8 The Blood King (1)

Savyrran's eyes beamed with excitement as she carefully looked at the large screen facing her direction. She scrutinised the faces of each competitor as they appeared on the screen one after the other while the mayor gave a brief introduction to who they were.

"Xakirran Yindor." The voice of the mayor called out in her ear again. It was almost like the voice was in her head. How was he even doing that? The picture of a teenage girl suddenly appeared on the screen.

This was the third name to be mentioned by Mayor Danjo, and it was the first person that looked familiar to Savyrran. The profile of the girl was written at the left side of the screen right next to her picture. She was only seventeen years old, had the red essence with a weapon type soul armos.

Savyrran tried to remember where she had seen this girl from. "Ovan, do you know this Xakirran? I think I've seen her somewhere before."

"She goes to the academy." Ovandarrak said simply.

"You two know her?" Wikka asked the children upon hearing their conversation.

"I think I might have seen her in the academy. I remember now. She was the one who once challenged one of the students who had the orange essence. I wonder how that went for her. We mere mortals were not allowed to watch the fight."

Wikka and Fani laughed. "What do you mean you mere mortals?" Fani asked, amused by Savyrran's dramatic use of words. Sometimes he forgot they were yet to be five years old. They were wise beyond their years. Fani knew exactly what Savyrran meant, however he still wanted to hear her explain it. He loved engaging in conversation with the children.

"Only our seniors in the awakened and essence rank can witness a challenge." Savyrran explained. The academy was divided into classes from the normal rank to the awakened rank and each rank was sub-divided into three levels. The normal rank were students between the ages of two and four years old who had not yet manifested their essence. This was also called first rank.

The second rank was the essence rank. These were students between the ages of five and fourteen years who had manifested their essence. The highest rank was the awakened rank or third rank. These students were fifteen to eighteen years old who had awakened their soul armos.

Both Savyrran and Ovandarrak were in normal rank level three. This meant that when they turn five years old in a few days and their essence manifested, they would be promoted to essence rank level one. Until they make it to the essence rank, they wouldn't be allowed anywhere near the Champion's Dome in the academy where the challenges took place.

Out of the twelve reds introduced, five of them were less than twenty years old. For the oranges, only one of them was nineteen years. The others were in their twenties and thirties. This year, it seemed the youngsters were hellbent on claiming the various titles. Apart from Xakirran, the children also recognised someone else. However this person was actually a friend of the family. Automatically, Fani decided this was the person he was going to support in the tournament. He didn't know Gyaneh was partaking in the tournament this year.

Once Mayor Danjo had opened the ceremony, the authority went to another woman who was not part of the judges. This person, who was referred to as Vukka by Mayor Danjo, happened to be the commentator of the tournament. She was a matured looking woman with long white dreadlocks. Her dreadlocks were so long that they draped below her waist. Using the same trick as Mayor Danjo, Vukka amplified her voice to everyone's hearing. However, unlike Mayor Danjo's calm and soothing address, the commentator brought in more passion and excitement to the game. Her voice and the way she excitedly said every word was enough to drive the crowd wild.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we shall have four matches today. Two from each essence. Are you ready?"

"Yesss." The crowd chanted so loudly that it felt as though the entire Town Square was shaking.

"Oh, are you sure about that? Because I can't here you."

"YESSS!" There was a slight trembling beneath the arena due to the thunderous chant of the spectators.

"Alright… For our first match we have the three time undefeated Red Master. The one and only king of the reds… It's the Blood King." Upon the introduction, a loud shout erupted everywhere.

From the entrance of the arena, a bare-chested man wearing a deep red mask majestically came through. His upper body was incredibly muscular from so much physical training. His face was hidden by the mask, however, his charisma and strength from previous competitions had won him the affection of everyone.

"It's the Blood King."

"The Blood King. I can't believe this."

Everyone's reaction was that of awe, and this confused Savyrran. After all, she had never heard about this person before. "Why is everyone so excited?".

"The Blood King is the defending champion under the red essence. He has been the Red Master three consecutive times. But I have a feeling people like him because of his interesting soul armos." Fani said.

"Interesting soul armos?" Ovandarrak asked.

Fani smiled and nodded. "Just watch."

The Blood King majestically made his way to the center of the arena and raised both of his hands to the endless clamour of the people around him. As soon as the noise died down, Vukka announced the next opponent as Nesko Jierd. Nesko was a short young man with light brown hair and a coffee brown skin. He was one of the new red users partaking in the tournament today. Even so he still garnered a lot of cheers from the people.

The two men stood face to face to each other until Vukka signaled for the match to begin. Once she did, she herself sped off from the arena with a trail of orange light following her. In this tournament, there was only one rule: no killing of one's opponent. Apart from that, one could do everything they could to win. All manner of weapons or beasts could be used.

"Who do you think will win?" Ovandarrak asked. He had no idea what kind of soul armos these two had, and thus, could not determine who had the upper hand.

"The Blood King. Definitely. He is more experienced. And his soul armos is very dangerous." Fani said.

"And what is so special about his soul armos?" Savyrran asked.

"No one knows where he comes from, but the Blood King is not from Coast Town." Wikka explained. "There are stories of the Blood Clan who isolated themselves from the Norh Tribe and relocated themselves deep into the mountains. I don't know how true these stories are, but it is said that people from the Blood Clan have a way of amplifying their soul armos by using blood. The Blood King's soul armos works in a similar manner."

Savyrran's attention went back to the arena when the two fighters were ready to start.

Nesko was the first to charge. His brown eyes suddenly became as red as blood while his red essence hovered around his body like an endless spiral of red light. While running towards the Blood King with incredible speed, a long silver spear materialized in Nesko's hand. Nesko hurled the spear towards the Blood King and once the spear made impact with the ground, an ear splitting boom reverberated throughout the arena.

Everyone held their breath, wondering if the Blood King had been caught in the explosion. Due to the thick smoke from the explosion, it was impossible to see. But before anyone could wonder what was going on, a shadow meandered its way through the smoke, and before Nesko could make another move, the shadow sent a powerful smack across Nesko's face. Nesko was forcefully sent several steps back.

Nesko summoned back his spear in his hand hoping to fight back. But of course, he could not attack what he could not see. With his own explosion, he had created a smoke screen for his opponent to attack him. Blood trickled down Nesko's face and his hand instinctively wiped the blood. The shadow had scratched him in the face, and there were three long marks like the claws of a savage bird across half of Nesko's face.It suddenly dawned on him that this was not a random attack. The Blood King had been planning from the beginning to draw blood from him.

Nesko had observed the Blood King's previous fights in past tournaments and had finally been able to understand the Blood King's ability. Hence, from the moment he found out he would be facing the Blood King, he had come up with the flawless strategy to strike before the Blood King even had the chance to draw blood from him. Instead, that strategy had backfired in his own face. Well, at least his spear had hit its target. Even if the Blood King's soul armos had managed to draw blood from him, there was nothing he could do with that blood if Nesko succeeded in taking him down with the explosion.