I ALMOST DIE- HAHA

Maybe the only great thing that happened to me till now was food. I got my own table if you call a rusty blue box, which mysteriously smelled of butter popcorn. Atlanteans really needed to work on their sense of taste.

I picked up the pie which one of the kids had placed in front of me, after staring at me. The other kids I noticed were having a rather normal dinner, brown bread sandwiches.

The pie tasted like butter popcorn, I put it down. The Gargle beside me picked up his club and yelled, “Eaty-eaty or beaty-beaty”.

“Okay, okay, diaper man. See”, I said, taking a bite, “I am eating”.

“Bah!”

That was the end of the conversation, I was making an effort to eat the butter popcorn pie, when a husky voice yelled, “Newbie”.

I set my pie on the table, thanking my stars. I wished I didn’t because Luna was standing in front of me wearing a rusty brown armour.

“What is it?”

“It’s time!”, she hollered into my face.

“What is the time?”I asked, wiping my hands with a handkerchief.

Luna looked startled for a minute, “Time- doesn’t matter. It is time”.

I blinked, “Time for what?”

She grinned at me evilly, the corners of her mouth twitched, “The trial”.

I was about to get up, when I felt an iron grip on my shoulders. I let out a soft yelp.

“It hurts doesn’t it? It will hurt more if you do not do as I say”.

The boy was maybe a year or two older to me, tall and pale, with extremely blond hair, which appeared white.

I looked to my other side, the guy-twin was staring at me with a dangerous look in his face.

“You need to be taught what we do to punks who misbehave with us”, he hissed.

I did some kicking and plenty of punching, but the thick black jackets, which I presumed were bullet proof guttered all my efforts.

The boys dragged me away from the leaky-restaurant and Luna was leading them.

“Leave me”, I gargled. I had heard myself, so I was pretty sure I wasn’t muted, however they seemed to ignore me.

I could not see properly as the tall guy had kept his hand on my eyes, but through his fingers I saw, they had taken me far from the others.

I heard a soft clang, and the boys pushed me forward. I had to struggle to maintain balance, “See this”, Luna snickered, “he isn’t anybody special”.

The boys were standing behind her with their arms folded, “Why have you brought me here?”

“You like swimming, Phoenix?”, Luna hissed.

Just as she said it, a smell entered my nose. I looked behind to see a small hole in the ground, there was a concrete circle around. There was a sound of splashing inside, probably fast flowing water. It was a sewer, and it smelled like human sewers. I saw the rust around the metal pipes below the concrete. The water was dark and murky, and was filled with what we have in a human sewer.

“It's fishy time Bracer”, Luna crackled, very happy with herself.

“Leave him”

I strained my neck to see where the sound was coming from. Luna of course was visibly offended by the interruption to my swimming schedule. Suhani was standing a few meters from us, Alph and Dream stood behind.

“Ooo”, Luna hooted, “Cinderella, has come with her mice”.

The boys beside Luna put on their black helmets. “Cinderalla is getting softy- softy for our fishy”, Luna quacked, “come on boys let's put the fishy in the river”.

“No, you cannot”, the boys gripped my neck and bent me over, “come on fishy, go swim”, the boy twin cracked, who’s name I did not yet know. I struggled to maintain my balance, I wasn’t mentally prepared to go swimming in the sewer, I doubt it was even possible to be prepared for it.

I squirmed as the boys pushed harder, I slipped out of their grip, and punched the tall guy on his visor. The visor shattered on impact, and the boy stumbled and fell down. Luna turned to look at me, “You runt”, she touched the fists of her hands together.

I remember flying, a mysterious force, struck my chest. I heard a wailing sound as I flew into the sewer.

There was a crack as I struck the surface inside the sewer. It took me a while to realise, I wasn’t inside the sewage. I was sprawling on a huge clean slab of ice, I could see the sewage passing below the slab. The smelly sewage was everywhere, other than where I was sitting, there was a circle of ice around me. I stood up, my legs were shaky. I picked up my ring which had fallen on the ground and put it on my finger.

I jumped to grasp the concrete portion of the sewer and pulled myself out.

I rolled over on the ground and stood up in the offensive position.

“How did you . . .?”, Alph began.

Luna stared at me with angry round eyes, “what are you waiting for, put him back inside”, she yelled at the boys.

The twin was a little shaky, but the tall guy ran over to me, taking huge strides. I know I shouldn’t have done it, but I couldn’t control myself.

I punched him in the face- my fist fitted perfectly into the broken visor. The boy shuddered wildly on contact, and fell down to his knees, clutching his face.

I put my arm around his waist and pushed him in the sewer. He yelled as he fell, there was a huge splash as he dropped into the unfrozen sewage below. Water rocketed out of the sewer and Luna and her brother gasped as it fell on them.

“What did you . .”, Luna hissed as she tried to remove the sewage from her hair. She pulled out the iron rod from her pocket.

“Back of Loony-toons, unless you want to cliff dive into the sewer”, I said nodding at the boy who had just pulled himself out of the sewer and was spluttering something from his mouth. I prefer not to describe what it was.

Her brother gawked at me, as he strained to pull his sister back, “New boy”, Luna rasped, “I will make you pay, in the worst way possible”, she yelled as her brother pulled her away.

