-4-
It was a nice sunny day at the Imperial City of Zhōngyāng, not a cloud in the sky. Everyone is rushing towards the Zhōngyāng Arena at the outskirts of the city, rumors were spreading that a group of children were arrested and the empress declared that they would have to fight for their freedom, it have been decades since anyone was sentenced to the arena, most offenders these days would be sent to prison. The one thing however that caught the people's attention was that one of the youths who was arrested happens to be one of the heroines who saved Avalice; hundreds, if not, thousands of people came to the arena just to see Milla Basset.
Milla, Kai and Norah hears the crowd's roars and shouts as they cheer Milla's name.
"You can't be serious." Norah says in a annoyed voice.
Kai makes a large sigh "So, sounds like we're going to give them a show." he infers with his usual monotonous voice.
"Sorry, I didn't know people will find out so quickly." Milla apologizes with a distraught tone.
"Well at least fighting wouldn't be too hard, I don't think ordinary guards or warriors are a match for us."
"As long as we don't kill anyone, I'll be fine."
"I doubt they would even let us, this isn't a gladiator match."
The large red wooden doors, with gold outlines, open and as the light shine through those doors; the three children makes their way to the center of the arena.
Zhōngyāng Arena was a rectangular complex made with red hardwood and light grey stone; consisting of four towers at the corners, two large buildings at both ends of the complex, and a fighting pit at the center.
The fighting area was surrounded by stone walls with eight red hardwood gates at the sides of the arena; dirt and occasionally grass covers the fighting area with an elevated stone tiled platform with a pillar at each corner of the stone platform. Spectators flanks the fighting area at the same sides as the wooden gates while the empress sits on a gold throne, at the far end of the complex, parallel to the entrance door the children arrived from.
Kongzhi stood next to the empress and began to speak, "Welcome fellow people of the Qin Empire, we apologize if the festival did not go as planned; as you may already know these three children have been charged with crimes against the empire, however her highness have chosen to give them a second chance, through battle!"
The crowd began to cheer in Milla's favor, "Milla! Milla! Milla!"
Empress Yasmine is amazed by the amount of praise and support the modest hound was getting from the crowd, Kongzhi however seemed displeased, "Enough!" the advisor demands, the crowd immediately became morbidly silent.
"So, when do we fight you're 'warriors'?" Norah says impatiently
The rodent responds with a dark smile which made the hound, husky and panda uneasy, "You won't be fighting guards or warriors, no. You'll be fighting something more appropriate." Kongzhi continues "Open the gates!".
As Kongzhi makes the command the eight gates at the sides of the fighting area began to open, everyone hears thumping sound, Milla immediately recognizes the sound, "That's not possible…" she says in disbelief.
"Milla, please tell me what we're hearing is not what I think we're hearing." Kai responds, all Milla could do is respond with a nod.
Norah stood there confused "Wait, what. What on Avalice is coming out of those gates?!" she asks, the thumping stops.
Everyone remained silent, "Wave 1 will begin now." Kongzhi announces.
Just as Kongzhi makes the announcement an obelisk appear out of each gate, the crowd watches in horror as the grotesque stone blue mutants stomps their way towards the group of children, jumping in large arcs and falling with so much force that shock waves emits from each landing.
Milla and co avoids the assaulting mutants as Kai notices his sniper rifle laying on the floor, Really?! They could've at least treated my stuff properly…
Kai makes a run for his firearm however three obelisks appears before him, the shock wave pushes him backwards. One of the obelisks begins to lunge it's heavy sharp leg at the stunned husky, Milla however makes an energy shield in the his defense,
"I can hold them off, get your rifle, quickly!" Milla says struggling to hold off the obelisk, the mutant responds by attempting to jump directly on top the hound. Kai grabs his rifle and aims at the obelisk attacking Milla, firing a reinforced bullet. The bullet pierces through the obelisk in midair, therefore killing it. The hound steps back as the dead mutant crash lands in front of her.
Both Milla and Kai is surprise to see that a smaller mutant didn't fly out of the corpse.
"How's that possible! I thought only I was…" Kai responds.
"You think someone else is rebuilding these machines and mutants." Milla asks.
"It's possible, but who else will have knowledge of these things?"
"Um, guys…" Norah calls as she avoids the rampaging obelisks, flailing Milla's katana, obviously not knowing how to wield it.
"Throw that sword at me Norah!" Milla calls as Kai continue to shoot the other two obelisks from before.
"I'm not throwing my only weapon!" The panda girl argues.
"Give me the katana!" Milla demands.
Norah reluctantly throws the katana towards Milla, the hound skillfully grabs the sword. As the obelisks lunges themselves at the hound, she quickly avoids the mutants and with a single thrust of her sword a glowing jade energy surrounds the blade leaving everyone flabbergasted including the suddenly worried council member next to the intrigued empress. Milla attacks the offending obelisks with a swift counter attack, cutting three of them to pieces with a powerful force of the psychic energy manifesting from the steel blade, that's six down, she thinks to herself. Milla notices the remaining two obelisks harassing the struggling panda girl.
