Sixth Realm

by Michael Chatfield

  Being in front of them, they didn’t seem to give off a pressure, showing that they had complete control over their strength.

  “Alright,” Blaze said.

  He whistled and his mount, a large lizard, walked out of the beast stables.

  She flared her neck and hissed as she stretched away her sleep. Mana seemed to ripple around her as her claws dug into the ground. Other beasts came out of the stables greeting the branch heads.

  Blaze got onto the lizard’s back, patting her side.

  “Show off,” Blaze said. She sent a mischievous tongue out toward him before she proudly looked forward.

  They all mounted up, making quite the sight with their powerful beasts’ custom armor and the focused looks on their faces.

  Blaze led them out of the guildhall and people noticed them leaving.

  “Look at that, do you know what guild that is?”

  “Maybe they’re new?”

  “A new guild was able to buy a guild hall like that? Do you know how much those things cost and the upkeep on them? Not just any guild can buy them!”

  They rode past, two columns following Blaze. They headed towards the Arena.

  “Look at those beasts! What fine breeding.”

  “Not only are they fast but they are able to manipulate mana to some extent, truly powerful.”

  ***

  A group of scalpers was standing at the front of the Battle Arena, they had seen all kinds of people entering. There was a long line of fighters that was quickly disappearing into the lower sections of the Battle Arena and VIPs heading into the different entrances that led to the different levels and booths.

  “You were able to get some seats for the third arena, how were you able to do that?” One of the scalpers asked his friend showing off the tickets.

  “I’ve got those connections you know, high-class clientele!” The other bragged.

  His friend rolled his eyes as people walked up to them and they got to work selling them tickets. Meanwhile, they saw a large group coming up of over thirty people, they were all on powerful mounts wearing different gear and medallions on their chests.

  The scalpers looked up and then away, focusing on selling their tickets, there had been plenty of different kinds of groups and people showing up to join the line of fighters.

  They saw a man talking to them and then sending them over to the admission for the fighters.

  The scalpers finished their business and sent on their customers.

  “Tickets for the first elimination rounds of the competition! Get to see hundreds of fighters with just one ticket. Tickets up to the third arena!”

  They called out as the scalper without the third arena tickets tapped his friend, pointing at the leader that had sent his group down to the lower levels.

  “Looks like a paper tiger, brought his people here to compete but he can’t get a ticket,” The man said.

  “Why don’t you try selling him one,” the younger scalper said, calling out to people. Soon there was another group coming over to him.

  “How much are the tickets to the Third Realm?” A young man asked with a girl on his arm.

  “A man with a discerning eye, I have the best deal for you and some of the only remaining third arena tickets left!”

  The older scalper shook his head and walked over to the man who was sitting on a bench.

  “Looking for tickets?” He asked the man, feeling sorry for him.

  “No, thank you for offering. I’m just waiting on someone,” the man smiled.

  The old scalper shrugged and called out to people, looking to sell his tickets. He walked over to his friend.

  “How did it go?”

  “Acted high and mighty but he was too cheap,” The younger scalper complained. “What about that guy?”

  “Too much pride, a paper tiger, he has the look of someone important but he’s not willing to pay for even a low-level ticket to see his people fight.”

  “Some people are too proud for their own-huh?” The younger scalper looked behind the older scalper, making him turn around. A set of doors opened, these only opened from the inside as they were the entrance for the VVIP people visiting the Battle Arena. The man stood up and walked over. A man wearing a badge that showed him was a higher-up of the Battle Arena and bowed deeply to Blaze.

  Blaze nodded at the man and smiled, patting him on the shoulder. The higher-ups of the Battle Arena were all hard and exact, known to be emotionless in their dealings, but this man laughed and smiled as he guided Blaze in as if they were long lost friends.

  “What?” The older scalper said.

  “Looks like he was a real tiger,” The younger man muttered.

  “My eyes must be getting bad in my old age,” The older man sighed, secretly thankful that the man had been so graceful when he approached.

  He shuddered thinking what might have happened if he had approached some of the other high profile people he had seen go through that entrance.

  “I’ve never seen that group that was with him before,” The younger man said.

  “Maybe they’re a dark horse group,” The older man said. “I wonder if the bookies know that.”

  The two men looked at one another.

  “Once we sell these off we should put down a few bets,” The younger man smiled.

  “I’m feeling lucky all of a sudden!”

  Chapter: Fighting in Vuzgal

  Chonglu made it to the VVIP booth, here there were representatives from the different associations as well as high powered traders. Hiao Xen was among the group, as were Blaze and Elise, who were over in the corner. He’d only met Blaze for a limited period of time while setting up the competition, but he had worked closely with Elise though.

  As he walked out, he walked over to the two people.

  The various powerful figures looked over in interest, evaluating the two people he was meeting with.

  “Blaze I’ve heard a lot about you,” Chonglu said holding out his hand.

  “Lord Chonglu,” Blaze said, shaking his hand.

  “Just Chonglu now, the only lords are Erik and Rugrat,” Chonglu smiled.

