I look over to where Shankhe is, as the goblin enters the arena. Similar to me, he does get his specialisation ready, as in, he uncorks his bottle and the water is flowing around him like a sash, but he’s not going to use it just yet i would think. The thing is I truly don’t know whether that's the case, since it all depends on how he feels. But, since I was able to defeat it easily, I’m pretty confident that he won't need his spesh.

He draws his katana, getting ready to fight it, and they meet in the middle, just like Taegan did when he faced his goblin and how I did as well. It was just a common instinct I think for us to rush in the middle, as that's how a lot of people do it when they duel and fight. Back to the fight, again, it's pretty weak so Shankhe easily has some weak spots he can take advantage of, but he prefers not to as he takes his time, blocking each one of the goblins advances, and I get the feel he’s learning from it, even with a knife skill as terrible as its. But you know, many manage to learn strange things from strange circumstances.

Finally, after toying with it for a while and pulling all entertainment value from it, he finally beheads it as it tries once again to slice his leg off. Walking back to us, he has a bored look on his face, and Taegan chuckles. “That’s what you get for toying with a goblin for so long, Sha.” He says, his face clearly trying to hold in full blown laughter. Shankhe glares at him. “At least I can learn from even the weakest of creatures compared to none at all.” He replies with a smirk of confidence. “Well, I’m just strong enough that I don't need to learn from weaklings.” Shankhe looks panicked, not having a comeback, but then says something he will definitely regret in the heat of the moment. “At least I know who my family is.” I even look at him at that, and he realises his mistake. “No you don’t!!” I say, and he turns away, embarrassed. “Shut up…..” He whines, realising just how much he stuffed up. “You said it.” Says Taegan. “And that's the most stupid argument I’ve ever heard. You don’t know who your parents are, you’re an orphan, and you look like me. You have no clue who your parents are, or even whether I am your sibling, idiot.”

He pushes him lightly, and they argue about this for a couple more minutes of back and forth banter, before a doll approaches with a food cart, all of us turning to them eagerly with hunger. I bet if the doll had emotions it would jump back in fright because all of us are looking at her like we’re about to eat her and the food in the cart. Anyways, she opens the gladiator cage, pushes the cart in, and we all descend upon it hungrily. Well, not quite. Because someone, our leader, decided we still need to be reasonable, and got the bowl’s out, and filled it up as much as he can with soup, that smells delicious.

He gives us spoons, and we dig into the food. I groan with satisfaction, it's so much better than I remember. Last time I remember having soup, it was bland and boring, but now? A hot, flavoured meal is almost heaven. From the slurps and eager eating the boys are doing, I think they would agree with me. Eating quickly, we go back for seconds and thirds. “Guys.” Says Taegan, as he’s downing his-what must be-fourth bowl of soup. “Don’t win your matches. This is absolute heaven.” Now, normally, I would agree with him. But, we do need to get out of the dungeon, so that's not a choice.

“Tae.” Said Shankhe. “That’s not an option, no matter how much it should be.” Tae pouts. Even as a leader, he still had tendencies to be a kid, just like us. Even if we were adults technically. Sha- if you didn’t know-is pronounced Sh-ah, and Tae pronounced T-ay. Shankhe could’ve been Sh-ay, but he didn’t want to be ‘too similar to his brother’. So its Sha and Tae. Yeah. They’re idiots, but adorable idiots.

Anyways, after a couple more minutes of us savouring the taste of the soup, the announcer called Taegan back up to the arena. Setting down his bowl, he got up and walked over to the metal door, confident and eager.

Once he entered the arena, he opened his bottle, and spread particles of sand all over the arena floor. His opponent? “Monster of middle wood may now enter the arena.” This time, its a scarecrow, just like those ones way back when we started. Before even the bridge I think. Not quite sure. But this one, definitely stronger. It doesn’t have a rusted blade, its shiny and strong, and the monster is leaner, quicker.

They rush to the middle, clashing with a loud ringing of metal on metal. Taegan grins, and I chuckle. Of course he would be happy and entertained by something supposed to be a deadly situation. The scarecrow disengages and tries to swipe at Taegans side, but he manages to block it with one of his daggers. I smirk as the scarecrow and Taegan proceed to exchange blows, with Taegan getting the upper hand because he has two weapons and not one, but barely. Really, its not that much of an advantage he gains.

Not only does it take a while for the monster and Taegan to finish, it seems like they don’t want it to finish, because although the scarecrow probably only has instincts at this level, as true intelligence is gained at least at bronze for the more humanoid or smarter monsters. Soon, Taegan in one of their clashes manages to get behind the scarecrow by ducking under its arm as it swung the sword at his torso, and backstabbed his head. The scarecrow fell forward with a thump, and Taegan headed back to us as his sand on the floor, that he ended up not using, gathered and snaked back into his bottle before he closed it with the cork.

