She left before I could say more.
However, getting to know the "hawks" was a good thing, I certainly don't want to be blacklisted in the Arena.
I took a pizza and went home.
The days passed quickly.
The day of my first battle was approaching, there was only one day left for the fateful moment.
I was in Ri's office preparing a tactic to use against my opponent.
Ri gave me various information about my challenger.
His name was Vier, a quite tall man, about 1.80 m, and very thin, his power is based on being able to create a blade coming out of his body, he can make this blade come out anywhere except in the head.
His specialty is therefore in close combat.
No weapons are allowed in tomorrow's battle, which is why an opponent like him was really complicated; his biggest flaw was stamina, which I too am lacking, and defense.
"In my opinion, you should use your power right away and finish it all with one blow, after all no one has ever seen you fight."
Ri's idea was not bad at all, but it certainly involved risks, making an attack to win involves leaving many openings, if I had missed that shot, I would have probably been the one knocked out
"I don't know ... maybe I should be on the defensive until he makes a mistake, my power would help me a lot in this ... "
" But you see ... "
From a monitor as thin as a sheet of paper, she showed me at very high resolution a series of videos that went to recriminate the poor defense of Vier.
Perhaps Ri's strategy was the best.
"He leaves a lot of openings to his left ..."
She watched the replays better.
"Now that you point it out to me ..."
"Go for your strategy."
"Are you sure?"
Ri was watching me.
The more I observed her, the more I became aware of some of her particularities, of how she dressed differently according to the day of the week, for example, today, which was a Friday, she dressed in a white jacket, blue trousers and converse-type shoes, such as every Friday; in these days I had also noticed that her hair, according to her moods, moved in different ways; also, during the fighting, I noticed that the cross in her eyes was turning red.
Ri waved at me as if to say: "Are you there? Are you sleeping?"
"Yes, I'm sure." I smiled at her, she made a slightly incredulous face.
That night I struggled to sleep, I was really excited about the challenge of the following day, so much so that I had to take a sleeping pill.
I woke up, as always, at 9 in the morning, to the sound of the alarm. I couldn't get the smile off my face from the nervousness, sometimes my hands were shaking too.
'Am I happy for today ... or am I just overly agitated? ...'
The fact is that I had to calm down, my power was based on calm.
I dressed in the same clothes as always, ate a croissant accompanied with tea, and headed to Ri's office.
My fight would have been at 2 pm, so we still had some time to finish it all.
'Winning today was a necessary first step to try to get out of here in the future…'
However, it wasn't just for that why I wanted to win, I hated losing, in any matter, and vice versa, I loved winning.
While I was on my way to Ri's office, in a room in the Arena, four people, two boys, a girl, and a besten, had met to talk.
"We can't find anyone willing to risk ..."
"Well, how to blame them, all those who try to escape from this place are tortured to exhaustion and then sent as slaves to the lunar mines ..."
"You're trying to pull yourself back, Ron? "
"No no no, I want to get out of here, I'm just saying maybe we should find a wiser way to find new members for our cause, and then we should also formulate a plan for when we're out of here, I don't think they'd leave us to roam around their empire freely. "
"As for this ... what do you think if before we got out of here we looked for a way to get our memories back?"
"To then look for our families when we would be from here? Not a bad idea, however… we don't even know if there is a way… "
" Maybe if we could get into an Empire laboratory here in the Arena… would you like if in the next few days we meet again to talk about this? "
Everyone seemed to agree with that.
"As for new members ..." said the girl, who until now had remained silent listening.
"Yes, Liza?"
"I found a person who was curious here and there, maybe he intends to get out of here ... however he is a novice, I inquired and I saw that he has his first fight just today, so I don't know if it's worth it ..."
"Well, for now, we could keep an eye on him, maybe he turns out to be strong."
"Ok, today I'm going to see his fight ... then I'll let you know ..."
"Perfect then".
Everyone said goodbye and left the room.