Chapter Eight

Silence looked over at Leo. He was sleeping soundly on the ground and lightly snoring. The sun was slowly rising, and the wind was becoming a tad bit heavier.

Silence had stayed up the entire night before, keeping watch of everything and scanning the area to make sure his father wasn't close. In truth he was a bit nervous about his dad randomly showing up. If he did then that would mean that he would have to grab Leo and run again, because he definitely didn't have the strength to fight.

The thing was, he wasn't so sure he had the strength to hold Leo either. His body was still very much in pain, and he could barley hold his own head up. He was tired, very tired but there was no way he could just go to sleep.

Not only was there his dad to worry about, but Leo wasn't strong enough to fight off large predators or weird people who might come down roads and try to pick them up. He had to stay up, even if he didn't want to.

The sun was slowly rising making the brightness of it fall down and land on Leo's face. Silence inhaled deeply and closed his eyes. He leaned his head against a rock that was on the ground and swallowed.

Silence forced his eyes opened as he felt his body slowly fall into slumber. He wiped his eyes and crawled over to Leo and began to shake him. Leo groaned quietly and his eyes slowly opened. He squinted as the sun stared at him and turned his head to look at Silence.

A long yawn left his mouth making Silence yawn as well. Leo sat up and began to wipe his eyes. He looked up at Silence through his fingers.

"Huh?" He asked.

"We've gotta start walking. I think there might be a city down there." Silence pointed down towards the opposite direction.

Leo started at him for a little longer with a perplexed face expression.

"Huh?"

Silence repeated himself this time louder and slower.

"Oh," Leo nodded his head. He looked at Silence for longer and walked up to him. "You look tired."

"I'm fine." Silence stood up and took out his knives. They were all still bloodstained, but despite that Silence began to twirl them in his hands and looked down the road. He hoped there really was a city down there.

"You need sleep." Leo moved his hands up to Silence's eyes and stared deep into them. Silence backed away as he stared at Leo's concerned face. He moved Leo's hands from his face and smiled.

"I had enough sleep. Let's just head to the city." He turned and began to walk.

Leo worriedly followed and looked down at Silence's hands which were still holding on tightly to the knives. Silence listened to Leo start to talk about the city and how his dad bought him souvenirs from his travels there.

Silence began to think about Nahla and his dad. He hoped that Nahla was safe, that she wasn't captured or worse, dead. His dad would do something crazy like that, kill her, just to prove a point. Just to remind him that he wasn't joking.

The two walked for a long time, both of them trying to ignore their blistering feet. Although Silence had said he was fine, that he had enough sleep and that his stomach was okay, Leo could tell he was in pain. Every once in a while he would limp and he gripped onto his stomach with each pounding walk, but continued to listen to Leo talk and responded whenever he could.

Silence interacted with Leo and he'd look back at him to make sure he was okay. At one point he even made Leo stand in front and walked behind him. Leo spoke most of the time, sometimes he would stutter or never finish a sentence as if not really collecting his thoughts as he spoke.

"Hey you hear that?" Leo asked and stopped talking.

Silence listened closely and the sound of distant cars could be heard. The two looked at each other and then began to run towards the direction. Cars. That meant there really could be a city or at least a town nearby.

Leo smiled and picked up his speed. His face became filed with happiness as he ran and he spread his arms apart. A whoop of joy left his mouth making Silence look over at him and smile.

He had just been through probably one of the most traumatic things in his life, and yet here he was smiling and running like nothing mattered. Was that what was different between him and village kids? Because he dwelled on the past too much and they didn't?

A large billboard came into view. It said 'Welcome to New Bala City' and there were pictures of large buildings and birds. Leo screamed happily and pointed at the billboard.

"You see that?! We're at our first destination! Look! Look! Woo hoo!" Leo jumped up and down. He twirled happily as he approached the billboard.

Silence smiled at him then looked ahead where he saw cars, tall buildings and so many people. People everywhere, way more people than there were at the Village of Peace. There were elderly, teenagers, children, young adults. People of all ages, shapes and sizes, all doing different things.

The city was loud and bustling with life. No one was even aware that the village next to them was attacked by Ace Spades.

"Whoa." Leo walked next to him and stared at everything. His eyes got bigger along with his smile. "My dad was here before! He told me all about when he came back! I heard…" he began to talk about what his dad told him.

Silence started to walk making Leo follow. The deeper into the city he got the louder everything around him became. Some people walked in and out of stores, going in with nothing and coming out with large bags, others drove in cars and laughed with the driver.

Leo pointed at nearly everything he saw and exclaimed happily. He jumped up and down which caused some people to look over at them.

"There's posters everywhere!" Leo screamed and ran over to a poster.

A flyer flew over to Silence and smacked him in the face. Silence quickly moved his hand up and grabbed it. He looked down at the words on the paper and a small smile grew on his face.

