Broken Image

However her plans didn't account for her twin brother growing a pair in the span of a few seconds. This was a complete shell shock to her and because this newfound confidence in her brother was completely foreign, she was afraid of it. She sees something she needed to crush immediately. I could feel a smile crawl onto my face growing wider and wider as I continued my act of sleeping. I hate people who lie to me. Especially the malicious ones. Her façade was about to come to an end and I was going to enjoy every second of it.

_______________________________________________________________________

"You ... You little bastard!" I heard Anabelle yell.

" Were twins, lookes like were in the same boat on that one" Luxen snidely retorted

" Ugh, I knew I've been too lenient on you. I should have crushed you completely years ago. You are nothing. NOTHING! I'll make sure that I beat you till you cant even speak. Lets see how well you can talk back to this queen when your jaw's removed from your head!" She bolted at Luxen. I lifted my head slightly and blew a small gust of mist directly into her face as her fist wizzed over Luxen who had leaned back to barely dodge.

I quickly made my escape as her attention was attracted to me." You little bitch, how dare you give my brother courage! He was supposed to be my personal slave! I'm better than him, he was only born with me because god created him to serve me! I'm going to kill you too!"

" Your fight isn't with her its with me!" Luxen yelled and appeared in front of me way faster than he was in our fight in the arena.

With a swift kick to the chest Anabelle was sent flying and bounced as she hit the ground, showing the frightening force behind his kick.

" Ahhhh" A scream escaped from the deranged princess, as she tried to stand. I think Luxen managed to break one of her ribs.

"Winner Kon" the announcer from the battle called. In the distraction the fighters in the arena had been distracted. Clearly one more than the other.

'Damnit Eric, pay attention.' I scolded him for getting knocked out as he was knocked out cold, while watching the exchange between Luxen and Anabelle. That's the kind of thing that Gram would do, I thought Eric knew better. Though in his defense Anabelle's body did land near him after her second bounce.

After that kick Anabelle realized that her brother was not some pathetic little sheep anymore, he was a lion ready to attack. Running to his sister Luxen grabbed his sister by the arm and pulled her up, before punching her in the stomach sending her flying.

She fell to the ground and tumbled pretty hard before she wheezed for air. Once she realized she couldn't win this fight her temperament changed.

"Guards, GUARDS! Protect me from this violent mad man." No one went to help her.

" You filthy animals need to learn you manners, now listen to your master, lister to your queen and do as I say. Protect my now you idiots!" Still no one, responded. The crowd had gone silent. This was their perfect little princess, sniffling on the ground, acting like the entitled little brat she was.

Once she realized no one was going to help her she finally started singing a different tune " B-brother, come on were twins, show a little mercy, will you?" Her voice was laces with fear as she started crawling backwards. A foot the connected with her stomach and she was sent flying again hitting the ground a few times as she rolled backwards.

" You bastad m gonea kill rue.' The rolling and constant hitting the ground had busied her lip and I think she bit her tongue.

I'm more impressed at how completely incompetent she is. Maybe the shock of her brother kicking her ass was still getting to her, but I couldn't refute her fighting stupidity, I mean spirit. Fighting spirit. I has having a blast watching this, and I was most impressed that the king didn't try and stop this at all. There were no people interfering. The crowd simply looked on in disbelief, the king did nothing, the guards were still on standby, and the group of her friends that were here, I froze them all. I anchored them to their seats and sealed their mouths so I could hear what was going on. Don't want them interrupting a good show, even if they wouldn't really change the outcome.

Luxen had finally made it to Anabelle, he walked slowly to make sure that each step further incited fear into her. He was angry, and rightfully so. I think he was trying to get back at her for the years of torment he had been put through. Anabelle tried to push her self away, but Luxen slammed his foot down on her arm breaking it.

" AHHHH! nugh, humn" Anabelle let out a blood curdling shrill, as her screams were soon choked out by her sobs.

"Please, stop." She begged her brother, but he didn't listen planting a fist into her face, breaking her nose.

"Enough, Anabelle, Luxen, stop this fighting you both are disgracing the Royal name acting in such a way, during such an important event.

Luxen didn't care he punched again. Anabelle stopped forming comprehensible words at this point. The noises coming from her were simply a jumbled mess, nothing could be made out, who knows if she was even saying words at that point. I stood up to go intervein he was taking this too far, I enjoyed my fill, now this is getting hard to watch. I started to move towards them and try to figure out a way to stop Luxen.

