In the past week everything had become much more complicated for everyone who had entered into the competition. Even their training sessions were now watched to make sure no slacking off or 'funny business' was happening. Slade had hired several men to observe their daily warm ups and to set them up against one another, these men also were equipped with whips so any disobedience would lead to a lashing.
A lot more muttering was heard during the time they got to sleep, which seemed like the only time they weren't monitered. Only afterawhile did they notice a single man walk past their room a few times, and began to whisper as to make themselves inaudible.
"We're being treated like prisoners," said an angry boy named Balin.
"I think we should just revolt and overthrow them by our strength," said Ambrose, who's response was a shake of heads from eveyone else.
"We'd be killed for sure then," said Cicero, the boy Landis had warned Ghada about being clever.
"Do you have a plan?" asked Ghada hopefully.
Cicero frowned in thought. "I've been trying to think of something but nothing's come to mind yet. We're guarded too well."
"I heard Slade was even threatening our families or at least the people who came along with us. He told them that if we did anything wrong then they would be punished also," said Errol looking worried.
"My little sister is here!" said Maxwell in outrage. "She was supposed to see me fight respectibly, not to the death."
"Almost makes you want to lose in the first round so we can leave, cept in order to lose we have to be killed," said the usually quiet Faustus.
It seemed all of the blue team was awake and eager to discuss means to get out of the coliseum, and it seemed like the best way was to win, without losing anybody.
"Now I know what the slaves felt like when they were fed to the lions," said Cecil.
"How are we ever supposed to defeat 25 full grown men who have been trained for this kind of thing their whole lives. This is an amateur tournament for gods sake, it's like a guarunteed blood bath now," said a worried Telemachus.
"I've never killed a man before," said Cecil paling even more so.
"I don't think any of us have," agreed a boy named Barnabas.
"I have," said Calix joining into the conversation for the first time.
There was a silence before the next person spoke.
"I have too," said Damian.
Ghada was shocked that the harmless Damian could have ever killed anyone before in his life.
"What did it feel like?" asked Telemachus.
"I was in a situation where I had no other choice," said Damian. "It was my father, he was attacking my mother in a drunken rage with a hot ember stick, and my little brother was in the corner yelling for help, so I picked up a kitchen knife and threw it at his back and well…" Damian looked down unable to finish. "I was only 9 though."
A respectable silence was held through the story and Ambrose patted him on the back as an understanding gesture.
"What about you Calix?" asked Ryker.
Calix looked at all the hopeful faces for an answer.
"I don't want to talk about it," he said firmly and turned over away from them feighning sleep.
Ghada remember what Slade had said to him in her house, and it seemed like a very distant memory. "Afterall you'll be killing all the time."
Ghada wondered just how many people he had killed.
"We have 3 weeks to come up with a plan," said Cicero, "It better be a good one too."
As the knights fell asleep one by one, Ghada stayed awake unable to sleep. She got up and stretched instead looking out the window behind her which held a view of the dusty arena and the empty bleachers. After awhile she grew uneasy and felt like she was being watched. She turned around and saw a very thin and pale creepy looking man standing unbelievably still behind her. Ghada was about to scream when he cupped a hand around her mouth with an iron clad strength and held her nose with the other so she could hardly breathe nevertheless scream.
He smiled warily at her.
"Slade still finds you unworthy of this competition boy and he has a proposition to make. Since you're staying the man who came with you, Landis I believe, will be killed tomorrow. He will face five mercenaries alone and Slade invites you to come bear witness to this event. Once his blood is shed that will be the payment for you to stay in this competition."
Ghada felt tears streaming down her face as he told her this and lashed out, but he pranced away out of range and was about to leave the room when Ambrose stood in his way, blocking the whole frame of the door so he couldn't leave.
"Threatening my team mates doesn't go down too well with me, see?" he said picking up the skinny man who now himself was struggling against something.
"So kindly go tell Mr.Slade that if Emlyn's gaurdian for the tournament is in danger then by no means will the blue team stand around watching." And with that Ambrose threw the man out of the door and watched him hit a wall.
