ã€ŠBallad of Mortalsã€‹


 1 Light of dawn

    Today is the day I leave this place. Even though the temperature in here is mild, I can tell. Outside it¡¯s cold. As in, it¡¯s winter. I head towards the light from the outside, streaming in through a crevice. The light is initially blinding, but I quickly get used to it.

    Once at the exit, I survey the surrounding forest. The exit is on top of a small hill that is clear of any growth. The reason could be the lack of appropriate temperature or moisture, but I knew better. Making my way through the thick layer of snow, down the hill and into the forest I quickly realized that I was currently naked.

    I stopped to ponder my immediate priorities. My will was being strained just from keeping me alive as I was now. This was due to me sustaining my hunger and warming my body through the use of magic. Using my mana core to use fire magic in order to heat my vital organs as well as life magic to sustain energy levels in my body, was taxing on my mind. And because I just woke, my mind was not as it should be.

    As I was pondering this, my spirit picked up movement. In its current shape, my spirit was like mist that followed my body in a severed sphere shape. As I was standing still, my spirit was not moved by my will. Therefore, the shift was caused by something or someone else.

    I quickly gathered and compressed my spirit around me in a layer, as I used mana to empower my limbs. Jumping away, and obscuring my body behind a sturdy pine, I caught a glimpse of the disturbance.

    Two shapes, human in height, darkly colored, roughly two hundred paces away were moving in my direction. I quickly conjured mana and empowered my perception of sound.

    ¡°Did you see that too?¡±

    ¡°You mean that the being we not five minutes ago turned out to be a man¡±

    ¡°Yeah, that and then what he did¡±

    ¡°Well I guess the guy disappeared when he got embarrassed from being seen naked, huh¡±

    ¡°Yeah, but no one can literally disappear man¡±

    ¡°Maybe he wasn¡¯t there in the first place?¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°You know what the elders say about this mountain, that it¡¯s guarded by the mountain lords, and that approaching it is dangerous?¡±

    ¡°You think that was a lord? A wyvern?¡±

    ¡°Idiot, of course the MAN was not a WYVERN! No, but the danger part of the warning, maybe approaching the mountain is dangerous because of the concentration of magic around here. Maybe what we sensed was a ¡­ mirage, or sprite? I mean, can you see any footprints to where he was?¡±

    ¡°No, but with this heavy snowfall and poor light¡­¡±

    ¡°Which reminds me, we should be getting back soon. The sun is long past its zenith¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I ¡®spose¡±

    The men started walking again and by the sound of it, they were walking away. From their discussion, I gathered that they did not know of my current location, or actually of my existence at all. Therefore I took a risk. I enhanced my vision the same way I did for sound, and jumped to a vantage point on the tree. From there I saw the two men between trees, both dressed in winter robing made from the fur of local animals. They also had several deceased hares and a couple of foxes over their shoulders. The man in front, who was slightly bigger, had an unmistakable bear head mounted on his left shoulder as some sort of shoulder guard. It might also be purely cosmetic. They both had furry hoods, bows, arrows and knives.

    As the two entered the thicker and central part of the forest, I settled on the branch. It was bending quite a lot under the strain of my weight. Normal pines would buckle, but the ones in this forest were remarkably sturdy. This was because of the additional and strong nutrition they received over the course of the years. Especially the ones further uphill.

    My priorities remain. Find food and heat, this strain on my will cannot go on. At this rate my sanity might take a dip. I also need to gather myself so that slip ups like this one won¡¯t happen again.

    The reason I had been spotted by the hunters was unmistakably because I had let my spirit roam free. A thoughtless mistake, I had been lucky it did not have any serious repercussions. I would have to keep it condensed around me for the time being.

    From the tree branch I also realize that there are no beasts in the nearby vicinity. This is because only the hunters disturbed my spirit earlier. They must all have ran from the hunters. If I presume that the hunters are headed back to, and came from Brill, which is a village north of the forest, I should search the eastern part of the forest for food. Because of the nearby demon continent to the south east, I am also less likely to encounter humans in the eastern part of the forest.

    As I enter the thick of the forest, I once again ascend to the branches and use them as platforms for hunting. From here I send out weak pulses of spirit to detect life. All living beings have some spirit surrounding them, even these pines. But generally, I find the ¡°more living¡± the being is, the more spirit, and the more spirit it has, the more the mist of spirit moves around its epicenter. Thus I am able to discern pine from prey. This rule for spirit however, only holds true for those without control.

    I am sending out pulses from atop branches. Therefore my search radius is lessened because I¡¯m using some of my spirit to extend the pulse to the ground. Being on the branches is somewhat useless, as I can sense most beasts long before they can sense me. But because I have no idea of who could be watching and through what means, I have to stay careful.

    After a while I locate a bear. I move through the branches as silently has possible until I am over it, all the while being wary of observers. I need to end this quickly and cleanly. I jump and aim myself at the bear. Utilizing earth magic, I create a suit of rock. The moment created by this from the height of the trees create a guillotine effect. Except the guillotine blade is a fist encased in compressed rock and the bears head does not become cleanly severed, it becomes cleanly squashed.

    Using my spirit I now form a crater around the bear, using the slopes to hide myself. Now, food and clothing. Using earth magic again, I raise the bear onto a smooth marble table that blends with the snow. I now use air magic whilst holding the bear with my spirit as I begin dissecting the animal. Making sure the pelt is cleanly severed from the flesh, I separate the two and use fire magic to cook the meat. I eat my fill and cook the rest for later.

    Turning my attention to the pelt, I use fire magic in combination with minerals from the corpse to turn it into leather. Using the leather and strips thereof, I craft a sash with pouches. Next, I store the cooked and now cooled portions of bear meat in these, bury the remains of the carcass, along with a smashed marble table. Smoothing the hole over with snow, I lower the crater walls and ascend to the heights again.

    I repeat the process, hunting the larger animals of the forest until my outfit looks similar to the ones on the hunters from earlier. With my body clothed and my belly full, my short term goals were fulfilled. Now I needed information. Who were those hunters? Were they from Brill? Had any new settlements been established? Had some vanished?

    The snowfall grew heavier as I approached the previous location of the border village. As the forest started to thin, I managed to get a vantage point surveying the south-eastern point of the wall. From this distance I could make out guards posted in the watch towers. The walls seemed to have infrequent patrols, probably a courtesy of the heavy snowfall. I was keeping my spirit close, to avoid detection, as I had no idea of what sort of detection method the guards posted used, if any.

    The reason I was avoiding detection was simple; a man found in the wilderness in the middle of winter would be questioned. And when found that the man has no connection to anyone in the vicinity, or anyone at all, this man would be asked A LOT of questions. I might possibly even be arrested based on suspicion of being a demon spy alone. Based on this, the current plan was to wait out the winter and to join the eventual stream of frontline traders and merchants that came to the border village of Brill.

    From the looks it seemed that the guards, like the hunters, were humans. Taking in account the crude wooden construction on and of some of the watchtowers, I found it safe to assume that the inhabitants were human. The village wall had undergone repairs in some places, and in other places holes had been fitted with gates and watchtowers. Though, there were not many of these, at least on from this side. Makes sense, if this city still is on the border to the demonlands.

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    I could discern a total of five stone towers. If memory serves, this means that one tower is either obscured by another, or has fallen. Four of the towers were made up corners of a square on the oval shaped wall. The two remaining ones used to guard the main entrance of the city, to the north. The one that was missing was the one to the east of said entrance.

    In the distance, I could see a tall building. This was what used to be the village keep and garrison, back when the city was governed by the dwarves. I assumed it still was used for the same purpose.

    From my interaction with the human hunters earlier, my appearance was passable as a human male. I should probably verify the fact myself anyway, caution is key currently. I can probably get into this city if I come up with some excuse, but is it worth the risk? I can always return in the spring with traders. I decide against it, I have time on my side anyway.

    Instead I decide to get information out of hunters that come and go. So, I wait. While waiting, to entertain myself, I build myself a little platform to sit on. Focusing on my mana core, I will life magic to gain control over the tree¡¯s branch management.

