Chapter 8: Escaping

"Alriiight." A man in front of us, slurred, "I'll give you two minutes to sacrifice two of you guys to go outside and enter the arena. If you die, don't blame meee."

"I'll go." Luke immediately volunteered, "It's too dangerous for the rest of you guys. How about, Rei and I go, since we're the strongest."

"You don't have to take so much responsibility…" I urged, "There's probably going to be some professional fighters out there."

"Don't worry about me." Luke grinned, "My years of sword lessons won't go to waste!"

"Honestly, you're such a good person." Rei sighed, "It's a good plan. But explain to me, why aren't we sacrificing Easton?"

"TIMES UP!" The man declared, "All of you, follow me."

The man flung open the door and right light streamed in.

"Two of you, sit here." The man gestured to one of the many seats. "The other two, follow me."

Luke and Rei followed the man while Easton and I awkwardly sat, with our arms tied back with ropes.

"Laaadies and Gents!" The host declared, "WELCOME TO OUR SHOW! The round, we have some of our regular favourites AND some children to add in some spice! Let's see how they'll last, eh?"

I looked around at the spectators and saw many muscular men with scars and daggers and barely any woman.

"Great!" Easton sighed, "JUST our luck to get kidnapped in an illegal show. Oh wow- I still have some gold coins in my pocket! Maybe I can buy some alcohol!"

"There they are!" I gasped, as Rei and Luke with his sword, entered the arena, along with other muscular fighters.

"Yeeeah… They're not gonna last." Easton winced, "Those other competitors have probably at least got twenty-six kilograms of muscles as well as sharp weapons."

"AND LET THE MATCH START!" The host roared.

"Who did you bet on?" A pair of muscular men asked each other.

"I chose last year's winner, 'Blood Dragon'." The man with the eyepatch smirked, scratching the scar that stretched across his face.

"Ohohoho!" The man with speckled blood on his face, turned towards us, "What do we have heeere?"

The crowd roared as Rei just knocked out a grown man.

"Woah!" The man with blood on his face exclaimed, "Well, you kids might be getting rich soon! You placed your bets on your little friends, right?"

"…I didn't bring any money." I answered politely.

"My calculations were wrong!" Easton groaned, "I placed my bets on the tallest man, I should've placed them on Rei or Luke…"

"You have… a lot of faith in Rei and Luke." I muttered dryly.

Luke knocked a man flying out of the ring and the crowd gasped.

"What, just who are your friends!!" The eyepatch man shook Easton frantically, while gaping at Luke, "I thought they were children!"

"Come to think of it, I don't really know these people." Easton calmly and honestly replied while being swung wildly in arches in the air.

Finally, only three people remained. A dark-haired man, and Rei and Luke.

The dark-haired man backed into the corner of the ring while sweating profusely, "U-uhhh. You guys have to decide who will beat me up! Whoever fights me will probably lose a lot of of energy, and probably won't win against the final fighter."

"He is speaking logic…" Rei nodded, crossing his arms.

"Then we'll beat you up together, fair and square." Luke smiled with menace.

"You're a genius." Rei agreed, cracking his knuckles.

"W-wait!" The dark-haired man argued, "Think about the reward! Only one of you two can get the prize!"

"How about we split it?" Luke asked nonchalantly as he attacked the dark-haired man.

"Sounds good to me." Rei replied calmly as he and Luke fought together.

Finally, the dark-haired man was flung out of the ring.

"LADIESSS AND GENTS!" The host declared, "THESE ARE OUR FINAL TWO! HOW WILL THEY FIGHT EACH OTHER? WILL THIS BATTLE BE EVEN MORE EXCITING!?"

"Rock... Paper… Scissors…" Luke murmured, as Rei and he sat on the ground.

"Ahaha!" Rei cackled, "I win!"

"Congratulations." Luke thumped Rei on the back.

*Absolute silence*

"…Are you mocking me?!" The host fumed, his elemental fire power enveloping him, "How. Dare. You. Whoever catches them alive and drags to me, will earn the reward money!"

That caught everyone's attention as they all stared at Rei and Luke with hungry eyes.

"Run!" Luke grabbed my hand, dragging me towards and exit.

Easton ran behind us, while Rei ran in front. As we neared the doors, Rei swung open the door,

"Get in. Hurry up." Rei waited until all of us entered and slammed the door.

We entered a dark hallway, only lit by dim, flickering candlelight's.

"What now?" Easton groaned.

"I'll run towards the left and lead them after me." Rei commanded, "You guys run right and escape."

"But will you be alright?" Luke asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I won't die." Rei shrugged, "Now shoo."

"I really didn't want to do this…" Easton sighed, "But I'll go with you, Rei. That way, I'll make sure you won't die."

"No wait." Rei denied, "You'll just bother me, so don't c-"

*BANG!*

The door finally gave in and wood splinters went flying everywhere.

"Go, go!" Luke bustled, "See you later! Stay safe!"

All of us split and started running,

"I'm sorry, I should've at least pretended to fight with Rei." Luke apologised.

"It's fine." I answered, "It's the host's fault that he's just so petty."

