The Forgotten Slayer-Chapter 26: It’s about time!

Clyde tried to say something, but couldn't. His mouth was unbelievably dry and he had the worst headache.

'What is going on.'

Clyde was in some alleyway, hurled over on his side. The crust in his eyes shattered when reality hit.

'The competition!'

It didn't matter that he had no recollection of the past night. Missing Bell or Lapis's debut meant a lot to Clyde. Plus, if Avelyn found out she would kill him.

This is why he stayed away from drinking.

Judging from the sun, it was roughly noon. The fights would have just started so there was time. Leveraging himself using a pipe, Clyde got off the ground.

'Water...'

The street was full, so it would be difficult to navigate. Approaching the entrance of the alley, Clyde didn't even know if he could squeeze out.

Grabbing onto somebody, he was dragged by the wave of people. All of the bodies up against one another, it was getting claustrophobic. The crowd was all going the same direction, which was also where Clyde was going.

After an excruciating amount of time and a lot of sweat, he had made it. Using his strength, he squeezed past people until he got to the right hallway. There was a bouncer who looked at him.

"Show me your key."

Clyde searched his pockets.

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'Thank god.'

Showing off the key, he was let inside. Out of the crowd, Clyde got a chance to breathe. His throat was still incredibly dry, so he took the chance to find his room. Looking at his key, it had the inscription one-hundred and seven.

'Thank god'

The one hundred would mean floor one, leaving the seven to be the seventh room.

As he was opening the door, the announcers voice rang out.

"Lapis, representing Avalor, is coming to the field once again! His opponent is Krush, representing Praxton, is also undefeated!"

'Looks like I missed one fight already.'

Running to his personal bathroom, Clyde turned on the sink and drank. He swallowed so much water that his belly started to hurt. With that problem out of the way, he could finally go to the pit floor of the arena. Exiting the bathroom, Clyde looked to the left at his room. On the bed were two complimentary water bottles. Seeing this, Clyde facepalmed.

"A sick joke."

Leaving his room, Clyde followed a sign indicating where to go. Even while running, it still took a few minutes because of how large the building was. He had already heard some loud noise, which was piquing his interest. On the final long hallway, a double wide door was in front of Clyde. Opening it, the sunlight blinded Clyde for a second. As his eyes cleared up, he saw many other people watching the field in front of them. The field had sand as its flooring, with a large brick wall separating the battlefield from the spectators. Being in the pit, Clyde was level with the duelers.

The same moment Clyde opened the door and stepped in, Lapis had defeated his opponent. From Clyde's perspective, Lapis didn't even have sweat on him.

'Good.'

Making his way closer, Clyde found an open spot. Once he was settled in, the announcer's voice rang out again.

"Lapis crushes his opponent in another stunning victory!"

For half an hour, contestants fought one another. There was not a battle that Clyde found interesting, so he spent time daydreaming. Some of the mentors had been leaving as their contestant was defeated.

Clyde realized that because of the lineup, Bell and Lapis would be facing multiple opponents back to back. This wasn't exactly fair, but he couldn't change the rules. Once the top 10 were decided, they would fight the next day, regardless of whether they were on the same team or not.

"Bell, representing Avalor, is up next! Her opponent is Bali, representing Rivendale. Clyde's attention was brought to the field. From one end he saw Bell coming out of a tunnel. Looking at the other side he saw Bali. Bali was a woman who was short like Bell, but she carried this arrogance in her walk. Her hair was brunette and lengthy. Any other features were hard to describe from Clyde's distance.

The two both met in the center of the arena. After a loud trumpet, the field immediately exploded with sand flying. The crowd was roaring above where Clyde was.

'I wonder what's going through her head.'

As vision of the fight was restored, it could be seen that Bali was on the defensive.

'Wait a second.'

Clyde saw that the girl's weapon had blown away to the other side of the field. Bell's hands were also glowing a bright yellowish green color.

'So that's how it is.'

Bell must have repelled Bali's attack at the start of the fight.

'If Lapis was your training partner, then an average student wouldn't be enough.'

Bell yelled at the girl who had lost her footing.

"Do you yield?"

Bali got angry at the question and prepared to attack.

Without hesitation, a circular pattern appeared on the ground around Bali. Once it formed completely, Bali was brought to the ground as light was flowing through her body.

"Stop! I give up!"

'She learned sorcery!?'

It seemed that the announcer shared Clyde's expression.

"I can not believe it everyone! Somebody that young performed a ritual incantation. The youth is proving itself to be a powerful force today. The winner is Bell! After our halftime break, we will continue the exhibition rounds. But before you all run off somewhere, we have a special guest who wants to make an announcement.'

The crowd was cheering before, but now they quieted down.

'A special guest? That was a rare occurrence.'

Once Bell and Bali had been cleared from the field, a man jumped from the stands and stood in the middle of the field.

