“Why are you taking it?” Raven asked softly.
“All the sweat in the arena makes me want to go berserk… this helps,” Luna admitted.
“I don’t become addicted though,” she added quickly.
“How’d you get them, anyway?”
Ehhh…. I tend to sneak out at night and eat junkies, so I got the drugs from their remains. That doesn’t sound like a good answer… does it?
“Bought it, obviously,” Luna snapped back. “You… you have experience with women?” Luna added to pivot the topic.
“Yea, nothing serious though,” Raven blushed. Luna’s mind started racing.
Blushed! Right, Raven is actually a fully functioning human male.
I have completely forgotten about that part. Come to think of it…
Luna’s head exploded and her heart started racing.
As a human man, Raven is not just handsome; he's attractive. Very, very attractive.
How didn’t I notice this before?
‘You did notice, but you ignored it because of the whole chained-slave thing.’
Shut up!
Luna turned red as she had realized this. She imagined, no, remembered Raven naked and her heart felt like it would jump out of her chest to punch her in the face. Her bottom lip was a bloody mess from her biting into it she realized and stopped herself.
Sleeping in the same room with Raven is going to become a lot more challenging, she realized before the drug kicked in. This one caused strong hallucinations, so she spent the day staring at nothing while seeing jousting pink dragons who were riding yellow unicorns and then exploded into rainbows when they fell to the ground.
This one stopped the bloodlust but cannot be used for the tournament.
Over the next weeks, she would try all of the drugs, mostly in different dosages as well. She had some good stuff, some useful stuff and some downright horrible things.
The worst thing is, I have no idea how to approach Raven about this.
‘About what exactly?’
That it took me four months to realize that he is a human? That I saw him as some worthless slave and not as a human being? For four months? Fuck! I am literally the worst person to ever walk the world. Shit!
Their schedule was a perfect routine made of practicing and watching the qualifiers which were sort of practice as well. Well… there was eating and sleeping. Luna ate a lot of things, but romantic was literally the last word she would ever use to describe her eating an entire cow or sheep for a meal. The worst thing was, now that she focused on it, Raven saw her as his little sister. Often annoying and weird little sister, but still a little sister.
Little sister.
Little sisters are actually supposed to be weird and annoying, so that fits his imagination perfectly.
‘Little sister sure fits you well.’
FUCK!
I AM A WOMAN! She wanted to shout at him.
But he would just say something along the lines of “I know,” with a confused face and continue like nothing happened.
How the hell do I get past that?
On top of that, how do I get close to him physically without him freaking out or thinking something is wrong with me?
Now that I test drugs, he will think it’s some after effect and just push me off and send me to get some sleep. That would be really bad.
If I invite him somewhere, he will think it’s another practice. Plus he can’t leave the arena compound.
Worse, if I approach him, he might remember one of my old threats and think I have decided to make them a reality.
In retrospect, crushing bull’s testicles in my mouth in front of his face was not very strategic.
Stupid!
As for the qualifiers, her horrors came true as the group of bright pink and red armored people won all matches and was clearly about to fill their team. Before that, however, the qualifiers would end in a showmatch. And there was only one star in the arena fit for such a show. Raven. So, she made him chain her before the start and took one of the better drugs beforehand. This one enhanced any sounds and whatever she saw. It wasn't used for fighting as she would be unable to coordinate her movements because the moves of the opponents would seem exaggerated, but it was fine for sitting in chains.
Alright, this is the first time I will see Raven actually fight. Not spar, but fight.
As the match was about to start, the atmosphere changed. It felt like more and more people were gathering in the stadium. The roof above her head groaned under pressure. First, they let the monster enter. It was some weird mixture between a wyvern and a lion. It was ugly, large as four cows combined and had a lot of spikes and teeth. It seemed more ugly than dangerous though. Raven entering the arena was announced and the whole arena fell silent. Soon he would slide down into the arena, apparently a tradition. He got up, stretched, drew his sword and the world exploded.
“RAVEN! RAVEN! RAVEN!”
The entire crowd started cheering, shouting, clapping and jumping. It was like an earthquake. The whole room where Luna was sitting was trembling. Even in the chains, she was jumping on the bench where she was sitting from the sheer force of the vibrations.
“RAVEN! RAVEN! RAVEN!”
She just sat there, completely paralyzed by the power of the moment. She didn’t really see the details of the fight as she just couldn’t pay attention to it; all she could perceive was the tens of thousands men strong crowd that cheered like their life depended on it.
“RAVEN! RAVEN! RAVEN!”
So… this is what Raven lives for.
Alright, Luna, prepare for being in the spotlight, because we won’t be a no-name team out of nowhere as I thought. Instead, we will be one of the most watched teams because this level of fame is simply impossible to hide.
What the hell did I get into?
Luna stayed there after the match ended.
He’s coming to pick me up, right?
‘What do you think?’
She pushed her left arm through the chains, her bones screams and muscles tore, but she paid it no heed and pushed through. Once she freed one of her arms, the rest was easy. Luna spun on her heel and headed through the door.
*BANG!* echoed through the room as she walked face-first into the wall.
