ã€ŠSlaves have no names, (hiatus)ã€‹


 Book Prologue

    Chapter 1

    Light shone in his eyes and his vision was blurred by the light,  it took him a while to get his bearings. Before his sight had returned his face was suddenly smacked into the cold floor and he could feel a luke warm liquid running down his head and he heard it dripping on the floor. Blood, he was bleeding. He was completely confused by whatever was happening and he still had no sense of his bearings or the time.

    ¡°For your own sake, Stay down.¡± A rough but calm voice resounded in his ear

    He tried to look at the origin of the voice but got smacked back into the floor before he could even turn his head.

    ¡°Now don''t you dare move¡±  the voice whispered with the sound of a lingering threat.

    Unwilling to risk losing more blood and maybe even his consciousness if this continued, he stopped moving.

    ¡°Right, now that i have your attention , I am the Instructor as you will be calling me from today forward. I''d like to inform you that you will be slaves from now on! Welcome to the Blackburnt Arena!¡± The voice continued in his calm and rough manner.¡°You will all become sacks of meat to be sacrificed to the entertainment of the rich and wealthy! Now doesn''t that sound like a heap of fun!¡± The lingering tone of sarcasm evident in his voice

    He tried to move his head to the left and right without the instructor noticing and he managed to see a bunch of other knocked down and scared looking kids lying around him. Their ages seemed to vary from 12 to 15 and there where plenty of different hair,eye and skin colours to be seen around him, there seemed to be around 30 of them he was also pretty sure that most of them weren''t even human. At least that''s wat he thought gathering from the things he could see.

    ¡°You have no memories, no names and no rights, you are now simple and fresh meat, fighters for the arena. There is no way out because there is no entrance or exit to be found in this entire complex. First thing is first you will be given numbers so that i as an Instructor don''t have to go through the useless effort of remembering your faces¡±

    He could see the kid next to him who had these weirdly slanted violet eyes accompanied by white hair and really pale and snowy coloured skin. He was sweating and trembling because of the words tspoken by the instructor. The kid seemed to be a few years younger than him and possibly the youngest of the kids that had been brought to this place . He estimated the kid to be about 11 years old. Well even though he did say the kid was younger, honestly he had no idea of wat his own age was. He couldnt even remember his own name not to mention the date of his birth.

    ¡°Okay! Stand up¡± The instructor said and his voice seemed to have a bit more emotion in it compared to before.

    He stood up and for the first time got a good look at the instructor. The man was not as gigantic as he had expected he seemed to be around 170 centimeters tall. All in all not that tall for an average adult.  His muscles however where very impressive and also extremely intimidating as they bulged and took on the look of tough metal cords that coiled around his arms.

    There was also an abundance of scars to be seen crisscrossing his arms and shoulders. The mans face itself had a scar which ran from his left jaw to the temple on the same side and another scar that ran from his left mouth corner to a bit below his jawbone wich seemed to have been dented at that spot. In other words he was a tough and rather terrifying man.

    ¡°Now you will be partnered up, you will be chained together and these chains will not be removed, these particular chains have some special properties but you will find out about those later! There is 36 of you runts and i expect perhaps 4 to survive.¡±

    He heard a sob come from his left where the pale kid seemed to be panicking and losing control of his bladder as he heard the sound of liquid dripping on the floor.

    With a loud smak the kid was suddenly sent flying against the wall behind him.

    ¡°If you are already losing your courage now how do you expect to survive!¡± The instructor roared with his mouth nearly foaming in an outburst of sudden anger.

    The man moved to the kid and kicked him in the stomach and sent him flying into the very same wall his body had just dropped down from, as the small defenseless boy hit the wall and coughed out a spurt of blood that hit the floor in a splash that made the boy feel sick to the stomache.

    ¡°You better toughen up and fast kid, Or you will be the very first to die!¡± The Instructor told him immediatly movind into stance to kick the kid again. But before the instructor could finish the kick he had aimed at the poor kid. Not being able to stand this any longer he jumped in front of the kid and blockked the kick by crossing his arms. Getting knocked back into the wall but having reduced the force with his block he didn''t really suffer any damage although his arms stung quiete a bit.

    ¡°Hhmpf¡± The instructor sniffed. ¡°So one of you runts actually already posseses some of that much needed courage, and it even comes with a decent bit of reflexes! As a reward Number 637 u get paired with the small coward over there. His number is 636 make sure he remembers it!. The instructor commanded while looking towards the kid determination flashing across his face.

    ¡°All of you follow me for the chaining!¡± The instructor continued as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. The kids, not having much of a choice followed the instructor until they came into a hot and smoggy stone walled chamber. It had the resemblance of a dungeon, the walls where made out of somekind of dark stone and the shadows that the forge fire spread across the room where shifting and made the room seem extreamely foreboding.

    Somehow the the fire of the forge calmed 637 as he watched the flames move in their unpredicatable swaying patterns. There was also a forge master present who was slamming a humongous hammer onto an anvil. The man himself was even more musculour than the instructor with arms nearing the size of tree trunks. He was absolutely sure that this man was not human at the very least. The black eyes with the red irisis made that painfully obvious. Not to mention the black curled horns growing out of his head

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    The man was not alone however. Next to him stood an elderly man with sharp electric blue eyes. The man seemed unmoved by the events happening before him. Although the robe he was wearing effectivly covered the body to an extent where one could not be sure of his build. The way the man oozed danger had even 637 on his toes.

    ¡°This is the forge master and the elder and they are here to connect your chains and give you the slave mark! This mark will need to be put on your skin so you can under no circumstances go against the orders of anyone from Blackburnt City. Another thing of note is that if you do not get this mark then the magic of these halls will kill you within the week. Now who wants to go first and get his skin branded!¡± The instructor said gruffly looking at the kids without a hint of pity on his face. ¡°636¡± He said looking at the small white-haired kid. ¡°Why dont you go first!¡± his words only made the small boy tremble more, a sheen of sweat could now be seen decorating his snowy skin.

    He tried to back away through the other kids as if he thought he could disappear into the walls if he moved back far enough. Seeing this, 637 quickly stepped forward while glaring into the instructors eyes.

    ¡°So 637 you wanna go first huh, all the same to me!¡± He said grabbing his arm and dragging him to the forge master. He was pushed face down onto a slab of stone that felt warm to the touch. The instructor held him down and fastened the hard leather restraints at each corner of the stone slab around his wrists and ankles.

    Meanwhile 637 could see the forge master slowly pulling out a dark iron metal bar with at the end of it a glowing red hot symbol of some kind of bird. He walked to 637 until he was no longer in his field of vision. He could feel the heat closing in on his back as the instructor suddenly walked back into his field vision.

    ¡°Better brace yourself kiddo this is gonna hurt alot¡± The instructor said with a note of gentleness in his rough voice. ¡° 637 screamed out before muffling his scream into a grunt as he stared viciously into the eyes of the instructor even though his body was trying its hardest to break free his eyes met the instructors and refused to budge.

    ¡°Hahahahahahahaha hey Forgie this kid''s got some stones doesn''t he, he might even survive training!¡±'' The forge master just grunted in response as he put the metal rod back into the fire. The instructor moved out of his vision again and released him from the restraints. He then pushed the kid to the other side of the counter before returning to the group and grabbing the white haired kid. 636 as his name seemed to be for the moment was trying to squirm his way out of the instructors grasp and started to whimper and cry.

    The instructor just ignored him and pushed him down on the counter and fastened the leather restraints. As the forge master pushed the rod onto the back of 636 he started to scream, tears flowed out of his eyes streaming endlessly. The eyes of the young boy however seemed to start glowing in a viscious purple light. Until after wat seemed an eternity the forge master was done and the instructor pushed the kid to 637 who caught him before he would fall face first onto the ground.

    ¡°You ok?¡± 637 asked the small boy putting him back on his feet. The small boy nodded looking into his eyes with gratitude.

    ¡°Next up! We are going to chain you two together come here¡± The instructor told them as he moved to the anvil where the forge master clasped first 637''s right foot in the a black iron chain and then 636''s right foot was clasped into the other end of the chain. The forge master then pulled a thin glowing hot rod out of the fire and welded the claspings shut. The chain was of darkest black iron he had ever seen and was made from a kind of metal he had never seen before, other than that the weight of the chain was astounding. The distance between his feet and 636''s was perhaps 50 centimeters.

    After the chains had been completed the blue eyed elder walked forward. He removed his hands from the pockets of his robes. A strange blue light eminated from his hands, the veins visibe because of the blue light that seemed to glowing from the blood of strange elder. The elder started to mumble some words below audible range. The words seemed to have an effect though, 637''s skin started to tingle and goose bumps spread themselves all over his skin. The hairs on his arms and leggs standing up from an invisible tension.

    The light spread itself over the chain and the change in it was extremely unnerving. Glowing with a ghastly blue light the chain transformed the weight that he had at first felt from the clasp on his angle grew less and less until it dissapeared completely. He could however still see the chain, the chain however seemed to have no real form anymore however.

    He tried moving away from 636 and the chain just lengthend itself. The chain seemed to grow he could even feel it pulsing around his ankle. Fear flowed through the chain and then he realised. His soul and 636''s had been attached somehow. He could almost feel whatever 636 was feeling. Feeling may not exactly be the right word but it was asif he could sense those feelings.

    Helping 636 to the back of the room he sat down on an empty stone bench against the wall and just stared at it in wonder.

    Soon enough the instructor started dragging the other kids to the stone counter. This, 637 thought while glaring at the 2 large men in determination, Is something i will  definitely survive. No matter how strange the things that are happening here may be, i will not be distracted. I will make it out of this, no matter wat these people might think. If one can enter it one can leave it and i will find out how!

    While the other kids where getting branded and where screaming and crying he was already mentally preparing himself for whatever was going to come next.

 Chapter 2

    After the chaining and branding which had resulted in a lot of the kids being weak in the knees and unable to walk normally because they all seemed to still be trembling from the branding experience, The instructor led them through the dark hallways of wherever they where to another room which was much better lit than the one the forge master had. This room seemed to have some kind of administrative purpose as there was a desk and stacks of papers everywhere.

    ¡°This is the Status Plate room¡± The instructor told them, the instructor now seemed surprisingly joyfull and in control of himself. Maybe the branding had filled his daily dose of sadism 637 thought wryly. ¡°

    This is where you are going to get your status plates¡± He then started pushing the kids towards the wooden desk without any further explanation. Behind the desk was the elder that somehow seemed very ¡°clean¡± to 637. Almost as if dust and stains avoided the man the wrobe he wore showed no stains or soot from the forge room he had just left and those electric blue eyes where still unnerving. Especially now that he know this old man could use some incredibly potent magic.

    ¡°I assume the instructor told you kids next to nothing about these status plates¡± The elderly man questioned them with a smooth and somewhat calming voice. 637 shook his head when the Elder looked at him. ¡°Yes i expected as much¡± he continued ¡°These status plates are wat record your specific statistics and strength levels. This is a simple way to show how strong a person is. Of course the system is not without its flaws as it does not show things like battle experience or instincts. Both of those can decide a victor in a battle so do not expect those with the higher levels to automatically be stronger. As for stats, stats can be put under the catogories.

    Bravery:  The mental will to fight against all odds even when normal people would succumb to the pressure this stat can be raised by fighting against people stronger than you, against larger numbers of opponents, or continueng to fight even when fear is threatining to take control.

    Agility: Physical flexibility and reflexes can also be determined by how a weapon is wielded. This stat can be raised by doing exercises to make ur body more flexible and training the core muscles. Also sometimes when u react with reflexes beyond your stat to anything that happens this stat has also been known to raise.

    Dexterity: The accuracy to hit any target with a ranged weapon or the finesse used in wielding any melee weapon. This Stat can be raised by using a ranged weapon alot in practice or by getting more control over your melee weapon allowing it to be moved more smoothly.

    Strength: The power that is put behind a blow. This stat only apply''s to melee weapons or when fighting unarmed, it can only be raised by doing strength training.

    Endurance: The physical durability of your body. This stat can be raised by training your body and getting used to taking hits.

    Toughness: This particular stat is often confused with Endurance but they are not the same toughness also applies to the will of mind to continue after hits taken and people with a high toughness can shake of hits that someone else with the same endurance stat would fall to.

    This stat will only be raised by combat experience.

    Ressiliance: Being able to take magic head-on without getting your body incinerated. Also applies to mind bending spells like fear or illusions. Can only be trained by experienceing these magics first hand.

    Intelligence: Mental calculating power of an individual. Determined by how smart one is and how fast he can formulate a strategy or plan in any dire situation. Can be raised by studying and mind games.

    Wisdom: Shows ones experience with  worldly events. Gained when meeting and/or accepting individuals with diffrent cultures and/or appereances than you. Also gained whenever tragic events have been overcome.

    Magic: Ones inherit talent to use magic. Can be gained by studying the magic arts or in some very rare cases will be raised by an individuals own raw talent.

    ¡°These¡± the Elder said finishing his monolaque ¡°are the 10 stats that you will be able to see on your status plate, Your level is determined by your stats and will only grow when u train and improve apon your stats¡±.

    The Elder had somehow with his voice managed to entrance all the kids. They showed an intense amount of interest in these status plates the elder was telling them about. It made sense in a way, who wouldnt wanna know how well he stacked up against those around him. Knowing your strength or the boundaries of your strength had an advantage all on its own.

    ¡°And this¡± the elder said pulling some kind of necklace from behind the counter ¡°is a status plate¡±

    The necklace itself was a simple braided string of steel with a rectangular plate of metal hanging from it. It was quite literally a plate 637 thought wrly. ¡°The only thing we need to make this status plate yours is some blood from whoever we want it to belong to. You youngling he said pointing to 636 come here¡±

    636 reluctantly after a bit of encouragment from 637 shuffelled to the elder who walked back behind the desk to grab a needle. ¡°Dont worry this wont hurt nearly as much as that nasty branding you went through¡± he said while calming the young boy. ¡°Im just going to prick your finger for one drop of blood, i think a brave young man like you can handle that right?¡± The elder said smiling calmly at the young boy. 636 nodded his head and held out his finger which the elder then moved on to prick with the needle taking a drop of his blood and letting it fall on the status plate.

    The plate glowed with somekind of weird electric blue arcane light after the blood splashed onto the plate. The itself plate seemed to transform into somekind of darkened wood and with a reddish sheen over it. Which the elder then showed to the other kids. ¡°This would be the first level of the plate, This level we refer to as Mohogany which is a type of wood. If you look closely you will also see that this status plate has 3 horizontal stripes on them made out of iron this shows that this young man is on the third level of Mohogany.¡±

    ¡° There are 9 levels on each different material first there are 3 stripes then there are 3 V shaped markings wich stack on each other and lastly there are 3 clovers. If you level up after the third clover the status plate gets upgraded in material. The materials can consist of the following Mohogany, Iron, Steel, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Mithril, Adamantium and Platinum. There are a few exeptions to these rules but they dont matter to you kids. Not yet atleast!¡±

    ¡°Next up i would like to test the rest of you so come on make a line!¡± The kids seemed to actually look forward to this part a little, they formed a line quicker than he had actually expected. 637 not really caring much one way or the other just dragged 636 with him and stepped into the back of the line.

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    ¡°Did you feel anything when your blood hit that metal plate?¡± 637 questioned him

    636 shook his head.

    ¡°Don''t be afraid to talk to me, im not the enemy here im your partner! You can even think of me as your bodyguard throughout this whole thing if that makes you feel better¡± 637 told him with an attempt to reassure the fragile looking child.

    636 looked him in the eyes for a moment before shaking his head. In a moment of determination he told him ¡°If we want to survive this the best way would be to work together. Not for you to only look after me. I myself have to become stronger!¡± His tiny face flashed a fierce look.

    Grinning 637 patter his shoulder. ¡°Right you are, lets show those people how strong a kid can actually be!¡± Grinning at each other they made their way to the back of the line.

    One after another the kids made the tiny hole in their fingers and let the drop of blood fall onto their own respective status plates. Most of the kids where level 1 or 2 of mohogany, 1 other kid was level 3 honestly he wasn''t even sure if that thing was a kid, honestly he looked more like a walking tree.  After the treekid there there was a whitehaired girl with a dark skin that was almost black, who dropped a bit of her blood on the plate and got one of those V''s.

    Lastly it was his turn. 637 stepped forward and followed the same procedure as the other kids and let the drop of blood fall onto the status plate wich glowed the same as the rest. His status plate turned into mohogany just like the others but unlike the others he had 2 V''s on his status plate.

    ¡°Hahahahhaa as expected of the ballsy one u far outrank the rest of the meat!¡± The instructor said in his rough voice. ¡°Yes i aswell am actually quite surprised¡± The elder said. ¡°This is quite a high ranking for a child the second highest we''ve had here so far, For reference kids the average adult would score somwhere between 8 mohogany and 6 iron. Soldiers would be around the Steel 5 and Bronze 3 levels. So for young man like this one heret oo have mohogany 5 is quite high. I bet the instructor expects quite alot from you young man¡±.

    Soon after the elder had finished his words the instructor told the kids to follow him into the next room. The room itself was better lit than the forge room they had visited before and seemed to have alot of training equipment there where scarecrows scattered around with alot of bloodstained hay on the floor. The walls themselves where filled with all kinds of different weaponry. He saw swords of all diffrent forms and sizes like a scimitar, longsword, shortsword, heavy sword, greatsword falchions and rapiers, There where even some exotic sword like weapons he didnt even recognize.

    ¡°This the instructor said is as you can see the training room.  Here is where you will spend most of your blood filled days and will hopefully for you be where you level up! After all if you dont become strong you will be the first to die.¡± The instructor said with a grim face. Straigtening his back to its full size he continued.

    ¡°Now you guys get to pick a weapon he said and he pointed to the wall, go on pick pick! Owwh and one more thing you can pick only one weapon so be sure to make the right choice! Some weapons ofcourse belong together a sword and shield for example. If you are unsure about your choice come to me and i will pick something for you that i think would fill you kids well.¡±

    The kids seperated themselves and started to browse the walls 636 followed 637 and looked up to him with questioning eyes. 637 ran his eyes up the slim boy and started to think to himself. He is rather small and slim but he is one of the 3 that was level 3 so wat would his strongest point be?

    Probably his speed he said losing himself in a string of thought but it is also possible he has that level because of his magical capibilities but that wont be any use to us since we wont be taught any of that in this arena.

    So we should go with a speedy weapon for him, something dexterous! 637 looked around the walls and spotted something he thought might work. It was a weapon that would require much skill and finesse but he hoped the boy would be able to master such a weapon.

    637 walked up to the wall and pulled of it 2 knives that where slightly curved and the ends where connected by a fine steel chain. The design on the weapons was rather simple and they had no gaurd and the knifes blade was connected to a wooden pommel. ¡°I think you should try and use this¡±He said looking at 636. 636 looked at him for a moment the nodded and took the weapon.

    ¡°Well if you are going to be using a quick and longer ranged weapon that really has no defensive skills then i guess i will go for¡±  As he reached his hand to a shield and a normal short sword.

    ¡°Wait a minute there ballsy!¡± The instructor said ¡°I have a better idea for you¡± The instructor walked of into a room that was connected to the side and came back with some kind of sword that was longer than a longsword but not quite as long or heavy as a heavysword or greatsword

    . ¡°This beauty he said is an exotic weapon from the far east called a Bastardsword and i think it would suit you just fine!¡± The instructor said grinning down at 637. 637 surprised by the suddenly wellwishing side the instructor showd them, accepted the Bastardsword from him and nodded.

    ¡°Now that you all have picked a weapon follow me to The sleeping chambers you guys better get a good nights rest because from tomorrow forwards you will be training like hell for your chances of survival to increase!¡±

    The instructor lead them out through the end of the hall and showed them to a dark hallway wich was split on either side into cells of with 4 beds into each of them. One of the rooms seemed to be slightly larger and here 636 and 637 where put aswell as the treekid and the dark skinned girl that both happenend to be the ones walking behind him. He also noted that these two where connected together with that ephereal chain

    ¡°As my last words of the day for you kids.¡± The instructor said turning to them. ¡°You will be stuck here for the rest of your lives. All of us here do not have any other choice. That includes me, the forge master and the elder you have seen. We are the few that have survived years of the trials we ahve been put through in the arena.¡±

    ¡°Working together is about the only way for atleast some of you to make it through. Sacrifice might even be needed to make sure atleast one of you survive. Get to know each other. Train well, and have a goods night sleep¡±

    The kids tired after the branding and evrything they had to process today decided to go to sleep immediately it didn''t take long for each and every one of them to find their dreams or in most cases their nightmares.