    Normally, the tree would wish for the branches to grow outwards in order to absorb more sunlight. Taking over that process, I make it grow a sturdy platform. This technique is a trait of a certain nature-loving race, which they typically utilize in order to create their homes and cities. I hope it still is.

    The growth of the branch is rather slow if left to be powered by natural nutrients alone. I compress some of my spirit in a thin blade and cut my palm. I then cut the trunk of the tree in a similar fashion and place the two bleeding wounds on each other.

    Forcing the tree to use my blood as nutrients is not something nature lovers would do. Life magicians, on the other hand, would use their own life to strengthen their magic. This was considered the ultimate path for life magicians previously. Those who mastered it were hailed as blood magicians, or dreaded as the enemy of life by others.

    As I grew my platform, I continued to suppress and compress my spirit while keeping a look out for more hunters. Unsurprisingly for a city of its size, there weren¡¯t a lot of hunters. In fact, there were currently none leaving or approaching the city. This was probably because citizens of cities were not hunters, and had stocked up on supplies for the winter. It was also reasonable to assume that the hunters did the same. It was cold after all. No need to take extra risks.

    That said, there were people entering and exiting the city, just not hunters. From their armor and their team composition, it was obvious that these people were not out to hunt simple beasts. These people were adventurers, a scouting company, escorts or emissaries. However, because of the three warriors¡¯ mismatched armor, they were likely either adventurers or mercenaries hired by the remaining four.

    Their group was headed south, towards the forest, and was quite a distance left from my position. For now, I figure I can trail these people for information. Hopefully they will be more talkative than hunters, since they have no reason not to scare away animals. At this point my platform was complete, and was in the shape of a semi-circle with the trunk of the tree as its center. I remove my hand from the tree, stop my life magic and head in the direction of the group.

    Nine weeks have passed. The snow is starting to melt, birds and insects are coming out, and the frequency of merchants and other travelers travelling to the city of Brill has already doubled.

    The information I have gathered from adventurers and the occasional hunting party is small when compared to the time invested. However after nine weeks, even a small trickle of information every so often becomes a mound in the end.

    Firstly, the residents are exclusively human. No elves, no dwarves and absolutely no demons. Though, with that said, there are people there that don¡¯t qualify as residents. Servants, mostly elves but also some dwarves do reside with some of the more influential residents.

    Secondly, the city of brill is a border city true to its nature. The hierarchy is based on strength and military prowess. As such, the mayor of the city, Thomas Bear, is hailed a genius strategist and proven a worthy combatant. His son too, Eric Bear, is hailed a genius. Though, in contrast to his father, he isn¡¯t praised for his tactical ability. Rather, for his age, his strength is on par or rumored to be greater than his fathers. This places him as the top fighter in the city, and has given his family clan the nickname ¡°the Bearbarians¡±. Because of his strength, his father has chosen him as champion for the city in the annual tournament in the capital of the holy empire. The adventurers also seem to refer to him as ¡°brat¡±, in a loving way. This is especially true amongst the female adventurers.

    Thirdly, the city is organized thusly. The village keep is the center of power for the city, and is called a town hall by its residents. Families living closer to the town hall typically have more influence over the city. The lower levels have remained mostly untouched since the humans took the city from the dwarves. Some of the underground forges are still in operation; however most of the residents consider the subterranean halls to be dirty, undignified and slightly heretic to the god of light and prosperity.

    Thus the only residents are the impoverished and ruffians. In fact, some of the forges are controlled and operated by these slave traders and black market dealers that make the halls their home. Though, the adventurers view themselves as followers of the light and all that is holy. Thus, they claim to never have gone there and that they are ¡°merely speculating based on rumors¡±.

    Lastly, the demons have not attacked for nearly a century, giving the residents a sense security. The adventurers also speculate that the demon continent has internal struggles and maybe even internal strife. With this reasoning, they believe the church of light will use the opportunity to strike into the ¡°unholy and dark lands of the heretics¡±. Some even consider joining the crusade, if it comes about.

    Sitting in my tree surveying the comings and goings of the eastern, visible gates, I gaze onto my humble, temporary residence. Using life magic with the technique of the elves combined with the blood magic, I have expanded the trunk of the tree to a diameter of a meter. I could have made it wider, but that would look too unnatural. The branch on which I currently stand is widened at its base, and slims into a regular size branch over 2 meters. From here, I can walk into a hollowed part of the trunk. Inside is nothing but access to an enlarged and hollowed branch I use for sleep when my body and minds requires it.

    However, it¡¯s about time I leave this place. With spring on the doorstep, I can probably enter the city without raising many eyebrows. Jumping from branch to branch I head west through the forest which surrounds what the adventurers simply call ¡°The mountains¡± or ¡°The white nest¡±.

    Before me are the plains between this forest and the one on the other side. There is a line roughly in the middle of these plains which is devoid of any melting piles of snow. This is the path made from the carriages and footprints of the travelers coming and leaving the city. And it is my current destination.

    I leave the safety of the forest and expose myself to the sight of strangers on the path. The city is quite the distance away from me right now, as I want to see if humans react strangely to my appearance. I am still wearing makeshift hunter outfit made primarily from bears, supplemented by wolf and rabbit. I also made a crude set of bow and arrow from stones, wood and animal intestines. The process was helped along with some magic to make the tools seem less basic. To add to my hunter-esque appearance, my sash has corpses of rabbit hanging from it. In addition to this, I made sure not to wash using water magic. To sum it up, I was wearing bloody rags.

    Using life magic to see the expressions of merchants who saw, I was relieved when they showed clear signs of disgust and hastened their pace. Good, I have achieved a look that creates distance between me and others. Hopefully this will have similar effects on the guards and any other onlookers.

 2 Dark halls

    As I approach the western wall, I note that there are more reparations with wood on this side as opposed to the one facing the demon continent. There also seem to be fewer guards here. The few guards that are here however, look at me with a mixture of surprise and suspicion. Contrary to what their expressions tell me, they do not ask me anything. In fact, they do not ask me anything at all, while stopping everyone else and questioning their motives for entering. This is bad.

    Once entered, the city appears to be full of life. Various shops that line the main street leading to the central plaza are open and filled with chatty customers. A huge variety of smells fill the street, drawing in the attention of the less-than-busy people walking about. At the end of the street, at the main plaza, I can see the tops of several stalls. These are dyed in a variety of bright and cheerful colors.

    The main attraction for me is, well, me. Much like the guards outside, passersby seem to distance themselves whilst at the same time trying to place my face. Thus, I leave the main street, and head towards the dwarven halls.

    The many stairwells that lead down to the lower levels are located mainly inside the four main towers. The two that used to guard the entrance, now reduced to one, only had hidden latches with ladders leading down. Also, in my case, the north western tower was located within the walls surrounding the city hall, and probably guarded.

    It is also worth noting that some buildings had their own private access to rooms below, but for rather obvious reasons I couldn¡¯t simply barge in there.

    I make my way towards the closest of the available towers, the one to the north east. Navigating through the less crowded side streets is a simpler affair, as most residents here keep to their own business.

    The towers were quite obviously guarded, and the check was similar to the one at the main gate. For me, it was an identical experience, though slightly tuned down. Once down in the halls, everything seemed darker. Not just the actual light, but the mood and atmosphere too. A certain smell of damp earth could be picked up on, in between the fumes from the forges and stench of sweaty men.

    This part of the city was without a doubt the shadiest, making me wonder if it would be worse the further down I went. Though, these halls were home to some taverns and hangouts, some entrances to even lower levels were seemingly restricted by mobs of people. Some were even concealed within taverns or beneath weapons traders, perhaps for quick getaways. The levels below the halls were a maze of corridors in the past, and even with some of those corridors blocked by rubble, most of them would probably now lead to headquarters of various criminal activities.

    Making my way through the crowds, which did not care for my presence in the least, I arrived at an unguarded passageway down.

