Last night Claire was in that weird office of hers that overlooked the gym. It was the second of a glass pillar in the center of her gym with the first being an open space with mats where she saw clients. She said she liked to overlook her domain and that it allowed her to see trouble coming a mile off.
So, when she saw the group coming towards her, she knew trouble had come knocking. The head jackal was a real piece of work named Jeff Frugel. He liked to call himself a people person, others used the word trafficker. If there was a trade that pedaled flesh, he was somehow involved. Prostitution, modern day gladiatorial battles, organs, illegal adoptions, groceries, and those were the ones he put on his business card. So, suffice to say when he graced your doorstep you wished it was the plague.
Following him like a bad stink was a pair of particularly large and ugly cyclops. All fat and distorted muscle those two were. They looked just like their boss; thugs who thought a cheap suit could cover their savagery.
Their footsteps rang out throughout the empty gym like a bell tolling.
Eventually they reached the top of the spiral staircase that wrapped around the first floor of her office.
“I hope I am not bothering you, Miss Lee.” Jeff said with a cat who ate the canary worming its way across his face.
Looking up from her computer, “Unfortunately, like all the other woman you have ever met that is simply not the case.”
“Ha ha. You’re a funny one, Miss Lee. I like that, it makes what I am about to say all the sweeter.”
“Well don’t keep me in suspense, spit it out. Though I know that will be a change of pace for a voracious guy like you.” Claire said with a smirk.
“I got paid to arrange a match between you and another party. To preempt your question, you are going to do it because if you do not, all those little kiddies that frequent this place… well let us just say they will not be nearly as frequently. If ever.” Jeff told the woman with a smirk of his own.
With a subtle arch of the brow, “And what’s stopping me from beating you to death right here in my office. Don’t think for a second that tweedle dee and dum will be anything but your companions in the River Styx.”
“Now that is valid question” Jeff stated with a nod, “It could be that you are business minded like me. You know that killing me will achieve nothing but angering all my clients and my client will just send someone else just like me with a similar offer. However, the answer is that I already have several of the aforementioned kiddies in my possession and if my men do not get a call in the next ten minutes… well let’s just say they better hope they grow gills.”
“I’m sure I can convince you to make that call.” Claire told the man with a glare.
“of that I am sure… but in the next ten minutes” *tsk*”that I just do not see.”
“Olympus will not stand for this.” Claire said while rising from her seat and grabbing her gym bag.
“Somehow I do not see that either”
It was only later when she entered the ring and saw her opponent that she knew what gave a worm like Jeff Frugel the courage to threaten a Greek demigoddess. Another one.
***
I stopped watching there. I got enough information, I did not have to see what came next.
Standing up I took out my phone and dialed a number.
After the call was picked up, “Bruno, I need you to find me where I can find Jeff Frugel and a demigoddess of Nike.”
“It will be done, my liege.” Said a deep rumbling voice on the other end before hanging up.
“Bennett, you stay here with the scene. I’m gonna go with the body to stop any questions on the nature of the body.” I told my familiar and got a nod in response.
As they were loading up the body, I hopped in the back to be with my friend on her final journey in the mortal plane.
***
The very next night saw Bennett and I arrive at the club where Jeff ran his fights, The Colosseum. Let it never be said that Jeff wasn’t original. One thing I did like about the place is that Jeff did not try to cover up anything with a veneer of sophistication. It was an ugly dirty warehouse located on an ugly and dirty street.
We were stopped from walking right in by the cyclops acting as bouncer.
“Back of the line.” The smaller man acting as the cyclops’ brain told us while pointing in said direction.
“Talent doesn’t wait in line.” I said with a smirk. I know. what a douche thing to say but I wanted to make an impression. I wanted to get the higher ups attention. Most of all I did not want to wait in line.
Looking us up and down the man saw whatever he was looking for, “alright, go to the right when you enter and see Grace to register. I do not want to hear that I was lied to.”
“Righty oh good fella” I said with a mocking salute while walking past him.
After turning right and walking through a hallway covered in fast food wrappers, used needles and excrement I arrived at a gated counter with a woman with about five pounds of metal in her face on the other side.
With friendly smile, “I am here to register in this fine establishment.”
“What does your friend want to be called?” the woman queried in a monotone voice.
“Oh, you are mistaken fair maiden, tis I who wants to register.”
