Chapter 25 - Cold feet

Sera and Kira had been placed in the coliseum's southern entrance, which doubled up as an area where fighters could wait.

The room was rectangular, with walls three metres high and a curved ceiling. It was carved straight into the lower stands and like the rest of the monument shared the coliseum's intricate mosaic designs.

It hadn't been long since Sera had entered from the barracks, she was now sitting on a white bench carved into the wall by the arena entrance. By the time she'd arrived Kira was already here which took her by surprise as she didn't think they'd been waiting together, and if Sera was being honest she wished they weren't. They'd must've been here together for at least fifteen minutes, and they hadn't spoken a single word to each other, the word awkward didn't even come close to describing the room's atmosphere. Also Sera was slightly terrified of the girl (Just slightly). It wasn't the fact that she was an older and more experienced fighter that scared her. Like pretty much everyone else, (beside Lewis and the others, but they don't count), Sera found Kira very intimidating. If the words 'vampiric natural born assassin' were turned into a living creature it would be Kira Tepish. The combination of her long black hair and lashes, hard blood eyes and lips made quite the imposing figure, plus her height didn't make her same any less threatening she must've been at least the same height as Lewis.

Suddenly music boomed from the arena and Sera couldn't help but grin. She peeked around the arena entrance to admire the opening performance. Sera had always wanted to learn how to play an instrument when she was younger however, could never get her head around it. No matter what teacher her parents hired. Eventually she decided to give the dream up and chose to dedicate her whole self into mastering swordsmanship. She watched the entire performance while making sure to keep herself hidden from the crowd. Once the musicians finished and began marching towards the exits, Sera wandered over to the side of the room making sure she wasn't in their way.

Looking in between the marching musicians she could see Kira leaning against the wall. She had her arms and feet crossed and was looking down towards the ground. Her large, curved daggers lay motionless at her waist looking the complete opposite to Sera's sword which was bouncing up on her lap and she struggled to keep her legs still. Since her conversation, she was no longer dreading this fight but would be lying if she said she wasn't nervous. Soon all the musicians disappeared and the two of them were alone together again however, it wasn't for long, suddenly fleet admiral Triania walked into the room. Sera hadn't seen him since she was a girl, and he was in Elysi working under general Jager. His presence here completely took by surprise, and she quickly shot up to her feet. She had no idea he would be hosting the Atlas games. Kira was seemingly just as taken a back, as for the first since being here raised her eyes from the ground. The fleet admiral flashed them both a grin as he strode through the entrance way and onto the arena his coat flapping behind him like it was constantly being hit by ocean winds.

Kira suddenly whistled once the fleet admiral had entered the arena, "I've only ever heard stories but even I'll admit he's hot" she spoke for the first time since they were here.

Sera was surprised by how little you could her Urali accent … Also the fact that the first words she'd said were calling Thalassi's highest ranking military officer handsome. Maybe a little too surprised because it took her while to register what Kira had said. She also definitely took far longer to respond. "Y-yeah" she managed to get out after a stunned silence.

"But he's not really my type" Kira told her, "plus he's probably too old for us" she let out a pretty smile. Instantly the intimidating aura and person that Sera had seen before had vanished and had been replaced with just a young woman. 'Well a very beautiful young woman' Sera added, giving credit where it was due.

Sera let out a small smile and another delayed "y-yeah" and prayed that her face wasn't going red.

"A little nervous princess?" Kira giggled, "Lewis told me you might be. Don't worry you're going to do fine".

"Thanks" Sera responded a lot faster this time, "… wait Lewis? As in Lewis Athra?".

"Yes" Kira nodded "What other Lewis would we both know?". Sera definitely went red after hearing that. To be fair Lewis did say he knew her, but Sera didn't realise he knew Kira in a way that he just went and chatted with her. 'Does that mean when he says he knows all these people he actually does?' Sera wondered. She always though it meant he'd just met them before, and that concept was already strange enough. Instantly she wanted to know how they met but knew it wasn't the time and instead opted to ask a different question.

"Did he say anything else?" Sera asked however, quickly realised that wasn't really any of her business, "Never mind its none of my business sorry".

Kira laughed "Calm down princess. Despite what you might've heard, I'm not going to bite your head off". She then left the wall she was leaning on and took her seat next to Sera, "He only told me not to hold back in our battle".

"Really?" Sera asked.

"His exact words were 'you better go all out, or I'll jump into the arena myself and kick your ass instead'. To be honest I didn't know if he was joking or not, so I agreed. I'm not taking that risk" she told her. Sera laughed, even Kira Tepish didn't want to mess with Lewis Athra however, her enjoyment was quickly cut short when she was reminded that this girl was still her opponent. Who was also now obligated to go all out.

