Post by Amittai on Jun 10, 2008 14:15:54 GMT -5
Amittai had looked death in the eyes as result of the events that had happened several years ago, he never fully recovered from the shock he felt when he saw his parent’s lifeless bodies before him. For years he had been scared for everything that moved, and he was kept alive by everything he did himself, but, as he realised when he grew older, he had to gain some strength if he was to survive in this cruel world. He decided to go look for something to gain strength on, and he preferred some object that did not know how to fight back, or, in the minimum, made him certain he had a chance. While he thought that he was attacked by a paper note carried to him with the wind, Amittai shrugged the note off and began to read it. ‘Tournament! Held every month just around the nearest corner!’ Amittai looked up and saw a wall appear, a giant brick wall. Amittai walked around it and saw two walls that were positioned as if defending something. In front of the walls he saw a man in a white robe, accompanied by two men who appeared, judging by their way of dressing, to be guarding the man in white. The two guards leaped over the man in white to only hold a blade on Amittais skin. Before the white robed man could say anything Amittai had reacted out of habit and grabbed the throats of both men and threw them against the wall. As the soared through the sky they witnessed the wall as it came closer and closer. Amittai could’ve sworn he heard a couple of bones crackle through the lifeless bodies of the guards. The man in white robes approached Amittai and began to talk with an accent he never heard before. ‘They were ready for replacement anyhow. I am the abbot as you could not have known. I, however, have forseen you coming here. Follow me into the arena.’ The abbot waved his had and the once empty place began to fill up with a big sphere shaped building. As Amittai entered the arena, he saw he was located in a long hallway that had doors on each side accompanied with guards that looked quite deadly.
They all had a black tunic, and leather trousers. As accessory they had some skulls on leather straps around their chest area, it was black leather so you could only see the skulls resting on faintly pumping chests. They had black boots, big ones that had huge spikes on them, few of those spikes had blood on them. Probably from a fight, or, from people who tried to escape their room, assuming they had people in them. And all the guards had a buckle that was decorated with a knife and some humanoid bones with scarce remains of flesh on them. The blade of the knifes were covered in some black colored goo, possibly a failed attempt to color the blades. All the guards wore black barets encompanied by the fact that every mouth in sight, apart from the abbots mouth, was sowed shut and a black pair of glasses for all guards, was supposedly placed there to cover up all signs of emotion.
Furthermore all guards were heavily decorated with metallic bodyparts. They had long, pointy metallic fingers that had small cuts in them, probably for getting a firm grip on the victim. The rest of their arms was covered in metallic residues of what seemed to be a new paintjob on their fingers. Their legs were not armoured at all, except for their ankles, they were covered in a small metallic band that had small but sharp spikes pointing out to the side. Their kneecaps had a small metal plate on them to strengthen the human anatomy a bit, or so it would seem.
As Amittai passed the guards he saw none of the guards look up to see what was happening, instead they all turned around and went into the rooms they were guarding and got the occupants of said rooms. All the people that were in the rooms seemed to be in some kind of training Amittai thought, judging by the amount of sweat on their foreheads.
Suddenly a voice behind Amittai spoke, it was the abbot who was talking in a language Amittai never heard before.
‘Arg’esha anul belomne na.’
Some guards began to let go of their victims and walked towards the abbot who began to talk louder.
‘Arg’eshna anul belomne belara’na!’
More guards walked slowly towards the abbot, ignoring Amittai completely. The abbot whispered something to the guards.
‘Jinuet, jite’na belo’ar esh’nagorlu
The abbot turned to Amittai
‘I’d like you to meet our trainees, they are all training here for the upcoming tournament, that we’re holding for the members every six years.’
Amittai turned to the abbot and, for so far as he could, frowned.
‘So you mean there is going to be a tournament here? And everyone is going to participate? Are there prizes to win?’
The abbot answered him.
‘Yes, yes and yes. There are two prizes to win, the first prize is a meet with sensei Kaluja, and the second prize is a fight with sensei Kaluja.’
Amittai turned around and watched all the trainees over carefully as he estimated their power.
‘So, if I were to join, I’d get a better prize as second? But lets not get into that, where do I sign up?’
‘You dont, I have every participant stored right here. *The abbot points to his head* You’re room is right over here, follow me.’
Amittai followed him away from the rooms he was facing, and just looked back to see ever participant walking back into their rooms, some mumbling some words that sounded as ‘towel’.
‘If I may ask, you spoke a weird language earlier, what was that?’
The abbot continued walking through and narrowing corridor, and into a hall with ‘Newsers’ written above it, Amittai wondered why he didn’t know any of these words as he followed the abbot.
‘Yes you may ask, its an ancient, forgotten language called Vajal. A select few can understand it, and even fewer can speak it. Ah, here is your room, say hello to your roommate, Araque. I’ll leave you two to it, I have business to take care of.’
As Amittai looked around the room he felt Araque looking him over. It was a big, blue skinned man, covered in scars freshly made, though Amittai couldn’t think of what could have made it. He wore red fighters armor, that covered up most of his body. His face was set by scars of time, he was an open book to Amittai. Furthermore he had all kinds of tattoos on his arms, with hints of small metal pieces of skin probably there to cover up singed patches of skin. Amittai reached this verdict as he looked in the background and saw a bright lit torch, even though the room was bright enough to notice everything.
The room itself was decorated by two small beds on opposite sides of the room, with one bed being perfect, probably the one Araque had been sleeping in, and the other bed was ripped to shreds, the stuffing was beaten out of the pillow.
‘So yous are the new one are yous not? We surely would have fun with yous if not for those annoying checkupsss every ten minutes. And I doubt yous are going to be sleeping in the… ‘broken’ bed, are yous not?’
Amittai listened closely to the man as he spoke with a tongue like a snake, supposedly he was of a race that Amittai didn’t know.
