Chapter 58: Chapter 58

There was no one around the cabins when Ted and her friend were thrown on the ground. So no one could come to their rescue, and no one saw that Avril and Verona were capable of doing that. The two ladies and the maidens walked out and closed the door. They headed to that field were they saw while coming to the cabins.

“That was sick, my lady,” Aida cooed and jumped excitedly. Even Gia couldn't hide her excitement.

“Did you see the look on their faces as they laid on the ground there?” she asked and giggled with Aida.

“Who did they think that you were? Some girls who missed their way to a fighting tournament?” Aida asked rhetorically.

“Well, it seems they already realized that they were the ones who missed their way here,” Avril joked and they laughed.

“That is how these tournaments are...always. People try to trample on others for the sake of their pride or for them to look big and almighty. It's either you stand up for yourself, or you'll just become a victim of someone else's fun moment,” Verona explained with a shrug.

“It's like that in the human world too. Just that, it doesn't openly happen or even always.”

The four of them walked until they reached the field and Verona got them an Italian snack with plastic cups of Iced Coffee, which they sat down under a small tree to eat and drink. Aida and Gia didn't bring theirs out to eat with them and kept it in a plastic bag to take back to the cabin. Avril wanted to make them eat it outside with them but decided to just let them be. It wouldn't paint a good image of them if they were found eating with their masters.

“What is it called again?” Avril asked as they say down and laid the things on the lawn. Verona sat opposite her while Aida and Gia sat behind them a few feet away.

“Mozarella Cheesy Garlic Bread. Best thing to get me going,” Verona answered and Avril smiled. The bread was an almost oval shape, with trapezoids cut into it and to be picked up and eaten. It was so soft and smelt really good.

“I feel worried,” Avril stated as she chewed on her slice of Mozzarella. Verona chuckled and looked over at her friend.

“Why do you act like an overbearing wife?” she teased and Avril pouted.

“What...it's been almost a week and he's not back. And I don't know where he is. Or ...” she trailed off and sighed.

“You do know he is a Prince, babe. And you're just...well, you're not Avril here. You're Fiorella and I don't think he is supposed to let Fiorella know about his whereabouts.”

“You are harsh!”

“Shush, you crybaby. Chill... he'll be back soon. It's not like he's still cursed and back on that island.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

They ate and drank their Iced Coffee while talking about a lot of things. Finally, thirty minutes later they were strolling back to their cabin. Avril and Verona needed to train a little while the maidens had to eat their food. When they reached, Aida and Gia went inside while Verona and Avril walked to the back of the Receiving Hall to train. They reached the large space behind there with weapons and equipment for training. A lot of people were there and they were all mixed up, male and female.

“Over here,” Verona gestured to a corner of the hall. They picked up two swords and went over there. They began to duel and caught the attention of a few people standing nearby.

“A human girl can swordfight like that?” a shirtless young man with a very muscular build, carrying a one edged sword and wearing a traditional animal skin skirt said. He had a silky hair which was in a short wolf cut with the bangs neatly gracing his forehead. He stood, wowing at Avril and smiling.

“She's good. But come on, we both know she would not get out of here alive,” a lady said beside him. She was almost as tall as him, carried the same style of hair—a wolf cut with bangs at the front but her hair was shoulder length.

“Don't underestimate her so quickly, sis,” the young man replied and his sister shrugged.

“I'm just stating the facts. Humans are weaker than us.”

“What do you know about humans?” another voice spoke behind them. It belonged to a man with monolid eyes, a very low haircut and a scar on his forehead in form of a long gash.

“Enough to realize that they are weaklings,” the girl answered and he laughed.

“You have no idea what humans are capable of. I lived for decades over there and at one time served in the US Military under another identity. Trust me, humans can destroy us all if they want to.”

The two siblings looked at each other then laughed.

“You are joking, man,” the young man stated.

“How about you actually stop watching those telenovelas and family reality TV shows you watch with your sister. And actually watch what real man should be watching. Go get movies about war, science fiction and particularly Kung Fu films. Humans are not as weak as we tag them,” the older man explained.

“Where are you from? From your looks, you seem ... Asian,” the girl inquired.

“Taiwan. Our pack was disrupted so we scattered abroad. I went to live in America for years. And despite how humans seem to be weak, they have their strength when they put their minds to something. And I have a feeling this lady right here is no exception,” the Asian stated and looked towards Avril's direction. She was sweating but still flinging herself up and down, swinging her sword effortlessly and hitting against Verona's with even more fervency.

