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.
'' A ladder leading down in to some creepy looking tunnel, '' I muttered, squatted next to the opening in the ground, frowning. Rea already began apologising for choosing the number thirteen, but I interrupted her by shrugging and grinning. '' Well, it's fine, unless the tunnel is connected to the toilets. '' With that I swung down on the ladder and began climbing under ground, with a reluctant Rea following me.
We were climbing down for a surprisingly long time. Everything around us was completely dark and the only thing I could hear was the water dripping from the walls. I had no idea how wide was the hole we were climbing down, but I didn't even want to find out, because I had a feeling that the walls around us were made of nothing but solid earth, with rocks between them every few meters. I was actually more than sure about that since a few moments ago something slimy fell on my head. My mind kept telling me that it was just a leaf, so I wouldn't freak out, but leafs didn't move like that thing did.
I shivered at the thought and then focused my attention on climbing down the rusty ladder again when my feet suddenly ended up under water. I sighed with relief when I saw that it we reached the ground, even if there was about ten centimetres of water there and then quickly grabbed the thing on my head. I couldn't really see it in the complete darkness that was surrounding us, but from the way it was moving I knew that it was a worm. I almost barfed at the thought of that thing on my head for the past few minutes and quickly threw it away. It looked like I hit Rea with it by accident, because the next moment she already started screaming somewhere next to me.
'' There is something on my arm! And it's moving! It's moving! '' she started yelling.
I quickly waved my hand through the air, looking through the darkness around me, hoping to see her moving, but without any luck. '' Calm down! It's surely even more of them down here anyway so- '' I closed my mouth again, knowing that I probably made a mistake, since she seemed afraid of things like that. I could understand her, even if I was terrified more of spiders, centipedes and cockroaches and if she was scared of worms and bugs then in a few seconds she was going to start to...
Rea's screaming began resounding through the tunnel, I started telling her to calm down, but she didn't, then she suddenly bumped in to me, causing both of us fall down in to the smelly water. I wrinkled my nose with disgust and then covered her mouth with my muddy hand, slowly getting annoyed. '' Shut up, you'll need to suck it up, otherwise we'll never move and defeat whatever is on the road 13, okay? Now I'm going to look for something that we can use as a light so we'll at least know where we are. ''
I felt how she nodded and slowly let her go. She began taking deep breaths, trying to calm down, while I raised my hand, making a small screen appear in front of me. I quickly clicked on my inventory and scrolled through the items in it. It was full of useless junk and the only thing close to a light that I found was some kind of lantern with fireflies in it. I didn't even know if it still worked, but when I made it appear in my hand it did and the fireflies that were flying around in the lantern threw a pale light at our surroundings.
We were sitting on the ground in some kind of tunnel that continued in an unknown direction in front of us. There was about five, maybe ten centimetres of water everywhere, making the ground slippy where there were rocks and muddy where there weren't.
'' What the hell... '' I muttered and frowned. '' Where is this tunnel going to take us? Seriously, if it's going to be a sewage, then I'll punch one of the organisers of this competition. ''
'' I-I d-don't know, I just hope that it'll be a nicer place than this, '' Rea muttered and shivered with fear. I looked at her and almost started laughing at the sight of her face, hair and clothes, covered with mud, until I figured out that I probably looked the same if not worse and just sighed and lowered my head. Then Rea suddenly screamed, stood up and took a few steps away. I already wanted to say something to calm her down when she grabbed a rock and threw it at the ground on top of us.
That turned out to be a really bad decision. It was because the water that was everywhere was coming from some kind of underground river that was on top of us and when Rea threw that rock up she made the ceiling crumble. At first nothing happened, then a strong stream of water of water sprayed in my direction, throwing me back and causing me to hit the wall of the tunnel. I felt how more dirt crumbled on me, including a cockroach that began moving down my back inside my armour. My eyes slowly widened with shock, then I started screaming like crazy and moving, even if I knew that I wouldn't get it out that way. But I wasn't able to think straight, at least not until I felt how the bug got squashed under my armour.
I instantly froze and frowned. '' Ew, '' I muttered with disgust.
Then the next moment Rea sprinted past me, yelling like crazy: '' Run! Run for your life! ''
I looked over my shoulder with confusion, then I also sprinted behind Rea down the tunnel, completely forgetting to take the lantern that I had before with me. That was because the hole in the ceiling became bigger and that meant that there was suddenly a whole river, moving in our direction with full force.
Rea and I both ran, she was screaming, while I was looking around through the darkness, trying to see if there was an exit somewhere from the tunnel. Then we suddenly both bumped in to old rusty bars that were blocking our way through the tunnel. I looked around in panic and then at the water that was behind us, getting closer every moment.