‘But don’t yous dare to talks, we knows what been going on in that head of yous. Yous are aiming for number ones in the tournament, then yous need to catch up to three months of training… Let usss start with findings out who will get the goods bed…’
Araque suddenly began to thrust his fist towards Amittai with great speed. Amittai only just avoided it by jumping away and hit the wall. ‘What the hell?’ Amittai thought. A few other blows came in his direction, but by the time they reached their destination the mind of Amittai was working on topspeed. ‘Might aswell give him what he wants.’ Amittai jumped out of the way of the fists.
thingying back his own fist he ran towards Araque in great speed and thrusted his fist forward looking to hit Araque’s smug face. He, however, did not hit Araque, but the wall instead. ‘This guy is fast.’Amittai thought to himself.’ Formulating a new combat plan in rapid speed he felt something approaching from behind him. Amittai turned around and saw Araque with a thingyed back fist and ready to punch Amittai. Just as he punched Amittai managed to grab the arm of Araque. ‘Play time’s over.’ As Amittai said that his whole body went into overdrive. ‘Screw the plan, you want a fight, so be it.’ His power increased as he entered a state of high tension. He closed his fist around Araque’s fist and broke it with one swift move. With Araque writhing in pain Amittai did not stop, he wanted more. He reached out and closed his hand around Araque’s neck, doing his best not to break it.
As Amittai had evil thoughts running through his mind, almost everything in the room started to shake, and rubble began to get up from the ground, alarming a nearby guard, making him run into the room. ‘Okay what is the reason of this?’ The guard asked with a loud voice. ‘Amittai did not answer, but continued to squeeze Araque’s neck. ‘I demand you two stop or I’ll have to use force.’ Amittai did not step back, but continued to hurt Araque. The guard began to interfere and grabbed Amittais hand which was wrapped around Araque’s neck and squeezed it gently. Amittai reverted to normal and crumbled under the force of the guard. Araque fell down with a print of a hand on his throat. He could barely speak, but, while rubbing his hand he uttered the words ‘The bed iss yours.’ A few seconds later he fell unconscious.
With the knowledge he had conquered the good bed he decided to put it to good use, though he couldnt as a result of the guard holding him. ‘I think its time you and I went to visit the abbot.’ The guard whispered to Amittai. While leaving the room Amittai could feel Araque standing up again, followed by a blow to the head with a blunt object. What the guard did not know was that Amittai was used to getting hit in the head and taught himself to ignore it, so he was not unconscious but only acted so to play with the guards mind. He got dragged through a large hallway that ended in two separate ways, Amittai tried to remember everything as good as he could, Maybe this would come in handy some day.
The next think Amittai remembered was a big round room, set with all kinds of globes, and some had a strange fog in them, ranging from green to blue. There was a big desk in the center, but noone was sitting behind it. Suddenly Amittai heard a voice behind him. ‘I’m sorry about the blow to the head, it is to make sure noone knows how to get here. Now, tell me the reason you were brought here.’ The abbot sat behind his desk in the blink of an eye and stared at Amittai, though it felt as if he was looking at the wall behind Amittai. ‘Well,’ Amittai started. ‘the reason I was brought here, is that Araque, my roommate, challenged me to a fight to see who would get the better bed. I know it’s a silly reason for a fight, but he insisted.’ The abbot sighed. ‘Get back to another room to stay. I will need some time to figure out a solution. Guards!´ Xor´mandul got hit in the head again and saw every inch of the way the followed…
After Amittai got to another room he assessed the situation in topspeed. After a while he got the feeling of not being ale to do anything, instead, he just went to sleep.
After being woken rudely by a stern push to the thigh, Amittai groaned and stood up just to be confronted with a fist aimed towards his face. Amittai ducked away as he saw Araque standing there with an angry face. ‘I will not forget what you did to me!’ This appeared to be a side of Araque that Amittai had never seen before. He appeared to be more buff then before, his skin began to show cracks and pieces of skin began to fall off. ‘It is time for us to see who is the best here.’ Araque aimed another fist towards Amittai and put extra speed behind it, before Amittai knew what hit him, he was blown backwards against the wall of the chamber. Amittai fell down and felt something on his head, the rock wall was crumbling, shedding tiny pieces of stone right on Amittai’s head. Amittai tried to stand up while knowing he gave Araque a chance by doing so, and within the shortest of moments Amittai got a punch to the face again, sending him yet again to the ground. Amittai did not have the will to be punched by Araque again, so he jumped up in rapid succession and rushed towards Araque who raised his fist to yet again hit Amittai, but he saw it coming. He avoided the fist and grabbed his shoulder from the side, pushing in a thumb under it preventing Araque from lowering his arm, he felt force which indicated Araque was trying to lower his arm. Amittai responded by retracting his thumb and using his nails, shortly followed by a weak flow of blood. Araque flinched and shrugged Amittai off of him, sending him flying to the wall he was about to meet for the third time.
Amittai had a reaction thought out, he raised his feet so he regained control of his body while flying towards the wall, and he pushed his feet towards the wall and withdrew his whole body against the wall, so he was vertically sitting against it. By pushing himself from the wall with both his hand he flew towards Araque and yelled ‘Say hello to the abbot for me.’ And he hit Araque as hard as he could in the chest, making him fly through the wall and being spiked by a sharp broken brick. As Amittai turned around he saw the abbot standing there and shaking his head. ‘Boy,’ the abbot started. ‘i will have to transfer you to a room away from other people, a room that noone knows.’ Amittai knew he was going to be hit in the head again and that it would give him another nasty bump. ‘Can’t I just keep my eyes closed?’ Amittai asked. He was answered by a blow on the head that really knocked him unconsi0us, as he did not feel the urge to stay awake.
