Chapter 11

One kill became two and as weeks slowly trudged by, merging into months, the kill number on Emeric's name grew to 20...

Amongst the immense crowd of spectators he had become known as the Reaper.  A name he hated thoroughly because it reminded him of what he'd become.  A monster that brought death upon everyone and everything...

He had broken his promise to his mother...He had taken lives, but now his sole mission in life was to honour his father's last wish...He had to survive no matter what...He had to do whatever it took to stay alive.

On one particular long, tedious day in his cell, Emeric was waiting for Axel to be brought back from the Dome, but his nerves were growing on edge.  It had been a few hours since his friend had been taken...He was a seasoned warrior and usually finished his fights briskly...Staying away for hours wasn't Axel's type of thing.

As yet another hour slowly crawled by, Emeric had had enough...He started banging on his cell bars and called for a guard...After a few minutes, half a dozen came to halt the ruckus that Emeric was causing.

"Where's Axel?" he asked as the guards stopped in front of his cell.  The guards looked at him with uncomprehending eyes, "Who?" Emeric pointed to the cell opposite his. 

The guards looked at each other and then broke out in laughter, "Hope you said goodbye...He was transferred." As the one guard spoke, the others sniggered.  Emeric frowned with confusion, "Transferred where?"

Once again the guards sniggered with uncontrollable laughter.  They turned and started walking away.

"Transferred where?" Emeric desperately called after them...slamming a fist against the bars.

Without stopping, one of the guards called back to him, "To his grave."

The words seemed to physically hit Emeric and made him stumble backwards...he placed a reassuring hand on the wall, trying to keep himself from falling, but the emotions coursing through him became almost unbearable.

It couldn't be true...Axel couldn't really be dead...he was a brilliant warrior...how could he be dead?

Emeric slowed his breathing to try and calm his nerves...but it was in vain...his heart was hammering in his chest...a constant drum that reassured life... yet Axel was dead... his heart had met its final beat.

And with that the guards exited the cell hall, leaving Emeric to mourn the sudden unexpected loss of his only friend.  He had never known anyone besides his parents.  Axel had been the only other person who hadn't looked upon him with scorn.  He had made Emeric's life in the cell much more pleasant and they had become close friends...

And now...

Emeric didn't allow himself to think along those lines.

He couldn't bring himself to accept that once again, someone he cared about had been killed...and once again he hadn't been able to do anything...

Emeric tried keeping his emotions in... but they were boiling up and got too much to hold in.

"Damnit!"  Emeric yelled as he slammed his first into the cell bars...Tears threatened to spring to his eyes, however, he kept them suppressed, not willing to show his captors any form of weakness.

*****

Before the hour had passed, the guards came for Emeric...

'Not now.' He thought bitterly...

Still mourning his friend, Emeric wasn't mentally prepared for a battle...It took a lot out of him to take a life...and at the moment he didn't have much to give...If anything...

Though, he was too broken to put up a fight against the guards as they bound his wrists and led him down the cell hall. He calmed his breathing as he tried to mentally prepare himself for what he was about to do.  But he couldn't stop thinking about Axel.

Had it been a swift death?  Or had his friend suffered in his last moments.  Emeric shook his head.  He had to clear his mind...He had to focus on what lay ahead if he wanted to stay true to his father's last wishes.

They reached the set of large wooden doors that led to the arena.  Emeric lifted his eye up to the large barrier...It would open up to another battle...more bloodshed...death...and more bloodthirsty spectators.

Just before the doors were pulled open, Emeric heard the chanting from the crowds...

"Reaper...Reaper...Reaper..."

Anger surged through Emeric as the doors opened and the chanting grew into uncontrolled shouting.  He had always despised the thought of bringing death upon someone or something else, and here he was now, named after death itself...

He walked into the Dome, stopping besides the chain that dangled down from the pole up above.  He stood silent as the lock clamped shut over his cuff.  His wrists were released and he turned to face his opponent...that was when he noticed that something was different...

In the crowds, by the grand stand where Hyatt usually sat alone like a king, another man had joined him.  He reflected wealth and had a glinting look in his eyes that made Emeric shiver.  He was watching Emeric like a lion setting its eyes on its prey. 

Emeric forced his eyes off of the man and started assessing his opponent, but as soon as he watched the opposite doors opening to admit his rival, Emeric turned pale...Instead of one opponent, three walked out...They were all armed with swords...And none of them were put on the chain...Emeric tensed as he heard footsteps walked past him...It was a guard who was carrying a pitch black sword. 

He stopped a few feet out of Emeric's reach and drove the sword into the ground. 

Emeric turned his eyes back to his opponents...They all stood frozen, waiting for the starting horn to blast.  Emeric felt his muscles tense as he too waited for the  horn to sound.  He was going to have to get off the chain faster than ever before if he wanted to reach his weapon before any of his rivals got to it first. 

However, instead of the starting horn blasting, Hyatt stood up and addressed the crowds in that deep, travelling voice of his, "As I'm sure most of you gathered here today have noticed...The battle will have slightly different rules today...The objective of the warriors by the northern gate is to eliminate the warrior by the southern gate...The night bladed Reaper." 

The crowd cheered with excitement at the turn of events.  "The northern warriors are, under no circumstance, allowed to turn on each other before the Reaper has been defeated.  If they do so, they will be eliminated immediately."

