Scarlet

The Fae King continues going through each and every one of the competitors, introducing them one by one with each one getting less attention than the last. Simply because they aren’t as well known by the audience.

And to finish things off, right after he introduces Anthony, that void creature hybrid guy, the Fae King ends with the last competitor, the lowest level one of the bunch, “And last but certainly not least, Aria Knight! The daughter of the Blue Knight of Humanity, cousin of the Warden, and niece of the White Knight of Humanity! And her partner, Forty-Eighth Princess, Rowena! The former partner of The Reaper!”

Oh, right. I forgot about that last part.

The audience seems to grow confused at Aria’s age. Which makes sense to me.

Aria is only twelve years old now. She’s not even a teenager and she’s a Guardian and is competing in the biggest competition in our lifetime.

Makes sense that people would be confused.

The people who already know about her though aren’t confused. They cheer instead.

Mostly humans, since the demons only know that she’s my cousin. And they seem to feel conflicted about that.

After Aria is lowered back down to our level, All of us competitors are illuminated in crimson light and the Fae King shouts, “Now let this tournament begin!”

A massive screen appears beneath the first. One that looks like it changes orientation depending on the angle that you look at it, with the orientation being specific to you. So everyone can look at it and it’ll be based on their orientation for them. And on the screen itself, the title and set of rules for a competition shows itself to us all.

Maze Escape

Description: All Competitors will be placed within a massive maze where they will need to find their way out. There will be ‘monsters’ scattered throughout the maze that will kill anything in sight, and there will be loot boxes scattered throughout the maze containing points.

Rules: Killing other competitors is allowed. Anti-death clause is allowed. Killing ‘monsters’ grants the competitor one hundred points. Loot boxes grant points according to their rarity. Common boxes grant one point, uncommon grants three points, rare grants five points, epic grants ten points, legendary grants twenty-five points, and mythic grants one hundred points.

Goal: Find and reach the exit to the maze.

Rewards: First place gets one hundred points. Second place gets seventy-five points. Third place gets fifty points. And all competitors may keep the points they accrued throughout the competition.

“With the exception of the tenth, twentieth, and thirtieth competitions, all competitions will give out one hundred points for first place, seventy-five points for second place, and fifty points for third place. They will also all have another way to accrue points throughout the competition, just like this one,” King Oberon exclaims as the crowd begins to go wild for the description of the tournament. “But don’t just take the rules at face value, because every competition has a hidden secret! One that you’ll have to find out for yourself, if you can.”

My eyes narrow slightly as I fold my arms and watch the King, only briefly glancing to find the smiling Demon King next to him waving at me. Then I look back to King Oberon, deciding not to reciprocate his wave.

It’s too serious right now.

The competition is about to begin after all.

I ignore the Demon King’s pout, the strongest being in the universe acting like a spoiled child, as King Oberon continues, “These hidden secrets can be a hidden boss that can be defeated for bonus points, a hidden puzzle, secret loot box, or anything you can imagine. All of the hidden secrets will have some level of luck or danger involved, and they will all give a large bonus in points. So tread wisely, young ones.”

Interesting.

The Fae King suddenly claps his hands, making all of the towers suddenly vanish while leaving all of us competitors floating in the air. Then the arena of the stadium begins to shift until it becomes a massive maze. One whose paths continue to rapidly change, showing us all that this is going to be harder than we thought.

“Oh, and I forgot to mention,” Oberon comments, sounding amused. “But this maze rapidly shifts its layout on a regular schedule. So memorizing the layout won’t do you any good.” I feel myself suddenly being teleported despite my Red Plague clothing protecting me, proving just how powerful King Oberon is here. And without a moment’s notice, I find myself standing in the middle of a maze. Without even being able to find the location of the exit within the maze. “Oh, another thing I didn’t mention. The exit is in the form of a door randomly placed in the maze! Good luck finding it!”

Okay, seriously, what happened to this guy?

“He gets… excited during things like this,” Tar answers, sounding more than a little embarrassed.

Uh huh, right.

Anyways, I couldn’t see anything useful while I was up there. And for some reason, what I did see feels blurry in my memories.

“Father probably put an enchantment over the maze so that the competitors can’t memorize anything about it before entering the maze,” Tar explains as I look around at the moss-covered stone walls around me. “The audience can see us fine though.”

Yeah, they wouldn’t have a reason to be here if they couldn’t. But that aside, there’s something I kind of want to try.

Tar appears in front of me with a confused look on his face. Until he reads my mind and understands what I’m going to do.

And to my surprise, he looks excited for it instead of the judgmental look I was expecting.

Ah, looks like you’re finally beginning to understand me.

He snorts.

“Guess I’ve spent too long around you,” he says, making me smirk in response.

Then I turn to face the wall and raise my fist closer to my face while transforming it into that of a beast and coating it with Red Plague.

Let’s see if this works…

I pull my fist back and slam it straight into the wall.