Kingdom of battles ✓

Chapter 42

The teams from twenty different guilds that passed the first competition were standing in two lines on one side of Shinto's arena. Ikari was standing in front of us, with her long blonde hair tied in a braid and wearing a beautiful and revealing white outfit. She was just announcing that the second competition was going to begin soon, but first she started telling something about the audience's favourite teams. Apparently they could place bets on who was going to win, who was going to come second and things like that. I wasn't surprised that Ravensteed's name wasn't mentioned in the list of the most popular teams, even if I could see that after what happened yesterday on the race there were some people getting interested in Rea and I. But they were still just very few people that weren't enough to change anything, so more or less, we were still considered to be losers. 

Then Ikari began explaining what was the second competition going to be, instantly catching my attention. I knew that Rea and I were going to have to try our best, considering that there were only ten teams passing this time. But I was determined to make sure that we'll be one of them. 

'' First, let's show the contestants the place where the second competition will be held! '' Ikari happily said, spun and pointed at the group of people that were standing on the sides of the arena. I slightly narrowed my eyes, curious to see what were they going to do. We all watched how they made a move with their hands and then pressed them on the ground. At first nothing happened, then suddenly the arena began to shake. Then a huge castle appeared from the ground, with dark walls, creepy looking towers, windows and balconies. My eyes widened with shock, then I spotted how the castle had many different entries. There was the main one, with a lot of stairs leading to it and the number one, carved in to a piece of stone next to it. Then my eyes stopped on a hole in the ground nearby, with a stone with the number two next to it.  

'' As you can probably already see, there are many different entrances around the castle. Each of you is going to get one and enter through it. You were told that the second competition will involve fighting, but there's a little trick to it. Each team will get a different path, with different things to defeat. Some of you will have to fight each other, others will fight normal monsters and some will be up against me and also other strong players from different guilds that volunteered to help in this competition. Two teams will also have the luck to get the 'calm path', with no monsters or anything else to defeat, while two others will have bad luck and end up fighting the twin monster bosses of this castle, '' Ikari explained and pulled a hat, full of sticks with numbers on them. '' I'll explain some other important rules, then one member from each team will come to me, chose a number and wait for me to announce the start of the exam. First you must know that it's absolutely forbidden to kill another player. Second, in this competition speed isn't important, you'll have to complete the path that you'll chose, get a special flag that you'll find on the way and return with it. ''  

'' What if there'll be to many teams that'll pass? '' one of the players that were competing spoke up. I instantly recognised her serious and annoying voice and smirked, it was Tsukimo. Why was she even worried about this? Maybe it was connected to the reason she and Nai were here? 

'' Don't worry, we'll deal with that later, '' Ikari replied, smiling. Then she continued talking about the rules, but I wasn't really listening to her. I was staring at the dark, scary looking castle in front of us, wondering which path were Rea and I going to end up on. I really hoped that it wasn't going to be the one where we'll have to fight another team, because I had a feeling that if it would be, then we would end up fighting one of my old friends and I didn't want that. Maybe Rea and I will be lucky enough to end up on the calm road? No, there was no way, I didn't know how Rea's luck was, but mine was usually terrible so there wasn't really any hope for that. 

Rea suddenly pulled my hand, making me look away from the castle and at her again. '' What is it? Is it time to chose a number? You go. ''  

She nodded and strolled in the direction of the hat with numbers in it. She came back a few moments later with a stick with the number 13 on it and considering that it wasn't a really lucky number most of the times I guessed that we were going to end up on one of the hardest roads that there were. After Ikari said that we were allowed to start we first did a lap around the castle before we found some kind of wooden door in the ground, with the rock with the number 13 next to it. I quickly lifted it up and looked inside the hole that was behind it.