Chapter 28: Arena

Thousands of spectators littered the seats on either side of Krista, so much so, that many spilled out of their seats, blocking the way closer to where the fighting occurred… There must have been some sort of mental or Relativity wattiez sigils surrounding the building as inside looked more akin to an underground coliseum than what the nondescript building foreboded. The wild roars of the spectators filled the room and were focused solely on the exploits of a young boy and girl surrounded by 20 heavily equipped warriors with weapons and several phantoms, dangerously large scorpions with a wave affinity that could manipulate light and shadows.

"Kill them, use the phantoms to blind them!"

"Hurry up, there's only five minutes in my bet!"

"Suck 'em dry!"

"Watch out, those dolls are crazy!"

Those last words caught Raven's attention, "Dolls? Is Phive fighting?!" There was genuine worry in his voice, not something Krista wanted to hear.

"Is there a problem with that? I mean aside from the fact that they're surrounded."

"That depends on which dolls are in use. He brought Una with him; this could get messy if I don't do something."

Without missing another beat, Raven began to work his way through the thick crowd, leaving Krista behind. Not wanting to be left out, Krista tried to follow behind, but found it difficult to maneuver through the wall of meat.

"Wait, Raven!" She called, but Raven never let up. Some team they were. "Go up, Fierce! Find Raven."

Fierce took to the air, poorly, nearly crashing down on top of a pair of unlucky bystanders, before barely catching herself as she floated with difficulty. Seeing that, Krista choose to rethink her approach.

"What would Damien do here?" A vision of that loveable idiot just before they parted appeared in her mind and inspiration struck like lightning, "Fierce, let me hear you scream!"

She didn't waste anytime to adhere to Krista's request. Almost like Fierce had been waiting for this moment, she flew up even higher with a grace not shown before and shrieked.

The effects were felt instantaneously, those nearby felt the effects first, falling to the floor while covering their ears, but the wave continued out creating a much easier path for Krista to walk toward. Even Raven towards the bottom of the arena stands had his ears covered, barely saving himself from the effects. In the future, Krista would need to find a way to teach Fierce how to hold back her voice.

"Thanks, Fierce." She had fallen back to the ground, cushioned by the bodies below her, and returned to Krista's side.

We make our way over to the front and it turns out we were still about 10 – 20 feet up from the actual arena. In the arena stood a woman with a long wooden sword and a somewhat small man wearing a black and white wooden mask that was half smiling and half crying. What had been 20 soldiers and several phantoms combating against them, had only turned to five tired people, most barely able to hold onto their staffs, let alone their blades, in such a short time.

"Yes, I live for this! Bro, stop being such a wuss, come on and help. Let me give you some more energy, so you can use another doll!"

The woman, she was guessing Shix, was talking to somebody, probably Phive, but where was he? Krista caught him in the corner of her eye, a lone man sitting in the lap of another much larger man, no, doll? While not even paying attention towards the fight.

"I don't need… the boost. Cause more harm than good. Go ahead and pick… someone other than Bits, the Minies, or Una. In the meantime, I'd jump… backwards if I you want to avoid dying," Phive said just before the ground glowed with a yellow sigil, and a sharp rock jutted out, narrowly missing Shix.

He was really tall and very skinny, almost sickly, he looked like he would fall over and crumble at a heavy breeze. His silver-grey hair was unkempt and hung far to his shoulders. His cheeks were sunken, and his skin seemed almost void of color; he looked more like a corpse than a living person.

Alternatively, the woman was short and had short cut blonde hair, her skin was still pale and freckled, but she had a lot more color in her. Her clothes had an emphasis on utility, lined with pockets with all sorts of goodies inside. Looked like she was a weapon nut like Krista.

"Alright, what about Speedy?!"

The other team pressed forward, three of their bodies glowed red as they charged with wild abandon. Behind them, two activated yellow aura and took out crossbows and light the tips ablaze. The last one turned orange, ready to support his allies when necessary.

"Stay sharp!" the orange man yelled, "We're the Immortal Dragons! We can't lose face by failing to beat two kids. They've just been lucky until now, let's make sure they go down with this last volley!"

Raven took a closer look at them before sitting down, "It seems that I overreacted a bit, and it also seems that Dante was right. My body needs to hibernate for a short time, please awaken me if anything goes awry."

He closed his eyes, and Krista stared blank face. She couldn't believe Raven actually went ahead and fell asleep on her, "What the!"

