"Wow, how much time has passed since I saw this place?"
When Nafız came to the square where the entrance test for the Holy Blood Academy was held, she turned a full circle around herself and sighed. It wasn't long, about a year ago they were here, but this discourse could gain reality considering the time operating according to the others.
Jashua and Lareina were also aware of the events; only Ralf directed his astonished gazes towards Nafız. Although the expression settling on his face for the last three days hadn't changed much, he still found it a bit strange.
"How lively this place is today! Second, was it like this in past years too?"
Sheikh Atractivo had come out of seclusion for the Annual Fights; he was watching the surroundings without compromising his relaxed stance and the beauties he took into his arms.
"Since the Holy Blood Sect Annual Fights were never turned into such a circus show, unfortunately, we have never seen this crowd before."
The Second Elder squeezed his complaint about the place where the event was held into a long and sarcastic sentence.
"Seclusion has done you good; your mouth has become better at talking!"
Atractivo dodged without taking what was said to him personally at all; after finishing the wine glass he took in his hand in one gulp, he paid full attention as if looking for someone in the crowd.
"Isn't Ekaterina here? Yet I sent word specifically for her to come?"
The person the Sheikh, preparing to drink another glass of wine, was looking for wasn't in the square; she was sitting on the top floor of the business she headed, listening to the young girl opposite her.
"When I first came, I left the blood stones for you, but you didn't follow us. I thought it would catch your interest!"
Nafız had left the side of her friends in the blink of an eye and thrown herself into the Merchants Guild Holy Blood Branch.
"I couldn't understand why you came here; your competitions are starting in a very short while!"
Under the supervision of her two new guards standing behind her, Ekaterina spoke keeping her back straight and without bowing her head.
"So you will continue to play dumb! My business is not here, it is where we will go."
Nafız stood up furiously from where she sat; although the two guards assumed an alarm state, Ekaterina stopped them.
"Don't you feel it too? Something is happening very deep down, and there is little time left for it to come to the surface. Choose your side correctly; heed the warning given to you around this time last year or you will be crushed and destroyed between the big cogs!"
Nafız finished her words when she reached the stairs, and then she disappeared as if she was never there. When she returned to the square, next to her friends again, the time had almost come. While tens of thousands of people surrounding them were moving, it made it easier for her to hide herself.
"Are we going to fight in front of this many people. My blood has already started boiling!"
The battle enthusiast Ralf was slowly coming to his senses; observing the surroundings in Nafız's absence, he had analyzed the situation. Clan representatives were in their stands, and the fiefdoms bound to them were right below them.
Unlike the acceptance test, these areas were packed full. Formations that represented themselves with a few people back then had come with their entire cadres today.
"Look, Second, you are grumbling, but I think I made a good decision. Everyone who is anyone in the clans and fiefdoms has come!"
When Sheikh Atractivo turned to that direction, people changed the expressions on their faces, but it was very hard to hide the hatred and anger lying underneath.
"A completely unexpected situation after the losses inside the Blood Valley. My eyes are on them!"
The Second Elder got suspicious of the action style of the Clans and Fiefdoms that hadn't been under his supervision for a long time; the man sitting right to his left didn't care an ounce about the world.
"If there is gain, there is also loss. If they were afraid of dying, they should have sat on their asses and waited for the trial to end!"
Everyone in the area heard the words of the Sheikh, who put no restriction on his voice. While the faces of those in the stands where the forces bound to the Holy Blood Sect were fell, the public didn't understand what happened.
How could their faces not fall; they were the first-degree relatives of those who died inside the Blood Valley. Some's child, some's spouse, some's grandchild had perished in the trial area. Despite this, they couldn't make a sound; they tried to calm down looking at each other.
"What are we waiting for, Third; let the fights begin!"
The Third Elder, sitting on the side without making a sound since the beginning of the day, waved his hand, and the sect officials who didn't take their eyes off him took action immediately. The place where the acceptance tests took place was covered with a hard black ground. The new fighting area built below ground level offered a perfect viewing angle to everyone watching.
Nafız and Jashua recognized the material used immediately; this material was also used for the ground where they were sent as the Inner Circle Library.
"Fighters, step forward!"
When the gray-bearded official shouted with his full voice, all attention turned to the eight teams that had come to fight, but the most attention-grabbing ones were those who came here with four people.
"Hey, look. Why are these four people!"
"Is there no man left in the huge sect that they came with four people!"
When the conversations among the audience rose, the official chosen to manage the fights turned to Nafız's group and spoke.
"Where is the fifth fighter of your team?"
"I don't know!"
Nafız answered opening her two hands to the side. The deficiency in their team also caught Sheikh Atractivo's attention.
"Where did my man go, man?"
When the Sheikh grumbled looking at the Third Elder, the skinny man maintaining his silence had to speak.
"Sir, Library Guardian Anticuado is apparently taking care of him himself. We don't know where he is either!"
"Anticuado huh! If he fell into the hands of that fossil, woe to the poor guy!"
Sheikh Atractivo was flaring up and fading. While his interest was completely on Alis's condition a moment ago, now he was flirting with the beauties next to him. Unlike him, the gray-bearded man responsible for the fights continued his questions.
"Are you sure you will continue with four people?"
"It is not a problem for us; we four are enough for these!"
When Nafız spoke in a high tone, the audience got riled up. Crowds were always keen on welcoming ambitious statements with enthusiasm.
"These are them, the ones who broke the record in the last participation test!"
"Yes, yes, but where is the other one? You know, there was a snow-white boy wearing weird clothes; I can't see him!"
When Alis's absence was also understood by the audience, the official of the fights shouted putting his blood energy into it to suppress the voices of the others.
"Each of you was given numbers. The teams I will say now should come to the arena!"
"One and Eight!"
When Lareina looked at the blood stone she held in her right hand, she saw the number six; since their own number wasn't called, they remained in their places. Team number one consisted of the five clan representatives; their opponents were types Nafız and Jashua had never seen before.
The battle started, but there was a weirdness. Team number eight seemed not to be themselves; they barely countered a few attacks, then they were defeated being terribly injured. In fact, one of them wasn't breathing; the official of the fights checked him and shook his head towards the Third Elder.
"There can always be unexpected losses in battles!"
The skinny man spoke thinning his voice even more than it was, and the young person on the ground was taken away being put on a stretcher carried by two people. The eyes of Nafız, watching what happened, were shining; how could the Blood God not receive this message.
"These guys have completely lost it! Wherever they found them, they are giving us a message through these five poor guys!"
It was not a strange situation for there to be death in the continuation of battles opened with death; Sheikh Atractivo wasn't much affected by the accident that occurred either.
"It means those walking on the Blood Path have risked their blood being shed, their lives being taken as they took lives!"
Leaning back drinking the wine left in his glass, the Sheikh had already downed two giant pitchers of wine. Atractivo, whose cheeks and nose were getting red, seemed to be getting drunk.
"Four and Six step forward!"
When the number of their team was read, Nafız, relieving her neck by tilting it right and left, stepped onto the fighting stage in front of the three people behind her.