NoGift

Chapter 29: the fighting pit

"THE BOY in front of you is a NoGift. So as not to cut our entertainment short, these honorable men are not allowed to use their Gifts and they can only attack him one at a time," the masked man added.

Argent almost laughed when she heard that. That was probably the best course for her. If all of these men attacked her at the same time, she would surely die.

"Of course, I know many of our esteemed guests here want to purchase this beautiful boy for themselves. There's a piece of paper in front of you. All you have to do is write the amount of gold coins you're willing to bid for the boy and it will be automatically recorded. When the boy suffers a mortal injury, the bidding will end and the person with the highest bid will win. Rest assured, we will definitely patch him up and return him to a perfect condition before giving him to the winning bidder. A friendly reminder, your bid could not be lower than one million gold coins."

This time, Argent did laugh. A million gold coins? How cheap. Her brain alone was worth billions. And these people thought they could buy her? Let's see if they have that ability. She clenched her fists, a firm determination crossed her purple eyes. No matter what she needed to do, she would make sure that she and Aurum would get out of here alive.

"Now, shall we begin?" said the masked man again.

The crowd cheered. The men in the pit actually started lining up. There were a total of fifteen men and all of them lined up in a straight line until the last one reached the hanging cage where Aurum was in. The distance between two men was enough for one to move freely without disturbing the other.

"How long can you last, little boy?" asked the man in the forefront.

Argent ignored him and looked at her space ring. That Gecko didn't take it away even knowing that she had a sword inside. Which meant he didn't care if she used the sword or not. Maybe in his opinion it wouldn't really affect the final outcome. She sneered. [Let's just see if things will really go your way.]

The man in front suddenly attacked her. She skillfully dodged to the right and pulled her sword from the space ring. She didn't waste time and immediately slashed the man's throat. She made sure that her sword would cut an important artery in the man's neck. The man has no time to react because blood immediately gushed out from his neck. But she didn't stop there. This was the only time that she could have the element of surprise. She better made use of it to the fullest and kill as many as she could.

She ran towards the next man. Because what she did earlier was too fast and too unexpected, the man still didn't know that the man in front had his throat slashed off. He just saw the kid running towards him. Before he could even move, he suddenly felt a sharp pain from his chest. He looked down and saw a sword that ran through his chest. Argent pulled her sword and ran to the next man. Not even looking at the man who just collapsed.

The next one still didn't expect her attack and had no time to defend. So Argent easily pierced his head. Running the sword from the man's chin straight to his brain. She pulled her sword and blood and some brain matter splashed on her clothes. She ignored it and ran towards the next one. But this time she was destined to be disappointed. The man managed to stop her attack using his sword. Argent saw him lifting his foot, no doubt planning to kick her. She immediately jumped back.

So that's that. She could only kill three people with her current ability. She has been practicing the footwork of the Sui-Ryu sword style for a few weeks now. And she could clearly see its effect now. Her movements became more fluid and her speed also increased. She could easily move her body the way she wanted to. Not to mention, she could easily predict the movements of others. Learning the sword was really a good decision.

"Not even batting an eye after killing three men, you're quite heartless, aren't you?" said the man.

Argent just raised her brow. This was the first time she killed someone using her own hands but she didn't really feel any remorse from it. Why would she? The fact that they're here, being excited at the thought of abusing a kid was enough proof that they're not good people. She would definitely not lose sleep killing one or two of their kinds.

The man suddenly rushed towards her. He slashed his sword and she quickly dodged. But the moment she did, he thrust his hand and gripped her neck. He pushed her down, her back violently hitting the floor. Then he kneeled on her hand holding the sword.

"I guess this is it for you, kid," the man said, pointing his sword to her stomach.

Before he could run that sword through her, she kicked his crotch. She made sure she put enough power in her kick to break his balls.

"Argh!"

As expected, he immediately let go of her and fell, writhing on the floor. She stood up and pierced his head. "You talk too much."

Everyone in the audience was silent. They couldn't believe that they just saw a seven year old NoGift kill four grown men. Not only them were shocked but also the men in the pit. The next man especially so. That's probably why when Argent ran towards him, the first thing he did was to use his Gift. Three small fireballs went straight towards Argent. She ignored all of it and continued to run. All three fireballs managed to hit her. But it only scorched her clothes.

The man probably thought she would stop because of it that's why he showed a triumphant smile. But that smile quickly vanished when Argent's sword stabbed through his stomach and then through his throat. Up to the moment he died he didn't understand how the fireballs he released seemed to not affect the kid.