“Todd,” the young girl called her brother. He looked at her and they exchanged raised brows. Together, they drew their swords and ran towards the two ladies with a yell. Avril and Verona were caught off guard but quickly blocked the blows headed towards them. Todd and Avril entered a duel, Verona and Tiana fought against each other a metre away. Swords kept clashing and clinging, with no one actually looking closer to defeat than the other. Grunts from both parties showed they were feeling the strength being exhausted, but no one was giving up.

Avril and Todd's swords clashed together, pinning and pushing right in the middle of the both of them. Todd's face widened slightly. He was using his werewolf power to push against her, yet her feet were still rooted to the ground. She did look like she was having a hard time though, because her veins had popped out and she was grunting really hard to keep pushing against him.

“Just...give...it...up,” Todd gritted but she smirked.

“Don't think so,” she replied. That moment that his mind was one percent off the pushing, she actually let go of him—dashing out from his front abruptly, making him fall ahead because of the force he was exerting. Avril kicked the back of his leg, between his thigh and knee and he fell face down on the ground. He tried to jump up immediately but he felt the sharp tip of a cold metal poking his neck. Verona and Tiana stopped fighting to look at the pair behind them.

“Wow,” Tiana muttered as she looked at her brother on the ground.

“Good one, girl,” Verona hailed amidst heavy intakes of air into her lungs. Avril smiled and dropped the sword beside Todd. She was breathing really fast but looked proud. She moved back and Verona went to her side. Tiana came to Todd and helped him up.

“Okay, I think I believe what that man was saying now,” Tiana whispered to him.

“No doubt. Damn, she's good,” he said and they both looked at the girls.

“Uh, nice session,” Todd spoke up.

“You did underestimate me, didn't you?” Avril asked teasingly.

“I did learn my lesson, didn't I?”

“I would have cut your smooth neck if this wasn't a training session.”

“Thank you for the gentle reminder. I think I'll keep that in mind.”

They chuckled softly. The siblings walked forward and Tiana stretched out her hand first.

“My name is Tiana and this is my brother, Todd,” she introduced then shook Avril and Verona.

“Nice meeting you, Tiana and Todd. I'm Fiorella and this is Verona,” Avril replied and also shook hands with the man.

“What brings you to this tournament though? I heard servants weren't permitted to participate,” Tiana asked politely.

“That is because I'm not a servant,” Avril answered.

“Oh...but how is that possible? Didn't the Kingdom Of Remus use humans as servants only?” Todd inquired.

“She caught the eye of the Prince, so...she's his woman,” Verona said. The eyes of the two siblings bulged.

“T-the Prince? As in, the Prince of Remus? Prince Dakar?” Tiana stuttered.

“Yes. We both are—”

“From the palace. We both are from the palace. I'm just a tag along with her,” Verona cut Avril short. She knew her friend was going to say they both were his women, but honestly— she felt ashamed to be called the woman of her friend's man. Prince Dakar should simply belong to Avril who loved him. So she decided not to act or say she was his concubine too.

Chapter 91

“Goodness! You're really lucky. Well, you're such a beautiful woman I wouldn't be surprised you caught the Prince's eyes. And strong too,” Tiana talked excitedly.

“You might wanna keep your voice low. I don't want people to hear that,” Avril chuckled.

“Oh, sorry. My bad,” she chuckled too.

After about two more training sessions, it was nearing evening so they went back to their individual cabins. The next day was the first challenge, and they didn't know what it was going to be yet. According to the new friends they had made, it was best to just rest and reserve energy.

“Welcome back, mi lady. How was the training?” Aida asked excitedly as she opened the door for them to step in.

“Perfect. We made friends this time. Did Ted and her friend come over to cause trouble?” Avril asked back. Aida scratched the back of her head and looked over at Gia who was wearing a stoic expression. Avril gazed at the two girls and furrowed her brows.

“What happened?” she asked but they didn't answer. Verona stood beside Avril and crossed her arms.

“Aida, tell me. They came here, didn't they?”

“Actually, Fiorella. It's nothing. They didn't come by at all. Nobody came by. Don't worry,” she answered with a very fake smile.

