He opened the door of his room to find both Greg and Anna expecting him, the former was sitting on the ground and holding his knees, he had an empty look and signs of dried tears on his face, the latter was leaning up against the wall with a calm expression.

"Took you long enough." She said.

"Got a few last things to get before the tournament."

"What's the plan, Mad?" Greg asked without a hint of emotion to his voice. He didn't even look at Riwall.

"What we do? I know what I'm gonna do. I came here to ask if you are in or out, I won't pressure any of you to do something you would regret later."

————————————————————————————-

[Don't do this Riwall, they are kids, you are trying to turn them into s.a.d.i.s.tic murderers.]

{Look around you Friday! Do you see a police officer around the corner that we can report to? Have you heard anything about a judge in these parts? What about due process? This world speaks only two languages: fear and violence. I will show them how proficient I can be in both of them.}

[Ah, I see, the world is a piece of s.h.i.+t, so everything is allowed now!] The sarcasm of her words was palpable.

{And what do you suggest, huh? We are going to fight in an arena because we somehow hurt the pride of an ent.i.tled piece of s.h.i.+t! You heard the rules, give up or die, if we give up, they kill us tomorrow or the next day! They won't let us walk away. The Farsteels trusted their Lord and his rules, and now we have two new orphans who feel powerless to do anything. I'm giving them a way out of this mess.}

[I can't believe you are saying these things. You know what's worse? My morals and values come from YOU! You are the one who holds these principles I'm speaking about in high regard. But I said my piece, go on, ruin the life of the orphans, I will watch in silence.]

————————————————————————————-

The banter between them took only a second, but it was more than enough to p.i.s.s him off even more.

"When I step into that arena to fight against the families that did us harm, the first thing I do will be cutting their tongues out so they won't be able to give up. You can just sit by the side, I won't hold it against you later."

Anna looked right into Riwall's eyes and said with a malicious smile. She was so angry that her hand could not stop shaking.

"You make sure they can't give up, I will make sure they never forget the experience."

Riwall was too emotionally invested at this moment to understand how wrong it was for a 12-year-old to say something like that.

"And what about you, Greg? Are you with us?" He asked.

Greg looked at his two friends and showed a hint of a smile before answering.

"You two are all I have left in my life, of course I will be with you all the way. Riwall will make sure they don't give up, Anna will make sure they regret what they did, and I will make sure to bring you two back home alive."

By the end, the boy who had his own mother tortured before killed was the reasonable one. Friday could do nothing but fear for the three of them.

The trio slept in the same room for the first time in almost two years.

————————————————————————————-

The safety they felt from being around each other helped them drift to sleep after some time, and when they got up, there was not a hint of hesitation in their eyes.

Riwall opened his room's door to find Eleanor already up and waiting, making Riwall realize that they overslept by quite a few hours. She led them to her office. Once they sat at the chairs, she began.

"There was another attack last night." Riwall's heart skipped a beat. "No one you knew got killed, but we lost some good people."

"In the face of such escalation of the conflict, we sent all non-essential and non-combatant personnel to the capital, Azurehall. A trustworthy family will give them shelter."

"What about my mom and my aunt?"

"We had reports of your aunt showing up at the Adventurer's Guild. I went there this morning to check on her. The clerk said that both of them were not there at all, I then asked about Hector, the clerk said he left during the night but left a note for a boy named Riwall." She then handed him a letter still sealed with wax.

When Riwall opened it, he noticed immediately how there was only one word and that it was written in some unknown language. He had made an effort to not depend on the blessing's power, so he actually learned many languages, using the blessing's power only to help in the learning process.

This time he had to activate it.

Dwarves. It was all that was written in it. He understood it immediately. Then, he burned it to a crisp.

"Thank you, Master."

"Tomorrow the fights will happen in the biggest arena of the fief. All n.o.bles will be there to watch, including the Lord himself. As much as I wish to stay here with you, I need to make sure you will be safe there. Edward has been patrolling around this building since the first attacks. Today I want you three to rest. There is nothing I can teach you on time for the fights tomorrow."

She let her stoic expression fade and adopted a worried expression, like the one a mother had for her kids.

"I never said it before as it is not something professional to do, but I love the three of you as if you were my own children. I don't consider you part of the Farsteels because of a piece of paper, but because I would throw my life away if it meant saving you. When you get into the arena tomorrow, do whatever it takes to survive. The Lord, his family, and all the other n.o.bles be dammed! Come back alive, and we will sort things out. Please."

This pulled the heartstrings of the trio, but they had a mission to accomplish.

Eleanor broke all military protocols and hugged the kids. She said a silent prayer for them and left.

The three just spend the rest of their day reading a few books about human anatomy as most n.o.bles were pure humans, sharpening their weapons and meditating to calm their nerves.

————————————————————————————-

"Dewbrook, Icebeards, and Sunvalors." The trio heard from one of the soldiers of the barracks the names of the three families they were at war with.