'' It had to be the unlucky number thirteen, '' I whined with sadness before the water reached us. I suddenly got surrounded by the coldness and I felt how my body got pressed against the bars. I just stayed there under water for a few moments, until I realised that it probably wasn't going to stop flowing in our direction so I slowly pulled out my sword, careful to not let the water flow rip it from my hands. I pressed the blade against the rusty bars and gathered some Live points in it. Then I pushed it forward, easily cutting through them. I repeated that other few times, then I grabbed the collar of Rea's dress, she was floating next to me, moving her hands around like crazy. I let the water carry us through the opening in the bars in front of us and somewhere further down the tunnel. My lungs were just starting to hurt for not getting enough air when I felt how the force of the water stopped being so strong and swam up to the surface, pulling Rea with me.
My head flew out of the water and I instantly gasped for air before I started to look around, wondering what happened. I could see that the water formed some kind of lake under the ground. It was surrounded by rocks and there I also spotted a door, with two torches, burning on each side. It was obvious that Rea and I were supposed to continue that way.
I put my sword on my back again and looked at her. '' Are you okay? ''
She was still moving her hands around, trembling and gasping for air. Her eyes were wide and full of fear. '' I h-ha-hate swimming, '' she stuttered and blinked a few times.
I stared at her for a few moments, frowning. I hated swimming too, but I didn't get a panic attack like her. That made me wonder if there wasn't something more behind her hate for swimming, but I knew that this probably wasn't the most proper time to ask her that, we still had to finish completing path 13 after all. '' Look, there's a door in the wall in front of us so there'll be no more water and swimming. ''
Rea looked in that direction, then she quickly nodded and began swimming in that direction, just like us. We both pulled ourselves up on the rocks that were surrounding the new under ground lake and stayed there for a moment. '' I w-wonder what's behind that door, '' Rea quietly stuttered and wrung out the water from her skirt. Then she took another deep breath and stood up. '' I-I'm o-okay. L-Le-Let's g-go. ''
I pulled myself up too, moved my now short wet ginger hair from my face and pulled out my sword again. '' There's only one way to find out, '' I said with a smirk, ran forward and swang my sword through the air, in the direction of the metal door. I hit it a few times, then I took a few steps back and kicked it, causing it to fall down and hit the ground with a loud sound.
'' A-Ar-Are y-you sure that it's o-okay to be t-this l-lo-loud? '' Rea whispered, hiding behind me.
I rolled my eyes and stepped in the huge cave that was on the other side of the door. '' Don't be a coward, you should face your enemies head o-o-o-o- '' I froze on the spot and my eyes slightly widened with fear, then I shakily smiled and took a step back: '' Okay, maybe you were right about this. '' But it was already too late to regret the decision now.
The thing that was in the cave on the other side of the metal door was a cemetery, full of old graves. There was the smell of rotting in the air. That already didn't look to promising, but it wasn't even all. Standing right in the middle of the cemetery was a giant wolf monster. Well, because of the way it stood it actually reminded me more of a werewolf monster, but that wasn't the issue right now. It was in the size of my house, standing on his back legs, with long claws on it's front legs and holding a mace, covered with spikes in it's hands. When it slowly turned around in our direction I could hear the sound of the chains on it's human-like arms, covered with fur, but a moment later it easily ripped them from the ground.
'' Please don't be that, please don't be that, please don't be that, '' I quietly whispered to myself, but then a screen appeared over the wolf's head, clearly saying that it was one of the two twin bosses of this castle. I should've actually known by now that Rea and I were one of the two unlucky teams that were going to have to fight one of them. '' Yup, it's the castle boss, '' I muttered, sighed and facepalmed. '' I can't believe I'm saying this, but right now it would actually be much better if this would turn out to be a smelly sewage. ''
Then the wolf opened it's huge mouth and roared at us. Rea seemed like she wanted to scream, but I could only hear a quiet squeak coming from her. It was obvious that she was terrified, so I knew that I had to stay calm. I took a deep breath and raised my sword in the air, while the huge wolf began approaching us. Rea seemed to try to scream again, but this time she didn't because of the way I glared at her.
'' Listen to me, '' I seriously started and faced the wolf again. '' We can defeat it, it's not impossible. I fought against stronger monsters than this, '' I continued and narrowed my eyes. '' I can see that you won't be able to fight on your own yet so just listen to me and do as I say, okay? '' I didn't give her time to answer and just sprinted forward through the cemetery. My eyes flashed through the graves for a moment, then I frowned and muttered to myself, sweatdropping: '' A cemetery. How convenient. '' Then I looked over my shoulder and yelled at Rea that still stood on the same spot as before. '' Rea! Hole in the ground! Come on, Rea, I can't do this without you! ''
When I pronounced the last words she blinked and then quickly ran after me. '' W-We a-are going to die... '' she sobbed. '' I'm too young to die! ''
'' What a positive attitude! '' I replied and grinned, happy that she finally moved.
