Content Warning: This whole Judgment Arena group of chapters is a bit bloody, and out of tone with the earlier chapters in terms of level of graphic violence.
Autumn stopped at her front door, confused. Wasn't this all crazy? Forget the Club tournament. She needed to stay home with Wei.
She turned towards her sister, and in the same instant felt an intense shockwave wash over her. It was almost like the feeling when Second brother used a particularly strong card, but that had been standing a foot away from him, and she had no idea where this Card effect was coming from.
It doesn't matter. They have to get to the Club tournament. "Come on Wei!"
She held the girl's hand and they walked outdoors along the path.
The Family Guards were now gathered together in a group, and they were all headed away from the Family estate, straight north.
"Are you going to the Club tournament?" she asked one of them as she headed towards the Dojo.
One of the guards turned to her, "Enemies of the Emperor now believe they have the Heaven's Judgment. We must face our foes, strength upon strength, might of the Orange blade unyielding! We are hurrying to the Arena."
The Arena, of course! Wait what? Autumn decided the only use for the training blade, would be in case Wei needed to defend herself. So she went to get it, anyway.
.She handed the sheath to her sister, "Use this, only against our Enemies."
There were no carriages to take to downtown, no servants to walk with her, so instead she rushed after the guards to follow them. Wei was out of breath when they caught them.
North of the Family estate was a buffer zone of not much at all, just a road through empty fields full of tall grass. It wasn't until they reached the southernmost edge of what Autumn assumed was Lowtown that the group of guards merged with a wave of other people.
She looked around, pondering who was an enemy of the Emperor.
She could hear a tremendous thunderclap, and felt another wave of tingly weird pressure wash through her. Though she wanted to rush to see the early fights, she could only follow after the crowd at its own pace.
It was crucial to not arrive at the Heaven's Judgment Arena too early, and be bogged down fighting a thousand tiny foes of the Emperor. She would stand together at the last moment with the Emperor and defeat all who came before her.
Between Lowtown and Hightown were a few streets with only the seediest of shops. She couldn't move forward even a step though, as the crowd was packed even this far back.
She shook her head, it would take a thousand years for this many to fight. They were pathetic, onlookers, not even willing to take a side one way or another.
She pulled out the Dao blade from her sheath and the crowd parted from her. It was two blocks between the edge of the crowd, and the Heavenly arena that had appeared. It made the Club's tournament room look like dust.
The arena was built right out in the middle of Jade street. Tall wooden posts marked the edges of the arena, and there were three ropes, one on top of another, which stopped any fighters from getting out of the arena. Blue mats covered the arena, and the arena itself was almost half a block long, but only covering the width of the roadway.
Children were fighting with whatever weapons they had, although mostly sticks and fists, in the middle of the arena.
"Xue Thu!" shouted a thundering voice, as she reached the outside edge of the arena.
It was Lin Tsu. He was standing on the other side of the arena, next to the stranger she had fought before. She recognized the other one standing beside him also, it was the new club member, Bull had called Blue.
"What else shall I try, Xue Thu?" he said, mockingly. She couldn't see what he was doing.
"Cursed of the Heavens!" he shouted, laughing.
The pressure wave struck her head on, and she wanted to vomit. "I don't feel so good," Wei said to her. Autumn shook her head. What was she doing here? Wei needs her to stay safe.
Wei herself couldn't resist the weird attack, and she threw up. No one else around them seemed affected.
"We'll fight through the crowds, and get you home," Autumn said.
Wei agreed, looking pale and horrible.
"Compelled to Fight!" Lin Hai shouted.
In the next moment, Autumn looked eagerly towards the Arena, as Xue Wei crawled through the ropes. Other kids did too.
"Come on Xue Wei, fight for the Emperor's honor!" she cheered.
There were dozens of kids in the arena, and they lined up in two rows facing one another. Xue Wei was facing a big kid, likely stronger, but he didn't even have dulled sword like Wei's.
Autumn looked over at Lin Hai, and gritted her teeth. She started fighting through the crowds to get over to him, and pummel him. He had the Cards to curse the Emperor's family. He must be stopped.
She kept glancing at Wei, who nervously fought that big kid, who rushed at her.
"Neutrality of the Spectators!"
"You can't touch me, Xue Thu! The Heavens Protect their own instrument."
"Are you behind all of this? Who is standing next to you?" she shouted, about halfway around the outside of the ring towards Lin Hai.
Looking back, she was shocked to find Xue Wei running to interfere in another fight in the ring, as the big kid was down. She watched as Wei's first foe stumbled out of the arena.
Lin Hai didn't seem to try to stop Wei from sweeping through other fights. Was he unable to do anything except run this hateful competition?
"You are a fool Xue Thu, and you will no longer have a family to hide behind after tonight. The Heavens are in charge now! The Emperor has thwarted their will for too long, and I am not even the first assistant of Heaven. These are fellow assistants, Rieff Chan and Hejl Yaeko.
"Heaven's First will come, and she will be your end, Xue Thu. If you walk away, it will only be in shame and fear!"
Xue Wei, two other girls and two boys were left standing on the Emperor's side.
"Compelled to fight!" Lin Hai shouted, and more came onto the stage.
"How in the world does a gardener constantly use Cards?" Autumn pondered. His cultivation had been a joke before, only sufficient to allow him to grow pretty flowers and tasty vegetables.
"It's Heaven's Power! You could use cards too, if your brothers hadn't stolen every scrap of power themselves."
As she approached Lin Hai, she saw that he didn't have a Card box, but an entire book filled with cards, and there were dozens he had already used laid out on the ground in front of him.
She slashed her sword at him and found that the strike had lost it's speed completely.
"Violation!" Lin Hai shouted, throwing down another card.
Autumn was thrown backward, into the crowd, who parted to let her fall with a solid thud.
"Wait your turn," said one of the people in the crowd.
She stood up to see Xue Wei was still standing, with a few other girls.
"Enough of this Child's Stuff! Let's give the Club what they want."
I will be posting these small Xianxia sized chapters of the Heaven's Judgment Arena fights, one or two posts a day. At the end will be next vote.
