"3...2...1..." The Chief blows his loud trumpet. First round of Colosseum starts now!
Melisa and Elina cheer for the guys. They hope at least one of them will win the Colosseum. Shouts of everyone roar the entire place. Colosseum is indeed a big event!
The participants start fighting each other. One of the knights charges to Cyril and stuns him. He then knocks him down with his shield. As he attempts to deliver a strong blow, Cyril quickly gets up and kicks his hands, throwing away his sword and losing his balance.
"Rising Fist!"
Cyril delivers a rising punch towards the knight and makes him fly into the air. The crowd screams aloud as they see the brilliant counter attack.
Samael is dealing with a Mage. No one else interrupts their fight, so this will be a good one on one fighting chance. The Mage begins casting a spell.
"Burn him away, Fireball!"
He cast a fireball on Samael. The looks on Samael's face is rather disappointed.
"Fireball? Are you kidding me?"
"Shut up!" yells the Mage.
"Frozen blade, strike him down, Ice Bolt...times three!" Samael's unique incantation shocks the entire crowd.
"Times three...?!?! You crazy...?!?! There's no such thing!" The Mage refused to believe it.
An ice bolt is cast, followed by another two ice bolts afterwards. The first bolt hits the fireball. The Mage managed to dodge the second bolt. He got screwed up by the third bolt.
"This is...impossible..." the Mage falls unconcious.
"It is possible for The Charming Samael." Samael praises himself and winks. The female crowds including Melisa and Elina are squealing like crazy.
Rein is having a tough time dealing with a female assassin. Her quick movement limits his shooting range. She slashes her dual daggers at him, but Rein uses his bow as a shield to deflect her attack. He flips backwards and shoots one surprise arrow, hitting her in the left shoulder. As she is about to cast a spell, the chief blows his trumpet.
"End of first round!"
All the participants stop fighting. Rein lets out a sigh of relief. Good thing the time is up before the female assassin cast a spell on him, since he do not have any defensive spells to block or counter it. Cheers of the crowds still roar the entire Colosseum. The large screen shows the result of Round One.
Gondon (Out)
Astha
Lowen (Out)
Kassius
Cyril
Samael
Connor (Out)
Izun
Lize
Tesla
Shena
Rein
Exion
Harrion (Out)
Maurice (Out)
The three Rose Garden members made it to Round 2! Melisa and Elina are jumping for joy. The crowds are restless now, since there will be stronger fights in the next round. The chief informs that the next round will start in one minute.
The participants are getting ready and take their position. The stealth classes including Rein cast their shadow step spell. Samael better be careful this time, since there are less mages now. Stealth classes love to target squishy classes like mages. Cyril should be okay since he has great physique and stamina, so he can withstand sneaky attacks. The atmosphere is a bit quiet and steady now.
The chief stands up from his chair and brings his trumpet. Every participant is searching for an easy target, but it will be hard since the chance of being interrupted by other fighters is still high.
"3...2...1..." The Chief blows his trumpet. The second round starts now!
Samael got shot by two rangers who revealed themselves from their shadow steps.
Luckily he managed to evade their surprise attack by crouching to the ground. As they take their arrow from their quiver, Samael cast a spell.
"Oh blazing superiority come forth and chase them down, Flame Dragon!"
A vermilion magic circle is formed in front of Samael. Large dragon-shaped flame comes out from it and chases the two rangers. One of the rangers got hit and falls unconscious to the ground. The other ranger, Kassius, flips to the air and aims his armed bow to the chasing Flame Dragon.
"Pierce everything in the path, Power Arrow!"
He charges the arrow and fires it. The arrow releases a very powerful aura that it pierces into the Flame Dragon easily, hits the ground where Samael is standing, and explodes. Melisa is frustrated as she sees the impact of the arrow. No sign of Samael at the small explosion area.
"Don't tell me he is completely gone now. That's pathetic." said Kassius.
"Who do you think you are, saying disrespectful things like that." Samael's voice echo throughout the Colosseum.
Melisa spots him standing far behind Kassius. The crowd, especially women, start cheering for Samael. Kassius looks behind with a shocked expression.
"Oh greatest earth, tremble and crush my enemies to nothing, Ground Breaker!"
The ground around Kassius trembles after Samael cast his spell. The earth cracks and quakes afterwards.
"Before your arrow hit me, I teleported a few meters away. I'm not just a Mage, I'm an Elemental Sorcerer. Keep that in mind." Samael explained about what happened before.
Kassius's screams fill the atmosphere as he falls down to the deeper earth.
As Samael walks off to the cheering crowds, someone appears from behind and stabs him in the back! Samael suffers immense pain from the sneaky blow. The crowds around him are terribly shocked. What a dirty play!
"Samael!!!!" Melisa and Elina shouts at him.
The person who stabbed him appears to be Astha, an assassin. Rein shoots some arrows at her from afar. She was the one who fought him during the first round.
"Your opponent is me, you thieving cat." Rein challenged her.
"Oh, okay. Prepare for broken bones." Astha taunted him.
Rein runs around her while shooting some arrows. He then fires a flaming arrow as a finishing strike. Astha dodges all the normal arrows and deflects the flaming arrow with her dual daggers. She then charges at Rein and delivers some quick slashes. Again, Rein uses his bow as a shield to deflect those slashes. Seems like they are having a tough fight.