    For the first time since entering the city, I was not watched. Using my spirit, I could more or less guarantee this. The people in the city that could concentrate their spirit were few and far between. Many of them were garbed as mages or healers in groups of fighters. Some were even dressed as priests, and walked with other priests. But most of these could not maintain their spirit as a layer surrounding them for protection, making it highly unlikely that anyone down here could sneak up on me.

    The various passageways I was walking along down here were cold and damp. I doubt that whatever was dripping down from the halls above was water, but hopefully it was.

    The walls were made from the same bricks that were holding the ceiling up. Holding up said ceiling was an arc that continued along the bending corridors down here. If I stretched out my arms, I could almost touch both walls. Now letting my spirit loose, I search for nearby presences and life. After a while, I pick up on a large group of these.

    I arrive at a larger room, the ceiling rounded and the ground not paved like the corridors were. There are four entrances, the one I came from, to the north-east, one to the north and another to the north-west. The last one is much large, stretching up to the ceiling and taking the place of the room¡¯s south wall. It is also blocked off completely by rocks the size of horses and piles of rubble, which sloped into the room. Sitting on some of these rocks were burly and shady looking men, watching a commotion in the center of the room. There, roughly thirty people were standing around something, shouting angrily and happily with the occasional outburst of laughter.

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    I entered the room by walking down a few stairs and approached the group, reforming my spirit to a thin layer around me. As I came closer, the crowd suddenly cheered loudly while some looked enraged. One of the cheery ones turned around and looked around and spotted me.

    ¡°Hey, what about the fucker?! He looks like he can take a punch!¡±

    He said, as he and his mates grabbed me by my shoulders and pushed me further in. In the center of the ring a beaten man was being held by two people and dragged away whilst another man stood smiling with raised fists. He was wearing ragged clothes and had rags tied to his fists. It became obvious that he was about to send one of those fists in my direction.

    ¡°Place your bets! Will the undefeatable remain undefeated or will this bloody elder best him?!¡±

    The fighter who was done celebrating turned to look at me. He was as tall as me, but lacked my hair and short beard. To compensate, he was sweaty, smelly and had a thick mustache. As he looked at me, he flashed a grin. I guess I must look old and frail, even with these bloodied rags on.

    ¡°Begin!¡±

    Baldie raised his fists in a guard and cautiously approached me. I began a slow sideways walk, which he in turn copied while still closing the distance. When he found himself within striking distance, he did just that, with his right arm.

    His speed was lacking at best, but he used his spirit to some degree, indicating that he was using some kind of enhancing magic. Probably life, to give his punches more weight. Actually, I hope he was giving his punches more weight, because if he was actually enhancing speed. Well, this fight would be over.

    To judge, I received his punch with my face, carefully redirecting the force of it away with a turning motion.

    It did not hurt. I even removed my spirit from the area of impact to not give away the fact that it was there. But even if this punch had landed square on my face, I doubt the injury would break my nose. Anything his fists could produce would be healed through life magic faster than he could prepare another punch.

    Time to end this farce. The crowd was cheering mainly for the fact that it looked as if I got hit. Technically this is correct. Technically this is irrelevant for their situation. The fighter on the other hand looked dumbfounded. If this guy is anything of a measurement of this city¡¯s fighting potential, then I almost feel sorry. I raise my own fist and make use of several branches of magic. Firstly, I use life to enhance the speed of the punch. Secondly, I use fire to create small, unnoticeable explosions, to further boost the speed and guide the punch. And lastly, I use earth magic to clad my fist in jagged rock milliseconds before impact, undoing as fast as the punch has landed.

    The fighters head disappears in a mist of red. The spectators flaunt stupefied expressions, and many begin to argue with the organizers about the outcome of the bet. The mood gets violent, and some begin approaching me.

    At this point I don¡¯t care. I release my spirit from my body and locate all of the individuals present here. Nobody reacts. I was being overly cautious. The fact that my efforts to hide have probably been in vain, makes my mood sink. Using earth magic I create horse size rocks and rubble to block off the three remaining entrances. Parts of the crowd look about themselves frightened. Parts of the crowds are still ignorantly approaching me. Then suddenly, they aren¡¯t. As in, they suddenly are not here.

    In their stead are prism shaped prisms made from rock magic. These pillars descended from above their heads at velocities impossible by gravity alone. Speed achieved through a use of explosive fire magic. I now use life to empower my fists and harden my skin. I carefully hit the pillars to create cracks before I fill said cracks with water using its affiliated magical attribute. I then proceed to use said attribute to freeze said water.

    The rocks explode and shatter in every direction, mortally wounding everyone present but one. This one goes about picking up the winnings of the bet before sweeping the bodies to the western side of the room using his spirit.

    Then, this one temporarily displaces the stony rubble barrier before heading to the upper halls.

 3 Wildlife

    The dwarven halls were unaffected by the commotion that had just transpired beneath their feat. Even if they knew, I was uncertain if they would have cared, as they continued to go about their shady lives.

    Taking the newly earned gold, I aimed to sate my appetite at one of the taverns down here. Originally I was planning to sell the rabbits I had brought, or maybe simple eat them. Luckily, more lucrative options had appeared.

    I wandered the halls, looking to find a place to eat. Unfortunately, the shadier places all denied my access. Perhaps it was due to my outfit or the fact that the blood on me now was mostly human. Most likely though, the taverns were restricted to certain gangs, or were mere fronts.

    Thus, I was walking towards the central area of the halls. There was a tavern there, bigger and livelier than any of the other ones. Though, I suppose, they might be darker on purpose.

    The inside of the tavern is filled with a more morally agreeable bunch. People of all manners are chatting, laughing loudly and outright shouting, all whilst the young staff was refilling drinks and serving food. I myself got some suspicious looks as I entered, much the same as on the surface, from guests and staff alike. Without allowing a slight worry to show in my step, I made my way towards the counter. I almost made it there before a young man stood up and got in my way.

    The young lad had a striking appearance. Though smaller in stature, his face had a raw and barbaric nature to it, making me look the smaller. Short, oily, brown-reddish hair donned his head above his frustrated expression. His outfit more or less explained his means; he had a bears head mounted on his left shoulder.

    ¡°You dare impersonate a bear!?¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°Liar! You¡¯re wearing an imitation of the bear clan¡¯s garb!¡±

    ¡°Am I?¡±

    ¡°Play ignorant all you want. I have met several like you, those who would tarnish my good name to get whatever beneficial treatment!¡±

    ¡°I am not.¡±

    ¡°Then explain you shitty imitation of our garb!¡±

    ¡°I am a simple hunter who made his garb from the beast of the wild. This simply happens to include bears.¡±

    At this point he gave to some emotion and took a step towards me. He was, however, visibly restraining himself. I could hear chatter about how the brat was starting something again.

    ¡°Nonsense! No simple hunter would be capable of taking down the bears of the wilds without severely damaging its pelts to a state beyond use. And several at that! Our very name is built upon the fact that we can safely hunt the kings of the forest!¡±

    ¡°¡­¡±

    ¡°Well, I will have to see you change into something else.¡± He said, as he started to turn away from me.

    ¡°Why should I?¡±

    ¡°Did you not listen to anything I just said?!¡± In a swift motion he was back into a fit of rage. His piercing blue eyes that were staring hard with hatred.

    ¡°I did, but the matter is that I, too, can take down bears. Why can I, too, then not wear this garb?¡±

    ¡°I suppose you will have to prove your strength then. Do you know where our arena is?¡±

    ¡°No.¡± The kid put his hand to his temple, massaging it in a compulsive manner.

    ¡°You fucking.. Look, outside the city hall there is an arena which is used for.. Just get your ass there tomorrow morning. Oh, and ask the many guards around here for directions there.¡±

    ¡°Why should I turn up though?¡± By this point the boy was visibly fuming.

    ¡°If you don¡¯t turn up, I will cut you down on the spot next time me, or any of my acquaintances see you.¡± He said, this time actually trying to look dangerous or intimidating. I could even see him smiling a bit, as if this was what he wanted all along.

