14 Surrounded by betrayal

[AURORA WRIGHT. Town of Friendship, Southern Vales, Avalon Sanctuary. Yellow Day, 13th Week of Winter, Year 5008 of the Avalon Calendar.]

Aurora excitedly stood at the edge of a stone arena, that was one hundred meters in radius. This was one of a dozen such arenas within the Arena district. A place specially set up to cater for Beast Master battles.

A few meters in front of her was the living mercury beast she had borrowed from her body guard Theo. It looked like a puddle of silver, approximately a meter in diameter. She had been told that his Mystical Beast was named Frank, after one of Theo's sword instructors. With Frank on her side, she felt confident in winning. She clearly remembered how easily the living mercury beast had dispatched the two adventurers and their sword claw preying mantis.

Facing off against her was Diana who had burrowed Terrence's Mystical Beast; a form armed golden storm ape named Thunder Kong. It was a one a half meter tall, golden gorilla with oversized muscular arms and white eyes which sparked with electrical energy. Aurora wished Theo's beast had a similarly cool name. Unfortunately, the naming conventions for Mystical Beasts such as Thunder Kong who had competed in the Beast Master Championships, were much grander than for other Mystical Beasts.

At first the fact that Diana was using a Mystical Beast which had competed in the Beast Master Championships, had daunted Aurora. However, Theo had assured her that Frank was up to the challenge. Furthermore, when she'd asked how far her brother progressed in the tournament, Terrence had sheepishly admitted to being knocked out in his first official match.

"Are you ready?" asked an elf whose beauty made Aurora question its gender.

The elf's role was that of a referee. Furthermore, they were responsible for insuring that there were no fatalities. They did so by ensuring that a Mystical Beast in danger of death, was instantly teleported to a healing room via special magical arrays in the arena. This elf and others with the same role, could tell if a Mystical Beast was under threat, because they had cultivated a limited form of precognition specifically for the task.

"Yes!" said Aurora and Diana in near synchronicity.

"Then let the battle begin!" the elf shouted.

"Mercurial Blade!" Aurora ordered.

Frank, responded by shooting forth a piece of liquid metal that was so thin, as to be almost invisible.

"Thunder Clap!" Diana commanded.

Thunder Kong slammed together all four arms, sending out a meter diameter ball of lightning accompanied by a deafening sound.

Aurora knew that if not for the arena stopping Mystical Beast attacks from affecting those outside the battling area, the sound from that thunderous attack would have shattered her ear drums.

The Mercurial Blade and the Thunder Clap smashed into each other. The Mercurial Blade completely disintegrated. However, the Thunder Clap, although weakened, continued towards Frank.

The living mercury beast managed to evade just in time. As the remnants of the Thunder Clap's electrical energy struck the ground, causing a small black burn mark.

"Spread out and use Mercury Bullets!" instructed Aurora.

"Leap and use Storm Rage!" shouted Diana.

Frank quickly split itself into twenty much smaller puddles of liquid metal and spread throughout the ring. Then each of these liquid metal puddles hardened and flew towards Thunder Kong.

However, by leaping into the air, the four armed golden ape had managed to turn the battle into a truly three-dimensional one. Making it a target much harder to hit target than if it had stayed grounded.

Three of the mercurial bullets managed to hit their target. However, before the living mercury beast could reform, Iron Kong unleashed electrical energy in all directions. Frank was not only in a more vulnerable state due to being dispersed, but also because it had no contact with the floor in order to ground the electrical energy from its body an into the arena.

Frank suddenly vanished in a glitter of gold. Indicating that it had been teleported to the healing room.

"The winner is Lady Diana," stated the elf.

"That was a good match, you did well," Aurora congratulated her opponent.

"As the winner of this match, I invoke my right to take Lady Aurora's place as representative of the Wright family in the upcoming Beast Master Championships," declared Diana.

"What?" asked Aurora in confusion.

The elven referee nodded their approval, "As per the signed contract, I Viallia, hereby declare that Lady Diana Wright is now the Wright family's new official representative at the upcoming Best Master Championships."

"I don't understand," Aurora muttered. "What's happening? Does this mean I can't be a Beast Master."

"Weren't you paying attention to all the classes leading up the Summoning Day?" asked the elf in an exasperated tone. "Each family can only have one representative at the Beast Master Championship. Other Summoning Day attendees from that family may formally challenge via a Beast Master Pre-Championship battle for that spot. If the designated representative accepts the challenge and loses, they will give up their right as a representative to the challenger. When you signed this contract, you accepted the challenge."

"But that contract isn't in a language I can understand," argued Aurora.

"Of course you can't understand it," said the elf. "It's in High Fey. However, the contents of these and other relevant contracts were all spelled out to you during your studies as a Best Master. Or did you sleep through a year of study?"

"I have amnesia," Aurora defended herself.

"I'm sorry," the elf said in a sympathetic voice. "But the rules can't be changed. A High Fey contract can't be broken."

"Little sister," Terence walked over. "You can still be a Beast Master. You just can't represent our family at the Championships."

"You knew, didn't you?" accused Aurora. "I really bought into all that loving older brother crap!"

"I'm sorry Lady Aurora," said Theo. "I was also aware of this."

"So you betrayed me as well!" Aurora screamed.

"This is for the best," Theo pleaded. "I promised your mother I would protect you. By stopping you from entering the Beast Master Championship, I did just that."

"What about you?" Aurora turned her gaze towards Brandon.

"No," Brandon replied. "I'm not a Beast Master. So I don't know anything about this. I'm so sorry Aurora. If I wasn't so scared of failing, I could have become a Beast Master as well. Then I would have know these… these people would betray you. I could have saved you. I failed."

"Thank you Brandon," said Aurora as she wiped tears from her eyes. "You are a true friend."

"I did what was best for you little sister," said Terrence with firm conviction in his voice.

"I don't care," snarled Aurora. "I don't care about not being part of some Beast Master Championships. What I care about is that you people betrayed me. I hate being betrayed."

Memories of a different betrayal played in Aurora's mind. A betrayal of the heart from a man who had professed to love her. The old memory, melded with her current sorrow, fueling her indignation into anger.

"There's nothing you can do now," said Diana.

"I challenge you then," declared Aurora.

"I decline," Diana smiled triumphantly.

"I'm sorry," said the elf. "But you can only challenge for the position of representative if the current representative agrees."

"I'm not challenging for the stupid representative spot!" shouted Aurora. "I'm challenging to get some vengeance."

"Alright then," laughed Diana. "I accept. As soon as you summon your Mystical Beast, we can battle again."

"I want to battle now!" exclaimed Aurora. "Not a Mystical Beast battle. I just want to punch your face in."

Aurora knew she was being unreasonable but she simply couldn't control her anger. Her brother and her body guard were two people who should have protected her. But instead they had back stabbed her. This world, with its lies and schemes pissed her off. She wanted to punch it in the face. But failing that, she wanted to punch Diana in the face.

"Raar!" Aurora launched a punch at enemy's smug face.

"Aargh!" Aurora shouted as she was flung back by a bolt of electricity.

The four armed golden ape had instinctively protected its master's wife. Unfortunately, its power was too strong to be resisted by a normal human form.

Aurora felt her consciousness slipping away. She grabbed out into the enveloping darkness and felt something cold, hard and sharp. She clawed at grabbed at the thing with all her might, cutting her hands in the process.

"Aurora!" she heard voices.

Soon she saw people and felt pain in her hands.

Looking down she saw a strange circular rock, around the size of a large fist. Its jagged edges coated in her blood. The rock suddenly felt incredibly heavy and Aurora was forced to drop it on the ground.