"Leo, did he use any strange ability or weapon?" I asked him.
"Nope, he managed to best all the slaves with his bare hands." He responded.
The men on the ground were all armed with very rudimentary weapons; some had rusty sickles, some had just some cleavers, and the biggest guy of the group had an electric chainsaw.
The warrior sat on the back of the biggest opponent he had defeated and kept staring in the direction of my uncle. He then picked up one of the many weapons lying on the ground, a rusty kitchen knife, and pointed it at him, as if to challenge him.
Is he nuts? Does he have a dying wish? What makes him think he can handle someone like my uncle? He wouldn't last a second.
"What a crazy bastard… I hope someone goes in there to beat some sense into him." I wished out loud.
"Yeah… I wish the same." Leo sighed as he let out those words; he seemed a bit down. He wasn't as energetic as always; he was constantly looking around, fidgeting with his feet, and looking at the many chairs and couches the others were using.
Is the stool they gave you uncomfortable? Want me to bring another one for you?
"What's wrong?" I asked him, as I pulled him closer to me, to pat his head.
"I don't know, but I just can't help but feel restless when I look at that guy. I wish he could just drop dead and vanish." He confessed to me.
Huh? How strange for Leo to behave like this… I wonder why he is like this. He was fine just a moment ago. Was this his doing? Does he even have a power like that? This is getting a bit troublesome.
At the sound of sirens, the arena began to get flooded; large metal pipes opened up in the ceiling, pouring endless water into the arena. The man quickly picked up the electric chainsaw and tried using it against the glass windows of the arena to carve a hole but was unsuccessful.
The chainsaw shattered, and some metal shards that came out from the explosion flew straight towards him, injuring his left shoulder and eye.
"Oh, they're going to drop Big Mike?" Someone in the room commented.
Oh? Is that like a renowned gladiator? Or is he a sailor? Since they're flooding the arena, it could be anything.
"Against such a small fry? That's a bit exaggerated." Someone else responded.
The rest began to cheer for this supposed Big Mike.
"Do you really intend to drown me along with these innocent people? Hey, answer me, you bastards! Fight me, I dare you!" The prisoner shouted while desperately banging on the glass wall, trying to break it using his bare hands.
Huh? It's useless; these people most likely see him just as a toy for their amusement. Trying to reason with them over the safety of the slaves will most likely not work, and even if he had the power to break free from here, he would still have to face my uncle. Struggling here is futile; your fate was sealed the moment you were captured.
As the water levels were rising, the intruder began to get more and more desperate, trying to plead with the noble, but nothing worked; he received no response, only some annoyed looks of contempt.
"We should get out of here." Leo suddenly blurted out.
"Huh?" I was surprised by the sudden shift. Before I could articulate my thoughts, he had already grabbed my hands and dragged me out of the room.
"Wait, what's going on? Why are you so nervous all of a sudden?" I asked him.
"That man, he's constantly looking towards us; he's dangerous… We need to stay close to Father to be safe. I don't trust the other bodyguards to handle a man like that one." He responded.
Then we heard the sound of something heavy crashing against the arena. Big Mike had just been unleashed.
Mike was just a fish; it was over three meters long, with large and incredibly durable scales protecting its body, a flat face, and two red eyes glowing in the water. Unlike his eyes, the rest of its body was actually colorless.
The fish immediately began to drag down the floating survivors, the slaves who were still conscious and struggling to remain afloat. It would suck their feet into its mouth and rapidly drag them to the bottom of the arena before ramming its head against theirs, knocking them out.
The intruder tried stabbing the fish as it got closer, but the knife wasn't strong enough to penetrate the shell of that being, shattering on impact.
What the hell is with that fish? Why are its scales so durable?
I almost tripped because I wasn't paying attention to where I was putting my foot; thankfully, Leo was able to catch me in time.
"Be careful, watch your—" Before he could finish his sentence, one of the bodyguards suddenly placed a regular kitchen knife to his throat.
"One more word and you're dead." Someone whispered in my ear.
Huh?!
There was something pressing against the back of my head, probably a knife or some kind of strange weapon. As one of the bodyguards placed his hand over my head, I felt all my energy getting drained, and my legs became too weak to sustain my body.
"Luca—!" As he shouted my name, the bodyguard slit his throat.
"What? Why can't he—"
The hallway around me felt as if it was spinning uncontrollably; it was hard to even stay on all fours. My mind couldn't grasp what was happening, until the guard let Leonhart's body fall from its hand to the ground.
The pungent smell of his blood immediately brought me back to that nightmare.
How dare you!
I turned around, summoning Colorful Madness in my left hand, but before I could even aim the blue handgun, I was shot.
Panic spread, nobles began to run away, and in the blink of an eye, I was on the ground, slowly drawing in my own blood as the bullet had hit my throat.
What? What? What?
My mind felt like a broken machine; I could only repeat one sentence in my mind as I was desperately trying to puke the blood that had gotten in my lungs. Before any of the two bodyguards could fire the second shot, they had already died.
"Next time, think twice before—" Before he could finish his sentence, his head blew off; a chain had crushed against his head, making it explode.
"Put your weapon—" One tried to pick me up and use me as a hostage, but he too was blown to pieces before he could even finish his sentence.
The whole place began to tremble; the uncle, in one step, had already closed the gap between him and us, and his chains were slowly strangling the remaining bodyguards that had turned against us.
Strangely, now I could finally breathe properly.
"Uncle Kiriam…th-they have killed… Leo is… quick, we need to bring in a doctor! He is… he is—"
I checked my throat and found that the hole made by the gunshot was no longer there. Even Leo's wounds had perfectly healed in the blink of an eye, leaving no trace.
It was then that we heard the sound of one of the glass barriers shattering. The intruder had escaped from the arena.
"This… how bothersome…" The uncle ordered the chains to gather around and beneath us, forming a protective nest for us to head out. Out of the original bodyguards, only two were kept alive.
He broke through one of the closed elevators and used the empty tunnel to escape from that underground arena. He then locked the two of us inside the car as he called my parents to warn them about what had just happened.
"Leo, are you okay?" I asked him as soon as the door was closed.
"Y-yeah." He answered while looking at his father.
I also turned around and saw him ripping the lower jaw off one of the bodyguards, bending his neck backward, and then pulling his spine out with his bare hands. Only to heal him back to reverse all the damage done.
"Holy shit!" I shouted as I watched the blood of that man spill over the car violently.
The car was perfectly soundproofed, as I couldn't hear even a hint of the horrifying screams of that man.
"What about the guy who escaped?" Leo suddenly asked.
"I don't know; he'll hide for the rest of his stay here, probably." I responded.
"Aren't you curious? Scared? Don't you want to know what that guy wanted from us? After all, he was staring at us pretty intently." He shared his worry with me.
Where did you even learn those words? Did you invent them?
"I couldn't care less. With Uncle by our side, I doubt anything will happen—" The sky suddenly turned red.
Now what?
I saw a giant eye suddenly appearing; it was all red with a golden iris. From the pupil, a red liquid was bleeding out. A chilling energy cleared the area from the clouds as the eye was inspecting every nook and corner of the upper city.
As soon as it locked itself on our position, it shot out a laser in our direction that was blocked by Uncle Kiriam, as he effortlessly deflected it with a shockwave greeted by the wave of his hand.