Rescue

by R. A. Mejia

  “So, the moral is what? With good training and a bit of luck, even the mightiest can be brought down?” I ask.

  Old stone face shakes his head at me. “No. There is no moral here. Only the life and death struggle. Some days, the fish wins. Some days, the fisherman does. It’s the struggle that entertains the people.”

  Changing the subject, the man introduces himself. “I am Lanista Lucanus of Familia Pontius. Who are you? And what do you want here?”

  I quickly introduce our group, hesitating only a fraction of a second when mentioning Vrax and Mary as my slaves. “We’re here to train as gladiators and win fame and honor.”

  “Ha! For fame and honor? What stories have you been reading, boy? If our family decides to train you, we train you to win. Though, I warn you: many fighters lose their lives in the Colosseum. Why would a group of freemen like you want to waste your lives fighting for the entertainment of others?”

  Keans stands up straight, no doubt ready to use his charm to spin a tall tale, but the Lanista takes one look at him and barks. “No! You’re too old.” The statement seems to deflate my friend and Lucanus’ eyes lock on Sonya.

  She doesn’t answer right away but glances at the many fighters in the courtyard. “I have fought many battles, but I have never fought men like this.” She turns to Lucanus. “I want to challenge myself and learn.” The trainer nods at her and points her toward the building in back.

  He turns to me finally. “You. You seem too wealthy to me. You have not one, but two slaves. We could train them to fight in the arena for you, but that would not be cheap.”

  I shake my head. “No, it’s not just my comp . . . uh, slaves that I want to train. But myself too.” The man raises an eyebrow, but I continue my story. “I am not rich. All that I have left is these two slaves. I wish to train with them so that the three of us may make money in the arena.”

  This time the man shakes his head. “No. You do not speak the truth. I have no desire to teach a man that is not honest with me. Leave. I’ll test your friends. If they are competent fighters, I’ll take them on as students.” He turns his back to me, and I’m stunned. Wait, that’s it? We came all this way, and now we’re done? I look around thinking that there must be some mistake. Keans pulls on my arm, trying to get me to go with him, but I pull away and grab Lucanus’s arm. In one smooth, practiced motion, he turns, grabs my arm, and somehow flips me over. My face hits the ground, and I can feel my arm twisted behind my back and his weight pressing down on me.

  “You do not seem to understand. If I have to break your arm to help you, I will.”

  “No, it’s you who doesn’t understand! I need to train. I need to become a gladiator.”

  “Why? So that you can win enough money to live in luxury?” He twists my arm more, causing a sharp pain in my shoulder joint.

  I don’t know what else to do. We’ve been to every other gladiator family. This is our last chance! I scream in a combination of pain and desperation. “No! Because I need power. I need revenge!”

  As suddenly as I’d been thrown and pinned to the ground, I’m released. The weight on my back disappears, and I roll over to see Lucanus staring down at me. Nodding. “Yes. There is the truth.” He leans down and peers at me. “There is the fire I needed to see.” Standing up, he points to the same building he sent Sonya and Race. “Go. You may try out. The slaves stay. If you pass, we’ll train you, and you’ll get a chance at getting what you want.”

  The trainer walks away as I get to my feet, returning to his training duties. Keans nods at me and assures me that he’ll be waiting outside for us. I run to the building to prepare for the test. The building is little more than a wooden shed where a wrinkled, old woman stands guard.

  “Hello, ma’am. Lucanus told me to get some equipment.” The old woman scowls at me, and I remember that titles are really important with the Imperare. “Uh, I mean, Lanista Lucanus sent me to get equipment.” Her scowl only lessens slightly, but she turns and grabs a bundle from the shed and then hands it to me. She then turns to watch the training in the yard.

  “Thanks.” I mumble as I look down at the mass of cloth and wood in my hands. There’s a padded cloth vest and a wooden sword about two feet from blade to hilt and about two inches wide. The blade is tapered to a sharp point, and there is virtually no guard. The wooden handle is wrapped in leather, improving its grip.

  Training Gladius

  A wooden replica of the standard foot soldier weapon of the Imperare army. It does minor damage on it’s own but still applies all bonuses from skills and abilities.

  Damage: 1-1

  Durability: 3/5

  Padded Training Vest

  This is a training vest. It’s meant to blunt blows but it is no substitute for actual armor.

  Def: 2

  Durability: 7/10

  Once I have my fancy training gear, I equip it.

  The man with the shield and heavy armor that I’d seen fighting earlier calls me over to him. “Lanista Lucanus has instructed me to test your skills. Come and fight.”

  Impress the Lanista

  You’ve been offered the chance to train with the Familia Pontius, a well-regarded gladiator training group. However, to join, you must impress the head trainer, Lanista Lucanus. Fight well and show him what you can do.

  Reward: 50 XP. Joining the gladiator training group, Familia Pontius.

