"Get yourself ready, Alyssa. You'll be next," William says with a crooked smile.
I can't go down there….what am I gonna-
"You know what to do," Helen says.
"No," I say assertively, "You're not taking over, I won't have any more blood on my hands."
"You're so noble, it bores me."
I pull myself together and focus on Brianna's fight. They're both already at the center of the arena. Viktor is mean looking and menacing. But then again, so is Brianna. He's much taller and physically bigger than her though. Standing at about 6'5 with hulking arms and legs. They stand about twenty feet apart, both looking to the announcer for his signal for them to begin. Once he gives it, Brianna dashes left, then right. Each time inching her way closer to Viktor. She stops when steam suddenly starts to emanate from his body, he kicks off his boots and somehow launches himself into the air by shooting steam from the soles of his feet. While in the air, he boosts himself again toward Brianna.
He comes down with a strike from his fist. He's fast enough to land a blow on her that sends her flying back a couple of feet into the sand. As she's picking herself back up, Viktor lands back on the ground, throwing his hands in the air to hype the crowd. Brianna aims her right palm at him and just like in the cabin, a wave of pressure rocks the colosseum. The crowd gasps as It kicks sand and debris into the air. She's not even facing our way but I can feel the amount of heat she's emitting. The sun being directly over the arena is giving her more light to draw from. As the pressure increases, Viktor gets pushed back and tries to muscle his way through it. He screams as his skin starts to redden when suddenly he jerks his head back, his cheeks fill, much like how Rose uses her ability. His head comes forward and out of his mouth, an intense amount of steam shoots in Brianna's direction.
"How in the…" I hear Rose whisper while sitting up in her seat. Brianna dashes out of the beam's way. The blast hits the wall of the colosseum, causing the arena to shake and the crowd to roar. It doesn't phase Brianna, she seems to take a moment to compose herself before blue aura forms around her body. Viktor lets off another blast but she's unaffected. She walks right through the steam as it bounces off of the aura surrounding her. She dashes forward, and right into Viktor's face. She grabs him by the neck and is able to lift him off of his feet as her aura intensifies.
No one here would be a match for Brianna. Her ability to infuse aura into her seal makes her too formidable. It's why Katherine and Ethan were so tough to handle. The only way to counter her would be to use infused abilities of your own. It's an extremely tough thing to learn with having to master aura control as a whole.
"She's the most gifted Valentine I've ever seen, I'll give her that," Helen says.
William jumps up from his seat yelling at the top of his lungs, "Stop it now! End it!"
The announcer quickly runs down into the pit. "It's over! It's over!" He yells running over to Brianna. She turns her head to him and just stares.
"I said it's over!" He yells once more. "Release him." The blue aura disappears and Brianna drops Viktor, he falls to his knees, clutching at his throat and coughing up steam. The crowd boos and begins throwing trash into the pit. The soldier reluctantly announces Brianna as the victor and I get the urge to look over at William whose entire face is red. He looks like he's about to lose it.
"As for our next match!" The announcer tries yelling over the boos. "It'll be-"
"Change of plans!" William shouts. He turns to Florence who has seemed checked out and bored of this entire event up until now. "Get down there….and win." He tells her.
She glares at him for a moment before standing up from her seat. "Yes, Father." She sighs as she heads for the steps. As she's going down, Brianna is coming back up.
"The little boy you sent after us in District Three was more of a challenge than that," she says to William as she takes her seat. "You don't seem to have much talent in whatever witch/warlock army you're trying to build. What's stopping us from killing you right here and now? No seal dampeners around."
William chuckles to himself. "Different toys for different operations my dear. These toys here are for show, not for war. And I'll give it to you, Valentine. As expected, your abilities and fighting prowess never cease to amaze. Also, you can kill me, and try to escape. But, there's nowhere for you to run, you don't know my land. And I have too many men, and family who won't rest until I'm avenged."
"It seems we have another treat for you ladies and gentlemen!" The announcer yells as the crowd settles, seeing Florence down in the arena. "Florence Hazel versus….a Valentine witch!" The crowd quiets down even further as whispers rise.
