by Jamie Davis
“You’re going to break out from there?” Otto said. “The crossbowmen and other guards would cut us down before we’d gotten halfway to the stands.”
“Ah, but we won’t be alone, if my plan works out,” Hal said. “Tell me, who decides which people and creatures fight when?”
“That would be the fight master,” Kay said. “He draws up the schedule for each day’s planned events and publishes them so the city’s bookmakers can set the odds for each contest.”
“Then we have to get the fight master to set up a fight of our choosing at a time we choose. After that it’s a simple matter of leadership and logistics.”
“Well as long as it’s going to be that easy,” Otto said. He laughed at the humor of the statement.
“Let me go and get Rune. He may be able to help you with healing. There are eastern methods of healing that don’t require magic.”
Otto left Hal and Kay sitting in the equipment room stripped down to their under tunics, still blood stained and bruised by the fight. Rune soon arrived and examined the pair without a word to either Hal or Kay.
For each one of them, he clapped his hands together and rubbed them palm to palm for a while before applying his warmed hands to their injuries. He hummed a repeated mantra to himself as he laid hands on them. Hal felt warmth flow outward from the monk’s hands into the rest of his body.
Hal checked his health and saw that about half of it had been restored. He wasn’t at a hundred percent but he was definitely feeling better.
Health: 62/96
“That was amazing, Rune. How did you do that if you didn’t use magic?” Hal asked.
“I aligned your internal energies and flows to the earth’s. By doing this, I was able to restore some healing force to your body. It is something I can teach you to do for yourself. It is useful during a fight to restore some of your strength when injured by an enemy.”
“I would love to learn that,” Hal said. “Right Kay?”
“Anything that makes me feel this much better that fast that doesn’t require magic, I’m all for,” Kay said. She was stretching her shoulder muscles and testing her range of motion.
“I suggest you get some rest for now. We can start your new chakra training in the morning.” Rune smiled and left the two companions alone again.
“Hal, do you really believe we can find a way to escape this hell?” Kay asked. “I have been fighting in the arena for months now and I’m starting to lose faith that I’ll ever get out of here alive.”
“You heard Ginty, Kay. He thinks I’m some sort of mythical warrior or something.”
“The opponent. But that’s just a child’s tale to give children hope that the Emperor can be defeated someday.”
“But what if it’s not just a children’s tale, Kay? What if it’s all true? I was alway taught that every fanciful story has some root in truth. Perhaps there really is some hero that’s supposed to come and stop the Emperor. Maybe I’m that guy.”
It was the first time Hal admitted to himself he might be something more than a guy stuck in a fantasy computer game.
“You’re the opponent, Hal?” Kay said with a snort of laughter. “I’ve seen you fight and nearly die a dozen times. I’ve been by your side, remember. You’re good in a fight but the opponent is supposed to be able to do magic, fight with any weapon, and be able to turn invisible at will to travel between the planes.”
To Hal, that was starting to sound like a description of at least some of what he was able to do. Not all of it, but some of it.
“Kay, I’m not expecting you to believe it but what if we can convince some of the recruits and the other condemned gladiators here to believe it. That would give them a reason to get together and fight for something other than their next meal. If we could do that, we could fight our way out of here. Between the recruits and the gladiators, we outnumber the guards. Add in the help of the goblins and other non-human fighters here, we could easily break out.”
“You want to include the goblins, orcs, and the others?” Kay asked. “That’s crazy, they’re savages.”
“I’ve met a few goblins that have changed my mind about that. If I can find a way to communicate with the goblins at least, I think I can get them to join with our plan to break out.”
“I don’t know, Hal. It all seems sort of far-fetched.”
“You mean like a guy from another world who gets magically transported to Fantasma not once, but twice? I think I’m beyond worrying about far-fetched ideas right now. Look, my plan requires a special occasion to work. What’s a national holiday coming up soon, maybe in a month or so?” Hal asked.
“There’s the Emperor’s birthday celebration. That’s in a month and a half. There are always huge festivities in all the major cities of the Empire. Even Tandon used to celebrate that one regularly.”
“Perfect,” Hal said, snapping his fingers. “We need to plant the suggestion in the Fight Coordinator’s mind that he needs to stage a huge extravaganza battle between humans and nonhumans for the arena that day. We want him to put as many of us in the arena at once as possible.”
“You’re thinking of getting us all out at once, as a group?” Kay asked.
“Sure. If one of us gets out, how does that help those trapped here in the arena?” Hal said. “No, we either get everyone out or none of us leave. It’s an all or nothing plan. Besides, no one will suspect we’d collaborate with the goblins and orcs. It’s the perfect plan.”
“Perfectly insane,” Kay said. “Still, it could work if we worked together. We’d take losses but once we were free of the coliseum, we could all escape the city and make a run for the hills to the west.”
“Sounds like we have the beginning of a plan that will work, Kay,” Hal said with a smile. “Let’s go and get some food and rest like Rune proposed. We can start laying the ground work tomorrow.”