The woman looked over the two of us. Me looking like I just exited a rave with my fluorescent hair and baggy clothes that hid all the muscle on my slim frame. Bennett a bear of a man with his muscles straining the brown dress shirt he wore.
“Super. What do you want to be called?”
“Let’s go with Hieroglyph.”
“Great. Well wait for someone to come get you Hieroglyph.” The woman said before shooing us away.
We then proceeded to the bar. Now it was just a matter of waiting for the next part of my plan to start.
“Hey Twink-le me elmo get out of the way so I can get with that thick slab of man meat next to you.” a young petite Asian woman with colorful blue and pink hair placed in buns said while pushing me out of the way.
This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
“My my Louise, what will Bruno think when he hears about you sexually harassing poor sweet Bennett.” I said with a chuckle.
“First, never call me that awful name. Second, Bruno knows who he’s with. He can’t send me off on my own hungry and not expect that I sample some of the tasty food I find along the way.” Loui… Lulu said while hanging off Bennett’s neck.
“Not that I don’t enjoy our chats, but why are you here?”
Turning her face towards me, “Bruno is out of town helping Gwen deal with some territorial disputes and he wanted someone on the ground that knew the players.”
“Who’s causing trouble in Roanoke?” I asked.
“It’s…” was all Lulu got out before being interrupted.
“Hieroglyph, you’re up. Come with me.” a man said after tapping me on the shoulder.
I followed the man to one of the locker rooms to get ready. I had prepared a pair of trunks and gloves both colored in bronze and brown made from some gladiator armor I picked up a while ago. I figured that I should fit the theme. Shortly after I got ready, I was called into the ring.
***
An announcer voice boomed over the brightly lit arena located in the center of a crowd of revelers, “LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!! OUR NEXT FIGHT IS BETWEEN THE VETERAN FIGHTER MINO-SCAR!!!”
Hearing his name, a towering black minotaur in bright red trunks raised his hands to hype up the crowd and judging by the wave of cheers that followed, it worked.
“VERSUS THE NEWCOMER HIEROGLYPH!!!”
Hieroglyph was the opposite of his opponent in many ways. He was a colorful art piece with the rainbow mishmash hair and what looked like tattoos to the minotaur’s unadorned jet-black body. The minotaur was a bull through and through, all brutish power, while Hieroglyph resembled a snake, muscle and death wrapped around a thin frame.
“ALL RIGHT MEN, LET’S HAVE A DIRTY BLOODY FIGHT. I WANT TO SEE EYE GOUGES, HITS UNDER THE BELT, BITING, AND ALL THAT GOOD STUFF!!! ARE YOU RIGHT?!?”
Both men nodded at that.
“THEN KILL EACH OTHER!!!”
And with that the minotaur was off. He charged headfirst at his opponent.
When the minotaur was about to collide with his opponent, Hieroglyph grabbed him by the horns. They slid back a couple of feet before stopping. Mino-scar tried to free his horns from his opponent’s grip by shaking its head, but the minotaur could not even move its head.
The audience saw something strange as this struggle went on, Mino-scar was icing over. A black hoarfrost was spreading across the creature’s large frame. While this was happening, hidden by that same large frame, vibrant blue line radiated from an amulet on Hieroglyph’s chest.
The jet-black amulet hanging off a string of beads seemingly made from the night sky featured a deer skull made into a set of scales.
_
Uneven Trade
“Placing our hands on the scales since 1923”
Rank: Medium
Primary Concept: Consumption
Secondary Concepts: Famine, Bounty
Tertiary Concepts: Fire, Ice, Siphoning, Bestowal
An amulet granting the wearer the ability of conceptual transference
_
Hieroglyph siphoned all the minotaur’s strength and durability, while “bestowing” it with all his weakness and fragility.
The crowd watched in silence as over the course of thirty seconds Mino-scar was turned into an ice sculpture. When the process was done Hieroglyph broke off its head and threw it through the rest of the sculpture, breaking it in the process. The crowd went rabid.
“AND THERE WE HAVE IT PEOPLE!!! THE SAVAGE MINO-SCAR HAS BEEN SLAIN BY OUR MODERN DAY THESEUS, HIEROGLYPH!!!!”
Before he could be ushered from the arena, Hieroglyph announced to the crowd, “Victoria, daughter of Nike, I challenge you now before all these people to a fight only ending in one of our deaths. Now show these people whether or not you’re a coward!”
“You come into my club, kill one of my top earners, and now you have the nerve to make demands of me?!” Jeff roared through the ring speakers.
