SUMMIT - 4

The first time in my life, when I stood in front of a crowd, was when I was in the middle school. It was a parent-teacher meet day, one by one students went to the podium and gave the speeches about their respective topics. I was a problem child, so I had never done that thing. My homeroom teacher put in efforts and somehow convinced me to speak that time. I had memorized my speech by waking up throughout the night. Even though I had it learnt by heart, when I stood at the podium in front of the whole class and their parents, I felt that every gaze at me was of pity. They looked at me like I was a hurt animal, a lost puppy. I choked, no words escaped my mouth. Everything was clear in my mind but my lips wouldn't move.

"What a hurtful sight."

"His parents must be worried, I feel bad for them."

"They should take him to a better doctor."

"Poor child can't even speak properly."

The whispers filled the silence made by me. My mother stood at the centre, looking down. She knew I wasn't going to say anything. I always behaved like a lifeless puppet afterall.

"What are you doing, kid?" The voice in mind asked me.

"These people, they don't deserve to live. They are all short sighted idiots. They don't think about anyone, they fake their emotions, you don't have to listen to anything they say. Killing someone isn't a crime if you don't have a conscience. Ha ha ha. You know what I'm saying, don't you. You wish to see them dead right?"

My teacher held my hand and told me to sit down. I snapped back and went to my seat. My mother, she was still there. Looking at me, even though her abnormal son had let her down again, she said something so important that I realized only later in my new life.

"Hey, you seem a little nervous. You alright?" Heskel asked.

We were standing across from each other, at the centre of the Colosseum.

"Yeah, I'm alright."

"That's good. I don't like to fight people who have lost the spirit. This is a friendly match to entertain the Aristocrats and other Royalties but don't expect me to go easy on you. When I fight, I'm really serious." He warned me.

"Ofcourse, Prince. I'll try not to kill you." I replied.

"Aha ha ha ha ha. You've got a really good sense of humour."

The speaker stood at the edge of the Emperor's seat box, where Severn was sitting along with Irene and Emberlynn. It was almost two floors above the ground and the sitting area for the crowd went upto around five to six floors. I could see the wealthy section of society, all in good clothes and jewellery on the lower seats and further up were the poor ones in their ragged clothes. Even in this world, there was a huge difference in classes.

"I would like to thank our respected and loved Emperor Severn Noctis, to grace this arena by his presence." The speaker started saying with a cone shaped thing in his hand. It didn't have much reach but since everyone was a Voçhter, it was more than enough for their sharp ears.

"I also would like to thank Princess Irene Noctis and Princess Emberlynn Lamlark for allowing the conduct of the match before the summit. And welcome to every guest in the arena. We are grateful for all the senators and officials to take out time from their busy schedules."

He went on to give a short speech. He was more confident at that job than I was ever in my life. After concluding the formalities, he began with the rules of the match.

"It's an honor to have you, Prince Heskel Mediis and Sir Tristan, as the representatives in this match. I shall explain the rules to you two. The match will be conducted in two phases, first is the hunt and second is the battle. As the name suggests, in the first round, you two need to hunt down a drelob, an animal known for it's huge size and fierce temper. It can kill even a Voçhter with one strike. On top of that, it's claws have been replaced with the holy stones to make this match on par with the Prince."

'The holy stone' was a stone deemed rare in the nature. It had the capability to penetrate through the skin of Voçhters, which even iron had a hard time to penetrate. It was the only thing that was able to hurt me since the day I had teleported to this world.

"Winner will be the one who delivers the killing blow to the beast. Only prohibition is inflicting damage to other opponent. You can't fight each other or hit each other directly. If you want to win, then kill the drelob faster. I will explain the details regarding the second phase later, when this match has concluded."

The speaker stopped and the crowd went absolutely silent. I could hear the air flowing around. Little snow flakes had formed a thin layer on the surface of the arena.

Thud!

A loud sound came from my left. A door had opened and from that door came out a huge cage that was being pulled by ten or twelve of guards. All of the guards were beasts themselves, at least seven feet tall with shredded bodies. Even they had difficulty in pulling the cage. The cage itself was covered in a big cloth and from within came a loud roar. It reverberated throughout the Colosseum. After some minutes, they finally pulled out the whole thing into the arena and then one of them hauled the cloth away. What reavealed was not an ordinary drelob. The one I had seen when I met Severn for the first time was only twenty percent in size compared to the one that was in the cage. It was even bigger than the giant lizard I had encountered in the forest many months ago. Its arms and legs had been tied up and it looked like half asleep.

"Bummer. I have killed animals bigger than that. I hope he puts up some fight since he has been given the holy stones."

The man known as Heskel wasn't afraid of anything, it seemed. Even though I knew I had the power to kill that thing, I felt angsty for a second.

"Yeah, I think it'll be fun." I said.

Somehow, his insanely courageous attitude inspired me. I had to prove myself in front of everyone. Infront of Irene, who was sitting up there, looking at me with hope. I needed to show everyone that I was worthy of her. And lastly, I had to prove myself, that I wasn't the same failure, I had become better.

"Now, please open the cage and give the beast an anti-sedative flower." The speaker commanded. All the guards returned except one. He had some kind of flower in his hand, it was blue in colour. He slipped the flower through the muzzle and the drelob licked it in one go. The guard left immediately afterwards, almost ran to the gate. I understood his actions after I saw what happened next. The drelob that looked half-dead, suddenly came back to life and roared louder than the last time. It broke out of the iron chains like they were plastic. Its feral snarl seemed vicious. It was ready to kill but we weren't in the mood to die that day. The speaker shouted on top of his lungs.

"LET THE GAME COMMENCE!"