The arena had been packed completely as Bran walked out with the other fighters. There was a total of fifteen people in the centre of the arena including her, and she could feel the eyes of the audience fall on her specifically. She could tell that her helmet and armour were the ones to have the attention of everyone there.

But as her eyes moved from the people sitting around them, they drifted to the highest point in the arena. The place where the Queen sat in her throne comfortably.

For a moment, Bran didn’t hear anything else around her as her eyes took in the sight of the woman she had been hating for almost forever.

Amelia Goldenheart was sat atop a gold throne which was the most on brand thing Bran had ever seen for the Queen. But aside from that obvious visual, there was something different about the woman Bran had known back when her parents were still alive.

There was a certain melancholy on Amelia’s face which distracted Bran enough to not be able to dodge the harsh slap on her back. Bran fell forwards in surprise, and she heard the loud laughter from behind her vividly now. It was a familiar laugh.

The scene had been witnessed by the Queen and her advisor, who were both looking at the only different looking person amongst the second match fighters.

“Don’t look at my wife!” Bran heard Klein hiss at her which was loud enough for her to hear but not clear enough for anyone else to catch. Bran gritted her teeth before she got up from the ground, dusting herself off. She had to hand it to the man, he had a strong slap. She could still feel the vibration she had felt even when she had an armour on.

“Seems like a plan. Rather have her suffer from your existence.”

“What did you just say?!” Klein hadn’t heard Bran’s retort, but he had assumed that she said something offensive, and he worked purely on that assumption. Making sure to get into Bran’s personal space, the man spat onto her helmet. Bran thought about gifting him some herbs to deal with the bad breath, for his wedding present. But then she reminded herself that she was just going to beat him up, to exact her revenge on him and then her.

“Disqualify that man!” Suddenly a voice boomed through the loudness of the arena, and everything fell quiet. Bran looked away from Klein, long enough to see who had said that, and when she saw the advisor looking down at them specifically, her eyes widened.

Was she going to be disqualified for being pushed around?

Bran’s odd question didn’t remain unanswered since she found two guards come up to them and pull Klein away from her. Klein on the other hand, had multiple questions now.

“Where are you taking me!” That wasn’t a question either, which meant nobody had to answer it. But still, the advisor chose to explain what was happening. “The Queen believes in fair play, and you are a disgrace to the rules of the arena.”

Bran almost snorted in amusement. The Queen was watching people fight to marry her, and she was picky about some rules. That was rich.

Klein was taken away even when he was struggling in the holds of the men who were pulling him away from the grounds. “What is your name, Gladiator?”

In the silence of the arena, Bran heard the question and her eye twitched in an uncontrollable rage. This one word had been the bane of her existence and she had enough of it. Instead of answering that question, she looked up at the advisor and almost growled. “I’m not a gladiator!”

It was like she had done something terribly wrong which had the entire arena gasping and muttering about disrespect, but amongst all those sounds, a particular one stood out. Most probably because it was the sound of laughter.

“Your highness!” Bran looked at the Queen, who had a hand over her mouth as laughter kept bubbling out of her. It wasn’t an odd sight for Bran since she had seen her laughing years before. But it was strange to see her now, after all those years. Amelia Goldenheart had grown up, but she still laughed in the same manner as she did before – with a hand over her mouth, and her eyes crinkling at the corners.

Grumbling to herself, Bran turned her head away. It had begun to hurt from looking up at them anyway.

“Just get this started already.” She grumbled to herself as she stood straight, looking around to the other fighters, who had been staring at her with intrigue and jealousy. Bran groaned, knowing well that now she was going to be targeted by practically everyone inside of the arena ground.

The Queen’s advisor cleared his throat, feeling embarrassed, but choosing to rise above it. “The last one standing in this round will be your new king!”

The audience finally got back its voice and cheers echoed around Bran. But she wasn’t feeling the cheery mood of the place. All she could focus on; was the way she had been stared at by her fellow fighters. All thirteen of the men were staring at her, and she had never felt so self-conscious before.

“Begin!”

As soon as the advisor’s voice split through the noise of the audience, a bell rung loudly, and Bran stepped back to dodge the attack thrown at her immediately.

“Shit.” Bran hissed as she ducked to avoid the heavy club being swung at her. Her knees were quickly pushing her to jump as a person swiped his entire leg under her, hoping to make her fall.

“The rule is to make sure your opponent doesn’t get back up again!”

Bran took only a second to send a mean glare over to the advisor before she was turning around and making a run for it. Her strategy to take care of all the fighters around her, was to dodge their attacks or to let them tire themselves. But that was her strategy when going face to face with one person at a time.

Her eyes widened when she almost slammed against a large man, smirking at her with his arm stretched open. Pausing her movements, Bran stood for a moment, while the others caught up to her. She was running circles around the ground anyway.

“Okay, how about we go around one at a time?” Bran tried to reason with the others, but her words went to deaf ears. This time she was unable to dodge the punch that had been directed to her stomach. Feeling the harsh punch in her gut, she felt like taking off that awful armour.