In the moments Krista had looked away, Two augmentation users and one of the archers were already down. Shix's body was covered in a huge but condensed orange aura as she held onto the last augmentation user, who couldn't escape from her grasp no matter how much she struggled.

In front of them was another doll, Speedy. Speedy was incredibly skinny, it looked like a scarecrow without any straw. It had many arrows sticking inside of it, evidently having taken the attacks meant for Shix. Even while lightly burning, it charged at the bowsmen, moving so fast that it appeared beside them in less than moments.

"How did it-" was all one of the bowsman got out before Speedy attacked with a flurry of blows. Overwhelming the poor soul, while nimbly dodging any attempt of him striking back.

"Toran!" cried the bowswoman as she pulled out another arrow and launched it, opting to use wind to increase the velocity of shot, aiming for Speedy's heel in the hopes of crippling it. Unfortunately, Speedy spun around and grabbed the arrow out the air before it hit him, before returning to assault her compatriot, "Kilaar, get off your ass and help Toran before-"

The bowswoman fell face forward to reveal Shix directly behind her. It seemed that all of her focus had been diverted to Speedy, leaving her open to a sneak attack from Fierce, who had merely touched her back for a short time.

"It's just too easy sometimes," Shix scoffed before taking out a small knife and quickly throwing it behind her, "Ki-Ki, after I finish up with Toran it's your turn."

The blade lightly cut the older man with an orange aura in the shoulder as tried to reinvigorate his teammates. He grabbed his injured arm and glowed red from fury, "You'll have to find me first!" He cried before a green aura surrounded his body and he disappeared.

"Phive, let's see if the Minies can sniff him out," Shix requested as she slowly walked towards the other bowsman who had fallen to the fetal position due to having given up trying to counterattack.

"I already… said no; I'm tired enough as it is," retorted Phive.

"Well, I'm chock full of energy and willing to share. All you got to do ask."

Phive glanced up directly towards where Krista watched and Raven… slept, "As long as… you're willing to take whatever heat Raven… would throw at us."

"What do you mean by that?" Shix said before following her brother's eyes to find Krista sitting and watching, "Crap! Just one more to go Chief, once he's down that's twenty wins in three days!"

A middle-aged woman sitting in a large chair adorned in extensive glittering jewelry spoke out angrily, "Yes, I'm well aware of our agreement little girl, but that's only if you win! I refuse to acknowledge anything until all of Immortal Dragon is defeated. Tick tock, there's less than five minutes until the match is ruled as a draw."

Shix sighed as she walked next to Phive before she touched her wooden sword to his temple, "Only use the Minies, we're trying to keep damages to a minimum."

The aura surrounding Shix began to shrink, depleting by more than half as it traveled from her into Phive's body. In return, the once nearly invisible aura surrounding Phive began to materialize and started growing in size. Satisfied that she had given her brother enough energy, she took many steps back, in fact she ran into a corner.

Phive got out of the lap of the large doll and stood on his own feet, stretching and loosing himself up. The color had returned to his skin, and even his hair took a bright yellow color. He actually looked like Shix's brother.

He wiped the hair from in front of his face and shouted, "It feel good to be alive!" then laughed loudly, "Alright Shix, leave this piece of garbage to your big bro!"

"By like 15 minutes!" Shix fired back.

Phive cracked his knuckles before placing two fingers into his mouth and blowing hard. There was a loud chittering sound, sort of like a bunch of silverware being dropped into a thin pipe. A small head poked from the shadows, an adorable griffin doll, followed by a small ice phoenix doll, and a slightly torn lycan doll, a wolf like creature able to change its shape to match its surroundings.

Phive grabbed the knife that Shix had thrown before and tossed it to the lycan, "Minies, be a doll and find our little hidden interloper for Papa." That's when they changed, sharp teeth, long talons, and piercing eyes appeared on all the creatures, altering their once adorable appearances into a ferocious visage.

The lycan took the blade and sniffed it profusely, sniffing it before quickly turning to a certain direction and charged forward, followed closely by its compatriots, "Get them off! Get them off!"

The invisibility wore off around Kilaar as the three dolls viciously mauled him. Phive laughed with wild abandon, leaving the man to his fate had the other sibling not taken the initiative to step in.

She pulled the Minies off the poor man, who scrambled away in total fear, "Game over Ki-Ki, better luck next time," said Shix as she grabbed his shoulder.