Contingent (1)

Silence. Absolute silence shrouded the arena. No one could believe what had just transpired there. Donovan, the second strongest werewolf in the city was defeated in such a peculiar and embarrassing way.

But it had happened. Ashton had done the unthinkable, that too without breaking any rule. As much as the crowd was opposed to him winning, in their hearts, they had acknowledged the outsider. Just a bit, but it was more than enough for them to take an interest in him.

That was what most of them were feeling at that moment. Some of them, however, were debating about whether the duel was actually over or not. Some argued that the duel was not over as Ashton had attacked his opponent when he was not prepared.

As for the rest of them, they did not see anything wrong with it. In a real battle, the enemy was not going to ask Donovan to prepare himself before striking him down. He was a veteran, thus he should have been prepared for anything and it was his own fault for underestimating the kid. That was all there was to it.

Neither the mistress nor Donovan could believe what Ashton had done either. But both of them were feeling like that for different reasons. Mistress couldn't believe it as she was elated. After all, her disciple had managed to learn a move she had been teaching him for days.

Donovan, on the other hand, could not believe that he was defeated so easily. The humiliation was too much for him to handle. But for some reason, he did not lash out. He simply got back to his feet, shook the dirt off of himself and walked out of the arena.

This was not like him at all. It would be a lie to say that everyone in the arena did not bet that he was going to attack the kid. They were sure of it, however, much to their surprise, he... did not.

"Are we done now?" Ashton asked the mistress once again just to make sure there was not any other hidden rule that he wasn't aware of.

"Ahem. That'll be all. You have won and you're free to leave."

Ashton did not waste any second and left the arena as well. Tomorrow was going to be a big day. it was the day he would leave Maddencreek and hopefully not return there until it was time for his revenge.

Till then, he only had one goal in his mind to get strong enough to get rid of the mistress and destroy everything she had built over the years. She took everything away from him, thus he was planning on doing the same. Even if he had to sell his soul to the devil.

'I should stop thinking about it too much and only bite what I can chew.' Ashton thought to himself and tried to calm the pounding heart in his chest, 'Taking baby steps is better than running with crunches. Revenge will come in time, first I need to get stronger. Much stronger than I am now.'

***

The day passed without much trouble. No one disturbed Ashton on his last night in Maddencreek. The guards were shooting him nasty looks every now and then. But after the news of his victory over Donovan spread, even the guards did not dare to do anything to him.

However, just as a precaution, Ashton did not eat anything that he was offered. He couldn't trust Donovan or his close aides to not try to harm him by poisoning his food. Instead, he consumed the food bars he had stored in his inventory just to be safe.

Apart from that, nothing of significance happened. The next morning, Ashton had his stuff packed up and ready to move. There were many things he needed to keep outside as his inventory carried most of his important belongings.

After what seemed like hours had passed, someone finally knocked on his door. He opened it up and was greeted by a very fashionably dressed mistress and her bodyguards standing there. Just like the day he was taken away from the enclosure.

"Everything prepared?" She asked him.

Ashton nodded and grabbed his bag and then headed out with the rest of them. All of them got into several cars and headed to the city which was plainly referred to as 'Contingent'.

Ashton had heard a lot about the city from the mistress. And the way she talked about it seemed like it was the last place the Mistress really enjoyed herself. It was probably also the reason why she was accompanying him.

As even though she was quite an influential personality, there were rules that even she could not break. One of the prominent ones was about those who fcked up the rules.

The mistress never told Ashton why she was banned from entering the city, but he had a vague idea about it being somewhat related to attacking her half-sister, the pure-blooded descendant of the king.

"Let's go. We do not have time to leisure around." The Mistress roared and the drivers raced their cars.