A Small Save Before The Reveal

The audience had been cheering throughout the whole fight even after hours had passed since it started. All the fights they had witnessed today had impressed them beyond their expectations and that included the people floating around on the platforms. There were quite a lot of gifted younger people this year giving them lots of chances to scout new recruits or students. Once they saw Laven's current condition though they all stopped cheering with the sound of the Queen's voice reaching their ears. With the murmur's quieting down the Queen glared at the dying Laven as she stopped the competition in its tracks. People swung down from out of nowhere and picked up Laven's body and instantly started working to keep him alive, they didn't have any time to leave while a quiet voice talked to her from the side.

Once that had begun the Queen turned her eyes to the people responsible for this. She didn't speak a word as she debated something inside of her mind. "...It's almost time ..." The time of her reveal was fast approaching and the Queen really didn't care to keep up much of her appearance anymore. Standing up she counted how many people were left as everyone waited for what she had to say. "Only forty or so left." Everyone had been fighting for a while and most people had been taking out over the course of it. These last forty people were the strongest of them all. "Good enough." Deciding to end it here the Queen shocked everyone.

"That will mark the end of this little event. I know there's still a little bit of time left and quite a few people but this year I decided to give everyone the same reward. Since there's only really a bit of time left I hope everyone isn't too disappointed in my choice. Even with this event's end I hope you all will come to our ending little show for everyone. To the last forty people, I hope you come to see me in an hour. I'll be talking with you all then along with our special guests as well."

Looking at the spectators floating the Queen evaluated all of their strength one last time before turning around to leave. Everyone felt a bit of a strangeness coming from the Queen's words but they couldn't quite find out why. Taking one last look at the remaining fighters, everyone saw Laven being taken away by the medical unit barely breathing. With an air of awkwardness the judge looked at the crowd as he cleared his throat and quickly tried to fix the atmosphere. Talking to everyone his bright cheery voice helped loosen up the intense mood as he announced the end of the competition as well.

Hearing everything going on Xilo felt a bit of sweat run down his cheek as he wiped it away. He watched Laven's body get taken away with a bit of fear. "Is he really not dead?" He thought for sure they would have been called out and punished since they ended his life however the Queen didn't say a word about it. If Laven wasn't actually dead though then it made sense that they didn't get in trouble. That just worried Xilo more though, if Laven were to heal and come after them again it might be a different outcome entirely. "Hopefully they can't heal him." Walking away from their place Xilo's group slowly left the arena as he felt hundreds of eyes focused on them.

"I didn't think we were fighting for that long."

Xelfia was the first one to speak up as they walked together. The fight had felt quite short but once it was finished she had realised just how long it had actually lasted and how tired they really were. Looking at all the people around her she spotted Zilan finally waking up as Marie treated him along with everyone else. Everyone had gotten quite beaten during this entire competition so Marie and Tearia had decided to split up the duties of healing everyone. Grabbing Relia's hand next to her she casually talked to her while leaving the arena.

"It looks like Laven isn't dead quite yet."

Once Tearia had treated him a bit Xilo looked to Xelfia.

"I don't know about that, I messed him up pretty badly. They can try to heal him all they want but I don't think they'll be able to. If I had to guess, a part of the reason it ended a bit early was so the Queen could try to save his life and avoid any potential deaths. That is a really big if though, even if they save him I doubt he'll be able to move much again in his life. He might just end up becoming a harmless cripple."

"Maybe...it's just a bit strange that she didn't say anything.."

Xilo couldn't shake this cold feeling he had, even with Laven out of the way a spike of fear grew stronger. Ever since the start of the competition Xilo had felt it growing stronger, now it felt like it was about to explode. "What the hell is happening to me?" At first Xilo had thought it was just an instinct feeling but with how it was currently he was starting to think it was something else. "What though?" That was the big question Xilo couldn't answer no matter how many times he thought about it. Turning around he looked at where the Queen had left as he noticed something. A shadow of a figure stood there facing their direction and watching them. Once they had noticed Xilo's gaze though they fled into the darkness.

"...Who?"

Feeling her chest rise up and down Felli tried to settle herself down as she watched the Queen go to her throne room. "That was close...." She was really worried she had almost been caught there for a moment. She just couldn't take her eyes off Tearia and Xilo as they walked away. "I saved them." If she wasn't there on a whim to watch the event with her mother she might have lost her old friends. She was a bit surprised at how easy it was to convince her Mother to step down. Usually that was something impossible for her but this time it had been different. Either way she was surprised to see Xilo and Tearia there in the event. It made her a bit happy and at the same time sad.

"I saved them this time around, can I do that again though...? No..."

She knew what was coming and just how powerless she truly was.

"Maybe I can get them to leave?"

Trying to come up with something she walked down the hall towards her Mother the Queen.