Rea raised her hand and made a quickly sign in the air with it. I watched how runes appeared on the ground a few meters in front of the wolf that was running in our direction and spelled the word 'hole'. The next moment they disappeared and a hole formed in their place. That seemed to take the wolf by surprise, causing it to trip and fall in to it.
'' Now, use mind shock on the wolf or something! '' I yelled at Rea.
She nodded, raised her shaky hands and made another move. Now runes appeared on the wolf's forehead. The huge animal just wanted to climb out of the hole, when the runes disappeared again. The next moment it already started roaring in pain. It was so loud that the ground shook a little. I smirked to myself, happy that my idea worked. I wanted to distract the monster for a few moments so I could reach it, hit it and take some of it's HP away like that. I quickly ran closer, jumped in the air and raised my sword above my head. I gathered Live points in it, then I quickly swung it through the air two times, causing two slashes of red energy to hit the wolf, causing it to roar again. Then I landed on the ground again and ran closer, hoping to get another opportunity to hit it, but it turned out that Rea's attack was already over and the angry beast swung it's mace, easily hitting both of us, causing us to fly back and hit the wall of the cave.
I groaned in pain when my back hit the wall and then fell forward on the ground next to Rea. I stayed there on my knees, my eyes were wide with shock and my whole body was shaking. My eyes were glued to the blood that began gathering around my left hand. I didn't even feel all of the pain yet because of the adrenaline rush, but I knew how bad was it. When the mace hit Rea and I one of the spikes on it pierced my palm.
When I heard footsteps I quickly raised my head. My eyes widened with fear at the sight of the huge mace, moving down in the direction of Rea and I, then I quickly grabbed her and staggered away, a moment later before it crashed on the ground on the place where we were before. There I fell on the ground again and pulled Kei's scarf from my neck. I felt how my heart ached at that a little, but I knew that now it wasn't really the time to be crying about getting thrown out of my guild or worry about what he was going to do when he'll find out what I did to his scarf. I quickly wrapped it around my palm to stop the bleeding on it and tied it together. Then I grabbed Rea's shoulder, pulled her from the ground and slapped her, causing her to open her eyes again.
'' I-I m-my leg... '' she whispered and looked at me with a pained expression on her face.
One look and I already knew that one of the spikes on the mace that hit us stabbed right through her leg. She was bleeding and I could see her HP dropping because of that. I started panicking, not knowing what to do, the situation wasn't very good and I thought that maybe backing out from the competition would be the best thing to do now.
Then Rea raised her bloodied hand from her leg and held mine with it. She held it tight, making me look at her. '' I can't stand up, but I can still do my spells. Please, can you still fight? I swear, I'll support you from distance the best I'll can, I just... '' Tears began gathering in her eyes. '' I just don't want us to be the loser guild again. ''
I stared at her for a few moments, then I quickly nodded and grinned. '' Just listen to my voice and do as I say, I'll take care of the rest, '' I said, grabbing my sword with my left hand, since my right one was out of use now. I watched the wolf that began approaching us for a few moments, thinking of the situation, then I yelled: '' Make a rock appear over him! '' Runes formed over the wolf's head, then a rock materialised from nothing and fell on it, causing it to roar with surprise. I quickly ran in it's direction then, hoping that he was going to get distracted for enough time. To my disappointment it didn't, so I told Rea to make more rocks appear. The monster was just about to attack me, but then it fell on the ground under the weight of the rocks that covered it. I kept running in it's direction, then I jumped on it's head, raised my sword above my head and began slashing it's skin with it, causing it to start roaring with pain. A happy grin appeared on my face when I saw how half of the wolf's HP was already gone.
After the monster managed to get rid of the rocks that were covering it, it started moving, trying to get me of it's back. I quickly gripped on it's fur and yelled, hoping that Rea could hear me: '' Wave of water! '' At first nothing happened, then I noticed how water crushed in the wolf from one side, causing the animal to fall over. I quickly jumped from it's head, staggered for a few steps and took a deep breath, focusing. '' Fire! Surround it with fire! ''
Runes appeared on the ground around the wolf and formed a circle. Then flames burst from them, I was guessing that they burned it's skin because the monster began roaring again. I watched how it was struggling with the fire, then the animal suddenly raised it's head and looked at me with glowing yellow eyes. I took a step back, it was instinct that was telling me that this time we really angered it. My eyes widened with shock when it suddenly jumped in the air, landed on the ground out of the range of the flames and began swinging it's mace around furiously. I tried to dodge it, but it was too late.