“Come on g-guys, there’s enough of me to go around.”

“I’ll have fun breaking you, gladiator.”

Bran gritted her teeth as she was shoved backwards by the large man in front of her. She stumbled into the other men but as soon as she felt their vicious hold, she gained back control of her body. She didn’t want to be tossed around like a ragdoll. She wanted to beat those idiots up.

Finding her confidence again, she made sure to find her footing as well.

Lesson one of her trainings with the old man was to be vigilant and she had to be aware of her surroundings and all the moves that her opponents were going to make.

It was as if Bran had become an entirely different person since she had begun to attack instead of defending. As she threw a punch at one of the less suspecting men, she cringed at the way her knuckles hit his jaw and he fell down to the ground.

“One out!”

“Let’s do this your way then.” Bran smirked which wasn’t visible to any of her opponents, but she didn’t care. She was on a mission.

One of the men yelled out as he came towards her with a club, but she could hear him even before he could step anywhere near her. Grabbing his weapon mid-air, Bran pulled it towards her before pushing it back towards the man. Unable to comprehend the move, the man felt his side of the weapon drive into his abdomen harshly.

As soon as she was done with that man, she was dodging another one who was charging at her with a shield which had elephant tusks attached to it. Bran didn’t want to get rammed with them and chose to use the other men as human shields.

Making a run for it again, she did it strategically this time as she timed the shielded man’s movements. As soon as he began to run over to her, she also sprinted, towards the other fighters. The man couldn’t stop his momentum as soon as he had achieved it, which made it near impossible for him to stop himself from ramming into the other unsuspecting fighters.

“8 down!”

Bran panted at how draining it was fighting 13 men at the same time, but he was also glad that she could do this without having to prolong the fight.

Picking up a large hammer from the ground, Bran tested the weight of it in her hands. There were only five men remaining for her to fight off, and unsurprisingly, all of them had their attention on her.

She swung the hammer towards each man, one at a time, making sure to have her hits land each time. She didn’t believe in wasting her energy if none of her attacks were going to be beneficial for her.

“T-Two remaining!”

By then, there was only Bran standing along with the large man with a shield as a weapon. His hair was wild, and his eyes were filled with a rage and determination that did nothing to deter Bran. As the unconscious men surrounded them on the ground, Bran groaned at how physically straining it was to fight with a weapon.

That was the prime reason she hadn’t brought one out with her.

“You’ve been a commendable adversary.” Bran laughed as she heard the words of the other man. “Commendable enough for you to forfeit?”

“Don’t push your luck, kid.”

Bran listened to the other man snort, but she chose this moment to drop the large hammer in her hands. “I don’t fight with weapons.” She raised up her fists, hoping that the other man would also get rid of the shield, but he only watched her with curious eyes.

“You expect me to fight fair with you, but all I expect is to be in the Queen’s bed tonight.” Bran cringed at his words as she inspected him. He wasn’t old but he was probably old enough to be the Queen’s father. It disturbed Bran but she chose to push that aside. She didn’t care what happened to the Queen. All she cared about was that she wanted to exact her revenge and for that, she had to kick this big loaf to the ground.

“Too bad then.” Bran balled her hands into fists before bringing them up in front of her. She didn’t care if the other man used his shield or not – she already knew how to defeat him.

The large man growled deeply, as if he awakened an animal inside of himself, before he charged right towards Bran. His moves were heavy, and he was loud. Bran knew exactly how to handle people like him. She sidestepped him, right before he reached her. He stumbled in trying to stop himself but lost his balance.

Falling to the ground face first, Bran smirked at him. He was right where she wanted now. Grabbing at the hammer she had dropped, she walked over to his heavy body on the ground. Of course, he was also tired from using up all his energy in his charges.

“Your unchecked confidence makes you stupid.” Bran raised the hammer as she stopped right in front of the shield, which was still in the man’s hand, but he could barely raise it up. Slamming the hammer down onto the tusks, Bran revelled in the way, the wooden shield shattered into chunky pieces. The tusks broke completely into smaller pieces.

Bran didn’t want to seriously injure the other man, so she threw the hammer away again, watching the darkness in the other man’s eyes. He was still arrogant, even when he was on the ground, with nothing left to do than to admit defeat.

But he wouldn’t admit his loss. Bran also knew that which was why she got on top of him and punched him square in the face. Her knuckles collided with his nose, and she heard a loud crack before she brought her fist back. Seeing how the man was still conscious, she punched him once more, this time getting his eye.

The man could only grunt in pain as his face was assaulted with heavy punches, until he finally lost conscious.

Bran looked at his eyes closing, which had her getting off of him finally.

As she stood up straight, looking around at how everyone had been defeated, she wondered why there were no cheers and no announcements. Her eyes found the surprised faces of the audience watching her with amusement and envy.

But that was not what she was worried about as her eyes drifted to the high platform where the Queen had been sitting. Bran frowned when all she saw was the Queen’s advisor gesturing animatedly to the guards surrounding the platform.

“What is going on?!” Bran yelled out to the advisor, who clearly ignored her.