As he woke up, he noticed by the stance of the candles on the wall behind him that a day had passed. He also didn’t recognize the room he was in, so The Abbot was speaking the truth afterall. As soon as Amittai stood up and reached for the wall he found a note stuck to the back of his hand. It said ‘Dear Amittai, your will to fight and win has made me believe that you are going to do great in the tournament we keep every month, you still have 16 days t0 train. Every two days someone will come to you to check your medical status. Every day you will also find that a small tray will be shoved underneath the door with pills on it, believe me when I say the pills contain bread and water. Good luck, and araka fi ma ba’d.’ It had been signed by The Abbot. Amittai’s eyes kept reading the last sentence over and over. ‘How could The Abbot know I am studying Arabic?’ Amittai thought to himself. ‘Araka fi ma ba’d...’ Amittai kept repeating. There was bound to be a hidden message in that sentence. ‘What if The Abbot put that there for me to respond to it?’ Amittai found it quite illogical, as the only valid responses he could think of were ‘Ma’s salama and jayed’ and putting it in a sentence with araki fi ma ba’d made no sense, atleast no real sense. And so Amittai spent one whole day figuring out what The Abbot might have ment. It was late in the evening on day two that Amittai decided to drop the issue of what he ment and start to train. He fell down to his knees and started doing push ups. He did not stop unless he hadn’t the strength to continue. 4 hours later, deep within the night of day two Amittai stopped, he could bathe in his own sweat, his hands were imprinted with the texture on the stones, and a small flow of blood was visible from his hand. He decided to call it quits and went to sleep.
When Amittai woke on day three he suddenly heart a loud knock on the door, when a tray with pills was pushed in his direction, he remembered that The Abbot said it was bread and water, so Amittai decided to try it. He took a bite and fell into a deep sleep. Far away he woke up again and found himself in a black and white version of his own mind, but it only showed the things he messed up, how and why he did it, and ways he could have done it instead. However, Amittai wanted to ignore it al, he grabbed his head with both arms and screamed ‘NO! NO!’ in the process. He collapsed to the ground again, and he woke up in what seemed to be the room he started in. But when he looked down he saw his own hands, in black and white. He looked up and the rest of the room he was in was in color, and when Amittai looked behind him he saw himself sitting on the bed, figuring out what The Abbot could have ment. The black and white Amittai began to think things through and helped the normal Amittai put it all together. Suddenly the colored Amittai stood up and walked towards the black and white Amittai and spoke the muffled words ‘Sabah el kheer’ Amittai flinched and stepped backwards. The illusion could see him. The illusion went on ‘I know what you are thinking, I figured it out. Take the time, you will find it out soon enough. Ma’s salama.’ Before Amittai knew what happened he found himself standing in the colored room, and he wasn’t black and white himself anymore. Everything was normal.
‘What did he mean by me finding it out soon enough? Finding out that there is no hidden message, and The Abbot just likes to speak foreign languages? And if that, how does he know how to speak Arabic?’ Amittai’s head overheated as he thought all that, his head seemed to crumble bit by bit from the inside. Suddenly it all stopped, and Amittai’s head continued thinking. Bit by bit he went by all information he could gather, and by the time he was done he found that 4 days had passed, and pills had stacked up on the floor of the room. He suddenly figured it all out by looking at the pills on the floor and then looking back to his own hand, that had seemed to age significantly. He knew that he had to get out of there before the last day had passed, that all could be reverted if he got out. He realised it was the intention of the Abbot that everyone perished while they stayed within this dome. But why so clearly? Why not hide it in a better way? Amittai had to act before he thought of a plan and started to bash against the door. As soon as the door opened he began to realise more things as, why did The Abbot give that vision to Amittai? Could this really be a giant test he had to pass? Perhaps before the 16 days had passed? When everything passed before his eyes and through his mind it became clear to him that he needed to speak with The Abbot. He ran down the hall, looking for the hallway he passed through a couple of days ago, when suddenly, he heard two guards approach. As he heard them he tried to ignore them and continue for The Abbot’s room when he was suddenly stopped by the two guards. ‘Why are you out of your room?’ ‘I much desire to converse with The Abbot.’ Amittai responded. The guards didn’t seem to pay any attention to what Amittai said. ‘We don’t care, you need to go back to your room now. Be it voluntary or not.’ Amittai thought of what The Abbot said in the note to Amittai. ‘Sallem ‘ala The Abbot men ajlee.’ The guards automatically let Amittai pass by, and after that they went back to patrolling like nothing happened.
Amittai got to some wall that seemed to bee hiding something, so Amittai started shoulder-thrusting the wall in the hope it would crumble, and so it did after a few seconds. Amittai saw hallway the wall was hiding and saw it was a well lit corridor with a desk at the end. Amittai walked towards the desk and found a note. It said ‘You did well finding this note, you’ll be glad to hear everything that has happened to you was nothing but a dream, even this note is.’ ‘I am genuinely surprised you found this room,’ Amittai looked behind him and saw that The Abbot was standing behind him. ‘This was all just a way to find out how far you’ve evolved.’ Amittai interrupted The Abbot. ‘But, if this happens to be a dream, as you like to say it is, mind explaining how? Why me?’ The Abbot turned his back to Amittai. ‘Boy, always asking multiple questions, but only those that need answering. I chose you to see how you would do as an individual, sure, you can be great if people surround you. Like the guards you killed when we first met. But you need to learn how to be great on your own. Only then will you reach a new level.’ The Abbot started walking towards his desk. ‘As I said this was all a dream, and I do not intend to answer anything you ask, instead, you will wake up from the dream and I will get you for the tournament.’ Amittai opened his mouth, and The Abbot knew what he wanted to say. ‘The 16 days of training you’ve gotten mean nothing when you figure this out, you don’t need 16 days. Trust me’
Once Amittai woke up again he saw The Abbot standing before him. ‘Time for the tournament..’
Amittai remembered nothing of the past experiences and followed The Abbot without complaining. Once reached the ring where the tournament would take place Amittai saw that he was the last to actually get there, every fighter who he saw a glimpse of was there, and even a few he did not see before were there. He heard The Abbot speak to all the fighters and everyone there immediately became quiet. ‘As you all know, this tournament is of great importance, as winning makes you able to meet with sensei Kaluja.’ Everyone bowed when they heard that name, probably out of respect.
