The sound of blades bouncing off the flesh was prominent in the atmosphere. Damark was sitting next to the big man, he looked at him. He had a muscular figure with tanned skin, as if he had worked a lot in the sun. He was only wearing a vest and a half pant, and had many cut marks on his body. Some marks were in the shape of a circle with intricate details. Damark thought inwardly, "I wonder what this man had done to get locked up in prison and labelled up as a criminal."
*SWISH*
Another person had sliced through the piece of the serpent. It was a not a man but rather a delicate girl wearing a blue coloured hoodie to hide her face. She was standing in the rows of woman section, holding the sword in her hands wearing gloves. Damark found it really strange that why was she trying to hide her face. She was also sent to the seat where Damark and big man was sitting. When she was walking towards the seat, Damark had a glimpse of her face. It was a fair skin with tarted lips and a small nose, but the eyes and the forehead were hidden by the robe. She came near the seat and sat a little far away from Damark. He didn't mind her sitting there. He looked at the big man and gave him a smile, the man was actually not looking intimating. He was like a normal person who was fed up with working and now was trapped here. The man looked at Damark from the corner of his eyes and said, "Aren't you Arvin?". Damark was a bit flustered but he replied, "Yes, I am but how do you know my name?"
The man replied, "When you were 3 years old I visited your home. I have been friends with your father for a very long time. He is a good man!"
Arvin asked, "Oh.. but what are you doing here? If you were my father's friend then it means that you might belong from the working class, what crime did you commit?"
The man looked at the ground with a saddened expression and replied, "Well you see kid… I was captured under a false accusation. I was just working on my field and was lifting up the bricks of stone just like everyday. But on that day, few knights came to my house and asked me to pay for something irrelevant which was to be paid later. But since I didn't have much money I was not able to pay them. I asked the king for justice, but he accused me of robbery. I really don't understand who did this to me and what bad have I done to go through so much. Due to the false accusation, I got really angry and I injured a knight who was standing next to me. But, I was not strong enough to handle so many other knights. Thus, I was captured and tortured a lot."
Damark felt misery for the man he knew what it felt like to be jailed under a false accusation. Since he had inherited Arwin's feeling, so he could share a minimal amount of emotions.
He asked the man, "What may I call you?"
The man replied, "You could call me Uncle Mark. And what are you doing here kid?"
Damark explained everything that he had to go through. After some time, Mark replied, "Man.. you really had worse despite being so young. I admire your courage. Let's win the next round and get out of this place as soon as possible. I have heard that these people are going to do something to the world town."
Damark frowned and asked, "Didn't they say that they are going to not do anything to the town?"
Mark replied, "Don't be naive, they have destroyed our Kingdom and are now acting like a hero for the people. They is some evil intent behind."
Damark nodded and looked at the arena. Till now, less than 5 people have successfully sliced through the piece. And now only 5 more people were left.
Who would have thought that they would massacre so many people with their hands. When Damark looked at the arena, all he could see was that the ground instead of being brown was not red in colour. He despised the sight and turned he head to not think about it. He saw that the other three person who had passed had strong muscles but a medium physique. But they had scary faces.
*SWISH*
Another woman was successful in slicing through the piece.
Slowly time passed and a total of 8 people have successfully passed the trial.
The man on the pillar looked down on the 8 people standing in a row. He said, "Now that you have passed through the second trial, we will begin the final trial.
This trial is a special test which is common in our Kingdom. It is called 'The Blood Trial'."
"You all will be asked to stand on a platform and two people will fight each other. They had to inflict damage on their opponents. And the damage should allow the opponents blood to pour out. A bar metre will be placed which will measure the amount of blood that has bleed out. When the bar will meet the criteria, the opponent will surely die of blood loss. But if they are even able to maintain their stature, that match would be consider as draw and the winner will proceed to the next round. And the opponent will get award for his determination, as for this trial they would get freedom."
Everyone got happy.
The man smirked and replied, "For you kind information, the amount of blood that the person will lose is almost equal to half of the blood in his/her body"
The smile on everyone's face vanished.
'What!? Half? Why are we even bothering fighting, just kill us. I have never heard of such cruel methods even on earth.' Damark thought
Two knights came to the centre of the arena and each had a scroll in their hand.
They stood opposite to each other. They opened the scroll and dropped it on the ground.
*ZOOM*
The ground started shaking and a big crater was formed where the knights were standing. Suddenly glass panes started appearing on the boundaries of the crater. They had something written on them, one of the knight, pulled out his sword and stabbed it into the ground. The other knight had a small hammer in his hand which he pulled out from his belt. He smashed the handle base of the sword and it went a little inside. The glass panes suddenly turned yellow. They backed off from the location and looked at the man on the pillar.
He said, "The yellow colour on the pane represents no blood is spilled on it. When blood is poured into it, it will turn golden and slowly orange and then ultimately red. If the person had died, the panes will turn black. I am looking forward to your fight". He stared everyone with a devilish smile.
Damark was now hesitating as he didn't have much synchronisation with this new role. He didn't know the limits to Arwin's body, so he was not sure whether he would be able to win against others.
When he looked back at the incident inside the room, he thought, "I am only skilled with dagger by my own skills, but I have seen through the eyes of Arwin that he was a beast in sword fighting. I wonder can I replicate that."
Suddenly the man shouted, "I will be announcing the names of the pairs who will be fighting. So pay attention."
"Mark - Yruf"
"Alisa - Teel"
"Arwin - Grunt"
"Suvin - Percus"
"These are the pairs, so be ready for your match"
"The first match is between Mark and Yruf"
Damark looked at uncle Mark, "Don't lose uncle!"
Mark nodded and went forward to prove his innocence.
Mark was standing opposite to a dark coloured man who was bald but had strong muscles. He looked more like a fighter, he had a sword in his hand just like Mark had. They both were staring at each other with their bloodlusts. Mark was going to make the opponent bleed until he had dead, he had never done something like this before and had fear that he would be in remorse for over a month. But now was not the time to think of such thoughts. He didn't want to do it but he had to do it. He clenched his hand and moved towards Yruf.