“That was a good match.” Said Taegan as he approached us and the metal door opened once again and he got in. “Really?” Says Shankhe sceptically. He nods. “It was an amazing fight.” I look at him confused. “Why didn’t you just kill it from the start and get it over with? It seemed easy for you to do it then?” Taegan looked at me, surprised, but then chuckled. “There wasn’t an opening where i could get to its back without it cutting me.” He said. “You’ll know when you fight your own in a couple seconds, although you’ll have to use something different to me because our weapons are so different.”

I nod in understanding, and then proceed to be called up. I enter the stage, and then wait, wait some more, and finally the monster enters. I knew what I had to do. It was my only option. Taking the first steps, i rush forward, my feet empowered by my mana as I push harder and faster across the ground, covering it in an instant, and, using the scarecrows surprise as it tries to go forward to me, I dash around it, and swing the axe like a barbarian around in a half swinging attack at i swing it into the scarecrows neck, its straw head collapsing into individual straws as it collapses, along with the rest of its body turning back into just normal straw.

I walk back to the boys, my mana still powering my body as i hold my halberd on my shoulder. Hoping I look badass internally. When the metal door opens and I finally return to our gladiator cage however, I collapse onto the floor, extremely tired from empowering my body that much. I’m practically dead at this point. “Holy son of the gods!!” Says Shankhe, and I chuckle tiredly at his expression. “It’s holy daughter of the goddesses.” I correct snarkily. He rolls his eyes. “You know what I mean.” He says. “How did you manage that?” I recover my breath, before saying. “I empowered my body with my blood mana.” Shankhe, and Taegan, shudder, before Taegan whispers into Shankhe’s ear, but it was loud enough for me to hear. “Remind me never to annoy Dalyva, Shankhe.” And Shankhe nods in agreement.

At this point I’m pretty out of it, and I lay my halberd down nearby, and take a quick nap.

Now, definition of quick varies from person to person, and on the situation, but the general understanding is that quick is fast, short, and all those words. As the scholarly books say- fast, or doing something in a short time. However I remember it is my secret to keep, one that I will never share even in my own mind. (It was an exam). Back to the point, I skipped both Shankhe’s match, and the announcement for the rest period. In conclusion, I woke up the next day and only because Taegans name was called.

Instantly as soon as I am fully woken by Shankhe shaking me, and trying to gain my bearings as every sensible thought, or any thought really, abandons my brain and I look around for five seconds before finally realising how long my nap was, and then see Shankhe. “Sorry for sleeping through your match!” I say, worried he would think it unfair that i slept through his match. He glances at me surprised. “No, its fine.” He replies in shock. “It was boring anyways. But you should probably get up now, as Taegan’s fight is about to start, and this time it's high wood.” I snap up, remembering everything as it all floods back to my brain in waves of knowledge and intelligence.

I get up, grab my halberd that was nearby, and we walk to the metal door, leaning on it as Taegan’s on the other side, spreading sand onto the metal arena floor. It was fine, something you wouldn’t have looked at twice if you just thought it was dust or left over from another match. Time to fight. The announcer announced the monster, and sure enough it was high wood.

To our shock and horror, it was a….

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In the arena was terrifying in and of itself, but to have a monster like that here…. It was almost like we knew we would never survive this. You see, although Dalyva didn’t really show it, she was absolutely drained using that much mana to be able to overpower her opponents, even as mid wood rank. That meant that when she got to high wood, we were screwed. Extremely screwed. It wasn’t like she was bad, it was just she wasn’t as experienced as me, and Sha had at least trained for a bit before travelling to become an adventurer.

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Yes, it was impressive at the rate she was improving, and yes even I was amazed at her progress, but against a golem? None of us stood much of a chance, least of all her. My weapons are drawn, and i prepare for a beating. It approaches in heavy steps. I couldn’t lie, everything killing me…? Makes me feel alive.

I go up, and run, my adrenaline pumping in my veins as i attack the giant golem, ready to win at any moments notice. Ready, set, engaged! In a flurry of blows I attack from different sides, my sand in waves as it surrounds the golem in a cylinder and I use it as a wall to bounce off. To the head to the chest, I attack everywhere to find a weak spot. I’m running upside down, sideways, and upright. Eventually, I attack it at the back of its neck, but it quickly blocks with its arms. Something it didn’t do before. My face slowly grows less confused as I realise. I wonder why? A smirk grows slowly across my face, and I chuckle.

