Chapter 8:

Chapter 8: Selena's Trial Part 1

Gathering


The priest smiled almost a little too widely and stated, “Now here are the rules for the following battle. You will be given a set of armor by Kensia. Once you have placed on the suit of full body armor, you will be completely unable to feel any pain. When you have finished these steps, the explanation shall resume. Now come forward!” he said with an inviting gesture of his hand. As if on command, the cubes containing Selena along with the other five competitors drifted towards the stage and landed in a nice neat order in front of the Kensia maids.

Standing ready, they each had a suit of full body armor in hand. A door opened on the side of each cube and each Kensia maid stepped into them simultaneously. Michael could not see anything as the cubes had become opaque. Within a few moments, the Kensia maids stepped out. The priest continued.

“We are now ready to proceed to the next explanation. You will be given a weapon. When Altheggan decides what it is, you will be given five minutes to test out your weapon and get a feel for how it works. Once the fight begins, you will have thirty minutes to fell your opponents. How does that happen you ask? You must either strike or hit them with your weapon. Once you do, they will be immediately teleported out of the arena and set into chairs on the stage.” He gestured towards the chairs. They were all surrounded by elite guards. “The first competitor eliminated will be placed into chair six meaning that they came in sixth place. The second competitor eliminated will be placed in chair number five meaning that they came in fifth place, and so on until everyone is finished. Once the game has been completed and the rankings have been established, then the sphere selection process will begin. Now let the cubes be moved to the center of the arena! Audience cast your gaze towards the Kensia around the white boxes!” the priest raised his arms as he finished that last sentence and the cubes hovered back into the air.

The priest called out again, “Oh great Altheggan, please bless us with not only a field of your choosing, but a selection of the weapons for this battle as well.”

The ground of the arena started to ripple. Michael noted it looked like a pool of water. The earth continued to movie back and forth until lush greenery sprang forth. Bushes, grass, and rolling hills appeared along with a river that flowed from one end of the arena to another. The gentle rolling hills were not that high, maybe enough to conceal a person if they squatted down behind them, and there were no trees at all. The arena field was clearly designed to make sure that the players could clearly see one another.

Selena was now gazing out on the field. What they had all just witnessed was truly amazing. Taking a deep breath, she tried to see her opponents. What she could see was the backsides of two boys who were shooting the same face of confusion towards each other. It was almost as if they did not understand what the priest was saying. She glanced to her left and noted another boy and girl and then she spotted her. The Protogenian. She was simply sitting in her cube, fully dressed in her body armor. Her ice blue hair flowed down her back beautifully before curving off to the left slightly at the small of her back. She turned, and on her face was painted the same bored expression that Selena had seen earlier. Now the cubes were reaching the center of the arena. The next part was starting!

The cubes hovered in a wide circle above a large white box. Selena figured they were about maybe 10 meters in the air. All of a sudden, the priest burst out, “Oh great and might Altheggan! How we are born to live for you and serve you! Please bless us now with your decision on the weapon to be used for this match. Please speak to us now and show us what we should do.” The audience was looking around while waiting on a sign.

Selena was just starting into oblivion. Time began to march on and she was getting irritated. If there was anything that she hated, waiting was one of them. Fortunately her wish was granted. Again, dark clouds rolled in and thunder started to crack. Heat lightning erupted across the sky before a bolt came crashing down on the box below. Selena shielded her eyes as the bolt shot right through the center of the ring of cubes. As the lightning made contact with the white box, there was a blinding light. The thunder and lightning began to fade and the clouds rolled away giving way to sunny skies. Selena looked down. There were the six Kensia, including her own, surrounding what was now a charred black box. The cubes all lowered towards the ground and a door opened on the side of the cube facing Kensia. Selena and the other competitors stepped out.

“Now then competitors, let us see what it is that Altheggan has given you!” the priest exclaimed. “Kensia, please remove the lid. As all six maids in unison worked to remove the lid from the box, there was a roar from the crowd. This was quickly drowned out by the priest screaming.

“Spears! Altheggan has blessed the competitors with spears! Oh thank you almighty Altheggan for your grace is limitless! Thank you for this gift!” Selena performed the gesture of reverence to be on the safe side.

“Now then competitors, the time has come for the final explanation! You will each be given one spear. As stated previously, you will feel no pain if attacked by the spear, but you will lose and be out if touched by the point. Being hit by the actual pole will not disqualify you. You must come into contact with the top of the spear to lose. You have thirty minutes to defeat your opponents.

If you gaze towards my left, there is a pillar of orange light. This orange light extends around the perimeter of the arena. If you touch this, you will lose. After the first ten minutes, if not all competitors have finished and a winner is chosen, the orange barrier will start to close in. Ultimately, if no one has won by 25 minutes, you will be left with a three by three meter space in which to finish the fight.

"Now, you will be given a spear and five minutes to learn about it. Once those five minutes have elapsed, you will have thirty seconds before the round beings. You may run anywhere within the arena. Striking a competitor before the official time has begun will result in instant disqualification. Kensia, please hand them their spears.” Selena received hers and not a second later she heard, “Competitors, your five minutes begins now!”

Selena looked at the spear. It was quite simple. It had a metal shaft with a gold colored blade at the end with a blue gem in the center of the blade. It was easy to hold and surprisingly lightweight. The spear was longer than she was tall and stood, she assumed, at about two meters. Selena had no weapons training whatsoever, but she decided to pretend to look like she did and started moving the spear around. She took a few jabs at the air in front of her and pretended to parry a few blows.

It occurred to her that she might actually have to defend herself. She needed to get a good grip on how to do so. She jumped back and forth some more before something glinted in the far left of her vision. She jumped to the right hard and spun around holding the spear up, tip raised, and in front of her.

Thankfully she did that because another one of the boys had just swung his spear at her. She was ready to strike if need be. “Aww you moved,” he said getting closer. “I was just going to save you from this game, but if you want to play, then let’s play together.”

His body language was that of someone who was clearly not quite all there and he had the fire of desire burning in his eyes. He kept approaching her by the second. As he reached her and raised a hand out to her face, and she slapped it away hard as she could. “Yuck! I don’t want to play anything with you!” she said sticking out her tongue. “Get any closer and I’ll make you wish that I would put you out of your misery.”

The guy clicked his tongue and said, “I didn’t want to play with you anyway. No one want a puppy that bites back. Don’t you have something better that you could be doing other than this game?” He wandered away.

Selena shivered. It had not occurred to her that she could potentially encounter deranged individuals like the one she just did. She made a mental note to keep tabs on his movement if she could and not leave herself exposed like that. She looked over at the stage and saw that she had about 45 seconds left. She tried to recreate the situation she had just found herself in to see if she could counter it. Unfortunately, she could not remember how it went.

“ 3 – 2 – 1 – Competitors, your 30 seconds of preparation time begins now,” the priest said. Selena took off running in the nearest direction away from the box. Sloshing through the river, she kept running for the hills that she saw. There were no trees, but at least the hills would provide some sort of cover. She looked behind her and noticed the two confused boys from earlier well behind her and running off to her right. That was less she had to worry about. She found the hills and started running through them trying to find one suitable enough in height to hide her. She finally found one that could accommodate her height and not a moment too soon. “3 – 2 – 1 – Go!” the priest yelled accompanied by the blaring of a horn.