Elsewhere

Duke awoke to the now familiar system messages. Having nothing much else to do but train his Abilities, he read through his messages.

*** Congratulations! You continue to survive but your entertainment value sitting in a cell is not all that spectacular. You might want to get out of that cell and actually do something.

You have been busy, though. Your Abilities continue to advance and improve:

AURA CONCEALMENT – You have improved this Ability to Untrained 5

LASTING DISGUISE – You do not have enough mana to use this ability yet but have improved it to Untrained 2 through repeated futile effort.

TONGUES – You have improved this Ability to Untrained 7 through continued use.

REGENERATION – You use this Ability more than anything else and have managed to push it up to Initiate 30. You now Regenerate 155 Health per minute.

LIGHTNING – This is a new Ability for you, but you have used it quite frequently. It has progressed to Novice 1.

You have also managed to improve some skills. Ok, one skill. You really need some more skills. You might want to get on that.

Brawling has increased to Novice 10. You struck some well-placed blows but just don’t have the strength, technique, or leverage yet to challenge a foe so far beyond you.

Through near constant training, your Characteristics are progressing.

Agility has increased to 13.

Strength has increased to 14.

Endurance has increased to 17.

Psyche has increased to 16, increasing your Mana gain to 16 per minute.

Continue to grow and get a bit more creative in your activity level. It would be a shame to have to abandon you as a failed project.

***

Duke was encouraged by his progress. He ignored the commentary as he was sure that “they” were either going to help him or abandon him regardless of what he did. It was all at their whim. His growth, however, was entirely in his control. He had grown a new Ability from nothing to Novice rank in a single day. It was an offensive Ability on top of that. He was feeling a bit more confident than he had the day before.

He continued to train himself throughout the morning. When the toad-creature arrived this time, it was not alone. Ergo and Lord Quaid were there as well. Ergo was carrying a bundle in his arms and Lord Quaid was beaming from ear to ear.

Lord Quaid began, “Well, Duke, it seems your time has come to make an appearance in the arena. Do well, and you will be rewarded. Do poorly and, well, you might die. You might just be maimed or otherwise horribly injured. How ever it turns out, I wish you luck. Ergo has some things for you to wear. You have an hour to prepare yourself.”

The toad creature opened the door with the tool he was holding, waving it in Duke’s direction as a warning. Duke, for his part, sat down on the floor of the cage, placing his back against the bars opposite the door. He watched all three of his jailors closely, seeing how they moved and how they reacted.

The toad-creature was fearful. Bringing in the food, placing it on the floor, and quickly hopping out the door. Lord Quaid watched with feigned indifference. He was watching everything carefully despite his outward appearance. Duke suspected that he was far more dangerous than he looked. Ergo was the easiest to read. The man was a warrior through and through. It did not appear that he especially enjoyed his role as a prison guard.

Ergo handed Duke the bundle of clothes and leaned close, whispering, “You will be fighting an orc today. He is strong, but slow. You will have to strike him in the joints to hurt him. Be fast and don’t let him grapple you.” He gave Duke the slightest nod of respect as he pulled away and was the last to exit the cell.

“One hour, Duke. Get dressed and prepare yourself. If you do well enough, you may even be awarded with a weapon to use in your next fight.” Lord Quaid chuckled to himself as he walked away.

Duke opened the bundle to find out that it was leather armor wrapped up in a bedroll. He quickly worked at putting on the armor. At first, he was having difficulty getting it to fit but he discovered the adjustment straps and was finally able to get it to fit him well enough. Feels good to be wearing something but without a way to clean this stuff and myself, this is going to stink really quickly.

An hour after dropping off the armor, Ergo came to get Duke. He opened the cell with a tool similar to what the toad had used. “Come along, Duke. It’s time for you to fight.”