  “Yeah, like they’ll let that title stick more than ten seconds. I feel they’re much more comfortable with their military ranks,” Elise muttered. “How are things on your side?”

  “Looks like everything is running smoothly, seems that people are messing with one another down in the waiting areas. There has been an increased presence of guards. How are the stores?”

  “Busy, seems that a lot of people came just to buy items after they heard of the deals we have on fighting related gear. The Sky Reaching Restaurants are all filled and we had to open up Wandering Inns that are located in undeveloped areas where we’re still building. Just so many people. With the fighters, there is an influx of traders that are using this to sell their wares and take advantage of our bartering system. We’ve had to open up five more locations as the first three had too many people at them. You should talk to the Blue Lotus, they have so many people trying to buy tickets to the auction and they don’t have the capacity, they might want to rent out the stadium,” she laughed.

  “I feel like my builders and cleaners are going to have their work cut out for them.”

  “Aren’t you using the undead as cleaners?” Elise asked.

  “Well yeah, saves on wages. Give them a storage ring and they can clean up everything working through the night.”

  “Well, I never thought of that,” Blaze said.

  “Niemm told me about it when they were clearing out Vuzgal when they arrived.”

  “Ah, makes sense.”

  “How are your fighters doing? Are they ready?”

  “As ready as they’re going to get. There are plenty of people in this competition and who knows what dark horses are hidden among them,” Blaze’s eyes became focused as he scanned the people in the booth and those in other booths near them.

  “I am hoping for it, most of the other cities and groups
that are in the Fourth Realm haven’t sent over people to compete. With the competition, it’s the perfect scouting ground,” Chonglu said.

  “And a great place to show off one’s power, if someone can dominate the fighting here, then they can make a name for themselves across the Fourth Realm at the very least.”

  “Boys and their competitions,” Elise sighed.

  “You want to talk about competitions you should talk to my wife,” Chonglu grinned. “Anyway, I should greet other people, good to meet you Blaze and I hope that your guild does well.”

  “That makes two of us,” Blaze smiled.

  Chonglu went over to the other important figures, he greeted Hiao Xen.

  “You were able to get the day off of work, won’t Vuzgal collapse?” He joked.

  “It shouldn’t, but my desk might with all of the paperwork stacked on top of it. Please, let me introduce you to the head of the Blue Lotus, Nadia Shriver, and well you already know-“

  “Klaus,” Chonglu nodded to the head of the Fighter’s Association.

  “Where did those two get off to now?” Klaus asked.

  “Who knows,” Chonglu shrugged with a smile. He clasped Nadia’s outreached hand, shaking it.

  “It is sure to be a great competition. I hear that you are still keeping the majority of the rewards hidden,” Nadia said.

  “Ah, well to those willing to take a risk comes a reward,” Chonglu said.

  “Couldn’t have said it better,” Richard Emile the head of the Crafter’s Association branch said. He was a shorter man with bushy white eyebrows, deep tanned skin and a head that was so smooth it looked polished. “Do you know if Tan Xue and representatives from the academy will be attending?”

  “They should be, but you know how it is with crafting, easy enough to get wrapped up in one’s projects.”

  The two men shared a smile.

  Chonglu waved over to Blaze.

  The man came over.

  “Blaze, this is Klaus, the leader of the Fighter’s Association here. Blaze is the leader of the Adventurer’s Guild. He has a few people in the upcoming matches,” Chonglu smiled.

  ***

  “Who is that?” One of the guild leaders that had been sent to represent asked some of his fellows.

  “That one with Chonglu? I’ve never seen him before, Gu Chen do you know him?”

  Gu Chen was a manager from the Silver Dragon adventure group. Even though it was only a group with their connections and their fighters, they were equal to medium sized guilds in the fourth realm.

  They had cleared a number of powerful dungeons by themselves and guarded merchants that were travelling across the Fourth Realm. With the powerful fighters that can be found even among bandits, a guild had to have a high combat strength to do so. They were just a group and they had a reputation for never letting a group of bandits that attacked them get away.

  Gu Chen was here as he and the other managers agreed that Vuzgal would be a good place to develop. There were merchant caravans that were moving to and from Vuzgal daily. There was the arena, with its training facilities, armor and weapons makers of the expert grade and multiple dungeons that they could raid.

  This competition was meant to be a way for them to show off to the people of Vuzgal and gain interest among the merchants and traders.

  When Chonglu introduced Blaze to Klaus, Gu Chen frowned.

  “I haven’t seen him before, and I don’t know that symbol,” Gu Chen said and looked to his assistant as if reading his mind the assistant moved away and used his sound transmission device.

  The Fighter’s Association regularly hires people away from the Silver Dragon. It is one of the reasons that few of the guilds try to attack us. All of them want to become closer to the Fighter’s Association, having their members hired away by them can be said to gain protection against smaller threats.

  He saw Blaze and Chonglu move away from Klaus, moving to greet others.

  Seeing his opportunity he excused himself and went over to Branch head Klaus.

  “Ah, Gu Chen, I have heard some good things about your Silver Dragons. I heard that four more of you members joined the Fighter’s Association a few months back, just how are you training them to become so strong? The Fighter’s Association will have to rope you all in the future,” Klaus smiled.

