Chapter Three
~ Encis ~

Ahra knew they were still far from getting out of Cruor. It was only their second day on the ship after all. If she’s able to look out of the ship’s ledge, she will see that the water they were in was still red. Alas, she can’t. She couldn’t even get up from her cot without getting seasick. Apparently, her body can still remember the trauma of drowning and is manifesting signals that she has to get out of the water. At these times, she really hates Ren for giving her this mission.

What’s worst is that this is the first attempt of Virgula at reaching the Three Kingdoms for years. The last, as she had learned from the captain of the ship, was during the captain’s great grandfather’s time. Obviously, it had failed and they did not try again. She couldn’t blame them since the whole ship didn’t get to return, and with it was almost seventy Virgulians. They were considered dead. And that’s not exactly reassuring.

Ahra suddenly jerked upright when the ship hit a particularly large wave. She jumped out of her cot to run to the small chamber attached to her room to heave out the remaining contents of her stomach. If she kept on getting sick like this, she’ll die before they could cross to Lacrimae.

~~~

The crowd was overwhelmingly loud. Loud enough to make him wonder why soldiers weren’t checking out the source of all the noise even if they were underground and technically absent to the upper world. But he can’t concern himself on those matters. He just won. Again. Someone clapped him on the shoulder. Kai turned to give a bloody smirk to his friend and fight organizer, Taemin.

“You lucky bastard,” Taemin grinned.

“This isn’t luck.” Kai replied cockily.

Taemin shoved a bag of gold to him, shaking his head. “You were invisible in the ring, darting here in there. Too fast for your opponent.”

“Need to up my game after what happened three nights ago.” Kai shrugged.

“Oh, you really made up for it. Nobody will even remember how you fainted like a Cyphian maiden receiving her first kiss.” Taemin shouted over the still loud cheers, teasing clear in his voice.

“Shut up,” Kai glared, but he wasn’t really serious.

Suddenly, someone shouted. Then people were running off to different directions. The guards are here. Kai gave a laugh because he was just thinking about them a few moments ago, now they’re here. He followed Taemin out of the underground fighting area. Now, they have to find another place.

It was really chaotic. People were trying to save