In the kingdom of Lezotus, swordplay was the most celebrated sport of all. You battle with swords till one gives up or is dead. Festivals full of parades and dances echoed from the capital where swordsmen would come to show off their skills in battle against one another. In every town and every village, people participate in this deadly yet honorable sport. Every year in the center of the capital, there is a tournament. The tournament is called The Battle of Blades. Held in the coliseum at the center of the capital, every year swordsmen from across the country compete for the title of Best Swordsman and a thousand gold pieces. Which brings us to the hero of our story. The young Micheal. A young swordsman with long blonde hair and blue eyes, who’d just moved into  the capital in order to pursue his career in swordplay and in this year's tournament his debut tournament… was not going well. After already being knocked into the losers bracket in his first fight he is still on the back of the ropes against his new opponent. The crowd erupted as their swords clashed over and over and Micheals seemed to struggle against his opponent. Micheal jumped back to try and collect his thoughts and strategize a way to win this fight. 

       “C’mon there has to be a way I can win this, I can’t just lose on my first tournament” Micheal thought as he circled his opponent.

Suddenly he had a thought.

“I hoped I didn’t have to fight with something other than my sword so soon but, oh well I’m in a corner, I have to” Micheal thought as he lunged down and held his sword with both hands over his right shoulder diagonally to the ground.

Getting lower, his eyes filled with determination, his opponent put up his guard holding his sword upright. With a loud yell he pushed off his leg that was lunging forward and flew through the air, turning his torso he got ready to swing his sword with all his might. His opponent kept his guard up. Once close enough Micheal swung his sword with all his force, the two swords clashed sending sparks flying through the air. The force of the strike caused Micheals opponent to nearly drop his sword and was pushed back. Micheal planted his feet and hit his opponent with a spinning kick right into the chest.  Micheal rushed at his opponent again, preparing to swing his sword and finish the match, but his opponent gained his footing and deflected Micheals sword knocking it out of his hands. His opponent then lifted his sword to Micheal’s chin. Micheal’s eyes widened as he gave up and raised his hands. The crowd erupted with cheers as the battle came to an end and Micheal went to pick up his sword. “Hey” his opponent said to him “that was great effort, let’s fight again”.

 They both shook hands as Micheal exited the battlefield.

     As Micheal walked out the coliseum he was greeted by his friend, John. A man with short black hair and brown eyes.

  “There he is, how are you feeling?” John said

  “Embarrassed,” Micheal said as he sat on the ground and held his head down.

  “Hey you did good, this was your first tournament, you’ve still got a lot to learn” John said.

  “I guess you’re right” Micheal mumbled

  “Hey at least you made it past the preliminaries” John said.

  “Yeah barely, that last fight in the preliminaries was so close” Micheal said laughing.

  “But you made it, that’s the good part” John said.

  “Yeah you’re right” Micheal said as he smiled and stood up.

  “So we gonna go look at some of these fights or what?” John suggested with a slight smile on his face.

  “Yeah, maybe I can learn a thing or two from the other fighters,” Micheal said.

They went into the coliseum and sat in the top row to watch the rest of the fights unfold. For two hours they watched battle after battle. Finally it came down to the last two contestants, David and Peter. David had long black hair that ran down to his shoulders, with jade green eyes. He wore a long sleeve green shirt under his iron chest plate and shoulder pads.  Peter, who had short black hair and red eyes, wore a red short sleeve shirt under his chest plate and shoulder pads which were painted black.

  “I hear this is the fifth time these two were the last two standing,” John said.

  “I know, even before I came here I heard of these guys,” Micheal said.

  “In all honesty it makes sense that these two are the only ones who make it this far. They’re the only swordsmen  with Strike Force” John said.

  Strike Force is the energy that resides in the human soul, it lies dormant until a human can force it to multiply and be weaponized. Strike Force can be used in many ways but is incredibly difficult to unlock let alone master.

