by J. Cee
“What if I only watch tonight?” Ceph suggested.
Aeri shoved Ceph towards the booth that seemed to be handling the match logistics. “Grow stronger or die. That’s our life.”
Ceph grumbled. “Okay, okay.”
“Come on, Ceph. You can win. I know it. You know it.”
It was true. He had seen the matches. With Aeri’s training, Ceph was a far better fighter than most of the combatants at his rank. He could spot the openings, the flaws in strategy, the mistakes. Fighting for his life wasn’t the same as analyzing a match as a spectator, though.
Ceph shuffled behind Aeri as she made her way to the makeshift booth that was serving as the headquarters for the casual night matches. A swarthy-looking man wearing spectacles, presumably the match coordinator, stood inside the booth. The man had a scholar’s face and a brawler’s body.
“We’re here to sign up,” Aeri said as she approached the man.
“Oh?” The man pushed up his spectacles, surveying Aeri and Ceph. “Very nice. Fresh bodies.” He picked up a quill. “Name and rank?”
“I’m Aeri, rank sixty-five. This is Ceph, rank sixty.”
“Will you be fighting together?”
“Yes?” Ceph asked.
“No,” Aeri said.
The man looked between the two of them.
“No,” repeated Aeri, giving a stern glare to a sheepish Ceph.
“Will you be fighting each other?”
“No way,” Ceph said.
The man waited for Aeri’s response, ignoring Ceph.
She bit her lower lip and paused. “Not today.”
“Really?” Ceph said. Aeri winked back at him.
The man glanced at the dagger on Aeri’s hip and the sword hanging from Ceph’s hip. “I see that both of you have some equipment. Great. Not a good show when only paupers show up.”
He continued making some notes on a piece of parchment. “You’re number eighty-seven,” he said, pointing to Aeri. “Your friend there is number eighty-eight. When they call your number and pit, you need to be there within five minutes. The pits are numbered one through ten, and you’ll see a little sign with the pit number. Just ask if you’re not sure which pit it is. Any questions?”
“How long will we have to wait?” Aeri asked.
The man looked through his notes. “Not too long. Maybe ten or fifteen minutes. Don’t wander off.”
Ceph stepped forward. “What happens if we, uh, can’t find our pit in time? Or don’t hear our number being called?”
The man peered over his spectacles. “We find you, drain your blood, and strip you of all your equipment. Any more questions?”
Ceph shook his head without a word.
Aeri held back a smile. “No, that’ll be all.” They left the booth.
True to the organizer’s words, Aeri and Ceph didn’t have to wait long for their matches. Aeri’s number was called first. Ceph bid her good luck and found himself counting the passing seconds as he waited. He wasn’t nervous; he was training, he told himself. Two hundred and five seconds later, his number was called.
“Number eighty-eight and number forty-seven. Pit six.”
The clear voice pierced the night air. The crowd looked around, murmuring to each other as they wondered who would respond. Ceph ignored the whispers. He wiped his sweaty right palm on the seat of his pants, then squeezed it into a tight fist, as if draining the rest of his nervousness away. This was it. He had to fight.
Ceph made his way to pit number six. He was a little surprised to see a woman already waiting for him in the pit. Other than Aeri, the guard with Zeudah, and a few others, most of the fighters at the Gladiator Pits were men. He hadn’t noticed any gender imbalance among the Everborn outside the Pits.
The woman was older than Ceph, with curly brown hair and emerald eyes. Her lips were painted ruby red, or at least Ceph thought they were painted. Most shocking of all was her clothes, or what little there was of it. She was wearing hardly more than flimsy undergarments that concealed less than they exposed. Ceph realized he was gawking. He jumped down into the pit, landing on his feet.
Ceph blinked. The woman had a sword like him. He hadn’t noticed it before. Was that the point of her display? To distract him? Ceph drew on his most painful memories. Sharp emotions bled away any frivolity, leaving behind the cold, hard mind of a fighter. This was a fight to the death, after all. He wasn’t an Everborn.