There were 15 fighters in total and none of them looked prone to lose, everyone of them looked like they wanted to win. And there was Amittai who was gently put, forced to enter the competition.
The first match was up, Amittai had to enter the ring even though he didn’t want to, he wanted a peaceful existence, but this tournament did the opposite. He entered the ring, and waited to see his opponent, hoping for a violentless match.
He was far from the truth. His opponent was Araque, the same buffed up idiot he fought earlier, he who appeared to be single celled in his head. He smiled towards Amittai and crackled his fists. The referee joined the two fighters and began to say what all the rules were.
‘This tournament has two rules. Make sure your opponent is dead and no forfeiting.’
Amittai was scared by the first rule, this was a match to the death, it wasn’t supposed to go like this. Araque waited for the referee to go out of the ring and jumped on top of Amittai. ‘You will pay for everything you have done to me!’ Araque said. He grabbed Amittai’s neck and landed behind Amittai, he started to twist Amittai’s neck and used a lot of force. Amittai spoke in a low voice ‘Jayed, but I wouldn’t do that if I were you, I want a peaceful solution, not one that implies dying.’ Amittai turned around in a swift motion, his hood falling of his head, and revealing a third eye. Araque flinched and fell backwards. ‘I had this ever since I was a child, it made me see everything normal people could not say, it even tells me how to do things in the optimal way.’ Amittai said. He stepped towards Araque. ‘Even though I am neutral in body and mind, I feel it is my duty to uphold the honor of someone who challenges me by giving them a peaceful death sooner or later. Don’t you agree?’ Amittai stood close to Araque and felt that Araque was about to grab his foot and stab it with a hidden blade positioned within his hand. Amittai saw it happening and made sure that he was one step ahead of Araque. He lifted his leg and positioned it next to his other leg and jumped on his hand, so he was face to face with Araque ‘Aasef..’ Amittai landed next to Araque and grabbed his neck with two hands and snapped it with deadly presicion.
The referee entered the ring and stepped towards Amittai. Raising his hood Amittai stopped the referee from taking his hand and raising it. ‘This is nothing to cheer at.’ He said. The referee nodded and said ‘The righteous winner is Amittai!’ Amittai smiled…
The next match was between 2 people Amittai never even met, A’ageban and Enotia. Both entered the ring, and filled the entire atmosphere with a huge feeling of disrespect towards each other. Like they felt that only one man could leave the ring alive. They appeared to not be very talkative, and did not enjoy a honourable fight.
A’ageban and Enotia waited for the referee to start the explanation of the rules, and then they waited for the referee to stop talking to get it on. As soon as the referee stepped out of the ring Enotia dashed towards A’ageban and planted a fist in his stomach, Enotia pushed his fist forward, and in a matter of seconds he had A’ageban spiked on his arm. Within seconds it was over. Enotia won.
The referee entered the ring and stepped towards Enotia to raise his arm and declare him the winner. The audience went wild and started clapping harder then before. This made Amittai realise two things, one, Enotia didn’t play with his victims and was straight to the point, thus, had a good chance to play in the finals, and second, the audience liked bloody and violent fights.
The third fight had two new fighters who Amittai remembered seeing in the hallway at the beginning, Rasun and Itumaro. Both seemed quite hung up on honour and adept in martial arts. This could get interesting. Amittai sat down on the wooden bench behind him next to Enotia, when Amittai noticed The Abbot on top of a huge throne in the middle of the audience.
The fight between Rasun and Itumaro commenced, and they ran towards each other aiming a fist for each others head, which had such force that you could hear both jaws of both fighters snap. They had similar moves, they had the same style in kicking, both kicked and aimed for the neck, and again with such force that both necks snapped. Amittai figured it was over, but both fighters in the ring surprisingly managed to lower their legs and attain another fighting stance, before the vein in their neck snapped and blood started gushing out.
The referee entered the ring and yelled ‘This match is a draw!’ The Abbot came down and ran towards the referee and whispered him something in his ear. The next match will be the last for The Abbot does not have that much time. The next match will be two versus two, and when one contestant dies the next will have to join. First up are Shou with a partner he chooses and Hinosoth with a partner he chooses. Go!’
When both parties had a partner picked out and all four fighters were in the ring it became obvious this would not take long, Shou appeared the most intimidating life form Amittai had ever layed eyes upon. It appeared Shou could Teleport and reappear in a place of his own choice, as Hinosoth and his partner ran towards Shou and his partner, Shou disappeared and snapped the neck of both his opponents in a matter of seconds.
The referee came in and did not look shocked by the quick defeat of the fighters. ‘Continue the fight! Mocas! Choose a partner and get in here!’
So Mocas did. Amittai realised there were only eight fighters left and made himself ready for number six and seven to die.
Shou disappeared and appeared behind Mocas and ripped his head off and started chewing on it. It was time for someone else to step in. Ban’end was the one.
He stepped in and jumped on the neck of Shou and held tight, so did his partner. And apparently Shou had some kind of body changing ability because both fighters had a giant spike through their body instantly.
Two more dead. The referee interrupted the fight for a short announcement ‘The fights are not fast enough, as we though, we need every fighter in here now.’
Amittai responded and so did the rest of the bench, Enotia was the first to enter the ring and speedily bypassed Shou to attack his partner who hadn’t done anything the entire match. He dashed towards him and sliced his head clean off with his hand. Now it was even, two versus two. But Shou and Enotia seemed to team together, leaving Amittai with who seemed to be the weakest of the bunch. He desperately dashed towards Enotia when Shou appeared behind him and broke his arms, legs and neck.
‘Oh great, just great. Two of the most powerful people here against a person who is here for the first time.’ Amittai thought to himself. He made himself ready for his own death and prayed for a swift one. When he was done he looked over to The Abbot, who was just smiling.