The three of them were finally going to leave the barracks after 4 years stuck in there. It was inevitable that they would feel reluctance and fear of what expected them outside, but none of the three dared to take a single step back or hesitate when stepping forward.

Outside, a platoon of 20 heavily armed soldiers was expecting them with a fortified carriage. They all saluted the trio in the customary way of the Azure Kingdom, which was by pumping the left side of their chests with the right hand.

The travel to the arena was slow, as all 20 soldiers were on foot in a defensive formation around the carriage. They were met with looks of scorn when the n.o.bles, and wealthy merchants saw the Farsteel crest on the carriage.

"The p.r.i.c.ks are looking down on us." Anna said emotionless.

"Ignore them, we won't be seeing them again so soon." Riwall said.

"Excuse me, soldier, what is the situation of the Farsteel family?" Greg was curious about how they were faring in the war.

The soldier walking the closest to the carriage had no reservation about talking to the kids. They were also Farsteels, after all.

"We took some heavy losses on the first two nights. But we have already reorganized and soon will retaliate. All I can say is, they won't even know what hit them by the time we burn their houses to the ground." The soldier's answer was full of contempt. Riwall could only imagine how Eleanor planned to deal with them.

"Well, soldier. You adults make sure to kill their past and present. We will make sure to kill their future in the arena today." Anna added without missing a beat. It would not be an exaggeration to say that half of the trio's bloodl.u.s.t came from the fox girl.

Instead of being shocked by hearing a 12-year-old saying something like that, the soldier showed a full smile.

"I would never expect less from a Farsteel!" The whole platoon heard the conversation and got pumped to watch the fights now.

When they got close to the arena, Riwall could hear a deafening noise from the crowd. Around twenty-thousand people were there to watch the tournament. It made Riwall feel nervous, and he even got a few shades paler, the soldier they were talking to noticed it and tried to soothe his nerves.

"Relax kid, you have been trained by our best, it is your enemies that should be worrying."

"Is it normal for this many people to come here?"

"I almost forgot you didn't leave the barracks that much. Actually, yes. There is not much to do around here during winter, so the Lord throws games every few days. It also helps in bringing people from other cities. You see, there is a big fight scheduled for the day after tomorrow and the village has been receiving many travelers who came just to watch it, once they heard about this surprise tournament, they couldn't help but come watch it too."

He gulped before thanking the soldier and trying to meditate a little.

The carriage went inside the arena through a designated entrance for that purpose. The platoon transferred the kids over to the staff of the arena, who were all affiliate members of the Marsastor family, so no one would dare to pick a fight, as it meant challenging the Lord's himself.

The silent staff led them to a staging room where they had to stay until being called to fight. The staff briefly informed the trio that 8 parties would partic.i.p.ate in a knockout bracket tournament.

Round of 8 fights:

Fight 1: Dewbrook vs Farsteel

Fight 2: Sunvalor vs Amberstein

Fight 3: Icebeard vs Mosswood

Fight 4: Lockhill vs Berdieu

Semi-Finals fights:

Fight 5: Winner of Fight 1 vs Winner of Fight 2

Fight 6: Winner of Fight 3 vs Winner of Fight 4

Final:

Winner of Fight 5 vs Winner of Fight 6

The kids changed into their combat gear and felt pressure building up in their chests. After this first fight, they would not be referred to as kids anymore.

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Theirs was the very first fight, and by divine providence or manipulation by the n.o.bles, they had the chance of fighting against all the families that had a hand in the death of their loved ones.

The crowd went silent, and the trio could faintly hear that someone was giving a speech.

"Who is that?" Anna tried to calm her nerves by chit-chatting.

"Probably the Lord, I think his name was Kester or something like that."

"You three! The Lord finished the introduction, time to show your worth!" The sudden outburst by one of the staff made all three jump to their feet.

The trio walked silently through the corridors until stopping by the door that led to the arena court.

The door opened, and they pa.s.sed through it with their heads raised high, the commoners and the Farsteels cheered for them with all their might. The former only to spite the n.o.bles, as they knew the kids were commoners too, the latter because they cared about the young ones.

Riwall looked at his left. The fox girl was wearing a medium weight armor that he made. He had no time or peace of mind to worry about aesthetics, so it was a simple brigandine armor with steel plating sheets protecting her vitals and the places more likely to be hit in a fight.

"Anna, are you ready?"

"More than ready!" Her mana was so pumped with dark mana that Riwall even suspected it was on the verge of transforming into doom mana.

Riwall then looked to his right. The shy boy was also wearing a brigandine armor, albeit much lighter than Anna's to not tire him during prolonged fights, as he would focus on ranged attacks most of the time.

"Greg, are you ready?"

"As ready as I will ever be." His mana was not so different from Anna's. He wanted to protect his friends at all costs, and for that, he pushed as much as he could to dark aspected mana.

Riwall then looked inside himself.

{Friday? You there?}

[I'm here, Riwall, and will always be.]

Riwall's mana got pumped to the extremes of the dark spectrum, and it spelled only one thing for the Dewbrooks. Doom.