Michael

Michael was rubbing his eyes to get rid of his exhaustion, he hadn't gotten too much sleep before martial training this morning.

"Tired," Theodore asked as he looked at him with a sympathetic smile. Michael nodded, "Yeah, made bad decisions last night about when to go to bed."

The other boy laughed. "I don't know you for long, but I assume it was for studying?" Michael nodded again.

They were waiting for Zen and Mira at the fountain, the carriage was already standing ready. It didn't take long for the prince and princess to emerge from the palace, oddly they were not followed by their Kingsguard knights.

They approached them and Mira looked a little skittish. Zen waved them closer and spoke quietly with a look at Geron, Eydis, and Theodore's knight. "We have a problem; our mother wants us to stay in the palace because the last day is always the craziest in the city."

"Hmm, that is unlucky," Michael frowned, "What are we going to do now?"

Zen thought for a moment and then visibly resolved himself. "I really don't want to miss the stone crusher. We need to sneak out." Mira nodded hesitantly.

"What? We can't do that!" Theodore said a little louder. Michael frowned but said nothing waiting for the prince to explain. "Not so loud, Theodore. It is the only way, Mira and I ditched our knights already, now you just need to send yours away too. Just tell them that we are going to stay in the palace and go play or something and we don't need them here."

"Isn't that way too dangerous to go into the city without protection, especially when today is supposed to be the most dangerous day," Michael interjected.

"It's not that dangerous and we are just going to go to the monster arena and back so it shouldn't be a problem. If we take anyone, they will probably prevent us from going, it is a royal order after all and even if they don’t, they might be punished for disobeying an order," Zen explained.

Michael was not convinced, "Won't we get in trouble as well if we just go?"

"We might if we get caught," he said with a cheeky smirk.

"Is it really worth it just to see the fight," Theodore said with a doubtful expression. Zen sighed and then shook his head, "Yes you are right, I can't really pull you guys into this. You should go ahead, and we will figure something out, you are not banned from leaving the palace after all."

Theodore looked at the prince with an unsure expression, "I don't know." The prince placed his hand on his friend's shoulder and said with an encouraging smile, "Don't worry we will find our way."

"You are gonna try either way, right," Michael asked and Zen nodded. "Well, it would be more dangerous if you two try alone so it is better to just all go together. I have a condition though, we will take Eydis with us. She is not a knight of the kingdom so she is not bound to the royal family, and she won't tell on us, even if anyone except me could understand her."

Theodore's expression brightened up at this and he nodded lively, "Yes, we would put you in danger if we didn't."

Zen quickly agreed with a smile, "Alright, she can come, gonna make me feel better about it as well and might help us leave the castle with a guard." Michael looked at Mira and asked her, "Are you okay with this? We are going against the wishes of your mother."

She smiled at that and said, "I never get to do anything fun if you ask my mother. I want to see that monster bear."

"Alright, I will take care of our escort then." Michael turned around and walked over to the knights and Eydis. He feigned disappointment and said, "The queen has prohibited the prince and princess from leaving the palace, so you won't be needed today."

"What are you going to do then," Geron asked, with a raised eyebrow.

"We are going to hang around and play so you can head back," Geron looked not really satisfied with that answer and that was exactly what Michael had expected. "If it makes you feel better, Eydis can come with us as a guard, the others are interested in her anyway."

Geron didn't seem completely convinced but Michael's underhanded tactic had soothed his concern enough that he believed him and took off with the other knight. Michael felt bad for deceiving his knight, but he technically had not lied at least, not that Geron wouldn't chew him out if or more likely when he found out.

"So, what are you guys going to do," Eydis signed at him, looking not too happy to be on babysitting duty. Her mood quickly changed as Michael explained the situation to her. She chuckled, "Oh, Geron will be so mad."

Michael shook his head at her amusement but hid his own smile as he returned to the others. "So, I got rid of our shadows what now?"

"We just get in the carriage and go. There is no way that mother bothered to inform the guards or servants of her decision to keep us in the castle so it should be no problem," the prince shrugged as he explained the plan.