“Hey, handsome. What’re you hiding under there?” The svelte voice carried across the fighting pit. The crowd jeered and whistled.
Ceph’s lips tightened behind his mask. He was still studying his opponent. The woman didn’t have any obvious equipment other than the sword. It was too dark to see if she was wearing any rings, but he didn’t see the glint of metal on her hands. Ceph curled his own right hand, regretting his lost healing ring.
“Like what you see? Don’t be shy.” The woman puffed her chest out and posed as much for the crowd as for Ceph. The crowd roared its approval.
Ceph took several steps back to put more distance between them. The man overseeing the match approached the side of the pit and looked at the two fighters.
“Ready?”
Ceph nodded. “I’m ready.”
“Oh, I’m so ready for you, baby,” the woman said.
“Fight!” the official shouted.
Ceph waited for his opponent to make the first move. Her aura was green, and, based on the particular shade, he guessed that she was almost exactly the same rank as him. That made things easier, but he still wanted every advantage possible.
The woman placed her hands on her hips. “Waiting for the woman to make the first move? Typical.” She sent a lazy Soulstrike at him from across the pit, then another.
Against a higher-ranked Everborn, Ceph would have shielded himself. Against a green aura, he kept the fight simple. He didn’t defend himself, letting the first Soulstrike hit. There was a brief flash of pain. Corpus. Ceph checked his left forearm and saw that he had lost five blood points. The second Soulstrike also hit for five blood. Was she close to perfect harmony? He needed another hit to be sure.
A third Soulstrike hit him, again for five blood. That confirmed it. The woman was likely at perfect harmony, since her damage didn’t vary. At rank sixty, that meant she had six points in harmony, which would leave fifty-four power points to split between blood and spirit.
“I can do this all day,” the woman said while sending additional Soulstrikes.
Ceph calculated further. Based on a Soulstrike’s damage scaling, that meant the woman’s maximum spirit pool must be fifty. The distance between them, though, halved the damage from Soulstrikes. Accounting for that, Ceph recalculated that the woman’s maximum spirit pool was likely about a hundred. That meant she probably had a standard balanced build, with 108 blood, 108 spirit, and perfect harmony. It all fit.
The crowd hollered and hooted, but he ignored them. Ceph had been standing immobile the whole time to maximize his blood regeneration. Even if it looked strange, he was set on winning this match, no matter what.
The woman pouted. “Aw, don’t you like what you see?”
Despite the woman’s attempts to goad him, she was being cautious too. Instead of rushing him, she continued attacking from a distance. Ceph didn’t bother to shield himself yet, relying on his large blood pool. So far, he had revealed nothing about himself, either.
He needed to confirm his analysis, though. It was possible that an unknown skill was modifying her offensive skills. Ceph began casting Soulstrikes at the woman.
“Finally, look at him go!” the woman said.
She responded with an Interference Shield as Ceph had expected. Inspect. He tracked the woman’s aura, directing all of his attention to it. While the aura wouldn’t dim significantly from a single Soulstrike, if he focused, Ceph could detect a slight shift in the aura whenever there was nonzero damage. The shift was barely perceptible, but Aeri and Ceph had trained with each other to recognize the
subtle sign.
There was no change in the woman’s aura. His Soulstrikes weren’t doing any damage at this distance. He sent charged Soulstrikes, first doubly-charged, then the maximum triple-charged attacks. The woman paused her own attacks, conserving spirit for her shields.
Only the triple-charged Soulstrikes managed to pierce the woman’s Interference Shield to inflict damage, and only if he stepped closer to the woman. That meant the woman likely had about 100 or 110 spirit, which would give her an Interference Shield with ten to eleven damage reduction. That agreed with his earlier guess.
“You sure know how to show a lady a good time,” the woman called out. Scattered boos emerged from the crowd.
Ceph took stock of the situation. His Soulstrikes and Interference Shields were weaker than his opponent’s counterparts. His low harmony also halved his average damage and defense. However, Ceph had a larger blood pool and higher blood regeneration rate. The key to winning would be spirit-efficient Steelstrikes and a slow battle attrition.