  “You’d think these fights would be boring by now but when you see the literal sparks of two dudes clashing swords you can’t help but watch”  Micheal said.

  “Well then, for the fifth year in a row it’s me and you again” David said to Peter while smirking.

  “Yeah and I’m looking to win this time again” Peter said as he lifted his sword and pointed it at David.

David chuckled as he unsheathed his sword.

  “How bout we make this interesting, this will be our tie breaker, whoever loses give up sword fighting for good”  David said.

  “I like that, let’s do it” Peter said

  “Alright LET'S DO THIS!!” David said.

  They both rushed towards each other and clashed swords. Then they pulled apart and swing after swing they were sending sparks flying through the air . They were going so fast the crowd could barely keep up but they were still loudly cheering.

  “I can’t even see what’s going on,” Micheal said with a shocked expression.

  Finally they clashed one last time before jumping away from each other.

“CMON LETS TURN THIS UP A NOTCH” David yelled as his aura began to burst from his body. The aura was green and raged around his body as if it were a flame. This is the aura of Strike Force, the color can differ from person to person but ultimately has nothing to do with anyone’s personality.

   “Alright, you wanna make this fast huh, LET'S GO THEN” Peter yelled as his red aura burst from his body. They both vanished and reappeared in the center of the ring clashing swords. This time a gust of wind flew through the coliseum and shook the ground. With a yell David pushed back Peter with his blade then quickly rushed back to him. He then let out a barrage of swings that were all incredibly fast, Peter who was now on the defense was struggling to gain his footing. David had almost got Peter to the wall of the battlefield, but Peter dodged one of David’s swings.

  “Crap, I had him on the ropes” David thought to himself.

  Peter kicked David in the stomach and sent him flying to the other side of the battlefield. As David crashed into the wall and shook the coliseum Peter rushed to David and turned his sword to a reverse grip. Peter cackled as he started to spin so fast he began to look like a small tornado and began speeding up towards David.

  “There it is the Crimson tornado!” John exclaimed. David regained his focus and leaped to the sky and held his sword over his head, and his green aura once again erupted from his body, propelling him towards Peter.

  “That’s the Meteor Strike, and they’re gonna collide!” John exclaimed as his face filled with excitement.

  “Yeah I hope you’re ready because there’s no way this arena isn’t gonna shake” Micheal said laughing. David and Peter both were about to collide when all of a sudden. A purple beam of light shot from the sky right in between the two swordsman, causes them to be launched in opposite directions then where they were going

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “What the-“ John said looking up

  “What’s happening?” Micheal said worriedly. The purple beam of light was followed with the sky turning dark, a purple void expanded in the sky and covered the arena. The fight has completely stopped, and everyone’s attention was on this weird phenomenon happening in the sky. After a few seconds the beam ceased to exist. From the purple void, six figures descended from it. All wearing what looked to be the same clothes just different colors. They wore a coat that had a hood and fur on its edges. They didn’t wear shirts so their torsos were exposed; they also wore pants and boots. One man’s clothes was white another’s was black, one  red, one  brown, one  blue and the last one wore pink. They were all male, and their hair and eye colors matched their clothes. The man in white clothing waved his hand In the direction of people sitting in the stands across from Micheal. All of a sudden a large gust of wind shredded threw the crowd killing hundreds and causing that side of the coliseum to crumble and the blood of the people to shoot to the sky. The crowd started to panic and began trying to rush to the exits. David and Peter's eyes widened before they looked at each other and nodded. At that moment the man in pink came down from the sky, David and Peter both rushed to the strange man getting ready to swing their swords. Once they got close enough and swung, the man in pink caught the sword mid swing using two fingers in each hand for both. Then he tossed both David and Peter out of the arena. Micheal was frozen, he couldn’t move a muscle. He’s never seen so many people be killed so effortlessly.

  “MICHEAL SNAP OUT OF IT” yelled John.

  “Huh oh yeah I’m coming” Micheal said as he finally stopped staring at these strange men. They both ran out of the coliseum then all of the strange men finally joined the man in pink on the ground.