‘Alright, lets get this over with.’ Amittai said to his opponents. ‘The hooded one can talk, how fun.’ Shou said. In reality, Amittai was just as shocked that Shou could talk.
Shou appeared behind Amittai and wrapped his hands around his neck and started twisting it, making Amittais hood fall off and revealing his third eye. Shou flinched back and let go of Amittais neck. Enotia saw that and dashed towards Amittai.
Amittai saw Enotia dashing towards him and reacted at the right time to avoid the punch Enotia had aimed for Amittais head, Amittai then aimed a kick to the jaw of Enotia to send him flying upwards. When Enotia came crashing down Amittai grabbed him by the leg and crushed it before breaking Enotia’s spine.
‘One less to worry about.’ Amittai thought to himself.
The fight against Shou appeared to be a lot hardr then Amittai had imagined, so he attained a battle stance…
They all had a black tunic, and leather trousers. As accessory they had some skulls on leather straps around their chest area, it was black leather so you could only see the skulls resting on faintly pumping chests. They had black boots, big ones that had huge spikes on them, few of those spikes had blood on them. Probably from a fight, or, from people who tried to escape their room, assuming they had people in them. And all the guards had a buckle that was decorated with a knife and some humanoid bones with scarce remains of flesh on them. The blade of the knifes were covered in some black colored goo, possibly a failed attempt to color the blades. All the guards wore black barets encompanied by the fact that every mouth in sight, apart from the abbots mouth, was sowed shut and a black pair of glasses for all guards, was supposedly placed there to cover up all signs of emotion.
Furthermore all guards were heavily decorated with metallic bodyparts. They had long, pointy metallic fingers that had small cuts in them, probably for getting a firm grip on the victim. The rest of their arms was covered in metallic residues of what seemed to be a new paintjob on their fingers. Their legs were not armoured at all, except for their ankles, they were covered in a small metallic band that had small but sharp spikes pointing out to the side. Their kneecaps had a small metal plate on them to strengthen the human anatomy a bit, or so it would seem.
As Amittai passed the guards he saw none of the guards look up to see what was happening, instead they all turned around and went into the rooms they were guarding and got the occupants of said rooms. All the people that were in the rooms seemed to be in some kind of training Amittai thought, judging by the amount of sweat on their foreheads.
Suddenly a voice behind Amittai spoke, it was the abbot who was talking in a language Amittai never heard before.
‘Arg’esha anul belomne na.’
Some guards began to let go of their victims and walked towards the abbot who began to talk louder.
‘Arg’eshna anul belomne belara’na!’
More guards walked slowly towards the abbot, ignoring Amittai completely. The abbot whispered something to the guards.
‘Jinuet, jite’na belo’ar esh’nagorlu
The abbot turned to Amittai
‘I’d like you to meet our trainees, they are all training here for the upcoming tournament, that we’re holding for the members every six years.’
Amittai turned to the abbot and, for so far as he could, frowned.
‘So you mean there is going to be a tournament here? And everyone is going to participate? Are there prizes to win?’
The abbot answered him.
‘Yes, yes and yes. There are two prizes to win, the first prize is a meet with sensei Kaluja, and the second prize is a fight with sensei Kaluja.’
Amittai turned around and watched all the trainees over carefully as he estimated their power.
‘So, if I were to join, I’d get a better prize as second? But lets not get into that, where do I sign up?’
‘You dont, I have every participant stored right here. *The abbot points to his head* You’re room is right over here, follow me.’
Amittai followed him away from the rooms he was facing, and just looked back to see ever participant walking back into their rooms, some mumbling some words that sounded as ‘towel’.
‘If I may ask, you spoke a weird language earlier, what was that?’
The abbot continued walking through and narrowing corridor, and into a hall with ‘Newsers’ written above it, Amittai wondered why he didn’t know any of these words as he followed the abbot.
‘Yes you may ask, its an ancient, forgotten language called Vajal. A select few can understand it, and even fewer can speak it. Ah, here is your room, say hello to your roommate, Araque. I’ll leave you two to it, I have business to take care of.’
As Amittai looked around the room he felt Araque looking him over. It was a big, blue skinned man, covered in scars freshly made, though Amittai couldn’t think of what could have made it. He wore red fighters armor, that covered up most of his body. His face was set by scars of time, he was an open book to Amittai. Furthermore he had all kinds of tattoos on his arms, with hints of small metal pieces of skin probably there to cover up singed patches of skin. Amittai reached this verdict as he looked in the background and saw a bright lit torch, even though the room was bright enough to notice everything.
The room itself was decorated by two small beds on opposite sides of the room, with one bed being perfect, probably the one Araque had been sleeping in, and the other bed was ripped to shreds, the stuffing was beaten out of the pillow.
‘So yous are the new one are yous not? We surely would have fun with yous if not for those annoying checkupsss every ten minutes. And I doubt yous are going to be sleeping in the… ‘broken’ bed, are yous not?’
Amittai listened closely to the man as he spoke with a tongue like a snake, supposedly he was of a race that Amittai didn’t know.
‘But don’t yous dare to talks, we knows what been going on in that head of yous. Yous are aiming for number ones in the tournament, then yous need to catch up to three months of training… Let usss start with findings out who will get the goods bed…’
Araque suddenly began to thrust his fist towards Amittai with great speed. Amittai only just avoided it by jumping away and hit the wall. ‘What the hell?’ Amittai thought. A few other blows came in his direction, but by the time they reached their destination the mind of Amittai was working on topspeed. ‘Might aswell give him what he wants.’ Amittai jumped out of the way of the fists.
thingying back his own fist he ran towards Araque in great speed and thrusted his fist forward looking to hit Araque’s smug face. He, however, did not hit Araque, but the wall instead. ‘This guy is fast.’Amittai thought to himself.’ Formulating a new combat plan in rapid speed he felt something approaching from behind him. Amittai turned around and saw Araque with a thingyed back fist and ready to punch Amittai. Just as he punched Amittai managed to grab the arm of Araque. ‘Play time’s over.’ As Amittai said that his whole body went into overdrive. ‘Screw the plan, you want a fight, so be it.’ His power increased as he entered a state of high tension. He closed his fist around Araque’s fist and broke it with one swift move. With Araque writhing in pain Amittai did not stop, he wanted more. He reached out and closed his hand around Araque’s neck, doing his best not to break it.