Meanwhile, at the other side of the Colosseum, Cyril, Lize and Tesla are putting a great fight. Lize charges at Cyril but is interrupted by Tesla's lighting strike.
"You two are getting in my way. I am going to end this once and for all!"
Tesla channels his lightning rod with electrifying energy. As he is about to throw the rod into Cyril and Lize, someone stabs him in the back. Another dirty play it seems. Tesla falls unconscious to the ground, leaving Cyril and Lize unharmed. It appears that Izun, a Stealth Warden, is the one who stabbed Tesla with his longsword.
"Using your ultimate spell in round two? That's idiotic." said Izun with his vague voice.
Izun flips backwards as a number of fireballs crashes to the ground. The tension rises as Exion, an Occult Wizard joins the battle. Cyril and Lize, who are still sitting frozen in place on the ground, looks at each other.
"Should we fight too? Lol" Lize initiated the conversation.
"I don't know, and what the hell is Lol?" said Cyril in confusion.
"Laughing out loud. It's just a short term used when you find something funny. Sometimes, I say it if there is nothing else I'm going to say. Pretty useful, right?" Lize explained.
"Lol yeah. Like that?" Cyril tried saying it.
"Excellent! You are awesome!" Lize repeatedly slaps Cyril's back.
The two of them got blown away by Exion's large Fireball. Izun shakes his head because that Fireball was meant to hit him, but instead it hit the two idiots who are chatting in the middle of Colosseum fight.
"Lol sorry, my bad." Exion teases Cyril and Lize, who are lying on the ground, covered with ashes.
Lize gives Exion a thumbs up before she falls completely unconscious. The chief blows his trumpet, and that marks the end of the second round.
The crowds are loving the fight between Rein and Astha, which ended up in a draw. Some of them laugh at Cyril and Lize's humiliating scene. Izun and Exion also put on a great fight. Overall, it was an enjoyable round. The large screen shows the result of round two.
Melisa and Elina looks at Samael with a sad expression covering their face. Hopefully he can make it to the final round.
Samael
Izun
Cyril (Out)
Shena (Out)
Exion
Tesla (Out)
Astha
Kassius (Out)
Rein
Lize (Out)
"Looks like we're out." Cyril said to Lize.
"I'm sorry, this is all my fault. We should have put on a good fight..." Lize looks down.
"I had fun. Really, Colosseum is one hell of a place. It's not your fault, Lize. Besides, chatting about irrelevant topic in the middle of a deadly fight? Now that's something to me." Cyril smiles at Lize.
"But still..." Lize seems a bit hopeless.
"I leave the final round to the two of them. Samael and Rein will win this for sure. Lize, you are a good fighter. Lets rest ourselves now, okay?" Cyril pats her head.
"Cyril..." Lize blushes.
Cyril shows a peace sign to Melisa and Elina, showing that he is quite satisfied with the fights. Melisa smiles while waving at him, whereas Elina gives him a thumbs up for doing a great job.
After several minutes, the chief stands up again, bringing his trumpet. Now, the atmosphere is silent. Soothing breeze covers the Colosseum as there are now five participants left.
Samael, Rein, Astha, Izun, and Exion stares at each other.
Samael nods at Rein, hinting him that they will work together to win the final round. Since Izun and Exion will most likely to fight each other, this is a good chance to take Astha out.
Astha casts Shadow Step and fades from sight. Rein and Izun notice and decide to cast Shadow Step too. Samael and Exion are the visible ones left.
"Must be hard for us non-stealth fighters, eh?" Samael initiates the conversation. He is not expecting to fight Exion.
"It looks like we will have to fight each other to make those sneaky fighters reveal themselves." Exion replied.
"3...2...1..." The chief blows his trumpet. Final round starts now!
The crowds are cheering like crazy this time, since they get to see a great opening battle between the two mages.
"Melody of destruction, reverberate throughout the whole area, Scream of Terror!" Exion begins his attack.
A dark wave is coming at Samael. The sound it creates is so loud that it pierces through the ears very hard. Samael covers his ears and suffers from the howling dark wave. He barely manage to hear the surrounding sounds after the spell ended.
"Deploy, Charging Ammo, Explode my enemy!"
Samael fires a huge magic torpedo into Exion. The torpedo explodes in a large radius. A normal person would have been dead by the big impact.
"You're good, but that spell was not enough to finish me off." Exion comes out from the explosion smoke.
"Dark orb of fear, feast his energy and bind him, Soul Trap!" Exions fires a dark sphere into Samael.
The sphere hits Samael and locks him down, preventing any movement. Rein wants to help him but he hesitates, since revealing himself will be a huge disadvantage, considering Astha and Izun are still invisible. He hopes Samael will do something to remove the negative effect applied into him.
"I'm sorry I fight you while you're in a bad shape, but I have to end this." Exion channels a big spell.
"Darn it!" Samael is struggling to regain his movement.
"Oh Great Singularity that wander around the space, rain down and crash the land, Meteor Blast!"
A large vermillion magic circle is formed at the sky. Enermous flaming meteor comes out from it and slowly falls to the Colosseum. The crowds are jaw-dropping themselves as they see the meteor. Samael is really helpless at the moment. Rein cannot do anything to help him. If he breaks out of invisibility, it will be the end for both of them.
End of Chapter 17