  “It would seem we have timed this perfectly, go, send these people into despair then we shall take over this realm” The man in pink told all of his companions. They then all flew away and started to destroy the kingdom. The man in white was using wind to destroy homes and rip people apart, multiple black chains would shoot out of the body of the man in black and skewer multiple people causing their guts to spill out and leave pools of blood on the ground. The man in black could even increase the size of the chains and crush buildings. The man in blue would shoot strong powerful columns of blue fire destroying homes and taking lives. The man in brown created boulders from the ground and threw them at people crushing many. Micheal and John were trying their best to get out of the capital but being that they were at the center of the capital, the nearest exit was five miles away. They hid in an alley and kneeled as the ground continued to shake, and the screams of many filled the air.

  “What’s going on” John whispered to Micheal

  “I don’t know what those things are, I’ve never seen people do something like that” Micheal responded.

  “You don’t think they’re human?” John said.

  “They can’t be, the sky turned purple. Besides I got a good look at them, they have claws, no human has claws” Micheal responded.

  “So what do you think they could be?” John said.

  “ I don’t know, but my dad just might,” Micheal said.

  “Ok so we’ve gotta get to your dad, but that also means getting out of here, which is a five mile walk by the way and we need to get out quick” John said.

  “If we can find a horse we could get outta here quickly” Micheal said.

  “Where are we gonna find a horse? Plus the stables are on the other side of town” John said

  “I know, let’s just hope that we come across one come on, we can’t just sit here and wait to be killed” Micheal said while waving for John to follow him. They both left the alleyway and began to run toward the entrance of the capital. The street was covered in blood and rubble, children trying to pull their loved ones from underneath crushed buildings, and the remains of what used to be people spread out across the capital. The air was still filled with the sounds of boulders being thrown and buildings falling and the screams of innocent people.

  “Hey look for horses there’s gotta be one somewhere” Micheal said.

While Micheal and John were running, Micheal looked back hoping a horse would be behind them, but when he turned around he saw the man in white. The man in white began to raise his hand and you could see the wind beginning to build up in his palm. It was a giant white ball and it was only increasing in size by the second. Seeing this he knew he only had seconds to react. So he grabbed John and dove into another alleyway.

  “GET DOWN!” Micheal screamed. As he dropped to the floor he noticed a little girl standing crying in the street. Seeing this Micheal tried to stand and go get the little girl, but he could only lift his hand towards her, reaching his hands out. The man in white released his attack and the large gust of wind decimated the buildings around Micheal and John. Micheal watched as the little girl was torn to bits. He watched as her head was split open and her entire body was dismembered. After the dust settled Micheal  screamed and started to cry.

  “How useless am I, she was right there!” Micheal screamed.

  “Hey what are you talking about” John asked Micheal.

  “There was a little girl and she was crying and and I saw her get torn to bits!” Micheal said while punching the ground.

  “Hey hey this isn’t your fault, ok these um demons are attacking for no reason. Don’t beat yourself up for this you said your dad can help us then c’mon let’s go” John said.

  John looked up and took a look around and saw the remains of the little girl. John covered his mouth and held back his tears. Then John looked in the direction that the attack came from. The man in white was gone, however a white horse came around the corner.

  “Micheal there’s a horse coming right now c'mon if we get on it we can get out of here” John said.

  “Really?” Micheal said as he looked up.

  “Hey you’re right, ok let’s go” Micheal said wiping his tears away. As the horse got closer Micheal grabbed the reins and hopped on the horse with John. They began to ride to the exit of the capital, looking around all there was to see was destruction and death. The large black chains that continued to skewer people were rising to the sky with bodies still on them. The large gusts of wind were still tearing apart buildings. Everything was being destroyed.

  “Look at what they’ve done” Micheal said as tears began to pour down his face again.

  “Yeah, it’s terrible,” John said quietly.