"That just about takes care of it," said Ambrose wiping his hands on his tunic.
Ghada forgot who she was for a moment and ran over to hug Ambrose. Ambrose raised an eyebrow looking down at the apparently small boy who was crying and had suddenly latched onto him.
"Get ahold of yourself man," he said peeling off Emlyn, "Sometimes I wonder about you."
With that Ambrose walked back to his bed and fell back to sleep instantly like nothing had happened. Ghada crawled back into bed and fell asleep against something delightfully warm but Ghada was too tired to care what it was. In the morning she heard a cry.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN MY BED?" yelled the man she was apparently sleeping next to. Her eyes were very blurry and she couldn't tell who it was quite yet.
"Your bed? This is my bed,"said Ghada sleepily looking to the left at which was an empty bed which looked an awful lot like….
"Hey this isn't my bed!" said Ghada sitting up.
"Glad you noticed," said a grumpy Calix who was now looking at her as though she was slow in the head.
Ghada felt herself reddening as she realized she slept next to him all night. She quickly tumbled out of his bed when the other knights started grumbling being woken up by his yell.
"Keep it down over there," said Balin rolling over trying to go back to sleep.
Many tried to do the same until a mercenary stepped into their room, and that drew all of their attention.
"Is there a Emlyn Marely and an Ambrose Finnigan present here?" he asked gruffly, his cruel eyes staring down at all the possible knights.
"That'd be me," said Ambrose standing up trying to look menacing, but wavered a bit when he saw the whip the man was holding.
"Which one are you?" asked the Mercenary, clearly not caring but wanting to get the rcord straight.
"Ambrose," he grunted.
The Mercenary nodded and his eyes stopped on Ghada.
"And you must be Emlyn," he said with a lip curling in disgust, "What a pathetic knight you make. I was told you were puny, and that was an understatement."
Ghada felt heat going to her cheeks all over again.
"Both of you come with me," he said turning and walking away but making sure they followed.
A long silence was held until Ghada dared to ask a question on the way down.
"Where are we going and why?"
The Mercenary took one look at her and shoved her up against the wall. He then took out his whip and whipped her full across the back. Ghada had never felt this much pain in her life when the after sting came to her, she felt water tricking down her face and The Mercenary gave her a look of disgust.
"Slade is right. Absolutely no respect. Now get up vermin."
Without saying anything else the three plodded along, with Ghada receiving a few anxious looks from Ambrose. Slade sat at the the breakfast table when they arrived in the empty main dinner hall. Slade thanked the mercenary and scowled at the two knights before him for awhile before talking.
"You should know why you're hear," he stated simply peeling an orange and sucking on a piece.
Ambrose glanced at Ghada and she nodded knowing it was for last nights run in with one of his countless spies.
"I have changed your punishment," said Slade looking at Ghada.
"Instead of seeing Landis go against 5 mercenaries I'm going to put you two in the ring with them. If you stay alive for twenty minutes that will be your punishment otherwise you die. Oh and I've taken consideration to invite anyone who wants to witness this event."
With that Ghada felt her arm grabbed and she was dragged away by the same mercenary, while ambrose followed along looking thunderous afterwards.
"Do we at least get weapons?" grunted Ambrose to the Mercenary.
"Yes, otherwise you'd die in one minute," he replied looking very snarky.
As they approached the weapons room they were in turn handed an old spear with a dull point at the end and a shield that had hardened limstone to keep them from falling apart, they were told they got no armour.
"We may as well not be armed," grumbled Ghada when they were standing behind the gate looking out towards the arena.
Ghada looked at her shield which was almost in two pieces. The limestone hadn't held very well on her shield and she was positive that it would only be able to take one blow. Better make it a good one she thought.
The Mercenarys were let out first to the booing of the crowd and, the noise surprised both Ambrose and Ghada signalling that quite an audience had shown up. Both tried to catch a glimpse and saw that all of their comrades on the blue team had showed up a few from the other teams, Ambroses Uncle he told her, and Landis who looked solemnly down at the warriors.