    ¡°Well alright, but could you do me a favor?¡± He was not amused by this sentence. His jaw muscles and eyes were bulging. That he hadn¡¯t straight up lost his temper already was by this point a bit strange, if not for the fact that everyone in the tavern was watching the scene unfold.

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    ¡°What favor?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯d like a place to stay for the evening, maybe I could stay at yours. Your family lives right next to that arena thing, right?¡±

    ¡°No, you cannot. I¡¯m not that hospitable.¡± He said, sitting down. He was done with me, and tried his best not to re-initiate conversation.

    I acknowledged his decision to end it, and went on with purchasing and finishing my meal. Later that evening I walked up to the city hall. The guards weren¡¯t sure whether to let me pass or not, so I pretended as if I owned the place and walked right on in. Beneficial treatment indeed, these bears were a big deal around here.

    Inside the stone brick building was a hall of wooden flooring with carpets on them. They were mostly red with a black bear shape and yellow trimmings. Similar carpets were also found hanging on the walls, besides various trophies of large animals. The top row above all of the other trophies and carpets was a row of mounted bear heads. It was quite the menacing and majestic sight to behold.

    At the end of the hallway was some sort of reception desk to the left side, before a staircase to the right, leading to the second level. There were also halls to the right and left, and finally a big door with a plate with the words ¡°The mayor, Thomas Bear¡± on it. The reception lady asked me if I had an appointment before I opened the door to the mayor. I did not give her a reply.

    The mayor¡¯s office was nice. It was divided in two, a sitting area with a stone table surrounded by chairs, and an office to the left of the first room. The office was also built on wooden flooring, and had a stone desk to contrast the two different cultures; dwarven and human. The desk had two wooden chairs on this side and a stone like throne on the other. The seat was covered in various furs, but primarily those with the shared name with the man currently on them.

    Thomas shared a lot of the features with the younger boy from earlier. He had the same brown-reddish hair and piercing light blue eyes. Though, in contrast to the boy, he was far more calm and composed. Especially so when considering an unknown man had just entered his office wearing a bloody imitation of their ¡°bear clan¡¯s garb¡±. He also had longer, curlier hair and a short beard.

    ¡°Hello Thomas¡± I said, approaching the desk.

    ¡°Hello yourself. I¡¯m sorry to say that I don¡¯t have a name to go with your face though.¡±

    ¡°Neither did I, but this office has a handy sign with ¡°mayor¡± and ¡°Thomas¡± on it¡± Reaching the chairs, I sat down.

    ¡°But of course. Can I do anything for you mister...¡±

    ¡°Yes, you can. You see, I believe I met your son earlier. He and I had a conversation about the way I dress and how he did not appreciate it.¡± Locking eyes with him, I gave him a cold smile. He returned a rather humble one.

    ¡°I can why something like that might have transpired.¡±

    ¡°That is the reason why I¡¯m here. Your son explained that I would face some sort of test of strength to prove my worth of this garment. I happen to need a place to stay for night, so I figured, why not here? Surely you have rooms for diplomats and such?¡±

    ¡°Indeed we do. And as a challenger for the arena I will be more than happy to accommodate you on our grounds. It also serves me to not have someone wearing what you are, out on the streets at night. In fact, why don¡¯t you join us for dinner? I¡¯m sure Eric will rejoice.¡± This time it was him who gave me an evil grin.

    ¡°I will be delighted.¡± I said, as I rose from my chair. This man was stranger than I had anticipated. He either anticipated that I would try to blackmail him in some way by mentioning the clothes and how crimes could have misplaced blame. Or, he simply enjoys pestering his son.

    ¡°My staff will tell you the way to the dining hall on the second floor. Come back once the sun sets and I shall have informed them of your appearance and our agreement.¡± He said as I left the room.

    ¡°We will meet again¡±

 4 Bear necessities

    The dining room was located on the second floor, right above the mayor¡¯s office, and built primarily out of stone bricks. The walls were decorated with mounted heads of bears and carpets, like in the hallway downstairs. However, behind the carpets were indentations in the walls, in which were slotted torches, giving the room light. Fire safety was apparently not a priority in here.

    The stone dining table was a big prism shaped slab with carved space along the lower sides to make room for legs. The corners were rounded, and the edge of the table was carved with intrinsic carvings. The three here for dinner sat on the broad sides of the table, in order to be closer together.

    I and Thomas sat on the side opposing Eric. This was making him feel entirely out of place, judged and somewhat mocked, as was apparent from his slightly subdued expressions. One thing was for certain though; he truly wanted to know who this stranger in their home really was. He would also like to know if he should have known who I was from the beginning, and recognized me as one of his distant relatives. This was merely speculation on my part though.

    Despite his son¡¯s frantic expressions, the father remained as lively as ever. In fact, I¡¯d say the situation was making him merrier by the second, only adding to the confusion of his son. Truly, he was the epitome of a loving father.

    ¡°So, about this trial tomorrow, I assume you, Eric will be testing him personally?¡± He said with an evil glint in his eye.

    ¡°What!? But that would mean-¡°His son put up a purely surprised expression at the question posed.

    ¡°I know what that would mean, son. It is precisely why I ask it of you.¡± The evil in his eyes was slowly spreading downwards to his smile.

    ¡°It would mean what, exactly? ¡° I interjected. This was beginning to sound like a trap of some kind.

    ¡°The winner would be able to ask something of the loser. But traditionally, the request after such a test would be to attain the right to champion the city in the annual tourney of the capital¡± He looked at me with an ounce of surprise. As if this was something I¡¯d been after all the while.

    ¡°But why would I, or anyone for that matter, want to participate as the city¡¯s champion, rather than just participating through normal means?¡± I still had no clue as to why he thought I, a stranger, would want to help his city.

    ¡°Why you would receive numerous benefits! If you win, you still get to make a direct request to the emperor. But as champion of a city, you will bring honor and fame to the city as an additional benefit to us. Thus, we will be more than happy to grant you a title of nobility, land and a place in the city council. Although this is very good, these benefits only apply to the winner. What most contenders seek is the benefit of skipping the qualifiers.¡±

    ¡°I see¡± Perhaps he thought I was provoking his son on purpose to get a brawl with him?

    ¡°Dad, please. How can this nobody beat me? I have defended my honor the entire year, what makes you think this stranger- now that I think about it, what is your name?¡± Admirably, his bluntness gives him the edge over his father here. Through being rude, he has posed a question that will raise alarming amounts of suspicion if not answered in the same direct way.

    Thomas looked at expectantly. Was this his scheme? Was this the reason for inviting me to dinner, or was he simply, truly as charismatic and welcoming as rumors would have?

    ¡°Sorry for the late introduction, my name is Alphonse¡± The introduction only confused Eric even more. He was probably expecting me to say that I was his uncle or cousin. In fact, he was looking at me as if I left out that part, and was waiting for it to come. Thomas on the other hand looked disappointed for a second, before returning to his meal.

    ¡°Like I said father, why would you think this Alphonse here has any chance of besting me in combat?¡±

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    ¡°Well, I genuinely think he has enough strength to earn bearskins of such quality by himself. When you take that into consideration, do you not think he is worthy of a fight against you? In fact, you should be honored to test your skill against someone of a similar level, if anything.¡± He begun smiling again at the last part.

    ¡°I don¡¯t there is ANY proof of him acquiring those bearskins by himself. Why do you believe this man?¡± Tensions were rising. Honestly, their manner of speaking in front of a guest showed disrespect for said guest. I did not particularly care for such mannerisms at the moment though.

    ¡°Think about it son. Why would a man, who claims not to know us or our family, walk into this city wearing what he is?¡±

    ¡°Maybe he DOES know about who we are and is LYING. Honestly, dad, you are too na?ve!¡±

    ¡°Well, if he does know who we are, and still chooses to wear what he is, why is he here?¡±

    ¡°I guess he wants to become champion.¡± He muttered in a calmer voice and looked questioningly at me. I returned the look with a smile.

