Chapter 55: Arena

Galen Windchaser had a strange fashion sense. A silver mask was covering his eyes. His long and neatly ponytailed hair was jet-black and had a few light-green strands. He was wearing a white cape, white clothes, and white boots. He was also wielding dual swords with shorter and curved blades.

Louden Mire, on the other hand, looked like an ordinary citizen. He was wearing baggy clothes. In his right hand, he was holding an average-looking spear. His brown eyes were filled with excitement. It appeared that he and Jodien were both were thirsty for a good fight.

"Start the fight!" Gust bellowed.

As the crowd cheered, the house leader had settled comfortably in his elegant seat not far from the platform where the four fighters were standing.

Jodien was about to attack Galen but Louden intercepted his longsword. For an ordinary-looking citizen, he was fast and his arms were strong. He could astoundingly keep up with a Celestial Knight.

Galen, on the other hand, dashed towards Aries and waved his curved blades. His footsteps were also swift and his feet were moving smoothly against the ground. Whenever he swung his weapons, Aries sensed a sharp wind shooting from the curved blades.

Even though the dual swords of his enemy failed to hit, those sharp winds would somehow strike and grazed Aries.

Pines was right. Challengers in the arena were not to be taken lightly. They were surprisingly good.

For a few minutes, Aries was only dodging the attacks and was being pushed around until he could finally parry and counterattack. Slowly but surely, he was keeping up with his enemy.

Jodien and Louden were almost not moving from their spot. They were eagerly anticipating the movements of one another and would relentlessly swing their weapons against each other. Being wounded was nothing to them. It would only make them smile instead of frown.

"Are you truly Aries Del Luna?"

Spontaneous questions like that had caught Aries off guard. Galen took that opportunity to swing his dual blades. Aries dodged but the sharp edges of the weapons had shredded the chest part of his overcoat. The masked warrior did not waste a second and slashed his blades once more. Aries jumped backwards but he slipped, stumbled, and dropped flat on his back at the platform.

Galen knelt over Aries and crossed his curved blades at the neck of the latter.

"Answer my question," the masked man was almost whispering at Aries but the urgency in his voice was evident. "Are you Aries Del Luna?"

"I am," Aries was trying to move his hands but the knees of Galen were tightly pinning his wrists down on the ground. It was strange but Aries could feel that there was a pair of invisible hands gripping his arms.

The curved blades lightly cut the skin of his neck as Galen furiously muttered, "Liar. Aries will easily recognize us."

"What do you think you are doing?"

That was the voice of Jodien. He swung his longsword and Galen quickly jumped away from Aries.

"If you will only lie down on the ground, you should not have moved out of your bed," Jodien was about to attack Galen but Aries stopped him.

Louden was already knocked unconscious on the ground. He had more bleeding cuts all around his body than Jodien.

"Thanks for the assistance," Aries said. "But I will be the one to defeat him. Just stay where you are and relax."

"If you say so," Jodien settled near the unconscious Louden.

Aries noticed only then the cheers and jeers of the crowd. When Jodien lowered his weapon and sat on the ground, the jeers overwhelmed the cheering crowd. It appeared that they want to see more of Jodien than some unknown fighter.

Aries ignored the crowd and attacked Galen. He aggressively swung his sword against the masked warrior. Their dual swords clashed at one another with an intensity that sent sparks all over the place. The clanging of their swords thundered all over the arena until the jeers transformed into excited cheerings.

After a few minutes of relentless attacking, Galen and Aries dashed away from each other to catch their breath. Their exchange of blows had further shredded their clothes and grazed their skin.

"How can this be?" the masked warrior seemed to have rested enough. He darted forward and slashed his curved blades.

Aries raised his crimson blades and caught the blades of Galen.

"How can you wield those blades but forget all about us?" Galen was furious and his hands were trembling with rage.

"I had an accident," Aries explained as he shoved the curved blades and attacked Galen.

"What a lame excuse," the masked warrior caught his crimson blades and kicked him in the face.

Aries leaned backward and evaded the attack. As Galen jumped and swung his other leg for another kick, Aries bent his knees to dodge then hopped away from the masked warrior.

Annoyed, Aries dashed at Galen and hacked him with his crimson blades.