“Why was she here?” Verona asked and the two maidens turned their eyes on her. Gia sighed and palmed her forehead for a second.

“Who was here?” Avril asked Verona.

“Ñiraka was here. She came to have a word with you but we were out. Now I wonder why she came all the way here to have a word with you,” Verona answered.

“Aida, what did Ñiraka say?” Avril asked the young, skeptical maiden of hers standing in front of her. Aida turned to look at Gia who looked like she had already given up on hiding the information.

“She had said she was here to laugh at you for signing your own death sentence. And that she wanted to also advise you to take your ‘dry human @ss’ out of here before sunrise or you'll regret it. Those were exactly the words she used,” Aida finally replied.

Avril smiled and sat down on the small armchair closest to her.

“Hey, Verona. Did you bring any tea? Or is there a place we can get some really hot coffee? I'm having a feeling that after we shower off all these sweat, the cold would finally sink in,” she spoke, totally ignoring the piece of news given to her.

The three women in the room looked at her like she was an alien speaking English.

“Also, we should really decide on what we are to wear tomorrow. Should we wear that identical combat pants we got?” she asked again.

“You are ignoring the threat from Ñiraka?” Verona just asked straight up.

“Wait...was that a threat? Oh please. There aren't going to hurt me in anyway. I can take care of myself and I definitely know when a battle is too much for me to fight. I won't cow away just because somebody told me too.”

“I like you.”

Avril laughed at Verona and got on her feet again.

“I'm going to shower first. Aida, could you girls please get me coffee?”

“Yeah, sure. Sure thing,” Aida answered. She was still stunned about Avril's reaction to the threat. She and Gia had thought that she would bounce off to Ñiraka's cabin and fight back.

After they showered, they sat down and played card games with the maidens while sipping hot coffee together. Afterwards, they had their dinner of steaming Volognette, which was simply pasta graced with cheese, tomatoes, tasty clams and sprinkles of curry leaves—delivered to them as all contestants were to be fed by the Tournament. After such a delicious meal, the girls headed out wearing their identical combat pants with same boots. They however wore different colors of the strap top—Avril with brown and Verona with blue.

All the contestants were taken to the Tournament Ring in buses. They stayed backstage and waited for the next instruction. Avril noticed the tiny glances that came her way, but no one seemed to want to say anything today.

“All contestants should file into a single line please. Each gender should be on a single line,” the instructor spoke up. He was a man not older than forty and he was dressed in a long black leather jacket and trousers.

The contestants filed according to his instructions and he directed them to walk out of the backstage. They walked out into the open field of carpeted green grass and stood side by side on a line. People had filled up the seats which were surrounding the field and in levels upwards to twenty, like the stadium humans used. Everyone was keenly looking at the line of contestants and eager to begin the Tournament already. After the speeches and all that talk about welcoming contestants and speculators, the challenge for the day was going to be announced.

“Each one of you have a partner I suppose, but only one of you would be making it to the finishing line. It is possible for you both to finish and win together, but then...it is very rare. However, I wish everyone of you the best of luck. Remember the rules and play by them. I now invite my friend here to announce today's challenge to you,” the instructor stated through the microphone fixed over his mouth. Another man wearing his type of outfit walked towards a long table laden with a lot of equipment and cleared his throat.

“Today, we would begin with a simple task of race. There is a huge forest right after this Ring and you are to simply run through it, scale the obstacles and return to this field through the other entrance which is situated only at the end of the forest. The time allocated is twenty minutes. One of you out of each partners should come forth, pick a handy equipment and get ready to join the race.”

The contestants began to whisper amongst themselves. Verona turned to Avril.

“I would have to go. Obviously, these guys will not be using normal speed and there is no way you could outrun them,” she stated.

“You are right. You'll have to go this round since using werewolf speed to run isn't against the rules,” Avril agreed. Verona nodded and began to walk towards the table with the other contestants. Tiana was already at the table when she came. They both chose a machete and went to stand on the line of racers.

When the line was ready, the instructor cleared his throat.

“Take your stance. Ready. Set. And....Go!”

The sprint Avril saw was simply out of this world. Each contestant sprang out and headed to the open gate opposite the field. It led straight into the forest and as soon as they all got out, the gate was shut and a smaller gate by the far end was open. It was fit for just one person to pass through at a time.

