章 15: Underground Fight Club

Olea handed over what looked like a small necklace with a purple pendant to Arnik who looked at it curiously,

"What's this? " he asked still observing the small necklace,

"It's a magi-gear used to change appearance, you'll need it" Olea responded, Arnik started to say something again but she quickly silenced him, " You'll understand when we get inside," she said.

Arnik decided not to probe further and quietly wore the necklace, it began to glow and then suddenly dissipated into light particles, the light particles floated towards where the Soulrune was and were absorbed into Arnik's body.

" Uhm was that supposed to happen, " Arnik asked tentatively,

" Not exactly" Olea responded,

" But this much is to be expected, after all the Camo chain is a magi-gear and the Soul rune absorbs them" she paused for a while before continuing,

"It should still work though, trying projecting an image of someone else in your head while imbuing some mana, and let's see what happens".

Arnik nodded and closed his eyes, the image of an old schoolmate came to mind and then he felt his face become slightly warmer than usual, he opened his eyes a while after and looked at Olea,

"Well, did it work? " he asked

" Why don't you see for yourself," Olea said handing him a small makeup mirror she had brought out of her purse.

Arnik took the mirror and hurriedly looked at his reflection, it was getting quite dark, but he could still make out his new facial features. His short brown hair had turned black and his hazel eyes had become a deep light shade of brown, facially he looked nothing like his old self, neither did he exactly look like the image he projected in his mind, rather he looked like a mixture of the two, no one would recognize him.

"Hooo," he said letting out a quiet exclamation as he looked at the change in his physical appearance. He hurriedly looked at Olea who smiled at him, satisfied with the results.

"You should also come up with a name for this alias," she said, looking at Arnik who nodded excitedly,

"How about Brid?" she asked, Arnik thought for a while and then nodded in agreement.

"Fine, since that's done, let's head inside, " she said, they'd been standing outside the building for almost ten minutes.

Olea led the way as Arnik followed her into the

shady-looking building, it was made of wood and looked to have been standing for quite some time, as a result, the overall structure looked weak and like it could collapse at any time.

The interior wasn't too shabby compared to how the building looked from the outside, it was a dimly lit bar with 4 round tables and a couple of chairs surrounding them.

Arnik could make out the figures of men occupying some of these seats but they looked uninterested in his presence and seemed to be stuck in a world of their own. He looked back at Olea who had walked up to the bartender, a chubby old lady with a dirty apron covering her dress, and began conversing in a low tone. After talking for a bit, the bartender smiled to reveal her dirty yellow teeth and then nodded excitedly.

"Let's go," Olea said as she looked back at Arnik who nodded and began following her. What he saw was a long narrow passage with a dead end and a couple of doors on each side. He expected that they would enter one of the doors but was surprised to see Olea walk past all of them.

When she got to the end of the passage, she placed her hand on the wall and pushed a little, it revealed a hidden passage on the wall to her left, she gestured to Arnik to follow him which the youth did promptly.

The secret passage led to a downward spiral stairway and they began descending. Arnik could hear the voices of several people coming from the bottom of the stairway, the closer they got to the bottom the louder the voices got until finally, they arrived at a metal door. Even though the door was locked Arnik could hear the voices of several people on the other sound," Where are we" he thought to himself.

Olea knocked on the door three times and waited, a wooden panel in the door slid open to reveal two glaring eyes, his eyes scanned both visitors before saying in a low deep voice,

"While everyone sleeps-",

Olea smiled a little before responding,

"-the hunters come out to play".

The panel closed and Arnik could hear several locks being opened from within. A few minutes later the door opened to reveal a tall dark muscular man, Arnik could only stare at his hulking frame, the man spoke again in the same low voice but this time a bit friendlier,

"Welcome to the fight club," he said with Olea simply looking at him and nodding.

She entered the big room in front of her with Arnik hurriedly following her. There were several people within the room surrounding what looked to be cages. Arnik looked around and could see five cages in the room, there were four smaller ones at four corners of the room. These smaller cages housed two individuals who fought each other using their fists, Arnik watched for a while longer before noticing that some of the fighters had coated their fists in elements. There were fighters of different sizes and each of them fought using different styles and tactics. The people surrounding each cage watched the fight as they cheered on the fighters, some could be seen holding small white pieces of paper,

" They're betting on the fighters," he thought to himself.

At the center of the room was the biggest cage of all, it was empty and a small stage rose from the ground, it looked somewhat fancier than the other cages.

Arnik who was very smart concluded that the other cages were only for small side fights while the biggest cage was probably used for main fights.

Before he could continue his train of thoughts, he quickly followed after Olea who had started making her way through the crowd of people towards the far end of the room and when she got there she stopped in front of a slightly muscular man with a scar across his left eye, he was sitting down and looking towards the floor.

"Geiko" she called out and almost immediately the man looked up at her, he had a scowl on his face but as soon as he Olea's face he let out a smile revealing his gold-coated teeth.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the beautiful Olea, what brings you to the fight club today, " he said rising to his feet,

"Cut the crap Geiko" Olea answered firmly,

"Where's he?" She continued.

Geiko let out a cackle before continuing to speak

" Still as feisty as ever I see, relax, relax" he paused to down the contents of the cup in his hands before speaking again,

" Loosen up, we've known each other for a long time and we're all friends here" he looked in Arnik's direction as he carefully observed the boy " Aren't we?" he asked.

Olea quickly stood in front of Arnik, shielding him from Geiko's gaze,

"He's with me ", she said and let out a sigh before continuing,

" You're testing my patience Geiko" as she said this Arnik could feel pressure emanating from her, it reminded him of the pressure Instructor Sykes had emanated in school but it wasn't quite as strong, it still sent a chill down his spine though,

" I'll ask one more time" she continued, "Where is he?".

Geiko smiled before pointing at the biggest cage behind Arnik and Olea," He's about to fight Small Pi" he answered as he gestured. Arnik turned to look at the cage, unlike before it was now occupied by someone and Arnik's eyes widened in realization.

The person referred to as Small Pi stood in a corner of the cage and there was nothing small about him. He was definitely above two meters tall and probably weighed more than 300 pounds, " He's a monster " Arnik thought to himself " Who would fight a guy like that "

Just then someone else entered the ring, he was a tall man with a slim yet muscular frame with long black hair that stopped just past his neck, he was wearing short black trunks and was barefoot.

He exuded a cold aura and had such a presence that despite the distance between Arnik and the ring, he still had goosebumps

The crowd that had gathered around the biggest cage began to cheer loudly, some cheered for Small Pi while others cheered for the mysterious man.

Olea had also turned and glanced over at Arnik, the boy was in complete awe at the presence of the man in the ring, she gently nudged him and he looked at her,

"That's who we're here to see," she said.

Arnik waited for a while, before asking the question that had been on his mind since the moment he saw the man,

" Who is he?" he asked hesitantly,

Olea looked at Arnik and let out a smile before looking back at the ring,

" Sido, his name's Sido"