"I think I might've found a place for us to sleep." He said as he stared at the pamphlet. Leo looked down at the paper in his hands.

"Can you read it out loud?" He asked.

Silence looked up at him. Could he really not read? Were the bullies telling the truth?

"I can read," Leo spoke as if his face expression was enough to tell him what he was thinking "I just understand better when someone reads it out loud… in small words please."

Silence raised an eyebrow and then looked back at the paper.

"I CAN read." Leo repeated.

"I know, I'm not doubting you Leo." Silence assured him "The paper is about a place. It's called Sweet Arena."

Silence began to explain that the Sweet Arena was a place where people fought for homes. Yes, literally fight. The more fights that you won, the bigger the room you got, but the higher you got in fights the tougher the opponents became. As Silence read off of the paper he tried his best to change the bigger words into smaller, more easier to understand words.

"But your sick. There's no way you can fight, and what if you get hurt badly." Leo opposed.

"It's either that or sleep on the street." Silence looked up from the paper. "And plus did you forget that I'm an assassin? I'm sure these people couldn't even make a dent. Not unless they're bigger than my dad."

Leo frowned and took the paper. He looked down at it then back up at Silence.

"Okay…" he spoke in a unsure voice.

"It'll be fine, as long as we just have a place for tonight then we're good." Silence smiled assuringly.

The two began to go towards the direction of Sweet Arena unaware that they would be face to face with an opponent larger than they ever would've expected.

Silence knew that Leo was worried, but this was their only option. If they wanted to sleep somewhere comfortable, or at least get inside he had to fight. It didn't matter if he was sick, he just needed to knock a few people down and then he would be able to go to sleep.

He just had to push a little harder. A littler farther. Just a little more.

Silence stared at the large building and looked up at it. Leo did the same, his eyes admiring the glass and cement. Silence stared at the door and read the words Sweet Arena. He pushed open the door and held it open for Leo.

Inside the building was much colder. There were people. Some sitting around, others in lines. Some were big and buff while others were skinny and short. Leo anxiously looked around at all of the people.

"Some of these guys are really big." He said.

"The big guys are always the softies, plus I don't think they're all here to fight, I think some are here to watch." Silence said and walked into the line.

Leo followed him and continued to nervously look around. The line moved up quickly, and the people before him seemed to know exactly what to do and what to say, as if they were there plenty of times before.

The first few fights were supposed to be easy, and from what was on the brochure, all he needed to do was to fight a certain amount of people to have a big enough room for the two of them. Silence walked up to the window.

"The tickets are over there." The lady pointed to a different line.

"I'm not here to buy tickets, I'm here to fight." Silence said.

The lady stared at him in disbelief for a moment and then looked down at a bunch of papers. She began to sort through them.

"Well, your lucky there isn't an age restriction." She said and sighed "Do you know the rules?"

"Uh… no."

The lady took out a big paper and handed it to Silence.

"Rule numero uno, no weapons. These fights are hands only. No knives, guns or any other weapon you can think of. Rule two, you need to fight and beat five people before you can get your first room. The more people you fight and beat the higher up the building you get and the higher you get, the tougher the opponents are." She began to file her nails and blew on them.

"What happens if you don't beat your opponent?" Silence asked as he read the paper.

"You go down a room. You get free access to gyms and showers, and once you hit level twenty you start getting money for each fight you win. Oh yeah and sign this." She grabbed a different paper and handed it to him. Silence took a pen and opened it.

"What's that?" Leo looked down at the paper.

"That there is your signature saying that if you get hurt or killed, it's not our fault." She blew on her nails again.

"I'm sorry did you say killed?!" Leo's voice was filled with distress.

"Well once you get to the higher levels some people may go to that extent, but that paper also says that if you kill someone you'll be almost immediately taken to jail. It also says that we aren't responsible for the reckless mistakes you make, and that you get free access to the nurse."

"Smaller words please." Leo said.

"Once I get to the very big people that are strong and hard to fight, some might try to kill me, but if they do they'll get took to jail." Silence spoke clearly and slowly as he signed his name.

The woman took the paper and looked down at his signature. Her eyes widened as she stared at his name and she sat up. She put away the nail filer and quickly cleaned off her desk. A nervous laugh left her mouth.

"Silence Spades. You could've just said your name and we would've let you right in." She nervously joked and typed something in the computer.

Leo looked at her confused and then the realization dawned on him.

"No need to call me by my full name. Actually is it okay if you just have Silence on there? I don't wanna cause too much attention to myself." Silence asked.

"Of course." The girl typed faster.

"If anyone asks, it's just Silence."

The girl nervously laughed and handed him a list of people's names.

"Those are all the people you can go against. Remember you need to beat at least five people for a room." She told him.