The guards at the gate looked a little confused about the small escort they had but they didn't dare argue with the crown prince about it. This aside they reached the plaza with little difficulty and Michael instantly saw what the queen meant by the most chaotic day. The streets were swamped he had thought them full yesterday, but this day was on an entirely new level and the crowd moved more like a connected mass than single people. It was very lucky for them that they had managed to drive right to the monster arena, or they would have had big problems getting through the crowd.

After they got to the arena, they approached the entrance where the ticket shop was. The clerk sitting there instantly jumped up upon recognizing the prince and after a respectful greeting ran away. He returned with the showman that they had seen narrating the fights the day before.

"Your Highness and Lordships, we are honored to have you return to our humble arena," he bowed deeply.

Zen smiled at the man and replied, "Couldn't miss the stone crusher, could we?"

The man nodded excitedly, "Yes, indeed. A great specimen." He thought for a moment and then continued, "The show won't start for half an hour yet, so if Your Highness wants, I will give you a tour of our monster den. That is what we call the backstage area with the monster cages."

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The kids looked at each other with excitement and quickly agreed, so the showman led them to the back. While they walked, he looked at Eydis, "You are an augmenter, right?" She just stared at him, and Michael answered in her stead, "Yes, she is, why?"

"The mana beasts are quite perceptive of mana so please keep it down, so they don't rampage in their cages. I would hate for any of my merchandise to get damaged because they run into the bars," he said with an excusing tone. Eydis nodded at him, and Michael also locked the mana flow of his well. He pulled his cloak tighter as the warmth left him, it was a strange sensation to not have the warm feeling anymore, even though he was not actively moving mana in his body there was always a small amount seeping when he didn't concentrate on containing it.

They entered the large tent that was connected to the arena and were instantly hit by the screaming and screeching of the captured beasts. They couldn't see too many as most cages had blankets covering them, which the showman explained, "We keep them covered to keep them calmer." Michael could see some goblins covering in an uncovered cage a little to his right though, they looked at him with big eyes and huddled together in a corner of their prison. Eydis was eyeing the cages with distrust and had her hands on her weapons the whole way.

In the tent were a couple of workers moving the cages around, getting them ready for the fights and Michael was surprised how many were left after two days of the event, so he asked the showman about it.

"You are right we have used around 30% of our merchandise in the last two days but they were all just a couple of hours, today there will be more fights and bigger ones so we need more beasts, the grand finale so to speak."

They finally approached the largest cage; it was three meters high and even wider and covered in a heavy blanket. The showman waved two workers closer and said, "The prince, princess, and their friends would like to see the stone crusher." While the workers moved, he turned back to the children and said proudly, "We caught him over a month ago close to the border of the Firn Kingdom in the west.

The workers grabbed the blanket, pulling it down, revealing the contents of the cage. It was a huge bear, with fur as black as a moonless night, too big for its cage, and had barely enough room to turn. Michael couldn't see much else of the lying monstrum as it laid with its back turned to them.

He looked over to the showman and saw the excited looks of his friends. The showman stared with wide eyes at the bear before he frantically asked the worker, "When did you check on it last?"

The beast began to move in its cage.

The worker looked at the man confused and said, "Yesterday upon feeding, we are not supposed to feed them before fights, why?"

Michael looked at the moving mass of black with interest when suddenly two red eyes came into view, followed by a row of teeth that would be claws for smaller predators.

"THAT IS NOT THE STONE CRUSHER WE PUT IN THERE! IT IS EVOLVING, YOU IDIOT," the showman yelled, half his sentence being blocked out by an ear-shattering roar of the now two-two mana beast. Before anyone could react, it lunged forward in its claustrophobic enclosure and ripped through the iron bars like they were not even there. Its enormous left paw hit one of the workers and flung him like a wet towel into another cage breaking the wooden frame, Michael watched the man drop to the ground dead. He swung his head back to the monster, towering on its hind legs it was at least four meters tall. Its claws were surprisingly small but maybe they just seemed like it because the paws were that large.

Eydis was faster to react than the others and sped past them, her weapons drawn and her mana flaring up. The rest of the monsters in the tent reacted to the sudden energy spike and roared more aggressively, Michael could hear the banging of claws on metal from all around him. Before Eydis could reach the evolved stone crusher, he spat out a torrent of darkness in her direction. It couldn't hurt her as it had no physical punch to it just like Michael's light magic, but it took her vision. The darkness didn't just remain around her but drowned out every light in an ever-growing area, having engulfed Michael and his friends already.