“Weak spot.” I say to myself. I ready my blades, having jumped back from the golem. I check my mana. I’m on a time limit now. I rush forward, my sand forming little floating platforms, ones i jump around to get to the golems back. Predictably it turns around, but I wasn’t planning that anyways. As it turns around, I’ve already gone over its head, and I’m jumping down, both my daggers posed downwards on its neck. It tries to put its arms up, but my sand had sneakily creeped onto its arms, and was now stopping its movement. It hits the golems neck, and I grimace. Thoughts flash through my mind. What if it's not a weak spot? What if it's just a coincidence that it tried to attack me with its arms up and just happened to deflect me from its neck?

But, as the jambiyas go deep into the golem, its knees buckle, and it falls to the ground, me jumping back to avoid falling as it goes flat on the floor. Immediately, I fall backwards, my sand supporting me until I reach the ground. Big tired breaths in, and a deep exhale. I almost fell asleep right there. Luckily, I managed to be awake for a few more seconds and slowly, inching myself off the floor, I collected my sand, put it in its bottle, and then walked into the gladiator cage, before falling asleep in there, not being able to talk right now.

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I see Taegan fall asleep, and smile. “Did you see what he did?” Asks Shankhe, also looking at Taegan. “I saw.” I nod. “He was really amazing!” Shankhe agrees, and then states. “Hey, he even found the weakness, and we saw, so now we know the weak spot as well.” Soon, i get called up, still while Taegans still fast asleep, though, judging by his tired state when he came out, we all will definitely be fast asleep for a while.

I stride out to the arena with confidence, and my halberd in my hands as I try to strategise how I can get to the golems neck. You see, Taegans jambiyas are very adaptive and flexible, as he can use them in short range, whereas me and Shankhe as well-sort of-have long range weapons. Well, Shankhes is like a mid range, between long and short. But also, if you were to judge it, he’s more a long range than a short flexible range. It takes a minute-literally-but the golem finally comes out, and I get into a fighting stance. I have an idea so that my fighting is better.

My halberd at the ready, I look across to my opponent, the golem as expected. It approaches, and thats when it notice how tall it is. Maybe double my height. I freeze, scared. I try stop myself, saying in my mind that I’ve improved, that I’ve grown out of it, I’m stronger now. But it just doesn’t happen… I’m frozen and completely a mess for the next attack. The golem lifts its arms up, and brings them down with brutal efficiency, not slow like I expected. Though I don’t know how I expected that. Maybe my brain is just trying to block out what’s happening as i panic? Who knows.

That’s when I notice, I’m shaking. Shaking really bad, as my halberd almost falls from my grasp, but i force my fingers to curl, not wanting to lose my weapon. As it goes down, I, as a reflex I’ve developed, pull my halberd up, and block the blow, but not only am I shaking in my boots, I can't put enough power in it to match literal stone. That’s real heavy. I start to crumble, and are soon down on my knees, before it pushes a bit more, and I’m on my back on the floor, the wind pushed out of me. That’s when I see its huge, grey arms reading back, and swinging down. Everything slows down. Shankhe is yelling, the arms of doom approaching, and I’m nervous, scared.

But, thinking about it, I don’t want to be a weakling, someone who always cowers in fear. I want to be strong, someone that can hold their hands when they need it, and support them if they’re injured. Someone who can protect us all when Taegan is unable to do so, and that nightmare never coming true!

In this slow motion, I gather myself up, grab my halberd, raising it as I get ready to block its strike, adrenaline and mana running through my body at what feels like a thousand km an hour. I take a huge breath in, my throat feeling colder as I take in the cool air, then as I exhale, I feel a lot calmer, ready to face this giant golem. Time turns normal, and I’m up, blocking its attack. I grimace, grit my teeth, but never let up.

I will never let it defeat me now. With my increased strength, I manage to deflect its attack to the side, and jump back. Taking inspiration from Taegan, I leap up, and to my surprise manage to land on its shoulder. It tries to get me from there, but I raise my halberd, even on this very uneven and clunky ride manage to keep my footing, and then throw my halberd into its neck, holding on for dear life as it takes what seems to me like years to sink into and kill.

Finally, it gives out, and using the rest of my mana, I jump off as it falls, leaving my halberd in it knowing it won't be damaged. Once it's down, I grab my halberd, heaving it out of the golems stone body, and then heading to the gladiator cage, only to collapse in tiredness once I get inside. Someone’s hands pick me up and put me in my sleeping bag, putting me before its zipped up and then zipping it up after I’m in.

I fall into inky blackness after that exhausted as I’ve used practically all of my mana.

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I watch Dalyva as she falls asleep, smirking at how she’s sleeping like a baby, compared to three seconds ago when she was fighting like a badass. Taegan was worried that she wouldn’t be able to do it, but she pushed through, she did it. I’m proud of that. However, it's my turn next, and I’m nervous, because neither of them will be there if anything goes wrong, but then again, maybe it’ll be easier to fight without people watching me, as I won’t be as nervous to stuff up and disappoint them. Yeah, I’d say that.

