"AHH!"
Aldred flinched. He had never heard such a scream before.
"HELP ME!"
SPLAT!
Aldred frowned. A sound of steel clanging against steel reverberated out. He heard flesh being torn, and bodies thudding to the floor.
CLANG! CLANG!
SCRACK!
"NO!" a woman screamed from inside.
JLEB!
Aldred heard the woman gagging for air like her air canal was being blocked.
The scream and the sounds ended with a last thud. After a few seconds, the gate blasted open. Everybody stared with widened eyes when they saw nothing but blood in the arena.
No clothes, no armor, only blood.
They trembled in fear. What happened when the gates closed? Nobody knew. Even Aldred started to worry. Not for his life, but for his comrades' life.
Another group shone with bright light. Everyone near the group distanced themselves, afraid of being identified as the same group with them.
The chosen group was trembling and looked around with sweat on their forehead. Left with no choice, they walked into the gate and took a deep breath for whatever they would face.
The gate slammed shut just like before.
And it began.
"AHH!"
SPLAT! SPLAT! JLEB! JLEB! CLANG! SCRAKKKK!
"HELP ME!"
Someone banged the gate from inside, screaming for help in desperation. The gate shook, and blood leaked out from a tiny gap between the gate.
The gate blasted open again, revealing nothing but more blood.
One group shone bright again. Everyone knew that the group had to enter the gate and face whatever it was inside the gate.
The leader of the group looked at their members. Aldred noticed that he was the only man within the group while the others were females. After a short discussion, they decided not to enter the gate and walked down the stairs.
They turned into dust and disappeared.
Everyone now knew that there was no stepping back from this. Leave and you die. The only way to survive was to fight against whatever it was inside that gate. What could it be? Was it another monster? Something like the Phantom Claw? A Bajaragon?
The onlookers gulped nervously, afraid of being chosen even though they knew they would be picked soon or later.
A few seconds later, a group was picked. Their body shone brightly. Sweat trickled to their cheeks, and dripped from the jaw.
Taking a deep breath, they approached the gate.
"Hey," Aldred called. "Take this with you. You might need it." Aldred threw a rare grade shield at the leader.
The leader nodded in gratitude, but he didn't believe a shield would let him survive. Nevertheless, he entered the gate.
SLAM!
The gate closed.
"AHH! GET IT OFF ME!"
"HELP! HELP!"
"FUCK ALL YOU BASTARD!"
SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT!
The sound stopped. But the gate did not move, making everyone there restless.
Who would be picked next?
Aldred frowned. What he gave the man wasn't a shield, but his clone that morphed into a shield. When the clone died, its memory and experience entered his mind. But all he saw was darkness. The moment that gate closed, he couldn't see anything, but he felt ticklish? And then it was followed by pain. Enormous pain. A few seconds later, the clone died.
He received that from the clone memory, but he didn't have enough information to tell what they fought inside.
Aldred waited for the gate to open, but after a few hours, it still didn't budge.
"What do you think, Aldred?" Mary asked.
"I don't know." He shook his head.
"It would help if the people inside the gate scream something useful instead," Sophia said.
After two more hours, Aldred decided to enter his tent with Mary, Mareona, and Sophia. The cave wasn't cold, so they didn't need to make hot bath. Instead, they put down a comfortable mattress and a blanket inside the tent.
The girls hugged and kissed him and they had fun for a while before deciding to sleep. Aldred couldn't sleep. He still thought about their screams and the sound of iron being scraped and pulled.
He sighed and drank some milk before closing his eyes to sleep.
The next day, Aldred woke up and exited his tent, staring at the closed gate. Suddenly, the gate creaked and slowly revealed the bloody arena.
A group was picked and they entered the arena with sweat all over their faces.
This repeated for a few times. When Aldred was sleeping with the girls, he heard screams and blood splattered over and over again for days and perhaps weeks.
When Bartrem served food to his soldiers, he noticed they were worried. The constant sound of desperation scared them. Even though they weren't scared of death, but being constantly reminded that they might die was torture.
It broke their sanity, and if he didn't do anything they might turn crazy. Bartrem told this to Aldred in the hope that he might have solution for this.
"What about entertainment?"
"Like what?"
"Do you guys know soccer?"
…
"Pass me the ball! Pass me the ball!" Joseph received the ball and dribbled through his enemies. He went left, right, left, right.
He glanced at Jeffery who was following a few meters beside him. With a secret signal only the two of them knew, Jeffery received the message that Joseph will pass the ball.
Joseph feigned that he was about to kick the ball to the left, but in reality he kicked to the right, passing the ball to Jeffery.
"Get it to the goal!"
Jeffery nodded and went through his opponents.
The female soldiers were cheering from the sides. Clapping their hands, and shouting for his name.
"Jeffery! I love you!"
"Jeffery! I will let you smell my underwear if you make a goal!"
Jeffery blushed and lost focus. The ball was taken from him. He bit his lips and tried not to be distracted.
Aldred and Bartrem were watching the game playing out from the side.
"This is good. Where did you get the idea for this?"
"Well… I was sucking on milk and some divine inspiration just entered my head."
Bartrem nodded. "Maybe I should drink some milk as well."
"…" Hopefully Bartrem meant cow milk.
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