"You heard it right…a witch. Alyssa Valentine! To the center of the Abyss!" He roars.
"Well, Valentine witch?" William turns to me. "It's not too late to join me. Otherwise, my daughter will have to kill you…and I told you, these others I don't care about." He gestures to Brianna and Elijah. "You're special though."
"Join him? What is he talking about?" Elijah turns to me.
"He wants me for his collection," I say standing up from my seat. "But, I'm not giving in." I head for the steps when David suddenly gets up and grabs my hand.
"Hey! Sit down!" William yells.
David pulls me in and whispers something in my ear; "Don't let her out."
He takes his seat and I continue down the stairs wondering what's going on with him. He clearly knows who she is, and he seems to be afraid of her, or what she might do. Which reminds me I've never asked you. You showed me what my family did to you. Something like that is cause for revenge, shouldn't you hate us….me?
"I do hate your family, darling. But, not you. He's a warlock, likely from the Coven to keep tabs on me. I didn't think they'd go so far as to have people infiltrate the royal family."
"You're leaning this away from you and onto him. He's only twenty-two! I've known him since I was a child!"
"There's magic or a spell for nearly everything. He's not who he says he is. You shouldn't trust him."
"And I should trust you? Who I don't even know?"
"All I know is you're also going to die if you don't let me take over in this fight. And that means I die, I can't allow that to happen," she says I reach the bottom and step into the sand.
Yeah, well, I don't plan on dying today. Not until I become queen. Even though I'm shaking and scared, I'll take this as my first test. If I can't prove myself here then I'm on a fool's errand. The crowd is still quiet and I can't tell if it's because of me or Florence. As I look into the rows of seats from down here, I feel like my body was shrunk down a couple of sizes. The colosseum seems more narrow down in the pit, with the sun beaming down as well, it's hotter.
The announcer walks over to the steps and raises his hand. "Begin!" He shouts dropping it.
I turn to Florence, and next to her a bow and arrow made out of flames appear out of thin air. She crosses her arms and the arrow cocks itself back before firing at me. What the hell!? I clumsily jump to the side, nearly falling. Moving around in this sand is going to be harder than expected.
I stand to my feet and notice another arrow forming beside Florence.
"You can absorb this," Helen says. "You've done it before with the boy, Ethan."
My mind quickly flashes back to the moment that started this entire thing.
"Absorbing led to me taking his seal, what would happen this time?" I ask Helen but she has no time to respond. The arrow comes my way and without thinking much about it, I throw my right arm up in a panic, thinking "absorb." Over and over in my head. The arrow comes within five feet and is absorbed into my right palm. It doesn't burn, but it stings. The crowd breaks their silence with quiet chatter. This fight seems to be more of an observation for them than something to cheer.
Florence readies another arrow, one bigger than the last with raging flames that look almost unstable.
"She's infusing aura into this one," Helen says.
I put my arm up once she launches it to absorb. It gets within a few feet but nothing's happening. It won't disappear. I'm forced to dodge right, but it still manages to slash my left shoulder. The absorbing doesn't work on aura-infused abilities—okay.
"I thought you'd figure that out once I mentioned it, darling."
I ignore Helen's smart remarks and check the area where her arrow slashed where I see blood. It burned through my armor, even with graphene. Her arrows cut like the real thing. On top of that, they leave a strong burning sensation.
I can see the boredom on Florence's face when suddenly she pans her right arm from left to right, causing six flame arrows to appear in front of her. She motions her hand forward and I immediately run before they come my way. These ones are faster somehow, they forced me to plant face first in the sand, most of them go over my hand but one edges my left shoulder.
I go to stand when I notice another six hurling toward me. I panic once again and try to absorb, but both seals on my hand activate instead. White flame combusts in the air, swallowing three of the arrows while the other two miss, and one slashes the side of my stomach. She finally gets the crowd roaring again as I fall to the ground, holding my side as the burns on my skin intensify. What am I even doing….?! I can't keep up with this.I have no idea how to use these seals or this power in general. Who do I think I am? I could never win against someone like her.