‘Door’s that way.’
Thanks.
She focused on Raven’s scent, found the door and follow it. She soon arrived at a larger room. Inside were the winners of the qualifiers, team Rapacious Reavers, Luna and a chained chimera. Reavers looked happy, Raven grim and out of place, but the chimera was clearly eyeing her. Luna ignored the dancing yellow bears and focused on it. It had two wolf heads, one lion head, snake for a tail and a large and strong scaly body.
I don’t like the look in its eyes; they look intelligent.
‘That makes the brain tasty.’
Right. I am the monster of this team; I don’t plan to share that position.
Prince Jonathan Stallington entered the room; he was beaming. “Greetings, my champions!”
“Greetings, your highness,” Finubar, the leader of Rapacious Reavers bowed deeply in a greeting.
“What is the meaning of this, Jonathan?” Raven replied without even looking at him.
“What do you mean, champion?” Stallington tried.
“That monster, it doesn’t look like you brought it for dinner,” Raven sneered and threw a spear at it. It dug into the side of the monster and it snarled and shook against the chain.
“What do you think you are doing?” Stallington demanded.
“I am not fighting alongside that,” Raven continued as he walked to the creature.
“You fight alongside whoever I tell you to!” Stallington challenged.
This insolence needs to stop! I have been more than tolerant to him lately, but this is getting out of hand.
As Stallington was thinking, Raven made his way to the beast to pull out the spear. He leisurely stabbed it again. This time he hit it in a thigh, a stab to cause pain rather th
an to kill.
“Raven, STOP!“ Stallington shouted.
Raven pulled the spear out, stabbed it again. Then again.
“Or what, Jonathan?” Raven challenged.
Stallington activated Raven’s shackles with a swift gesture. Bolts of energy shot through Raven’s body and sent him to the ground, screaming. Stallington waited until it knocked him unconscious. The Reavers looked stunned; Luna was sitting by the wall grinning wide.
Should I have done something? Nah, this looks like fun... I mean, look at the unicorns!
“I apologize for the scene; I will make sure he is better contained the next time,” Stallington apologized.
“Worry not, your highness, we shall manage to handle this competition in a professional manner. No need to depend on slaves since we are here,” Finubar bowed.
“Be careful with that, pinkie pants… because I just might wanna have your balls for breakfast. If you have any, of course,” Luna sneered as she got up and walked to them, she wore a massive grin on her face.
“Lady Luna, would you kindly escort Raven to his cell?” Stallington tried, half desperate.
“Sure, Jonnie,” Luna replied. “And you be careful pinky pants… I bite,” she grinned at Finubar as she picked up Raven and threw him over her shoulder.
“I am terribly sorry for this farce, I will have them in shape for the tournament,” Stallington apologized again before Luna managed to leave. “Anyway, this is the team for the tournament. You ten make the regular members, Raven, Luna and the chimera are our team’s monsters.“
“Be at peace, your highness, we shall represent you better than properly,” Finubar assured him. “After all, we are professionals.”
“Your words are most reassuring, Finubar, I am happy to have you with us.”
12
Salazar
Count Salazar of Xona, ruler of the largest city in the world sat in his office. He was dressed in luxurious brown and green robes, had greatly arranged short brown hair and dark green eyes. He was cleanly shaved and arranged to perfection.
“Greetings,” he smiled warmly towards the incoming group. Most people were just staring, star-struck.
“I congratulate you on making it through the qualifiers. Now that we have the team settled, I suppose it would be good to start with the introductions, so we all know who we are before we set out to Grimdawn for the tournament,” Salazar explained.
“Zacharias the Red, adventurer and fire conjurer,” a mid-forties man in red robes started carefully as he was the first one on the left.
“Mark Nessel, an adventurer from Fangs of Ciamath group,” a tanned black-haired man in heavy chain mail armor continued.
“Linda Bohm, an adventurer from Fangs of Ciamath group,” a dark woman repeated. She clearly had no idea what else to say. She was younger than the man, had leather armor and a quiver over her shoulder.
“Ludwig von Rasenwald, an adventurer from Fangs of Ciamath group,” another mid-forties man, this one was dressed in robes and used a wooden staff to walk.
A girl next to him just stood there with mouth open wide, completely stunned. Yvonne was a small framed blond girl in a dashing blue dress. She had a harp by her side.
“She is Yvonne Finke, an adventurer from Fangs of Ciamath group,” Mark helped her.
“Katherine d’Airelle, the captain of the royal guard of Xona,” answered a black-haired woman who was apparently the leader of the group of soldiers.
“Tobyn, lieutenant of the royal guard of Xona.”
“Alan, member of the royal guard of Xona.”
“Molly, member of the royal guard of Xona.”
“Betha, member of the royal guard of Xona.”
“Luis, member of the royal guard of Xona.”
“Alk, member of the royal guard of Xona.”
“Count Salazar d’Ielle, ruler of Xona and all its holdings,” Salazar smiled.
“OH, MY GOD! OH, MY GOD! OH MY GOD!” Yvonne started panicking, then fainted.
Mark managed to catch her before she hit the ground. The others remained silent.