 Chapter 3

    As 637 had expected he woke up to the brisk voice of the instructor. He was starting to think that the  Instructor wasn''t that bad a man, damaged definitly, but not evil. Of course there was no way to test his theorie and the only way it could be proven was through time. Having been lost in his own thoughts he didn''t quite get wat the Instructor had been saying but it was hard to miss however that the other children where following him.

    Before they reached the training hall they came past a desk with simple light grey cloth that contained clothes for each of them. Evrything the same but in diffrent sizes fully legged pants, and shirts without sleeves. There was another darker string of cloth they could use to tie up their pants with so wouldn''t drop onto the floor.

    637 removed his old pants and and threw them into the corner where they where told to leave them. He then put on the new pants. Surprisingly the ethereal chains just went straight through the clothing and did not seem to be affected by the pieces of cloth in the least.

    Putting on his shirt however was a lot less pleasent the sore and burnt skin of the branding did not appreciate having rough cloth pulled over it. With some carefull tugging he was able to put on his shirt and after a while his back got used to the soft throbbing pain in his back.. After they had finished clothing themselves the instructor spoke up.

    ¡°We will now start weapons training, this will be done by yourself, I will and cannot teach each of you about your own weapons you will have to figure out how to use them yourself. Techniques you have figured out by yourself will be easier to use and more often than not more efficient than the moves others can teach you.¡±

    ¡° I will however have each and everyone of you following the same physical training, the training will stack to give your body time to catch up. This means that we will start of with less and move on to more!¡±

    As they walked further down the hallway the instructor continued his monologue. ¡°However do not expect the training to be easy from the start! Most of you will pass out before the day has ended and the rest of you will be lying in a puddle of the contents of your gut! But before we get started the body needs its fuel to get the job done. Breakfast first!¡±

    They then arrived in the training hall and there was a humungous heavy oaken table placed in the center of the training hall. Even though the design was simple and there where no exquisite details or craftmanship, the size of the table alone was more than impressive. 637 wondered how the table had been placed in the training hall and who had placed it there since it was not there the night before when they passed through the hall and chose their weapons.

    The table had exactly 37 chairs, 18 on each side and 1 at the head of the table. The table itself was already set and there was food on each plate. The food was rather simple, mashed potatoes, bacon and eggs with 2 apples each.

    The children sat down on the table as a result of the chains they automaticly ended up sitting next to the one they were chained to. Not that this really bothered anyone, the ones they ended up being chained to had an odd sense of familiarity to them. More importantly however they where to hungry to think of anything else than the food which was on the plates before them.

    ¡°No need to wait for something this isnt the bloody royal dining hall just eat!¡± The instructor commanded them.

    The children needing no further nudge, started eating and dug in with extreme fervour. ¡°DELICIOUS!¡± one of the children shouted after tasting his first bite. Indeed the food was abnormally tasty even though he was hungry 637 thought that the food shouldn''t taste this good especially since the food seemed to be rather simple in essence, the taste itself was beyond belief.

    It didn''t take long for them to finish the food and happily rub their bellies in satisfaction. The pleasure did not last for long though. The instructor soon told them to follow him it seemed they would be running immiediatly after their meal.

    ¡°Some people say exercising after eating is bad for you! We dont care about such nonsense here! We have limited time to get you kids ready for fighting and we are going to use every bloody last second to get you prepared!¡± The instructor openend a door in the side of the training hall and started running down the badly lit hallway.

    The hallway itself wasn''t broad it would only allow them to move in single file. Because of the chains alot of the children where expecting to have trouble walking and slamming into each other.

    The chains however did not hinder them in the slighest. Although each individual chain could spread out infinitly as far as they could tell most people ended up running next to their partners.

    In reality however this proved far more difficult than expected. Everyone had different heights so their speed would not be the same if each moved their own bodies in the same way as the others. Those that were smaller than the others had to move their leggs faster. The instructor easily still the biggest of them all, except maybe for that treekid who was nearly identical in height already, set the pace for wat he thought was a decent one.

    It took alot of effort from most of the kids to be able to adjust their pace to the one the instructor was setting.

    ¡°How about we let the smallest kids run in the front so the rest of us can adjust our steps to them, that way we would avoid running into each other?¡± The darkskinned girl suggested.

    ¡°This would indeed be most logical¡± The treekid boomed with a low rumble.

    ¡°Alrighty then, smaller kids upfront!¡± 637 yelled to the people behind him

    The 2 smallest people ended up being 636 and a small beastman that resembled more monkey than human. Although the monkey seemed to have no trouble with running 636 was having a tougher time of it.

    ¡°Hhaha! Not bad kids, it took the previous groups alot longer to start working together properly. Comunication is key in survival. As i said remember to work together im glad u runts are taking it to heart! But fun time is over time to start for real!¡±

    The instructor soon started to pick up the pace and kept a fast but steady pace that soon became monotonues. Soon everyone was falling into step and their heels beat on the cold stone floor with the  exact same rythm. The sound of the harmonious heel stomps on the ground where somehow soothing and satisifying to 637. He took pleasure in the order and the group harmony that existed in this rythm of running.

    Before he could even let his thoughts wander any further however the instructor started to pick up the pace again. Soon the pace was so fast that 636 had trouble keeping up breathing heavily and sweat started to drop down his back making the boy flinch in pain as the salt of his sweat ran over the burn on his back.

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    Luckily 637 was the one behind him and slowed down his pace accordingly. The monkey boy had noticed the faltering steps of 636 aswell and adjusted his pace to match 636. Soon the gap between them and the instructor started to slowly grow.

    Most of the children seemed to have alot of stamina but after wat seemed to 637 as a mere 20 minutes the violet haired 636 started to stumble and almost fell on his face. Before 636 could even hit the floor 637 caught him. And swung him over his shoulders

    ¡°Not much of a runner are you snowflake!¡± 637 jested at him

    636 looked at him and returned a weak grin. The poor boy was completely exhausted he had probebly never done any real exercise in his previous life. ¡°Wat''s this snowflake you speak of?¡±

    ¡°You don''t know wat snow is?¡± 637 said looking at him in surprise.

    The small boy shook his head. ¡°I have never heard of this snow you speak off¡±

    ¡°Well when the weather gets extremely cold the water will freeze. This will cause the water drops of rain to become cold white flakes, puffy and soft if gathered together will fill the ground with its cold plushy wetness.¡±

    ¡°This is a truth you tell me? Frozen water falling from the heavens must be a great sight to behold¡±

    The young boy said in wonder.

    ¡°Yes i suppose it would be a great sight to behold, lets hope we still get the chance.¡± The last words turned the mood grim and stopped any further conversation from happening.

    Soon enough he got used to having 636 on his shoulders after a whilet he movement somehow felt natural and the tiny bit of weight the small child brought on his shoulder was negligible. After some fumbling around with his clothes so his shrt didn''t rub his back so much he picked up the pace again to catch up to the instructor. He was soon able to catch up to the instructor.

    The monkeyboy seemed to have no trouble what so ever in keeping up with the instructor but the same could not be said for all of the children.

    637 started to hear encouraging words coming from behind as the darkskinned girl and the treekid were doing their best to keep the spirits up of the ones who where having a tough time. Another kid seemingly collapsed but was soon scooped up by yet another of the kids. This kid was bald and had no hair to be seen on his body, the only exeption where the eyebrows. His skin was a pasty grey and he had some kind of tribal tattoo''s running over his arms and head.

    He was actually pretty sure that they were not really tattoo''s because they did not have the same flat look as he tattoo''s normally tended to have. There seemed to be a little thickness difference in the tattoo''s almost like they where pasted onto the body instead of simply changing the colour of the skin. Other than that the strange boy seemed to have no difficulties carrying the extra weight the  girl over his shoulder added.

    After wat seemed like an endless run they finally arrived in the training hall again. Most of the children collapsed on the ground soon after struggling to catch their breath. Only about 6 children other than 637 seemed to only be panting. ¡°Well u guys deserved a little break! 10 minutes and then we are running it again!¡± The instructor informed them.

    His death sentance was heard by the children and their own groaning and complaining was wat they answered him with. ¡°IF YOU GUYS KEEP WHINING ILL MAKE IT 5 MINUTES!¡± This effectively shut everyone up.

    After the 10 minute break had ended the instructor started moving again and just like before Snowflake, as 637 had started to call 636 in his head was walking infront of him again after having rested abit while on his shoulder. He seemed to be able to keep up the pace for another while Soon they where in the same monotonues running rythm. 637 however did notice that the pace was noticeably slower than the speed with the instructor had increased it to before.

    Now that he was actually sweating he could feel the luke warm sweat running over the brand on his back. It didnt take long for it to start stinging more and more. The other kids where also grimacing in pain as as their shirts started to get plastered to their back''s rubbing over the sore wound the branding had left. Snowflake and most of the other kids where starting to tear up at the pain they felt each time a drop of sweat ran down their back.

    The pain started to get worse and worse the further they continued down the hallway it didn''t take much longer before children started to collapse and where unable to run anymore. The more able bodied kids like 637, the treekid and the bald one picked up those that collapsed and swung them over their shoulders and continued.

    Snowflake was surprisingly not amongst the first few to collapse. 637 looked at him and his purple eyes seemed to be glowing somehow his veins also seemed slightly more visible and seemed to have a purple pulse running through them. 637 didn''t have enough time to wonder about it has another kid collapsed. The treekid simply swooped this one up aswell and swung him over his other shoulder. He was now carrying 2 kids at the same time and it looked like it didn''t bother him in the slightest.

    Surprised by this feat of strentgth he took a closer look at the boy. First off the buy was huge for his supposed age judging by the other kids he shouldn''t be older any than 16. He had noticed it before but seeing it now it was clearly of another caliber.

    His partner was the darkskinned girl, it was really hard to miss with that long hair. She also had weird pointy ears not a human maybe? She certainly didn''t move like one her movements had a strange and entrancing flow to it.

    He thought to himself. It didn''t take him long to notice that they weren''t the only strange ones in the group the child he had picked up had a tail so bushy that he really felt the urge to start petting it. Which he hadn''t even noticed at first.

    Consumed by his interest in the diffrence between the children he noticed that only 4 of the children where like him and most others had some smaller or larger identifying features. It was a mystery to him why he had never noticed this before.

    Of course he thought wrly i was somehow transported into a weird arena and then someone poked a redhot glowing stick in my back and casually mentioned i was a slave. Other things on the mind dull the senses i suppose, his train of thoughts wandered further and further and before he had even noticed it they where back in the training hall again.

 Training Hall conversation

    Once back in the training hall 637 started to clear his mind again and now, in the light, he could see the other kids alot better the Treeman he had seen before had dark forest green eyes and an earthen brown barklike skin. The elf atleast he thought she was an elf had darkish skin and silverish-grey hair. There was another small boy who was even smaller than Snowflake who had wat looked like a monkey tail coming out of the back of his pants.

    Another boy who was rather on the large side had some kind of weird red tattoo''s crossing his arms and shaven head in weird patterns. And there was this other girl who''s hair seemed to be made out of water somehow. It wa a mystery to him how the hair did not just flow away. All these different types of people, he felt really average somehow.

    Once again before he could get to absorbed in his own thoughts the Instructor interrupted them again. ¡°After a good half hour break this time we will start on strength and mobility training. Make sure to take your rest and you could use the time to get to know your fellow celmate''s!¡± Taking his advice 637 took Snowflake to the Treeman and the Elf who where the other 2 that stayed in the same cell as they where in.

    ¡°So i guess we should get to know each other then¡± 637 said looking at the strange pair and sitting himself down across from then.

    ¡°This indeed would be the most wise of our available choices¡± The treeman answered with a his deep rumble. ¡°Knowing your allies can end up saving the life we cherish even though to some extent it is no longer our own.¡±

    ¡°Figured the tree would talk like an old man¡± The elf remarked with a sniff. ¡°It''s not like it would do us that much good since we are all probably going to die soon.¡±

    Snowflake stiffend at these words and started to look frightend. He even moved closer to 637 as if he would protect him from everything that could harm him.

    ¡°I, for one, am not planning on dying here.¡± 637 answered to the elfs words. ¡°It seems as there is no outside connection or way in from the outside into this underground labrynth. Except possibly those magic circle''s that brought us here. But people have survived here for a longer perioed of time for instance the Elder, forge master or instructor.¡±

    ¡°Wat makes you think that those 3 are warrior slaves aswell?¡± the elf asked in surprise.

    ¡°Its a simple deduction¡± 637 answered ¡°they wear the exact same clothes as we have been handed with perhaps the exveption that those clothes are larger. There is nothing that they have that we dont have access to ourselves. The 3 of them are also each of a different race as i am pretty sure the Instructor is the only human of the 3. If you look at our group there is also an entire gathering of different races. Also i saw part of the forge master''s back when they branded me and he seemed to have the same kind of brand we have. Atleast the part that i saw looked like it¡±

    ¡°Despite your looks you are surprisingly smart huh¡± The elf said looking slightly amused. ¡°More importantly we need to figure out some names for each other i dont want to be called 617 for the rest of my life, its extremely depressing.¡±

    ¡°I happen to agree with the elven female on this¡± The Treeman rumbled ¡°Names will make us more recognizable to each other and i for one dont want to lose my individuality to a number that marks me as a possesion¡± There was a definite undernote of anger in the large treeman''s voice.

    ¡°Well i think i have already given a name to my little freind here¡± 637 said looking at Snowflake ¡°I called her Snowflake once because of her white hair and snowy pale skin¡±

    The other 2 looked at Snowflake and nodded.

    ¡°This name is indeed appropriete for the young one it fits him quite well¡±

    ¡°Agreed! Its a pretty decent name for a human to have thought it up!¡± The elf said with a teasing glint in her eyes.

    ¡°I.... also.. like........it¡± Snowflake mumbled with his high pitched voice.

    ¡°Its settled then 636 will be known from here on out as Snowflake to us. Then how about you Treeman if we keep to the same style of naming how about calling you Tree!¡± The elf said pestering her large partner.

    ¡°I think that tree is a name that is far to generic for one such as i¡± The treeman grumbled displeased.

    ¡°Yea well one as you would want a fancier name¡± The elf huffed ¡°How about The Oak that stands strong in the wind¡± She said jokingly

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    ¡°This name is indeed alot more fitting for one such as I¡± The treeman said with a pensive.

    The Elf just looked at him with dumbstruck amazemant and wanted to say something but just shook her head instead.

    ¡°Well that name is a bit long to call out so howabout we shorten it to Oak?¡± 637 said looking at him.

    ¡°Yes this would be acceptable¡± The treeman grumbled.

    ¡°Well i guess next up would be you¡± He said looking at the elf.

    ¡°I... Think.... her.... na...¡± Snowflake said trailing of before even finishing his sentance.

    ¡°You have to speak abit louder. We couldn''t hear what you said. Besides we arent the ones you have to worry about we will be protecting each other so no need to worry.¡± 637 said looking at the small nervous boy.

    ¡°I think... we should.. name her moon... in my language its spoken as... Luniera¡± He said his eyes shifting between the elf and the ground ¡°Because she.. is.. really pretty....¡± he mumbled

    The elf looked at him in amazement and seemed to be lost for words for a few seconds before showing a smile that made the hearts stop of all those who where watching. The smile on this normally jester like elf warmed their insides and sent a tingle over their skin.. ¡°I would be honored to have that name¡± The elf said while the other 3 where still starign in awe at the smile she had given them.

    ¡°Well then i guess that leaves you for last huh¡± The elf said looking at 637

    ¡°Yea i guess it does huh¡±

    But before they could get to his name the instructor had already shouted ¡°Times up lets get moving!¡±

    The instructor soon told them to get in rows of 10 so they did and he, Snowlflake, Oak and Luniera soon found themselves on the foruth row because of the uneven numbers.¡± Get on hands and feet and stretch out your body until it becomes a straight line from heels to the back of your head!¡±

    They followed his orders and stretched their body out untill they were somewhat straight. Then they where told to bend their arms till their nose hit the ground and then back into the straightline position.

    They where made to repeat this move 20 times and almost everybody was able to do so. Only kid who could not do so was a boy who was extremely overweight. He probably couldnt support his own weight properly with his leggs while running, he thought to himself. How did he even finish the run he wondered. He hadn''t seen him along the running  children and he was not amongst those that had passed out. Kind of weird he thought to himself.

    After a short break they had to do the same manauever another 20 times. Then another break and they had to repeat it again this routine kept going for sometime untill only he and Luniera could still keep pushing their body''s of the ground the rest could no longer manage to lift themselves of the cold stone floor.

    Wait!

    Wat he said was not entirely correct Snowflake started to push himself of the ground again and once more the weird violet shimmer in his eyes was visible, aswell as the glow from his veins which pulsed everytime he pushed himself up.

    The sight of Snowflake glowing like this was kind of entrancing really. The pulsing sensation soon felt like it had spread through his own body as he started to move without feeling the stress on his body anymore. Was this the magic the Elder spoke of? Or was it somekind of race inherit ability, no matter wat it was he wouldn''t know he had no knowledge about these kind of things.

    He soon noticed that Luniera was staring at Snowflake aswell with her eyes openend in wonder staring at the small glowing boy. She looked at 637 and raised an eyebrow in question asking him if he knew wat it was. He shook his head at her indicating that he had no idea aswell. More and more of the children started to notice and were staring at snowflake.

    The instructor himself soon took notice but said nothing. Guess it means that whatever Snowflake is doing, its inside the imaginary book of rules. ¡°Ok that''s enough the next training exercise will be mobility. We don''t have nearly enough room for that in here so we are moving to another room that has been made exactly for this purpose!

 Chapter 4

    He led them down another of the doors that was in the wall of the training center. The room was incredibly large so much so that they could barely see the roof. All kinds of obstructions where placed in random order around the room and seemed to make some kind of obstacle course. There was an angry grunt from behind him and he looked at Oak in surprise.

    ¡°This is evil, this is pure desecration!¡± He said his low rumble quickly turning into the sound of an avalanche. ¡°Killing trees to make fake trees! Who would allow this wantom form of destruction!¡± Oak was angry, outraged even. 637 took a look around and did indeed see that there where fake tree''s made from very real wood. It was kind of ironic to him that they would make fake tree''s from real trees what was the point.

    ¡°Well¡± Luniera said to calm him down. ¡°We have been made slaves remember, just add it to your list of things to get vengeance for once we have the chance to get out of here¡± Oak looked at her and for a moment it seemed he would start a rampage but he surprisingly calmed down and nodded. ¡°This would indeed be the most logical of options.¡± Oak conceded to her words and calmed down, the angry look however never left his eyes.

    ¡°The purpose of this course is to get you kids used to moving in any kind of enviroment.¡± The instructor was telling them ¡°You will have to move through the course with speed and keep your eyes open and your body ready for anything because there are some traps and pitfalls in the course so stay on your toes!¡±

    ¡°Also for this exercise you will be doint it together with your partner. Teamwork is necesarry dont forget that!¡±

    637 and Snowflake where up first and moved to the starting line of the course. They looked at each other and Snowflakes body was already pulsing in anticipation. As soon as the instructor gave them the signal theys tarted to run.

    637 soon noticed that his body wasn''t as reactive as ussual because of the earlier training and his movements where no longer as fast or as smooth as they had been when the day started.

    The first obstacle they encountered was a simple slanted wooden wall that was probably about 2  and a half meters high. Snowflake suddenly moved forward in an increible burst of speed his body pulsating violently as he jumped the distance in one huge leap using his hands to vault over the wall.

    Surprised by this feat 637 himself sped up a bit and set his foot at about a meter high with slight leap then used the momentum to propel himself up and over using his hands as leverage to help him vault over and land smoothly enough on his feet.

    Snowflake looked at him with a grin. ¡°This is kind of fun!¡± 637 couldnt help but look at him in amusement. Seems his shyness was nowhere to be seen when he was this exited.

    The second obstacle was a pond of water that had a rectangular shape dug right in the stone floor. On top of the water were logs wich floated on the pond in wat seemed to be a random pattern. Snowflake didnt even pause and jumped on one of the logs he thens tarted jumping from one log to another with ease not even once coming close to losing his balance.

    Pfffff that glowing power thingy is pure cheating 637 thought to himself.

    He himself made the jump onto the first log and immediately lost his balance landing face first on another log and falling into the water. With a splutter his head rose through the waters surface splashign water straigh back in his eyes. With an annoyed face he started swimming to the other side of the pond to rolling over the ground and hysterically laughing Snowflake who seemed to be having the time of his life.