    ¡°Well, is that so bad? If he wants to prove that he is worthy, should we not allow him the opportunity?¡±

    ¡°Well... Maybe he is a spy!, and wants to stay here, in the city hall, to snoop on documents!¡± This he spouted rather enthusiastically.

    ¡°Eric, please. If he is a spy, he is the worst spy I have ever met. Dressing up in that kind of attire, just to make an attempt to get in here? There are better and safer ways to go about collecting information.¡± He almost looked sad. With an emphasis on the ¡°almost¡± part of that statement. As in, he still had a shit eating grin of victory and smugness, but his voice conveyed some emotion.  In their minds, was I even in the room? I¡¯m not even sure if they would notice me leaving right now.

    Eric looked frantic and ashamed. He had lost the argument, however he was stubborn. This was clear as he kept giving me frustrated and suspicious looks. I only reacted to the gestures by smiling. The remaining part of the dinner was characterized by this. There were long pauses of silence only broken up by the odd questions like; where I was from or what my intentions in the city were.  I answered them vaguely with things related to hunting.

    After dinner, nighttime and bedtime descended quickly upon the household. The bears went to sleep shortly after a big meal, leaving me to my room on the second floor. Their bedrooms were on the third floor, which seemed to be reserved for them. I was in a smaller room, but it had a bed so I had no right to complain. Not that I was going to use the bed anyways, Eric¡¯s earlier statement had peaked my interest. What documents would be worth taking a look at?

    Spreading out my spirit to sense any patrols, I headed downstairs to the Thomas¡¯ office. Each time a patrol neared I Jumped to the ceiling using life magic to strengthen my body. Once there I attached my limbs with earth magic and covered my body with a thin layer of earth the color of the ceiling above.

    Once inside the office, I found nothing but older reports on taxes, nearby monsters, significant people within the adventurer¡¯s guild and pirate activity near the westernmost village of the empire by the name of Ebonmyst harbor. Interestingly though, the fireplace in the sitting room had remains of a book in it. From the remains of the book¡¯s green and faded binding, I could tell that this book had been particularly old. If I had to guess, it was somewhere around half a millennia old. Which begs the question; was the timing a coincidence? What was the old bear really up to?

    -----

    A/N

    If you don''t know what a shit eating grin looks like, don''t look it up on google images.

    Or do, I''m not the boss of you.

 5 Blood on fur

    The arena was a wooden, rounded structure, with seats atop a platform along the circumference of the wooden palisade blocking the view from the outside. There were also some bear banners here and there, in no specific or obvious order. Some were hanging from poles, some were on the walls of the arena and there was even one on one of the main doors leading in.

    On one of the seats sat Thomas chatting with a couple of the guards and, judging by appearances, some of his friends or councilmen. Though the arena was within the walls surrounding the city hall, the public appeared to be granted entry, as the available seats were slowly filled up by outsiders. There were people dressed like commoners, adventurers and even the odd guard. Several women were crowding the spots closer to Thomas, yelling encouragement to Eric.

    The terms of the test were the same as yesterday. Should I win, I could ask something of Eric, in the presence of Thomas. Likely, Thomas would interfere if I asked something ridiculous like make Eric kill himself. Likewise, if Eric were to win, he would be allowed to ask something of me. If I didn¡¯t comply with said request, Thomas would likely hound the guards on me, forcing me to comply or face punishment.

    The test in itself would be a mock battle, using wooden swords. The winner would be the one who surrendered first, lost consciousness or exited the, now closed arena. One would automatically forfeit the test if one were to seriously injure the other combatant. There could also be additional punishments if Thomas deemed such a thing necessary. In the end, Thomas held all ruling power in this arena, making it difficult for me to win if he did not intend me to.

    Luckily, the crowd that had gathered would likely make it hard on him if he was too obviously biased as a judge. Either way, I had decided to play it safe. Eric was finishing up his talk with his female fans and turned his attention to me. He was wearing what he had referred to as the clan¡¯s garb; it was primarily made from bear pelts, the fur pointing outwards. The bear head on his left shoulder was considerably smaller now that I could see the two of them wearing the outfit. It might be symbolic in some way, although it was more likely to be his father¡¯s way of teasing him.

    Honestly, the outfit was a little silly, and made him look a lot dumber than he actually was. Not that I had any right to judge, my own outfit was eerily similar, only really missing the whole head ordeal. I was also less clean, and probably also smellier. Not that I could wash here, demonstrating magic might disqualify me or something in the eyes of these warriors. We had both received our wooden swords earlier, and at Thomas¡¯ signal we took our stances.

    Eric¡¯s spirit was collected around him, like a layer. Mine was too, as this was a sign of focus. Though, usually only those who could perform magic would be able to use such focus. I doubted Eric was, but I couldn¡¯t know for certain. I would have to pay close attention to any changes in the way his spirit acted. Neither of us was using the spirit as a layer of defense though, it was merely gathered like smoke on our bodies. Though, I was probably the only one of us with the ability to see this.

    My stance was a defensive one. My blade was raised in front of me with two hands, in order to deflect and guide blows. Eric¡¯s stance was the same as mine; however for him it actually made sense to be defensive. I was the taller of the two of us; therefore I would be the one with the longer reach. It made more sense that I would be the attacker, and his stance mirrored that. He was expecting an attack. And he got it. The moment we were close enough I stepped closer and performed a thrust aimed at his torso.

    He took on the blow by deflecting it to the side while stepping back the other way. Once my blade was at the end of its thrust, he gave it a shove away from his body with his left hand and held his sword overhead, readying a sweep. I followed up my thrust with another step inward and a clenched fist intended for his face. Responding to this aggression, Eric saw the blow coming and took a swift step back, unleashing his sweep.

    The sweep slashed through air at an absurd speed, preventing me from aggressively following up immediately with more steps forward. As he was performing his slash I noticed a ripple in his spirit. He might simply have lost his focus for a second, but taking into account the speed at which he moved the blade, he was likely enhancing his speed with life magic.

    This meant he was holding back. If he could use life magic to enhance his speed, regenerate his wounds or keep up his stamina. Though, judging from the amount of spirit, he couldn¡¯t last all too long if he relied on it excessively.

    With distance again established, we both returned to our previous stances. Noble as the young brat was, he chose to stand still and await my blows. Since I now knew he could possibly use life magic to draw out the fight, I decided to turn up the pressure. Using life magic, I thrust my blade forward once again, though this time considerably faster. Eric reacted much the same as last time, so I stopped my thrust from completing once the two swords connected, and drew it back. I repeated the same thrust three more times, all while pressuring Eric backwards. Then I changed it up and raised my sword for an overhead strike. Eric reacted by going in for a thrust. Before his thrust connected with my torso, I struck down on his blade, forcing it to the ground and almost knocking it out of his hands.

    Eric did not expect the strike to come down that fast, and retreated backwards quickly. He took a quick look behind him and realized that he was running out of room, fast. Because of this he began retreating backwards and to the side. I followed him with my sword poised for a thrust. Seeing this, he stopped his retreat and took on my thrust. This time, instead of allowing me to push him back after the parry, he advanced on me with a raised fist. Not letting this deter my advance, I too, took a step forwards and head-butted his nose. The impact shook him and he fell to the ground. I took advantage by swinging my sword at his position on the ground. Somehow predicting this, he used speed enhancing magic once again, pushing away from the wall with one foot and rolling towards the center of the arena. He rolled away from my swing and dodged that, but he was still on the ground, clutching his sword.

    If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    On his knees, he looked up at me with some blood running from his nose. Not allowing him to regain footing, I turned and raised sword for a strike. In one motion, he stood up and prepared a parrying stance with his blade above his head. He left his abdomen unguarded, so before he was back on stable footing, I kicked him in the gut. This kick was empowered, and sent him back a few steps, struggling to regain his stance.

    The crowds which had earlier been quite lively were now dead quiet. The especially the expressions of Eric¡¯s fans were those of hopelessness, though somewhat overdone. However, in contrast to the rest of the crowd, Thomas had a slight smirk on his face as he was watching his son struggle to stand properly. Weirdly enough, his eyes conveyed a loving emotion normal fathers would be seen with if their sons finally learned to walk, fatherly love.

