Contest Of Power Starts!

The day of the tournament rises. It was held at the royal arena at the back of capital district. The royal arena was a big, tall and wide circular building; big enough to accommodate all the people of the kingdom at a time. The audience was supposed to sit on a stair-like seats carved out of rocks, whose flights where thrice as bigger than the regular ones besides the seats. The center was the main arena where all the tournament was to held, it was a circular ground but about half the size of the normal cricket ground. But still, it was more than enough as it was used only for combat sports. The ground was covered with fine dry red soil, which was supposed to provide cushion and avoid injury from petty crashes. The place itself had a different vibe to it. The place was already packed with the audience, waiting for the contest to start. I was, with all the other contestants, in the contender's Lobby waiting for further instructions. The contender's Lobby was the place built under the spectator's seats on the opposite side of the main entrance, and Royal & Noble pavilions. The Lobby wasn't as fancier like the changing rooms of any stadium in the Land of Living, today. The Lobby was just a broad rectangular room with 4-5 small windows with seats carved out of rocks just like for the audience, but the seats weren't enough for all the contestants present at the time. The environment inside was healthy and friendly at all. It was suffocating and filthy at the same time.

There were many strong-looking men and women around. There was a man having a strong presence around. He stood out in the Lobby, he also had a manly scar on his face running across from his right eye to left side of his chin through the nose. The contenders around me were all familiar with him. As I asked another guard like me about him, I found that he was a former solder of the kingdom and a War Hero. He was an admirable person. He once took out an battalion of 900 swordsmen head on, and made it out alive. He was all alone and surrounded by the enemy battalion while the reinforcements were on their way. The battle on nine hundred on one lasted around 5 hours, when the reinforcements arrived just to see a pile of 900 corpses and a man with just a scar on his face standing tall. He defeated all the 900 swordsmen with just a scar and no other injuries, not even cuts or bruises. After this, he was offered the title of 'White Knight' but he declined the offer. This happened around 600 years ago. And after the former king lost the crown and throne to King Paddleton, he left the White Army. His whereabouts were unknown, rumors had it that he was assassinated by the new King Paddleton as he was loyal to the formal king. But non of the solders and knights believed these rumors. He cried a long, rusty looking Broad Sword, with its edge full of cracks and wraps from enemy blades. The Broad Sword looked fragile. While the solders were happy to see the Hero again, they were scared too of having such a formidable opponent. When I asked them about his name, out of curiosity, they denied. They said that his name shouldn't be pronounced as per the King Paddleton's order. They fed me with more of his information, like he was able to use both types of Mana, and at his peak, he was stronger that all the knights. While I was hearing this, the Hero suddenly started walking towards me. I was surprised and scared at the same time as he had a serious look on his face all the time. He stood in front of me, I was a bit intimidated by the 6-foot tall Muscular War-Hero standing right in front to me, face-to-face. He raised his hand in front of me in, I thought he might hold my collar or something, as I was overthinking, his words were, " Hello there young man, your face is not familiar. Are you a new recruit?" I was confused as he did exactly the opposite thing that I was thinking, his hand was still raised in front of me, so I gathered courage and decided to shake them with him, as his gesture was for that. I replied, "Yes Sir, I joined around 8 months ago. And am being trained by Knights Rodrigo and Joanne." The reason he came to me was, he sensed the amount of Mana I had. He said, "So you are trained under two knights, I see. You seem strong, I am looking for a worthy opponents in this tournament, hope you are one of them. Do your best and hope we face each other." To receive such words from a War-Hero put a big smile on my face and raised my confidence to a whole different level, and suddenly I became the center of attention for everyone in the Lobby. I wanted to thank him, so I said, " Thank you sir,......um…. ......., .................*awkward silence*" He interrupted my awkwardness and said with a laughter, "Yeah, hahaha, your new. You are not familiar with me. I am Robert Bennett, also known as White Ogre, call me Ogre." And just at that very moment, the Arena Staff made an announcement, it was for us to assemble in the main arena center.

King, called out every participant in the arena, as he began his speech, "Brave warriors, I, King Paddleton, welcome you all. The tournament today, should be completed with the aim to find the strongest man worthy enough of the title of 'Knight' among the lower class." Then the announcer started, "Welcome every one~~~. The winner of today's tournament will win the title of 'Black Knight'. The rules are simple, for the qualifiers, 10 contenders enter the ring, one leaves as victor. And when the number of contestants after the qualifying round is reduced to 10, there will be a semi-final of 5 contender's battle royal. The 2 winners of the semi-finals will face off each other in a one-on-one format. ARE YOU READY!!!!!!!" The king suddenly added, "You will not punished for killing your opponents in this tournament. And if you are not happy with killing each other, be killed. We have no place vacant for cowards! Wish you rats good luck." These words were enough for us to get an idea of what king is. The king was an annoying guy, full of himself. He literally chose the word 'Rat' for every participant for the tournament. He also made an humiliating Rule that the punishment for Murder is just to lick the bottom of King's feet, while then king will kick the guilty in his face and then the person should lower his head for the king to keep his foot on his head. He was a cold-hearted and power-greedy ruler with his huge superiority complex, second to none. And with the end of King's humiliating speech, all the contestants except the starting 10 left the center of arena. And with all the other contestants being entered the Lobby, the Lobby's metal doors closed. And with this, the Contest Of Power Started.