“Now that we know each other, why don’t we all sit down, have a drink and talk this tournament thing through,” Salazar smiled and pointed them to the chairs by the table.
“Of course! Drinks! Of course! Immediately! Sorry!” Yvonne woke up and went to the cabinet to pick up a few bottles and glasses, Linda jumped in to help her when she looked like she would drop all of it.
They all sat down as Yvonne was hastily giving everyone a glass. There was an awkward silence around the table as nobody dared approach the elephant stomping through the room.
“Here you go… ehh… how should I call you? Your highness? Lord count? Count? Major count? Major? Lord? Count d’Ielle? Your highness d’Ielle? Lord d’Ielle? Your higness count?” Yvonne started blurting while handing him the glass.
“Salazar will suffice, Sal for short,” Salazar smiled at her as he cut her off.
“Pray tell me, lord Salazar…” Zacharias started.
“Just Salazar,” Salazar corrected him.
“Salazar, should we understand this that you will partake a direct participation in this tournament?” Zacharias probed.
“That is correct, I will lead this team as its captain,” Salazar announced.
“I don’t think so,” Katherine cut him off.
“By the rules of the qualifiers, captain of this team will be voted upon after they finish,” Katherine added before he managed to say anything.
“I do not remember having that on the poster,” Salazar objected.
“It was in the updated version from two days ago, I am sure you must have noticed as you had approved it together with the monthly security reports,” Katherine added flatly while smiling poisonously.
“Ah… of course… indeed,” Salazar confirmed.
Oh, come on, Katherine, that’s under the belt.
“Shall we vote on the captain then? I nominate myself and vote for myself. Anyone who agrees say AY!” Katherine announced.
“AY!” echoed simultaneously from the other six Xona soldiers and two healers who were to be in the supporting part of the team.
“Nine votes out of fifteen, the vote is passed. I humbly accept this great honor of being the captain of this team,” Katherine smiled victoriously.
“Anyway, now that we know I am not the captain, I would still like to address the elephant in the room,” Salazar continued, “I am a full and regular member of this team. I will participate in the competition and yes, I am serious about this. We do not necessarily need to win the competition, but we are going to make a show worthy of our names,” Salazar explained.
“Worthy of your name, I presume,” Mark pointed.
“Well, I am a part of the team, am I not?” Salazar smiled.
“In any case, do not worry about having to babysit me around. I am more than capable of handling myself in the arena,” he continued.
“That’s what he always says,” Katherine countered “and then there is a big royal guard on his ass to save it when he does not!”
“My dear captain, you always worry too much about me,” Salazar smiled.
“You literally pay me to do that!”
“Yes, and? After all, I did raise both the wages of you and your men multiple times in the past few years and you all get the full tournament contract on top of that,” Salazar returned.
“I am sorry for interrupting, but why? Why would the count of Xona, one of the most powerful politicians in the world enter an arena tournament, which will be mostly fought by slaves?” Ludwig asked carefully.
“I was curious how long will you manage to last before somebody asks the question,” Salazar grinned., “because I feel like I am not famous enough. I mean yes, I am the most famous man in Xona. But the world is large and in the rest of it, I am just a name. I want to put the person behind that name and this tournament happens to let me do it across the entire continent.”
“Mostly true, but not
the full reason. What more is there to it?” Linda asked cautiously.
“Please leave us,” he motioned the guards. They left and locked the door behind them. Salazar then waved his hand and all the windows closed, curtains moved to cover them and the small trees over the office suddenly blossomed, all at the same time.
“That’s some impressive use of magic, without any symbols or noticeable effects,” Ludwig commented.
“Plus, there was no shift of power to be felt, suggesting the user is well versed in hiding it,” Zacharias observed.
“He did make a gesture under the table though, so it was channeled through the hand,” Yvonne added.
It seems our team will not be lacking in magical power. Perfect.
“Excellent observation,” Salazar commended them.
“This tournament was organized by the arena owners and slave trading organizations to promote their business while making themselves all known continent-wide,” Salazar started.
“Do they at least have their backgrounds checked?” Katherine interrupted them.
“If there was a problem with any of them, I am sure my secret services would have told me already,” Salazar retorted before continuing.
“I have no intention of letting them do that and therefore I plan to steal the show for myself,” Salazar declared.
“What is your relation to slavery and arena industry?” Mark asked.
“Do you know how many slaves are there in Xona and its directly owned territories? Over two hundred thousand, almost one in every five people. That is over two hundred thousand people who are not subject to my laws, do not pay my taxes and can be mobilized against me,” Salazar answered and the room went silent.
“Why do you just tell us this?” Zacharias broke the silence.
“What will you do with that information that could harm me? Go tell it to the slavers? They already know. Tell it to my opposing nobles in the city? They all approved my participation in this tournament, unanimously. Plus, even if you could sell it to someone, I pay you enough on the tournament contract that it will be very hard for anyone to overpay it,” Salazar explained.
“So… we walk in there with a huge target painted on our back,” Mark estimated, “that sounds really dangerous.”
Legacy of Dreams: Freedom Page 9