Chương 1: Colosseum I C & D
C:
When I woke up the next morning, I had a splitting headache. I didn't know how late I stayed up and how much I drank with the other captives, but it was enough to make the room spin when I tried to stand up.
The sharp clamor of my metal cell door opening made me wince. But I was glad when I heard Vera's voice.
"Aren't you supposed to be fighting soon? You didn't stay up all night, did you?"
A sudden flash of horror came over me: I had to fight in my trial that morning. And, if I lost, I'd be sent to the salt mines.
"I can't believe you let them keep you up all-night! That's so irresponsible. I can't monitor you 24/7."
I couldn't argue. It was quite irresponsible of me considering the circumstances. But I'd intended to only have one beer, at least at first.
Vera got me a hot and bitter drink she said would wake me up. The texture was thick, like a milkshake. I downed the whole thing and felt a rush of energy.
But by the time I made it out into that ring and looked across it at my foe, I knew that wasn't enough. No drink could prepare me for engaging in brutal combat, especially when the rowdy crowd wanted blood.
The guy looked like a barbarian. He was hairy everywhere but his head and frothed at the mouth when he looked at me. When he opened his mouth to growl, his teeth were a mangled yellow and brown mess. He pounded his chest and raised his fist to the crowd, who responded with an eruption of applause.
Just to confirm, I attempted to fire an AL Blast, but it missed. So I stuck with my fists. To my pleasant surprise, I was still somewhat light on my feet. Some aspects of my attributes from the real world had been carried over, even if I couldn't use my Artifact.
Unfortunately, I didn't have too much time to get used to my speed. The barbarian man struck first.
He came at me. He reared up his right hand for a punch, so I tried to block him. But he surprised me by sweeping legs, hard, and sending me falling to the ground. The fall stunned me, and my opponent responded.
Something blunt hit the back of my head, marking the end of my career in the Colosseum.
They carted me out, and the announcer told the crowd about the next fight.
"And next we have another rookie. Says her name's 'Astra'. Well, let's just hope she's better than this last kid!"
A guard brought me to the back area and set me down on my cot.
Vera came in a little while later.
"You didn't do so well in the Colosseum. That's ok, most people don't. At least you did well enough for them to give you another shot."
"They're gonna let me fight again after that mess?"
"Well, you didn't do as well as your friend who's going on to the next level."
"You mean Marla? How did you know she's my friend?"
Vera just shook her head.
"You want to talk to her, right? She won the last match, so she's fighting again later."
Vera brought me back to the arena, where Marla getting ready for another match.
She had a determined look on her face. Not that she was glad to fight, but she seemed eager to get it done and over with. The crowd seemed to be behind her too; they responded when she waved at them.
Her opponent entered, the same bald and hairy wild man that had defeated me earlier.
He took little more caution than he had with me. But unlike me, Marla was ready for him. It looked like she'd kept some of her powers from the real world. She was so much faster than her opponent that she could dash away every time he got close. She did this until the man became frustrated.
But after a little, her strategy was obvious. This wore out his stamina quickly, and the man was sucking in air to not pass out. That was when Marla struck.
She grabbed his arm and twisted it backwards. The man yelp and screamed and, after a few moments of pointless flailing, surrounded and gave up the match to Marla.
The crowd's response to Marla's performance was mixed.
"I wanted to see her rip his arm off and beat him with it. What a shame!"
"But she is quite good, though, isn't she? For a girl, that is."
"Quite good. I've got to try one of those holds myself sometime. Hey, come here for a second—"
"Ah no, that let me go. That's not even how she did it!"
I would get another, and final, shot at qualifying for the Colosseum tomorrow night. So I got some sleep in case my new roommates kept me up again with another party.
My decision to take a nap paid off. Again, a fellow captive awoke me and took me to an impromptu party. It seemed like they were having these most nights of the week.
I walked into the courtyard and was greeted by the faces of the other captives. It felt as if they were warmer towards me than the night before.
A grizzled man with a few scars on his face came up to take to me.
"Andy, that's your name, right? That wasn't so bad, for a first timer. What most rookies do wrong is that they try to fight back. If you do that, then they just kill ya."
"Really?"
"Yep, unwritten rule. Only fight back if you can back it up. See that guy over there?"
He pointed out another battle-tested man who looked about seven feet tall.
"Some idiot tried to fight back against him. Can you believe it? He ended up yanking the dude's nose off. Bloody mess it left. You should've seen the poor fool scrambling around on the floor, gallons gushing from his face, looking for what it left of his 'nose'."
The man did an impression of a guy trying to find a piece of his nose on the floor, while bleeding from his face. The impression was just enough to crack up one onlooker, which triggered a few more laughs and then egged on the one doing the impression even more.
