Struggle for Freedom

The arena wasn’t as big as I remembered it from watching in the audience. It was only about one hundred metres in diameter. The walls were about 5 metres high and made of hard packed earth. The outskirts were completely bare; it was only in the centre where the resources were. There was a large tree, under which was a pond. There was a little patch of grass and some logs by the tree and then behind the tree and the pond were several large boulders and rock mounds. Looking up into the audience I could hear nothing and all I could see was darkness. Soundproof one way screens. I had no idea where my parents would be sat. Somewhere near the front maybe. Hopefully they’d be there. Hopefully I’d do them proud.

Lowering my gaze I could already see the people from the other tribes were waiting on the other side of the arena. My nerves were getting worse by the second and I could feel myself shaking again. I jumped when the entrance clanged shut. I nearly screamed when Sora tapped me on the shoulder. I wanted to yell at him ‘don’t do that’, but my lips were quivering too much.

“Wow, you really are scared aren’t you.”

“A-A-A…Aren’t y-y-you?” I stuttered.

“No, not really,” he smiled, “you know, I bet you’re some kickass fighter in secret.”

“Yeah right,” I almost laughed. Almost.

“No really,” he continued, “you wouldn’t be here unless you were a really good fighter.”

I just nodded, suddenly glowing inside from his words.

“Where’d Sassy go?” he asked.

“You mean Sassacus.” What a random nickname.

“Yeah, where is he?”

I looked around the arena, but I couldn’t see him. He must’ve found a really great hiding place. All we had to do now was wait. Wait for the horn to sound and then we’d be off, hacking each other to pieces. I could see that Vires guy, he was holding a giant sledgehammer pacing back and forth, drooling with some crazed thirst for combat. I wasn’t going to be anywhere near him when this started.

Then, I heard it, the horn, a low pitched droning in my ears. I could feel it vibrating all the way through my bones from head to toe. And suddenly it was like something awakened inside of me; I was in survival mode. I could feel it, years of training, so that for my body, survival was second nature. Drawing on my fire power, I quickly heated up the pole, so it was scorching hot. Before anyone else had moved, I ran to the wall nearest and threw my pole into it. It pierced through easily and stuck out horizontally about a metre above me. I quickly leapt onto the wall and pushed off it up to the pole. I lifted myself onto it before starting to claw away at some of the wall. It was fast work with my hands burning. The water evaporated out of the dirt leaving it to crumble away with ease.

“Hey, Alice!”

I nearly fell off when Sora startled me. “Yeah?” I answered, but kept burrowing into the wall.

“What you doing?” he called.

I turned to see him fighting off an albino guy who was using a sword. Sora wasn’t breaking a sweat.

“Surviving,” I called back.

I was almost done my little hideaway hole, the perfect attack base, when suddenly I heard something whistling towards me. In the split second that instinct moved my head a little to the right, a spear flew just millimetres from my left ear. Smokes, that nearly speared my head.

“Alice!” I heard Sora cry out.

I swivelled round perfectly balanced on my pole to see who my attacker was. It took a moment to pinpoint him, but then I found him, eyes gleaming at me. He was big built, but not as big as the Vires guy and kitted out in brown and grey. Without taking my eyes off of him, I yanked his spear out of the wall and felt along it for his tribe’s insignia. I knew it, he was from Tellusolum. They also focused on strength, with their animal being the bear. For a second, I could feel butterflies in my stomach, but I pushed them down and let survival mode take over me again.