  “Head Klaus is too kind,” Gu Chen said, bowing while his eyes showed a hint of pride.

  Klaus nodded as if in satisfaction as Gu Chen rose up.

  “I wanted to ask, I have never seen that man before that you were talking to, do you know who he is?” Gu Chen asked.

  “Oh, that, I’m not sure,” Klaus said while looking pleased. “His name is Blaze.”

  Gu Chen frowned and looked over, extending his senses fully. He locked onto Blaze but while he was looking at him he couldn’t sense him.

  If I can’t sense him to this degree, how strong is he? Wait...

  Blaze was talking to Elise, a trading powerhouse in Vuzgal. She ran several trading houses and had close ties to Vuzgal’s leadership. Her past was a mystery though, few knew where she had come from.

  He had talked to her before, gaining information on trade routes and merchants to establish the Silver Dragon’s in Vuzgal. He had never used his senses to study her. Doing so took concentration and it was rude to do so publicly.

  Now when he looked at her, he could feel some of the power rolling off from her.

  Gu Chen was a level Fifty-One. He had accomplished a great feat reaching Body like Stone. It wasn’t comparable to the geniuses of the associations or sects. In the Fourth Realm it made him a powerhouse. He had created one of his own fighting techniques and learned two more.

  When his senses reached Elise, he felt danger, the hairs on the back of his head started to raise up slowly. His eyes shifted to Chonglu and he felt a deeper feeling of anxiousness. It wasn’t close to fear, but it told him that fighting either of them would put his skills to the test.

  “Seems that you have discovered something,” Klaus said. “Vuzgal has hidden depths and experts.”

  “That is high praise,” Gu Chen said.

  Klaus smiled mysteriously, as Gu Chen felt that he wasn’t telling half of what he knew.

  Chapter: Not a simple fighting competition

  “Hey Elan, you heading up for the games as well?” Matt asked as he saw Elan with his guards leaving the Underground and heading up one of the secret passages into the Battle Arena.

  “You coming as well? Aren’t you scared you’ll get mobbed by the different sects to make their buildings?”

  “Ah, you know, it is a hard thing being that desired.” Matt let out a suffering sigh before he laughed it off.

  “So who are you cheering for?”

  “Us, of course.”

  “Course, though all of our people in the special teams are using different identities.”

  “Well, Roska is up in Chonglu’s office.”

  “Sounds like an idea to me.”

  They boarded an elevator and it shot upwards, passing through the Battle Arena.

  Its doors opened to reveal a lobby area.

  “So how have things been for you?” Matt asked.

  “Busy, gathering information on that Willful Institute, looking at the events that are happening in the First Realm around the new King’s Hill Outpost. It also looks like some people are looking at Vuzgal as well, and not in a good way.”

  “Anything we need to be worried about?”

  “I’m not sure right now, this competition will be a good way to show our foundations aren’t weak.” Elan said.

  “Well we’re just hosting it, how do you think that?”

  “All of the referees are from our military, they will be breaking up the fights or using the undead to do that. We are keeping Vuzgal clear of crime and with the dungeon’s ability to detect anything in its sphere of influence we hear everyone talking and we can react to crimes immediately. With the referees we show how strong our people are, with the detect
ion then they might think that we can react to anything within our walls within a few moments. With the organization of this all and the ties we will make with new groups–from sects and associations to guilds and adventurer groups– all these factors reinforce Vuzgal’s image and power.”

  “I didn’t think about that,” Matt said.

  “It is the small things that have the greatest impact,” Elan said as his guards opened the doors, Special Team Two was sprawled over the room, seeing who it was they all put away their hidden weapons.

  “Matt!” Han Wu declared. “Up for a game of cards?”

  “Jones, Qui, I wondered what you were doing,” Gong Jin greeted the guards.

  “Director Elan, I see you’re staying in the shadows as always,” Roska said.

  “And you’re hiding in lounges with gamblers,” Elan greeted.

  The groups intermingled, greeting one another in a relaxed atmosphere.

  ***

  Tan Xue banged on the door again but there was no reply.

  “Weren’t they the ones bugging me about going to these damn games,” she said as she pulled out a punch and her hammer.

  She used an inorganic scan on the lock and positioned her punch. She gave it two hits, breaking something inside the lock, she pulled it out and shook the handle and opened the door to find a snoring Julilah asleep between her formations.

  Tan Xue pulled out a vial of crushed up herbs and holding it out at arm’s reach, she pulled off the stopper and put it under Julilah’s nose.

  “Eugh!” Julilah about near reached the ceiling in a parabolic arch of flailing arms, legs and wide all too awake and watering eyes as her face was contorted to get out the foul smells that had assaulted her olfactory sources.

  Tan Xue reached out with her other hand, catching Julilah by the scruff of her robes as she was still coughing and looking around wildly before her eyes focused on Tan Xue.

  Kind of looks like a rabbit if you were to grab them by the scruff of the neck. Ohh, what’s that smell?