He had a plan. He was ready.
The woman charged a Soulstrike and released it as he closed the distance between the two of them. Ceph diverted the attack with a Deflection Shield and began charging a Soulstrike in his right hand. The woman cast her own Deflection Shield in advance, but Ceph released the Soulstrike prematurely, sending a less costly weak attack to ping the shield away. He then drew his katana for a Steelstrike against the unshielded woman before she could react.
As Ceph attacked with a second Steelstrike, the woman countered with an Interference Shield. Ceph’s Steelstrike at close range pierced for a modest amount of damage, but he re-sheathed his weapon and rolled away. By the time the woman drew her own sword, Ceph was out of melee range.
The woman chased Ceph with her sword raised, but he danced at the edge of her reach, taunting her. Her Steelstrikes missed Ceph by mere centimeters, exactly as he intended. Caught in the tantalizing frenzy of near misses, the woman forgot that she could also cast Soulstrikes. Even better, running with a drawn weapon negated all of her regeneration. Sensing her mistake, the woman stopped and sheathed her sword.
Before she could react, Ceph turned around and rammed the woman, knocking her backwards. The woman’s shield had long expired, and, in the face of Ceph’s distraction, she had not cast a new one. Ceph seized the opening, delivering a series of Steelstrikes at the woman’s unshielded face.
The woman grimaced in pain at the slashes to her eyes. In desperation, she cast Interference and Deflection Shields in quick succession. Ceph resheathed his katana again and retreated. He had won the exchange, no doubt, spending fewer spirit points and losing fewer blood points, all the while keeping his regeneration higher with his weapon discipline.
The frustrated woman drew her sword and again tried to close the distance. Her higher raw damage output at close range could overwhelm Ceph before regeneration rates would matter. But Ceph evaded her attacks, staying out of reach of her sword again.
Whenever the woman stopped chasing him, Ceph would send one and only one Soulstrike, which would be met with an Interference Shield. Ceph was trading two spirit to burn six of his opponent’s spirit. After three rounds of this, the woman broke the rhythm and used a Deflection Shield instead. Ceph dashed forward, ready to ping the shield with a Soulstrike and follow up with a Steelstrike. Recognizing the attack pattern, the woman preemptively cast an Interference Shield.
Ceph backed away in triumph. He had spent two spirit and a free feint, while his opponent had spent ten spirit. He was bleeding her spirit dry. To top it off, she still held her sword, cutting her spirit regeneration. The match was in his control. He could win.
Meanwhile, Ceph was letting his larger blood pool and faster blood regeneration bear the cost of the woman’s attacks. Corpus. He still had 147 blood, which was more than the woman’s maximum.
The woman was silent now. She fought reactively, sensing Ceph’s threat. The crowd was also quiet. Ceph remained patient, settling for a continual streak of small wins. Since he had guessed the woman’s attribute distribution, he could approximate the woman’s spirit regeneration and current spirit pool size. He kept a running total in his head while also tracking the passing seconds. The simpler but less accurate method was to compare with his own regeneration, but he forced himself to track the woman’s spirit directly.
Ceph had thought that Aeri was insane at the time, when she had forced him to repeat the mental exercises. Now he realized the power of her training. It was as if he had the scrying skill of a high-ranked Everborn.
It was time. The woman’s spirit pool would be almost empty. Ceph launched a final assault at the woman, verifying that his own spirit pool was nearly full. He sent a Soulstrike and noticed that the woman didn’t cast a shield in response. The alarmed woman instead attempted to sheath her sword to recover her regeneration.
Using her panic as a distraction, Ceph leapt onto the woman with his katana in hand and gripped her tightly with his legs and arms. They fell to the ground.
Steelstrikes were different from normal weapon attacks. The damage from a Steelstrike required physical contact, but otherwise, didn’t depend on the physical force of the swing or stab.
Everborn blades also wouldn’t pierce the flesh of an Everborn body while any blood points remained. This meant that certain stabbing and slashing sword techniques had different physical consequences. A sword could still cause discomfort or pain, though.
