Chapter 13 - The Arena

Today was a special day for Violet Tiger City, and the excitement was higher than ever at the Zafisi clan. The triennial fighting tournament had finally arrived, and this time it was the turn for the Servants Sword Tournament. Whilst it didn’t attract the same interest as the Young Genius Tournament, it was still an important event that only a few people would have dared to miss.

It was early morning for the planet, and it was also early morning on the International Galactic time watches. This wasn’t a coincidence, as the organisers of the tournament had ensured that the tournament would be held in broad daylight.

The Zafisi clan was by now almost deserted. The numerous clan members had already left towards the ‘Tiger Arena’, the place where the Servants Sword Tournament is being held. They decided to depart earlier so that they could find the best seating positions. After all, not everybody could afford to pre-purchase a reserved seat.

Inside the Zafisi central palace, Matriarch Tracy was sitting on a chair in the main hall. It was very rare of her to leave her room, because she was physically weak. However, today she made an extra effort, and with the help of her assistants, she walked to the main hall so that she could see off Kane and Charles, her two warriors. Behind the Matriarch, stood protectively the five elders of the Zafisi clan, whilst on the sides of the halls, there were numerous guards and fighters of the Zafisi clan.

The Matriarch slightly raised her right hand and the whole hall instantly went silent. She then spoke with a weak yet prideful voice.

“Today is an important day for both of you, but it is also an important day for our clan. I have great expectations, especially for you Charles. Six years ago, you made us proud by finishing 3rd in the overall ranking. This time, I hope that you can improve your result even further by participating in the final.”

Charles bowed, “Lord Matriarch, this humble servant is confident enough that he will be able to win the whole tournament. I promise I will not fail.”

“As ambitious as ever Charles. However, I would advise for caution. Overconfidence can lead to undesirable results,” Matriarch Tracy replied.

“As for you Kane… I know you are new to our clan, and that you haven’t even be with us for a year. At first, I was against the idea of you participating, but Colin`s insistence had convinced me to send you to the tournament. Perhaps, the decision to entrust you with such a large responsibility is a wrong one, and could come back to haunt me.”

“But I am impressed by your commitment nonetheless. If you give it your all, I believe you can achieve a good result for us, and you may even end up the surprise of this tournament. I wish you all the best of luck.”

She paused for a while, then she smiled, “I also like your choice of name; Mr.Gululu is such a sweet name. I really adore those charming animals.”

When Kane heard this, his blood boiled with fury and humiliation. However, he was in front of the Matriarch, so he had no other choice but to keep himself calm, as he bowed respectfully. “Humble servant promises Lord Matriarch that her trust in him would not have been for naught. Doing well in this tournament, is the least he could do to repay you for your benevolence. If it wasn’t for the Lord Matriarch`s generosity, humble servant wouldn’t have been able to live in such a great clan.”

The Matriarch was highly impressed by his reply, and she suddenly felt sorry for going a little harsh on him in her earlier speech.

A tear dropped from her left eye, as she addressed both Kane and Charles. “Our clan used to be the best out of all clans in this city. After the death of my father, who was the previous Patriarch of the Zafisi clan, we started to decline. To complicate matters, my current physical condition doesn’t really assist our cause. I have to admit, that if it wasn’t for Patriarch Titu`s assistance, we wouldn’t even be among the top three clans of this city anymore.”

“My dream is that our clan recovers a little of its past glory. Even if this tournament is fought by servants, winning it would still bring a reputational boost to our clan, which can then help in attracting skilled new recruits.”

She then paused and coughed weakly, apparently tired. “Oliver… I am done… please guide them to the arena…”

Oliver, turned his gaze to the other elders, seemingly telling them to take care of her. Then he walked towards the two participants, “It`s time to leave, come, follow me."

The three of them started walking towards the exit the hall, whilst the guards and other fighters repeatedly shouted.

“ALL HAIL THE MATRIARCH!!!!”~~~~~

“ALL HAIL THE ZAFISI CLAN!!!!”~~~~~

The trio left the palace and kept moving. Along the way, Kane was starting to feel a little curious about the tournament. “Hey Oliver, at what time will the tournament start then?”