The mace suddenly hit me, I let out a scream of pain when one of the spikes stabbed my stomach, then I got thrown back through the air. I heard how Rea yelled too before my body landed on the ground and hit one of the graves of the cemetery we were in. At first I just laid there, unable to move because of the pain that I felt in my body. It was like I couldn't focus on anything else, not until I heard another scream. That was when my eyes suddenly widened with shock and I instantly stood up. The pain that I felt in my stomach at that caused me to scream, then I grabbed the wound with my right hand that was wrapped in Kei's scarf, hoping to stop the bleeding like that at least for a few moments. Then my eyes furiously scanned the huge cave until they stopped on Rea's figure, covered with blood, laying on the ground. I stared at her for a few moments, then I frowned with anger and ran in the direction of the wolf beast that we were fighting.
'' You're going to die because of what you did to her, '' I seriously said and kept moving closer. I started gathering Live points in my sword, feeling how the anger inside me kept growing. I completely forgot about the technique that I was using before, how Rea distracted it, allowing me to land a few hits on it. The only thing that I was thinking about right now were all the things that were annoying me. Stupid competition. Stupid path 13. Stupid wolf monster.
The beast raised it's mace and moved it down in my direction, but I just gathered some more Live points in my sword, causing it to shine in a bright red colour, before I raised it in the air. Then our weapons clashed. At first nothing happened, then my sword cut right through the mace.
I smirked before I took another few steps in it's direction, gathering the rest of my Live points in my sword. I didn't need to look at my weapon to know that it's blade first got surrounded by a red glowing energy. Then the magic gathered at the end of the blade and started spreading, causing it to become twice as big as it used to be. I lowered my sword again, jumped in the air and yelled: '' This is when you die! '' With that I slashed with the now huge sword, glowing with red energy in his direction and stuck it right in the monster's eye.
The energy that was surrounding it before burst through the wolf's body, causing it to explode. I landed on the ground again and placed my sword on my back again, a moment after werewolf guts began raining down on me. I frowned with disgust, then I quickly staggered in the direction where Rea was. When I saw her, laying there, all covered with blood, my heart almost stopped, then I noticed the expression on her face, that made it look like she was trying really hard not to puke. Which she probably was, considering that one of the werewolf guts landed on the ground right next to her head.
When she noticed how I squatted on the ground next to her she blinked with fear and asked: '' Did you do it? ''
I grinned and nodded. '' Yes. Can you stand up? ''
'' C-Can y-you give me j-just a little help please? '' she stuttered. I nodded and helped her up. She wrapped her arm around my shoulders and leaned on me so she could walk. I watched the expression on her face, how she was taking deep breaths and trying really hard not to show how much was she actually in pain. Then she suddenly looked at me again. '' Did you get the flag that we must bring back with us? ''
I slowly smiled. '' About that... ''
A few moments later we were standing in front of a specially big pile of green werewolf guts that were covering the flag that we were supposed to take back with us.
'' You get it, '' I seriously said. '' I finished defeating the wolf, my job here is done. ''
Rea sighed and slowly squatted down, reaching in the green wolf guts with her arm. It was actually pretty impressive how her face became almost as green as the guts, but at the end she somehow managed to pull the flag out of them and give it to me before she leaned on my shoulder again, sighing. '' L-Let's j-just get out of here now. ''
I nodded and with that we staggered in the direction of another metal door that was on the other side of the cemetery. I was happy when I saw that it was open, because I really didn't have any more energy to fight. I lost a lot of blood because of the wounds on my stomach and my palm and I was really tired and in pain.
Rea and I staggered up the steps that were behind the door and reached another one. I sighed, raised my feet and kicked it down. My eyes instantly widened with surprise and I blinked a few times with confusion when Rea and I staggered out of the castle and back in the arena, causing a wave of screams to erupt from the audience. At first I had no idea what exactly was happening, then Ikari rushed closer to us, grinning and speaking in her microphone: '' And here there are, Rea and Natsumi, the two girls representing Ravensteed and also one of the two unlucky pairs that ran in the castle boss, mister wolf! But they managed to defeat it with the help of teamwork and then Natsumi's special attack at the end, becoming the sixth team that earned a place in the finals! ''
A slight smile appeared on my face, then I raised the small flag in my hand in the air, causing the audience to start screaming again before I dropped it in Ikari's hand. It was really amusing to watch how she cringed with disgust at the sight of the green wolf guts that were dripping for it, then I looked at Rea again. '' We made it to the finals, '' I happily said.
She nodded, still looking like she couldn't believe it. For a few moments we both stood there, covered with blood and green wolf guts, leaning on each other, then I grabbed Rea's wrist and raised our hands in the air. Now the crowd actually didn't start 'booing' like the last time, they began cheering for us, yelling our names and how we were the best. My eyes slightly widened with amazement, it was strange to have people clap for you like that, then I smirked at Rea and murmured: '' See, told you we were awesome! ''
She was looking at the crowd with wide eyes, full of shock, then she nodded and slowly smiled back: '' Maybe... Maybe we really aren't so bad. ''