Death Circle

Death Circle

'Do you know another name for the Realm Battle kid?' A long time ago when Jake Banker was just a squire his superior had asked him.

'No boss,' Little Jake said, not really interested.

Seeing his nonchalance the superior grinned cruelly and said, 'It is called Death Circle. You don't know what means right? It means we put people in the circle and expect them to accept their death!'

'What if they don't?'

The superior sneered. 'They'll, after all the Death Circle is only for those aliens with their weakness in our hands. If they don't have a family or something we can leverage, unless they are really very weak, which foolish Realm Knight will dare fight them in such a Circle that you could not guarantee your life or death?'

Banker hadn't understood at that time what that sarcastic superior had meant, but now he did. Perhaps a Realm Knight's strongest strength is not his or her battle prowess, but their eloquence.... To convince a man to give up his life requires a certain degree of skills in weaving words.

It was a pity that Banker isn't good at it, as this particular alien is a very powerful opponent. Banker had no illusions that he could win today fair and square. Most likely the alien would kill him. But he couldn't back down cause that's his duty; to take whatever it is that comes.

"I'll oversee the fight," Risla stepped to the edge of the circle, the alien man drew on the ground, and said. "The rules of a Realm Battle is as follows; Firstly Realm Battles are turn based, meaning one person attacks at a time and the other can only defend... That's right, the person that goes first, on attack, is decided by a coin toss. Does anyone have a coin here?"

"Here," Banker fetched a coin from his pocket and tossed it to Risla.

"Good," Risla said as he caught it. "Now the only other rule is that when attacking or defending, the fighters must stand at opposite sides of the circle with at least one leg on the fighting circle, the rest of your body can stay in or out of the circle as you wish. Now please take your places,"

Risla paused briefly before he continued explaining the rules of Realm Battle, as costmary, even though the fighters probably knows all about it. "The fighting circle is two and a half meters in diameter so each fighter has limited space to charge, but also limited time to defend, making the fight usually brief. At at most ten rounds on average.

"Also a Fighter has fifteen seconds to attack when it's his turn, any longer and he'll have to forfeit the attack on that round and instead defend against the other's attack. Finally the fight does not stop until one of the Fighters drop dead. I wish both of you luck,"

"Thank you human," the Invader said.

"It's courtesy," Risla shrugged. He asked the two to chose a side of the coin each, then proceeded to do the coin toss. He opened his palm to show the coin showing tails; that means the Invader would get to attack first.

"Begin round one," Risla walked away from the ring before saying that.

And so the Realm Battle begins.

The Fighters started circling each other while holding their place, making sure to follow the edge of the circle. One looked at ready to pounce while the other was poised to hold his ground.

One, two three... the seconds ticked. The count was on.

The Invader struck at the ninth second. Yamato could not catch what happened with his eyes. All he saw was the armored person disappearing from sight, there was a spark then Banker stumbled out of the circle. The next moment the armored person appeared in front of him having completed his attack.

However fact that Banker was alive and fine, though, showed that he had successfully blocked the Invader's attack.

Yamato let out the breath he didn't know he was holding. After all as a Human he'd naturally prefer Banker who is a Realm Knight to win.

Jake Banker righted himself, rolled his shoulders, then walked back into the circle. "My turn huh?" He said playfully. Even though his face was covered in the helmet, from his voice Yamato was sure he never lost his smile. But that's just how some people are, the more serious the situation the more carefree they appear.

It was Banker's turn to attack next.

The Realm Knight crouched low as if he was about to sprint, his sword held to the side. The air instantly stilled, he moved.

There was another clash then the Invader stumbled out of the circle. Yamato expected him to righting his stance and walk back into the circle, but the alien just stood still for a moment then collapsed headfirst to the ground...

It was over just like that.

Everyone froze in disbelief. The first to react was the alien girl; she screamed and rushed to her father. Crouching by his side she rolled the man on his back, on his chest was a gaping wound. In panic she took off his helmet revealing a pale grey face. He didn't seem to be alive.

Banker watched her grimly, his rusty liquid like sword still in his hand. As if it still craves blood, however they was no sign of any blood on the blade.

Yamato had heard somewhere that Astral bladed weapons cut so fast there would have long passed before the blood starts running, and now he witnessed that for a fact.

The Banker took back his Astral blade, the sword melting to dew and vanished. His armor also vanished leaving him in his slightly squeezed suit.

"The Realm Knight wins," Risla said breaking the silence and the miserable howls of the little alien girl.

"The debt of blood is paid," Banker said to the woman and the girl. There was no smile on his face.

He turned and walked past Yamato and the others. At the edge of the woods he paused and gave the armored person sprawled in the edge of the Death Circle - his alien blood soaking the grey soil blue - a final glance.

"Thank you..." Banker muttered under his breath. Then he left, disappearing into the woods.

Yamato couldn't explain it but as the man left he thought his back looked lonely. 'Burdened by his duty just as he thrives in it,' perhaps that's the best way to describe him.

Risla looked at the grieving mother and daughter and shook his head. "Let's go kids," he told Yamato and his friends.

Yamato clenched his fist. "What happens to them?"