    If not for the arena and the spectators, I¡¯d imagine the scene looked like a grandfather playing his grandson with the father watching. Well, almost. There were some peculiarities to the scene, like blood and pained expressions.

    Eric regained his stance, and looked at me with frustration and anger. From his spirit I could see that his focus was tightening. He raised his sword in a thrust and rushed at me with abnormal speed. Not looking to allow him to corner me, I matched his speed and met him halfway. I parried his thrust by slashing it to the side and following up with my own thrust. With a burst of speed, he span to the side of the thrust, while closing in with a second spin and finishing with a kick. I moved out the way of its trajectory, while I took hold of his leg. Raising my sword arm, I swung at the now awkwardly positioned Eric.

    He let his other foot leave the ground and kicked at my hands, gravity allowing him to dodge my swing. His kick connected with my hand, and I dropped his leg. Taking my sword with both hands, I raised it above my head and swing with crushing speed. He took the blow on with his own sword, enhancing his strength to receive it with one hand on its blade. I repeated the strike again, before he did a backwards roll and stood up. He was visibly panting, and a strain was visible on his spirit. He was strained to keep going.

    Therefore I rushed at him. Blade raised to thrust, I ran at him. He parried with a grunt, before he took the impact of my shoulder as I barreled into him. However, he did not fall, he merely stumbled backwards.  I began slashing at his poor stance; he was visibly having a hard time against the weight of the strikes. In a frenzied move, I hit him repeatedly from one side until, each time striking faster than he could recover his stance. Then, when the blade was far enough away from his body, I stepped in after a slash while I removed my right hand from the sword handle. I then sent the hand in a fist and swinging fashion to Eric¡¯s temple.

    Again, he stumbled backwards, this time with a cut above his left brow. Blood was trickling down as he was squinting with his eye to see. At this point he was panting heavily, and his spirit was behaving erratically. He clearly had no control over his usage, and because of this would probably pass out from mental fatigue of the strain. I would have followed up my blow, but I decided against it in case Thomas would call it disgraceful or something along those lines. So, I played it safe and waited.

    Despite his current situation, he looked at me with rage. Eric¡¯s breath went from heavy panting, to a sharper but faster intake as began a charge. It was senseless, and without any coordination in his stance. His feet slightly dented the ground as his speed went beyond human. I raised my sword, but he didn¡¯t seem intent to stop after clashing, so I tried to get out of the way. Taking steps back, I parried a flurry of frenzied blows, all directed at my head. It seemed as if Eric had lost his mind to his emotions. A slip up from my part could be bad, potentially fatal, as he wouldn¡¯t stop until my skull was caved in.

    Soon though, with all of his blows parried, he gradually reduced his speed to put more weight into his strikes. It did not seem like a plan; rather he was getting angrier by the second and wanted desperately to overpower me. Once he had totally stopped, and was completely focused on putting more strength into his hits, I dodged one of them. This threw him off, as he followed his strike through and became imbalanced. I now swept away his feet with a kick, landing him face first on the ground.

    Completely out of strength, he seemed to stay there, creating a small pool of blood from his injuries to the face.

    ¡°It seems the winner is Alphonse!¡± Thomas suddenly exclaimed as he stood up from his seat. The men closest to him nodded and made some approving ¡°hm¡± sounds, before they began chatting amongst themselves. The crowd began a murmur of low voiced whispers, and some Eric¡¯s fans even cried. Though, their acting ability betrayed them, making them look like fools.

    ¡°So then, what will you ask of my son?¡± Thomas asked with a smile.

 6 Spoils

    The crowd was staring at me expectantly. One of the guards had jumped down from the viewing area, and was heading towards Eric¡¯s passed out body with haste in her step. She was wearing the same plated armor as the rest of the city hall guards, making it only possible to identify their gender in the circumstance where their helmets were removed. She had removed it as she went closer to Eric in order to get a good look at his wounds.

    Thomas was still standing, waiting for my reply. He had a bit of a resigned smile on his face, and kept glancing at his son. I walked over to where he was standing, and turned to face him.

    ¡°I will ask of him that he hires me as a guard on his trip to the capital for the tournament¡± The crowd was momentarily confused, and started murmuring with concerned expressions. Some however were quite happy, Eric¡¯s fans in particular, and showed no regard in hiding this emotion. Thomas was also shortly confused, then a smile opened up on his face and he laughed with a roar before jumping down onto the arena floor. He landed with a thud and said;

    ¡°Please, on the journey, wear what you are now, with the addition of this¡± as he handed me his shoulder mounted bear head, and continued his laugh while approaching his son. He picked Eric up, carrying him face down on his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, much to the dismay of the female guard who had been trying to wake him up and stop his wounds from bleeding. On the way out he said ¡°You know, I quite like you Alphonse. I¡¯ll see to it that Eric knows about this new agreement. I take it you¡¯ll want a horse too?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I would quite like that.¡±

    ¡°Then allow me to arrange that for you too.¡±

    After he had left, I did too, though I had quite the following of townsfolk who were a little too afraid to approach me and a little too curious to stop following me. This is why I headed to the lower halls. Eric wasn¡¯t due to leave for the capital for another three days, Thomas had mentioned at the dinner, so it would probably be fine for me to meet up with them then.

    In order to pass time, I went down to the corridors beneath the halls again. This time, I felt fairly certain that there were no capable seers in the city, or if they were, they were unlikely to be down here. So I spread my spirit thin and analyzed the different pathways and corridors, memorizing where the paths had collapsed and where there seemed to be a lot of activity. I set out towards those presences.

    At the first concentration of presences, I found five men sitting on anvil sized rocks around a bigger rock with a flat top. On the top were several cards, gold pieces, alcohol and some food. Behind the men was a corridor in which roughly a dozen people sat. Looking closer, I could see the beaten faces of dwarves and elves, shackled to the wall by their hands.

    Looking at the slavers¡¯ spirit, it was all over the place in a misty form, typical of those who have no talent for magic and have not trained their will to protect them, leaving them open to spiritual attacks. Demonstrating the fault in not training to protect oneself from spirit magic, I used my own spirit to overpower theirs, grabbing hold of it and forcing it away from their bodies. As I was doing this, they reacted violently by smashing they heads against the tables or stamping their feet while holding their heads in their hands. All of them were moaning as if they had stomach ache, which did not match the vigor they were putting into their movement.

    This attracted the attention of the enslaved, as they watched in horror as their captors began to run about the room. This was ended swiftly as I severed the connection between their spirit and bodies, instantly making them lose all strength in their bodies and leaving them motionless on the ground. The ones who had fallen in a position where one could see their eyes appeared to be drugged out of their minds, as their eyes were distant and glassy, glazed.

    At that moment, I entered the room, walking over to their slumped bodies and going through their pockets. Any gold I found I stored away in the pockets of my sash, by now empty of cooked animal meat. Weapons like knives and other useful trinkets like watches and matches I left on the table with the other food and booze. After I had finished rifling through the pockets of a body I threw it over to the side of the room, and when I was done with all the bodies I employed fire magic to schedule their funeral early. If they felt any pain from being burnt alive, their faces did not reveal anything. They simply lay there and accepted their fate.

    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    The slaves, who had watched with mixed feelings at that which just transpired, looked at me with horror when I approached them and begun to sob and beg. With a raised voice I told them to be quiet and that I had no time for charity. I went on to tell them they would have to fend for themselves down here with what I had placed on the table. To this they nodded softly before I released them from their cuffs with some well-placed explosions by fire magic.

    When it got late, I went up to the lower halls¡¯ tavern in order to eat. I could have eaten the scraps looted from the various groups of ruffians that had perished by my hand, however that was hardly appetizing and I currently had a good lump of gold to spend.

    Whilst enjoying my meal in a secluded area of the main tavern, I spotted Eric sitting at a table off to one of the other sides. He seemed to have recovered well, testifying to his natural ability to employ life magic. This trait was normally not found in humans, especially at his age, so calling him talented was on point. If he would train to employ his magic more adeptly in battle, he probably had a great future as a battlemage or perhaps even a paladin.

