Chapter 6

We had a break to get our wounds check and treated, grab some water, and change our weapons if we wanted to.

I went over to the water station for a cup of water. I watched as the lady at the station grabbed the picture and pour out the water and ice into a paper cup.

I felt really dehydrated in the heat of the sun, even though it was tinted it was still hot.

As I walked back to my waiting spot in the shade with the other winners, the speaker came on.

"The next round will be in pairs of two. You will be assigned a partner and an arena."

Both of the red tapes going horizontally across the sand was rolled up and removed, leaving bigger fields than the original battlefields left.

"You will need to work together to bring your opponents down."

I took a sip of the cold water in the cup. I hated the taste of water and I shivered as the cold liquid touched my tongue.

"Please head to one of the staff that line the side of the wall to get the information about your team and arena."

Everyone got up from the shade and started to make their way over to the workers lined against the opposites walls.

I picked up my cup, drained the water, and started to make my way over with the rest of the crowd.

I noticed that there was more men then women. I must have been wrong with my theory that there would be more women.

They probably thought the same thing as me when they signed up here.

The man's voice was off the speaker and now they were advertising the Color Games.

"Come join the Color Games for your chance to be King, or Queen, of Arden! To participate you must be one of the chosen 5 out of each city. In honor of the late Red King Soul, all of the stadiums in each city are named Ruby, Rose, Apple, Blood, and Fire. Please sign up at one of those stadiums before all the spots are gone!"

This was obviously an old advertisement, people couldn't participate in the game anymore. All around the cities, people were fighting each other, killing each other, for a chance to rule the country they live in.

I walked up behind the last person in the shortest line. The wait was shorter than the last wait I had to stand in line for.

"Next?"

I walked up to the older man that stood in front of me.

"Name?"

"Vi Dazai."

"You're in field 11, your partner is Lyx Mononoke."

I started to wander around the fields till I finally found the number 11. I looked at the the people waiting in the field.

Two were standing together on one side quietly chatting to each other. One was a tall man while the other was a short girl.

On the opposite side, there was a girl standing by herself. She looked to be a couple years older than me. Her head whipped around, scanning the crowd for her partner.

When her eyes fell on me she looked worryingly back at the two crossed from her.

"Hi," I said as I approached her.

"Vi?"

"Yes, that's me," I gave her a small smile.

"What are we going to do against them?! I heard the girl beat a mountain of a man in less than a minute! I don't know about the boy, but I think he's skilled with a sword, based on the sword he chosen," Lyx worryingly stuttered.

"What do you prevail in? Offense, defense, support?"

"Support..." Lxy sounded very unconfident in her answer. "I'm not much help."

"Ok. What skills do you have?"

"I can... heal I guess."

"Heal? Aren't you a Silver? How can you heal?!"

She looked down embarrassed at her feet. "I... can close the wound with metal. Sometimes I can even use the small amounts of metal in a body to make it sturdier."

Damn that was cool.

I grinned at her, a plan forming in my head, "Great!"

She looked shocked at my reaction. I need to focus on who to attack first. I could feel the strength of one of them but they were too close together for me to tell which one was stronger.

With anyone you can tell their strength of their powers by the vibe they give off. In a place like this there's a lot of strong people, making it harder to tell who's strength is who.

"Alright! It's time for the next round!" The man over the speaker shouted, bring me back from my thoughts. "The sound of the bell you all can start fighting! The rules are the same as last time but with teams! Once both people have been outed, injured, or killed, that team looses! Have fun everyone!"

The bell sounded as soon as the announcement ended. I barely had any time to turn my body and ready my stance before the girl was on me.

I could hear Lyx's panicked breaths as I felt my body start to feel as if it was hardening. It didn't hurt, but it was a weird feeling.

The girl ran at me, a smirk on her face at my look of panic. Her pig tails swung back and forth as she ran. I didn't have time to pull my sword from my back.

The girl wielded nothing but spiky metal shoes and two round discs. As soon as she reached me, she turned her body, one leg dug into the sand while the other was flying for my face.

I got a great view of the spikes that covered every spot on her shoes. I dug my own two feet into the ground, and moved my hands to block the kick. Her ankle slammed into my wrists, her spikes just a whisper from my ear.

I could feel parts of the spikes digging into my flesh. I winced at the pain, but I couldn't let this stop me.

I moved the arm that didn't get hit and wrapped it around her leg, holding her in place. Her grin was replaced with shock.

I pulled on the leg, the spikes coming out as we fell backwards onto the sand. My back hit the sand, the sword dug painfully into my back. The girl laid on top of me, her leg still in my hand.

I flipped us over, pinning her to the ground. I could feel the pain on my arm start to lessen. I released her leg, pinning her arms to her side with my thighs.

I took a quick glance at my hand expecting to see something horrific, instead there was only metal and dried blood. Lyx has stopped the bleeding.

"Vi!"

At the sound of my name I lookedbehind me to see the man racing towards me, his sword held high. I grabbed for my sword on my back, pulled the sword above my hand, and braced it with my hand on the back of the sword, the sword was blocking the back of my head from his attacks.

The man brought the sword down on me, but the sword held up, keeping me and my head safe.

The girl took this chance to start to wiggle and buck to get free. I couldn't focus on both of them.

"Lyx!"

I noticed that she had two small knives on her when I was thinking of a plan. I quickly looked at the frightened girl and then back to the boy. She needed to hurry.

She seems to understand what I wanted her to do. She grabbed one of the knives and walked quietly up behind the boy still trying to break my defense.

I squeezed my legs around the girl tighter, trying to keep my balance and keep the girl underneath me.

It was hard to tell when the next attack would occur, but then I heard the boy scream. Lyx did it!

"You little bitch!"

The boy stumbled away, both me and the girl underneath me stared at the man with a knife in his back. Lyx looked stunned by what she had just done.

The man started to cough up blood. He flopped onto the ground, grabbing his chest as if he couldn't breathe.

Then the struggle resumed under me as the girl realized it was two vs one. I still held the sword, but I couldn't kill her, I couldn't kill anyone. At least not yet.

I took the handle and brought it down on the girls skull. She cried out and struggled to move her arms to protect her face. I brought the handled down, harder this time. As it made contact with her head there was a terrible crunching sound and then blood was flowing down her head. But now she was out.

"Vi Dazai and Lyx Mononoke won their battle!" The speakers announced.

I didn't realized they had been announcing whenever a pair won, I was too focused on my battle to hear anything.

I looked back at Lyx who had a big grin on her face. I shared her smile and stood up from the girl underneath me. I looked up to the tinted windows and out to the sky beyond it.

I've made it this far, Mom. Watch me become Queen. Watch me destroy anything that tries to stop me. I will do this for you and Dy. I will save everyone in this country from themselves.