The two companions left the equipment room, each limping a little but boosted by the plans they made together.
17
The next morning Hal woke up feeling a little better than the night before but he was still stiff and sore. He found Rune and Kay waiting for him in the common area eating breakfast.
“Good, you’re up,” Kay said. “Rune was going to start our training as soon as we’re finished eating.”
“Sounds good to me. I’m sore as hell this morning. I got stitched up and wrapped to stop me from bleeding all night but that’s not going to heal me in time for the next fight.”
Hal took a plate of ham and eggs from a passing slave and started eating.
“You are already doing the right things to prepare,” Rune said. “Healing takes energy and that means food. Luckily, they feed us well. The crowds need gladiators who are strong and put on a good show after all.”
He let a quirky half-smile show on his face before returning to his normal stern visage.
“Rune, whatever did you do to get condemned to this place? You don’t seem like the type to break the law,” Hal said.
“I stopped one of the Wardens from executing a hungry child for stealing food,” Rune answered. “While helping the child escape, I killed nine city guards. That told them I could fight and gave the Warden the idea he could sentence me to the arena to watch me fight and eventually die there. So, here I am.”
You killed nine guards? Alone and unarmed?” Hal asked.
“It was not difficult. They were poorly trained,” Rune remarked.
Hal nearly spit out his drink. It took him a moment to stop choking and coughing.
“Poorly trained? That’s your answer? Rune, my man, you are priceless.”
“Yes,” the monk replied. “As are we all. It is why I saved the boy.”
Rune stood and looked down at Hal and Kay. “Enough talk. It is time to train you in chakra healing. Come.”
Hal shoved some egg and ham between two pieces of bread and got up to follow Kay and the monk. They went to the training room, a high-ceilinged room, open on one side with a wall of
iron bars, like all the rooms here so the guards could watch them at all times.
Rune placed his hands on Hal’s shoulders, squaring them to his hips. Then he kicked at his feet until they were just past shoulder width apart. He did the same with Kay until they were both standing in identical positions. Rune then turned his back to them and looked over his shoulder.
“Try to mimic my movements exactly. The closer you are to what I do, the better the effect will be once you do it on your own.”
Rune placed his hands in front of him, arms extended, palm facing out and began to slowly move his arms in a series of exercises while swaying and shifting his weight from side to side and backwards and forwards. Hal started following, trying to mimic what the monk did as closely as possible.
Out of the corner of his eye, Hal saw Kay doing the same thing. It seemed as if she was getting the hang of it a bit quicker than he did. Though they moved slowly, Hal was surprised when he started to break a sweat after a few minutes. It seemed strange that these slow, rhythmic motions could be so demanding physically. After about twenty minutes, Hal had to stop and take a break. Kay only lasted a little longer.
When Rune stopped and turned around to look at them, Hal wiped his brow with the back of one hand.
“That is harder work than it looks like from the other side.”
“Yes, it is more difficult to move slowly with purpose than fast and haphazardly. Aside from your fatigue, how do you feel?”
Hal thought about it for a moment and smiled. “I feel looser, not as tight or sore.”
“Then you have managed a small part of the necessary alignment,” Rune said. “We’ll meet here after midday meal and after dinner. I think we can push you to three times a day.”
Hal checked his stats to look at his health point totals.
Health: 70/96
Between the chakra alignment exercise and a night’s sleep, he’d picked up eight health points. Not too bad.
“Rune,” Hal asked. “You said something about using this while in combat. How can you do that exercise motion and still defend yourself?”
“With time, you will be able to work the motions into your attack and defense routines,” Rune said. “When you do that, you gain healing from minor wounds over time.”
Hal thought about the stylized way Rune fought and realized it wasn’t just part of his style, he was constantly aligning his chakras to the earth and maintaining his health in battle.
Hal picked up a practice blade and tried a couple of practice swings and lunges adding in some of the motions he’d practice earlier. They didn’t seem to decrease his speed at all and, in a few cases, seemed to enhance a particular move he used.
Feeling a sense of renewed confidence in the process, Hal ran through the drill again and again for the rest of the morning, adding more and more of the chakra moves to his routine until a chime sounded in his head and he saw familiar glowing golden letters in his visual field.
New personal skill learned - Chakra Regeneration - 1 (6hp during combat; 1/day).
This was going to come in handy. Hal checked his health points and saw that he’d picked up another six health points in the few hours he’d been practicing. At this rate, he’d be back near full strength in two more days, just in time to fight the next battle the fight master threw at him.
Kay seemed to have picked up on the benefits of the moves Rune taught them. She definitely looked better as they walked back for lunch.
“Now that we both know we won’t die from previous injuries in the next fight, maybe it’s time to bring some of the others in on the plan, Kay,” Hal said.
“If you say so. They’re not going to believe you either.”
“Ye of little faith,” Hal said motioning to Otto, Junica, and Rune as they walked into the common area. “The only thing they have to believe is that there’s a way we can fight our way out of here.”
The others sat down and waited for their plates of food to be brought out to them.