I should have been scared but I wasn’t. I walked over to where Suhani and the others were standing, they were staring at me wide-eyed. “How did you . . .?”Dream started, “how come you’re not wet and smelly?”

“I don’t know”

“I guess”, Alph said softly, “it has something to do with your Occult”.

“Occult?”, I quacked.

“Your ability, only Atlanteans have them. It differentiates us from the Dardians. Wait let me demonstrate”, Alph closed his eyes for a second, his brow tensed, “punch me”.

“You’re kidding right? You’ll die”.

“No seriously”, he said, opening one of his eyes, “punch me”.

“Sure?”, I asked unconvinced.

“Yeah, sure”.

I punched him in the stomach, and expected him to reel down on the floor and sob like a baby. Instead my arm passed right through his stomach as if it was nothing but smoke.

“What was that?”

“My Occult”, he said, “I’m a phaser”.

“Woah, what’s mine?”

He let out a loud sigh, as I noticed his body solidify, “Yours, I guess”, he began, “It is still developing, we should find out within a few days”.

I looked over to Suhani who was staring at me, “What?”, I said, shrugging. “What are you thinking?”.

She continued to stare at me. I couldn’t make out whether she was impressed, or just planning to punch me in the face.

“I’m thinking”, she said, “that I might have underestimated you”.

*******

The pillars were exactly, like you would not expect them to be. To begin with, they were located far at the end of the camp. There was a small pond between the trees which was fed by the lake, in it stood a massive nine by twelve by eight arrangement of tall marble pillars. Each pillar was almost at a distance of one and a half feet from the next. A long stairway on both sides led up to the first pillar which was the biggest of all.

I stood towering above the rest who were on the banks of the pond cheering loudly.

The crowd parted as Oblin and Hatchet walked through, “My friends”, Oblin began, “we gather here tonight, to witness the forty-third ring battle of the year”. There was a deafening roar as the kids cheered. “Tonight, our competitor, Bracer Phoenix will be fighting for his place in cabin eight as well as at Zubengeuse. If he loses, he shall lose his cabin and be forever banned from Zubegeuse”, he spoke the last few words softly.

At the other end of the pillars, I saw a big dinosaur of a kid, Hadard Pulkiesy stride up. Alph had prepared me mentally but I was still surprised. A guy of his size must have enough space to park a school bus in his lungs. He snarled as he trailered himself opposite to me and grunted to a halt.

There was no countdown, just a ‘ting’ and the fight began.

Hadard charged at me like an mentally unstable African elephant jumping over the pillars, in a way I thought wasn’t possible.

Skip to the next few seconds, Hadard was almost onto me and all I had yet managed to do was hop a single step. That to barely managing not to slip, I was trained to fight alright- but not like this.

Hazard turned to face me, I couldn’t run, so might as well fight. I dug my fist into his face, drawing out blood, some of it was his, and the rest was mine from where my skin had peeled. I pulled my arm back and catapulted it on his face for the second time, Hadard groaned as he moved back, covering his nose. It was turning out a lot easier than I had imagined, but soon I wished I hadn’t thought so, with a few kicks Hadard was kneeling down in front of me tightly clutching his stomach. The crowd cheered for every punch I landed on him. Hadard got up on his feet slowly, I readied myself for the roundhouse kick.

Hadard stood a few meters away, rubbing the sand off his hairy arms and then put one of his legs forward, a typical defensive position. I lashed out a few punches which bounced off his huge stomach and chest. He scrambled back and the rabbit punched me in the face, I felt a shock surge through my body as I stumbled and fell back onto the ground.

Hadard snapped his arm, and a green leafy whip-like thing appeared in his hands. I tried to get out of the way, but the whip struck me right in the chest. I felt the warm blood flowing out of my wound, soiling my shirt beneath the jacket. I barely heard the kids around me cheering for Hadard. He hit me again, and again, I tasted blood in my mouth.

I looked for my Occult inside me, waiting for something to happen, but if it was there inside it did not respond to my call.

‘Come on Bracer get up, find the stake. ‘fight’, I thought.

He grabbed me by my head, his whips dug into my scalp, and lifted me off the ground until I was dangling on the tips of my toes. He slammed his hand into my ribs twice where they were bleeding. I winced as pain rippled across my chest. ‘Concentrate Bracer, concentrate’, I told myself. I swung my arms at him, the blow felt sluggish the minute I launched it. Hadard smirked as he parried the blow with ease, before I could even register the block, he whipped me again, into the ribs again, which sent another wave of pain right upto my head, which shuddered on impact. I did not fall, I absolutely made sure I wouldn’t. I knew if I fell, I wouldn’t be able to get up to fight again.

It was unreal, the pain in my ribs, it spread to my abdomen and maintaining the balance at the same time was turning out impossible. The sight of Hadard was something I did not want to see. He stood on his pillar, his eyes were bulging with rage. He snapped his arm, the vine grew in length. There was a soft crack in the air as the vine struck my neck, before I could react, the whip struck me again, my bullet proof jacket tore open. My head wobbled as I lost my balance and next I knew, I tumbled down into the icy water

A picture came to my mind, my father, “Bracer you cannot give up”. My eyes started closing.

I felt an arm around my neck, somebody pulled me out of the water.

“Bracer, stay with me”

I saw a blurry image of Alph in front of me, “Suhani”, he said, “you need to call it off, you’ll get him killed”.

My eyes closed.