02

The crowd went crazy as the knight in the arena fell to his defeat and the other knight screamed in victory.

I am sitting in a room under the bleachers behind the metal bars waiting for my turn to fight. I'm wearing my black armor with a rose on the chest tapping my sword while watching knight after knight fall to their defeat.

The whole kingdom always comes to watch these events. Even the royals are here, the highest families to the lowest families are. It became a tradition to attend and watch these kinds of fights.

"You look nervous" The guy beside me smirked. He wasn't wearing his helmet unlike me who is wearing a full-face helmet, so I could see his face clearly. He has curly blonde hair and blue eyes. I'm not one to deny that he was very attractive.

I recognized him, I think his name is Charles. He is a member of one of the highest families in the kingdom, I think he is being considered to be wed to the princess.

Since we never needed alliances with the other kingdoms, we stick to our own. A lot of wealthy young men join these events to fight and to show their strength and for their family to be more well known but most of the time it's just to show off to the princess that they're worthy.

I ignored Charles and looked straight ahead and saw my father winking at me and mouthed good luck and went back to looking intimidating because he was with his comrades. I smiled.

"Our next contenders will be!" The announcer called. The people quieted anticipating the next battle. No one knew who will be fighting until it was announced.

"Charles of House Westbrook" The crowd cheered and the girls swooned. Charles walked into the middle of the arena with confidence. He smirked at the girls in the crowd. Instead of stopping in the middle, he continued walking towards the crowd and up the stairs where the King and his family are watching.

They all had a confused look on their faces. The crowd was whispering waiting for what the knight is going to do. Then Charles stopped in front of the Princess and gave her the flowers that were handed to him by one of his friends from the side.

"This battle is for you my princess," Charles said. The crowd was silent when I heard Charles from where I was sitting.

"Suck up" I mumbled.

The princess smiled and thanked Charles. The knight bowed and while he was walking down the stairs, his back to the royals, the princess rolled her eyes at him which made me chuckle.

Charles finally arrived in the middle. Finally. He put on his helmet ready to fight.

"Now that was unexpected" the announcer chuckled "And the next contender is ... John of Templar!" The crowd cheered excited for the next fight.

John walked towards the middle. He doesn't look muscular at all, his armor looked a little too big for him and he's shaking like it's his first time to be in this kind of scene. That can't be. We must fight people with the same experience that we have, and I'm sure that I've seen Charles fight before, so why is he assigned to fight a novice.

The bell rang once starting the fight. Charles and John rounded each other and then Charles swung his sword so close to John's face, luckily John stepped back to avoid it. Charles snarled then attacked John once more, John swung his sword that made Charles drop his, Charles pounced and John dropped his sword and his helmet flew off and they ended up lying on the rough floor. Charles straddled John and started punching him in the face. John tried his best to block his hits but it was useless since Charles was much stronger than him. When John was close to passing out the bell rang announcing the end of the fight.

Charles stood up having nothing but a few scratches. He smiled at the crowd and winked at the princess then bowed to the royals and retreated to the back where we fighters are staying unseen by the people. Charles bumped my shoulder while walking towards the back.

He's too cocky for his own good.

"For our next fight!" The people went silent.

"The Knight of Roses!" The crowd went wild. The people root for me because I was like David from David and Goliath. I was smaller than most contenders but I still come out victorious. I wasn't that small, I'm 5'7 but compared to the men I'm fighting I was tiny, but I somehow made that as an advantage.

I walked into the middle of the arena facing the King, and beside him were the Queen and the Princess. The King was smiling widely like he was excited about what was coming next.

That confused me. It was always evident that The King did enjoy these events but I never saw him this excited for a fight before.

I looked at the Queen, she never liked violence she always said that in speeches. She hated these events, contradicting her husband. I felt someone looking at me and I looked at the other side of the King where the princess was staring at me like she was trying to see me behind my armor.

I fidget, not because I was nervous about the fight but because of the princess. She's gorgeous and I never had a girl that beautiful stare at me like what she is doing now. She has blonde hair flowing down her back and she has the greenest eyes I've ever seen.

The princess turned away but then looked at me again confused like she felt me looking at her because she won't be able to see my eyes so I nodded slightly for her to know I saw her. Her eyes widened then narrowed.

"And ... The Beast!" We both moved our attention to the announcer. Some people cheered but most of them were confused. No one ever heard of a contender called The Beast, even I never heard of that person before.

The Beast entered, he was huge, and his muscles looked like they were going to explode from being too big. He wasn't even wearing an armor, only a chest plate. I guess now I know what the King was excited about.

I fought challengers as big as him so it was nothing new but the look in his eyes was different. I had never seen something like that before.

He looked like he was here to kill.

He faces me then he smirked, I shuddered, his face is full of scars and his teeth are mostly black. I will admit that he is not the biggest enemy I fought but he surely will be the scariest.

I looked at my father and he looked really worried like he could read my opponent like I did.

I turned away from my father but ended up looking at the princess. She looked worried but not as worried as my father. She looked at me not saying anything but that look boosted my confidence.

The bell rang to start the fight.