“You both look better than I expected you to look,” Otto said. “Did the mage decide to slip you a little healing on the side?”
“Not exactly,” Hal said. “It was our buddy Rune here. He taught us to do some extra healing on our own.”
“Not that crazy eastern mumbo jumbo?” Otto laughed. “Bah, it’s all mystic nonsense. Some people just heal faster than others, that’s all.”
Hal laughed along with Otto. He understood the skeptical nature of what Rune claimed to be able to do. If Hal didn’t have the evidence his health point stat gave to prove it worked, he might have written it off, too.
“How was your morning training bout?” Hal asked. “You and Junica?”
“Yes,” Junica said. “For a big man, he’s surprisingly fast. Not as fast as I am, though.”
“It’s like trying to pin a fly down with a knife,” Otto said. “You think you have her cornered and she slips around you somehow and you find a knife digging into your ribs. She’s not just good with a bow, that woman’s deadly with any number of pointy things.”
“Don’t you forget it, either,” Junica quipped. “Men take it for granted that they can just overpower me with brute strength. I just use that against them and sucker them into overextending.”
“Easy as pie, right sister?” Kay said, pointing at Junica with her fork.
The two women shared smiles and returned to their meals. Hal looked around to make sure no guards were close and leaned in over the table.
“There’s something I wanted to bring up with the five of you. I think I’ve figured a way we can fight our way out of here and maybe take most of the recruits and non-humans with us.”
“All of us?” Junica asked.
“If it works, yes,” Hal said. “It’s going to take some planning and coordination, but yeah, all of us.”
Hal explained his plan to use the upcoming Imperial holiday for the Emperor’s birthday as a ruse to escape. The others listened in silence until he’d finished his explanation, including the part about him being suspected to be the opponent.
Junica chuckled a bit when Hal was done. “You don’t lack in the self-esteem department, do you. You’re the opponent now, are you?”
“It doesn’t matter what I think, or you either, for that matter. It matters what Ginty and the other Wardens think. Imagine if they were offered the opportunity to kill me, the opponent, in a spectacular display of fighting in the arena on the Emperor’s birthday. It would put them in a very good light with the Emperor when they reported it up the chain to the Emperor.”
“But we have to get all the various factions to cooperate. How are you going to do that?” Junica asked.
“I haven’t worked that part out as of yet,” Hal said. “Somehow, I have to get over to the nonhuman side to talk to the goblin leader there. There must be someone who’s assumed a chieftain’s duties. If I can talk him into helping convince the others on that side to join the plan, we could make this the most amazing breakout this world has ever seen.”
“There is a way,” Rune whispered. “For the humble man, there is a way.”
“What do you mean, Rune? Stop talking in riddles all the time. It gets tiresome, you know,” Otto said.
“The slaves, they work both sides of the gladiator’s quarters,” Rune explained nodding towards the white-clad servants circulating among the tables with food and drink. “They bring meals to all the combatants. If you disguised yourself in their white robes, you could probably slip to the other side. Of course, you’d still have to survive approaching the chieftain without getting yourself killed.”
“Leave that to me,” Hal said. “Maybe surviving against the odds is what the opponent’s supposed to do.”
“I’ve made friends with a few of the slaves,” Junica said. “Let me find one who is built a little like you and is as tall as you are and see if we can swap you both for a night. That would give you enough time to slip to the other side and come back here the next morning for breakfast. Then we could
switch you back. The guards only count heads in the bunks at night. They’d never miss you.”
“Perfect,” Hal exclaimed, perhaps a bit too loud. A few of the guards glanced their way. Hal lowered his head again.
“You find the right slave and let me know,” Hal said. He was getting excited again.
Otto nodded to Rune. “We can distract the guards for a moment while you swap clothes with the slave before they notice. After that it should be easy if you keep your head down and pull up the slave’s cowl around your head. They only count bodies coming and going most of the time. The guards don’t even look up to see who they’re counting.”
“Good,” Hal said. “Junica, you pick out the slave you think will swap with me. Meet me by my bunk with them and we’ll get this done.”
Quest accepted - contact the goblin chieftain
Hal rose from the bench and left for the bunk room. He smiled at the guard by the door from the common room. “I’m hitting my bunk early. I’m still healing up from my fight the other day.”
The guard nodded and let him through. Hal left and prepared his plan for what was going to be a long night.
18
Hal was surprised how easy it was to slip out in his disguise as a kitchen slave that evening. He kept his head down inside the white cowl he’d pulled up to hide his face. Most of the slaves wore their cowls this way and the guards in the gladiator’s quarters thought nothing of it.
He adopted the resigned trudge of the other slaves as they marched in a line down the corridors beneath the arena towards the kitchens. They had to load up on another round of meals for the non-human gladiators on the opposite side of the underground complex.
Waiting in line with the others, Hal moved forward until he was handed a heavy wooden platter of roast venison to carry into the non-human quarters. Hal followed the other slaves carrying similar platters laden with food or holding pitchers of ale and mead.