I started to feel dizzy. There had been so many shocking things recently, but this topped the others.

That explains why I was in that hole. It must have been a grave.

I took a deep breath as I remembered Bryan and the rest of the people I had come with. I wanted to ask Amy about all of them, as well as what had happened to me, but I suppressed the urge. I had a feeling that people wouldn't react too kindly if it was revealed that I was the Traveler who had died. I tried to make my face as neutral as possible and asked in a normal manner,

“So, uh, what happened to, um, the guy who died?”

My awkwardness at speaking still brought out the nervousness in me. Amy turned towards me and gave me a strange look.

“I didn’t say anything about the person who died being a man.”

I froze as I began to panic.

Shit, why am I such a retard.

I furiously tried to think up some kind of excuse, but was having trouble in my panicked state.

“Sexist bastard.”

Amy mumbled as she turned her attention back to the arena. I was surprised for a moment but quickly let out a sigh of relief.

I may have overreacted, but I still need to be careful with stuff like that in the future.

I turned my vision down towards the arena as well to see two more people entering from different sides of the arena. Unlike the previous fight, this time both competitors were males. One fighter wore light armor and held a spear, walking with dignity and arrogance. The other guy had no weapon and wore plain robes.

From the way the crowd was cheering, it was clear that the spearman was the favorite to win this fight. Both fighters stopped, facing each other, and entered a fighting stance. The atmosphere grew tense, waiting for the fight to start as everyone’s eyes were glued to the platform holding the gong.

A man holding a large stick-like item approached the gong, and with a powerful swing, a piercing ringing was heard throughout the arena. The spear wielder sprung at the person who I assumed was a mage of some sort.

Twisting away with speed nearly matching that of the spearman’s, the mage dodged while simultaneously releasing a large cloud of smoke from both his hands.

The smoke consumed almost the entirety of the stage, causing the audience to peer into the smoke looking for any signs of one of the combatants. Several moments passed before the field of smoke was suddenly split in half by a powerful wind.

The smoke seemed to have been cut in half, with the spearman seemingly to have caused the great force. As the smoke dissipated, the audience as well as the spearman scoured the stage looking for the mage, but to no avail. Nearly a minute passed until the smoke had fully cleared, yet there was still no sign of the mage.

The spearman let his weapon fall to his side and turned up to face the administrative platform, a look of helplessness on his face. All of a sudden, the stones beneath him burst open and two hands reached up and pulled the spearman into the ground.

Bursting up through the hole came the mage, landing on the ground directly above the hole. Quickly reacting to the mage’s trick, the spearman bounced off of the bottom of the hole, springing back up at the mage.

Mere feet away from his adversary, the spearman’s momentum was abruptly stopped as he was flung back to the bottom of the pit. At a closer glance, attached to the spearman’s ankles were pitch black chains, completely binding him.

With a quick smirk, the mage stretched out one of his hands towards the trapped spear-wielder. Heat flooded the arena as black flames spewed into the hole.

If It’s this hot all the way up here, just how strong is that fire?

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

As I was in awe over the extreme heat, the mage put a stop to his flames.

With a motion of his hand, a chain identical to the ones binding the spearman flew down and grabbed the spearman. Pulling him out of the hole, it seemed as if the previous chains had disappeared into thin air.

Collapsed on his knees and unbelievably charred and injured, the spearman dropped his weapon onto the cracked stage.

“I surrender.”

Although he didn’t say it loud, the arena was so silent most everyone could hear it, and those who couldn’t were still able to immediately grasp the situation.

I was confused as to why the audience was in so much shock compared to when the most recent fight had ended with a girl dying. The spearman looked up at the mage with hatred and frustration in his eyes. Once again the mage gave a slight smirk.

The mage tapped his foot against the ground and quite a large blade sprang out of his boot. With a quick motion, he swept out his foot in a kick towards the spearman. With a thud, the spearman’s body fell to the ground, his head rolling away separately.

Before anyone had a chance to react, the mage let loose yet another smoke cloud, this time filling the entire arena.

It was pandemonium. There was shouting along with other noise as people panicked and tried to navigate through the smoke. I knew that there was no way I would be able to find a way out through all of the smoke, so I resigned myself to stay seated, and wait until it had cleared.

Although I didn’t feel as if I was in any danger, I couldn’t help but grip the sides of my seat with white knuckles. The complete lack of sight made me feel utterly defenseless.

There was a loud sound of wind, and nearly identical to last time, the air was parted. This time, the force was so great that the smoke disappeared nearly instantaneously.

Standing on the administrative platform was a man holding a spear, clearly resembling the deceased spear-wielding youth.

The amount of power that man must have to create a force that strong; God I wanted to have it.

Although most people didn’t know it, I was very competitive when it came to things I cared about. Well, maybe competitive isn’t the right word to describe it. It had nothing to do with competing against someone else, it concerned my greatest joy in life, achievement.

There was nothing I enjoyed more than pouring everything I had into something and watching myself improve.

It was at that moment that I abandoned my previous life. I decided to devote myself to becoming powerful, no matter the cost.

----------

Amy was pissed. Her dad had promised her that he would watch the tournament with her, but as always he had no choice but to ditch her and work. Not only that, but he had even brought some awkward and annoying Scavenger, as if to take his place in accompanying her.

Amy was often called “strong willed” or “a bitch”, depending on who was talking, and at the moment she wanted to beat the Scavenger's ass. As an attempt to calm herself down, she looked down at the stage to see who was participating in the next fight.

Amy had a combat Class just like the fighter, only it was a basic Swordsman Class.

No matter how hard she trained, she was always behind the talented people with powerful Classes and wealthy families. She looked at the competitors with envy until she saw the grand-looking spearman.

The Lord's son! This is bound to be a quick fight.

She saw the pitiful looking mage and sighed, knowing that this would be a quick and uninteresting fight.

The fight started, and as the spearman charged she knew that the fight was as good as over. Much to her surprise, the mage dodged and released a field of smoke. The events that came after the spearman dissipated the smoke were too quick for her to process.

The mage completely overwhelmed the Lord’s son, ending with him surrendering on his knees in defeat. As the audience stared in shock, suddenly a blade protruded from the mages foot, and with a quick motion, the spearman’s head was relieved from his body.

The mage released yet another smoke cloud, this time many times stronger and clouding the entire arena. Sitting still in the smoke, Amy tried to digest everything that had just happened.

The Lord’s son was the favorite to win the tournament, how the hell could he die in the preliminaries. Who the fuck was that guy?

Pondering over unanswerable questions, the smoke was once again cleared, and as Amy looked around, she saw that it was in fact the Lord who had cleared the smoke this time.

The method used was nearly identical to that of his son’s, only much more powerful. Amy heard a noise to her side, and quickly turned to look at the cause, a bit on edge.

The Scavenger, Wade had stood up. He turned and walked past her, quickly exiting the arena along with many others. As he walked past Amy, she noticed that the edges of his mouth were curled up very slightly. But he wasn’t smiling from happiness. No, from the look on his face and the pace at which he was leaving, it was a smile of excitement.

She watched as Wade became lost in the crowd, and soon after saw her father emerge, quickly making his way towards her.

“Where’s Wade?” He asked urgently seeing Wade missing.

“What the hell! Shouldn’t you be asking whether or not I’m okay? Why do you even care about some Scavenger!?”

A look of frustration and reluctance crossed his face as he paused, but only momentarily.

“You’re right. I’m sorry.” He said genuinely. “Let’s go home.”