Footsteps thundered behind us as we randomly ran. As we darted down the never-ending staircase. We finally reached a large dungeon. Crimson blood stained the floor rats scuttled across the floor. We glanced around and noticed a torturing room with a large, unlocked, metal door.

Bingo.

We sprinted towards the room, I made it inside, with Luke following right behind me. Just as Luke had one foot inside, a man dragged him back. Luke's violet eyes widened before he grabbed the door and slammed the door shut, leaving me, safe inside and Luke stuck with the rest of the criminals.

"What a shame…" Someone muttered, "We only caught one of them."

"We can still return him for money."

"We'll split the gold equally, eh?"

As their voices faded away, dragging Luke with them, I pounded on the door, trying to find a way to chase after them. I only hoped Luke could stay safe and not try anything risky, he wouldn't be able to fight all of them at once…

***

REI:

Of all my luck, I just had to be stuck with the idiot…

First, I had to develop a strategy. As we ran, I glanced around the building to see anything that would be of use for me. I picked up a stray pebble and threw it at the closest window. Glass shattered everywhere, which inevitably prevented many of my pursuers to continue chasing after me. I turned behind me to check if Easton was still there.

He was casually eating some meat, while running.

"Why are you eating?" I asked with clear disgust, "You're going to have an indigestion."

"Are you judging me?!" Easton gasped. "I just randomly found it on someone's plate, while you guys were fighting, and it was untouched!"

"…you do realize that it's rat meat… right?!" I demanded, horrified.

"…Wait what?" Easton questioned in the quietest voice I had heard from him.

As we rounded the corner, quick footsteps echoed from someone behind us. A man with numerous daggers chased after us, until he grabbed Easton's collar and yanked him back. I looked him up and down.

I could probably beat him.

Just as I prepare to start fighting, another two people appeared by his side.

"We've got you!" A woman sneered, unsheathing a dagger.

"DON'T RUN OR WE'LL KILL THE SILVER HEAD BOY!" A man cackled.

"…I surrender." I raised a hand, smiling peacefully.

Three versus me is a bit much…

"You thought you could escape me?!" The woman grabbed Easton's throat, "Don't kid yourself."

As the woman continued to cackle and mock us, I noticed Easton's face go paler.

Please don't tell me…

Easton yanked himself from the woman's hold with inhuman force and vomited on the ground, thankfully, away from his shoes.

An uncomfortable silence clotted the air and I winced in embarrassment.

Sometimes, Easton was unbelievably stupid.

"…Girl." One of her lackeys asked, "Is your breath that bad?"

The woman stared at Easton with horror and covered her mouth.

I did warn him not to eat the rat meat…

As I attempted to sneak off with Easton, a man grabbed my arm,

"CHASE AFTER THE OTHER ONE!" He roared, clearly indicating Easton.

However, as we peered around the corner, Easton had disappeared.

***

Luke:

I sat in the middle of the ring, tied up with ropes. I could only hope that everyone was safe. Rei entered the arena, dragged by some men and was thrown beside me.

"Don't worry about it." Rei smirked, "I've activated the tracking device that your parents placed on Easton. They should know where we are now."

Honestly, I wasn't surprised anymore about how Rei could activate a high-tech tracking device with such ease.

"I have caught you with ease." The host mocked, "Currently, the little girl is stuck inside the torturing room, however, it won't take long before some men I sent will break in."

My blood chilled. I had hoped that Easton and Ivory had escaped, but it seems that Ivory could be in trouble.

"They are under my command to… give her a few scars." The host taunted, "And I'll be giving you the pleasure to view all this."

A large, magical viewing machine (Kinda like a television) was rolled in by many men and the host shot charged it on by fuelling it with his power. Turns out there were several viewing devices (These are like cameras), scattered across the building. No wonder they found us so quickly.

"And this is where you'll see your sister." The host smirked.

He shot some magical light at the machine and the screen flickered to…

Easton sticking his face up close to a viewing device, picking his nose.

"That idiot…" I heard Rei sigh beside me.

"Oh, is this working now?" Easton asked, "Heeey everyone! Unfortunately, I can't see you, but hopefully I can hear you."

"Why is the viewing device displaying him?!" The host complained, "I can't change channels!"

"Let me tell you a story." Easton announced proudly, "I happened to be one of the lucky prodigies how developed power at age three. I had fire power, which eventually mutated to 'Fire Bomb' power."

This was not the time to hear about Easton's story, Ivory could be getting attacked now.

"Like me, you have fire power and you've fuelled it with your magic." Easton continued on, "Since I had years if training to experiment with my powers, I can control the magic you installed in the devices and destroy all of them, except this one."

"Please tell me he won't do something stupid and kill himself." Rei sighed, "I don't want to clean his blood off the floor."

I was good that Easton was safe, or I wouldn't know how to explain the situation to our father. Hopefully Ivory would be safe as well.

"I will give you a minute." Easton seriously stated, "Release me and the other children, and I won't activate the fire bombs I have placed around the building. I can simply flick my fingers, and these bombs will set everything in a ten-meter span to burst into flames."

"Don't be silly, your other friends will die as well." The host smirked.

"I can simply manipulate the bombs to stay away from them." Easton shrugged leisurely. "Some of you may survive, but majority will die here today."

The host's eyes darted nervously before…