Gods of Arena

The door opened and he walked out of the Arena with the soldiers. Immediately the door closed behind him, the girl showed up and the soldiers stopped. "So you won the fight?"

"I was pretty confident you didn't see that coming", Kang replied, smiling.

"No, I didn't.... You didn't see this coming, either", she said and raised a gun at him.

"You won't do that", a voice said and a man walked in. It was the same hefty bald man he had seen in his dream. He could remember clearly.

"Stop trying to torment me, King!", Ana screamed childishly, still pointing the gun at Kang.

Kang looked at the golden gun. Only the soldiers were allowed to hold it. On her wrist, there was some sort of golden glove; exactly the same color. She dropped her hand and the gun disappeared from her hand. The golden glove remained. "You can leave him with me, Ana", King said and stepped forward. "I will deal with him"

Ana stepped closer to him and whispered in his ears. "I will kill you myself"

Kang smiled, still feeling hyped by the pill he took. "Nice to meet you too, Ana"

Ana walked away and King smiled at him, staring with admiration. "I bet you have no idea what the crowd out there is saying about you"

"Would you mind to tell me what they say, Mr. King?"

"It's just King... they call you the 'small but mighty' man", King said. "They call you the Blank"

"The Blank?", Kang muttered. He had heard that from somewhere but he wasn't sure of where. "Why is that?"

"By calling you the Blank, they mean a lot of things", King replied. "They call you Blank because you are unreadable. They can't tell your next move. You seem scared, then you seem confident... and when it looks like you'll lose, you just stomp the enemy. Most bizarre of the reasons they call you the Blank, you didn't use the Shin Zhu till the end of the fight"

Kang smiled. "It's part of my training", Kang said, confidently. "I build my Shin Zhu till I have to face the Top-tier"

King smiled, in awe. "Looks like Ana was wrong about you, after all", King muttered, under his breath. "I underestimated you........ You will be honored" "Thank you"

"Being the Blank, the Gamblers will never be able to guess your strength level", King said. "You will confuse them and we will make a lot of money"

****

"What's up, Dea? Why did you call?", Jin asked, looking around to make sure no one would see them.

"I'll make it quick", Dea replied. "We have a situation now and I don't think it's the right time to leave"

"Do you mean the war with the Arena?", Jin asked. "I'm not ready to lead anyone to battle" "Listen, Jin. The Grimm will be very destructive and they will wipe out many innocent people" "Innocent people? There's no one innocent here"

"How about your sidekick?", Dea asked. "The soldiers will die. The Larger Figures will probably run out of business and the fighters will be wiped out. Kang will go with them, Jin"

Jin stared back at her for a few seconds. "How are you like this?", he muttered. "You seem kind enough to want to help me... but you are still one of the people who oppress us"

"My father works here, Jin", Dea said. "This Arena saved his life, after he escaped from the Grimm"

"The Grimm?", Jin asked.

"Yes. We are Grimms. My dad has hid it from everyone and I'm hiding it too", Dea said and leaned closer. "I'm trusting you with this. The Grimm tormented my family and, if they find out we are here and they win the war, they will capture my dad and I... and they kill keep us as slaves."

Jin sighed. He was pretty reluctant to wait longer. "How long do I have to wait?"

"I will inform you if it blows over and when the war comes, I'm hoping you will stand to protect my father and I"

"I will protect you when the time comes, Dea", Jin replied. She leaned closer and kissed him on the lips. "Thank you, Jin"

Just looking past her, Jin could see someone standing in the shade. He looked at the face. It was the girl who always came to pick the fighters for her masters' sinful pleasures. Dea turned and looked at her. "Ana", she muttered. Ana turned and walked away.

****

"You were amazing, out there", Jin said and sat on the bed. "How did you feel?"

"I felt so energized and it felt so easy, sincerely", Kang said. "I think I'll be using those pills over and over again"

"I thought so... that's why I handed the pack to you", Jin replied. "Just so you know, Finn, Romeo and I stunned the dogs at the end of the fight.... But your hit was amazing though."

"Really? Damn! You made me think I was great. Mr. King had to praise me and the Gamblers even gave me a nickname", Kang said and laughed at himself.

"Your fighting was actually great. You really didn't need our help.... Wait, who's king?"

"It's one hefty bald guy. He's one of the Larger Figures", Kang replied. "He looked so much like the guy I saw in my dream"

"Which nickname did the Gamblers give you?"

"They called me Blank. King said a lot of things", Kang said. "When I stepped out of the arena, that girl, Ana, was-"

"Ana", Jin muttered. He just heard the girl's name. Dea had mentioned her name when they were caught but he didn't actually process it. "That's the girl's name?"

"Yea. She wasn't very happy that I won the fight so she came at me with the weapon of the soldiers; the gun. Then the King showed up and stopped her. At first, she screamed back at him. It was so childish", Kang said, laughing. "She said she would kill me with her hands. When she left, King walked up to me and started praising me... Then he called me Blank"

"Blank. What does that mean?"

"I've actually heard that from somewhere, once before. I couldn't remember where", Kang said, trying to fathom it out. It hit him. "Yea... it was all in my dream, everything."