Emeric swallowed as he clenched his hands into fists...Preparing for the tough battle that lay ahead.

"Let the Domers determine their fates..." Hyatt shouted over the vast arena...As his words trailed off, the starting horn sounded and the Northern warriors jumped away at a sprint, charging at Emeric.

Fear surged up in Emeric as he flew up the chain with incredible speed and an unnerving show of strength.  He reached the top and undid the lock around his cuff in half a second.  He dropped back to the ground and rolled to soften the impact.  The warriors were almost on top of him. 

He had planned it carefully.  His roll had carried him up to the pitch black sword.  As he jumped to his feet he ripped the blade free from the ground, sending bits of dirt flying into the air, and brought the ebony blade down at the closest warrior in a deadly attack. 

The warrior brought his own sword up to block the blow, but he shuddered under the impact of Emeric's horrendous strength.  The opponent struck at Emeric from his left, but Emeric easily deflected  the blow and attacked in a flurry of blinding attacks.  The warrior tried his best to block and deflect the tremendous blows, but Emeric was in another league... 

The man grunted with pain and shock as Emeric's blade suddenly thrusted into his chest and severed the heart.  The man was dead before he hit the ground.

"I'm sorry." Emeric softly whispered as he moved on to his next opponent.  He brought his sword round in an under cut as he turned.  The angle of the blow was hard to deflect and only a master warrior could escape the attack unscathed.  Emeric's opponent blocked it almost effortlessly.

Their swords were locked as the warriors met eyes.  Emeric was about to pull back and throw another attack, but before he could will his arms to go through with the action, his brain registered the doubt in the young warrior's eyes.

"I never thought I'd ever see the Reaper fight in person." Axel stated as he hesitantly lowered his blade.

Emeric stared at him with wide eyed disbelief, "They said you were dead." He explained as more disbelief washed through him.  Axel raised his eyebrow, "Come on, Emeric, it's not that easy to get rid of me."

Before Emeric could answer he felt a horrendous pain as the remaining warrior sliced at his back, leaving a long wound stretched over Emeric's back...He had to do his best to ignore the hot tickle as blood ran down his lower back...Emeric hastily turned to face the other opponent who was moving in from his left.  Axel shot him a questioning look, "Together?"

Emeric nodded his head as he charged at his opponent.  The offensive move drove doubt into the other man.  He brought his weapon up to deflect a blow from Emeric, but while he was distracted by the Rogue, Axel had come up beside him and drove his own sword into the man's side.

He fell with a cry of pain as he clutched his bleeding wound.  He had unintentionally dropped his sword and scrambled for it when he saw Emeric watching, but Emeric wasn't the foe...Axel stepped closer again kicked the man to the ground.  He stared down at the fear filled man on the floor with something similar to amusement and then drove his sword into the struggling man's chest...halting his suffering.

Emeric had turned away from the man's suffering.  He always tried to drop his opponents in the least painful, quickest way.  Axel obviously had other ways of doing things. Emeric had been relieved when he had seen his friend alive and seemingly unharmed...but in return Axel had shocked Emeric in an unpleasant way with his brutality in the Dome.

"We make a good team." Axel stated, but Emeric wasn't listening to him.  His eyes were on Hyatt.  The Dome Keeper look extremely displeased.  And then Emeric realised that Axel had broken the rules of the fight...He had attacked the Northern warrior before Emeric had been eliminated. 

Emeric turned on his heal to face Axel...to warn him...but as his eyes landed on his friend he felt his heart drop.  Axel's face was a grimace of pain...an immense arrow in his chest.

"No!" Emeric cried as he rushed forward to catch Axel as fell forward.  Emeric softly lowered Axel to the ground so that he was lying on his back. 

"Hold on Axel." Emeric said as he fearfully glanced around for something...anything, he could use to save his friend...But there was nothing.

Axel glanced up at Emeric with foggy eyes, "I always wanted...to join you...in here..." He said in between pain filled grunts.  Emeric placed a comforting hand on Axel's shoulder, "Hold on, you're going to be fine."

Axel slowly shook his head, "No...my time has come..." Emeric shook his head as tears started building up in his eyes.  His chest was tight with emotions. 

"Don't you dare die now, Axel...Please..." Emeric demanded in a pleading tone.  Axel coughed up blood and grimaced in pain, but he met Emeric's eyes one last time. "You're good, Emeric...stay alive...live for the both...of us..." Axel blinked a few times as more blood run from his lips...

He let out one final, soft sigh.  The life drained from his eyes and he was left just staring blankly at the sky.

"No, Axel...Please." Emeric said as he shook Axel's shoulder, but Axel was gone...And this time there was no chance he was coming back. 

"Please"  Emeric whispered as sadness enveloped him...

Swallowing his grief, Emeric got to his feet and met Hyatt's eyes with enough ferocity to burn a hole through the Dome Keeper.  Hyatt seemed to shrink away from the anger in Emeric's eyes. 

The crowds didn't cheer as they usually did after Emeric was declared the champion.  They saw the complete anger that Emeric was portraying and they feared that he would direct his wrath at them.

The Southern gates opened and guards came out to take Emeric back to his cell.  Before they reached him he bent down over Axel and lightly closed his friend's eyes.

He sighed sadly.  Regretting the death of his only friend.  "I'll do it..." he said softly, "I'll live for the both of us..."