Besides my nervous fear of them seeing how bad I am at fighting and me screwing it up for all of us, I’m ready to fight! They call me in, and I look around the arena. Same as before. Nothing has really changed, except i reckon there were less spectators before. After a minute, the golem enters, and I draw my sword, ready to attack it. In fact, I’m eager to fight. The golem looks at me, and I rush forward.

“You’re dead!” I yell, smirking. No matter if Taegan and Dalyva are conscious or not, I'm ready to pull out all stops to defeat this golem. It looks to me like I’m Merely something it was ordered to eliminate, a chore, but I just couldn’t wait to take it down. Water droplets at the ready, I start to bombard the golem with attacks, including not only water attacks, but using my sword as I hack away at his arms, although with more finesse and beauty than that. I think I could see a tiny cut, but I was still annoyed. Why couldn’t I cut it? I knew that it was stone, thats an obvious thing, but it was something that only noobs use in excuses when they cant cut stuff because of their own incompetence. I hate it when people use excuses like that, when there are heaps of really good swordsman who can cut steel.

Water surrounds my water in a whoosh, and I look at the golem properly. Analysing it while dodging its attacks, I see an opening, and take it. You see, as it lifts its hands up and does it slam down, for a few seconds its hands stay on the ground and its bent over. What also happens is when its hands are on the floor, it provides a staircase to its shoulders, that just happen to be near where its neck is. Funny, that. In that split seconds as it does another slam, I push all my exhaustion away, using every ounce of energy as I take the temporary bridge to its neck. It’s exhilarating, excitement and daring, but as i get up halfway, it starts to move. Crap.

My breaths start to hitch, and shake a bit. I get nervous, but I don’t stand there and await my doom. I continue to run, wishing and hoping that I’d get up to the golems shoulders before it can move its arms again, because otherwise I’m screwed.

I can practically hear the clock tick down as i rush up the golems arm. My senses heighten, and I can see so much clearer. That’s when I realise that this feeling is almost a survival mechanism, and use it. Managing to push myself up the golem, using my water to propel myself just as it regains use of its arms. My breath is ragged, tired and broken as I breathe in and out. My water covered blade is ready to stab, and, happily, I lift my blade, bringing it down in the cracks of stone on the back of its neck. I wobble on the golems body as i almost fall asleep just there. My head swirls, and its hard to think of anything my own body almost shuts down on me. A yawn escapes before I realise I’m on a golem that is currently falling and soon to hit the floor.

Using the last of my strength, my water, once a sash around my shoulders gathers onto my feet and floats me to safety, out of the crash zone of the golem. Once I do get off the golem, I promptly almost fall asleep right then and there, but manage to hold on and stumble my way into the gladiator cage before falling asleep right then and there.

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When I wake up, Taegan is already awake, with Shankhe also awake eating the soup. They turn to me as they notice I’m awake. “Hey Dalyva.” Taegan says. “You sore?” I start to get up as I want some of that delicious soup, only for my calves to protest immensely and me ending up having to crawl. Even that triggered some soreness in my arms, but it was better than walking. Taegan just chuckled, but Shankhe was full on laughing. However, I had Taegan on my side, as he soon said. “Sha, you can't say anything. You literally crawled as well.”

Sha pouted. “You didn’t have to say that….” He protests, but regardless of his arguments Taegan already said it. Soon, a doll came over, and we all look at them, expecting them to want us to fight again. “All participants have passed the test. Should you want, you can fight a bronze rank, or you can collect your token and leave.” It says, in a stiff, strange way. No matter of how it said it, we were definitely getting out of here. Just to be sure, I look over at Taegan and Shankhe. “Are we leaving?” They both nod.

We start to get up, with several groans from all of us, but we massaged our muscles, so they’re a little better, and my specialisation certainly would help if I used it, though I’m out at the moment. The doll opens the cage, and leads us to a desk, where they hand Taegan the token, since he was the leader of us, and then the doll leads us to the door, and shoves us out. Once on the main trial room, we all collapse. The doll had been walking too fast for our hobbling selves, and it was really annoying.

I let out a sigh. “At least we got the token.” I say, and Taegan nods. “Guys?” Shankhe says in a curious sort of tone. We turned to him. “What?” He looks a bit nervous, but asks regardless. “How far away are you from bronze after defeating the high rank?” I close my eyes, sensing my Soul, and the Spirit inside. The orb looks about three quarters full. “Almost there, one quarter left.” I say, and Shankhe, who was next to open his eyes, says. “Yeah, that as well.” That adds up, since he hadn’t really fought a lot back in his hometown according to him, so just like me he probably only got his first monster kill at 16 and that was it. Taegan opened his eyes last. “I can rank up.” He says, grinning. Both of us looked at him shocked.