Both Oliver and Charles looked at each other and laughed out, then Oliver replied. “The tournament has already started. The preliminaries are already underway at this very moment. Once they are over, the main event will follow shortly. There will be eight servants participating in the final, of which two of them will be you two.”

“The current rules state that the top three clans will automatically have two of their servants qualify for the main event, who will then be joined by the two finalists of the preliminaries. You should consider yourself lucky that Clinton isn’t participating, because otherwise you would have had to go through the preliminaries first.”

The three of them kept walking until they arrived before a long tower. They entered through a narrow door and started climbing a very long spiral stairway. At the end of the stairways, there was a circular room. In the middle of the room there was a teleportation portal, which was supported by two pillars of green crystals on both ends. Some fighters of the Zafisi clan were busy guarding the portal.

Oliver smiled and shouted, “Tiger Arena, here we come!” Then he walked straight through the portal and disappeared from sight. Charles and Kane followed suit.

Shortly after they reappeared in a large hall. The hall was filled with several teleportation portals, and walking around were numerous spectators from other clans.

“Haha, we are so lucky that we could effort to commission a small teleportation portal from our clan to this hall. It truly save us precious time,” Oliver laughed out with pride.

“The time to separate has come guys. I’ll be going to the Zafisi clan`s seating area from here. For the last time, I wish you good luck for tournament. Be brave young warriors.”

“And Charles, don’t forget to assist Kane, it is his first time here,” Oliver said as he winked, then he left towards one of the several corridors that connected the hall.

Charles casually looked at Kane, “Follow me Kane, we must head to the main participant’s area. We will be waiting there until the preliminaries end.” Kane nodded in agreement, then followed him. After around ten minutes of walking, they finally arrived before an entrance. Kane was immediately stunned by the view he was currently witnessing.

The arena was vast, much bigger than he had imagined. In the middle of the arena there was a very large battle platform, in the form of a square. It was covered by big yellow tiles, and at each corner there was a statue of a colourful fierce tiger, the size of a tile and around five metres long. On each side of the arena there were four other smaller platforms, which were connected with the main arena by long narrow pathways. The four smaller platforms all had big banners that read as follows: North End - Preliminaries fighting arena, East End – Medical area, South End – Main Tournament participant’s waiting area and West End – The Judges area.

The connected platforms were encompassed by a circular wall that was ten metres high, which marked the start of the spectator area. The spectator area was the largest structure, and it could accommodate up to 200,000 spectators. It was divided equally in five zones in this clockwise order: one general spectator zone, a zone reserved for the Dorba clan, a zone reserved for the Dabsika Clan, a zone reserved for the Zafisi clan and a zone reserved for the City Patriarch and his subordinates.

The Zafisi participants, who had just arrived to the South End area, moved coolly to the nearest couch, then quietly sat down. There were eight circular seating couches spread on the platform. Three other competitors were already there too.

“Honey, look… those of the Zafisi clan have arrived. Oh… and by the looks of it, it seems that Charles obtained a new sword too. This is going to be troublesome.” A young woman spoke worriedly to her fiancé.

“Yeh Babe… troublesome indeed… I just hope we are lucky and avoid both Yakov and Charles during the first round of matches… and it seems like the Zafisi clan has a new contestant too. Honestly, I was expecting Clinton to show up… I`ve never seen this man before.” The young handsome man spoke whilst touching his chin.

These duo were the contestants of the Dabsika clan, Peter and Martha. It was not the first time that this couple participated in the tournament, so they were quite familiar with the names of the other participants.

Martha giggled as she uttered, “You really don’t keep yourself updated honey! I`ve heard that Clinton was wounded recently and he had to withdraw from the tournament. Instead of him, the Zafisi clan sent this young man. I bet he is even weaker than Clinton. Look at him, he is only wielding a green crystal powered sword. His of no threat to us!”

Peter let out a sigh of relief, “Oh, is that so?! How dumb of me, I haven’t notice that before! Poor kid, his going to experience hell in this tournament!!”