'Thanks Lewis'.

"So you're going all out then?" Sera asked.

"We'll see" Kira shrugged, "I want you to force me to go all out". Before their conversation could continue fleet admiral Triania's voice boomed from out in the arena, calling out to them both. Instantly Kira stood and adjusted the daggers hanging off her black trousers and then straightened her black shirt highlighted with a dark red lining. Sera stood up to join her however quickly realised how much smaller she was compared to Kira. 'She was probably taller than Lewis'.

Not letting it get to her, she quickly attached Excalibur to her side and straightened her white and gold uniform that wasn't too different to Kira's except she had a malleable gold guarding her forearms and shins.

"Alright princess" Kira grinned "Let's give them the best opening fight they've ever seen". Sera nodded and they walked out into the arena side by side.

Sera thought she was prepared for how many people would be watching her fight. She quickly found at she was not. Sera doubted anything could've prepared her for the sheer and outrageous amount of people here today. She was completely surrounded by an ocean of people that were clapping and cheering so loud all she wanted to do was guard her ears. But Sera knew that the princess of Elysia walking out with her ears covered didn't look good, plus she'd never her the end of it from her parents. Thinking of her parents she glanced behind towards the Elysia stands. In the VIP box she could see her parents seated in grand dark wood thrones, with guards stationed behind them and her brother leaning against the box's wall. Her father looked like her brother in twenty years' time however, his wild black hair was under control and combed to the right and he also possessed a short well-kept beard. The king of Elysi was dressed in a black suit with the royal crest over his heart. Beside him sat the queen dressed in a white and silver dress, surprisingly she didn't wear her crown. It was an Atlas games tradition that only the royal family hosting the event wore their crowns however, not every country always obliged. People would always tell Sera that her and her mother looked so alike it was unnerving. They both shared the same long blonde her and shiny, porcelain skin, the only thing different about them was that Sera didn't possess her mother's cold stare that could make a veteran knight crumble. Her parents were politely clapping along with the crowd, both their gazes locked onto her. Sera tried to smile up at them, but it never made it to her face. Under her mother's eye all she could think about was their conversation at the hotel.

Earlier after her conversation with Lewis she returned to her room like he'd said to only to come to face to face with her mother. As the queen of Elysia, Sera thought she'd be meeting with the Thalassi royal family but no, instead there she was sitting on Sera's bed. Sera tried to quickly turn around and escape, she could go to Lewis's room or maybe Ike's or Lucina's, but she wasn't fast enough.

"Sera" her mother called out. Reluctantly, Sera slowly turned back around and entered her room and taking a seat next to her mum.

"Mum, how come you're not already at the coliseum with the other royal families?" Sera asked.

"I can greet all the other families later at the celebration. Right now I'd rather speak with you" her mother told her the cold demeanour she wore as Elysia's queen fading with every word revealing the loving person she called mum.

"About what?" Sera asked.

"How are you feeling about your upcoming fight?" her mum asked gently.

"I'm fine" Sera said.

"Really?" her mum cocked a brow "It's okay to be nervous Sera. I mean if I was in your situation right now I'd be nervous, never mind when I was sixteen -".

"Mum. I'm fine. I'm going to make our country proud" Sera said.

"… Ok then. If you say you're fine I'll leave you be" her mother said. There was a long awkward silence until eventually she then stood from Sera's bed and started to leave the room.

"I'll make you proud ... mum" Sera abruptly said. The queen stood in the doorway and slowly turned her head back towards her daughter.

"I know you will" the queen stated before leaving Sera alone in her room.

She looked away from the stands as they reached the centre of the arena. The fleet admiral placed his hands lightly on both their shoulders. "For this match I'll be refereeing. I assume you have both already been told this, but you can use any legal magic or weapons. I will only step in if I believe the situation gets too dangerous. With that said, are you both ready?" he asked quietly. They both nodded and instantly he released their shoulders and readjusted himself towards the crowd.

"Fighters can you please get to your positions" the fleet admiral called out. Sera and Kira then walked away in opposite directions, Sera headed back towards the southern entrance and stood where she'd been told to earlier. She stopped behind a line of three bricks that had been coloured white instead of grey. Suddenly she felt her heart began to smash against her chest as the realisation it was finally happening hit her.

"Fighters prepare yourself!" the fleet admiral commanded snapping her back to reality. Instantly Sera drew her sword and Kira drew her daggers.

"On my mark!" the fleet admiral shouted. Silence followed as everyone waited for the fleet admirals words. All Sera could hear was her own her own heartbeat and she could feel her breathing begin to grow erratic.

"Stop it" she mumbled to her body hoping it stop being annoying. She then took a deep breath and took back control of her body.

"Fight!" fleet admiral Triania roared.