Ceph slammed the tip of his katana into the woman’s mouth. Ceph leaned with his weight, pinning the woman’s head to the ground while maintaining physical contact between the blade and the woman. Steelstrike. Steelstrike. Steelstrike. A continual stream of attacks shredded her blood pool. She flailed her limbs at the onslaught.
The move was brutal. He would know. Aeri had demonstrated the move on him.
The woman’s aura grew dimmer and dimmer. With a sudden jerk, Ceph’s katana slid down further, exiting from the back of the woman’s neck. The blade sank into the hard earth underneath, and dark crimson liquid gushed forth. The Everborn was dead, lying in a halo of her own blood.
Ceph looked up to see shocked and silent faces. Some were scowling. Others were afraid. This was not how the Everborn usually fought. This was monstrous.
Aeri had turned him into a trained killer, a killer that even the Everborn feared. He had won, though, and not in some sterile situation under Aeri’s watchful eye. It had been a real, cruel fight. Ceph shuddered. What had Aeri created in him?
He realized his weapon discipline had lapsed. Ceph wiped the blade clean on the corpse’s clothes before sheathing it.
He looked out at the crowd. What did they see? Did they hate him? He needed to handle the crowd.
“So,” Ceph said in a loud voice, “who’s next?”
The anxious onlookers remained silent for a moment. Then they erupted with loud cheers.
Chapter 16
Ceph found Aeri waiting for him after leaving the fighting pit. Aeri had easily won her match against a slightly higher ranked opponent with no equipment. Ceph waved her over and showed her the sword that he had earned. He watched Aeri use her Lore skill.
“It’s the same as yours, other than the physical appearance.” The longsword had a crossguard and straight double-edged blade. Aeri swung it with one hand as the woman had, her Onceborn strength easily controlling the weight.
“What should we do with it?” Ceph asked.
“We’ll try to trade it later. You’d need the Dual Wielding skill to use two swords effectively. And also…” Aeri glanced at the stuffed glove on Ceph’s left hand.
“Yeah, okay. Trade it.”
“We’ll stop by the trading post once it opens.”
“Are we going to fight again?”
Aeri looked up at the sky and nodded. “We should. There’s a few hours of night left, and we need to gain as many ranks as possible before the tournament starts.” Aeri paused. “How did it go?”
“Better than I hoped.
I’m starting to understand the difference in training between us and them.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Huh?”
“I said you’re welcome.” Aeri gave a slight curtsy. “Just don’t get too cocky. The Everborn are too dangerous to underestimate.”
“I know. Like Zeudah.”
“Speaking of him, he’s going to fight a fresh set of challengers tomorrow. We should watch. It’ll be educational.”
The memory of Zeudah picking them up in a flash was sobering. Ceph had won a single match. Zeudah was the Pit Champion. “Right,” Ceph said. “Educational.”
“Don’t forget to assign any power points you earn.”
With that, the two headed back to the match organizer to set up their next fights. Since they had only started entering matches in the middle of the night, they only managed to squeeze in five fights each before dawn.
The fights were straightforward for Ceph, except for one match against a rank eighty opponent. He had fought defensively with shields to draw out the match until the Everborn lost focus.
The easiest had been an opponent who had put all of his power points into blood with practically no spirit pool. That had almost been him, if not for Aeri’s intervention. Ceph had no idea how that Everborn had even gained ranks. He supposed having endless lives overcame many deficiencies.
The first night of fighting came to an end as the sky brightened with the colors of sunset. The onlookers and prospective contestants melted away. Ceph and Aeri found a quiet spot in the campgrounds and sat down on the flattened grass to review their progress.
The equipment they had earned was spread out on the ground before them. There was one sword, a pair of leather boots, and one silver ring. Only three of the ten opponents had any equipment. That was better than the average Everborn population, since this was the Gladiator Pits, after all, but it was less than Ceph had hoped.
Aeri saw Ceph’s disappointment. “It’s better that we start against poorly equipped opponents. Opponents with multiple pieces of equipment are much more dangerous since we won’t even know what skills they have.”