He had grown far stronger than he was in the fight with me. I couldn't beat him as he is. Not without magic. The stupid barrier dispels any magic that is initiated, destroying it before it can be released.

Because Luxen had not stopped the guards had entered the arena to stop him but even they were held back by his rage. With each hit you could tell there was more and more hatred and resentment building within Luxen. He was consumed by it now, he had no control over himself.

The guards couldn't stop him either they were barely able to restrain him without getting in each others way, and even through all the hands grabbing him, pulling him away from his sister he pushed forward.

I had a brilliant Idea. I slipped onto the scene and I pulled Anabelle's mangled body into the stands hoping to use her as bait to draw Luxen out of the center. More specifically the annoying barrier that prevented magic. Once I made it to the edge I started my plan. Using the moonlight element I attempted to make the most somniferous gas I could. I was banking on the fact that whatever was boosting Luxen's stats like that, wasn't raising his resistance to status effects. My body felt like it was on fire as I poured more mana into this than any attack I have before, save for one accidental incident I hope no one remembers. My body felt an extreme pressure on it as I channeled all I had into this little storm cloud. I was barely able to contain it. This was a bargain, and I don't even know if it will work. Thankfully I'm not the target so I probably wont be hurt me.

I yelled to the guards that were trying to subdue Luxen, while they were stronger than him, he was royalty so they couldn't hurt him without express permission from the king, and since luxen was focused on Anabelle, not the guards they had a hard time keeping him from slipping past.

"Let him go I got this." I yelled fully expecting them to not listen.

" We are the guards, tasked with managing this event, we cannot leave this matter in the hands of you little girl." One of the guards turned an yelled at me. He couldn't have done better. I was hoping someone would respond and that would break their guard enough for him to get through, but this idiot straight up turned his back to his enemy. He's an idiot.

Luxen took advantage of Mr. Idiot and bolted towards him.

The guards moved in to restrain him but he managed to escape their encirclement, and bolted right at Anabelle. As soon as he appeared within my range I was going to release the gas hoping to take him out. Since he seemed completely lost in his madness he probably wouldn't notice until too late, but holy hell he just keeps he getting faster.

I saw his body flash out of existence momentarily as my eyes couldn't keep up with his movements, and so realizing I couldn't target him specifically I fired it at Anabelle so he would walk right into it. not even a moment later, Luxen walked right into the gas and his body continued with his previous momentum flying over Anabelle's head into the wall as he was out like a light.

Now that we were in the clear, I decided to test a theory, I had used way too much mana to create that, and now I wanted to see if I could reverse the attack back into mana. I didn't have enough time though as the guards started coming towards me, and I realized I was about to be the center of attention. I decided to cut my losses and dispel the cloud, before disappearing into the crowd in the level above.

Thanks to the fog that I made and the fact that people weren't really paying any attention to me, I managed to make it away without them seeing me, or searching for me. Once they arrived however they found two unconscious bodies one was brutally mangled and it was a miracle she was still breathing, the other had signs of broken bones and fractures all throughout his body.

The guards took both of them to see immediate medical attention, and that was the end of that. A group of mages repaired the ground that had broken, and indented while Luxen was using Anabelle as his personal punching bag. Once the situation was finally cleared up, and the people were calmed the matches continued. I decided to stay in the spectator seating because, nobody told me not to and there was a better view. That and I didn't want to find out how long Tanya can hold a grudge so I deemed it best to wait a little longer. Discretely pulling out a few baked items out of my inventory, careful that people weren't looking as I had left my bag down in the arena. For the next few matches nothing important happened. They were all landslide victories for the most part just a little exchange here and there then boom, one skill, the other person doesn't react in time, game over.

I think the people who made the matchups made it so that the weaklings would be weeded out immediately, to make for a more dramatic end. Of our group, only Lyric and I made it, so far, and it was time for the last fight of the first round of the one on one matches. Tanya verses Gram. I feel bad for the guy already.

He was shaking as he walked to the opposite side of Tanya, she had a vicious smile.

"The match between Tanya Highland and Gram Hellford will now begin. Both participants prepare yourselves."

"Begin."