As Amittai had evil thoughts running through his mind, almost everything in the room started to shake, and rubble began to get up from the ground, alarming a nearby guard, making him run into the room. ‘Okay what is the reason of this?’ The guard asked with a loud voice. ‘Amittai did not answer, but continued to squeeze Araque’s neck. ‘I demand you two stop or I’ll have to use force.’ Amittai did not step back, but continued to hurt Araque. The guard began to interfere and grabbed Amittais hand which was wrapped around Araque’s neck and squeezed it gently. Amittai reverted to normal and crumbled under the force of the guard. Araque fell down with a print of a hand on his throat. He could barely speak, but, while rubbing his hand he uttered the words ‘The bed iss yours.’ A few seconds later he fell unconscious.
With the knowledge he had conquered the good bed he decided to put it to good use, though he couldnt as a result of the guard holding him. ‘I think its time you and I went to visit the abbot.’ The guard whispered to Amittai. While leaving the room Amittai could feel Araque standing up again, followed by a blow to the head with a blunt object. What the guard did not know was that Amittai was used to getting hit in the head and taught himself to ignore it, so he was not unconscious but only acted so to play with the guards mind. He got dragged through a large hallway that ended in two separate ways, Amittai tried to remember everything as good as he could, Maybe this would come in handy some day.
The next think Amittai remembered was a big round room, set with all kinds of globes, and some had a strange fog in them, ranging from green to blue. There was a big desk in the center, but noone was sitting behind it. Suddenly Amittai heard a voice behind him. ‘I’m sorry about the blow to the head, it is to make sure noone knows how to get here. Now, tell me the reason you were brought here.’ The abbot sat behind his desk in the blink of an eye and stared at Amittai, though it felt as if he was looking at the wall behind Amittai. ‘Well,’ Amittai started. ‘the reason I was brought here, is that Araque, my roommate, challenged me to a fight to see who would get the better bed. I know it’s a silly reason for a fight, but he insisted.’ The abbot sighed. ‘Get back to another room to stay. I will need some time to figure out a solution. Guards!´ Xor´mandul got hit in the head again and saw every inch of the way the followed…
After Amittai got to another room he assessed the situation in topspeed. After a while he got the feeling of not being ale to do anything, instead, he just went to sleep.
After being woken rudely by a stern push to the thigh, Amittai groaned and stood up just to be confronted with a fist aimed towards his face. Amittai ducked away as he saw Araque standing there with an angry face. ‘I will not forget what you did to me!’ This appeared to be a side of Araque that Amittai had never seen before. He appeared to be more buff then before, his skin began to show cracks and pieces of skin began to fall off. ‘It is time for us to see who is the best here.’ Araque aimed another fist towards Amittai and put extra speed behind it, before Amittai knew what hit him, he was blown backwards against the wall of the chamber. Amittai fell down and felt something on his head, the rock wall was crumbling, shedding tiny pieces of stone right on Amittai’s head. Amittai tried to stand up while knowing he gave Araque a chance by doing so, and within the shortest of moments Amittai got a punch to the face again, sending him yet again to the ground. Amittai did not have the will to be punched by Araque again, so he jumped up in rapid succession and rushed towards Araque who raised his fist to yet again hit Amittai, but he saw it coming. He avoided the fist and grabbed his shoulder from the side, pushing in a thumb under it preventing Araque from lowering his arm, he felt force which indicated Araque was trying to lower his arm. Amittai responded by retracting his thumb and using his nails, shortly followed by a weak flow of blood. Araque flinched and shrugged Amittai off of him, sending him flying to the wall he was about to meet for the third time.
Amittai had a reaction thought out, he raised his feet so he regained control of his body while flying towards the wall, and he pushed his feet towards the wall and withdrew his whole body against the wall, so he was vertically sitting against it. By pushing himself from the wall with both his hand he flew towards Araque and yelled ‘Say hello to the abbot for me.’ And he hit Araque as hard as he could in the chest, making him fly through the wall and being spiked by a sharp broken brick. As Amittai turned around he saw the abbot standing there and shaking his head. ‘Boy,’ the abbot started. ‘i will have to transfer you to a room away from other people, a room that noone knows.’ Amittai knew he was going to be hit in the head again and that it would give him another nasty bump. ‘Can’t I just keep my eyes closed?’ Amittai asked. He was answered by a blow on the head that really knocked him unconsi0us, as he did not feel the urge to stay awake.
As he woke up, he noticed by the stance of the candles on the wall behind him that a day had passed. He also didn’t recognize the room he was in, so The Abbot was speaking the truth afterall. As soon as Amittai stood up and reached for the wall he found a note stuck to the back of his hand. It said ‘Dear Amittai, your will to fight and win has made me believe that you are going to do great in the tournament we keep every month, you still have 16 days t0 train. Every two days someone will come to you to check your medical status. Every day you will also find that a small tray will be shoved underneath the door with pills on it, believe me when I say the pills contain bread and water. Good luck, and araka fi ma ba’d.’ It had been signed by The Abbot. Amittai’s eyes kept reading the last sentence over and over. ‘How could The Abbot know I am studying Arabic?’ Amittai thought to himself. ‘Araka fi ma ba’d...’ Amittai kept repeating. There was bound to be a hidden message in that sentence. ‘What if The Abbot put that there for me to respond to it?’ Amittai found it quite illogical, as the only valid responses he could think of were ‘Ma’s salama and jayed’ and putting it in a sentence with araki fi ma ba’d made no sense, atleast no real sense. And so Amittai spent one whole day figuring out what The Abbot might have ment. It was late in the evening on day two that Amittai decided to drop the issue of what he ment and start to train. He fell down to his knees and started doing push ups. He did not stop unless he hadn’t the strength to continue. 4 hours later, deep within the night of day two Amittai stopped, he could bathe in his own sweat, his hands were imprinted with the texture on the stones, and a small flow of blood was visible from his hand. He decided to call it quits and went to sleep.