"But that dude you were fighting, he's a real veteran. Some girl made easy work of him, though. She's fighting again tomorrow morning, but I'll bet she's saving it all for Ian."
The mere mention of Ian's name seemed to change the tone of the gathering.
"She better leave some for me! I want to smash that guy's face in. After everything he said about me…"
The evening I spent with that crude bunch went by quickly.
D:
The next morning, I woke up with some time to spare before my fight. While I wouldn't describe myself as confident, the coaching I'd received from the other captives gave me some hope. The guy I would face was Ridley, the same dude who'd I'd seen knockout Ian on the first day. I was glad I'd already gotten to see him in action.
The atmosphere in the ring was buzzing. I waved up at the crowd and more of them seemed to be behind me than last time. Ridley had a determined look and appeared ready for a fight.
When the fight began, I had a plan. Trying to copy Marla, I would use my superior speed to play keep-away. I'd keep running away until Ridley ran out of energy, then move for a strike when he was too tired to defend.
So when Ridley lunged at me the first time, I chose to just jump away to safety. This worked twice. But eventually he cut off my escape routes. He threw an endless barrage of punches and kicks at me, most of which I could parry. But after a while, my reactions slowed. Ridley started connecting with more strikes and then I was the one running out of steam.
If the fight continued like this, I would be done for, so I took my first offense. I threw a punch that missed Ridley's right cheek. From the look on his face, that'd caught him by surprise. But the surprise wasn't enough, because he responded with a hard uppercut that rattled my teeth. It was hard enough that I sent flying out of the ring and into the second row of stands..
I heard the referee call the match and once again I was carted backstage. With that, my fate was sealed. They would designate me unfit for the Colosseum and then sold to the highest bidder.
It was a bad situation. But my head was throbbing so hard from the uppercut that I chose just to let my mind wander, rather than try to imagine my fate.
As I was leaving, the announcer said gave me some hope:
"And we have a big announcement. The man everyone loves to hate, TheKingOfTrolls, will face the new wunderkind of the Combine, Astra! She's just been blowing through the competition. I'm sure she'll teach Ian a thing or two!"
The crowd reacted and so did I. In fact, I felt relieved because I knew Marla would do everything in her power to get through to Ian and get him to close this Dreamscape before we're trapped in it forever.
Back in my cell, I sat on the cot as Vera dressed my wounds.
"You looked... a lot better out there. I didn't know you had so many moves. It's too bad though—"
"What's too bad? That I couldn't qualify for the Combine? I'm not worried about."
"You're not? They're almost certainly going to send you to the mines. Do you not know how terrible they are?"
"I'm not worried because I know my friend Marla's gonna handle everything."
Vera gave me a strange look. I wasn't sure if it was shock, pity, awe or something in between. But it concluded with a flash of recognition.
"You love her, don't you?"
"WHAT?!"
Vera had caught me off-guard with that question. I didn't know how to answer.
"That's ok, I get it. Your face says it all. Listen, I've seen her fight. I'm not sure what you guys are here to do, but if what you need involves her fighting, I'd say you have a good chance."
She finished applying the bandages and went to leave. There was something about Vera that reminded me of the real world. Despite her elf eyes and how immersed she was in this place, she felt more like a fellow traveler than the other wild people I'd met while here.
"Hold on, Vera, I want to ask you something. Who are you?"
"Me? You want to know more about me? That's weird, Andy."
"How is that weird?"
"No one ever asks about me. I simply exist here. That is who I am."
I wasn't sure what to say. She took the awkward silence as a chance to leave again.
"Vera, hold on. I don't understand what you mean. You're here, but you're not in the Combine. You look about my age, so you're not any kind of soldier. What do they have you doing here? You can tell me."
Vera smiled and continued to exit the cell.
"It's a very long story. Shame you're leaving, otherwise I may have had time to explain everything."
Vera shut and locked my cell door before walking away.
Marla would have to face Ian the next day, and this was before I was scheduled to be put up for auction. But I was so tired from my fight I had little trouble drifting off to sleep.
Once again, I was awoken in the middle of the night by someone entering my cell. But this time, something was very different.
The person entered the cell and cleared the distance between the door and my cot in under a second, and just as quickly, they had me pinned down with their bodyweight. But it wasn't too much weight.
I was still disoriented from being startled awake, so I heard the person's voice first.
"Andy, calm down. It's just me."
I came to my senses and saw who was addressing me.
It was Vera. She was sitting perched on my bed and, to my total shock, she was barely wearing any clothes.
<$img:vera_bed_elf>
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