Florence walks over to me and kneels down.
"Just do what he says. He doesn't actually want me to kill you, just hurt you a bit. This will continue until he thinks you've had enough."
She stands and creates smaller arrows, about ten, the size of pencils. I can't take another hit from one of those, big or small. The burning is getting worse. She takes a couple of steps back and one by one, she flings the small arrows at my body. One cutting my ear, the next, my cheek, leg, and hand. I manage to stand up and with my remaining strength, I charge at her. She casually steps aside and gently pushes me to the ground. The crowd laughs and I'm left in the sand to feel humiliated. I can't move anymore because the burning hurts so much.
"Is this how you want to be remembered here? As a joke?" Helen asks. "She's not even trying yet you can't defeat her. I can make this better, just relinquish control."
"Final warning, Valentine witch," Florence says creating a flame arrow. I look for Brianna in the stands, the look on her face. The hatred and disappointment I've seen my entire life, I'm sick of it, I'm sick of losing, sick of coming in second to her. I refuse to be the only one of us who loses today.
Just this once, I release control and I'm pushed back into myself as a rush of energy and force comes forward. My body jumps to its feet which catches Florence off guard, her brow lowers and her eyes squint as she tries to assess what just happened.
"I like your ability, darling," Helen speaks, our voices overlapping each other. A bow and arrow made from white flame forms to the right of us. The golden sparks and embers grow as it fully forms.
Florence's eyes widen, and she quickly pans her hand from left to right, this time creating a wall of flames. Helen launches the arrow and the white/golden flames cut right through and consume Florence's fire. The arrow hits Florence in the breastplate and it quickly eats away at her armor, forcing her to tear it off and toss it to the ground.
Helen points to Florence's leg and that spot combusts with fire. She hurries to take that piece off as well while Helen chuckles to herself.
The announcer comes running in waving his hands in the air and yelling for me to stop.
"That's it! It's over!" He shouts. Helen turns to him and snaps my fingers. A moment later the soldier is screaming out for help as white flames spread over his entire body.
"No! I said no killing!" I yell.
"You're right," she replies. "We need to conserve aura, I don't want this to end prematurely."
"What is this?!" Florence shouts "Why won't they extinguish!?"
Helen turns to face her and Florence creates a large bow and arrow. It launches at us and Helen goes to absorb it but is met with some resistance. The arrow stops mid-air and slowly shrinks.
"Hm, you can't absorb pure aura energy," she says. "Meaning you can't absorb aura-infused attacks."
She creates a barrier, Athena's, that blocks the rest of the fire from coming in.
"What Alyssa uses is Holy Fire," Helen replies to Florence. "Although these flames aren't as strong as the real thing. You'd be dead within seconds if they were."
A group of Hazel soldiers suddenly run down into the pit with their weapons drawn and yell for Helen to step away from Florence.
She does, deciding to face the soldiers. She points to the ground with my right arm and places my left hand on my right shoulder. "Spell Binding: Number One," she says. A glowing white circle appears around the soldiers a little above waist level. It slowly shrinks and the soldiers have no choice but to huddle up as some of them get burned when trying to touch it, step over, or under it. The circle adjusts itself anytime they try to duck or jump.
"No more wasting aura on useless soldiers...yes men," Helen says, stopping the circle from shrinking, leaving them about an inch of moving room. All of their hands are tucked to their sides to avoid being burned.
"Who...the are you? You're not the little girl from before," Florence asks as her voice shakes.
"I'm Helen," she smiles before turning and shifting focus to the crowd. "Athys was going to be my first step, but this will do. What will really hurt this kingdom?"
My arms raise outwards, aimed at the colosseum walls.
"What are you doing? I said no killing, it's innocent people up there!"
"Innocent? They're watching people die for their entertainment. They feed into the hatred I wish to end, I'll end it all."
White flames erupt from both of my palms, hitting the walls of the arena and rocking the colosseum. The flames climb the walls until they reach the stands, sending the crowd into a frenzy as they flee for their lives.