  Walking over to him, I take a look around the courtyard and see that Sonya is already fighting the woman with the trident. Once I reach the man, I realize just how big he actually is. I look up at the guy, who’s more than a head taller than I am. My eyes scan the guy’s bulging muscles, and I think I see him flex a peck for me.

  “Stop staring and move over there.” He points to a spot about four feet from him, and I move there. “Now, when I say fight, you will attack me, and we’ll see what you can do.” I nod and raise the wooden gladius in my right hand. I flex my left hand, glad that I still have on the gloves Dyblex made me.

  “Fight!”

  The shout startles me, and I take a tentative step towards the hulking man. He doesn’t have his tower shield equipped but still wears the rest of his armor. He holds his own wooden gladius in his right hand, raised and ready to strike. The man is not only larger but also has longer arms. With his superior reach, he can hit me before I can get to him. I’ll have to either hit him with a ranged attack or be quick enough to get inside his reach before he clobbers me. Unfortunately, this is a test, and I’m not sure how well they’ll take it if I start using equipment they didn’t give me.

  Another shout grabs my attention. “You hesitate? Then I will come to you.” The armored man is as good as his word and he charges me. I’m caught flat-footed and take his armored shoulder in the face, knocking me back on my butt.

  Damage received: 11 (Charge)

  Laughing, the man jeers. “You can’t even take a simple charge? What hope do you have in the arena? Just go home.”

  The words burn, but not because they wound my pride. He’s right. If I can’t win here, I’ll never have a chance at getting to the arena. Which means I’ll never have a chance at saving the kobolds. There’s no way I can let that happen. I have to win! Determined and a little desperate, I get to my feet and open up my [Inventory] to grab a single elemental grenade with my left hand. I tap the crystal and toss it under the feet of the still-laughing armored man. He doesn’t notice the move, likely because of the way his all-encompassing helmet restricts his vision. He shuts up pretty quickly when the grenade goes off. There’s a squelching sound as mana is poured into the arcane programing combining two elemental effects. ‘Remove’ ‘earth’ loosens the ground in a three-foot radius where the grenade goes off and ‘water’ gathers water in the same area. The resulting effect is a kind of quicksand that sucks in anyone standing on it. It’s easy enough to avoid if you see it coming, but the man’s gloating and limited vision play right to my advantage, preventing him from noticing the effects until it’s too late. H
e’s suddenly sucked three feet into the quicksand as the magical effects of the grenade manifest. He tries to pull his legs out but finds that the ground won’t let him go so easily.

  I take advantage of the situation and rush past the trapped man. I turn and swing my wooden sword as hard as I can against his metal helmet. There’s a ringing sound as the helmet takes the force of the blow.

  Damage dealt: 0

  The armored man yells as his bell is rung. But I do not relent. I fiercely strike his unarmored back again and again. I only do a few points of damage each time I strike an unarmored area, but even that ends as the giant of a man activates some ability. His skin glows green briefly before seeming to harden, and it feels like I’m striking leather when I hit him with my wooden gladius.

  I look around to see Lanista Lucanus watching us. Well, if he’s not stopping the fight, then I must not have proved myself yet. I drop the sword and start to punch the man for all I’m worth. I send mana to the Force Gloves that Dyblex made me, adding magical damage to each blow.

  Damage dealt: 4+2 (Force)

  Damage dealt: 2+2 (Force)

  Damage dealt: 4+3 (Force)

  From the damage notifications I’m seeing, I can tell that the ability the guy is using absorbs much of my direct punching power, but the extra magical force damage is getting through. I decide to go all out and use my new [Multipunch] ability. I activate it and feel an internal energy drain as the stamina and mana points are used. My fists glow red, and I pull back my right arm to start to punch. The ability kicks in, and my right fist shoots forward to strike the man’s exposed back. The punch is quickly followed by a strike from my left hand and then another right. Even I’m surprised by the swiftness of each attack. In less than one second, I’ve struck the man three times.

  Damage dealt: 8+7 (Multipunch, Force)

  Powee! And just like that, I’m down ten stamina and fifteen mana. But the effects are worth it. Each of my punches not only strikes swiftly, but each has the added magical bonus from the force damage. I’d been worried the effect would only be added once for the entire attack, but it seems the gloves add the force damage to each punch, no matter how they’re thrown. The attack drops my opponent's health bar another 10%, and he cries out in pain from the attack.

  Unfortunately for me, the effect from my magical quicksand grenade also runs out as the mana in the crystal is used up. Tall, armored, and now pissed off, the behemoth is finally able to extract himself from ground. He turns to face me and quickly activates another ability, turning his sword red. He swings his wooden blade in a horizontal slash. I try to raise my arms up to defend, but the blow, aided by his activated ability, smashes into my arms so hard that they crumple back into me, and I’m thrown back. I feel like I’ve just been kicked by a mule.