This time the crowd exploded louder than Clyde could have imagined. But his feeling was different than theirs.

'No....'

Anger built up in Clyde that he could not contain, anger that he didn't want to contain. What he chose to do next would affect the future, and not just his own.

'That bastard has some audacity.'

"Attention everyone, I'm sure you've heard the rumors of my name being slandered. Anyone with common sense knows I wasn't in Avalor but some people have doubts. If Lucas the All Knowings truth was not enough for you all, might I make a suggestion. The man who claimed to beat me is here today, come on out here Clyde. Let's tell the people what really happened."

Clyde had gained some notoriety from his involvement in the blackout, but no one knew what he looked like. Most people were skeptical of what actually went down because there wasn't many survivors. Everyone was interested.

As Clyde stood up and vaulted over the fence, the other mentors who were next to him were in a state of shock.

As he got closer and closer, Clyde began to lose reason. His heart beat was becoming faster, his mind wasn't thinking clearly. But he wasn't so stupid as to make himself a villain of the country.

"How about we duel then? If I lose then you'll have proven your point, a humble person like myself could never defeat the saint."

John stood for a moment and grinned. Opening his mouth, he was stopped in his tracks.

Clyde was now next to him holding up his arm.

"Sorry about this by the way."

John's stump was out in the open for everyone to see causing many gasps.

Pulling away, John retorted.

"Have you no shame?"

Clyde sensed it though, the fear in John. He didn't know that Clyde had awakened a second time.

"I'll give you one chance! I can kill you publicly and embarrass you here. Or we can exit the building and settle your fate elsewhere. At least that way someone might make up a fairy tale of your glorified death."

Words and threats were just that. At the end of the day, whoever started the fight physically would be at fault. With so many witnesses, Clyde wouldn't getaway with just outright attacking him.

"Clyde, did I ever tell you about honey and the bear?"

'What is this moron talking about.'

"No."

John became quieter and only Clyde could hear him.

"There was a large bear that hunters could not kill. Bullets couldn't penetrate it and neither did metal. One day a brilliant man had a plan to trap the bear with honey. They villagers dug a deep hole and hid the entrance. Luring the bear to the hole with honey, it fell inside and couldn't get out. It starved to death and made a nice meal."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Have you considered that you are the bear."

The ground shook with an intense force, sirens began to blast out evacuation commands, but they all exploded. John was staring directly at Clyde.

The ground beneath Clyde began to open up. In that moment, time slowed and Clyde tried to move. But something held him down, an intense invisible force that was inescapable.

The crowd was screaming and trying to escape. John struck Clyde in his back with his fist. The pain soared through Clyde's body. Leaning down John whispered in his ear.

"Nice knowing you, have fun down there."

The ground opened up wider dragging Clyde downward. John had already jumped out of the way into the stands, watching Clyde without blinking.

All of the sudden the ground below Clyde exploded and smoke was sent up at an astonishing rate. Instead of being flung back by the explosion, the pressure on Clyde grew greater. He felt like a steel plates had been sewn onto his body.

'This is bad!'

Clyde didn't even know if he could survive going down. Assuming he could, he would be in Hell.

'Who could've set something up like this!'

The heat was growing, it was unbearable. Clyde's sweat was turning into steam, every pore in his body was burning.

Falling down at an intense speed, the red clay around him began to swirl in a vortex.

'Could I even come back?'

The sky above became dark and nonexistent. The roots in the clay turned into nothing. Everywhere he looked was becoming so dark.

With a loud snap, Clyde crashed through the barrier between worlds. He had made it to the underworld, but that was still the least of his worries.

The sky was red and there were no clouds. In the sky, Clyde watched the rift he came from heal instantly. Turning his body he saw a deep wooded forest below him. As fast as he was going, it did not take long to reach the forest. Clyde crashed into a tree and fell on several rough branches. His fall was not cushioned and upon hitting the ground, a large crater was formed. While the crust of the ground was destroyed the tree roots were deep and did not move.

'That could have been worse.'

If this was Clyde a few months ago he probably would've died. It also help that he had experience getting thrown into a new realm. But something was strange, he survived but it wasn't nearly as bad as he was expecting.

'What's this?'

The back of his head and body were soaked. Pushing himself up he realized he wasn't standing on the ground. It was a mushed body of a beast.

What was more interesting was the fact that it was wearing armor with symbols.

There wasn't time to reflect when a beast four times the size of Clyde jumped into the hole, looking straight at him. It was built like a Minotaur, but far larger. In its hands was a double sided axe that was twice the size of Clyde.

What happened next completely blew Clyde's mind. Expecting a fight, he readied himself.

"Well done Youngblood! Get ready, more are on the way."

The creature outstretched a finger for Clyde to grab onto.

'What the...'