"So you dreamt about everything that happened?"

"Not exactly. Most part of it was actually ridiculous... but some of it came true. I won and I was called 'The Blank""

Jin laid on his back for a few seconds and sprung back up. "Uh... I'll need a bit of favor from you, Kang"

"You helped me with this one. Come on"

"I need you 'cause I believe you are in the best position to do it... but it will sound a bit ridiculous... and dangerous too"

****

"Hey, Finn. Throw me a sausage", Kang said, loudly. The drug had stopped working on him but he kept the excitement up.

"Stop shouting, will you?!", Jae said, threateningly.

"Sorry about that, man", Kang said, as he caught the flying sausage with his plate. "It's normal for your ears to ache after hearing too much of my victory out there"

"What did you say?", Jae asked, glaring.

"Did I say something? Oh, I must have forgotten"

"What are you doing? I won't always be around you, you know?", Jin said and glanced at Jae.

"Don't worry. If he shows up, I will just take one of those pills again"

"it doesn't work that way. You'll better not give it a try and end up with an epic fail"

As Jin had predicted, the previous night, a soldier walked through the passage again and Ana followed. Kang looked at Jin and smiled. "Looks like these Gamblers really have high sex drives, after all"noveldrama

Jin chuckled. "Don't forget what I asked. Are you with the note?", he asked and Kang nodded. "Also, keep the smile off your face so she doesn't pick a fight"

Jin was right but Kang couldn't keep the smile off his face. He kept laughing in his mind, as he imagined how the girl would react when he stylishly gave the note to her. She would probably throw a slap on his face or pick him to go and satisfy the Gamblers. He wouldn't love that but he wasn't very afraid, either. "I'm sorry I can't", he said and closed his eyes, almost laughing.

Immediately he opened his eyes, he met with Ana's stare and she looked away, quickly. She walked past the fighters, assessing each one, as if looking for a special quality in them. "What's your name?", she asked and tapped Jae on the back. "Me?", Jae asked and looked at her. They never picked Top-tiers whenever they came around.

"Yes, you. What's your name?", she asked, staring at him expressionlessly.

"Jae. My name is Jae", he said.

"Come with me", she said and turned.

"He is a top-tier", Kang said.

She stared at him for a few seconds and turned back. "Okay", she said and pointed to Finn. "The one behind you"

Romeo slowly showed his face. "Me?"

"Yes, you. What is your name?"

"Romeo"

She smiled. "Come with me", she said and turned, walking back.

She was walking past the table of Kang and Jin. Kang tapped her elbow gently and she looked back, wondering what he wanted. He held out a tiny piece of paper and she collected it. She clenched her fist on the paper and walked back to the passage with the soldiers and the petrified Romeo.

"What's going to happen to him?", Kang asked, immediately she left.

"It's definitely horrible. Just hope he doesn't end up like Gibbs", Jin replied and sat back on his chair. "Thank you for passing the note"

"You asked me to meet you here", Ana said, as he walked up the stairs. She didn't bring soldiers with her. He had asked that she came alone in the note but he didn't think she would actually come alone. He could just kill her. At least, she didn't know he couldn't control his Shin Zhu yet. He glanced at her wrist. There was a golden bracelet on her wrist. Definitely, the gun she had pointed at him after he left the arena was connected to that bracelet. "Yes. I'm glad you came"

"You had the effrontery to pass me that note. You know how stupid that is, considering I can get you killed at anytime I desire", she said.

"Yea, I thought of that for a few seconds and then, I thought of you coming here just to tell me how stupid it is to do what I did and how stupid it is for me to expect you to show up", Kang said and smiled. "Well, you're here now. It's Jin who wants to see you"

"Why would I want to see him?... And why didn't he pass the note by himself? Why isn't he here now?"

"He should be here himself but he also thought you would ask that question... You are already asking that question", Kang said. "There will be an attack on the Dergon Arena and it's coming from the Grimms. He told me to tell you that. He was hoping you would give him the chance to explain that before you said anything to anyone"

"Sounds like you already know a lot about the story so tell me. What is going on?'

"King has picked him to lead us to victory against the Grimms. However, Dea suspects an infiltration will happen and she wants him to be vigilant. She is afraid that one of the Grimms will find out about her and her father and they will come for them specifically"

"What do you mean by 'find out about her and her father'? Are they Grimms?"

"Yes, they-...", he said and cut himself short. 'Fuck!', he thought, as he remembered he was meant to convince her without revealing that part of the story. He hoped he hadn't fucked up before he continued. "She asked that he protected her when they came over"

She smiled and folded her arms. "Now, that makes me want to ignore your request the more", she said. "It sounds like what you really want me to do is to keep my mouth shut. Unfortunately, you just gave my mouth some more width" "Well, I asked what I was told to ask. Whatever you choose to do doesn't really affect me in any way", he smiled back at her and took a few steps back. "You just shouldn't scream so childishly like you did, yesterday... Try to grow with your looks, you know"

She fumed, as he turned his back walking away from her. "Don't walk out on me!"

"I love you too, Ana", he replied. "I should be blowing kisses but it's for sweet people only"