"Thanks." Silence turned away and walked over to one of the chairs. He sat down on one of them. Leo sat down next to him and looked down at the names. "Okay we've gotta pick five people."

"Why do all of their names sound so tough." Leo muttered.

Silence smiled. He began to say the names out loud and asked Leo if he should fight them. Leo complained about the names being too rude or rough. He made up plenty of excuse's as to why he shouldn't fight those people, but eventually the two narrowed down to five people and Silence got ready to go out and fight.

"I'll be in the crowd." Leo said and walked to the other door. His face was still filled with worry, but he managed to put a smile on his face and walked towards the audience seats.

Silence entered the doors to the arena and looked around at all of the people exercising and stretching. The sound of a loud ding noise made Silence look up and he saw a large board with people's name on it. Next to his name was Bill Frankford his first opposer.

Suddenly Silence felt his head start to hurt. Of course, this was the worst time for him to start feeling sick again. Silence took the knives from his pockets and began to twirl them in his hands.

Some people looked over at him and their eyes landed on the bloody weapon. Confidence and fear was the best way to trick your opponents mind, Silence had learned that when he was younger.

A loud speaker came on.

"For our next fight we have Bill Frankford v.s Silence uh anonymous." The announcer said.

The crowd cheered and people clapped as Silence walked out onto the rank. Bill walked out as well. He looked weak. His body was very skinny and bony but Silence decided to not underestimate him. It was better safe than sorry.

Silence's vision became a little hazy and his head throbbed. He placed his knives down making sure to show everyone that he had no weapons at all.

"Begin!" The refry screamed and backed away from the stage.

Silence wasted no time circling around Bill. Instead he walked up to him calmly as if he wasn't in much pain and lifted his hand. Using a little of his strength he pushed Bill and he fell back.

Well… that was easy. He barley used his strength. Was his push really that hard? Bill roughly hit his head on the ground and he groaned loudly. The crowd screamed loudly and the ref blew a whistle.

Did he win already? That was quick…

The next few rounds for Silence were so easy that he gave up on the underestimating part. As soon as the whistle blew he just walked up to the person he was supposed to fight and pushed them making them knock over and hit their heads on the ground.

When they finally did get up some threatened a rematch saying that they weren't ready and that they weren't gonna loose to a kid. Silence allowed them to have a rematch and did the same exact thing, they fell over again.

It got to the point that it was so easy that Silence didn't even have to put effort into it anymore. He began to fight more than just five people to have a larger room, and he did the same thing over and over again.

He beat all of these grown men and women with a singular push. Was he really that strong? Sure he was trained with the worlds famous assassins, but he didn't think he was THAT strong. Perhaps it was just because he was on the lower levels.

Over the course of the entire night Silence got all the way to level ten without even trying. Then finally he stopped and went to meet up with Leo again who was cheering louder with each fight.

Silence smiled as he approached Leo and Leo screamed happily and hugged him.

"You knocked them all over so easily! And that one guy got so mad!" Leo exclaimed happily and began to talk about how he got the key and how cool it was to watch Silence.

Silence began to follow Leo down the hallways pass different doors. Even though Silence's body was sore and in pain, he continued to smile at Leo as he pushed the key into the hole and pushed the door open.

The door made a click sound and Silence entered. The room was big, well bigger than he expected anyway. There were two beds, a desk and a t.v that was against the wall. Silence dropped his body on one of the beds and let out a long, tired sigh.

He groaned and closed his eyes. Leo walked up to him and began to help him lay on the bed comfortably. Another breathy groan left Silence's mouth as he moved over. He looked over at Leo and smiled as he stared at his flushed cheeks.

"Sorry, I'm just really tired." Silence admitted and moved his hand over on his forehead.

"You should get some sleep." Leo said and backed away to the other bed. He sat down on it and continued to look at Silence.

"I know," Silence croaked and inhaled deeply.

"My god." Leo wheezed and moved his hands up to his face.

"What?"

"Nothing." Leo shook his head.

Silence raised an eyebrow and then looked back up at the roof.

"Your face is still red."

Leo groaned and shook his head.

"Anyway, like I was saying you should sleep, don't you have to fight more people tomorrow?" He asked.

"You sure you'll be okay up on your own?"

Leo nodded his head and smiled. Silence twisted his body to be in a different position. He blinked a few times, still staring at Leo and then felt his heavy eyes finally close.

He felt his body drift away and sink deeper into the bed. He loosened up, and allowed his hair to fall over his forehead. He could tell Leo was still staring at him, but he decided to ignore it and go to sleep.

Finally. It felt like it was forever since he was laying in a bed, but in reality it was really only one day. Now he could get some real sleep.

Silence fell into deep slumber, blinded at the thought of the competitors on level eleven.