Their shackles were off, and the tension in the air could be felt by everyone as both Damian and Qantheos circled around each other, weapons in hand. I was anxious just watching, after all the shit we overheard from the guards, I really hoped they didn’t inflict any major injuries to each other.

Damian was the first to make his move, charging towards Qantheos, who was lightly gripping his spear. He’d swing relentlessly, hacking and slashing, all while Qantheos seemed to avoid them with relative ease, as if he could predict where the sword’s trajectory was, for such a large Rahasan, he was as nimble as an Elf!

Countless attempts, yet none would go through. The difference in experience between the two was that akin to a little child trying to fight a grown man, Qantheos appeared to be testing him; gauging his skills. “It’s my turn.” He’d say, raising his spear high and mighty and immediately slamming it down onto Damian,

“Fuck!” Damian would scream, using every ounce of power he had to just block the spear. He was struggling to break Qantheos’ balance, conjuring sharp blades of water from the tip of his fingers in an attempt to break his posture. "Get off!" He yelled out in frustration, stomping at the ground to release a shockwave of water, blasting away both Qantheos and the nearby audience who were too close to the blast radius.

Almost immediately, Damian conjured a bow of water and arrows of flame, and now that he had a safe distance, he started raining down his flaming arrows down upon Qantheos, who looked surprisingly thrilled at the sight of almost a dozen of these arrows. "Good! You're finally giving me a good fight!" Qantheos yelled out in excitement, smiling like a madman and running towards Damian, who had his guard down.

While the two kept fighting, Reanne and I slowly scooted over towards a group of guards, one of them being a high-ranking guard, clad in black and gold. “I wonder who’s going to be added to the sacrifices this time.” The officer would say, the five including the high-ranking guard would place their bets on who would come out on top for the ongoing duel.

“Either way, they would both make suitable sacrifices, right Sir?” A guard would say with a devilish grin on his face.

“You’re right. As long as everything goes to plan, Trazia will be ours for the taking.” The high-ranking guard replied in a sinister tone.

Reanne would let out a loud gasp, which luckily, the guards didn’t pay much attention to and even thought it was due to the fight. “We need to get out of here, Talis. W-We need to get out of here!” She’d whisper to me, frightened by the thought of what they might do to us if we stayed any longer.

“We’ll get our chance, Reanne.” I’d grab both of her shoulders and look her dead in the eye, “For now, you need to calm down, okay? We’ll all make it out of here alive, I promise.”

It was a promise I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep. There was no way out with the way things looked right now, and we couldn’t even get these damned shackles off of us unless we were participating in a duel. And even if we did manage to get them off, there were too many guards to deal with to make a proper and safe escape.

Everyone that was watching the match suddenly started erupting in roars and cheers, we averted our eyes back to the fight and saw Qantheos bleeding, apparently Damian was the first one to ever make the Crimson Lion bleed, which was an impressive feat considering that his opponent was a Lion Rahasa, known for their keen senses and indomitable strength.

“Impressive, young warrior. None has ever managed to make me bleed in the two years I’ve been here.” Qantheos would proudly exclaim to Damian, pointing the tip of his spear towards him.

“I... Huff... Huf... Am honored to have been the first.” Damian would say, panting and appearing to be almost out of breath and exhausted.

Qantheos would suddenly raise his spear, pointing towards the sky, “You have been given the honor to bear witness to a technique I have been polishing for three decades of my life.” His spear would burst out with a chilly aura that could be felt by everyone. “Bear witness, oh honorable warrior! For I am the Lord of the Bloody Frost!” He’d say, his Numen manifesting into his spear, enlarging it and covered with an outer layer of deep crimson-red ice.

Everyone was in shock and awe at what they were watching, as his spear came crashing down towards Damian, looking as if it was about to crush him to death. But just as it reached him, the Numen dissipated.

Damian looked petrified, yet his stance indicated the opposite. “Well done,” Qantheos would say, “You are a true warrior.” He’d say as he patted his head with his large hands.

“I-I thought you were going to kill me.” Damian would say, his whole-body trembling and his voice shaky from the exhaustion.

“It would be a waste of your talents if you were to die here of all places.” Qantheos would exclaim, laughing and praising him.

I’d take a quick glance at the officer and his group of guards; their faces looked disgruntled, seein as no one had gotten any major injuries or died, which was a huge relief for us. “Phew…” Reanne would let out a sigh of relief, “I’m glad nobody got badly hurt…”

“Me too. I’m really thankful that they’re both okay.” Just the thought of one of us becoming sacrifices for something scares me- scares all of us. Aside from getting out of this place, we now had to gather more information on just what exactly they were offering sacrifices for, which was easier said than done, considering how strict they are with the timings here.