“Jeffy old boy, you and I both know that the second I challenged a daughter of the goddess of victory in a recognized place of competition that she has no choice but to accept. We also know that you would never deny an Olympus born their honor. What happens between the two of us at a later date is something we can discuss on said date, but right here and now you have no choice other than to allow the fight to go forward.”
“Fine, get this punk his fight.” Jeff growled.
Hieroglyph did not have to wait long for his opponent. Victoria entered the ring after about five minutes.
It was hard to say which Victoria had more of curves or muscle. What is easy to say is that she had a thing for gold. From her buzzcut to her fighting attire, she was golden from head to toe.
_
Victoria
“I love goooooold”
Grade B
_
“I do not know why you desire death so much, but in infinite kindness I will grant it.” Victoria said before charging her opponent surrounded by an aura of gold.
Victoria quickly reached her opponent and unleashed a devastating haymaker. Right when her blow was about to land her aura flickered. Hieroglyph quickly bobbed and launched a jab right into her ribs.
Victoria clutched the area and acted like she got shot.
With a smirk, “First time in a fair fight?”
Victoria was her mother’s daughter and inherited a sliver of her divinity. If a divinity of the sea allowed one to control water, a divinity of victory allowed one to win. Victoria was just fast enough, just strong enough, just smart enough to win. The only thing is that Hieroglyph drained all that as soon as she got close.
It’s a testament to the artifact that Uneven Trade could counter divinity, even if only a sliver. That was due to the fact that out of all his artifacts Uneven Trade had the potential to ascend given enough time and use. Both combatants had the seeds of something greater that canceled each other out.
The result was a fight that could go either way. Hieroglyph had greater skill and physicality. Victoria had gold infused gloves. While that might not sound too important, it was.
While not as skilled as her opponent, Victoria was no slouch and gave almost as good as she got and each of those gold infused blows left burn marks on Hieroglyph’s body.
Victoria had another thing going for her, Hieroglyph’s left shoulder. She did not know how he got it or what exactly it was, but locating on his left shoulder was a greenish purplish black circle. What she did know was that Hieroglyph would abandon anything else to protect it.
Eventually though, Victoria got her shot at that mark. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be as right when the finishing blow was about to land a woman wrapped up in the audience’s excitement said something under her breath.
“My king, I give my tribute to thee.”
With those words the excitement of the crowd crackled towards Hieroglyph’s body. surrounded by yellow lightning Hieroglyph was able to dodge the killing blow, spin around, and launched his elbow into the side of Victoria’s head. The carbonized head was promptly detached from the body and crashed into the fences surrounding the ring.
“AND IN A SHOCKING UPSET VICTORIOUS VICTORIA HAS BEEN TAKEN DOWN FROM HER THRONE!!! HIEROGLYPH IS OUR NEW CHAMPION!!!!!!!”
After the announcement, Hieroglyph nodded his head at a large man in the crowd.
***
“F*ck. F*ck. F*ck. Why couldn’t that dumb b*tch win. It’s her entire f*cking purpose. Now I gotta explain to Olympus why there are two dead demigoddesses in my ring. F*CK!!!” Jeff rambled while rushing out of the building.
He was turning out of the alley when he bumped into someone and was sent to the ground.
“Hey! watch where you’r…” Jeff started to shout from the ground before looking up at the figure he crashed into.
The man was a mountain of muscle practically bursting from his dress clothes. The figure looked down at him over their sunglasses revealing two pools of black sludge where their eyes should have been.
Looking around and not seeing any of his employees, “I’m sorry. It was my fault. Let me repay you somehow later.”
The figure just continued to look at Jeff in silence. They then reached up and grabbed their bolo tie featuring a large brown piece of jasper set into a black metallic piece. When they ran their thumb over the jasper, a flood of blackish sludge poured out and over Jeff.
When the sludge reached the ground, all that was left was a clear crystal skeleton and a puddle of the black goo.
The figure reached down and grabbed both before exiting the alley to get back to their master.
Artifacts:
[Disparate Unity]
[Smoke]
[Bennett]
[Time Piece]
[Uneven Trade]
Materials:
[Nascent Energy Vampire Progenitor Mantle (Remnants)]
[Olivia’s Friendship (Remnants)]
[Beastly Heart (Remnants)]
[Murder Weapon (Remnants)]
[Various Utility Artifacts]
[Various Articles Of Clothing]
[Death Dogtags]