    He was sharing a table with several others, some wearing the city patrol uniform and some wearing the uniform of the town hall¡¯s guard, though none of them were currently wearing any armor or had any obvious weapons. Sitting next to him was the guard I saw tending to his wounds in the arena earlier, laughing away with the others and sitting somewhat awkwardly close to Eric, I pondered as I finished my meal and headed out of the tavern. Maybe this was their meeting place away from their fathers and superiors?

    At night I slept down in the corridors, blocking off a segment to myself to provide some privacy and so as to not be disturbed. The cycle of purging lowlife, eating in the lower halls continued until the day I was supposed to meet.

    I walked in behind the walls to the city walls. It was early in the morning, yet three horses were being held by a stable boy, saddled up with food supplies. As I did not see Eric or the third guest, unless we were bringing the stable boy, I elected to wait by the wall until they arrived. When they did, it was Thomas and Eric trailed by some of the city guards in plate armor.  They noticed me as I approached them. Eric saw my bear head on my shoulder and reacted with surprise, then gave me and his father suspicious glares. Thomas smiled began to talk;

    ¡°Alphonse!, I must admit I was slightly worried you would not show when you disappeared for three days.¡± Before I replied, Eric interjected.

    ¡°And I was hopeful you¡¯d been killed off¡± with an annoyed glare.

    ¡°Eric, please. He defeated you in combat and did not request your championship. Show some decency and respect.¡± Thomas now shared Eric¡¯s annoyed expression.

    ¡°It was mock combat father, do not forget that!¡± Eric replied with a hint of furiosity.

    ¡°And I am certain you would have better odds in real combat, seeing as you have next to no experience fighting other people with your life on the line.¡± Before Eric got a chance to argue this point, Thomas interrupted him.

    ¡°Anyway, Alphonse please excuse his attitude, he is still young and na?ve.¡±

    ¡°Well, I did choose this¡±

    ¡°Truly, well, as you can see, we have prepared three horses. This is because there will be an extra guard with you. Alex will be joining you for the ride to the capital. I do hope this is fine with you.¡±

    As he said this, one of the guards stepped forward and saluted first Thomas, then me. At this, Eric sent me an annoyed glare, but quickly went back to inspecting the hall¡¯s walls and looking for birds.

    ¡°It should be fine.¡± They are not so trusting of me, huh? I suppose this amount of carefulness is called for because of my strange and suspicious request.

    ¡°Well then, son, I wish you well in the tournament. Remember to not let your emotions affect your judgment, making you break the rules.¡± This time he seemed to be serious, for once he looked appropriately like a father.

    ¡°I will make us proud father.¡± Eric responded, still looking a bit annoyed.

 7 Two riders

    The horses were outfitted with enough food to last us five days, or a week if we made sure not to squander. Additionally they had some gear for setting up camp, a map and a sheath for a sword. Unlike the others¡¯, my scabbard had a sword in it. How thoughtful of Thomas, providing a sword for the hunter turned guard that was me. I had considered buying a sword myself, if only to look the part of a guard besides my hunting bow, but had rejected the idea when I found some longer knives on the guys who wouldn¡¯t be needing them anymore.

    Once we left town and had trotted for a while in a generally western direction, it became frighteningly obvious that the guard, Alex, was awkwardly inexperienced when it came to riding. She had taken off her helmet, and most of the plate armor, leaving her in a single layer of leathery travel clothes. The plate was strapped to the sides of the horse, and I was questioning the purpose of bringing it at all. Eric certainly wasn¡¯t bringing any, and he would probably need it. Maybe he would wear her armor? From the mood, I would doubt it.

    The two were sharing a bubbly atmosphere, chatting with the occasional laugh, despite Alex¡¯s strained and forced movements from riding. Eric wasn¡¯t one to ignore this, as he soon called for a stop, mere hours out from Brill. In fact, I could still see the city, as we were still on the plain between the northern and the southern forest. This area, in which Brill was located, was called the Conqueror¡¯s plain, because of a great battle with the demons that had been fought and won by the human empire.

    We stopped for some water and food, although to be honest, we could consume while on horsebacks at a standstill to spare us from dismounting. However, stopping for the reason of allowing Alex some time to stretch out and limber up was a good thing in the long run, which this was quickly turning out to be. In fact, at our current pace, we would arrive at the capital in around ten or so days. Food would need to come from other sources than just the dried and salted meat we brought. So, as night descended, I would use my bow to hunt for some rabbits, while at the same time allowing the two some privacy before dinner.

    Out hunting, I used my spirit to locate prey. I encountered several larger animals such as different types of deer and the occasional moose. These, however, would be impractical to bring with on the journey, and leaving parts behind was wasteful. Though, honestly, I did not want to drag in large prey, as Eric would maybe feel like the lesser man in front of Alex, and join me on hunting. Honestly, the time spent hunting might become important for my mood, as it was my only time away from their little bubble of happiness.

    Returning to camp, I found the two using their swords to a spar. Unlike in the fight between me and Eric, he was now swinging a real sword, and was obviously more practiced at it as he handled the weight and balance well. Perhaps there was some truth to the words he spoke before we left Brill? Alex, on the other hand, showed a different kind of strength to the one demonstrated by Eric. Her strikes were swift and precise where Eric¡¯s were hard and impulsive. She also preferred thrusting to slashes, and made use of this in a limited fashion during their spar. In my opinion she should strike away at Eric, stabbing him would be inconsequential. With Eric¡¯s talent for impulsive life magic, he¡¯d probably heal out of any single wound she could inflict. Not out of pure skill, but because he¡¯d likely feel bad about letting her feel bad about injuring the man she was sent to protect. Oh youth, how stupid.

    For dinner we had a mixture of the rabbit meat I brought, grilled on open fire, and the supplies we brought. The idea onwards was to supplement our dinners largely with whatever we could find, hunt or possibly even buy from traders along the way. As night descended we took turns sleeping and sitting guard. We all had our sleeping blankets laid out on the same side of the put out campfire; Eric was lying between me and Alex. This made sense, as we were his guards, but from his attitude it felt more like he was protecting her from me. In whispers, Eric even offered to take Alex¡¯s guard shift. Not a bad idea in principle, as she was the one slowing us down the most. However I believe he was hurting her pride as a warrior far too much, as he was given silent treatment for breakfast the next day.

    After the meal, we continued riding at a trot, heading out of the forest and into a belt of forest that ran between the one to the north and the one to the south of the Conqueror¡¯s plain. Because of this the trees were a strange of the two types of trees, the pines from the south and birches from the north. Though the southern forest only had one dominant type of tree, the pine, this did not hold true for the one to the north. It had several different types of trees, but one type was unique, and that was the birch. In the northern forest the birches had thick trunks and branches, huge amounts of leaves and were further apart from each other, evenly spaced out throughout the entire forest. The birches here however were regular sized ones, growing so tightly in parts it was nearly impossible to walk past.

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    We were using a central path that cut through the forest, called Quiet pass, after this part of the forest, Quiet woods. The path was wide enough for the three of us to ride side my side, and again Eric was between me and Alex. They were not having the same bubbly talk as yesterday, however Alex had broken her silent treatment and they were having stiff and awkward attempts at conversation. Luckily for them, that was interrupted as an arrow whistled through the air and sank into Eric¡¯s horse.

    People dressed like bandits had appeared from both sides of the path, brandishing varying types of weaponry. Some of them obviously had bows, others had swords and some even had a combination of the two. Most of the were wearing a form of travelling gear, a leather outfit shaped like plate armor, though there were odd bits of metal gear here and there. The man with the most amount of metal armor smiled as he spoke up:

    ¡°Surrender yourselves and this sordid affair can end painlessly!¡± Though his message was clear, it was in vain. Eric, who was on the ground beside his bleeding horse had already unsheathed his sword and begun charging the left side of the bandits. The brat probably chose that side as it was Alex¡¯s side.