    ¡°Yes yes¡± 637 grunted ¡°my balance is terrible ¡° He wiped away the blood that started to flow from his nose. The impact seemed to have bloodied him a bit but his nose didn''t seem broken so he moved on.

    The third obstacle were the makeshift trees they where talking about before. The trees where rather closely packed together and there were some ropes hanging from the branches. Probably meant to be vines he thought to himself. The floor with this obstacle as well was more water.

    Not fancying another swim he made a running start and jumped to one of the ropes and used the forward momentum to sling himself onto another rope and he kept this up until he had reached the other side. When he had finally reached the other side he gave himself a pat on the back .

    My balance may be terrible but this i can do! Then he looked up to see the wide grinning Snowflake infront of him. How! He hadn''t even noticed the small boy getting here. ¡°bloody magic bloody cheats¡± he started to mumble below his breath.

    The obstacles continued one after another the course seemed to be endless there was a rope bridge with barely any planks that was hung between platforms. A net they had to hang from and use to climb onto a higher platform wich forced them to take a dive into the water from quite a distance the platform must have been atleast 10 meters high!

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    Snowflake cleared any and all obstacles with ease zooming around like he was some kind of bird he just put his foot lightly onto any surface and then seemed to soar to the next. The speed he was keeping up was incredible,  637  was having trouble keeping up. After barely avoiding some pitfalls that suddenly appeared to make them test their reflexes they reached the end.

    This time it was 637 who was panting and Snowflake didnt seem in the least and still had that bloody grin on his face. 637 felt a real urge to give the kid a smack to the back of his head. But he ultimitely decided against it and sat down on the ground panting as he watched the second pair moving towards the starting line. Apperently the instructor was having them go one pair at a time.

    The other pairs had more trouble getting through it than 637 and Snowflake did. This rasied 637''s pride a bit. It was just that Snowflake was abnormal not that he was bad at this. Seeing this reaffermed put him at ease. Then Oak and Luniera where up. Oak with his unwieldly body had trouble doing nearly any of the obstacles but Luniera was the compleet opposite none of the obstacles seemed to bother her at all as she just vaulted the first wall in the same manner as Snowflake had done. Meanwhile Oak was trying his best to reach the top and seemed to be clawing the wood to struggle over the top.

    The sight of it was quite hilarious and he could hear more than some of the kids giggling softly at the image of the huge boy struggling to do the obstacles. The fall he made while on the logs was spectacular causing some of them to be unable to hold it in anymore and go into fullblown laughter.

    Even 637 couldn''t hold it in there and grinned a bit at the misfortune of the Treeman.

    The most surprising however was the pair after him. The tall boy with the red tattoos made pretty good time but the little monkey boy that was with him was incredible he was even faster than Snowflake had been he even used his tail to swing from tree to tree not even bothering with the ropes. He was already finished before Tatt''s was even halfway.

    After they had all finished the obstacle course the kids seemed to warm up to each other a bit and most of them where talking to each other and some where even laughing together.

    ¡°Well im glad you guys are having fun!¡± The instructor said making the room fall into an irie quiet.

    ¡°The next training however none of you will like. Im absolutely positive of that!¡± He said with a hint of a sadistic smile. ¡°Next up Little children! Will be the pain resistance training!¡±

    The children''s faces turned blank at his words and most of them lost all the colour in their face.

    So this is where the real training starts 637 thought to himself. Well im bloody well ready, he convinced himself and followed the Instructor into another of the dark hallways.

    After walking for a few minutes the already nervous kids were led into a room that was covered in grey lines that where somehow woven into intricrate patterns. The lines gathered in the 8 corners of the room and then they met in the middle into some kind of octogram.

    The lines from the upper corners where the most miraculous they somehow seemed to be floating in the air when they connected to the Octogram. They had no physical form of any kind yet somehow seemed as if they were just drawn onto the air.

    The Octogram itself was the most complicated design of all it was about 2 meters in diameter and around the edges of the octogram was a line for a slightly bigger octogram. In between the lines this created, there where hundreds of symbols and runic markings that 637 didn''t recognize. But one thing he was damn certain off this was wat was called a magical empowerment web.

    The purpose of the whole room being covered in the intricate design was to make the magical circle stronger and more importantly permanent. They could not be undone unless there was magic of an even stronger class there to defuse it.

    ¡°This is wat we call the Octogram¡± The instructor informed them ¡°It links magical energy to all of the nerve cells in ones body and then makes them simply feel pain. It somehow manages to bring you to the utmost limit, a limit when reached will not allow one to pass out. It might not be one of the prettiest ways of training but it is one of the most usefull and necessary. The only question is who will go first?¡±

 Chapter 5

    As the instructor had already expected it was 637 who stepped forward to volunteer.

    ¡°And no not you 637 you will be going last, you went first last time! Time to let someone else take the honor dont you think? How about you 627¡± He said pointing to the kid with the crimson tattoos. The boy shot a glare at him but stepped into the middle of the circle anyway, he flexed his muscles preparing himself for whatever pain he was expecting.

    But as he waited and waited nothing happened he then looked questioningly at the Instructor when suddenly with a loud electric zapping noise bolts of lightnign appeared. The dull gray lightning bolts seemed to connect to some glowing white spots on Tatt''s body.

    Tatt''s let out a roar in surprise but then muffled it into a grunt as he took all the pain in and then he glared at the instructor defiantly. Tatt''s semmed to be completely determined not to show any weakness to the instructor. Even 637 had to admit he put on quite the display the lightning bolt lookalike thingies where growing thicker and thicker and you could see that the pain it was causing him increased the thicker the bolts became.

    The bolts grew and grew untill after at least 5 mins of the lightning Tatts finally let his legs give way and landed on one knee. Panting heavily, his chained partner who was standing just outside the octogram moved to his side and put one arm over his shoulder and helped the tattooed boy out of the octogram. ¡°Not bad kid. That is some decent willpower you got there¡± The instructor said in one of his rare moments of praise.

    How well Tatts did no one really knew until the next boy went. This boy was alot smaller than Tatts was and with his straw like hair and skinny body he seemed pretty fragile. As soon as the bolts hit, the boy was screaming and it took him only about half a minute to land face down on the floor panting and unable to move.

    The children started going one after another the only noteworthy ones that did better than the rest were tatts partner who managed to hold herself up for about 3 and a half minutes. Hers was slightly peculiar because she seemed to be mumbling something with her hands clapsed together during the entire process.

    The little monkey managed to stay up for 3. Which honestly was quite impressive. No one expected him to hold on for that long. Smaller people do get easily underestimated.

    But then it was the turn of Oak. Oak moved his gigantic body to the octogram. He placed himself in the circle and prepared himself for the ordeal with a heavy exhale. The bolts hit him the same as the others but with him it was a bit different.

    Instead of hitting about a hundred of different spots as the bolts did with the others all the bolts converged into the middle of Oak''s chest. He grunted in pain and started mumbling some words under his breath.

    The room seemed to vibrate with the sound of his voice, the echo the words caused could be felt with a slight impact on their skins. The hair on their arms started to stand on end and goosebumps appeared on the skin. There somehow seemed to be some magical power in his words. This was only confirmed to 637 by the fact that there was a green glow coming from between the cracks in Oak''s bark like skin.

    His eyes also started glowing a dangerous tint of green. The kids started to feel a presence as if mother nature herself was infuriated by this display and wanted to eat away at their very existence. The rumbling grew and grew and the kids had already backed themselves into the walls as far from Oak as they could possibly go inside this closed room.

    It took at least 10 minutes, during which everyone felt nervous and on edge, before Oak finally fell on one knee. Before anyone could help him up however, he stood back up on his own and moved outside of the octogram. The other kids seemed a bit frightened of him now and made room for him to walk through them.

    Luniera of course didn''t seem scared in the slightest, nothing ever really seemed to faze her, and gave him a pat on the shoulder and a wide grin. ¡°If im ever in the need of a massage ill ask you to do that again¡± She told him in that teasing tone she used so often, which Oak only answered with an annoyed grunt.

    ¡°Well i guess its my turn next!¡± Luniera said happily stepping forward with some enthusiasm. Most noticeably she was to everyone''s surprise, skipping. She sat herself right into the middle of the octogram and took on a meditative pose. ¡°Well lets get this over with!¡±

    The bolts hit Luniera just the same as all the others before her but unlike the others she didn''t even flinch. Not so much as a blink escaped her as the bolts hit her.

    She just sat there soaking up the damage the lightning bolts inflicted as if she was doing nothing but meditating. As the time passed on the bolts grew thicker and thicker but her demeanor didn''t change in the least.

    At 5 minutes, the bolts where about as thick as a finger. 10 minutes the bolts where now about as thick as her wrist. 20 minutes the bolts where now as thick as her upper arm. 30 minutes the bolts where now as thick as her head and seemed to be trying their hardest to inflict more damage. But the girl still seemed completely at ease in the middle of the circle.

    By now everyone was simply staring at her in complete awe. Even the instructor seemed to have nothing to say about this display. He seemed to be incredibly impressed. Even the seemingly always stoic Oak was awed by this display, Snowflake however seemed to be praying for her wellbeing not that it would do Luniera any good, actually it was more like she didnt even need the prayer.

    Maybe we should start praying to her instead of some unseen goddes, 637 mused.  Most noticeable off all was Tatt''s who stared at her with nothing short of worship. I think Tatt''s atleast thinks shes worth praying to.

    After a good 40 minutes the lightning bolts stopped growing any thicker until they suddenly just dissappeared. 637 could say nothing else than the circle had probably just given up on reaching her pain limit. Luniera stood up and walked back to the others like nothing had happened. Questions could be seen in everyone''s eyes on how she was able to withstand such pain ,but as they had no memories they all knew it would be a pointless question to ask.

    ¡°Wat an extremely interesting bunch we got ourselves this year¡± 637 could hear the instructor mumbling to himself. ¡°636 your up next¡± he said returning to his usual rough way of speaking. Snowflake shuffled to the center of the octogram looking at 637 for support. 637 not really sure how he was supposed to help just gave him a ,wat he himself hoped would be seen as an encouraging nod.

    Snowflake seemed to take some confidence from this and straightened himself up. The bolts hit him and he couldn''t help but let out a small yelp before stubbornly holding his mouth shut and staring at 637 with all the power he could muster.

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    He seemed to take courage in the steadfastness of his freind and just stared into his eyes stubbornly while the bolts did their work. He held on longer than 637 had expected. They were nearing the 2 minute mark and he was still standing.

    With Snowflake nothing strange happened until he reached the 2 minute mark. He started glowing again, his eyes had the same purple glow 637 had seen before. The others of who most had seen this glow before started murmuring amongst themselves asking eachother what it was exactly and what was happening. Then things started to get really weird.

    The purple glow started to counteract the grey lightning bolts and Snowflakes body started to push back the grey lightning with violet lightning of his own. The violet lightning kept pushing back the grey lightning which seemed to be resisting and growing thicker faster than they normally would have.

    The violet lightning bolts started to connect themselves into some kind of magical web-like formation and pushed back the grey lightning until they could be pushed back no further. The violet magic didn''t stop there however it started to worm its way into the grey octogram and slowly spreading through out the rest of the web

    Before things could escalate any further the instructor rushed forward and dragged Snowflake out of the octogram. ¡°What in the name of the 13 bloody hells were you doing!¡± He asked Snowflake more surprised than actually angry. ¡°I... i... dont know?¡± Snowflake said shivering a bit and looking exhausted. It seemed that he himself had no clue as to how he did wat he did.

    The violet seemed to have pulled back out of the web and back into Snowflake and the room seemed to have returned to its normal state. The instructor gave the circle a good one over before motioning 637 into the octogram.

    ¡°Well i know your tough but at least your bloody normal¡± The instructor mumbled to himself before stepping back into the side lines. But to 637''s misfortune it seemed the web he stepped into was no longer the same.  As soon as the lightning appeared it came as one single big fat beam from the ceiling to the floor.

    The instructor seeing this lept in without hesitation to drag 637 out of the beam but he wasn''t even able to get close. Before he could even touch 637''s skin he was blasted back into the wall accompiened by the loud sound of thunder which crackled throughout the room.

    The nerves of 637''s body where screaming out in protest at the amount of pain they where feeling he himself could not hold quiet to this kind of pain. He screamed his lungs out and even when he thought his lungs would come out through his thoat he just screamed some more.

    The pain was indescribeable as it lanced its way through every pore and cell in 637''s body.

    The intricate symbols on the wall however seemed to be disappearing the Instructor noted, rubbing the back of his head in frustration. He stared helplessly as the web of power seemed to be sucked into the young boy.

    The others who had no choice but to watch from the sidelines seemed to be frozen in shock. Oak crashing himself into the invisible wall to try and get to his new found freind. Snowflake was just staring at the scene shocked possibly believeing himself to be the cause.

    Luniera just grimly watched as all of it happenend. She gave the room and the web a good one over but knowing nothing of magic she realized there was nothing she could do to help. She did however remember the elder who had turned the chains around their feet ethereal.

    Thinking about the weird elder with his magical powers she dashed out the door and sprinted towards the status plate room with all the speed she could muster. The wind created by her speed made her hair flow behind her as she dashed through out the hallways. Not even taking the time to turn she just ran up the wall and swung herself into the new hallways.

    Before she had even reached the status plate room she was knocked over by a sudden shock wave as something faster than she had ever seen before passed her by. She quickly leapt up again and throwing the strange event from her mind as she burst intot he status plate room.

    The room however, was empty.

    With a loud crash the door to the room with the octogram was burst of its hinges. In a flash of ethereal blue light 637 disappeared from between the beam and the magic suddenly winked out.

    Laying there in the arms of the elder was 637. The elder somehow seemed to stand there without a hair being out of place. He was as immaculate as always.

    ¡°Do not worry children he will be alright¡± The elder assured them with his soft voice. A wave of relief passed through the onlookers. ¡°Now i have some work to do so i wil be excusing myself¡± And just like that the elder calmly walked out of the room again as if nothing had happenend.

    The whole process took bout 2 minutes. But to 637 it seemed to take a lifetime, More than a lifetime the pain seemed to have altered his perception of time during the whole ordeal. Then a wave of relief hit him and his vision turned black.

    He woke up on the cold floor of the Octogram room, his head supported by something soft and warm. This time however  there where no intricate markings on the wall''s, ceiling or floor.

    ¡°Your hair!¡± Luniera said to him he opened his eyes and toke some hair into his hands and looked at it. Grey! All of his hair had become the same kind of dull grey the circle had been.

    ¡°Your eyes seemed to have changed aswell¡± Oak told him calmly as if he had not been affected by the ordeal at all.

    ¡°Yea¡±Luniera said looking into his eyes ¡°They are white i think? Cant really tell properly because they are kind of shining.¡±

    Still feeling the effects of the pain the lightning had caused. 637 tried to get up but his body didn''t really do wat he wanted it o.Tatt''s and Oak helped him onto his feet until he could regain some of the feeling in his legs and could stand on his own again.

    ¡°S..s...sorry....¡± Said Snowflake crying. ¡°it.. was .. because of wat i did that you.....¡± He trailed off as  shimmering beads of wetness fell down from his face onto the floor.  ¡°Not your fault, it was rather fun actually¡± He said managing a small grin and ruffling Snowflakes hair. Snowflake seemed to gather some of his will from this and gave 637 a feeble smile.

    ¡°I think after all this you guys have earned yourself at least an hour break so sit down and rest after that we will be having lunch.¡± The instructor let them know.

    Well at least i survived 637 thought to himself sighing in his head. But i really hope i don''t have to get into another magic circle again later!

 Chapter 6

    ¡°Well now that we have some time to ourselves¡± Luniera said to them while helping 637 to the wall with Oak. ¡°Wat do we do now?¡±

    ¡°How about we do nothing¡± 637 said his voice really lacking any form of strength. ¡°Calliera help me i need some sleep¡± he mumbled.

    ¡°Before sleep we still have to think of a name for you¡± Luniera told him. ¡°I agree with her words¡± Oak told him. ¡°You guys have given each other names already?¡± Tatt''s asked them as he came walking over with his partner in tow. ¡°Actually, We already named you as well. 637 called you Tatt''s once and it kind of sticked¡±

    ¡°Tatt''s huh, guess its kind of a cool name¡±. Tatt''s partner nodded. Upclose 637 could see that she was an elf like Luniera but way different. Her skin was yellow-ish and her hair was dark. Her eyes where green instead of the crimson-red that Luniera had.

    ¡°OEH OEH, names huh!?¡± The monkey boy came running over dragging his partner with him. ¡°Then i want to be name The Boulder!¡± He exclaimed striking a manly muscle flexing pose.

    The rest stifled a grin at his words. ¡°The Boulder is a name unfitting of one of your stature¡±. The Oak told him seriously.

    ¡°Wat about Pebble then¡± 637 said jokingly. Causing some of the other to stifle laughter this time. Luniera didn''t even bother with stifling she just laughed right out. The monkey boy seemed a little hurt by this and cast an angry glare at them.

    ¡°No seriously think it over. You are by far the fastest one of us here. Faster even than glowy-glow Snowflake¡± He said pointing to his chained nervous white-haired partner. ¡° A boulder is not fast it is slow and unmoving it doesn''t complement your attributes! A pebble however can skip lightly over the water like it is being lifted up by the god of wind herself.¡± He told the Monkey boy with a dramatic tone. Most of the others had to avert their eyes by now because they seemed to no longer be able to watch the scene happening infront of them without breaking out in hysterical laughter.

    Monkey boy however took his words at heart and seemed to be considering them seriously! ¡°Pebble i do suppose it is a fast sounding name¡±He pondered rubbing his furry chin with his hand. ¡°Yes! I like it! From today forwards i shall be known as the magnanimous the speedy The Pebble extraordinaire!¡± For such a little guy he really liked throwing around a lot of big words 637 thought to himself.

    ¡°Wat about your name then?¡± Tatt''s suddenly asked him. ¡°I don''t have a name yet.¡± he answered.

    ¡°H..How ¡­. about... Dorariamus¡± Snowflake suddenly mumbled. ¡°It...means... the dull grey light¡±

    ¡°Dorariamus is a bot long tho and calling him Dora is out of the question so how about we just call him Grey?¡± Luniera offered looking at 637. He thought about it for a moment and then nodded.¡±Yes. Grey is a good name nice and simple.¡±

    ¡°Ok then that leaves you¡± He said looking at the lighter elf. ¡°And you¡± he said to Pebble''s partner.

    Pebble''s partner was so unnoteworthy that he really seemed out of place in their mixed group of extravagant people. He was average height he had unremarkable straw coloured hair and a thin but not very muscular build. ¡°I am not in need of a name¡± The boy said. ¡°I would like to keep the number 606¡±.

    ¡°Well 606 is kind of pain to say is just Six okay?¡± Grey asked him. To which Six nodded. ¡°I guess that leaves you¡± He said to the lighter elf who looked at him with curious eyes. ¡°Sansieri...¡± Snowflake mumbled looking at the lighter elf with big eyes. ¡°It.. means.. the sun¡± To these words Luniera looked at her for a moment but then shrugged. ¡°Sansieri is a beautiful name i would feel proud to accept it¡± She said graciously.

    ¡°Well now that we all got names how about we tell each other about our races?¡± Grey propositioned to them. ¡°This would indeed be a beneficial conversation to have.¡± Oak answered in his low rumble. The rest nodded in consent thinking it would indeed be a good idea. Luckily although they did no longer have their memories the only memories that where really missing where specifics about people names or places. everything they had been taught or knew they could still remember.

    Oak started and told them that his people were called the Entmen. Most oftenly they were called either the Treebrethren by the other settlements that lived close to where they lived. Or just simply Ent''s. The Entmen came into existence when a few earthen elemental spirit''s had chosen to fuse themselves with a tree so to speak. The result where the Entmen to everyone''s surprise however the Entmen did not have any organs to speak of they simply lived from natures energies. The air, plants or stone was more than enough for him to be able to survive. They where able to eat however but the energy they gained from eating was sent into wat they called their Core.

    This Core was that one nerval point they had seen glow when Oak had taken his pain resistance test.

    This was also he told them the only way he could be killed. Death would come to him if the core was removed from his body. If the core where not removed however they could regrow or regenerate the body parts they had lost by growing some of nature''s plentiful flora and fusing it into their being.

    The whole process seemed kind of complicated but everybody got the gist of it. Entmen where hard to kill. Good thing to know should they ever run into any of them. Oak had one more thing to tell them that surprised alot of them he was still a young sapling of only 12 summers old.