When Amittai woke on day three he suddenly heart a loud knock on the door, when a tray with pills was pushed in his direction, he remembered that The Abbot said it was bread and water, so Amittai decided to try it. He took a bite and fell into a deep sleep. Far away he woke up again and found himself in a black and white version of his own mind, but it only showed the things he messed up, how and why he did it, and ways he could have done it instead. However, Amittai wanted to ignore it al, he grabbed his head with both arms and screamed ‘NO! NO!’ in the process. He collapsed to the ground again, and he woke up in what seemed to be the room he started in. But when he looked down he saw his own hands, in black and white. He looked up and the rest of the room he was in was in color, and when Amittai looked behind him he saw himself sitting on the bed, figuring out what The Abbot could have ment. The black and white Amittai began to think things through and helped the normal Amittai put it all together. Suddenly the colored Amittai stood up and walked towards the black and white Amittai and spoke the muffled words ‘Sabah el kheer’ Amittai flinched and stepped backwards. The illusion could see him. The illusion went on ‘I know what you are thinking, I figured it out. Take the time, you will find it out soon enough. Ma’s salama.’ Before Amittai knew what happened he found himself standing in the colored room, and he wasn’t black and white himself anymore. Everything was normal.
‘What did he mean by me finding it out soon enough? Finding out that there is no hidden message, and The Abbot just likes to speak foreign languages? And if that, how does he know how to speak Arabic?’ Amittai’s head overheated as he thought all that, his head seemed to crumble bit by bit from the inside. Suddenly it all stopped, and Amittai’s head continued thinking. Bit by bit he went by all information he could gather, and by the time he was done he found that 4 days had passed, and pills had stacked up on the floor of the room. He suddenly figured it all out by looking at the pills on the floor and then looking back to his own hand, that had seemed to age significantly. He knew that he had to get out of there before the last day had passed, that all could be reverted if he got out. He realised it was the intention of the Abbot that everyone perished while they stayed within this dome. But why so clearly? Why not hide it in a better way? Amittai had to act before he thought of a plan and started to bash against the door. As soon as the door opened he began to realise more things as, why did The Abbot give that vision to Amittai? Could this really be a giant test he had to pass? Perhaps before the 16 days had passed? When everything passed before his eyes and through his mind it became clear to him that he needed to speak with The Abbot. He ran down the hall, looking for the hallway he passed through a couple of days ago, when suddenly, he heard two guards approach. As he heard them he tried to ignore them and continue for The Abbot’s room when he was suddenly stopped by the two guards. ‘Why are you out of your room?’ ‘I much desire to converse with The Abbot.’ Amittai responded. The guards didn’t seem to pay any attention to what Amittai said. ‘We don’t care, you need to go back to your room now. Be it voluntary or not.’ Amittai thought of what The Abbot said in the note to Amittai. ‘Sallem ‘ala The Abbot men ajlee.’ The guards automatically let Amittai pass by, and after that they went back to patrolling like nothing happened.
Amittai got to some wall that seemed to bee hiding something, so Amittai started shoulder-thrusting the wall in the hope it would crumble, and so it did after a few seconds. Amittai saw hallway the wall was hiding and saw it was a well lit corridor with a desk at the end. Amittai walked towards the desk and found a note. It said ‘You did well finding this note, you’ll be glad to hear everything that has happened to you was nothing but a dream, even this note is.’ ‘I am genuinely surprised you found this room,’ Amittai looked behind him and saw that The Abbot was standing behind him. ‘This was all just a way to find out how far you’ve evolved.’ Amittai interrupted The Abbot. ‘But, if this happens to be a dream, as you like to say it is, mind explaining how? Why me?’ The Abbot turned his back to Amittai. ‘Boy, always asking multiple questions, but only those that need answering. I chose you to see how you would do as an individual, sure, you can be great if people surround you. Like the guards you killed when we first met. But you need to learn how to be great on your own. Only then will you reach a new level.’ The Abbot started walking towards his desk. ‘As I said this was all a dream, and I do not intend to answer anything you ask, instead, you will wake up from the dream and I will get you for the tournament.’ Amittai opened his mouth, and The Abbot knew what he wanted to say. ‘The 16 days of training you’ve gotten mean nothing when you figure this out, you don’t need 16 days. Trust me’
Once Amittai woke up again he saw The Abbot standing before him. ‘Time for the tournament..’
Amittai remembered nothing of the past experiences and followed The Abbot without complaining. Once reached the ring where the tournament would take place Amittai saw that he was the last to actually get there, every fighter who he saw a glimpse of was there, and even a few he did not see before were there. He heard The Abbot speak to all the fighters and everyone there immediately became quiet. ‘As you all know, this tournament is of great importance, as winning makes you able to meet with sensei Kaluja.’ Everyone bowed when they heard that name, probably out of respect.
There were 15 fighters in total and none of them looked prone to lose, everyone of them looked like they wanted to win. And there was Amittai who was gently put, forced to enter the competition.
The first match was up, Amittai had to enter the ring even though he didn’t want to, he wanted a peaceful existence, but this tournament did the opposite. He entered the ring, and waited to see his opponent, hoping for a violentless match.
He was far from the truth. His opponent was Araque, the same buffed up idiot he fought earlier, he who appeared to be single celled in his head. He smiled towards Amittai and crackled his fists. The referee joined the two fighters and began to say what all the rules were.
‘This tournament has two rules. Make sure your opponent is dead and no forfeiting.’