  Damage received: 17 (Cleave)

  Before I can do more than glance past my guard, the armored man is upon me. He grabs me by the throat and lifts me into the air. I can feel my throat constricting, and I grab his forearms with my hands to try and get some air. Through the slits in his helmet, I can see the guy’s eyes, and they are bloodshot. He raises his sword, points it towards my eyes, and I know that, if he strikes me, the fact that the sword is wooden won’t stop it from stabbing me in the brain. I see his arm move forward, and I fear for the worst. The next instant, there’s a firm hand grasping the arm of the armored man. Unable to turn my head, I look to my left and see Lanista Lucanus restraining the man’s sword arm, preventing him from skewering me.

  Lanista Lucanus says something in a low voice. The man turns his head and screams, “No. This one is a cheat. He used magic and made a fool out of me. I won’t let him join the familia.” The man’s muscles bulge as he strains against the Lanista, and the tip of the wooden sword slowly inches closer to my eyes. Lanista Lucanus growls and activates some ability of his own. The hand grasping the man’s sword arm glows blood red and there’s a snapping sound. The armored man screams in pain and drops not only the wooden sword in his hand but me as well.

  I tumble to the ground, gasping for breath. My eyes are tearing up, but I can still see the armored man on his knees, cradling his now-crushed and twisted right arm against his chest. Lanista Lucanus calls for a healer, and a man in a long, white robe trots over from where he’s been leaning against the wall and takes the armored man away. Lanista Lucanus walks over to me and holds out a hand for me. I take it, and he helps me back to my feet.

  “Does it usually go like that during one of your tests?”

  “No, Agrippa is hot-headed, but I’d thought he’d mastered his temper enough not to go all out on a trainee.” Looking down at me, he tilts his head and considers me. “But you, an untrained foreigner, walk in and hurt him. His pride could not stand the shame.” Lanista Lucanus glances at where the quicksand was, now just a pit of broken and loose earth. “Where did you learn how to do that?”

  I’m honest with the man. “I’ve had a little training in magic and crafting. I use the skills to make things that help me in a fight.”

  “Hmm . . . We don’t get to see many mages fight in the arenas. They’re usually busy with the army or running some business.”

  “Well, I’m here to fight.”

  He appraises me again. “Well, I can only train you in the martial aspects of the gladiator arena. I will teach you what I can if you will represent our familia with honor and fight to the best of your ability.”

  You’ve completed the quest Impress the Lanista. You receive 50 XP.

  “I accept your offer. Thank you for your trust.”

  Chapter 27

  With the Lanista’s approval secured, I’m given instruction to report the next day to begin training. Lanista Lucanus also informs me that training is not free. I’ll have to pay five silver a week per trainee. That means five silver for me and another five for Vrax. With the news of the cost weighing on my mind, I return to my friends, who are waiting for me inside the house.

  Sonya is a bit dusty but smiling. Keans sits on a bench, casually chatting and flirting with one of the female servants. Vrax, Mary, and Sonya all look expectantly at me.

  “I passed,” I state simply, not wanting to keep them in suspense.

  Sonya hugs me and lets me know she’ll be starting her training tomorrow too. I hug her back, though I had little doubt she’d make it through. Vrax and Mary are both glad to hear that I passed the test. Race is glad that Sonya and I will be training with him. He thanks us for helping him make it here and helping him reach his goal but has to get back to his own training and leaves.

  Mary confirms that we have enough money to pay for the first week of training, but we’re going to run into financial problems soon. She runs through the numbers. “For our group of five, it will cost about five silver a week for food. With the added cost of three people training at the gladiator school, that is another fifteen silver a week. That’s at minimum twenty silver a week in expenses. At this moment, after spending a good bit of money hunting down information on the kobolds, we have a balance of thirty-eight silver and seventy-one copper. That means, while we can afford the first week’s training, we’re going to be shy for week two. Oh, and don’t forget that, in another three weeks, we’ll need to have another month’s rent ready. That means putting aside another seven silver.”

  Keans shakes his head but looks at each of us with his patented rogue smile. “Well, there’s a very simple solution. Though, I’m loathe to suggest it.”

  “What’s that?” I ask.

  “I’ll have to get a job.”

  I roll my eyes and in mock seriousness, say, “Oh, no, Keans. Say it ain’t so.” I know the roguish man would prefer to flirt with pretty women, and it must be painful for him to even suggest getting regular employment.

  With an equal measure of mockery, he puts a hand on my shoulder. “No, no. I know that you, Vrax, and Sonya have to train, and I’m willing to do my part for the cause.” Then he laughs and continues, “Besides, where else am I going to get my drinking
money?”

  The joke makes us all laugh, but we also understand that Keans is going to be working hard to get us the money we’ll need to train past this first week. It just doesn’t sit right with me to let him do that for us. He’s a friend, but ultimately this quest is my responsibility. Glancing at Sonya, I can tell from her expression that it bothers her too. As a warrior, she likely hasn’t had to depend on anyone for anything. Then an idea occurs to me.