  “I’ll kill them, I swear it. I won’t rest until those demon scum are dead” Micheal said as he gripped the reins tighter. Seeing this John said nothing all he could think about was getting to safety. Soon enough they were nearing the exit.

  “John look,” Micheal said, trembling.

  There were bodies torn to bits, blocking the gate was the man in red. He had tentacles made of his blood ripping apart people and eating their intestines.

  “Well well look what we have here” the man in red  said as he swallowed a child’s brains.

  “Who are you, no what are you guys and why are you attacking us” Micheal said.

  “Seeing that I’m gonna kill you pretty soon, I guess you should know,” the man in red said.

  “We’re demons,” the demon in red said.

  “I knew it,” Micheal said to himself.

  “As to why we’re doing this, you need not to worry about that we’ll stop here in a few minutes, too bad though you weren’t lucky enough to escape” the demon in red said as he grinned showing his sharp teeth.

  More tentacles made of blood sprouted from his back and with a grunt he shot them at Micheal and John. But then, Peter dropped from the sky yelling. He then used his Strike Force to deflect all of the blood tentacles. Peter was out of breath and he had blood running down his face from his forehead.

 “I’m not letting you kill anyone else” Peter said.

  “You think you can stop me, really ha ha you’re way out of your league” the demon in red said before rushing at Peter. Peter sprinted towards the demon in red and used his Strike Force in a swing of his sword. Covering his arm with hardened blood the demon got knocked out of the way of the gate.

  “Go survive, and you Micheal, go get strong and come back. We need you!” Peter exclaimed, looking back at both Micheal and John. Micheal quickly rode away and finally escaped the capital. Peter smiled, as he knew that if he died there’s still a chance as long as sword play survived. Peter put up his guard and stood tall against the demon.

  “Eh I’ll let them go we’ll kill them soon enough, as for you” the demon in red said as he grinned. “I’m gonna rip out your spine and tear your head off your shoulders, then I’m gonna pull your heart out your chest and shove it in your mouth” the demon in red said with a crazed look.

  “Oh please you’re the weakest link I can already tell” Peter taunted.

  “What” the demon in red said before he stopped grinning.

  “You heard me you’re the weakest li-“ Peter was cut off by the demon in red appearing directly in front of him. The demon in red then grabbed Peter’s blade.

  “You will learn to not disrespect a demon ever again, actually no I’m just gonna kill you” the demon in red said with a piercing glare. Peter tried his hardest to pull his sword away but the demon in red crushed the sword and Peter's eyes filled with fear. In the blink of an eye the demon in red sent his fist straight through Peter's chest. Peter coughed up blood as he tried to pull the demon's arm out.

  “Who’s the weakest link now” the demon in red said before throwing Peter to the ground off of his hand. Peter held his hand over the hole in his chest.

  “Well I tried” Peter thought to himself as the life began to drain from his eyes.

  “I’m not done with you yet” the demon in red said as his blood trickled from his fingers and into Peter’s body. The demon in red then raised his hand and Peter’s body floated to the sky. The demon in red began moving his fingers and Peter’s body began to bubble. His head, his stomach, everything began to bubble. His eyes exploded then the demon closed his hand. The bubbling stopped for just a moment and then the demon quickly opened his hand and Peter’s body exploded causing blood to fly everywhere. The demon in red laughed and laughed and laughed. Suddenly a beam of pink light shot up from the coliseum.

“Well then it seems that my time is up” the demon in red said to himself.

All of the demons reunited in the middle of the coliseum.

  “Now we will begin our takeover. Woch, put up a wall I don’t want anyone to be able to escape from the capital” the demon in pink told the demon in brown who’s name turned out to be Woch.

  “You’ve got it brother” Woch said before taking to the skies. The capital was about ten miles wide. Woch lifted his hands and a giant two hundred meter wall came up and covered the perimeter of the capital. Woch went back to the ground with the rest of the demons.

 “Now then round up all the humans here, find any survivors, alive or injured. We shall enslave them and make them suffer “ the demon in pink said.