We were running along the halls. I was following the young knight behind. I did not know why he was helping me, did he think he was a hero of sorts? That was just naive.
I had summoned the ascended charm I had gotten. It had taken the shape of a necklace, and it seemed that it could turn into a bracelet that carried small gems, crown with a yellow gem on it, or a yellow gem that could be engraved into your armor.
Auro was wearing a mask currently. We had been spotted long ago, and were now making a run for it. I did not know how he was going to get out of this situation if I ever escaped. But he seemed confident.
Right when we were going to take a corner, I felt something bite into my shoulder, then immediately another one. It made me wince in pain, but I held the screams back. Two arrows had lodged into my shoulder, another one was on the way to bite into my leg. But I luckily dodged it.
When we took our turn, we were finally out of the range of the archers, I immediately snatched the arrows out of my shoulder with a pained wince.
What awaited us, was 5 guards standing out way. Only 2 of them were awakened, which most likely Auro would handle with ease.
Auro sprung into action quickly, exchanging attacks with the awakened. While the other 3 mundane knights circled around me. At that moment I had no choice but to summon that cursed armor.
Yellow sparks shimmered around me, and weaved themselves into a leather armor. The armor was simple, there were shoulder guards, elbow and knee guards. The top only contained my chest, weaving a sturdy leather armor on top of it. But it left my toned midriff open, the shorts that were weaved were out of leather, and provided sheaths for daggers. There were also lather boots, they reached out to my knees.
"What the hell?"
The first guard exclaimed as he saw the woman in front of him suddenly gain an armor. But without waiting he charged at me and swung his sword to cut off my head.
I ducked under the swing, bringing my kodachi forward at high speeds I was going to thrust it into his head. At that moment the second guard charged and thrusted his sword against me, leaving me no choice but to roll away. During the roll I slashed my kodachi against the first guards leg, which left a deep cut on it.
The guard let out a wince, but did not fall to his knees immediately. When I was about to get up, I was kicked in the face by an armored boot. I staggered backwards, blood gushing down my nose.
The second guard was upon me once again, he slashed his sword downwards to my neck. But I immediately twisted my body. As his sword did not meet any resistance, he staggered forwards, losing his balance.
Right at that moment I thrusted my kodachi with both my hands and stabbed him in the forehead.
[You have slain an..]
'Shut up!'
I did not have time to listen as the third guard thrusted his spear towards me. Stepping to the left I avoided the stab, then I slashed my kodachi against the stick of the spear. The spear appeared to be a mundane one, so my kodachi cut clean through it.
But that did not make the third guard stop as he suddenly spun what was left of the stick in his hands and hit the side of my head with it.
The world around me spun, my vision was about to darken but I held on. I immediately stepped backwards from his range, blood trickled down the side of my face.
The third guard was about to hit me with the stick once again, but this time I managed to duck under it. Then I dashed towards him, closing the distance in a blink of an eye. My kodachi lashed out to stab the man in the chest. And it successfully did as the short sword passed through his armor, then stabbed into his heart.
His body grew limp as he stared at me with wide eyes. With a kick, I dislodged him with a kick and we fell to the ground with a wet thud.
[You have slain a dormant beast.]
And now.. it was time to kill the first guard. The man was staring at me with wide eyes, he was limping backwards, keeping his sword high up in guard. I dashed towards him, closing the distance almost immediately.
With a horrified scream, he slashed his sword downwards. But it reached no one.
His head was already severed from his body.
[You have slain a dormant beast.]
'I am killing a lot of things..'
Should I be worried about that?
Probably not.
Auro was already done with the other awakened too. He had severed their heads cleanly off.
Without any words, we continued running.
***
The halls of the insides of the arena were passing through blinks. Guards were appearing from everywhere around us, blocking every exit possible. At one point, we were running through the audience. Auro killed any mundane human mercilessly if they dared to reach out to us.
So.. I had followed suit.
The competition had not stopped while I was on the run. Currently, the corpses of the criminals were not tied from the tall plants. They had severed the veins on their legs, leading to their inevitable death.
Crows had appeared on the sky as the sun was setting. Many of them were flying around the arena in circles, while multiple dozens of them had planted themselves on the corpses and has started to feast on them.
It was truly a gross sight.
What was worse, was the audience. They were getting off to this. They watched as the crows beaks dug into the dead body, they cheered. They screamed "Glory."
Where was the glory in this? All they were doing was no different than acting like mindless beasts. I loathed them with all my heart. If I ever came back here in the future, if I survived, if I was stronger that time. I would slaughter all of them.
We finally left the audience as we headed deeper into the building once again. However Auro had lead us to another section that the guards of the arena had not reached here yet. But that did not mean there were none of them here.
"We are near, hang in there." the hero said as he looked back at me while running.
My lungs were burning, they felt like they were going to explode.
My legs were screaming in pain, but I could not stop running. I needed to get out of here if I did not want to die. If I ever stopped they were going to tie me to those tall planks, and let the crows feast on my dead body. I could not allow that.
I needed to live.
Why?
For my mother. To see her awake again. To hear her voice, to be in her embrac-
'Bullshit.'
I was doing it for myself. I wanted to survive for my own sake. I wanted to get stronger so I never ended up in a situation like this ever again.
I wanted to kill the spell. Never in my life, had I felt this helpless, mocked and weak. I wanted to destroy it so much to the point there wasn't left any evidences of its existence.
My eyes were wide. I was hyper focused on everything around me. Every step, every breath, every heartbeat.
I could fell it all.
My short-sword passed through a guards neck as I rushed past him. My movements held no hesitance, no mercy.
The light was ahead. I could hear Auro scream something. But I did not hear it. In my eyes, he was dead too. I did not know why I held such animosity towards him.
No, I knew. He was strong.
He was strong, he could have helped me from the start. He could have prevented everything that had happened in the cell.
But he hadn't.
And now he acted like a hero, lending a hand to someone in need.
'Sorry buddy.. its too late.'
I stepped outside the arena. Before me a forest awaited me. I felt like my vision was getting darker, but that was not because of exhaustion. That was because the nightmare was ending.
I turned to look at Auro. He had turned his back on me, and now was walking away. It seems I had ran out of time.
Perhaps.. I could thank him.
"Auro!"
The young knight turned my way. Only to regret it.
A short-sword was stabbed into his neck. And in front of him, a woman with purple eyes and bloodied face stood. He closed his eyes to never open them again.
My own vision faltered afterwards.
And then the Spell whispered:
[You have slain an awakened beast, Auro of the Nine.]
[Wake up, Vera! Your nightmare is over.]
[Prepare for appraisal…]