When Argent pulled her sword, she felt that someone was trying to attack her from behind. She tried to dodged but she wasn't fast enough. Her attacker's weapon - some kind of metal claw - slashed from her left shoulder down to her arm. She bit her lower lip and ignored the pain. The man took that chance to follow up on his attack. He slashed his metal claw and she dodged. Then his other hand turned into jagged stone. When he tried to pierced her chest, his hand immediately turned to normal.

"What the--"

Argent took that chance to stab her sword through his chest. Then to make sure, she stabbed him again. The man fell and she stared at the remaining people in front of her. Well, there's still nine left.

Gecko watched everything from one of the VIP box. He gnashed his teeth. Not even able to seriously injure a seven year old NoGift, those useless trash.

"What an interesting boy," the masked man commented.

"Yeah, interesting indeed," Gecko said through his teeth. If these shitheads continue to be useless, he would personally kill them.

The next man attacked Argent. His weapon was two daggers. He thrust one of the daggers, making her dodge to the left. He was obviously expecting that. Because his other dagger was already there, waiting for her. It easily pierced through her already injured left arm. She waved down her sword. He jumped back but not before pulling the dagger. She could feel her arm muscle tearing. She hadn't even move yet when he threw one of his daggers and it burried through her right thigh. She clenched her teeth and pulled the dagger.

This guy was obviously more skillful compared to the last six men she killed. Well, at least they still follow the rule that they could only attack her one at a time. The man rushed towards her again and she readied herself for the attack.

Aurum slowly regained conciousness. The first thing she saw was a metal roof. She tried to get up and that's when she noticed that she's inside a cage. She looked around and she saw people in some kind of audience area. It looked like they were watching something. She looked down and her heart almost stopped when she saw her brother fighting a huge man. Even at this distance, she could see how bloody her brother was.

"Brother!"

Because of her call, Argent paused. The man she's fighting took that chance to insert another dagger through her stomach. But Argent acted like it didn't affect her and instead she looked at Aurum's direction. "Just wait, I'm going to get you out of there." She took out the dagger and continued to fight with the man.

Aurum's whole body started trembling. She could clearly see just how many wounds was on her brother's body. If this continued, Argent would really be in danger. Her brother might even die. No! That's something she couldn't let happen. Not today. Not ever. Aurum was suddenly filled with so much anger. They would pay for this. They would pay for what they've done to her brother.

The handcuffs on Aurum's wrist suddenly broke, followed by the breaking of the bracelet Argent gave her. And then, a powerful Mana filled the whole arena.

The man Argent was fighting suddenly stopped moving. He held his head and screamed. It was not only him, but the rest of the men in the fighting pit. Blood started flowing from all of their orifices. She heard a scream from the audience area and saw that the same thing was happening to the people sitting there. It was easy to figure out who was doing it. Argent looked at the hanging cage. Looked like her sister was really angry. The men in the pit fell one by one. The screams in the audience area was getting louder and louder. Yup. Definitely angry.

Argent sat down and wait for everything to end.

Gecko felt like his brain will blow up any second now. What the heck was happening?

"You didn't tell me the girl is a powerful Gift user," the masked man said. He was still acting nonchalantly, as if the powerful Mana was not affecting him. The only evidence that it did was the blood flowing from his nose. "I expect you'll pay for all the damage done here. Until we meet again, Gecko." Then he disappeared.

That was the last thing Gecko saw before his copy's brain turned into mush.

Argent waited until she was sure that everyone in the pit was dead. Then she stood up and pulled the dead bodies towards the hanging cage. No matter how hard it was, she started stacking the bodies to make a temporary ladder. She could only stack up to three bodies. That's the limit her seven year old body could do. If she didn't do all those exercises her master asked her to do, she might not even be able to move one body.

Argent climbed to the top of the stacked bodies. Then she slashed a hole through the cage's floor. "Aurum, jump. I'll catch you."

Aurum didn't hesitate to jump. Her brother managed to catch her. But because of the force of her jump, the both of them fell from the stacked bodies. Argent took the brunt of the fall. But it seemed like Aurum didn't even notice it. Because she just continued holding on to Argent. Aurum was clutching her so hard, it felt like her ribs would break. But Argent just let her and hugged her back instead, completely ignoring all her wounds and pain she was feeling.

Argent gently patted her sister's back. "It's okay. Everything's going to be okay."

Now they could finally get out of this place.