"That'll depend on them, they'll not get any trouble from the Realm Knights anymore for sure,"

"I wasn't talking about the Realm Knights," Yamato stared pointedly at the old house. "We can't leave them here!"

"Of course we can... This is none of our business kid," Risla scoffed. "Let's go before they suddenly turn violent,"

Yamato looked at Shandy and Zack for help but the former just shook her head while the later shrugged apologetically. Yamato finally sighed and reluctantly followed Risla's instruction.

However when he glanced back he saw that the alien woman hugging her daughter was looking at their departing backs. The odd thing was she wasn't crying, instead her gaze was firm and even thoughtful.

For some reason that bothered Yamato a lot. He looked away from her crimson eyes and continued after the others.

The three friends were silent on the way back. Risla tried to brighten the mood with some jokes but none of the kids were in the mood for it. Yamato especially felt terrible after what he witnessed. Not only was he horrified at the cruelty of the world but he also felt powerless.

What world would a daughter have to watch her father being killed, and a wife has to endure it? Yet no one will help them after that, aliens or not, it is not right! Suddenly Yamato nurtured a deep disdain at the Realm Knights and old man Risla.

They are both cowards! He thought. You can't break the bridge people use because it is in the wrong place and not give the people another way to cross river. A life should have a price, just as crossing the Realms has one! One should take responsibility!

Yamato was young and inexperienced, but he knew that to be true. At least his truth as no one seemed to think that way.

That night Yamato couldn't sleep. Each time he closed his eyes he saw that crimson red eyes of that little girl that opened wide when she realized her father wasn't going to get up forever. Alien or not, her pain and confusion was.... too Human.

The next day Yamato spent half the time in school to catch up with sleep and the other half to listen to the teachers like a zombie. After school he shook off his friends and returned back to Dragon park.

He traced the way to the old house in the middle of the woods in autopilot. It was until he was at the edge of the clearing, before the old house, that he came back to his senses and wondered what the hell he's doing.

He suddenly considered going back, but then decided that since he was already here, he should as well check on the people he came here for. He wasn't even sure what he wanted to do once he saw them but he knew that he has to do this to get some peace of mind. He thought that at most it'd take a few minutes then he will leave.

With that in mind Yamato took a deep breath and walked towards the house.

The area around the house was quiet with no sign of human presence which bothered Yamato. What if they have moved? Thinking of that he finally reached the door. A wooden step, he has to climb to reach the door, was the last obstacle on his way.

Yamato hesitated for a moment then placed a foot on the step, intending to walk to the door, only for the wooden floor to suddenly collapse, dropping his foot down into.... He gasped as pain tore through his leg and foot. The pain was so intense that he could only tremble in one place and not move.

Yamato slowly looked downwards and stared into the hole his foot was trapped in. What he saw made him take a deep breath as it was worse than he thought; he had stepped on a particularly nasty trap. The hole was filled with sharp wooden spikes that had torn into his leg and foot. Even as he felt the horror of his situation he wondered how hell he could take his foot out.

Pulling his foot out by force is out of the question as it will worsen the injury. Suppressing a groan Yamato looked around his surrounding. "Come out, I know you are watching me!" He said, grimacing from the pain that assaulted his leg just from moving slightly.

'Who set traps outside their door? Aren't they afraid of stepping on it mistakenly? Damn it!'

Just as Yamato was cursing in his mind, he heard movement and turned to the side to see a woman holding a spear walk out of the trees. She had long red haired that fell to her back, light grey skin and ears with long tips. What she wore was a -medieval like - green dress. Yamato quickly recognized her, it was the Alien woman!

"My my what do we have here?" She said with a smirk.

"I am Yamato Armor," Yamato said, gritting his teeth in pain. But he refused to beg for help, instead he made his voice deliberately calm, "I seem to have stepped on a trap,"

"Hmm, I know," the woman said. She stabbed her spear to the ground, leaned on it and studied the boy curiously. "I figured one of you stupid humans will swing around eventually and try to take advantage of two girls all alone in the woods,"

"I didn't come to find trouble," Yamato replied with a frown. "I was worried how you guys were doing and wanted to check on you,"

The woman blinked in recognition. "Hey you are one of the boys that was here yesterday?"

"Yeah, Anyway no one knows that you are here besides us. Old man Risla made sure to warn us against telling others, and my friends are discreet,"

"Is that so? What about you?"

"What about me?" Yamato was slightly stunned. "I won't tell anyone... Can you get me out of this bloody trap now?"

"So calm, how boring," The woman pouted. "It is okay to show some emotions sometimes boy,"

Yamato rolled his eyes and sneered in disdain.

The woman gave him an exasperated sigh thinking to herself that she had caught a troublesome little beast this time. But from the brief conversation she had judged that this little beast has no malicious intent, so turned to the woods and waved. "Come out Tila, he's harmless,"

The little girl that Yamato saw yesterday suddenly emerged from the woods and stared at him sullenly. Yamato waved at her with a grimace from the pain caused by the spikes lodged in his leg tearing through his flesh when his body shook slightly.

Seeing his grimace the alien lady finally smiled. "So you do feel pain..."

"What bullshit are you talking about?" Yamato glared at her.

"Hmm nothing, just stand still kid. I'll help you out of that trap now,"

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Authors note; Thanks for the support...