"What is happening?"
Chrys was confused, as soon as the announcer said "BEGIN," the whole atmosphere of the arena changed. When the stones flew upwards and traced a cube, the air since became heavier.
"My body is getting heavier, my legs are sha-"
*uuggaaah*
Blood came rushing out of his mouth and he fell on ground like a doll with no balance. He was baffled, he felt helpless once again. His joints were aching, moreover, the impact with the ground was more than normal.
'It feels as though I have fell from fifth floor or something.'
REMAINING TIME: 19m 07sec
REMAINING TIME: 19m 06sec
REMAINING TIME: 19m 05sec
REMAINING TIME: 19m 04sec
REMAINING TIME: 19m 03sec
REMAINING TIME: 19m 02sec
REMAINING TIME: 19m 01sec
REMAINING TIME: 19m 00sec
REMAINING TIME: 18m 59sec
REMAINING TIME: 18m 58sec
A memory from distant past flashed through his mind.
"Tell this fucking bitch to shut the fuck up and do not disturb my fucking time" Zurneel, younger brother of Vickir and Chrys's uncle was shouting at his mother.
Anjela was on ground holding Chrys and Rita tightly in her arms, while Zurneel kept shouting at her spewing every vile word he could think of.
Anjela look towards the Baroness and Nithreena, her Sister-in-law, but none stopped them. Anjela, since she first came in Yadeth household was berated and looked down upon, all because her family could not give Yadeth a good amount of dowry. She was mistreated and abused by everyone in the house, and the only support she could have relied upon never stood for her. Vickir was himself mistreated and even though he was the eldest son of the house, he was never treated and respected as one. Vickir, even though when knew Anjela was being mistreated and abused chose to remain silent and always tried to please his father by being a good son, to get recognition from him.
"Brother!!"
"Let her go now, son."
Baroness and Rita, were only putting up a front, they never meant to stop him. If anything, they were enjoying the show that was unfolding in front of them, they too hated Anjela for petty reasons.
Anjela after mustering up the courage stood up and left the hallway, she went straight to Vickir's workplace. Yadeth family's primary source of income was tourism, Vickir too worked at the toll collecting office. Anjela stormed the office, she looked dishevelled, her panting was echoing in the cabin and the tears in her were not stopping at all, next to her was Chrys and Rita, both looked terrified. He took her inside the personal cabin and left her there to attend the clients/visitors.
Anjela kept crying, while Chrys kept wiping her tears.
"Mumma don't cry." Sai Chrys with a trembling voice and eyes filled with tears.
"Yes mumma! Do not cry please, we love you mumma don't cry please." Rita too tried to calm her mother down.
Seeing those two kids, shivering in fear but still trying their best to calm their mumma, made her heart sank, she flet an aching pain in her chest.
"What happened now?" Vickir, asked Anjela while entering the cabin.
"Zurneel ZUR- Zurneel threw the communicator at me and started berating me. I was only talking to my si- sister and he- he- he- snatched the communicator from my hand and threw it at me." Anjela started explaining the incident while crying. "I was only telling my sister abou- ab- about how he just got an offer from a renowned academy, bu- but he snatched it away from me. He shouted at me about how I am telling others his achievements without his permission and m- m- my family will use black magic to curse him from progressing any further."
"You should have talked in our room why were you out in open talking about him?" Vickir replied calmly.
Anjela's eyes widened, she was baffled to see how his first response is to find a flaw in her. He always sided with his family but there was a limit to how ignorant one can be.
'Am I that worthless?' she felt betrayed and unloved. She felt as if she had no place in among the Yadeth household, she was made believed as if she is not equal to anyone from the family.
"I am going back home." Anjela took her kids and left the office.
"Why was she even here at the first place? Disturbing my office hours." Vickir mumbled, annoyingly.
Anjela that day locked herself in the room and cried all night, she wanted to kill herself, but could not bring her to do so as she feared what will happen to her kids if she is not there to look after them.
'No one will spare a thought about them, let alone expecting them to care for them. They may as well make my kids their servants'
That day, her resolve as a mother to look her kids and doing everything in her power for them to have a bright future strengthened further.
Chrys who listened to her mother crying all day & night but could not bring himself to do anything felt disappointed in himself. He wished everyone in the Yadeth household to die a cruel death, he wished her father burned though hell and had millions of swords pierced through him, billions of scorpions to bite him and countless needles to run through his blood.
That was the first day, a seed of hatred towards his family was sowed in his soul. The resolved that he will some day in future will make his mother happy, he will give her so many happy memories that she will forget all the pain and suffering she has felt and went through all this time.
"I will make her happy."
REMAINING TIME: 18m 49sec
REMAINING TIME: 18m 48sec
REMAINING TIME: 18m 47sec
REMAINING TIME: 18m 46sec
REMAINING TIME: 18m 45sec
Lost in his thoughts, he came back to reality and faced the harsh truth in front of him. His dad, a self-taught swordsman helped him to train his physical strength, he had a strict regime of workout and diet, to which he adhered. His body was strong but not to the extent as kids from nobles' houses who had plenty of resources to buy potions and had personal trainers for them.
'Even so, it is not an excuse, I will not lose to anybody.' Chrys strengthened his resolve and gave his all to stand up.
He lifted his upper body first, it felt as if he was tied with ropes on an iron bed. He failed multiple times and fell on his back; his head was aching as every time he fell his head banged against the floor.
REMAINING TIME: 16m 12sec
REMAINING TIME: 16m 11sec
REMAINING TIME: 16m 10sec
Finally, he managed to lift his upper body.
'No time to be happy, I still have a long way to go.'
After adjusting his body, he looked up, the remaining time for the test was 16m 3seconds.
'It is not even half way through?'
"What the fuck?" He gasped as soon as he saw rest of participants, out of hundreds of participants that were there, more than half of them were on the ground or even fainted but the rest who were standing among them many were struggling. What surprised him were the very few people who were standing with ease, among them was someone he knew.
Athena was standing as if nothing has even happened, she struggled in the beginning of the test but it took her only a minute to adjust. Her black hair shone brightly under the sun, it almost made her look like some god-sent angel, but Chrys knew what kind of devil she was.
Next to her was Roman, he too was standing perfectly fine. Seeing them Chrys felt inferior, he wanted to be like them as well, however, no matter what he did he could not find a way to help himself.
REMAINING TIME: 14m 40sec
REMAINING TIME: 14m 39sec
REMAINING TIME: 14m 38sec
REMAINING TIME: 14m 37sec
Time was running fast, and then.
"Those who will not be standing after this test will be sent out of the cube and the remaining will face the second trial of body test." Announcer calmly spread panic among the participants.
"SHIT"
Hearing the announcement, Chrys panicked, it was as if his brain malfunctioned, he started thinking of random things, like what was the day today? How much he ate today? What song was the bard playing? Nothing useful struck his mind.
He tried to calm himself down but nothing came to his mind which could help him. At that moment he realised that all this time he was living in his dreams, a world made of glass was crumbling before him. If he failed here, all the attention that he gets and the expectations his family had from him will be destroyed. His world of glass will shatter into pieces he will never be able to collect.
Then for the very first time in his life, out of the countless times in future, he realised that he is nothing special, he is a mediocre, average teen. He was at the very best A DISSAPPOINTMENT.