    The Entmen could grow to be the age of about 300 and would continuously grow in size. The Entmen Elders where huge as big as any of the tallest oak''s. He also told them that the only way he could tell wat his age was from the growth layer in his body. He simply had to count them to know how many summers he had lived. One more thing he knew was that there where not many of his people left. Most had gone into slumber where killed in war''s with the undead that lived in the underground mountains commanded by there necromancer''s to chop down trees.

    Now Grey knew why Oak was so angry when he saw the fake tree''s made out of wood in the obstacle room. He quite litterly thought of tree''s as his brethren and he would fight to protect them if he could. As would any of his kind he claimed.

    The next to tell his story was Tatt''s he came from the cold northern mountains and tundra''s where his people lived. Most other colonies and races simply called his people the Barbarians. But they had a much more complicated name than that. The Trukierom as he called them, this word meant the people who could live with little. Or maybe more accurately he said it meant those who can make do with what they have. His people where very hunting and survival oriented. Unlike most common people believed the tundra''s weren''t as sparsely inhabited by animals as they thought.

    There where fish and other seacreatures a plenty beneath the ice that they could fish using hole''s. More dangerous where the creatures that lived on the tundra''s or in the mountain caves itself. Huge bears with 6 feet tundra panthers with their snow white skin that could pounce on you from any where. The mysterious Ice Blooded Snakes that where about 6 meters long and could move around through the ice even though their kind was usually cold-blooded and the cold environment of the tundras would be very inhospitable for them.

    His people gave these red tattoos to those who hunted the creatures and those who fought for their clan should any war''s or skirmishes happen between their people and the other cultures that roamed the tundra''s. The tattoos he had now where the most basic of tattoos only given to a hunter once he had finished the training and brought back his first kill. His first kill wasn''t very impressive he told them. It was one of the ice hare''s he was lucky enough to spot while they where out on a hunting trip. Although he was determined to kill an Ice Blooded Serpent he had never really gotten the chance.

    After Tatt''s had told him his story they moved on to Pebble''s. Pebble was from the jungle kingdom of the Beastmen. Beastmen had various different races that derived from any animal. The race had come into existence when their was a clash of 2 gods in the air and their magic changed and evolved the animals that lived in the jungle below. Or so the story went at least. He was a member of the Okitory tribe, more well-known as the Monkey tribe. They specialized in scouting and most of the members entered the Beastmen army to do exactly this.

    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    As scout''s the Okitory tribesmen where extremely efficient he told them proudly. They could move along the jungle at extremely high speeds being un catchable by any pursuers. They could use their tail for mobility and change their direction at a moments notice even in mid-air by simply grabbing a branch and swinging to another. They mainly focused on fighting with quarterstaff''s a tradition that had entered their tribe with the well known legend of the Monkey King. Who was once the leader of the Beastmen empire.

    The tribe men not really sure if the legend was true or if it wasn''t. Still made the quarterstaff there own. The Okitory soon became well known because of their way of fighting and any race that wanted to master the way of the staff soon found themselves in the Okitory jungle being taught by the Monkey masters of the the south.

    Next up to tell about her race was Sansieri. She was a High elf together with the Sun elves they where the race of Light Elves who. The high elves would usually specialize in magic and healing.

    They worshipped the goddess of light Callieri and where also the main leaders in the Callieri church that had spread itself across the empire. The priestesses the high elves produced for the church where amongst the most highly valued and respected members of the entire church. The High Priestess herself was at the same time the leader of the church and the leader of the High elven people.

    The High Elves prided them selves in order and cleanliness. They could not stand the sight and stench of people who did not care for themselves well. The rules they lived by where very strict and swaying from these rules would quickly result in an exile for you and any others that might have been involved. All in all they did not sound like the most fun of people.

    They used white marble to make their elegant building and churches and usually lived close to forests or plains. She also told them about the 4 other elven races. The Wood elves, The Nauticulus (water elves) the Crimson Elves (blood elves) And the Moon elves. The wood elves she told them lived in as their name suggested the woods. They where the most in touch with nature of the elven races they used their magic songs to grow the tree''s into their own actual tree house cities. The Nauticulus lived on wooden drifting towns that where more like a lot of ships connected than actual towns. They lived of fishing and they communicated a lot with the Seafolk and had alliance ties with them should the need to wage war arise. Master''s of the see these people could not be attacked on their own terrain. Not unless the general leading the army had suicidal tendencies.

    The Crimson''s she was about to tell about but then suddenly hesitated and looked at Luniera and twiddled her fingers. Luniera smiled a bit at this and told them that the Crimsons where considered the evil elves by their brethren. They specialized in assassinations and poisons. There seemed to be very few of them left according to here perhaps a mere 3000. They had formed underground socities and lived far away from the prying eyes of all the other races. No one was really sure where they lived now. Should a Crimson be caught the elves themselves where not worried at all that they would be tracked down. Crimsons where as immune to torture as anyone could get. Their pain tolerance was insanely high. Seeing as they specialized in torturing themselves it would a blow to their pride if they could not stand up to the torture method''s of the weaker races. At least thats how they felt about it Luniera told them.

    Now the others around Luniera eyed her a bit carefully and moved back from her to which she just shook her head and sighed. Oak however did not seem bothered. Thinking logically why would he he could not be easily tortured. Grey feeling a bit sorry for Luniera walked up to her and messed up her hair and gave her grin. ¡°It''s gonna take more than that to make me scared of such a beautiful girl huh Snowflake¡±.  He told Luniera grinning. snowflake nodded quickly and patted Luniera''s legg giving her a nervous smile. The display given by the two knuckleheads made her smile that weirdly heartwarming smile again which froze everyone. Shaking his head to get rid of the effects Grey sat back down.

    Next up to tell their story was Snowflake. It wasn''t easy for Snowflake to get the conversation started. He started really nervously but once he got into his story it went alot better. apparently even though he apperead mostly human he was anything but. His race was called the Aetlings. Like the Entmen they came from elemental but they where a bit more peculiar. Although they had at first been humans some of them had grown close to their elementals and fused with them during the ancient times. This had resulted in the birth of the Aelting race they like the Entmen had only one core and would not die unless the core was removed from their bodies or their bodies where completely destroyed

    The Aeltlings had an Empire of their own and unlike the Entmen they where not close to extinction but where thriving. They had an empire that had billions of inhabitants. They where the largest and most powerful empire to date. No other empires would mess with the Aeltlings do to their sheer power in numbers. But even more dangerously was the inherit magic that came along with it. The purple glow Snowflake sometimes emitted was the inherit wind or snow elemental that imbued their bodies with power causing their physical properties to be enhanced tremendously making them terrifyingly powerful warriors in combat.

    The Aeltlings had the military and economic power to conquer the world if they so wished it might not be easy but it was definitely a possibility. Lucky for all other races this was exactly the opposite of their beliefs. The Aeltlings believe their empire to be the center of the world and the center of the universe. Wat need to you have for other lands if wat you have is already the center of it? The people where happy and the nobles where rich. Of course there where plenty of exceptions and problems in the country but that was left to the royal police to solve.

    Just like Oak he told them that they could eat but they didn''t digest the food. Then someone questioned him about where the remaining energies would leave from and where they went. After telling them they would just be breathed out some hilarity ensued about Luniera joking about Snowflake having a bad breath and that it stinked of poop. After alot of blushing from snowflake and some collective laughter from the rest the last 2 where made to do their story.

    Six and Grey both being just normal humans didn''t really have much to tell them since almost every race knew already about the humans that where present in nearly every empire and country. Although not having a powerful unified empire of its own the humans had spread into almost every country and empire their was with their flexibility and capability to specialize in anything. Six didn''t really say much at all and made it clear that he preferred silence. So Grey told them the basics about humanity.

    After the discussions about everyone''s different races they kept talking to each other growing closer and closer as bonds of brother and sister-hood started to form between them. In it to survive they strived to know wat they could of each other determined to work together should the time come.

    <hr />

    Sorry that it took a bit longer but i really put some thought into the background stories of the races. Maybe i will ahve som genius idea''s about it later but for now i think this is enough. And as always i hope for some Critisism!

    And to anyone who read this thanks for reading up to here! :D Hope you will read the rest aswell

 Chapter 7

    After finding out about each other''s groups small factions started to from. Groups of the kids who felt like they could get along. The group Grey had ended up in was no different. Soon after their talk  about their backgrounds and races the instructor had taken them back to the Training Hall. He had even asked the Elder to come down to the training hall to give Grey a good one over. The instructor seemed a little worried that the incident with the magical web might have a lasting effect on Grey''s physical condition.

    The Elder took his time looking over Grey''s body. He even mumbled some weird words that made no sense to Grey.  Sometimes he would poke his body with glowing fingers as if testing for something. Evrytime he got poked by these magical, at least he assumed it was magic the Elder was using, fingers he felt a slight jolt on the skin to which he could feel a slight sensation in his eyes. He thought that he could see a little bit better each time he was jabbed by those fingers but it could just have been his imagination.

    After the elder had finished his examination he told Grey to come to the Plate room when the rest of the group started their weapons training. Grey although a little confused as to why he would have to come with the elder just nodded his agreement slightly curious as to what the elder had in store for him. The instructor soon told the group to form into the lines they had used when doing the push-ups. He then made them do another 5 sets of 20 push-ups after which he started to move on to different muscle training exercises. For instance one where their partner would hold their feet while they where lying down on the ground and had to touch their elbows to their knees. Or the one where they where lying face first ont he ground but then had to keep their chin, arms and legs of the ground.

    When they had finished the series of muscle training exercises they moved on to muscle stretching as the instructor called it. They were made to do these difficult poses that Grey''s muscles aching within no time. The ache started to settle in muscles he wasnt even sure he had before.

    Before long the muscle stretching had finished as well and it was time for them tos tart practicing with their weapons. The instructor nodded to him and removed his ankle from the chain and sent him to the Elders office. Grey started walking down the hallway leading from the training hall and ended up in the dimly lit Plate room. He enjoyed the smell of this room it smelt like parchment. A scent somehow soothing and familiar to him.

    He made his way through the messy room filled with book to the desk that formed an oasis in the middle. Behind this dark wooden desk was the Elder. He seemed to be writing down things in the leather-bound book he had before him. The feather he was using was black and could have been from a crow or raven as far as Grey knew. He patiently waited till the Elder was done with whatever he was doing. It did not take long before the Elder looked up and motioned him to come closer.

    ¡°About that incident with the magical web you had.¡± The elder said looking at him with wat seemed to be curiosity. ¡°Although it has changed your hair and eye colour not much else has changed. The most significant change however is in the properties your eyes have gained.¡±

    The Elder then moved on to explain to him that his eyes had absorbed most of the magical energies the web had stored in them. And this magical web he was told was of a very high rank. It was at the very least made by a gold level 9 magician. All of this energy had moved themselves to his eyes. According to the elder he should have noticed some slight changes in his eyesight when the elder poked him with his fingers. He had done this to activate the power in his eyes for a brief instant. His eyesight would start increasing soon but that was not the most notable of changes he would go through.

    He made a joke about being sorry that Grey would not be able to shoot lighting from his eyes after they had adjusted to the change. More than a change he said his eyes where evolving. Maybe the more appropriate word would be fusing. The fusion with the magical energies would soon alow him to be able to see the magical power. Most importantly was that he would be able to see sounds once the fusion was complete.

    ¡°I will be able to see sounds?¡±Grey asked speculative. ¡°Yes¡± The elder answered simply. ¡° The fusion for your eyes will take 6 months at the least. We do not however have such time so i will be using some magic to activate them now. Be warned however it will hurt!.¡±

    ¡°I doubht it will hurt a tenth as much as the beam did¡± Grey muttered. The elder smiled with a little amusement showing on his face. ¡°No i suppose it wont hurt that much¡±

    The elder then motioned grey to stand in a part of the room the elder had just cleaned up. He was told to stay still as the elder started drawing another complicated magical circle this time. Grey noted to himself that this time it was a circle instead of an octogram. He wondered if it being a circle instead of an octogram made any difference in the use of magic. He soon decided not to care about it however. Because of his previous experiences with magical circles he did not want anything more to do with magic and vowed to himself to never ever learn any magic. After all the 2 times till now he had been involved with magic was when he was teleported here and forced to become a slave or maybe more acurretly a gladiator in training. And the second time he had gone through more pain than he had thought was possible to have.

    After finishing the circle the elder started drawing some runes around the circle before drawing another circle around those runes putting the runes between 2 lines. He then told Grey to not move and started mumbling some more of those strange sounding words. This time however he could feel the effect of the words on the room and himself. The temperature dropped and their seemed to be a soft wind present in the room even though they where completely cut off from any outside contact.

    Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.His skin started to get goosebumps and he felt himself starting to shiver. The shivering soon began to intensify with the same pace that the words the Elder was speaking started to intensify.

    His hair started to float around him coming free of his shoulder''s and upper back. His feet came loose from the ground and he started to levitate a few centimeters off the ground and then suddenly his body was spread wide with force. His toes pointing to the floor as hard as they could legs pressed together by an invisible force and his arms where spread as wide as an eagles wingspan.

    Then his body started to throb. The throbbing spread throughout every fiber of his being giving him a sense of a dull pain. His mind soon started to lose its focus and the only thing he could notice was the throbbing that grew stronger and stronger in his body and mind. Then suddenly Poof  it stopped.

    He landed on the floor with a smack unable to keep straight he ended up on his hands and knees gasping. ¡°Magic is very bloody unpleasent¡± He muttered to himself. But as soon as he spoke the words he noticed it. he could see that he had spoken. Small ripples in the air appeared where he had spoken he could see them spreading through out the room and bouncing back of the walls and ceiling giving form to everything in the room.

    He stared around amazed and noticed he could see so much more than he could before. His vision somehow spread to all around him. He could see the stack of books behind him he could see wat was behind the stack of books aswell. The ripples that the sounds made illuminated every nook and cranny in his mind and he was aware of everything. He saw the ripple bounce off the Elder and could see a foreboding black sludge being pumped through wat he assumed were the veins of the elder.

    He clapped his hands and saw the ripples spread out around him. The elder smiled at the amazed look in Grey''s eyes and with a swipe of his hand the room darkened. Grey looked around him and could still see the room clearly in a somewhat grey light. The sound of his and the elders breathing was more than enough for the ripples to be able spread around the room.

    ¡°This is amazing...¡± He whispered. ¡°Yes as far as abilities go this is quite a useful one¡± The elder said with a small laugh.¡±You may now go back to the rest of your group and let that small partner of yours know that i would like to see him in my room when the rest starts to practice with weapons tomorrow. Grey nodded confirming that he would do so and set out to the training hall.

    Once he came back to the training room he saw that other where already swinging around their weapons and trying to get a feel for them. Oak was wielding a huge tower shield that could cover almost his whole body. He carried the thing around as if it weighed nothing he even managed to use another equally oversized mace in the other hand. The instructor was surprisingly throwing wat seemed to be logs at oak and oak would just catch these on his huge shield and deflect them.

    Luniera way of fighting was completely different. She wielded a slim looking sword with a slight curve at the edge and her movements where fluid yet sharp. Her body moving from one pose to another as if she was made of some kind of liquid. Tatt''s was swinging around dual axes of about the same size in each hand hacking away at a poor training doll that was the victim of his viscous onslaught.

    Pebble''s was using unsurprisingly the quarterstaff of his people. Which he was twirling around with practiced expertise he had obviously used the weapon plenty of times before and was already used to its movements. Six wielded an axe and a buckler which he was just swinging around a bit. At least that was wat it looked like to Grey.

    Sansieri was using no weapons at all going through some martial fighting poses while mumbling some words that made some web''s that he hadn''t noticed on her hands before flare up causing the air to create a slight tremor. Snowflake was trying his best to use his weapon but seemed to have no control over it yet and while he was watching he almost got the knife in his own face.

    Flinching at the near death of Snowflake he moved to the wall and grabbed his own Naginata and started twirling it around a bit before asking Pebble for some advice on how to wield it. Pebble soon enthusiastically started showing him how to use the Naginata as a quarter staff. Grey thought he should first get a feel for the weapon and learn to use it as a quarter staff before finding ways to utilise the blade properly. The Instructor told them they had 3 years to prepare before they would be sent out in their first fight.

    everyone was soon sweating after using their weapons for a while but for some strange reason none of them stopped using them untill their arms where to heavy for them to lift their respective weapons anymore. Even Oak who seemed to have unlimited muscle strength eventually ran out of energy and had to return his weapons to one of the stands near the wall.

    Having been bathed in sweat so often today they were told to use the showers. Showers! The kids where extremely pleased that they even had showers in the arena and the instructor lead the way to the shower through one of the seemingly endless branches of the training hall.

 Chapter 8

    The showers where pretty simple, surprisingly enough though there only were one person box showers and there were about 10 of them so they had to take turns with showering. Before they went to go take a shower however the instructor had an announcement for them. The chains where coming off! apparently the chains had been a ruse to get the kids to get used to one another quickly so they could start formulating plans together. Teamwork was your most important tool of survival the instructor. This was the one thing he made sure to pound in their heads. Teamwork is important for survival. One rule Grey was pretty sure he would never forget again.

    After the chains were removed they each moved on to their individual showers. Since they where unsure in wat order to take the showers they decided to do so by status plate level since it was easier. No one really had any problem with this because there where advantages to both being the first and the last. They guys in the middle didn''t seem to care either though. Once again he thought about how weird it was that everyone accepted things so easily. Not giving it any further thought he moved into the shower and took of his clothes.

    The shower was warm and felt oh so soothing on his stressed body. The drips the rain made on the floor and the sound of all the individual showers started to paint a picture in wat he was gonna call his ''minds eye'' at first he was relishing the beauty of the many ripples the drops of water made and the splashing sound reverberated throughout the entire room. He soon noticed however the form of the person showering next to him. Which happened to be Luniera the ripples allowed him to see the form of her body very and i mean very very clearly. Blood ran away from his head to his other parts but then quickly ran back to his head flushing his face. He closed his eyes and decided to not open them for the rest of the shower.

    Showering besides that incident was rather uneventful. After he had finished his shower and felt refreshed he sat back down with he rest who was waiting for their shower. He sat himself with his back to the wall waiting for the rest of his group to join him. As soon as he saw Luniera he blushed a bit and she gave him a quick questioning look but didn''t bother asking about it. He also remembered to tell Snowflake that the elder wanted him to come to the status plate room when others where practicing their weapons.  Snowflake looked a bit confused by this but decided not to pay it any more mind.

    After everyone had finished their shower they moved back to the training hall where once again the huge table had appeared. He really wondered how the table got here every time and who put it there. Probably the same person as who cooked their food he assumed. Speaking of food the meal that was prepared for them was once again delicious. After dinner the instructor told them to rest up because they would need their bodies to rest. He told them their was a library if u went through the third door on the left hand side of the training hall.

    Grey decided to go to the library and Sansieri followed him. She did seem to be the type who liked books and any place where knowledge could be held. surprising to him though was that Tatt''s came along as well he didn''t seem like the type who would prefer a good book over training.

    ¡°Knowledge is one of the most important weapons a hunter wields.¡± He said to them while sounding strangely sagelike.

    So much for being ''Barbarians'' Grey thought to himself. His tribe is probably better schooled than most other races if they all where like him. The muscular scholar he thought to himself grinning. It would indeed be a good nickname for him. Maybe the wise berserker, The Sage of Blood? While he kept thinking up other absurd names for Tatt''s they soon reached the end of the hallway that ended in an extremely impressive room.

    The room gave the feeling of it being a tower that''s how big it was. surprisingly the door did not open on the bottom floor as one would usually expect. No it was on the very top floor and a spiraling staircase took them to different floor 9 floors in total. On every floor there were these ladders with wheels on them that could be pushed along the bookshelves to reach the higher places. He picked some random books and read over their titles. The books had an insane variety of genre''s topic''s and title''s there was a book here called how to tame a dragon another was called Sewing a web and its magical advantages. There was even a book on how to torture someone properly. Out of curiosity he picked up the book and looked at a few pages. Wat he saw however made him quickly return the book to the shelf. How people could do that to one another was a mystery to him.

    After searching for a book for some time he came across a book about black smithing which interested him a bit and he started reading. Soon enough he was really interested in the blacksmithing techniques written here and he ran out of the library and asked the instructor if he could go to the forge room. The instructor told him to go right ahead. When Grey arrived at the forge room the forge was blazing just like the first time he had been here and the forge master was still hammering away on a glowing piece of iron that he had placed on the anvil. Now that he could take a proper look at the forge master he could see 2 thick black horns protrude from the top of his head.