Ambrose growled afterawhile, when they still weren't let out.
"They're trying to intimidate us by giving us a good length of time to look them over," said Ambrose.
"It's working," said Ghada glimpsing their armour and freshly sharpened swords. They also had metal shields which looked like they could deflect anything.
"Ambrose we need a plan," she said getting desperate, "It'll be hopeless if we just run out there."
Ambrose nodded his head in apparent thought but came up with nothing.
As the their gate rose Ghada saw the mercenaries brace themselves to launch the first attack.
"I don't think Slade wants us to get out of here alive," she said.
Ambrose went runnign out into the arena first while Ghada hung back just little waiting if any last minute genius plan filled her head. When nothing came to mind she enetered the arena after him not wanting to leave him by himself. She heard a gasp of outrage from the crowd when they saw their attire and their poor excuse of a weapon. This only seemed to encourage the mercenaries who were now circling them from all sides, leaving them trapped in the middle of the circle.
Ambrose jabbed his spear at the mercenaries in a ready position for an attack. One charged at him with his sword risen ready to strike, and another ran at Ghada. Without thinking Ghada ran at her attacker also and used the bottom of her spear to pole vault over him. Before he had the opportunity she speared his back hard in a move which would have cause victory had the spear been sharp. Ghada looked to see how Ambrose was fairing and decided alright as he managed to steal sword from one of the men he had picked up and thrown. She heard cheers from the crowd for every move they made to save themselves from certain death.
Three decided to gang up on her at once and to the shouts of the audience they all lunged at her. She held out her shield and like she thought it snapped in half as the first blow came. She was knocked off balance by how hard the man had hit it and fell onto the ground. Ambrose saw her distress and ran over to help by throwing his blade at the nearest one to her which went clear through his arm, and he howled as he backed away.
Ghada quickly got up and swung the staff of her spear around to sweep one of the men off his feet, whn he dropped his sword Ghada grabbed it and plunged it through his leg, so he couldn't stand.
From behind her she felt someone's blade nick her shoulder and saw a flesh flow of red blood soak into her tunic. Someone shouted down that they had five minutes left and Ghada didn't know how much longer they could hold as it was still three against two. Ambrose apparently had suffered an injury when he yelled and threw a mans shield across the arena. She saw that his chest was now shown with a deep gash across it, and Ghada immediately ran over to help. Her left arm was beginning to get very tired from the loss of blood it had, and her grip on the spear lessened. It was knocked out of her hands a few seconds later by a mercenary who grinned at her with missing teeth.
Ghada began to run to the other field drawing two men after her. She hoped Ambrose could deal with the other one in his state. As she finally got to her destination she picked up the metal shield Ambrose had previously thrown and swung it full force into the toothless mans face. She watched him stumble away trying to regain balance and she turned to face the other man.
"Just give up and die," he said.
"Now if I gave that offer to you, would you accept it?" she asked.
The man scowled and threw his sword at her head. She swerved but felt it nick her cheek and put a hand to it to see even more of her blood.
Finally a horn was blasted and that signified the end of the match. Both Ambrose and Ghada stumbled out of the arena ring.
"Good job Gremlin," smiled Ambrose with a freshly missing tooth.
"Yep we're still alive," replied Ghada.
Both were escorted to the clinique by a cheering blue team.
"You were amazing!" said Cecil with wonder, "When you clean jumped that fellow, and when you swung that shield. It's no wonder you're still alive with techniques like that!"
Ghada wondered what techniques he meant. Those were random moves made to save her life.
Slade watched with narrowed eyes at the procession leading them away. He turned to Knox who had been present through the whole thing.
"Not as useless as I thought he'd be," said Slade obviously about 'Emlyn'.
"Worth keepin around I'd say," said Knox agreeing nodding his head.
"He'll be an entertaining one alright, but he won't last."