Qantheos’ laughter would suddenly stop, “Kneel.” He’d say to Damian, the air suddenly becoming tense, and his commanding tone made it even more intimidating. “In Rahasan culture, the strongest, and most honorable warriors of our tribes bestow titles upon those who are worthy to be given one.” He’d point his spear towards the kneeling Damian, lightly tapping both of his shoulders with the spear, “As the ninth sword of the legendary Hurakeen, I hereby bestow upon you the title of the ” He’d say with pride as he gave his spear back to one of the guards, “Henceforth you shall be known as… Damian, the Unyielding Tide!”

“T-Thank you! It is an honor to be given such a title to someone unworthy as me!” He’d say, kneeling and placing his hand on his chest, which was seen as a sign of honor back in Trazia. Just witnessing this gave me goosebumps; it was a sight to behold, and it gave us all the more motivation to find a way out of here.

“Look behind you, Damian!” Glenn exclaimed cheerfully, and as he looked back, he was greeted by dozens of prisoners, and even a handful of guards applauding him.

The crowd would cheer on Damian, even going so far as to personally congratulate him for being given the honor of a title from the renowned Qantheos. As enjoyable as this moment was for everyone, the high-ranking guard from earlier would quickly yell at everyone to stop making a fuss, and soon enough the crowd dissipated alongside their cheery mood, and everyone went to their own areas.

Viella would approach Damian, “Congratulations, Damian.” She’d coldly say, avoiding any eye contact and immediately heading back towards the tree we were at earlier.

Iferos and Glenn would rush towards Damian, the both of them tightly hugging him and congratulating him for being such a strong and capable fighter, and most importantly, for not getting too hurt it was adorable to see the both of them hugging him. Reanne and I, on the other hand, had more work to do. We both made up an excuse to go eavesdrop on the guards to uncover more about their schemes involving sacrifices.

Me and Reanne would follow a group of guards patrolling through the vicinity from a safe distance, close enough to be able to hear them and far enough as to not arouse any suspicion. “It’s a damn shame,” One of the guards would say, “That was the one chance for that Trazian dog and that senile old lion to die, and yet all they do is bruise and scratch each other up like a bunch of fuckin’ toddlers!”

“Relax, Jess. There’s another fight just before the nightly roll call, I’m sure one of them is bound to end up being next on the chopping block.” One of the other guards would say, patting the shoulder of the other.

“I sure hope so. I hear they’re getting ready for the final steps.”

“They are. Just give it time.” The group of guards would discreetly enter their chambers in a separate building, a place we couldn’t follow them into. I didn’t know if they were onto us prying about on their business or not, but it was concerning. It looks like we’ll have to hold off on getting more information for now.

We would go back to our spot by the tree, and time would pass. Before we knew it, it was already time for the nightly roll call. I had noticed quite a few people missing, most notably the people from the group of low lives that walked around the person I dueled with. If I had to guess, they were probably made as sacrifices alongside their leader.

After the roll call, a man who looked like he was beaten to a pulp started limping towards us. “P-Please...” He’d say, his hands fidgeting as he limped closer to me. His face was badly bruised and filled with cuts and scars, it was even worse around the rest of his body as he tried to cover them up with his tattered clothing.

“Hello…?” I said, wary and suspicious of the man.

“Please… Save them…” Suddenly, he’d collapse and everyone in our group suddenly rushed to his aid, secretly rushing to bring him into our cell to hopefully help him recover.

A few hours would pass. Damian, Glenn, and Iferos were sleeping together, to the point where the trio actually looked like siblings. The only ones left awake were me, Reanne and Viella, busy thinking about what to do when the man wakes up. And eventually, he’d abruptly wake up, screaming and panicking, “HELP! STOP!” We all quickly shut him up, covering his mouth so as to not alert the guards and wake anyone else up. Phew. That was a close one.

“Just breathe and relax, tell us what happened.” Viella would whisper to him. And it would take a while for the man to calm down, but eventually, after realizing the situation he was in- no, we were all in, he'd lower his voice and relax his breathing, the tension he felt was gone.

“T-The cellar. They took us t-to the cellar.” He’d say, still visibly shaken and terrified at the mere thought of whatever was in the cellar. “Please… Save them.” He’d beg us, and though we were hesitant at first, we agreed after thinking that this could be our one shot at getting out of this place.

After agreeing to help save his friends, we all decided to continue discussing the plan tomorrow morning, leaving the beaten man to sleep in the corner of the cell while the two ladies fell asleep next to each other. However, I couldn’t sleep. There was something bothering me about that cellar he just mentioned, not to mention all the talk about sacrifices? It was too big of a coincidence to just pass it off as such, I had to know what was in there.