    He watched the forge master hammering away at the piece of iron in front of him. Once every so often he would take the blade out and then put it back in the fire where he would pump some kind of leather looking contraption that pumped air into the furnace causing the fire to blaze with even more intensity. This move was soon repeated and when the forge master moved to place the blade in the forge a third time Grey stepped up and started pumping the the leather contraption. The forge master eyed him for a moment but then just continued with his work and started hammering away again.

    Grey continued to watch the huge man work and saw that the way he hit the piece of iron was entirely different from just hammering the iron he placed short quick strikes in rapid succession on the wat he could now make out to be the blade. He was making sure the middle was a bit thicker than the rest of the blade. A style grey had seen in many other short and longswords. Every time the forge master moved back to the furnace Grey would use the leather contraption. He decided to call it the blower since it blew air into the furnace. A simple name sure but simple was efficient and memorable so he kept it at that.

    Soon enough his muscles started to burn again whenever he used the blower but he refused to stop and just kept using the blower for the rest of his spare time. Eventually the forge master looked at him and moved his head to the door that led to the training hall. Grey understood the gesture and returned to the training hall where he discovered most of the others had already gone to sleep. He decided to join them and as soon as he hit the bed he was sound asleep. A day of hard work and a lot of stress would do that to anyone.

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    The next day started the same way as the one before. First running naturally people still collapsed this time although snowflake didn''t seem to have any problems this time it must be because he had better control of whatever magic he used. Afterwards was the muscle training and then the mobility center. Which had surprisingly changed it''s setup. Another mystery to add to the list he supposed and quickly gave it no more thought.

    When weapons training started he once again sparred with Pebble and took his advice on the stances. His weapon felt slightly more familiar than yesterday but it would take him a lot more time to be able to use it properly. After dinner he went back to the forge and started pumping the blower as he had done before.

    About 3 months passed with this pattern and improvement was now clearly visible in the group. No one passed out or couldn''t run the morning laps anymore. The instructor had even added a lap after the second month and people where still able to run it. The breaks in between had become shorter as well although no one really noticed. Weapons training had changed as well they now started to trade sparring partners with each other so every one of them would have experience fighting the many different kind of weapons that were wielded.

    Snowflake still disappeared to the Elder each time weapons training started. He told Grey that the elder was an Aeltling like himself and that he was teaching him how to use his magic together with his weapon. Grey himself still went to the forge after every training. It hadn''t taken him long to get used to the huge and intimidating forge master. He never spoke and never wavered from his steady process of making steel. Somewhere halfway the third month the Forge master had shown him how to make ingots from the raw iron they somehow never seemed to run out from.

    Slowly but surely the Forge master would teach him some new things by beckoning him to come closer with his head then showing him something and then making him repeat whatever had been done. Another 3 months passed and the training had intensified. The Instructor told them that from tomorrow forward they would run group fighting simulations. everyone''s levels and physical abilities had really risen in the last 6 months. The status plates had changed accordingly. The lowest ranking of the group was now mahogany 6.

    The highest where  Grey and Luniera at Iron 2  they had breached the barrier to iron in their 5th month.  They expected something fancy to happen but they just woke up one morning to find that the material of their plates had changed. Second highest where Sansieri, Pebble, Tatt''s, Snowflake and Six. They had become mahogany 9 and had yet to breach into the iron. Oak had somehow stayed at mahogany and there was now a tree growing on his status plate.

    The material of the wood might have changed as well but no one could tell for certain but Oak assured them that the wood was no longer mahogany but aged plorain wood. They all took him t his word for it because none of the other could really see any difference. Apon asking the elder how come his plate had stayed wooden they where answered that every species had their own highest ranking of material. Entmen where the biggest exception since all their materials would stay a type of wood.

    The groups had also drawn closer to each other but there was a definite rift between Grey''s group and all the others. They others didn''t quite avoid them but they never really talked to them. The instructor told them this was simple jealousy of the strong. They wanted to be as strong as Grey and his group but they had trouble reaching the same height. He told them not to worry about it because it would only give the group motivation to train harder.

    After the weapons training Grey headed to the forge as usual. His arms had grown noticeably in the last 6 months his shoulders had grown broader aswell. The growth he was going through as a person as well as the exercises he was doing was really changing his body into a much larger version of wat he used to be. He and the forge master now where working together in harmony and could make 2 weapons each at the same time not getting in each others way by timing wat they did to the rhythm of the others smithing. The smithing rhythm the forge master had never changed so it was easy to fall into the same rhythm. At first he thought the forge master worked extremely fast but it did not take long for him to get used to this kind of speed.

    Another thing of note was that his eyes had adapted a bit more and his vision had improved a lot over the months. He could see details in faraway stones easily and it also helped with smithing now that he could see the minute details in the metal. It did not take long for him to smith his own decently made weapons. The sound ripples had become something he was used to by now the sound of the hammer hitting the iron and the ripples it produced might aswell have been mental therapy for him that is how soothing it felt to him. Another thing the ripples had done for him was that he changed the way he walked and the way he moved. It took him at least a month of trying different ways to walk to find out how he should place his feet so he made the least amount of ripples.

    Also other little things in the way he had moved before he only noticed now that he could see the ripples. The way his shirt sometimes scratched the side when he moved his arm. Or how the cloth would rub against each other creating some small ripples. He was soon moving around while creating only miniscule ripples. He made so little sound while walking and doing things that other people sometimes got startled when he walked up to them. He even managed to make Tatt''s choke in his food by surprise one day when he walked up to him during dinner and tapped him on the shoulder. The face he made was hilarious and had driven Grey to laugh out loud for the first time since he had gotten here.

    Tatt''s was a little grumpy after the incident mumbling things like he was going soft and his hunter instincts where rusting in the cold confines of the stone. The instructor assured Tatt''s that he was not going soft but it was Grey who was the freak with the way he moved. Speaking of the instructor he had changed a lot over the months. It was now clear to all of them that the instructor was drilling them so hard because he was trying his best to make sure that as many of them would survive the arena as possible.

    But eventually the day ended and Grey went to sleep he was really looking forward in testing his skills in battle against the other tomorrow however.

 chapter 9

    The next day when they woke up they did not go for a run after breakfast as they usually would.

    The instructor immediately took them to yet another room that was connected to the training hall. This room was about as big as the mobility center. But unlike the mobility center this room seemed to be filled with a real life forest for about 3 quarters of the room. The ceiling was filled with a whole array of the complex magical webs.

    ¡°This is where you guys will fight each other. The magical web you see on the ceiling is also on the floor below the grass. Once you step into the forest the magical webs will substitute your body with a magical one however you wont be able to feel any difference and anything you feel will feel the exact same as it would to you in your normal body.¡± The instructor told them his words being received by the group with widespread amazement. ¡°However when you die in the forest you will not actually die and be transported right back here to this area.¡± He continued pointing to the stone strip they where standing on.

    ¡°Therefor there is no need to hold back and you will be given actual weapons and will have to kill each other to win. Remember however holding back will not help you or your opponent! You have to get used to fighting you have to feel the fear the pressure and the excitement of a real fight.¡±

    After his speech the instructor split them into teams of 4. Each of the kids would still be with his partner and they would be grouped with 2 others on the field. Greys group was split up as it would be deemed unfair if any of the four of them would be paired into one group. Grey and snowflake were grouped with 2 girls who could have been twins for all anyone knew. They both had slightly scaly skin and had green hair and light brown eyes. The two seemed to get along extremely well and had even taken names that resembled each other. One was called Fog the other was called Mist how they had reached these specific and peculiar names Grey did not ask. One of them wielded a longbow that she handled with extreme precision as people had already taken notice of in the training. Her sister had a short sword and a shield they already practiced working together and could coordinate their attacks extremely well it was almost as if one could read the others mind.

    Grey''s battle assessment of them was that they would be extremely useful in a fight and should keep working together the way they were used to. He and Snowflake however had never really worked together in training or in a fight before. Mostly this was because of the fact that Snowflake was always training with the elder when the rest had weapons training. While at the same time during their free time Grey was always at the forge.

    The battle plan the 4 simulated was that Fog (the one with the sword and shield) would be the front guard while Snowflake would follow shortly behind, at the rear they would place Mist so she could target the enemies Snowflake would be in the middle because he should have some range with his choice of weapon. Grey would move on his own the Sisters had come with the idea that because Grey could move so silently that he should move alone and scout the area and also cover them while hiding his presence so they would have a slight advantage when they engaged any opponents.

    Before they started however the instructor asked Tatt''s to follow him and they walked to into the forest area. As soon as they entered and where about 20 meters in the instructor suddenly spinned around lightning fast and chopped Tatt''s head of in one clean blow. The result was pretty gruesome as his blood started spurting everywhere and part of wat used to be Tatt''s head was crushed and became some kind of pulp. Before people could react however there was a brief white flash and Tatt''s appeared right in the midst of them like nothing had happened.

    ¡°I did this to prove that you would not die in there and i once more want to press into your hearts not to hold back! How do you feel?¡± He asked Tatt''s who seemed a bit shocked but otherwise perfectly fine. ¡° I don''t feel any different actually mostly surprised and a bit ashamed¡± he said frowning. ¡°Dont be ashamed if you had managed to block the attack it would have been a miracle i havent told you guys this before but i am a gold 1 rank warrior.¡± This caused a bit of commotion in the group people knew that Gold was really high but they where unsure of how strong it really was. The little feat of strength the instructor had just showed them however told them that at the very least it was a lot stronger than they where.

    They groups where then led into different parts of the forest one at a time and where told to wait at their spot until they could hear starting signal. When it was the turn for Grey''s group they where led into the forest. It felt kind of strange feeling the grass under his feet and the smell of the plants, trees and dirt was completely unfamiliar. It smelled good to him however he quite liked the scent. They talked a bit amongst themselves before getting in position. Grey quickly did a little practice to see how his movements would be affected by the new enviroment. Although walking on the grass created slightly more ripples he doubted that anyone would be able to hear the noise he made. Especially considering how much sound there would be once everyone started moving and fighting.

    He started twirling his Naginata around a bit exited about wat they where about to do. Then they heard the low song of wat was possibly a gong. The starting signal. Fog started to move forward carefully through the bushes making her way to nowhere in particular but trying to make sure they sighted the enemy before the enemy sighted them. Grey thought this wouldnt be a problem and increased his pace to a bit more of Fog''s scouting the way ahead and using his ripplingsight to see ahead and check for movement after a while he saw small ripples coming along from a tree ahead of them. The ripples moved from one tree to another through the air and he could see no ripples from anywhere else. He slowed down a buck and walked back signaling mist to keep an eye on the trees and for the rest to hide in the bushes.

    Those ripples in the trees he was pretty sure was Pebble doubted anyone else could move like that through the tree tops. It didn''t take long for him to come into Mist''s visual range but she just slowly drew an arrow and connected it to the bow-string waiting before pulling it back. She waited patiently while Pebble was getting closer. He could feel the tension rising with Fog and Snowflake. He himself could feel his hands trembling a bit in anticipation. Then suddenly in practiced smooth motion Mist drew the string to her cheek and fired the arrow exactly where Pebble''s head would be when he landed. To their surprise however Pebble seemed to have spotted the movement because with an inhuman reflex he managed to twirl the arrow away from its deadly projectory. Causing the arrow to only nick the side of his jaw. He gave a cheeky grin to Mist before suddenly he stiffened and fell forward from the branch  with a knife in his back.

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    Grey looked around surprised to see that Snowflake had dashed forward and with an incredible show of skill had slung his knife around the tree using said tree to stop the slinging motion to make it whip itself back into the back of Pebble. Well so much for worrying about her fighting potential grey thought smirking to himself. Mist and Fog seemed surprised by his display of weapon proficiency. Snowflake quickly told him that the Elder had been teaching him to spread the innate magic the Aetlings had to their weapons. Alowing her to manipulate the steel. She said she could freeze the momentum of the knife when she whipped it to allow it to swing back with wat before would have been an impossible trajectory.

    Since they had taken out Pebble the group he was scouting for came within his visual range soon. Maybe calling it his audio range would be more suitable but technicalities aside. They where close!

    More importantly they had no idea what they where running into. Thus they set up an ambush waiting for them to get here. They had Mist set herself up in a nearby tree that granted her some good vision of the nearby area.  As Pebble''s group walked closer he could tell that there where 2 other groups at the edge of his range and that they where nearing on the group aswell although they might pass them by altogether.

    He was not given any time to think about the other 2 groups however because Six and the other 2 that where part of Pebble''s group had already walked into range for the ambush. Mist used her expert shooting to take out a beastman wielding a Greataxe in one arrow to his eye. He went down without any further ceremony and hit the floor dead. His partner just barely managed to dodge the knife that whipped towards him and rolled to his feet grabbing his spear in hand and getting into battle stance. Fog clashed against Six trying to overwhelm him with the element of surprise.

    Six however reacted with no sign of emotion and calmly defended himself from the onslaught. The clear sounds of battle rang as steel clashed against steel. The 2 other groups where rushing to where they where at full speed and could be here at any minute. Grey gave the rest a warning shout telling them about the 2 other groups before he engaged the spear fighter. This guy seemed to be human as far as Grey could tell and he slashed his Naginata horizontally trying to cut the spear-wielder in the neck. The blond kid managed to block his slash rather expertly though and blocked the staffblade by hitting the wood below the blade with a twirl of his own. They soon engaged in a twirling exchange of blows.

    Before one or another could land a blow however the roar of someone else reached their ear. It seemed one of the other groups had arrived. Almost immediately they clashed with the other group that arrived from the opposite direction wich turned the area they where in into a war zone. It soon became a mishmash of fighting the first to fall unfortunately was Fog. It seemed Six could wield his weapons with more expertise than people would have thought of him. With a cry she went down having an axe implanted into her chest.

    The result was surprising however. Mist gave a little cry as expected and shot an arrow at Six. Six however seemed to have lost his shit. He went completely berserk and smashed his shield into the next closest fighter who was near him. It was as if the man had turned into a battering ram he crashed into the other fighter as if he was straw doll. The fighter was knocked back into one of his teammates. Six didnt hesitate at all and jumped forward swinging his axe with a bloody smile on face. He looked rather scary with that smile and the blood which had spread out over his face and clothes.

    Grey didn''t have the chance to give it any further attention however as the spear wielder made a stab at his face which he knocked aside returning a slash. Through sheer luck just at that moment another fighter stumbled into the spearwielder causing him to be knocked forward into his slash. The blow hit him right on the artery in his neck and the blood splashed into his face and into his eyes. Then something weird happened the previously grey ripples turned red. The dark crimson of blood rippled everywhere he could see and his vision had turned red.

    The beat of his heart started to send one clear ripple that overwhelmed all the other ripples bathing everything he could see in blood. Pound! Pound! The beating of his heart overwhelmed everything else he could hear see or sense. Then his body started moving. He needed more blood! He wanted to kill more people he wanted more of the exiting rush that the fighting was sending through his veins. The beast had been awoken inside him and refused to back down. Thus he thought he attacked with a viciousness that would have previously been unbecoming of him. He completely forgot anything he had learned about defense from Pebble. He went in full offense mode and started to slice away at anything that was within range.

    He saw movement to his right and sliced his blade across the leg he could make out in the blood. The owner of the leg fell down to one knee and he promptly chopped of the head. Losing himself to the blood fever he started slashing at everything that was within reach. His clothes started to become darker and darker from all the blood spatter. He had long forgotten that he had allies, he just wanted to kill more enemies. Feel more of their warm blood splashing onto his skin. He wanted more of those pleasing dark red ripples!

    Suddenly his next blow was stopped by a shield and his bloodshot eyes met another set of bloodshot eyes. Six. He saw a similar bloodthirsty grin in the opponents eyes and they started battling with each other furiously. Neither would give the other an inch. Using both the staff end and the blade end of his weapon to attack he sent his vicious onslaught in Six''s direction. Six responded with an onslaught of his own. They both took wounds that should have hurt. Should have slowed them down. Neither of them gave a single damn about any wounds they where getting though. They just wanted to inflict more wounds on the opponent. They wanted each other dead.

    Then with a sudden blow everything halted. His consciousness had no chance and was lost without further ado. everything went black.

    <hr />

    I noticed that i havent gotten any replies since chapter 5 orso. This is kind of demotivating for me because i have no idea if you guys like my writing style or not! I cant improve if no one tells me how im doint or what could be done better! I would REALLY REALLY REAAAALLLY apreciate it if some of you guys could tell me whats what and give me some constructive kritisism so i can improve my writing!

 Chapter 10

    Tatt''s still felt a little bewildered when they walked into the forest. I mean having your head chopped of doesn''t happen every day. Sansieri gave him a worried look but he told them her he was fine just needed to get his head on straight. He laughed a bit to himself getting his head on straight get it? applauding himself for the word joke he walked together with the rest of his group following the instructor as he lead them to wat would be their starting point.

    All 4 members of his group where melee fighters so they didn''t bother thinking up much of a movement strategy. The only thing they did do was keep Sansieri in the middle since she told them that she could cast a bit of healing magic should the need arise. The other 2 members of his team where a tigerlike beastman and he was actually pretty unsure wat the other guy was with his 3 eyes that glowed a menacing red whenever he looked at anything. They had named themselves Tiger, even Tatt''s thought the name was a bit simple but hey it was his choice, And Triclops. He couldn''t help but grin to himself a bit at that so the 3 eye actually had a sense of humor. unexpected.

    Before he could let his thought wander any further the starting signal was given. The group started to move out but they weren''t in any kind of hurry so they just kept their eyes open and scanned the tree tops and the area around them for any kind of movement. He was thinking to himself which group should be the one to worry the most about. His first thought was Luniera and Oak. Oak had his monstrous strength with which he wielded that huge ass tower shield like it was a simple plank. That mace of his was also something he would really not like to get hit by. He was pretty sure that a strike from that would mean his instant death. He had sparred with Oak a few times and still had no idea how to take him down. Sure he was faster than the giant treeman but he hadn''t figured out how to get passed that annoyingly huge shield.

    Luniera of course was not one to forget. Tatt''s had to be honest, he was kind of infuated with the girl after he had seen her calm control during the pain test. His tribe prouded themselves on their resilience but they could not compare to her. Even without his memories he was pretty sure about this. Then he saw the way she wielded that slim sword of hers the practiced grace that she moved it with made her even more attractive to him. He was also 100% sure that she was the most dangerous of all of them. Sure Grey and her where on the same level speaking stattwise according to the statusplate. But skill with weapon and battle experience was not rated on the status plate.

    Getting a bit exited himself thinking about all the strong opponents he would get to fight he increased his pace a little. The others didn''t voice a complaint and simply adjusted their pace. It didn''t take long for them to come into contact with another group. The other group had 3 melee fighters and some one who had chosen a sling. Who in het 666 forbidden hells would choose a sling?! He thought to himself. He quickly found out why when a stone zoomed into his face. Blood splattered in his face and he could hear his nose break. ¡°Mutherfucker!¡± He roared racing towards the group. Getting pelted by a few of the stinging stones on the way. Giving his races robust build he didn''t fill the full brunt of the impact the stones could have made. If a normal human was hit by a stone like that they could possibly break a few bones. A surprisingly annoying fucking weapon he thought to himself.

    He then smashed his axes down on the closest melee fighter he could see who raised his shield. One of his axes smashed through an edge of the shield splintering it. The other got lodged in the thick wood. The boy was brought to a knee under the power of the blow. Tatt''s used this to set his foot on the shield and pushed the boy shield and all of his axe. He then proceeded to bury his favored axe into the skull of the young man. Killing him outright. To his left he saw Sansieri smoothly dodge a blow that another fighter wielding a bastard sword swung at her and she returned a palm strike straight to the chest around where the heart would be. With a splat of blood leaving his mouth her opponent dropped onto his face dead.

    Note to self Tatt''s thought. Do not mess with Sansieri if you want to live. He then quickly pursued the little fucker that had broken his nose as he saw that the girl with the sling was trying to retreat to a safer distance. Tatt''s would have none of this and threw his axe straight into her back. She was hit with such force that she was knocked of her feet and flew through the air a bit before landing face first on the floor dead. There was no such thing as difference between races in his tribe. Each woman would be held to the same standards as the men. And they should be able to handle the burdens. This little fact caused Tatt''s to not even hesitate when fighting women. He didn''t understand the moral view of other races that women should be treated differently. He could see from Sansieri and Luniera that women where every bit as dangerous as men. If not more so.

    The other 2 of his team quickly dispatched of the last member of the opposing group and they moved on. Cleaning their weapons a bit and trying to rub some of the blood out of their eyes. Sansieri by some miracle didn''t have the smallest speck of blood on her. Pretty suspicious if you ask me Tatt''s mused looking at his still slightly mysterious partner. They may have been together for about 6 months now but he still didn''t have quite a handle on the kind of person she was.