Duke headed for the now open door but was stopped short by Ergo’s raised hand. “I know you don’t belong in here but there’s nothing I can do to help with that. You got a bum deal but you’re ready to fight your way out. I respect that so I’m going to help you as much as I can. First things first, your opponent is an orc as I told you before. He will be armed with an axe which he is not very proficient with. He favors massive overhead chops so if you can move to the side, do so and you’ll have an easy shot at his side. When he gets frustrated, he’s going to throw the axe at you. Don’t try to catch it, it’s way too heavy for you. He’ll want to grapple you. Don’t let him. Hit him and then move. If you can keep it up long enough, he’ll exhaust himself. Got it?”

Duke nodded. “Thanks. That’s super-helpful. I will remember you when I get out of here.” Duke gave Ergo a serious look. Ergo nodded in response. “Now, we had better get going before I miss my match. I’m real eager to hit something.”

“Oh, and Duke, thanks for being smart enough not to try and get through me. Come along and let’s go kick some orc ass.”

Duke followed Ergo between the rows of cages seeing a number of other prisoners. Most did not acknowledge him at all. A few glared, and one short, bearded fireplug of a man actually growled at him. To a one, there was not a friendly face amongst them. The journey continued into several winding stone corridors. Eventually, the journey ended in a room lined with weapons which were all chained and locked in place. The most notable feature was the large barred opening that gave a floor-level view of the arena.

From what Duke could see of the arena, it was a stone floor covered with a thin layer of sand, probably to absorb the blood. There was seating raised starting four meters above the wall that enclosed the area. He also noted that there was a remarkably similar barred room directly across the arena from the one he stood in. He could not see any occupants as it was more than one hundred meters across the arena floor. Surrounding the area were thousands upon thousands of seats. Not many of the seats were filled, however.

“OK, Duke. Remember what I told you and you might just walk out of this one. Put on a good show and the crowd will even toss you some coins. Don’t worry about picking them up, we have people for that and that is one area that Lord Quaid is violently strict on. The coins you earn are yours and yours alone. Nobody will cheat you on those. Ever.”

“That’s an odd thing to be strict about.”

“Yes, but I’m not going to question it, and neither should you.”

Their conversation was interrupted by the wall of bars opening up in front of Duke. “Go on. Walk out to the center of the arena and salute the crowd. The more they are on your side the better things will go for you.”

Duke nodded back to Ergo and proceeded to jog out into the arena pumping his fist. They want a show, oh, I’ll give them a show. The sparse crowd cheered his enthusiastic entrance with mild applause. He briefly considered making his entrance even more impressive but decided against it in favor of saving his new LIGHTNING Ability for the actual fight.

It wasn’t long before his opponent strode into the arena. When Ergo had stated that he was to fight an orc, he had pictured the classic cross between a pig and human that was perpetuated in the games of the 80s. This was instead a green-skinned giant – well over two meters tall and probably outmassed Duke by at least 30 kilos of pure muscle, likely more. Don’t grapple with him. Ya think? Geez.

The orc strode out towards the center to meet Duke while hefting an enormous single-bladed axe on his shoulder. He also was wearing chain armor of sorts. Not chainmail, but actual chains wrapped around his arms, chest, and legs. It must have weighed a ton, but the brute seemed to carry the burden with casual ease.

The orc strode right up to Duke, and for the second time in this world, Duke had to look up to meet his opponent’s gaze. The orc smiled cruelly, his breath smelling like rotting meat and issued his pre-fight threat. “I’m gonna chop yer arm off and beatcha ta death wit it.”

Duke’s stare didn’t waver. He didn’t say anything, just glared hatred and death at the orc. After several seconds, the orc broke his gaze and stormed off to what Duke guessed was his starting position. Duke found his position after a quick glance around.

Once they were both in position, a voice boomed over the arena. “Good day Lords, Ladies, and Citizens all. For today’s first preliminary match, we bring back a favorite opener, Graza the Bloodletter!” This was met by cheers from the crowd.

“And for his opponent, we bring you a newcomer, Duke the Arrogant!” This was met by jeers from the crowd. Duke muttered under his breath, “Fucking callsign.”

“Warriors make your selves ready!” Graza readied his axe and Duke shifted his feet slightly to be sure he had good footing. “Begin!”