Time kept passing slowly, as both Charles and Kane remained seated quietly, patiently waiting for the end of the preliminary phase of the tournament. Kane became annoyed after a while, so he started asking random questions to alienate his boredom. “Hey Charles, what`s that violet smoke high up above the arena?”

“Those are clouds Kane,” Charles replied coolly.

“What!? Clouds!!??? Where exactly are we!??” Kane asked totally dumbfounded.

Charles relaxed his pose as he explained, “The arena is located on the head of the great statue of Violet Tiger City. As you might already be aware, all the administrative buildings of the city are located on or inside the statue, including the Palace of Cory Terba, the City Patriarch.”

“It is very cold up here, so the arena is kept warm by a large crystal powered underfloor heating system. Pretty impressive isn’t it?”

Kane listened attentively to him, completely stupefied. Charles smiled for a while, then he changed subject. “You see that man sitting alone over there? His Yakov Dorba, the main bastard to beat. His a man full of prideful bullshit.”

Kane immediately raised his head as he tried to obtain a better view of Yakov. He was middle-aged, partially bald and had a slightly long black beard. He had a simple sword that was powered by a blue crystal.

Suddenly, a powerful voice originating from the North Area radiated out, completely catching the attention of everyone.

“The two finalists of the preliminaries have been decided! Both contenders, please cross the arena and join the main contenders at the South End!”

Shortly after, a man and a woman could be seen walking triumphantly towards the South End, amidst shouts of encouragement and appreciation that came from the viewing stands. The members of their respective clans were totally ecstatic, and they had every reason to be so.

After all, the participation fee per servant was of 50,000 Piras. Not many clans could afford such a fee, while a lot more wouldn’t even think about spending such a sum on a servant of theirs. That`s why the participants of the tournament numbered less than a hundred, in spite of the population size of Violet Tiger City.

“Since the Dorba have only sent one participant, we will be holding one last preliminary match between the other two semi-finalists. The winner of the match will be our 8th and final contender. After that, we will randomly announce the fixtures of the quarter finals of the main tournament.” The powerful voice resonated for a second time.

It didn’t take that long for the winner of this match to be decided. He was a young man, and he too crossed towards the South End and joined the others.

Then, the old man who was presiding the preliminaries, and also the one shouting the results, flew away and joined the other judges at the West End area. The judges’ panel was now composed of three old women and two old men.

They kept muttering for a while, then the oldest woman rose up and finally announced, “The running order of the matches is finally available.”

Instantly the whole arena fell dead silence, and everyone eyes shone with anticipation.

“The first Match: Charles Hearn vs Tony Juko” ~~~~~

“The Second Match: Peter Dabsika vs Yakov Dorba” ~~~~~

“The third Match: Zafisi`s clan Mr. Gululu vs Martha Dabsika” ~~~~~

“The fourth Match: Diane Rodgers vs Bugi Traspa” ~~~~~

The first reactions of the main contenders could now be seen. Charles and Martha were grinning, Tony`s and Peter`s faces turned white pale, Diane and Bugi were both delighted, Kane appeared thoughtful and humilated, whilst Yakov didn’t express any type of reaction at all.

“Easy one for me… but not the same can be said for you Kane. Your opponent wields a sword powered by a blue crystal; you have no chance of winning,” Charles uttered calmly.

Kane replied dumbfounded, “What? I don’t understand what you mean?”

Charles instantly answered him, “Your sword is powered by a green crystal, which is weaker than a blue crystal. You are at a big disadvantage Kane.”

“Blue crystal… green crystal… weaker…?” Kane was busy thinking aloud. He knew that these crystals improved the power unleashed by the sword, but it never crossed his mind that different colours represented different strengths!

Seeing the confused Kane, Charles stared at him bizarrely. “What? Are you really not aware that different coloured crystals have different power capacities? The green crystal is the most common and also the weakest. It is the cheapest out of all power crystals, which explains why most weapons are powered by green crystals. Then there is the blue crystal, which is stronger than the green crystal, and it is also very expensive. Then there are also the more powerful red crystals and the even stronger violet crystals. These are very rare and cost a shocking fortune.”

Charles was about to continue, but was interrupted by the sudden screams of the audience. Patriarch Cory Terba had just stood up to deliver the opening speech.