    Once again his thought''s were interrupted when he heard the sound of combat coming somewhere from their left. The group having gained some confidence after their first encounter moved onto the sounds of combat. It didn''t take long for them to arrive and wat they found was a bloody massacre.

    Two blood covered fighters where hacking people to bits. He felt completely baffled by the sight of the normally so very stoic Six laughing manically when he hacked into the knee of his shield wielding opponent. He seemed to relish the feeling of the blood that splattered all over his face. The blood crazed man soon stepped on the arm of the poor opponent who was clearly over himself with fear. He then started to smash his hand axe  into the face of the frightened boy. But he was not satisfied by the blow ooooowh no not by far. He continued to smash his axe into the face until the head was a complete pulpy mess. Pieces of brain clung to his axe as Six looked around for his next opponent.

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    Meanwhile on the other side he saw something that surprised him yet again. Grey seemed to be in the same bloody craze as Six. Although instead of the maniacal smile seen on Six''s face Grey seemed completely serene. He seemed at peace slaughtering the opponents before him. His face was so very blissful as he chopped of the arm of the girl he was fighting and then twirled around wielding his staffblade lightning fast cutting of the head of his poor opponent his face getting a few more added blood stains to them. It was also hard to miss the remaining pieces of body that seemed to cling to his hair and clothes. Seeing someone so calmly disposing of his enemies was even more bloodcurdling to Tatt''s than wat Six was doing. Seems Grey is far more dangerous than i had thought.

    It didn''t take long for the other fighters in the area to back themselves away from the duo. After having no more opponents in their immediate range the gazes of the bloodcrazed fighters met each other and with a snarl they pounded on each other. At first they where wielding their respective weapons with a measure of practiced skill. 6 months of nonstop practicing could teach a man a lot about his weapon. Soon however it seems the monster inside them took over as all the skillful techniques went out the window and they left all defense behind. Smashing into each other like two catastrophic forces colliding. Blood was flying around them in fact there was so much blood and body parts around them that the one of his group could be heard emptying his stomach behind him.

    He couldn''t really blame him. It was probably the most grotesque sight he had seen in his life so far. Soon enough they both started slowing down a bit to due to their many wounds. Six had lost his shield somewhere along the way and had picked up a dagger up form the floor and was now dualwielding. Grey still had his staffblade in both hands but the blade as well as the staff was covered in the shining crimson of blood. The two didn''t show any sign of stopping however and was soon enough clashing weapons again. Tatt''s and his group had no real desire to  stop the two fighting. It wasnt really comfortable thinking of having those two focusing their attention on you.

    Then suddenly he noticed another group approaching from the side. It was Luniera and Oak and their group. They seemed to already have been in combat seeing as their weapons showed some marks of blood the same Tatt''s group. They stopped for a wild staring at the massacre in front of them. Then with a sudden burst of movement Luniera sprinted forward to the beserking duo. She stepped on the ground behind six and made a leaping movement where body made a weird kind of spin. Then in a flash both heads of the beserkes where on the floor. Tatt''s couldn''t believe his eyes. In one move she had beheaded both of them! Sure they were wounded and not as fast as they might have normally been. But one move?! This only affirmed the idea in his head that Luniera was beyond a doubt the strongest of the group.

    The rest he didn''t really want to tell as he and his group got annihilated by Luniera and Oak short after. Snowflake had managed to wound Oak and if he had been human Oak would have died. But his body was simply to thick for Snowflake''s knives to pierce through to the core. Shortly after Snowflake was dispatched by Luniera as well. Making Luniera and her group the winner of this fight

    And thus Tatt''s concluded the story telling Grey wat had happened. Grey took a moment to wrap his head around this. So he had lost his sense and went berserk killing everyone around him. He looked at Six who seemed a bit displeased with himself for losing control. Six stood up and walked to the other group of people. He then gave a deep bow to the other group and apologized sincerely for the damage he had caused. Grey being rather surprised by the sudden apology of Six''s hurriedly stood up and joined Six''s side apologizing aswell.

    The other group just laughed it over and told them not to worry. Sure the two of them might be crazy and turn into killing machines at the sight of blood. But all they needed to do was turn that madness on the enemies they would encounter in the arena. Grey was somewhat moved by the sentiment the other group showed with their lightheartedness. He was thinking to himself that he was really lucky having met these people. Even if it was under unfortunate circumstances.

    The Instructor let them finish the little display and then congratulated Luniera and her group on their victory. Their prize? Absolutely nothing this was practice there was nothing to be gained by it but experience. He then told the group that they would hold these battles once every two weeks so they could get some real fighting experience and test out their new and improved techniques.

    Being very tired after everything that had happened all of them soon left for bed. The last thing Grey thought of was that he was happy that the magic of the forest had left him clean when he went to bed. He had probably never slept so well in all his life.

    <hr />

    In my opinion my fighting scenes are a bit weak so i will be doing a bit of reasearch to figure out how to improve them. Ill keep posting but anything including fighting i plan to coming back to later and changing. Once i think i have a proper hang of it atleast

    :P Thanx for reading!

 Chapter 11

    Grey woke up feeling pretty well rested but still troubled by the brief insanity that had plagued him yesterday. Was it the magic after effects of the pain test? He didn''t know and he thought that only one person might have an idea as to what was happening to him. The Elder would be getting a visit from him later today. But first time for some delicious food. In the past few months that they had spent here they still had not found out who the person was that made this delicious food.

    Speculations they had a plenty but no real proof or anything of the sort. It had to be someone extremely strong or maybe it was a group of someone''s. Carrying that table in and out could not be easy he was sure that he couldn''t lift it. Honestly he had even tried to lift it, as expected though it didn''t even budge. After they had eaten breakfast they began their normal morning exercises. The exercises had become a habit for everyone living here. He had heard that even the elder and the forge master did the exercises but they did it a bit before they did theirs.

    With the morning exercises finished Grey decided to just ask the Instructor about whoever cooked their food.

    ¡°Instructor, who is the one who actually makes all this food?¡±

    ¡°Aaah you guys haven''t seen her yet have you¡± He told them with a small smile ¡°Might as well just go to the kitchen so you can see for yourself¡±

    The kids followed him through yet another of the seemingly endless side passages that led out from the training hall. They entered the lightest room they had been in yet. The room wasn''t very big at especially compared to some of the other rooms they had. The kitchen itself was made from stainless gleaming steel. And behind he kitchen counter there was a woman. At least he knew it had to be a woman from wat the instructor had told him.

    The chef was small, noticeably so he thought the only one who might actually be smaller was Pebble who barely managed to reach his hip. The woman had short cut hair and a rough face. A big potato like nose that fit her dark messy hair and the black beady eyes above them. Her skin colour was a sickly green and her arms where slightly longer than her torso. She walked with a bit of a hunch. Actually he was pretty sure this ''woman'' was a goblin.

    Everyone was pretty much in complete shock seeing who made all the delicious food they had been eating. The only one who seemed to take it all in stride was surprisingly Snowflake. Wat surprised him even more was that snowflake stepped forward and asked the goblin if she would teach him how to cook. He even seemed rather exited when he asked her, something which Grey could not understand by any logic.

    The Goblin got extremely exited by this question. Showing a grin with sharp pointy yellow teeth she grabbed Snowflake by the hand and started showing him around the kitchen. The goblin was basically bouncing around with enthusiasm telling Snowflake about each tool she had in the kitchen and about the spices. Dragging him around from one thing to another with that obviously happy face made the rest of the group laugh a bit. He had to admit he kind of liked the goblin. It was hard not to like someone who went around doing their job with such passion.

    ¡°This be knaif use much for cut meat!¡± The goblin exclaimed. ¡°This be hammer use for smack meat. Make meat much juicy good tasty.¡± Although she spoke worse than most kid''s. They still couldn''t get over this simple pure enthusiasm. He was not sure how the goblin had found out about her passion for making food. He for one was glad she had because the food they ate here was really one of the better points. A stable foundation of their day''s of work. Then something suddenly came to him. How did this little goblin move that giant table?! How strong was this female goblin.

    Well mysteriously powerful goblin chef aside the rest of the day went uneventful before he headed to the forge he headed to the elder first. Snowflake accompanied him because he was going there for lessons anyway. ¡°Are you worried?¡± Snowflake asked him. Another thing he noticed was that over the months Snowflake had lost most of his shyness towards him and the rest of the group. ¡°I''m actually hoping it''s because of the magic.¡± Grey confessed.

    ¡°Why?¡± Snowflake asked looking at him with a quizzical look.

    ¡°Because it would mean im not a blood thirsty madman at heart.¡± Grey stated simply

    ¡°Wat if he says it''s not because of the magic?

    ¡°Then i''ll have to figure out how to control it, or atleast be able to direct it.¡± Grey said sighing. ¡°Wouldn''t be cool if i killed you guys instead of who or what ever we are going to have to fight.

    ¡°I''m not to worried.¡± Snowflake said giving him a pat on the back. ¡°I was right next to you when you went insane last time and i came out without a scratch.¡±

    Feeling a bit comforted by his freind''s words they arrived at the plate room.

    ¡°Goodmorning younglings.¡± The elder greeted them.

    ¡°Mornin''.¡± the two replied.

    ¡°So wat is wrong Youngling. Snowflake here i expected but you i did not.¡±

    Grey told him about what had happened in the forest. He told him every detail of how he had gone   crazy and his bloodthirst had led him to rage an onslaught against all those within range.

    ¡°Except me!¡± Snowflake intervened quickly.

    The elder looked at him for a moment and told him to come closer. He then made Grey open his eyes and he shone a bit of light in them with those strange magical fingers he had. Something else he noticed was the signs of some kind of tattoo that the elder had running up his arms. He hadn''t noticed these before. The tribal-ish tattoo''s seemed to be glowing with a blue pulsing light the same as Snowflake did when he started using his innate magic

    ¡°Well i have good and perhaps some bad news¡± The elder said giving him a measuring look. ¡°The good news would be that the magic does somewhat enhance the feeling of blood thirst. The ripples seem to spread the bloodthirst blocking out almost all of your coherent thoughts.¡±

    ¡°The bad news would be that the magic is not wat caused this bloodthirst. The beserker like behavior is from you yourself. It''s a part of your personality or so i would put it. The problematic thing is that i cannot help you with controlling this beserker like behavior of yours. It is something that you will have to figure out how to control it yourself.¡±

    The news hit Grey a bit hard. So he was insane that''s wat he thought to himself. Without any further ado he pardoned himself from the room and headed to the forge. Atleast the steady beating of the hammer could calm him down making. The more he worked at the forge the more he liked working there. He wondered if they would ever make it out of the arena. He would really like to start his own forge.

    He soon reached the familiar smoky and hot room. The smoke and heat had long since stopped bothering him. It was surprising how easy it was to get used to these things. The forge master greeted him with his usual nod of the head. Grey returned the nod and headed to his own little part of the forge. There was actually space available for 4 Smiths to work at the same time in this area so even though the bulky forge master was huge it still seemed spacious. Grey headed to his forge in the corner and sat down on the anvil for a moment thinking.

    He pondered about the Naginata he used.  although it was a splendid weapon now that he was gaining bulk it became harder to make use of the Naginata''s strengths the speedy whirls and spins that the made the weapon so dangerous where harder to do now that he was more muscular. Although his strength had greatly increased his speed did not increase as much as those of the others that made use of fast and light weaponry. He suddenly had a spark of inside and asked the Forge master for some of the better steels. The forge master just pointed his thumb to nearby door letting him know to just take whatever was necessary.

    He entered the dusty storage room and looked around. There where all kind of boxes and pallets full of different kind of metals. Some of these metals he had never seen before and was unsure of their property''s. Suddenly he saw a pile of ingots that really attracted his attention. The ingots had an icy blue colouring to them and when he picked one up which was the size of his lower arm he was surprised by the weight. The metal was so heavy he couldn''t even pick it up with arm. This really surprised him because of the work at the smithy he had been doing he was pretty sure that the only one who might be stronger than him was Oak.

    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    intrigued by this extremely heavy and dense metal he put it on the ground and grabbed a hammer.

    He wound up his arm and swung down with every ounce of strength his body possessed. With a loud clang the hammer hit the metal and the impact numbed his arm and hand. Infact the impact was so strong that he could no longer hold onto the hammer as it flew from his hand flying down the storage area. He grinned like an idiot when he looked at the metal ingot. Not even so much as a scratch was to be found on the metal. Even when he used the ripple to check for imperfection there was nothing to be found on the ingot.

    He had made his decision on which metal to use. This incredibly tough, dense and heavy metal would be wat he was going to use to make his own new weapon. Not a staffblade this time but a weapon that would fit the way he was growing and the style of fighting he wanted to adopt. He grabbed an ingot and took it back to the forgery he had to make a trip to the storage room 3 times because the metal was so heavy he could only carry one at a time. The forge master seeing him lug out the heavy metal with a passionate shine in his eyes gave a small smile that went unnoticed.

    Once Grey had dragged the ingots to the forge he went around and looked at the molds he could use for the weapon. He was still unsure on wat weapon he should use. He looked at the different swords and shook his head these simple swords wouldn''t do the trick. He moved on to the axes and wondered how it would be if he wielded a great axe. The image of a bloodthirsty berserker wielding an axe as big as himself was intimidating for sure but for some reason the idea did not appeal to him. Neither did any of the blunt weapons he looked at. A mace or a morning star would not fit well into the way he wanted to fight.

    Thinking hard about wat weapon to use the Forge master walked up to him with a mold. It looked like a longsword at first glance but no it was to big for a long sword. Yet it was too small to be called a heavy sword or great sword. He read the words that marked the mold for wat it was. Bastard Sword. He had to admit he kind of liked the ring of it in his ears. Bastard sword, it sounded pretty dark and menacing. It sounded much more dangerous than a longsword or spear. He gave the forge master a grin. He was sure of it now his new weapon would be a Bastard sword!

    He got started on the working process he melted the heavy ingots one at a time it took extremely long before they melted so long infact that the forge master who was watching him work grabbed another of the blowers and added it to the forge and started blowing himself aswell. Adding even more heat to the fire both of them pumped furiously turning the forge into a blazing inferno of flames. After about 10 minutes of painstaking pumping they had both started sweating like never before. After a few more minutes the familiar sizzling sounds could be heard that indicated that the ingots had melted.

    Grey carefully let the glowing molten metal slide into the mold. Letting it cool down just enough to switch form liquid state to solid state. He then grabbed the end of the sword where the hilt would eventually be and start methodically and calmly hammering on the blade. The ripples once again consumed his thoughts. The rippling calm spread through his thoughts consuming anything that got in the way of his focus on smithing. Unknown to him his eyes had started glowing and his hair had lifted of his should swimming around his head as if he was underwater. Strange symbols glowed on his skin his entire body glowing as if it was a magical web. The sight of this made the forge master step back a bit in surprise as he watched the now illuminated Grey work.

    Grey not aware of wat was going on just calmly kept hitting the red hot metal. The clashes of the hammer hitting the sword drowning away all thoughts as he continued his work in some kind of trance. After he was done hitting the sword mold into shape he put it back into the forge and started reheating it. Once the sword was once again red hot he did something he had never used before. Something that even the forge master had never done. He folded the metal and then hit it into shape again before folding it yet again. He then reheated it and then continued folding it and hitting it back into shape. He kept repeating this until he had done it about 200 times.

    Once he had finished the folding he reheated the sword and put it back on the anvil. He then took a tiny yet sharp metal rod that was used for inscribing and started drawing weird runic symbols on the sword. The now redish light that was emanating from his body seemed to be leak in the sword. The light seemed to somehow be liquid as it flowed into the blade like water. The light gathered into the runes that Grey was carving and gave them a weird crimson red glow that was noticeable even tho the sword was still red-hot. Once he had finished inscribing the sword he started working on the hilt.

    He rushed back into the storage room to find something for the hilt and came back with strange blue white ivory. He then started carving the ivory into shape for the hilt of the sword.

    Unlike how they usually would be glued together to form a hilt. Grey started singing something so softly that it wasnt even audible. The strange song made the room seem a buzz. It was almost as if a million bumblebees had gathered in the room. The strange song seemed to have an effect on the ivory as it started to form itself around the hilt as if they had always been that way. Even the hilt was not left clean of runes. The red glow spread itself around the hilt this time in wat seemed to be black tribal markings. He then made the cross guard from the same heavy blue metal he had used on the sword. The cross guard seemed to be simple at first glance untill the blue metal seemed to multiply and gather at the pommel guard. The metal started making a thin steel chain of about 20 centimeters long that ended in the clasp of a cuff that seemed to be made from the same icy blue steel.

    The forge master was long done with helping and stared in amazement at the display before him. Just when he thought Grey was done with his weird forging he started to use the rest of the ivory to make the last thing that was missing, The sheath. Just like the rest of the sword the sheath was not left free of magic. He made some miniscule runes around the edge of the sheath where the sword would enter. Surprisingly he left the rest of the sheath untouched he then grabbed the sword and stuck it into the sheath. Before drawing the sword again immediately. As soon as the sword was released from the sheath a low sound could be heard spreading through the room as if someone had hit a particularly large gong. The cuff seemed to flow around the wrist of the young man connecting his arm to the sword.  There he stood, glowing, with his hair shifting around his head eyes shimmering red with a sword that had red glowing runes running all over the blade. Intimidating he left the forge master utterly convinced that this was the appearance of a mad war god thirsty for his blood. The sight of it made the bulky forge master back up until his back hit the wall.

    This day would later be known as the birth of the famous sword Bloodthirster.

    <hr />

    Largest chapter yet! And boy did i have fun writing this :D, Sorry for the delay i thought i had taken my documents with me to my parents place when i went there for the holiday but i forget them! Might happen again! I''ll make it up to you guys xD

 Chapter 12

    Suddenly Grey collapsed the cuff had let go of his hand and had left small needle holes in his wrist. The Forge master stared at the holes in his wrist for a moment wondering hiw they had gotten there but his mind was still a bit warped by wat had happenend so he decided to just take Grey to the elder. He slung the young man over his shoulder and picked up the strange sword laying there on the floor. The forge master was surprised that even for him it was heavy. The sword itself seemed to have some strange resentment to being picked up. It stung his hand quite a bit but the forge master had long since gotten used to pain and just ignored it.

    Walking down the hallway with grey slung over his shoulder he reached the status plate room and entered. The elder wasn''t in the status plate room, surprised by this the forge master headed to the only other area he knew the elder would other wise be. He headed down another hallway leading from the statusplate room to an average sized room. For some reason the room was filled with barely visible metal string. Moving fluently on top of those wires as easily as if it was a broad walkway was the elder. The elder had no shirt on wich made the movements all the more impressive. His body was incredeible no matter how many times the forge master saw it. Scars covered nearly every inch of the elder''s skin his short gray hair and short trimmed beard russtled a bit when he jumped from wire to wire.

    Soon enough you could see how the wires had gotten there. The elders body glowed with the same pulsing light Snowflake would occasionaly show. However instead of the violet light that snowflake emmited the elders light was a deep dark blue. Flowing from his finger tips where those steely wires. The forge master knew from experience that those wires where sharp and could cut of limbs when used by the elder who had mastered the dance of the strings decades ago. Dance of the strings seemed to be the name the elder had given his fighting style. Each of them had taken on their own fighting style''s and after the years of fighting had named them as they thought would be appropriet.

    The elder finished his movements and let himself fall down from one of the upper wires before smoothly and silently landing on the floor.

    ¡°So wat happenend to the boy?¡± The elder asked him

    The forge master handed him the icy blue sword as ussual still not saying a single word. The elder grabbed the sword and swung it around as if it was a wooden practice sword. Weightless and gracefull the sword seemed when put in the hands of this elderly man.

    ¡°This is a very nice sword, you make it?¡±

    The forge master shook his hand pointing to Grey that he had put on the ground in the meanwhile.

    ¡°The young one made it?¡± The elder said a note of surprise in his voice this time.

    The forge master nodded. Trying to explain with weird hand gestures wat exactly he had experienced in the forge. The elder seemed to understand these gestures with ease. Well naturally he would after all he was the one who had taught them to the forge master when he had lost his ability to speak.

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    ¡°Bit heavy though i wonder iif he can wield it, and there is magic mixed in this sword. It also seems to resent being held by me. How very peculiar.¡± The elder mused.

    ¡°If you where wondering wat the sword would do then i can''t tell you we''d only be able to find out wat it does exactly when the young one wields it for the first time in a proper fight. Although he will really have to step up his training.