Norah continue to run her way around the mutants with ease, but the obelisks' jumps had too much coverage, Urgh, I can't keep running like this, I need to fight back or I'm dead.
I can't though…
Norah looks through the crowd of people out of frustration and notices a familiar person among the crowd, it was Vix Cole. The rabbit only gestures with a faint nod the moment the panda girl notices him.
The panda nods in return, Alright let's do this, now these things are done for!
Norah dodges the obelisk's attack, Milla and Kai are caught off guard by her sudden skill and flexibility. The rubies attached to the panda's bracelets begin to glow and in an instant her fists was engulfed in fire, she runs toward the mutant and attacks with a merciless barrage of powerful punches tenderising the obelisk to nothingness, the other obelisks performs it's attack and in response the panda girl creates two fireballs and aims directly at the monstrous creature, the final obelisk explodes like a firecracker.
"Huh, well she suddenly became very interesting." Kai responds with a monotonous tone, So FIRE is her affinity, I can't deny that her fighting method is a bit aggressive, but effective.
The three youths catches their breath soon after they finished Wave 1, the crowd goes wild from their excellent performance, even Yasmine was ecstatic from the heart pounding action that Milla, Kai and Norah was displaying. Kongzhi eye began to twitch in disbelief as he remains silent attempting to keep his patience, "Wave 2 will now begin!" he announces.
Several carts holding DNA cannons began to appear from the gates, the guards positions the cannons so that they surround the fighters but not aiming directly at each other. The DNA cannons opens fire one at a time as Milla, Kai and Norah dodges the devastating purple helix blasts. Norah begins to run towards the cannons dodging each blast, she jumps and performs a sort of dive kick while her foot is engulfed in flames like her fists from before, the cannon is immediately destroyed from the impact. Kai takes advantage of the the lone DNA cannon's destruction and takes it's place, he begins to aim his rifle at one of the cannons and shoots them one at a time with his reinforced bullets. Milla positions herself so that her energy shield blocks most of the DNA cannons' attacks while Norah quickly takes out the few behind her with raging blasts of fire, Kai aims his rifle at the cannons in front of the hound's shield, after enough of the cannons stops attacking to recharge the hound swiftly responds by using her katana to neutralize the remaining DNA cannons.
"Wave 3!" Kongzhi hesitantly announces, giving Milla and co little time to recuperate.
While the group was fighting their way through the third wave, Kongzhi begins to worry, "Excuse me empress, I need to go somewhere quick, I'll return momentarily. Every time they pass a wave simply announce the following wave." he politely informs Yasmine.
"Yeah, yeah OK. You can do whatever you need to do I'll just be here watching and announcing each wave." Yasmine responds obviously more preoccupied with the fights, for the first time in years the empress was enjoying herself; impressed with Milla's, Kai's and Norah's skill, spirit, and determination.
Kongzhi makes a sigh in response. He walks down the stairs to the subterranean pathways underneath the arena reaching a large chamber which could be described as a workshop of sorts, there the light purple eyed cloaked figure, that he met in the palace courtyard last night, was there working on some kind of large machine covered by a canvas.
"What is the meaning of this?!" Kongzhi says angrily "Your machines were suppose to dispose of those pests, especially the basset hound!"
"You should've have told me about the others, besides it seems that dog learned some new tricks."
"I wouldn't have to tell you such details if you actually made effective weapons!"
"Remember who you're talking to, I could kill you easily, but don't worry I have something special for that pestering child."
"You better, the more that girl is around the empress the more I'm losing my grip on her, I will not lose what I worked so hard to achieve because of some bratty child."
Kongzhi recollects himself and walks away, the cloaked figure ignores the outraged rodent and continues on his work.
Kongzhi returns to the empress and to his surprise he sees her enthusiastically announcing the next wave, "Wave 8 everybody!" as Yasmine announces the next wave the crowd cheers and goes wild, This can't be happening, relax I haven't lost control of the situation yet. I'll just let her highness continue announcing each wave.
Among the crowd was Wei and Jing as they observe the valiant efforts of Milla, Kai and Norah and their fights against obelisks, DNA cannons, gansekis, seekers, turretus mkIIs, mutant irises, and a few other machines.
"It seems this crowd is enjoying this, don't you agree?" Jing asks Wei
"I have to admit she is an impressive fighter and her companions aren't half bad."
"You act like as though you've seen better."
"Well, there's Jin."
"Right, I suppose he did give Milla some training."
"I'm just happy to see the empress so enthusiastic."
"Ah, she have been… lifeless… lately."
"Indeed, it was as though she doesn't have a will of her own, but it seems Milla makes her happy. I think this is why Jin sent her here in the first place."
"To give up seeing an old friend though… "
"Yes, Jin would have loved to have seen her again, but he knows what's best for this empire and it's people. Even though he wasn't born in this land he still sacrificed everything for it, but would you rather know your friend is happy from a distance, than see her depressed in person?"