Tanya didn't give Gram any time to think, drawing her twin short swords, she immediately dashed towards gram once the match started. Gram raised his great sword to defend himself, since that's all he could do. Tanya was ruthless, finding the most efficient and quickest paths for her swords to tread landing a flurry of quick strikes. Gram tried to keep up, but what each of her strikes lacked in strength they more than made up with numbers. Gram tried to parry and counterattack, but any time me made an attempt, Tanya would use her other sword and attack in a spot that he opened in an attempt to press forward. Gram was best suited to taking heavy individual strikes, Tanya could constantly move, around his guard to attack, and she had reduced the distance between them to a range that rendered Grams longer and heavier Longsword was less effective. To make matters worse she had me and lyric to spar against, so she was good at dodging spontaneous, and irritating obstacles, if she could see it coming she wasn't going to be hit.

This wasn't a matter of if Tanya could beat Gram, this match banked completely on whether Gram could endure long enough for Tanya to lose steam. Once Tanya calmed down from her initial ruthless forward assault, she would be within his capabilities. The only question is if Gram could make it until then. Gram was not as fast as Tanya but he made up for it in pure tenacity. With every strike Tanya made he took an effort to block, but even then strikes made it through. Even for all of Tanya's efforts, Gram held strong taking hit after hit, until Tanya finally retreated. He made his move. In sync with Tanya's retreat, gram pushed forward His sword followed her every movement and gave her no time to rest. Finally gram made a hit that Tanya was forced to block, he knocked her swords up and out of his way, spinning around in a quick circle to use his swords weight to his advantage, and he slashed at Tanyas stomach. She grinned triumphantly, Poor guy.

Grams sword mad a bee line for the seemingly open Tanya, when Tanya did something gross. Her feet stayed planted as her torso, bent backwards to a degree that seemed completely unnatural, and dodged Grams attack. Showing impressive coordination she kicked off the ground her head remaining close to the ground and placing her hands next to her feet, She used her body as a spring to send a kick to Grams lower jaw, and completed the movement by pivoting on her arms and landing back on her feet. She immediately ran towards Gram and punched him in the solar plexus before he could readjust himself and for good measure she knocked his right knee out, causing him to fall forward. Gram who just got the wind knocked out of him, and the ground swept out from under him couldn't defend himself and Tanya's next move stole his weapon and lightly drew blood along his neck.

" Winner Tanya."

Tanya fell on her but taking deep breaths, she probably should have just faked Gram out in the beginning, but her knew her tactics, he just wasn't prepared for the gross flexibility. I can do the same thing actually, more or less. It was something we actually had frequent competitions over, who is more flexible, when we first found out we were both flexible. I was curious so I decided to push myself. Tanya saw what I was doing and decided to join me. Our little competitions started after that and ended when we realized how pointless they were. It ends a tie most of the time, because once we touch our chest to the floor bending backwards, and spin almost all of our limbs a good 350 degrees, it quickly goes from being a flexibility competition to a horror show.

There was a short intermission but I didn't really care I was too busy enjoying my cookies. Near the end of Gram and Tanya's fight I had finally cracked into a collection of cookies I had bought in my spare time here. They were a pretty penny, especially considering Chocolate is a bit of a rarity here, not so much so that its reserved for nobility, but it is definitely an expensive treat, especially here. However these cookies smelt so good I had to by a dozen of them, and good god am I glad I did. They were soft and gooey but not to the point they melted to your hand, they were nice and fluffy too to add to the light resistance the cookie still had. It had the perfect amount of chocolate in them to make the taste there but not only taste like chocolate, and there was a light salt on the top that just completed the entire package. I'm convinced that there has to be some form of cooking magic or a skill, something that helps with these meals because, I refuse to believe there are this many talented people that are naturally born here. Strange that I haven't gotten anything yet.

I was in my own little world as I derived a sinful amount of pleasure from eating my cookies, a voice that seemed so distant dragged me back to the cruel dark reality that was I had thirty seconds to get into the ring before I was automatically eliminated due to forced forfeit. Shit.

I jumped out of my seat a cookie still in my mouth and the last one in my hand I jumped out of the spectator stands and into the ring, getting into position. I finished eating the first cookie as I made it to my spot.

"Now that both contenders are finially here," The ref gave me a ditry look, like I was wasting his time. "The match between Liam Gronther and Alice will now begin. Both participants prepare yourselves."

I looked painfully at my other cookie. ' Do I eat it now or do I wait until after? Where will I put it if I don't eat it now? Will the ref allow me to go set it down, will that be grounds for elimination since I wasn't ready in thirty seconds? ' I spent a second thinking about my choices as the cookie made it closer and closer to my mouth.

~Om~ 'too late'

" Match start"