Amittai was scared by the first rule, this was a match to the death, it wasn’t supposed to go like this. Araque waited for the referee to go out of the ring and jumped on top of Amittai. ‘You will pay for everything you have done to me!’ Araque said. He grabbed Amittai’s neck and landed behind Amittai, he started to twist Amittai’s neck and used a lot of force. Amittai spoke in a low voice ‘Jayed, but I wouldn’t do that if I were you, I want a peaceful solution, not one that implies dying.’ Amittai turned around in a swift motion, his hood falling of his head, and revealing a third eye. Araque flinched and fell backwards. ‘I had this ever since I was a child, it made me see everything normal people could not say, it even tells me how to do things in the optimal way.’ Amittai said. He stepped towards Araque. ‘Even though I am neutral in body and mind, I feel it is my duty to uphold the honor of someone who challenges me by giving them a peaceful death sooner or later. Don’t you agree?’ Amittai stood close to Araque and felt that Araque was about to grab his foot and stab it with a hidden blade positioned within his hand. Amittai saw it happening and made sure that he was one step ahead of Araque. He lifted his leg and positioned it next to his other leg and jumped on his hand, so he was face to face with Araque ‘Aasef..’ Amittai landed next to Araque and grabbed his neck with two hands and snapped it with deadly presicion.
The referee entered the ring and stepped towards Amittai. Raising his hood Amittai stopped the referee from taking his hand and raising it. ‘This is nothing to cheer at.’ He said. The referee nodded and said ‘The righteous winner is Amittai!’ Amittai smiled…
The next match was between 2 people Amittai never even met, A’ageban and Enotia. Both entered the ring, and filled the entire atmosphere with a huge feeling of disrespect towards each other. Like they felt that only one man could leave the ring alive. They appeared to not be very talkative, and did not enjoy a honourable fight.
A’ageban and Enotia waited for the referee to start the explanation of the rules, and then they waited for the referee to stop talking to get it on. As soon as the referee stepped out of the ring Enotia dashed towards A’ageban and planted a fist in his stomach, Enotia pushed his fist forward, and in a matter of seconds he had A’ageban spiked on his arm. Within seconds it was over. Enotia won.
The referee entered the ring and stepped towards Enotia to raise his arm and declare him the winner. The audience went wild and started clapping harder then before. This made Amittai realise two things, one, Enotia didn’t play with his victims and was straight to the point, thus, had a good chance to play in the finals, and second, the audience liked bloody and violent fights.
The third fight had two new fighters who Amittai remembered seeing in the hallway at the beginning, Rasun and Itumaro. Both seemed quite hung up on honour and adept in martial arts. This could get interesting. Amittai sat down on the wooden bench behind him next to Enotia, when Amittai noticed The Abbot on top of a huge throne in the middle of the audience.
The fight between Rasun and Itumaro commenced, and they ran towards each other aiming a fist for each others head, which had such force that you could hear both jaws of both fighters snap. They had similar moves, they had the same style in kicking, both kicked and aimed for the neck, and again with such force that both necks snapped. Amittai figured it was over, but both fighters in the ring surprisingly managed to lower their legs and attain another fighting stance, before the vein in their neck snapped and blood started gushing out.
The referee entered the ring and yelled ‘This match is a draw!’ The Abbot came down and ran towards the referee and whispered him something in his ear. The next match will be the last for The Abbot does not have that much time. The next match will be two versus two, and when one contestant dies the next will have to join. First up are Shou with a partner he chooses and Hinosoth with a partner he chooses. Go!’
When both parties had a partner picked out and all four fighters were in the ring it became obvious this would not take long, Shou appeared the most intimidating life form Amittai had ever layed eyes upon. It appeared Shou could Teleport and reappear in a place of his own choice, as Hinosoth and his partner ran towards Shou and his partner, Shou disappeared and snapped the neck of both his opponents in a matter of seconds.
The referee came in and did not look shocked by the quick defeat of the fighters. ‘Continue the fight! Mocas! Choose a partner and get in here!’
So Mocas did. Amittai realised there were only eight fighters left and made himself ready for number six and seven to die.
Shou disappeared and appeared behind Mocas and ripped his head off and started chewing on it. It was time for someone else to step in. Ban’end was the one.
He stepped in and jumped on the neck of Shou and held tight, so did his partner. And apparently Shou had some kind of body changing ability because both fighters had a giant spike through their body instantly.
Two more dead. The referee interrupted the fight for a short announcement ‘The fights are not fast enough, as we though, we need every fighter in here now.’
Amittai responded and so did the rest of the bench, Enotia was the first to enter the ring and speedily bypassed Shou to attack his partner who hadn’t done anything the entire match. He dashed towards him and sliced his head clean off with his hand. Now it was even, two versus two. But Shou and Enotia seemed to team together, leaving Amittai with who seemed to be the weakest of the bunch. He desperately dashed towards Enotia when Shou appeared behind him and broke his arms, legs and neck.
‘Oh great, just great. Two of the most powerful people here against a person who is here for the first time.’ Amittai thought to himself. He made himself ready for his own death and prayed for a swift one. When he was done he looked over to The Abbot, who was just smiling.
‘Alright, lets get this over with.’ Amittai said to his opponents. ‘The hooded one can talk, how fun.’ Shou said. In reality, Amittai was just as shocked that Shou could talk.
Shou appeared behind Amittai and wrapped his hands around his neck and started twisting it, making Amittais hood fall off and revealing his third eye. Shou flinched back and let go of Amittais neck. Enotia saw that and dashed towards Amittai.
Amittai saw Enotia dashing towards him and reacted at the right time to avoid the punch Enotia had aimed for Amittais head, Amittai then aimed a kick to the jaw of Enotia to send him flying upwards. When Enotia came crashing down Amittai grabbed him by the leg and crushed it before breaking Enotia’s spine.
‘One less to worry about.’ Amittai thought to himself.
The fight against Shou appeared to be a lot hardr then Amittai had imagined, so he attained a battle stance…