"I suppose you are right, let's wish Milla and Kai good luck then."
It was wave 10 now and Milla and co was up against an arachnidroid, "This thing again?!" Kai says in frustration.
"Care to enlighten me?" Norah asks.
"Well, we kind of saved the leader of Xīchéng's daughter from this thing back at the Lotus Forest."
"This time we won't have as much trouble!" Milla responds in a determined tone.
"Well, you do have me now." Norah brags.
The arachnidroid aims it's two turrets attached to it's back at the group, shooting a barrage of powerful explosive bullet at the youths, "That's new!" Kai says.
The mechanical spider lunges it's legs at Milla, the hound avoids the attack but the mechanical limbs doesn't stick to the ground, the force of the strike however was strong enough to cause a minor shock waves like the one from four months ago. Norah summons two large fireballs orbiting around her which she launches towards the arachnidroid, but the machine was left unphased.
"I tried that before." Kai notes.
"Then I'll just attack it directly!" Norah retorts.
The panda girl launches herself up on top of the hull of the spider and begins mashing it with a fury of fiery fists of fire, meanwhile Milla uses her katana to cut off the legs of the mechanical arachnid, Kai aims his sniper rifle at the disabled spider and fires a powerful bullet directly at the head of the machine causing it to explode. Milla and Norah runs for cover as the extreme explosion causes a cloud of smoke and dust to cover the fighting area.
It takes a few minutes for the smoke to clear, with Milla and Norah intact.
"Wave 11!" The empress announces with such enthusiasm that she completely ignores the advisor next to her.
The yellow eyed figure hears the empress' cheerful announcement and the cheering that followed, "Under control, huh?" he continues as he makes a maniacal laugh "It doesn't matter, the real show will begin soon."
This wave was suspiciously easy, everyone including the empress and the youths looks in confusion as they observe a simple combination of turretus, dragonflies, fireflies, cacteon, hoppers and slimes.
"Are they serious?" Norah asks rhetorically, as she incinerates the small miniscule machines.
Kai ponders for a moment as Milla and Norah destroys the machines, This isn't right…
Usually when something is suddenly easy that means something big is coming up.
I shouldn't let my guard down. Kai notices Vix among the crowd with the same worried look on his face, You're another one I want to keep an eye on, though it seems we both share the same worries.
After all of the machines were taken down, a dead silence looms across the entire stadium, the empress sits down confused, "So, did they win?" Yasmine asks.
"I… I'm not sure…" Kongzhi responds, he himself seems confused about the sudden difficulty drop of the eleventh round.
The large red hardwood door begins to opens behind Milla, Kai and Norah; the youths prepares themselves for whatever is about come out of those doors.
As the door fully opens Milla, Kai and Norah sees a cloaked figure with light purple eyes. The cloaked figure begins to slither himself up the stone tiled platform.
"So, you've made it to the final round?" The person says in sinister voice, "You have no idea how long I've waited for this."
"So you're the one who reprogrammed those machines and mutants?" Kai asks.
"heh, reprogram? No, I restored those walking pieces of scrap metal."
"Restored?!"
The cloaked figure begins to makes a maniacal laugh, familiar to Milla, leaving an eerie dread across the complex.
"Kongzhi, who is this man, what does he mean by 'restored'?" Yasmine asks.
"Um, I don't know. Whoever this person is, he's certainly not associated with us." Kongzhi hesitantly responds, What is this fool doing?! He'll ruin me!
Milla begins to breathe as she begins to realize who she is talking to, "How? How are you alive?!" the hound demands.
Kai and Norah both looks at Milla, "Do you know this guy, Milla?" Norah asks.
The cloaked figure responds "It's actually a funny story, it's a shame that you'll die before you even get the chance to hear it!" he responds to Norah's question before focusing his attention on Milla "After I'm done with you and your new friends, I'll be sure to give that 'squid-head' a nice visit, shyahahahaha"
Immediately the person takes off his cloak revealing a viper with armor and robotic arms, he was equipped with dual pistols and had a sort of head armor with antennas.
Everyone is surprised and horrified by the serpent's reveal.
"Who are you?!" Norah demands.
Milla makes a large sigh, "His name is Serpentine, he used to be Brevon's highest ranking general. Me and my friends defeated him, though we thought he was dead."
"Used to be?! I am his highest ranking general!" Serpentine retorts.
"Yeah, your so called leader isn't exactly here, if you are his most valuable general how come he left you stranded in this planet?" Kai mocks.
"You think I don't know that?! I know he'll be back, matters well just take out his biggest threats till he returns."
"Why are you even still following him? He's not controlling you anymore!" Milla cries.
"W-What are you talking about? Enough, you die now! I saved a little treat specifically for you!"
Appearing from the main gate was a large mech which took the form of a four legged beast, "Introducing the Panther Mech 2.0!"