Avril gulped and stood still, hoping that Verona would make it out on time. The instructor had mentioned ‘obstacles’. What sort of obstacles could they be? Something within her told her the obstacles were nothing close to objects.

Chapter 93

At first, it was just a vast forest with a lot of space between the woods and few fallen trees. The entire color was so Autumn, with brown, golden and yellow leaves gracing the entire floor. Verona, and all the others raced so fast across the ground and the leaves floew into the air because of the wind that followed their speed. Every contestant had enough space about five metres between them and another contestant to run freely. Some overtook the others, while others fell back. Overall, no one was giving up. It had just been seven minutes of running and now the trees were getting closer, the overhead canopy of branches getting thicker, the floor of leaves getting deeper and harder to just simply run across and so many vines were all over the place. If one wasn't careful, they could just trip dangerously, stumble and kept caught up in a runple like a crumpled ball of paper.

The contestants kept running, but taking things more carefully.

“Ugh!” a loud groan was heard just in front from a young man who was leading the race. As the others approached, they found him hanging upside with a vine strictly wrapped around his right leg and dangling him over sixty inches from the forest floor. He was struggling and groaning, trying to reach up to his leg and cut the damn vine with his axe. But he couldn't and even if he could, he would need a lot of energy to be able to strike the vine about four times and cut it. It was a very thick vine.

“Ahhhh!” another scream was heard from a lady who had reached the area the unfortunate young man was. A vine and pulled her up and wrapped her to a tree branch, high up.

“Oh no,” Verona muttered as she realized that the vines were active at that vicinity those people had gone to. She seemed to not be the only one who noticed this as the others had all slowed down behind her, panting and holding their weapons firmly. Verona drew her sword and took her position, pointing it over in front of her. Her legs were firmly rooted to the ground, one in front of the other and her knees slightly bended. Her left arm was situated in front too, ready to give a punch if need be. Everything seemed cool, except the groans and winces from the two people tied up.

“We are wasting time! Let's just go through it and be ready to attack!” a redhead girl shouted loudly behind. She was wearing a white shirt with long sleeves and blue baggy trousers, making Verona wonder how she could run in that.

“You go first,” Tiana stated from the right. She was a few metres away from Verona. The redhead behind huffed and took a sprint. She ran into that vicinity with her daggers well placed in her palms and screamed fiercely. Everyone stood still and watched her racing through and having no issues. Then, the rest took a sprint too and raced after her. About ten contestants of them and in the very same moment, vines fell from up and began to strike from all directions at them. Cries, grunts and yells filled the air as they tried to fight back.

“Oh no,” Tiana muttered.

“Come over here,” Verona called to her and she moved to her.

“We're losing time,” she said and Verona nodded.

“We are going to pass this place together,” she replied.

“How?”

“Just defend me while I defend you,” Verona rasped. Their time was going and they had no idea what other obstacles they would face.

“Okay, let's do it,” Tiana agreed to it.

“Are you both crazy? You'll get entangled and time would run out. We've already lost three minutes just by standing here. I'm going to run around this vicinity,” a man cut into their conversation and took a sprint to the right side. He was going to run around the moving vines instead of going through it.

“Yes! That makes a lot of sense!” Tiana yelled.

“That is going to take ten minutes! If you want to get out of her on time, let's go with the first plan. Now, move it!” Verona yelled back at her and Tiana stood beside her. Together, they launched forward and ran as fast as they could into the vicinity.

“Help!” screamed the redhead with the baggy trousers as she got pulled up by two vines holding her by the arms and up into the trees. Tiana looked up and saw a vine coming.

“Watch out!” she screamed and the two girls ducked, tumbling on the ground and Tiana swung her sword once at it—cutting it in half. The other part swung back up. The girls jumped to their feet and that moment two vines launched at Verona. She began to cut them off, but these ones knew how to regrow and kept coming back out at her.

“Verona!” Tiana screamed as she ran forth and began to fight the vines from opposite Verona.

“Be running towards the front! We'll take them there instead of standing!” Verona yelled across to her. There was a lot of ruffles and noise going on. People stuck on trees were yelling and trying to break free, those fighting the vines were of course making sounds and the drastic movement of their feet and bodies over the floor of dried leaves was really deafening.

Tiana and Verona tactically moved towards the front, fighting against the vines and making sure they weren't wrapped up in its strong ropes. At last, the vines were so shortened that they couldn't reach them anymore no matter how much they swung at them. Verona and Tiana ran out panting heavily, they squatted and breathed their nostrils out.