"We need to get out of here," the showman yelled and ran into the darkness.

Michael could hear fearful breathing from the others and quickly said, "Stay close."

"I am scared," Mira wailed and Michael could feel her hand brushing past him, he grabbed it so that she wouldn't run away. "Calm down, the bear must have gained a darkness affinity in its evolution because it was kept in darkness for a long time." While he said that he raised his hand and let a bright ball of light flicker into existence, dragging every part of light he could find in his vicinity into it.

The light clashed with the darkness but illuminated a small area around Michael, it wasn't much as Michael struggled to focus his concentration in this situation. He wasn't happy with the size and pumped more mana into the orb which got brighter and increased the area. He could see the stone crusher charge at Eydis, right as the light touched them. She dodged at the last moment and the bear crashed into a wall of cages, causing some to break and the ones stacked above to fall down.

Eydis tried to move to Michael, but the bear came barreling out of the pile of monsters and broken cages, roaring and still focused on Eydis. She was probably the one with the most mana as Michael was still a child even with a large mana well for his age, so the beast would not leave her be. Eydis jumped back and looked at Michael, concern in her eyes but it was not for her own safety, this much Michael was sure of. She nodded in the direction from where they came from and ducked under a swipe that would have crushed her every bone.

Michael understood that she wanted them to get out of here but if he left then she would be blind again. He stood there, rooted in place as his mind raced. The bear rammed into another pile of cages toppling them over. Michael gritted his teeth and looked back to the first pile, with horror he saw a group of giggling goblins climbing over the cages breaking locks and releasing growling beasts. He had no idea why they were doing that, but they grinned manically while they did.

Suddenly Mira pulled at his arm, and he looked at her. "I want to go," she said with tears running down her face. Michael looked at Zen and Theodore who stared at the fight between Eydis and the monster and called, "Snap out of it, the monsters are loose we need to get out of here!" They didn't react, he wasn't even sure if they heard him over the fighting noise, so he took a step closer and pushed Zen into Theodore to gain their attention.

They spun around and stared at him, and he repeated, "The goblins are setting the monsters free, we need to get the hells out of here, now!" Michael could see his panic reflected in the wide eyes of the other boys as they nodded and turned around. Michael led the way back the way they came, the light in one hand and Mira in his other. Suddenly a worker appeared. He looked at them confused and opened his mouth to say something, but before he could a dire wolf juvenile came out of the darkness and pounced on him. Michael just kept running pulling Mira behind him and the screaming man vanished in the darkness.

They finally reached the exit and walked into the light. The people on the plaza hadn't even realized that anything was happening and were standing, talking, and trading like normal. Michael ran over to the fighter Siegwalt whom he had seen in the arena yesterday, he was standing in front of the arena entrance posing and advertising the fights.

"Siegwalt, the monsters are free! They broke free!" He yelled at the man while he looked around with confusion, trying to find out who was calling for him. That was when the first monsters broke out of the tent, a red one-meter-long centipede being the first to skittle out of the darkness. As the people around just stared at it, not understanding their situation, the beast didn't waste any time and attacked the first person it saw, biting down on a man's leg, chopping it off on the first try with its strong mandibles. Now panic ensued as more mana beasts followed the scent of mana, blood, and fear out of the tent and attacked the bystanders.

"Come on stay close to the wall or we will be trampled," Michael yelled as he moved along the wall, toward their carriage. He looked back to assure himself that Zen and Theodore were following him as he still held Mira's hand. Behind them he could see the juvenile dire wolf that had killed the worker, at least he thought that this was the one, the blood on his jaw showed that he had killed something at least. The wolf was looking around for its next victim when his eyes met with Michael's, the wolf let out a howl and charged after them. Michael was an easy target with a lot of mana for an unevolved predator.

"RUN, RUN, RUN," he yelled, as he sped up he had to suppress the urge to use more mana and tried to match Mira's speed.

Michael kept looking back and saw the wolf coming closer. Siegwalt moved between them, readying his sword. He would make short work of the unevolved dire wolf, as Michael had seen him do before.