Chapter 73 - Gruesome Battle

My back leaned against the wall. My decision was to spend the night in Everett's room.

I just thought that his mother might come back and wanted to prevent anything from happening.

After some time, the necklace whispered to me.

"Wow, you are so good with kids!"

My hand scratched the back of my head.

"Am I?"

The necklace trembled.

"Yeah! I thought it was just a fluke when my child was more attached to you than me. Now, I realize that it might just be some sort of charm you have."

My head tilted to the side.

"Haha, I never thought about that. Maybe it's because I am still a kid."

The necklace trembled.

"Eh? How long have you been alive?"

My face twitched.

"I... don't know. I still feel like a kid though."

The necklace laughed.

"Ok just tell me a general number."

A soft chuckle came from me.

"I hardly have any memories of my past. How am I supposed to know?"

Shock was apparent in the necklace's voice.

"What? How did you deal with that?"

My head tilted to the side.

"Well, I am a summon. Do you know what that is?"

The necklace paused.

"You are a summon?"

My head slowly lowered.

"Yeah, but basically I have no memories of my previous world."

The necklace sighed.

"Wow, that sounds intimidating."

My shoulders shrugged.

"Well... it could have been worse. At least there weren't any people who knew me and had to deal with my sudden missing memory."

A bitter laugh escaped me.

The necklace trembled.

"That still seems like a tough situation to deal with. After all, you were suddenly summoned with no memories to support you."

My head tilted back and laid against the wall.

"Still, having no memories in that situation as opposed to in my previous world is pretty much the same situation."

The necklace chuckled.

"That makes sense, I suppose."

The night went by slowly.

Whenever one of us could come up with a topic, we talked about it. However, the night was long and we couldn't think of many things to talk about.

As such, the majority of the night was spent in silence.

The room had a small window, so once the sun began rising we knew.

Everett's eyes slowly opened.

He clearly woke up but made no effort to move.

My back pushed off against the wall.

"Hey, are you awake?"

Everett blinked a few times.

"...Yeah."

A small smile formed on my lips.

"It's the day of the competition. We should go, no?"

Everett was silent.

My head tilted.

"Come on, I still need you to show me the way."

Everett sighed.

"What's the point?"

My shoulders shrugged.

"Why not?"

Everett pouted.

"I'm just going to lose anyway."

My hand lightly patted his head.

"Who said you have to win? You seemed so excited for it, just have some fun."

Everett's eyes lost focus and his mouth was slightly agape.

A minute passed and Everett cleared his throat.

"Ok, just for fun."

Everett opened a wardrobe and pulled a sword and sheath out.

The sword and sheath clearly stood the test of time. There were many little nicks and parts of the sheath that were peeling off.

Everett couldn't help but smile a little when he put the sword in his hand. He looked at it longingly for a few moments then tucked it into his belt.

"Alright, let's go. It should be starting soon."

With that, we left the house and made our way to the colosseum. Along the way there were many other people also leaving their homes, lugging weapons along, and walking towards the colosseum.

My hand rubbed against my chin.

"Now that I think about it, I don't have a weapon."

Everett gasped.

"What? Oh no, we have to quickly get one!"

My head tilted and my eyes landed on Everett.

"Do you still have your wooden sword?"

Everett blinked a few times.

"Yeah, why?"

My shoulders shrugged.

"Could I use that as a weapon?"

Everett stood still for a moment. He then shook his head.

"Um, ok!"

Everett ran back and brought his wooden sword with him. He handed it over by the hilt.

I grabbed the blade and put the hilt into my hand.

It felt a little strange to be honest.

My hand tried to wave it around a little bit. My hands were not used to the weight of the wooden sword. If it wasn't such a hassle, I would get another wooden stake.

Everett led me to the entrance of the colosseum. There were a few long lines, but everyone was passing through quickly.

Everett and I lined up.

In a few minutes, it was our turn.

"Spectator or Competitor?"

A middle-aged man was writing on a piece of paper using a quill and ink. He asked that question without even looking up at us.

Everett smiled.

"Competitor!"

The middle-aged man looked at Everett and raised an eyebrow, but went back to looking at his paper.

"Proof of residence or courage?"

Everett pulled out a dull jade card, showing it to him.

The middle-aged man nodded.

"You may pass, take your first left."

The middle-aged man then looked at me.

There were a few seconds of silence.

Since he did not repeat the questions, I answered as though he did.

"Competitor, this is my wolf pelt."

My finger tugged at my coat.

The middle-aged man sighed.

"Name?"

My finger scratched the side of my head.

"Jay."

The middle-aged man wrote some things down on the paper.

"You may pass."

Once Everett heard that he went down a stone pathway, with me following behind him.

We took the first left, to see a large room with many stone seats. The room was packed with people, the seats that filled the area were countless, but many of them were filled up.

Despite the fact that there were so many people, there was a strange silence. The place only had soft sounds of shuffling.

People were glaring at each other as they walked by. This included Everett and me, though we kept to our own.

Beads of sweat formed on Everett's forehead.

"This was different than I'd thought it would be..."

I nodded.

"Maybe... we shouldn't do this."

Everett shook his head.

"Well... we are already here."

My shoulders shrugged.

"I suppose."

We stood there, deciding against taking a seat. There was no announcement, but people gradually began filing down a certain corridor.

Everett looked at me.

"I think we should follow them."

With that, we followed the group.

We went to the middle of the colosseum. There were ten grandiose stone platforms.

People walked on them arbitrarily. Everett and I simply choose one of the nearby platforms to stand on. There were a few people just two meters away from us.

This event really is chaotic. It made me wonder why nobody was trying to make trouble.

While my hand was rubbing against my chin, a loud voice resounded within the stadium.

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen to The Peak! Our proud warriors are standing on these stone platforms. As you already know, the last five living people on the platform will progress into the tournament arc!"

My eyes scanned the seats in the colosseum. More than half of the seats were filled, and there were still people arriving.

Cheers resounded among the crowd.

The voice coughed.

"Anyways, I'm sure you're tired of me talking and wish to see the action! Get ready everyone, because the competition... starts... NOW!"

Immediately, people around us began attacking each other.

A man with a metal spear had punctured a skinny man's torso. The skinny man immediately began to bleed out, but he swung his sword and returned a stab to the man wielding his spear.

A frown slowly emerged on my face while Everett huddled up closer to me.

This... is a lot more brutal than I thought it would be.

For now, the people fighting were avoiding us, but there were looks coming in our direction.

Blood poured out onto the stone platforms and people were dying one by one.

Yet, the scene that filled me with disgust, caused cheers to rise from the rowdy crowd.

The people on our platform thinned out, some becoming corpses and some shoved off the platform. Anybody who fell off would curse, but not try to get back on.

Soon, there were only fifteen or so people left.

There was a tall man with short blonde hair glaring in our direction. He was covered in both wet and dry blood, giving him quite a disturbing appearance.

In his hand was a bloody flail with a chain that was nearly a meter long.

The tall man frowned.

"Stop protecting that child! He will end up dying anyway in the competition anyway!"

Everett looked down to the floor.

My eyes lingered on Everett, then a sigh escaped me.

"As long as I can protect this child, I will."

The tall man's eyes narrowed.

"Then you will have to protect him from this!"