“That was... damn that was something else,” Tiana rasped.

“Yeah,” came Verona's reply. They looked behind them at the very few people who were still fighting the vines and the few who had managed to get free and were running out.

“Well, time to go. We don't got much time left,” Verona reminded the other girl, who nodded and they both began to run at the same time.

They kept running and running until the forest became thicker and thicker and...darker. The canopy was so dense that the sunlight wasn't passing through it down. A thick fog was underneath the branches so the contestants couldn't see much. They had to go slow this time again. Verona and Tiana treaded carefully, ready to snap any obstacle into two with their swords. They kept walking and nothing happened.

“Maybe we should just run,” Tiana said impatiently and took a sprint forward.

“Wait! No!” Verona yelled after her but immediately after her yell, Tiana screamed loudly.

“Oh no,” Verona muttered and darted after the sound of her voice. She found her struggling and pulling against two gigantic eagles that were probably trying to fly away with her to their nests...and that was nothing close to good news. Tiana was screaming as their talons and claws dug into her skin and ripped it off in the bid to pick her.

“Help!” she screamed and swung her sword which the birds tactically dodged. They would kick her around and she tumbled on the ground, hitting trees and sustaining more injuries.

“Hey!” Verona yelled at the bird, hiding her sword behind her. They looked in her direction and only one flew towards her, the other stayed.

Verona smirked and swung her sword, which the eagle dodged. She ran to Tiana's sword on the ground and picked it up.

“Catch!” she screamed and threw it at the girl. Fortunately, Tiana caught it and swung it at the waging bird. It caught one of the wings and the bird shrieked in pain then retreated a little. The other bird with Verona seemed to be angered at the fact that its mate had been injured. It opened its beak and shrieked, diving down at her and succeeded in rubbing a claw against her cheekbone. Verona groaned, staggered back then jumped and struck it across the face, giving it a terrible gash. She screamed and used the side of her sword to hit it's neck, making it fly off with deafening cries and its mate followed after it.

Verona scoffed and spat out.

“Love birds,” she said with an eye roll.

“Ugh!” Tiana groaned as she fell on the floor weakly.

“Tiana,” Verona called and ran to her. She removed the sheath of her sword and fastened it to her waist. Then she took both their swords and put them in.

“Let's go,” she said to the bleeding girl.

“You are... bleeding...” Tiana stuttered.

“You should see yourself first,” came Verona's reply as she carried her friend to her back and held her firmly.

“Hold on tight...I'll go really fast. We don't have much time!” she stated and with that, she zoomed off into the dark, foggy forest. She kept running, and jumping over fallen logs and branches. A lot of things were supposed to be in their way, but nothing came out to be an obstacle anymore.

“One more minute...one more minute...one more minute...” Verona repeated as she raced fast to reach the end of the forest. The light was getting brighter, and the trees were gradually spacing up. Soon, the small gate was visible and Verona sped up even more. She finally reached it and dropped Tiana.

“Let's go, quick,” she encouraged and Tiana walked quickly through the gate, panting heavily. Verona dashed in after her and exhaled. She could only hope they had made it. But then, the spectators gave a cheering shout at their entrance.

“Verona!” Avril shouted and ran all the way from where they were to Verona.

“Tiana!" Todd yelled and raced to his sister, overtaking the human Avril. He hugged her despite all the blood.

“Oh my God, what happened?” he asked as he looked her over. Avril reached Verona and hugged her tight.

“Oh my God, I was so scared. When I saw all those contestants who failed being brought in, I knew that forest was not what I expected it to me,” she said in a hurry as she unlocked from the hug but still held Verona's arms.

“God, you're injured. Your face is bleeding so bad,” she added and Verona laughed softly.

“Calm down, Fiorella. I'm fine,” she simply said.

“Thank you, Verona,” Tiana's weak voice said. Todd was helping her stand.

“My sister said you helped her out there. Thank you so much. I wonder what would have been left of her if you hadn't helped, considering what she looks like now,” Todd stated.

“We were just using wisdom to pass through that forest. But, I feel like we skipped some obstacles. Didn't we?”

“The Instructors said the stages were going to be four after you all left. How many did you face?” Avril asked.

“Just...two,” Tiana answered and she and Verona looked at each other with furrowed brows.