Graza exploded in Duke’s direction, charging with his axe raised high and closing the distance at an alarming rate. Duke was ready for it and waited for the axe to commit to a direction before moving in a dive to the side. The axe moved downward swiftly, clipping Duke’s shoulder as he rolled out of the way. He rolled to his feet as Graza hefted his axe again for the next blow.

Duke decided to not waste time and let loose with a LIGHTNING bolt. The bolt arced at Graza and connected with the chains wrapped around the left leg. There was a sound of sizzling and Graza roared in pain and anger. He whipped his axe at Duke’s head, letting it fly from his grasp.

Duke was surprised by the move and barely moved his head out of the way of the blade, catching the handle in the side of his head. His vision blurred and his knees began to buckle. It took an enormous force of will to remain conscious but that is all the he managed before Graza was on him.

The orc slammed into the reeling human, blasting him from his feet and landing on top of him. He immediately wrapped his arms around Duke and began to squeeze. Duke’s arms were pinned and he was completely outmatched in strength, so he did the only thing he could think of, he pushed against his LIGHNING Ability with all he could muster and the Ability triggered with nearly five times the normal Mana it would take. His entire Mana pool drained and empowered the Ability, making his head swim as he desperately clung to consciousness.

With a tremendous explosion of LIGHTNING and a deafening clap of thunder, Graza was thrown five meters into the air, falling limply to the arena floor next to Duke, his body charred and smoldering. Duke struggled to lever himself to his feet agonizingly slowly and shakily stared down at his opponent. From the still sparking chains and nasty burns all over his body, it was clear that Graza was not getting up anytime soon, if ever again.

It took a moment for Duke’s ears to heal enough to hear the roar of the crowd, but it was much louder than it had been earlier. He even managed to catch the announcement of his victory and the sound of coins falling to the floor of the arena. He stood there for a long moment as his REGENERATION closed his wounds and repaired his battered body. He nearly leapt when a large hand grasped his shoulder. He turned, fist raised ready to fight with the last of his strength.

“Easy there, Duke. The fight’s over.” It was Ergo. Duke lowered his fist as he saw the giant smiling at him. “Come with me, we have much to discuss.” Duke, numbly followed as the cheers of the crowd died down at his back. Ergo led him through another reinforced door that Duke had not noticed on his way into the arena. Once the door was closed behind them, the silence of the room shocked Duke into full wakefulness.

The room was very different from everything Duke had seen in the arena so far. The floor was covered with an intricately woven, thick carpet, the walls similarly decorated with fine tapestries and paintings depicting scenes of arena combat. There were a trio of chairs in the center of the room, once clearly built for the Ergo’s bulk while the next was sized for a more normal human and the last sized for a child. Ergo gestured to the human-sized chair as he sat in his own.

Duke warily sat in the proffered chair. “This is a bit different from what I expected. What’s the deal with the change in scenery?”

Ergo smiled. It was intended to be a friendly smile, but there was nothing friendly about the chiseled features of his face. “You performed far better than any of us expected. Honestly, I feared Graza was going to cut you in half with the first blow. He is, well, was deceptively fast and immensely strong. You should not have fought him in your first match, especially unarmed. I could not stop the matchup. My authority over new fighters is severely limited but now that you have proven yourself, I can truly intervene.”

“Intervene? I am hearing a whole lot of words but not much explanation.”

“I’m getting there. Even at this point, there’s only so much I can say. But I can tell you this. The audience for your fight was small as most preliminary fights are, especially with a newcomer. That said, there were a number of very important people watching that rather liked what they saw. I have been instructed. No not instructed.” Ergo paused, fishing for the right words. “I have been permitted to bring you into my stable of fighters. That means that things are about to get both easier and harder for you.”

Duke began to get up to walk out on this nonsense. With a thought, he triggered his TELEPORTATION Ability and…went nowhere. It was still not working. The headache that followed was enough reminder to not try that again.