    Not one for saying to much the elder left it at that. Not really having learnt anything about the sword he decided to take the kid to his cell. Every one already seemed to have been long asleep. He wondered howlong the forging of the sword had actually lasted. To him it seemed to be one hour max. But that everyone was already fast asleep proved otherwise. It must have actually taken atleast 8 hours. Not dwelling on it any further he tucked the young boy in with surprsingly gentle hands despite his size.

    When Grey woke-up the next day he had to drag himself out of his bed. He felt exhausted almost as if he had spent the entire time running marathons before he went to sleep. The first thing he noticed when he woke up was that everyone else had already left. This in itself was peculiar because they would ussually be woken up first thing in the morning. Atleast they assumed it was morning when they where woken up. There wasn''t really anyway to keep track of time down here.

    Second thing he noticed was the sheathed sword next to him. He couldn''t recall making it he remembered finding the ice blue steel and dragging it to the forge but after that it was mostly blank.

    He stood up and put his hand on the hilt of the sword but try as he might he couldn''t even budge the heavy bastard sword. No matter how he tried or how hard he pressed his muscles to pick up the sword it just refused to leave it''s spot.

    ¡°Well¡± Grey muttered to himself ¡°I made a bloody sword i can''t even pick up how spectabulous. Not much else for it i suppose¡±

    He had already made a decision. Muscle training time! Hard work till he could lift the bloody thing he would focus on training his muscles. Best way to do that was work at the forge!

    <hr />

    Sorry bout the short half-assed chapter. But this part really got me stuck. I had written a decent sized chapter like 3 times and deleted it cuz i thought it sucked :l.  The last chapter felt so good writing that this just felt soooooo crappy. Anyways tomorrow ill release a new chapter decent sized. Only a couple more before the first actual fight! Thanks to everyone for sticking with me for so long!  :heart:

 chapter 13

    Grey rushed through the halls where the others were training and headed straight for the forge. He had already set his mind on the training schedule. He was going to work in the forge for most of the day untill he could lift the sword he would keep up the running and stretching however. If he lost stamina and flexibility he would not be as capable a fighter as he was before.

    It did not take long for him to reach the forges. He was in quite a hurry after all the forge master noted him and just nodded the same as usual. Returning the nod Grey immideatly set out for storage room. He started weighing the different types of metals he found there and sorted them from the lightest to the heaviest metals. The lightest was a kind of transparent white-ish metal and the heaviest was the icy blue metal he had used before.

    He used a metal that seemed to be a bit heavier than the metal used in the hammer he was now wielding. He took the metal to the forge and made a new hammer out of it. Quickly yet expertly he finished the hammer and weighed it in his hands. It was a decent bit heavier than the one he was using now. The plan was to wield this hammer until his body was as used to this weight as to the one of the normal hammer. Then he would make a new hammer of an even heavier weight and so forth.

    The training went on for a few weeks. Running, stretching, smithing, running, smithing and repeat.

    He kept himself to this basic schedule until after about 6 weeks he felt like he could move on to the next metal. Months passed like this before he had finally reached the ice-metal hammer. The hammer was a bit lighter than his sword but once he got used to this he should be able to pick it up. Unknown to him his body had changed a good bit during these months.

    Although he knew he was stronger than he was before he wasn''t really aware of it. He noticed a bit of change but those around him were very much aware of it. The reptilian sisters Fog and Mist seemed particularly aware of it as they kept eying him during training. sometimes they would even pop into the forge and watch him work. He himself hadn''t even noticed this, his mind was set on the training and the beating of his heart and the sound of the hammer hitting the anvil were harmonizing. Causing him to not be able to sense much else or maybe more accurately anything else.

    Although this trance like state was ideal for when he was forging weapons his guard was down whenever he got like this. Not the the twins really cared about this. As long as they could stare at the eye candy before him not being noticed suited them just fine. And he had become quite the eye candy his body had changed into one of a young adult. Tall with rippling muscles and a slim waist with his long grey hair strapped into a messy bun with some left over leather. The glow of the heat on his face and the sweat running down his chest. Standing there shirtless with the light of the fire dancing on his bare skin.

    No need to say that the twins liked wat they saw. The twins where not the only ones who noticed of course. Tatt''s would stop by from time to time to take a look but when he saw the bare chested Grey at work he got a look of passion in his eyes and started to train even harder. Snowflake passed by once aswell his eyes lingering on him for a moment before the blush on his face was unmistakable and he hurried of. To the soft snikkers of the twins. Luniera dropped by once aswell and let her eyes roam his body but taking more note of the way he was forging his weapons than the way Grey looked without a shirt.

    Grey was standing there with the ice-metal hammer in his hand deciding that he would use this hammer for 2 months before finally removing the blade from its stand beside his bed. And thus another 2 months passed. In total now 2 of the 5 years before their first arena match would be held had passed. It was finally time for Grey to use his own sword.

    He walked to his room staring at the sword for a moment before reaching his hand to it. He had attracted quite a few viewers when he walked to the sword. Most of the others had noticed the sword and just about everyone had tried to move it only to not be able to budge it in the slightest.

    Even Oak could not get the blade to budge. Once he had tried and shown no results most of the others had simply given up. The conclusion was simple if Oak could not lift it none of them could. There where a few who stubbornly tried to lift it each day nonetheless like Pebble who looked simply hilarious when trying to move the sword that was nearly twice as big as him. And Tatt''s who seemed to think it had become some kind of competition.

    Wrapping his hand around the hilt you could feel the tension that was starting to spread around the cell. Tensing his muscles the rest could see them flexing beneath his skin. Muscles bulging he grabbed the sword and with a mighty heave swung it upwards sheath and all. The others simply stared in amazement. They had expected Grey to be able to lift the sword eventually. Everyone was aware that this was wat he had been training for the last year. But wat they did not expect was for him to be able to move it with one hand!

    It was mostly just an after effect of all the smithing. Wielding the hammer was always done with one arm so his right arm had grown used to the weight and he could now carry absurd weights with that arm. His left arm had naturally also grown in strength because he now also used the other metals for forging the weapons. The right arm remained his dominant arm however and its strength was now proven for all to see.

    The cuff of the sword clasped itself to his wrist. Other than that nothing more of interest happened. The crowd quickly dispersed noticing that anything exiting had already happened. His friends congratulated him in turn patting him on the back. The twins were a little more touchy with their congratulations resting their hands on his chest longer than would have been necessary in any scenario. This didn''t seem to bother anyone other than Snowflake. Who still seemed to shy to really share physical contact with anyone. Even a simple pat on the back was still beyond him.

    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

    Grey anxious to try out the sword headed to the training hall. He swung his sword around a few times getting a feel for the weight. He then moved on to one of the heavy iron training dummy''s the instructor had them practicing their hits on. He swung the sword to the dummy a few times stopping just short of touching it. He then prepared himself for a proper swing. Getting in stance he set his foot forward and swung his sword with the force of his entire body behind it. Muscles strained to the maximum flexing at the power behind them he made the blade whistle through the air. The blade smashed into the dummy with tremendous force shattering it into a hail of shrapnel that was blasted around the room causing all nearby trainees to take cover.

    The rain of shrapnel dug itself into the wood and some of them even managed to lodge themselves into the stone on the wall. The entire hall was staring at Grey mouth agape. Most of them hadn''t even managed to dent the heavy iron dummies. Let alone shatter them like they were made of glass. First of all metal was not meant to shatter at all. Wat kind of magical properties or extreme force would have to be wielded to make the blade inflict such damage on its target. Most of them shuddered thinking about the effect that such a swing would have on a human body.

    ¡°Not a bad swing you got yourself kid¡± The instructor said walking up to him. ¡°Your form however is hideous, nothing was used in that swing besides your own brute strength.¡± Typical of the instructor to have a compliment but wrap it up in things he was doing wrong and could improve.

    Still this was not a bad trait for an Instructor to have.

    The instructor backed up his words with deeds and started to show Grey how to wield his sword properly.  The style the instructor taught him was nothing like the smooth liquid-like dancing movements Luniera made. The movements the instructor taught him where simple, crude and most of all extremely effective. He taught him how he should take down opponents without even giving them a proper chance to fight back. With creatures however he was told to just find out wat to do on his own. The only thing the instructor could teach him in that regard was how to use the power his body had properly.

    The next year was spent much in the same training pattern as before. He would still spend his free time at the smithy. He felt like he was already a decent smith. The other thought he was good enough in fact for them to start asking him to make weapons for them aswell. So that was exactly wat he spent most of his time at the smithy doing. He made weapons that fit the fighters. For Tatt''s he made 2 brand new axes with a gleaming red metal. He used a dark metal-infused wood to make his handle''s. The axes where large and heavy but fit Tatt''s perfectly. In honor of his name he had even added black tribal markings to the blade. All in all they made the barbarian looking Tatt''s look even more like a barbarian.

    The others got weapons that fit their style''s as well. He made a tower shield for Oak that was created by a mixed compound of metals that gave the metal an odd mixture of colours. The mace he  simply made of the strongest and heaviest steel he had. After all by now Oak had grown enough in strength to be able to wield a weapon made of ice-metal himself. For Luniera he made a sword of the lightest metal he had but he infused it with traces of the ice-metal for strength. He was somehow able to mix them together so well that the weapon was light yet still as strong any other steel. He was actually pretty sure that it could shatter a normal steel weapon. The blade somehow ended up with a transparent black glass kind of look. The weapon seemed kind of creepy but it seemed to suit Luniera just fine.

    For Sansieri he made a pair of gauntlets. More than gauntlets they where more like knuckle plates.

    It was quite a strange weapon covering only her knuckles in a golden tinted steel. Sansieri however loved his creation she told him they would fit her fighting style perfectly. Six got a hatchet that seemed to have blood on the edge of it. It was however just a coincidental mix of metals that made it appear that way. The rest agreed though that it fit his bloodthirsty style perfectly. For Pebble and Mist however he couldn''t make a weapon. Wooden weapons where not his expertise and he had never made a bow before and did not want to make a faulty one just for the sake of it seeming fair. He did make a sword a shield out of a green metal he had found for Fog.  Who seemed ecstatic at the weapons she had been gifted. She clenched them to her now noticeably growing chest with a not so innocent grin.

    Once he had finished creating weapons for every one of the people who was trapped in the arena. Another 6 months had already passed. Only 2 and a half years left till their first match.

    <hr />

    #note,

    At the twenty chapters i will take about a week to review evrything i have written so far i will remove mistakes and errors i have made aswell try to smooth it into a better story line. I may also make changes to the chapters or fuse some chapters together. This will take about a week in my estimate just letting u guys know upfront.

    Hope u liked this decent chapter. (im glad im not stuck its actually pretty decent in my eyes. I think the enxt chapter i will do a timeskip and chapter 15 will be the first arena fight!  You guys will enjoy that one i hope :D

 chapter 14

    In a blink of an eye the 2 and a half years had passed.he group had intensified their training and the month before they would actually fight they had trained with insane fervor till they had reached their utmost limits. Advice from the instructor was to rest 4 days before the match and halt the training. Those last 4 days were filled with stress, knowing they would have to fight for their lives soon did not allow them to simply rest.

    None the less here they where. Walking down the hallway to a room filled with smaller magical circles.

    ¡°Each of you take place in one of the magical circles.¡± The instructor ordered them. ¡°Now be prepared, you may not be moved as a group you can be put there alone in the arena, in pairs or in smaller groups.¡±

    Nervous twitching could be seen throughout the room. No more practice fights no more magical revivals. If they died here they died for good. Every single one of them were fidgeting. Even Luniera was checking the edge of her sword for the 6th time.

    ¡°Work together if possible, Keep an eye on your surroundings. The arena is huge and you wont be able to see the people watching you.¡±  The instructor looked at them and gave them his last words.

    ¡°May you all come back, or die trying. Be brave, fight well. Above all may lady luck be with you all.¡±

    As if those last words had sent a signal the room was illuminated in a blinding flash of white light. With a quick zooming sound the room was empty.

    ¡°And may the demon''s take those who put you here.¡± The instructor whispered with a excruciatingly sad look on his face.

    Poof. Grey fell lightly on the ground. The soft rustle of the wind could be heard running through the tree''s. The gentle sensation of grass could be felt under his bare feet. He quickly clapped his hands and used the ripple the sound created to see wat was around him. It was one of the tricks he had learned along the way. The sound of a clap passed further than normal sounds and increased his vision range but only to the larger objects.

    Lucky for him he was not alone. He could see his precious friends around him converging on his location. The sound of the clap the others had grown familiar to had led them all straight to him.

    ¡°Those claps of yours really do make an incredibly hard sound.¡± Luniera said appearing from the trees. She had definitely grown more beautiful during the last few years. She had a small waist and slightly larger hips. Although she was not even close to busty she still had some curves to her chest. The loose shirt she was wearing only seemed to add to her sensuality.

    ¡°Indeed if i would not have known better i would have been certain that this came hand in hand with some kind of magical incantation¡± Oak came from another side actually a bit hard to see from between the tree''s. The Ent had grown tremendously over the years and was now a 2 meter tall giant. He only looked more intimidating With his huge shield and the heavy mace he always carried around.

    ¡° In times like this however it is quite usefull¡± Sansieri joined the group. Unlike Luniera she had definitely grown more busty over the years. Her hair long and thick was being tickled by the wind only making her appear more enticing than ever.

    ¡°You should teach me that clap!¡± Pebbles said appearing with a grin on his face swinging down from a tree. He had not grown an inch in the last years and was still the same happy-go-lucky monkey he always was.

    ¡°Most definetly not, my head would suffer for days¡± The stoic Six walked in his expression serious as always.

    ¡°We can always chuck our axes at his head if he does it too much¡± Tatt''s said wielding his twin axes with enthusiasm. Tatt''s like Grey had grown large over the years. Both of them where about 180 centimeters now and Tatt''s had a very bulky build. Even if he was not as big as Grey himself who had turned into a walking mountain after all the strength training he had done.

    ¡°He will dodge one¡± Fog said twirling her sword around a bit and shifting her shield.

    ¡°He will definitely dodge another aswell, fast little monkey that he is¡± Mist said with a grin testing her bowstring. The twins still looked identical when they grew. Both had luscious green hair and full curvy body. Their bodies alone would make them the envy of any woman. Their faces did their bodies proud aswell. Smooth features and green reptile eyes did somehow not distract from their beauty.

    ¡°I can always chuck my knives at him again¡± Snowflake said smiling. Snowflake had grown over the years he was now about 175 centimeters and had a lean skinny build. His hair he had grown longer and now passed to his lower back.

    With the group here together alot of them felt more relieved. The relief however did not last long the quite of the dark moonles night was pierced by screams soon after. The sound was to far away for Grey to be able to see anything, the group didn''t even hesitate and rushed in the direction of the scream.

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    First it was the one scream. But it was soon joined by more. Agony, fear and pain could be heard in the screams that spread themselves through the forest. The scene the group stumbled upon would scar their memories for life.

    Before them they saw a seen that should only be visible in the deepest and darkest places of hell.

    Blood, so much blood. The grass all around the clearing had turned crimson with it. body parts strewn around with organs and intestines accompanying them. They saw Triclops with only the upper half of his body remaining trying to crawl away with a face smeared in tears and blood. Horror was the only emotion on his face horror and disbelief. The monster that had inflicted all this carnage was on his heels.

    The creature was unlike anything they had ever heard of. It had multiple limbs sticking out at random places on its body it walked on 4 hideously shaped legs that shuffled around. Its torso had all kinds of weird appendages sticking out of it. The skin was most unnerving. Probably because it did not seem to have any skin at all. The bare muscles and blood vessels could be seen moving around on his body. And then there was its head. The creature had no eyes that could be seen where the eyes would usually be placed there was nothing but the darkest black any of them had ever seen before. Its mouth was opened wide in 6 different directions with row upon row of razor-sharp teeth lining its body.

    Why it even had a mouth Grey wasn''t sure. It clearly didn''t need one. It was absorbing his former friends and rivals. They could see the screaming faces of their friends trying to get out from under the bloody red muscles on its body. The form of their faces could be seen pushing against the veins running through this monsters body. The most gruesome of all was that they still seemed alive despite everything that had happened. Their faces pressed against the fleshy walls of the prison they were in screamed to Grey and the others for salvation. The torment could be heard in the voices that reached out to them.

    A symphony of terror and agony reached their ears making them freeze for a second at the despair that raced through their minds. The trance of the moment was broken by a simple fucking rock.

    The rock hit the creature in one of the black holes that were supposed to be its eyes and the creature shrieked. Looking around for the attacked in rage it found it. The small short-haired girl with the sling. She stood there shaking on her spot but staring defiantly at the creature in wat would probably be her last moment of bravery.

    The creature raced towards the poor girl with the obvious intentions to tear her apart limb by limb. The girls bravery urged the others into action. Oak sprinted to intercept the creature and crashed full against the side of its body with his shield. Knocking the creature unnerving close to the girl who managed to barely dodge a swipe by one of its weird limbs. The others didn''t let the chance they had gotten leave their grasp. Mist quickly knocked an arrow and shot it at the head of the vile creature. Loosing arrow after arrow the others closed in on the monster. Oak smashed where he supposed the creatures ribcage would be with a mighty swing of his mace. A Crunch could be heard causing the creature roared in anger.

    Tatt''s swung his axes in a parallel swing at one of the creatures leg''s only barely managing to lodge them a few centimeters in. Snowflake flew past with the violet light in his veins pulsing with fierce emotions. One of his knives could be heard whistling through the air at high-speed entering the head of the despicable creature. using the chain he swung around the tree snapping its head backward exposing its neck. Luniera and Grey did not waste the opening and swung their blades with all the strength they could muster and sliced into the thick crimson neck of the monster.

    After slicing into 3 quarters of the monsters neck they jumped back down and backed off. The creature however just roared in outrage at the group and snapped its own head back onto the nearly severed neck. Screams could be heard from within the creature as they watched one of them be torn apart inside it while it used the parts of her body to reattach the head onto its neck. The other wounds simply regenerated itself aswell. The group just stood there in horror watching the creature patch itself up in no time. All the wounds they had inflicted where now non existent.

    <hr />

    #note

    Tommorow next one

 chapter 15

    ¡°How in the hells are we going to kill this thing!¡± Tatt''s roared attempting another swing with his axes. His effort was returned by a swipe from one of the monsters long limbs and he was smacked into a nearby tree getting back on his feet with some difficulty.

    ¡°Lets try cutting its fucking head of see if that works!¡± Grey roared at the group. ¡°Oak, Tatt''s, Six and Fog attack its leggs we need to get its head into range! Mist, Sling keep aiming at the things head keep it busy. Snowflake, Pebble get its limbs to focus on you make sure not to get hit! Luniera me and you are gonna cut its hell damnt head off!¡±

    The group leapt into motion focusing on the task''s each of them had been assigned. Oak and the rest of his vanguard group sprinted toward the leggs of the 5 meter tall monster and started bashing against it''s leggs with all their might. Six swung at one legg with his axe and buried it halfway in one of the legs. Tatt''s used this opportunity to follow up with a swing of his own. He barred one of his axes into the cut Six had already made but even with all that effort they where not able to cut of the entire legg. With a roar Tatt''s  smashed his other axe into the back of the other one and smashed it through the legg cutting the limb of in a spray of blood.

    The Creature shrieked in pained anger as it started swinging around the weird arm/scythe like limbs on its torse. Pebble and Snowflake poked at the creature with their weapons provoking its ire and deftly dodging the attack''s the creature was so focused on delivering. Oak used the chance that the 2 axe wielder had created to unbalance the creature even more. With a might rush he crashed into the side of the creature causing it to put weight on the legg that was no longer there. With a shudder of the ground the creature collapsed upon it.

    Mist and Sling kept firing their projectiles at the presumed eyes of the creature causing it to shake its head back and forth. Luniera dashed forward with all the speed she could muster and jumped performing a horizontal mid-air spin to put extra force into the blow and chopped at the creature''s neck. The blade only barely made it a sixth in and she stood there lodged on the creatures torso and grabbed one of its bloody red muscles and swung a second, and then a third time as hard as she could digging into the cleave on the creatures neck cutting it to halfway.

    Grey was already dashing to follow-up on her brave performance. He knew that they might not get another clean chance like this he was faintly conscious of all the blood and the small body parts of his former friends around him. His heart pulsed drowning out thought. He could feel the sword pulsing with him the pulse sent a sharp tinge of pain from his wrist where the cuff of the sword was attached. The runes carved onto the blade could be seen slightly pulsing in its bloodcrimson light. The pulse drowned out anything else from his mind and directed it to only one thing. Destroying this creature that had harmed his friends.

