CH 12

After I walked along the hallway, a door labeled ‘waiting room’ appeared. It must be the room for the participants like me.

Click.

When I opened the door, there were participating people sitting with their weapons as per my expectations.

There were no female participants among them, so I was the only woman.

“Heh?”

A guy who was silently sharpening his knife with a charcoal stone started to laugh when he saw me enter.

“Hey kid, this is the waiting room. The audience is the other way.”

Others joined and treated me as if I were a little kid. They all thought that I entered the wrong entrance based on my small frame.

“No, I came to the right place.”

When I showed them my rapier on my waist, all the participants laughed even louder.

“Do you even know what kind of place this is? Or did you just come because they said you can get some money?”

“I know exactly what this place is. I came here to defeat you all.”

And when I took a seat, the laughter of the men became even louder.

“I like kids like her, too. It kind of turns me on to see them beg for their life later in the game.”

“Haha kiddo! It’s your choice to participate here or not, but you better hope that the battle mode is individual or teams. That will be the only way for you to have a chance to win!”

Battle mode?

“What battle mode?”

When I asked, the participants shook their heads.

“Ah, this kid doesn’t know a thing!”

“Who brought that kid?”

“Probably some rich royalty!”

“Aside from everything, you better hope that it’s not that one game mode.”

I tried to understand what that one mode was, but

“All participants please come out to the arena!”

The colosseum staff entered from the opposite door and told us to get out. The participants just all flooded out without telling me what mode that was.

Well, I guess I will find out eventually.

And when I followed them out, the appearance of the circular battlefield appeared. It really seemed spectacular where one wouldn’t be able to participate without connections with the riches.

Whaaaaaaaaa!

The roar of the crow rang as if it were going to crush the basement, but the hood saved me a bit. When I looked around the audience, I saw Arje sitting alone, as if she was blocking anyone from getting near her. There were some peeking at her, but no one was making conversation from the strange vibe of her white mask.

And Arje with the creepy mask waved her hand after making eye contact with me.

“Thank you sincerely for those visiting our basement colosseum tonight!”

The voice of the announcer was heard from the podium.

“Especially tonight, you guys are really lucky. We have two great pieces of news!”

Great news?

“First, for the first time in forever,  we have a female participant. Everybody please welcome Aris!”

It got crazy loud from the mixture of cheering, whistling, clapping and talk. If it weren’t for the hood, I would have lost my sense of hearing.

“And another thing!”

“Tonight! We have a captured slave joining us as well! This particular slave is a rare kind!”

I was reminded of Jarrod. Rabbitmen are rare, and Jarrod appears from around this time in the novel.

“A female elf!”

A female elf?”

Krrrrrrr!

At that moment, an opposite steel gate opened up, and an elf with blonde hair and disheveled clothes was thrown inside to the ground. She did not have any gear, nor shoes.

Woahhhhhhhhh!!!

The reaction of the audience was that of a fiensy. It was as expected, for the beauty of the elf was godly. Even more than Arje, who was a royalty.

On top of that, more than my small breasts and the tiny breasts of Arje, the elf had big boobs. It was even too much for her leather dress to handle.

“Phew, this will be interesting.”

The man standing next to me licked his mouth for some reason. Do people in this world eat elves?”

“Where am I? Please send me back home.”

The elf looked around with a frightened face, and she did not seem the type who would fight at a place like this, and no one was helping her.

“Oh, that’s what he meant.”

Now I understood what they meant by something fun to watch, something entertaining. And I was one of them.

“Well, I can’t let that happen.”

I gripped tightly onto my rapier.

“It’s no use to regret it now, kiddo, You should have regretted your choice before entering through those gates.”

The man who was licking his mouth staring at the elf laughed after seeing me grip onto my rapier.

“Regret? Who? Me?”

I have never lived a life of regret, and the same will apply from now on.

“And now I will pick the battle mode for tonight.”

The announcer walked over to a container that was blocked as he said this.

“Gender! Gender! Gender!”

“If you don’t pick gender mode, I will cut your fingers off!”

“Hey announcer, we believe in you!”

I heard something weird from the crowd. Gender mode?

“And it is chosen!”

The announcer reached his hands inside the container, and pulled out a paper folded twice.

“Yes! It is gender mode, the one you all have been waiting for!”

Whoooooooo!

Everyone, both male and female, cheered on loudly.

“What’s gender mode?”

From my question, the participants, who seemed to be enjoying this even more than the audience, gave me a creepy stare.

“What do you think it is? As its name suggests, it’s a team game separated by gender.”

Wait. Does that mean that I am on my own?

“The number is uneven?”

“Who cares? You should have been born a man, or never have shown up to this place!”

The men smirked.

“And next, we have decided on battle design!”

Meanwhile the design of battle was mentioned, and 

Kazam!

The ground shook first, then water filled up the field all of the sudden.

“Kyaa!”

The elf ran away from the filling water, and the place to which she crawled to had become an island. And the team members installed a wooden bridge between the island and the land where the participants were standing.

“The rule is simple. The female team will stay on the island, and the male team will use the bridge to attack! If they surrender, die, or fall into the water, they are out. There are no other rules.”

According to the rules, I had to go over to the island.

“Just stay put with that elf! If you resist, you will get that pretty face of yours hurt!”

Suppressing their mockery, I walked over to the elf who seemed to be lost.

“Let’s do this.”

I let my hand out to make her stop zoning out, but 

“We are doomed.”

She refused to shake my hand. Instead, she wrapped herself with her arms and started to shake.

“We are not doomed yet.”

I told her no, but the elf shook her head.

“If we just surrender and sit still, it should be over sometime, right?”

“I said don’t give up.”

“But just look over there! There are over 10 men that we have to deal with! How can you not give up?”

As the elf said, there seemed to be at least a dozen men. And the crowd was cheering for the men, including the women in the audience. The only one cheering me on was Arje, watching with her arms crossed.

“What you said might have been the case if we were on flat grounds.”

If we had been surrounded by a flat surface, the case would have been overwhelming even for me, but the layout of the field was designed as convenient for us to win.

“You see that bridge over there, right? Only one can cross the bridge. They can’t use the water since that will disqualify them”

On top of that, the bridge was very narrow and shaky from the haphazard design. Because their feet wouldn’t be stable, it was more convenient for weapons such as my rapier to use. And of course, I was confident in 1-on-1 battles.

“Don’t overdo yourself.”

The elf, understanding that I was not giving up, let out a sigh. Her dull blue eyes let out a message showing that she believed for us to lose.

“Overdo, you say…”

I pulled out my rapier and got into a fight position.

“Ah, the woman in the white robe seems to be willing to fight unlike the elf!”

The announcer and the audience all laughed at me. They looked as if my stance was a cornered rat looking like it was going to bite the cat. Something insignificant like that.

Still, I had confidence, and thought that I could defeat all twelve and win. Although no one thought that I could win, 

I swore my name Aris Wafer and was confident that I could crush all of them bastards.