"Do you think I want this?" he kept on attacking, forcing the masked warrior to struggle in parrying and evading. "I am confused most of the time," the intensity of his slashes was shoving Galen backwards. "I have to rack my brain and hope that I will remember something, but nothing is coming aside from persistent headache," he swung his crimson blades without any reservation that the curved blades of his opponent had shattered and the masked warrior was thrown a few feet away and rolled over the platform. "I don't want any of this," he dashed forward and knelt over Galen. "If only I could, I will remember it all," he raised his crimson blades for the final blow.

Seeing that it was the endgame for him, Galen slipped from underneath Aries, floated in the air, and disappeared.

Jodien had thrown his longsword but it only hit empty air.

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"He vanishes once again," the Celestial Knight walked out of the platform, leaving Aries and Louden Mire.

"That's it?" Aries was confused. "The winner isn't announced yet."

"Our team had won," the voice of the house leader thundered in the arena. "Leave the platform. Louden Mire had to accept the consequence of his defeat."

"I heard that winners will have their wish granted even for a day," Aries reminded the house leader and everyone in the arena had fallen ominously silent.

Gust stared at Aries for a long while before saying, "It only applies for the challengers. My team is lucky enough to have a roof under their head and food to fill their stomach."

Aries was furious but he decided to keep it to himself and walked out of the arena in silence.

"Louden Mire," Gust called out and the unconscious man suddenly jolted awake. "Choose your penalty."

"I want to be possessed and become stronger than Jodien Brawl," Louden was smiling triumphantly.

"Possession it is," Gust agreed and two guards near the platform had taken Louden Mire away and dragged him into another room in that arena.

Aries thought about absorbing the corrupted soul but decided to do it later while the barriers were being reinstated. He should focus on remembering that place and the people in it.

"Now! For the second fight!" Gust roared and the crowd cheered once more. "Gani Cleaver against Toni Torre!"

The fight only lasted for a few minutes. Gani tossed his opponent out of the platform with his huge axe and the poor man had been knocked unconscious when his back hit hard against the wall.

Toni Torre had been awakened by the thundering voice of the house leader and he made the same choice as the previous loser.

Prince Sunrei fought on the third fight and won the battle within an hour. He walked out of the arena with a cut on his left arm and right leg. The loser had also picked the option to be possessed.

Princess Pieffer was the last one to fight. It was nearly midnight but the crowd was still as energetic as they were when the arena had opened.

The princess did not waste any more time on the platform. She observed her opponent for the first five minutes. Upon learning that the middle-aged man she was fighting had no respect for women, be it a child or an elderly, she used her feather-light movements to quickly cut her foe on both knees. The middle-aged man dropped to the ground and writhed in pain. The princess slashed her sword once more to cut both arms of her already incapacitated opponent. She raised her weapon for the killing blow but stopped when the squirming man screamed and surrendered.

And a shameless man like that would obviously choose to be possessed and violate more women until he dies. Princess Pieffer promised to kill him once she gets out of that mansion.

"Let me do it," Aries offered. "Don't waste your energy on people like him."

"Thanks. But I want to kill him with my sword," Princess Pieffer tapped Aries on the shoulder. "Let's head back to our room."

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Aries was terribly disappointed when he saw the amount of food the guards had brought to their room. They stayed in the arena the entire day and all they could eat was a bowl of porridge and a piece of bread that had no taste at all.

"How can you last for days with this kind of food?" he suddenly lost his appetite and just decided to sleep. Maybe an empty stomach would make him remember things.

But that was only his wishful thinking. He woke up the next day and never dreamed of anything at all. It only made him even more frustrated and hungry.

"I know the food is bad but you have to eat," Princess Pieffer had given him the food served last night and the one served as their breakfast.

"Thanks," Aries forced the food into his mouth and suddenly remembered something that made him a little hopeful.

"Gani, how did you search the memories of Walter? Can you do that to my mind?"

"I easily searched his mind because it had no locks. Yours is a different case. I cannot penetrate it," Gani bluntly answered. "Only you can unlock those memories."

"How can I do that?"

Gani glared at him as if he should already know the answer.

"I'm asking here," he glared back at the axe-wielder.

"Your resolve will release all the memories you are suppressing," Gani simply answered. "If you are not that determined to remember everything then the locks will never be unlocked."

"How can I see those locks?"

"Just dive deeper into that place where you are holding the rest of us captive," Gani beamed at him. "I tried to unlock your memories plenty of times just to get something that I can use against you but I fail every time," he grinned even wider as he said, "Good luck to you."

Aries emptied the bowls of tasteless food and decided to search his mind after they were done in the arena.

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