    With a roar he jumped up. A lot higher than should be physically possible. 3 meters high in the air he spun copying the move Luniera had made. Soaring in the air like death incarnate he screamed in fury swinging with such speed that the very air seemed to crack under the weight of the sword. The sword reached the cut with precision and cut straight through it resulting in a shower of blood and chunks of the creatures body. Covered in blood and gore Grey slammed into the ground behind toppling the head of the monster.

    For a moment all was quiet. It seemed that they had killed the creature. They had never been so wrong before. The creature pulsed and suddenly one of its veins burst open just beside the legg that had been cut of. From the vein spawned a new head of the creature. The hideous visage shot forward and chomped down on Six''s lower half. It all had happened so fast that he didnt even have time to react. Within seconds the poor boy was left without anything below his waist.

    The scream of pain from Six echoed through the heads and minds of his freinds. ¡°FUUUUCK, it hurts AH FUCK IT HURTS SO MUCH.¡± The shrieks combined with the shock of wat had just happened caused them all to freeze. Then with a swift chop from one of the scythe like limbs Fog''s head  joined the gore that was strewn around the clearing. Mist shrieked in agony seeing her sister''s head drop to the floor rolling a small distance before coming to a halt. The loss of another of their freinds caused the group to spring back into action backing away from the creature.

    Sansieri who had been treating Triclops with her magic while the rest was fighting rushed towards Six hands already glowing with magic. A shaking Triclops joined the group that surrounded the creature but none of them was sure on wat to do. Now that they had backed of and given the monster some space it started to regenerate its wounds and even the hideous head could be seen regrowing on top of it.

    ¡°I cant do more¡± They heard Sansieri tell Six after she had managed to stop the bleeding. The bottom half seemed to be sheared shut. Grey told the others to attack its leggs again. He didn''t really see another option. He himself rushed to Six to see if there was something he could do.

    Before he got close the creature dashed with a sudden burst of speed towards Sansieri and Six. Simply ignoring Oak and Tatt''s who swung towards its leggs as hard as they could to no visible effect. Sansieri stood up in front of Six glowing with power. The runes drawn on her hands spreading to the rest of her body illuminating her in a golden glow. She stood there bravely looking like the incarnation of a kind goddess. Glowing with a gentle light hair flowing in the wind she was mumbling an enchantment. The words flowed through the clearing like a river. Although they could not understand the meaning of the words themselves. They could definitely feel the essence of it. Destruction and pain was the message the words carried.

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    Glowing ever brighter the creature raced towards the priestess. Pebbles in a flash of fur jumped towards the creature''s head in an attempt to divert its attention from Sansieri. Clinging onto its head the creature simply ignored it and sliced one of the disgustingly formed limbs towards Sansieri. The Priestess however bravely stepped forward towards the creatures chest and pulled back her palm. With a sudden dash forward where somehow her feet hadn''t moved she was suddenly right in front of the creature. Ending her chant in a yell she thrust the palm of her hand towards the creature.

    Glowing palm met bare crimson muscle. The muscles seemed to flow away from her palm untill she hit a vein. The glowing light spread towards the creature flowing through out its body like a liquid. Then with a gushing wet sound the entire monster exploded into pieces. Showering the ones closest to it in the remains of the carcass. Pebble, Triclops and Sansieri where the ones hit by the brunt of the explosion and where now covered in the creatures bloody remnants.

    Somehow they had managed to survive. Through a miracle they had manged to kill the giant beast.

    A united sigh of relief passed through the group. Untill the screaming started. First Triclops started screaming clawing at his flesh. His very skin seemed to be boiling from the contact with the beast''s insides.

    ¡°Get it OFF, GET IT OFFFF!¡± Triclops was clawing his own skin trying to get rid of whatever was causing this.

    It didn''t take long for Pebble and Sansieri to start their own screams aswell. ¡°IT HURTS MY SKIN, MY SKIN!¡± Pebble was screaming. Grey and his group rushed towards them to try and aid them.

    ¡°STAY AWAAAY!¡± Sansieri shrieked at them as she started to glow again. She grabbed Pebble in one arm and dove ontop of Triclops. In an explosion of light the screams where abruptly silenced.

    There where the 3 where before remained nothing but aged corpses. Sansieri had in the last burst of sanity rid them of the acid that would unbeknownst to the others had spread itself to them on contact.

    They stood there shocked staring at the bodies of yet 3 more freinds they had now lost. They did not have time to dwell on it however. The remnants of the creature where starting to crawl back to each other fusing and absorbing the parts it grew into the hideous beast once more. Aside from the parts Sansieri had burnt with her light the creature stood there unscathed. Although slightly smaller the monster stood there and still seemed to be fresh and longing for their blood. The group backed of staring at the creature terrified. None of them had any idea of wat to do.

    Six tugged on the leg of Grey''s pants and stared into his eyes.

    ¡°Grey kill me! ¡° He pleaded his friend.

    ¡°I''m not going to bloody kill you we will fight aslong as we bloody can!¡± Grey growled back.

    ¡°Thats not wat i mean!¡± Six hissed. ¡°Your sword its calling out to me. I can hear its whispers. If you use my life essence it can devour parts of this creature making sure it doesnt regenerate!¡±

    ¡°Well im not gonna bloody kill you for it!¡± Grey grunted angrily.

    ¡°Im already dead Grey. Look at my body. LOOK AT IT!¡± Six shrieked.

    Grey stubbornly shook his head refusing to take the life of one of his few and precious friends.

    Six glared into his eyes and once more told him to take his life. Grey closed his eyes and trembled refusing to even think of this as an option. The choice however was taken from him. Six had crawled his way below the sword and with a roar rammed his own head onto the tip of the blade killing himself instantly.

    Staring down in shock at the blood of his friend that seemed to be flowing into his blade. A voice whispered in his ears.

    ¡°Be sure to use it well Grey, Take care of the rest for me!¡± The words could slowly lowered in volume until they died out. A tear leaked from Grey''s eye and hit the ground. The splash of his tear seemed to be the que for the sword. Suddenly a raging bloodthirst and power raced through his body. The runes on his blade glowed with their fierce crimson light and the blood of his friend sped its way through the veins of his own body. His veins pulsing with the same crimson light that his sword was emitting drove all sense from his mind.

    One thing remained. One purpose. One Goal. Destruction.

    With a roar of fury Grey dashed towards the creature reaching it in one insanely fast step. He Swung his sword cutting on of the leggs clean of. Blood seemed to leak from the sword turning into some kind of demon like claw that grabbed onto the legg that had been severed. The claw drew the legg into the sword absorbing its blood as if feeding on the essence of this demonic creature. Another pulse of power and rage went through Greys mind as he lost all his remaining senses. He started unleashing his fury on the monster in a never before seen onslaught. Blood and gore soared through out the air only to be sucked into the blood thirsty blade wielded by the now berserk Grey.

    After wat seemed like an eternity the rain of blood had finished. The only one standing there as the victor was a blood soaked Grey. The fight was finished. They had won.

    But at wat cost? With a thud Grey''s body hit the floor. The world went dark.

    <hr />

    As promised the next chapter i couldnt let this cliffhanger last long. I wouldnt be that mean ;D

 Chapter 16

    Seeing the room illuminated by the light emitted by the teleport the instructor let out a sigh of relief. His happiness was short lived however, as soon as he saw the number of kids that had actually made it back the sigh of relief turned into a sharp gasp of shock. Only 7, 7 of the 32 kids that had been sent on the trial had made it back alive. If they could even be called alive. They sat there on the ground defeated and covered in the dark crimson of dried up blood. Grey lay there on the ground collapsed and unconscious, Mist was rocking her body back and forth mumbling below her breath, tears flowing from her eyes into the cup of her hands.

    Oak, Snowflake Tatt¡¯s and Luniera just stood there around Grey trembling slightly and unsure of wat to do. The girl with the sling had lost all power over her legs and just rested her behind on the cold stone. The instructor turned his head to look at the elder. The elder was seething, the instructor could almost see his murderous fury floating around him. He was pretty sure the air around the elder felt heavier. It was getting hard to breathe and his feelings where being oppressed by the raw fury emanating from the elder.

    ¡°What has happened?¡±  The elder asked them his voice without even a hint of emotion.

    The group looked at each other but none of them really seemed willing to talk about what had happened. Surprisingly it was once again the young girl with the sling who was the first to react. She told him everything that had happened to them. The loss of nearly the entire group before Grey and his friends had even arrived. The stone she had fired at the monster and the charge it had done. The timely arrival of Oak and the vanguard to intercept the monster. The screaming of their friends souls trying to break out from their fleshy confinement. The attack of Sansieri and her brave sacrifice soon after. The brave act of selflessness from Six that had sent Grey into a murderous rampage. The sword that ate the monster alive leaving only those few that remained to be staring at a distance as the bloodthirst between the sword and the monster battled it out to the death.

    ¡° A Ghul, They sent a bloody Ghul for the kids first fight.¡± The instructor whispered in horror.

    The expression on the elders face turned even darker than it had been. ¡° They did not even want a fight this time, they wanted a slaughter.¡± Those cold words caused the kids to shiver.  ¡° Honestly it¡¯s a miracle any of you kids are still alive.¡± The elder added softly looking over them a soft look in his eyes.

    Suddenly there was a burst as the door to the room was knocked of his hinges by the brute power that had rushed through. The Forge master had appeared with a panicked look on his face. He saw Grey collapsed on the floor and ran over as fast as his bulky body would allow. He picked up the collapsed youth and a glimmer of wetness could be seen shining from the eyes of the horned giant. Holding the young man ever so gently he picked him up and started walking out the room.

    The instructor rushed to stop him ¡° Where are you taking him we need to get him looked after!¡± he was hurriedly told.

    ¡° Let him go¡±  The elder spoke curtly. ¡° The forge is probably the best place for that particular  youth right now.

    The Forge master nodded in agreement and ran of the sound of his heavy footsteps echoing throughout the hallway. The rest of the group seemed to have regained their senses while Sling had told her story. Mist had stopped her rocking and was now wiping away the tears from her eyes and following the forge master out of the room.

    The group just let her go it was obvious that she needed some time to herself. The others stood there with the elder and instructor in silence no one moving or speaking for a while. After a few moments of silence Tatt¡¯s asked the question that all of them had but none of them had wanted to ask.

    ¡°What was that monster, that Ghul you spoke off?¡± The question was asked hesitantly although he had asked he was still unsure if he even wanted to know the answer.

    ¡°A Ghul¡± The elder stated. ¡°Is a monster created with the bodies of the dead and the souls of the tortured. Nothing sentient really remains except the need to kill, to grow and to cause pain. A Ghul can absorb the bodies of those it kills to grow new limbs, heads or even organs. Aslong as there are bodies remaining in the Ghul it cannot be killed. Usually anyways, there are a few exceptions. It¡¯s a monster that should have been way beyond the level you kids can handle. Even the instructor or the forge master could not have killed this creature. Not without severe wounds anyway. You were lucky that the youth had created such a strange sword. That sword is the reason any of you are still able to breath.¡±

    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

    Letting this knowledge sink in the rest of the group just sat there in silence. The memories that had made today would need a lot of time become less painful. Less raw than it felt for them now.

    Grey awoke to the familiar sound of a hammer hitting steel. He sat up and looked around only to find himself in the forge in which he would normally feel so comfortable. Not far from him the Forge master was hammering steel with even more power than he usually would have. Feeling the raw emotions of the day creeping up on him Grey swiftly let himself be swallowed up by the beating of the hammer on the red hot steel.

    Loosing himself to the pulses the hammer created he stood up and walked to his own little corner smithy. He picked up his heavy icy blue hammer and gathered steel from the storage. He heated the steel and started creating weapons he started with a hatchet. The same style hatchet that Six had wielded before he died. Hammering away on the weapon of his now lost friend he focused on removing all imperfections from the weapon. These weapons would be memories of the people that they had lost to the monster. Memories that he swore to himself to never forget. To remind himself of the real enemy. The enemy he would never forgive.

    And so he forged. For how long he was forging he himself had no idea. Lost in the pace of the hammer he continued to swing his arm onto the anvil again and again. Every time he had finished a weapon he would gently put it away before gathering steel for the next weapon. After some time his arms grew tired from the work but he refused to stop, refused to let his arms rest until he had finished this last duty towards the ones they had lost. The ringing of hammer on steel would fill the air of the underground for days to come.

    Forging a weapon was not a task one could do quickly. And these weapons where unlike any he had created before. Every time he made a weapon he would picture the lives, and faces of his friends in his mind¡¯s eye. He would create the weapon to be flawless, Filled with personality. Each weapon unique in their appearance. As an anthem to the dead weapons where being created one at a time. Created with a perfection that would make even a master smith look over his own weapons with shame. He worked tirelessly, slaving away at the weapons until he had finished the final one. Collapsing in a pool of his own sweat Grey once again lost his consciousness.

    Mist stomped her way through the hall tears gone from her face and replaced by a fierce look of determination. Her sister had been taken from her, the link the two had shared forever severed by the hands of those who had turned them into slaves which would be used for nothing other than bloody entertainment of this with money. She had already decided, she would have her vengeance. She would not stop until the streets flowed with the blood of the guilty.

    She took the knife from her belt and grabbed the hair on the side of her head. She would need to change for wat she had planned. Tougher, stronger, faster. She would need to move without hesitation without sound. She would become mist, a bloody red mist that would devour those who stood in her way. Making up her mind she put the blade to her scalp. Hair hit the floor while she stood there, fierce reptilian eyes staring back at her from the mirror.

    The guilty and the cruel shivered from a sudden sensation as soon as her first strand of hair softly touched the floor.

    <hr />

    Sorry but my house had a power outtage  so couldnt post anything! :D, I went to my grandma''s house with my folks for christmas so im using my lil bro''s laptop (even tho its actually my laptop but hey) This will be the finishing chapter for the first arc. Dont worry im not anywhere close to stopping. I will post a few more chapters untill im back behind my own computer. (i will be at my parents untill the 2nd.) And one im behind my own computer again i will redo everything so please forgive any mistakes ive mad so far for they wll be corrected! As always Love you guys for reading :D

 chapter 17

    A soft shake on his shoulder woke Grey up. Exhausted he looked up to see Snowflake. Standing there with a worried look on his face long silver hair framing a face with those peculiar slanted purple eyes.

    ¡°How are you feeling?¡± His friend asked him.

    ¡°Like I was hit by a Ghul¡± Grey grunted.

    ¡°You made these as a remembrance?¡± Snowflake asked running his hands over the weapons. Taking Sansieri¡¯s chained bracelets in his hands with a saddend look on his face.

    ¡°Once we get a chance to bury them I think they deserve being buried with the weapons they fought with. It was the least I could do.¡±

    ¡°I think they would have liked that.¡±

    ¡°They would have liked living more.¡± Grey snapped in answer. ¡° Sorry. It¡¯s just you know, We got ripped a new one by that monster and there wasn¡¯t much we could do, that I could do.¡± Gazing at Snowflake¡¯s eyes he turned his eyes back to the floor shaking his head. ¡°We need to get stronger, We can¡¯t let anyone else die.¡±

    ¡°With that I agree it means we should get you off your behind now and start training!¡± Snowflake said grabbing Grey by his wrist helping him up. ¡°Plus you should see wat Mist has done.¡±

    Staring at his friend confused he followed him to the training hall. There stood the long heavy wooden table. Like it always did. This time with only 8 plates on it however. Just seeing that was enough to make the 2 hesitate for a while. Feelings of loss once again coursing through mind.

    Sitting there on the table was a girl Grey barely recognized. The pale beauty that once had long waving green hair to frame her pale, yet gentle face. Had changed into a woman with the sides of her head shaved until nothing but short green fuzz remained to give it colour. The rest of her hair was tied down in a braid. The gentle, teasing look that usually showed itself on the girls face was nowhere to be seen. Her face even seemed to have changed form a little. No longer a girl amused by the world, she was now a woman who had made a decision with fierce determination. Angular, furious and deadly serious. That was the kind of vibe she sent to him now.

    Mist stood up and walked to Grey. Even the way she walked had changed. Usually a soft sensual swaying of her hips would have caught the attention of any man but now she stalked more than she walked. Purposefully setting every step she made.

    ¡°I want you to teach me the way you walk.¡± She told him staring into his eyes.

    ¡°Ok¡± Grey simply answered.

    Taken aback a little by how he simply decided to teach her without any fuss or comment. At first he hadn¡¯t wanted to teach anyone the way he walked. Most of all because it was really straining on the muscles on their feet and that he was unsure on how he would teach anyone else to walk this way when he himself just did it by seeing how many ripples he made and changed it till there where nearly no ripples left to be seen.

    ¡°Wat changed your mind?¡± She asked

    ¡°All of us have to get stronger. By any means possible, If that means I have to teach you how to walk without causing the ground to ripple then so be it.¡±

    Nodding Mist went back to her seat and focused on her food. She wasn¡¯t the only one who had changed her tune after the first encounter they had had. The faces around the table had lost all signs of humor and amusement. The mood had obviously darkened.

    The food even though it was probably just as delicious as it had always been had lost all of its taste. Chewing mechanically all of them ate without talking much. The ominous mood seeped into the pores of the people on the table. Even the instructor seemed to have lost all appetite.

    Oak was the first one who finished his meal. Once finished he just stood up and moved away from the table. He grabbed his mace and tower shield and started his training routine. The low whooshes of the heavy mace reverberated throughout the hall. The sounds the swinging of the mace created did nothing to improve the move. The rest finished off their meals and joined Oak in swinging their weapons through the stances each had created. Mist and Sling were shooting projectiles at their usual scarecrows.

    Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.After about an hour, each of them finished of their respective routines. Mist motioned Grey to follow her and they headed to the forest area where they had gone through the team fights before. The memory of the fights they had gone through together hit both Grey and Mist. Sighing and walking with the weight of the memories in their footsteps they moved on.

    ¡°So wat exactly was your plan?¡± Grey asked

    ¡°I want you to teach me that weird way you walk. This area with its respawning magic will help us use it in practice. I want to become as silent as you. This forest will help me learn¡±

    ¡°Very well. You should know that the way I walk puts a lot of strain on your toes and the Achilles heel muscles. It will take a while for you to be able to use it permanently like I do. It took me near a year for my muscles to get used to it.¡±

    ¡°Time is about the only thing we have plenty of.¡± Mist answered.

    Nodding to her words he started teaching her how to walk. Not holding back he was planning to reprimand her every time she loosened up a bit. The thing was there was no need to reprimand her. She did plenty of that herself. Every time she let herself loosen up a bit she cursed to herself and her face changed back to that fierce expression she had taken to wearing lately.

    Days flew past like this. Training, teaching and forging occupied his days for the next few weeks. The routine he had gotten used to, was broken by an announcement from the instructor.

    ¡°Tomorrow the buying of slaves will start. After what had happened the first time you guys saw battle I expect each of you will be bought by someone. You won¡¯t see who buys you or if the rest of you gets bought. The auction will be held today and you won¡¯t know the result till you find yourself in the respective rooms the buyers will put you in.¡± The instructor told them with a face that showed no emotions.

    ¡°I¡¯ll be honest with you guys the buyers can really differ. Some of you may be lucky and be bought by someone who has respect for you fighting style and are simply admirers. Some of you will be bought for looks. These will not be so lucky as you will have to do whatever you are told. That magic is bound to the brand we all have on our backs and there is nothing we can do about it. The last group is the worst off. These will be bought by the people who just wish to do whatever they wish with you. Some of them just love to inflict pain.¡± He looked each of them in the eyes in turn.

    ¡°All of this will happen tomorrow, Be prepared. Now get some sleep¡±

    The group went to bed already worried about tomorrow.

    <hr />

    Quick chapter to let u guys know im not dead yet. Im redoing all the previous chapters and its taking more time then i expected. Im adding alot of stuff 2 i think in total amount its about an added 4-5 chapters? i want to add about a page worth of text to each chapter while improving overall writing at the same time!

    Sorry for the trouble, but i really want to make this something good, so im doing things properly! Takes time though, stick with me! as always thanks for reading :D

    <hr />

    Quick chapter to let u guys know im not dead yet. Im redoing all the previous chapters and its taking more time then i expected. Im adding alot of stuff 2 i think in total amount its about an added 4-5 chapters? i want to add about a page worth of text to each chapter while improving overall writing at the same time!

    Sorry for the trouble, but i really want to make this something good, so im doing things properly! Takes time though, stick with me! as always thanks for reading :D