Throughout the whole journey, from the cruel desert to the mysterious place called 'paradise'. Arlo had wondered what exactly was his purpose in this trial. Why had makutu chosen this situation for him?
Now that he was going to go against the two protectors, he had finally realised his purpose.
In this trial, his purpose was to survive by any means possible. He had to defeat the two protectors, so that this trial would finally end, but would he really be able to defeat them?
The answer was no, he simply couldn't.
Arlo was way too weak compared to them, so in desperation he had thought of a treacherous plan.
What if their was something in 'paradise' that could go against the two protectors, and was capable enough to kill them without too much difficulty.
The only thing that could do it, was the protector of 'paradise'. Arlo's plan was to use the protector of 'paradise' to help him defeat his opponents. It was going to be very difficult to get the attention of the protector, but it wasn't impossible.
With a small grin on his face
Arlo stepped forward, so that he could be seen by the two enemies. He came from behind the tree and faced them with a calm expression. From the outside he looked calm, but from the inside he was trembling and utterly terrified.
"There you are"
Said the blond guy
His partner was staring at Arlo with murderous intent
Arlo wanted to buy some time because he couldn't see the protector of 'paradise' anywhere
'Dam, where is that thing'
"How do you do?"
Said Arlo
"We were doing good, untill you and your partner started to run away from us"
Replied the blond guy with a smile on his face
To Arlo, the blond guy looked to be more of a cheerful person, whilst the other was more tense and serious.
"Why are you doing this?"
Said Arlo in a calm voice
"You don't need to know that"
Replied the brown hair guy, his voice was deep and emotionless
"Then…then at least tell me your names"
Arlo said
This question made them glare at Arlo even more, the eyes of the brown hair guy seemed to be consumed by anger. He raise his sword and said
"We are members of the Orb of Night"
As the brown hair guy spoke, Arlo eyes saw a large figure on top of a branch, its shadow was atleast 5 meters in height and its eyes were piercing through him
'That has to be the protector'
The protector was diagonal to Arlo, it was on top a tree and was currently hiding behind one of its massive branches, its body was hidden behind the green leaves that sprouted from the branch. The protector was roughly 20 meters to the right of the two men, it was also about 50 meters above them.
Silence surrounded everything, Arlo and the two men were staring at each another, not moving a single inch.
'Hopefully I don't die'
He thought
To die here was to die in the real world and Arlo wasn't ready for that. He wasn't ready to die yet, even though his plan was dangerous, it gave him a chance to live and that chance was all he needed.
Arlo suddenly shot forward and ran towards the two men
They both gripped their swords tighter as Arlo ran towards them, then they lifted it up making its tip point up to the beautiful blue sky.
Before they could slash him, Arlo suddenly turned right and started to run in that direction.
For a moment the two men were puzzled, but it didn't stop them from chasing after him. Arlo ran with all the strength he had, yet it wasn't enough. As seconds passed the distance between him and the two men grew smaller
It wasn't long before the blond hair guy was just behind Arlo, the guy gripped his sword tighter with both of his hands and made a quick horizontal slash.
Before the sword reached Arlo's neck, he ducked down and rolled forward.
The sword missed Arlo by a couple centimetres, it went above his head and then jammed straight into a tree. The sword plunged a couple inches deep into the thick tree.
To most people the sword missing Arlo and hitting the tree was a small mistake, but to Arlo it was massive.
'Let's see what happens next'
Arlo thought as he continued to run away from the man. After he created a gap between him and the blond dude, Arlo stopped running and looked back at the two men.
The blond guy had both his hands on the handle of the black sword, his right leg was placed on the tree. He was trying to get his sword out off the tree, but for some strange reason it wasn't coming out.
'Is the tree special or something?'
Arlo curiously thought
The brown hair guy started to walk towards his partner, whilst he walked leaves started to shake, at first it was a light shake then it got more and more aggressive, then the branches started to vibrate.
It looked like an earthquake was occurring in 'paradise', the shaking got even more violent, then it suddenly stopped.
It happened so fast that Arlo wasn't even able to comprehend it, for one moment the blond hair guy was trying to take out his sword from the tree, but the next moment his whole body had been brutally disfigured.
His head head been completely torn off from the rest of his body, his right hand was missing aswell ,and a good chuck of his chest,torso and right leg was missing. His body or what was left of it fell to the ground, covering it with the man's blood.
His partner stood motionless, the anger in his eyes was gone, he looked at his companion's body as it plummeted to the ground.
"Wha…what did you do?"
Said the man in a stoic tone, he looked to be more confused than emotional
With a grin on Arlo's face he said
"Nothing, I did absolutely nothing"
Arlo wasn't lying, he had not killed the man himself, but he did provoke the man's death.
When Arlo first heard of the protector of 'paradise' he had wondered how the protector was able to tell if people had ill intentions towards 'paradise'. Some theories that he came up with was that it was able to read minds or sense people's emotions, but the most logical one was that it saw people harm 'paradise'.
Which had led Arlo to come up with a plan. He wasn't going to go head to head against the two men, he was going to provoke them so that they would try to kill him by using their swords, then at the last minute Arlo would duck and make the sword plunge into a tree. This would make the protector of 'paradise' to set up and kill anything that harms the place.
His plan was dangerous, but very rewarding.
'One down, one more to go'
Arlo kept staring straight into the man's eyes, he was trying to provoke him. Arlo was hoping the man would stop thinking tactically, and give in to his emotions.
His partner had just been killed right infront of him, so he must be feeling many types of different emotions dwell inside of him, like anger,frustration and sadness. If the man let those emotions control him, it would be easier for Arlo to dodge his attacks and then would inevitably mean he would be killed by the protector of 'paradise'.
"I guess you do have some tricks up your sleeve, but they won't work on me."
Said the man with a still expression on his face
"We will find out soon enough"
Arlo replied, he knew the same trick won't work twice, so he had to come up with something different and unexpected.
Using the protector was the only way he could win against the man, after what happened to his partner, Arlo knew that he wouldn't blindly attack him, which made things much more difficult for him.
'Why hasn't he used his power yet?'
Arlo was most paranoid about the man's secret power, yet he hadn't used it one bit. It was strange of him not to use it, which made Arlo wonder if their was a reason behind it.
'Well this is my first trial, so I guess makutu made the two men without any power'
After standing still for a while, Arlo took a step forward then another and then another, he was trying to close the distance between him and the brown hair man.
Whilst he started walking so did the man, then they both got faster and faster to the point they were both running at each another. As the distance got smaller, Arlo turned his body right and started to run in that direction. The man quickly followed behind him.
Arlo was running fast, but the man was faster. The distance between the two got smaller and smaller.
After running for a couple more seconds, they were only 2 meters apart, the man's sword could reach the distance between the two, but he didn't attack him.
He wasn't that careless unlike his partner, he kept following Arlo untill they were about 1 meter apart, then he plunged to the right , which made Arlo and him be side by side.
The man gripped his sword tighter, lifted it up and shot it forward like throwing a spear but he didn't let go of the sword
The sword was only a couple inches away from Arlo's head, he had barely noticed the man jumping and was now looking at the tip of the sword coming towards him at immense speed.