Ergo started back up again, not acknowledging Duke’s movement. “As one of my fighters, you will be trained to hone your abilities. I will make sure that by the time you are done training, you will never be overmatched in the arena again. You have potential. Perhaps more than I have even seen so far, and I will mold that potential into a true gladiator. You will sleep in a bed, have meals fit for a warrior, and will be properly clothed. All I ask is that you train as hard as you fought in the arena. That match may have been brutally short, but you gave it every bit of your will and body. That! That is what will make you a fighter like none have seen in decades. I can teach fighting. I can make anyone stronger, but no one can teach the will to fight beyond one’s abilities. You have that ability already. I can make you a weapon that cannot be turned aside!” Ergo’s enthusiasm was rising with his voice to where he was nearly shouting at the end.

Duke was a bit overwhelmed by the enthusiasm but managed to interject a question. “That sounds great. It really does, but what do I get out of all this? I could just slog my way through the next year and get out of here on my own.”

Ergo frowned. “You are new here. I don’t know where you came from, and I really don’t care either. But there are a few things you need to know about this place. First, there are factions that run it. I belong to one, Graza belonged to another. They are enraged that they lost their top prospect for the preliminary fights, and they will be coming for your head. If you think he was a challenge, you have no idea what, or more to the point, who they can pit you against. Without the protection of my faction, you won’t last the week. I don’t care how quickly you heal, they will kill you, publicly, and mercilessly. With you in my faction, I can arrange fights that won’t pit you against them or their friends until you are ready. I told you that you were given a bum deal at the outset. This is your chance to change that and claw your way out of this pit you find yourself in.”

Duke could easily see the situation laid out before him. Once again, he was trapped by circumstance. Until his TELEPORTATION Ability kicked back in, this likely was his best option. After all, he could train for a week before Baslin portalled him back out of here. He figured that it was better than going back to the cell.

“You make an excellent point, Ergo. I’m happy to be on board. How do we get started?”

“We just did. Your words of acceptance just completed the transaction. Welcome to Team Leviathan.” Ergo rose from his chair, offering Duke his hand which Duke took to shake. Ergo’s grip was like unyielding stone but only firm enough to be strong, not overpowering as it engulfed Duke’s hand.

Wham! Wham! Wham! Three consecutive blows shook the room. Several tapestries and paintings fell from the walls, revealing another door that was now splintering. Both Duke and Ergo stood, turning to the splintering door. Ergo moved faster than Duke could have believed. Before Duke had taken a single step in the door’s direction, Ergo had thrown it open. Standing in the doorway was a pair of enormous dark grey feet sticking out from the hem of a black and gold robe. The robe continued upwards outside of Duke’s viewing angle. Whoever those feet belonged to, they were ridiculously tall.

A grey fist the size of Duke’s torso appeared swinging down into the doorframe and Ergo caught it effortlessly with his left hand. “That will be quite enough, Agreal. You can’t come barging into my ready room, and you know it. Stand down or there WILL be a problem.”

“He belongs in Rune! You know it. I know it. Everyone knows it!” The shouting emphasized by a massive finger pointing aggressively at Ergo.

“He IS Leviathan! What has been done will not be undone. He is mine to train and you owe me a new door. The words have been spoken and the recruitment is done. Now be on your way.”

Just like that, the giant feet turned and stomped away, Duke finally able to see that the being in the robe was truly a giant, well over four meters tall by his guess. Duke didn’t know what to say at the whole exchange. Luckily, Ergo did. “Sorry about that. Rune thinks that everyone who uses any form of magic needs to be in their faction. They are obsessive about it and seem to have taken our arrangement personally. They will likely try to steal you away from Leviathan.”

“Now, why would you tell me that since we just started together?” Duke inquired.

“Quite simply because they only see magic as the path to victory. They would focus purely on your magic and let everything else atrophy. They are not a good fit for you and I am certain you will see over time that Leviathan was always the best choice for you.”

“And they called me arrogant…”

“I’m not arrogant. I’m right.” Ergo stated so plainly that there was no room for argument. Now, let’s get to the training center where you will be living between your fights. It is worlds better than that dismal cell you have been calling home.”