    I reached for my bow. I could honestly care less for Eric and Alex, but if either were injured by arrows our journey would take even longer and we could risk missing the tournament. Bow in hand, I aimed at whomever was targeting Alex, then those aiming for Eric. If Eric got hit he¡¯d just heal up, really why did Thomas allow Alex to join? Was he messing with me too? What a horrible man.

    The few arrows that were sent my way I dodged, grabbed midair and stored. My own arrows were self-made, and I could use the upgrade. Because I was using my life magic to boost my speed, soon there were no archers left besides me. I focused my attention to the duo, who was handling things well against their disheveled foes. Eric¡¯s enhanced strikes cleaved way through waves of bandits with vigor, and he was going out of his way to reduce Alex¡¯s number of combatants. She was using a combination of parries, dodges and counterattacks to safely rather than swiftly dispatch of the thieves.

    When the right side saw the overwhelming losses on the left side, their leader ordered them to retreat, leaving the left side disorganized and demoralized. Those left were quickly cut down. While Eric was looking at his horse¡¯s condition, I was rifling through the pockets of the deceased, keeping gold and replacing my arrows. After he had patched up the horse, It was clear it could no longer continue, as we had no way or knowledge of treatment of whatever was bothering it. Eric therefore insisted on taking the reins of Alex¡¯s horse, allowing her to sit behind him. She protested, and Eric was good not to mention their master-subordinate relationship as he argued he would be the faster rider. Eventually Alex gave in and we continued our journey.

    The forest path had several smaller paths leading out from it, some signposted as directions to villages, and some not signposted. At nights we made camp along these paths, still keeping the same sleeping arrangement as we did on the plains. It was clear that Alex was getting a lot of built up frustration from being helped out and bested by Eric in almost every action, but after a couple of days their bubbly conversations returned.

    It took the better part of a week, but when we finally exited the Quiet woods we could see farms and crops on a long, wide and hilly plain with a central dusty path leading up to tall walls in the distance. It was only a matter of time now, probably two days.

 8 Out of the frying pan

    This woman, Alex, was really starting to get on my nerves. Before this, I honestly considered myself to be a patient person, but by the gods does she press my buttons. After a little while of her sitting on the back of the horse Eric was riding after we left the forest, she asked us to stop. The reason for this was that she wanted to put on her armor, which was still on her horse, as we approached the city. This would mean that our journey through the fields past the small farms and the guard towers would be at a walking pace, maybe even slower as Alex would need frequent stops for that rather uncomfortable looking outfit.

    We could stick her on the horse and let somebody else walk, though when this was suggested she adamantly refused this too, for the same reason as putting on the armor in the first place; appearances. Eric was staying timid, and did not say a thing against this rash decision. Probably wise for him to do so, she was already antsy about him one upping her at every turn and probably wouldn¡¯t listen to anything said. I, on the other hand was fully motivated to tell her off, however when I did she simply shrugged it off and ignored me. Such an awful and despicable woman I have never met before. I also noted that this pleased Eric who now had a shit-eating grin on his face, only furthering my displeasure.

    There was no game for me to hunt nearby, as the day reached its end, so we resorted to purchasing a meal with the local farmers. They were happy to sell us some of their food, as they made more money from selling prepared food to us than just selling in bulk to their landlords. As the night drew near, the farmers entertained us with tales of the great champions that were coming to the city from the various villages around. They were highly exaggerated, claiming several champions had defeated dragons in the past, or hydras in the ocean, making them sound more like children¡¯s stories than anything. But of course, this did not deter Eric from following their epic tales of grandeur with intense interest. Afterwards he mentioned something about ¡°knowing their weaknesses now¡± to Alex, whom entertained his childish notions.

    After the two had gone off to sleep in one of the farmers spare rooms, I asked the husband if he had any horses he was willing to part with. Unfortunately though, all the horses on the farm were owned by the landlord, and not his decision to sell. Unluckily for me, the landlord was currently away, gone to the city to enjoy the tournament and mingle with those of appropriate status. Nobles will be nobles I suppose.

    In the morning we carried on, me on horse, Eric leading his horse, walking beside Alex while talking about his upcoming grand plans for victory. I couldn¡¯t tell her facial expression from here, but depending on it she was either the perfect match for this buffoon, or utterly fed up with his nonsense. I know which I would be, if I was walking in a stove because a certain someone¡¯s horse got injured and that same someone was currently not using my horse in order to walk beside tell me about his heavily hyperbolized future goals and exploits. I would be utterly livid. But you could also take the gesture of walking beside her as compassionate, I guess.

    When we finally arrived at the city gate, the guards looked at me and Eric, then addressed me.

    ¡°Bears?¡± Questioned the guard, with a stoic expressions. His comrades further back shared a mocking smile. Seems city people have a little bit more common sense.

    ¡°Yes¡± I answered, before Eric interrupted us. At this the guards let the three of us pass rather easily.

    ¡°Alphonse, what the fuck was that back there! You¡¯re no bear!¡± Eric was angry that they addressed me instead of him, how cute.

    ¡°I thought they were referring to the attire, Eric. My bad¡± Though while saying that I smiled at him.

    ¡°Anyway , now that we are here my guard is over, right?¡± At this Eric¡¯s face lit up.

    ¡°Yes, you may leave now¡± Opening up a pocket on his belt, he handed me the agreed pay.

    ¡°Though father said that I might need guards for the way back too, will you be joining us for that or should I hire someone else?¡± The last part he said with a haughty manner. He emphasized the hired part, with a smile. I could see that it was bringing him joy to consider me a subordinate.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what I¡¯ll be up to here, I¡¯ll inform you when I do. I know where to find you after all¡± As if I would tell him anything. I¡¯d had it with him for now, go bother somebody else. Please?

    ¡°Of course, I¡¯ll be fighting in what, a week? I¡¯ll see you when I see you then.¡± He, too, was eager to leave, probably envisioning a shared room and romantic dinners with Alex. What was it his father said as we were leaving?, something about emotions getting in the way? Love is an emotion Eric, and I hope it kills you. That would be a poetic justice to me, sweet, sweet justice.

    Having departed with Eric and Alex, I walked through the crowd towards the part of the city with lots of bellowing smoke coming out of it. The blacksmith district was a collection of shops named after their founder¡¯s family name. Blacksmithing was a prideful business after all, who wouldn¡¯t want to become a renowned blacksmith? You wouldn¡¯t need to risk your neck in battles or mingle with snotty nobles yet you would still attain the bonuses these figures of power would receive. It was in the nobles¡¯ interest to keep the best blacksmiths under your control, seeing to it that your men proved themselves in battle the most and survived longer. The nobles that contributed better troops would be more favored by the emperor, and in turn would gain more power to retain more troops and more proficient blacksmiths.

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    However, the capital was a little different. The very best smiths in the country would get an offer from the emperor himself, to make armor and weaponry for the royal guard and the national army. Which is why all the shops here were named after their founders, though said founders would usually not be present in the shop and available to the general public. Their apprentices however, were.

    Having no current favorite blacksmith, I simply went into any shop that had something interesting on display. In the end of it all, I had bought something that looked like a full set of plate, including a helm that covered my face down to my nose in a dwarven design. In fact, most of what I bought was like this, they had certain parts of the steel made from a darker kind, and had some ancient language inscribed on them.

    The money I had used to purchase all this was from the scavenging of recently or soon to be deceased people. I had, however not used all of it. Not that armor wasn¡¯t expensive, it was, especially in this part of town they were actually more so, but all the pieces I had bought were from the unwanted and discounted parts in the shops. The armor wasn¡¯t bad or anything. In fact for armor about half a millennia old, it was remarkably good. It was discounted simply because it was of dwarven craft, and people wouldn¡¯t want to wear something created by a slave race when they came to these famous shops of the capital.

    The parts I had bought were the essentials; helmet, shoulder pads, armguard, gloves and shin guards. They were all smaller pieces from a larger set, since I had bought them from different shops and from piles of random pieces of armor, I couldn¡¯t find anything that really fit together. Not that I minded honestly, the plate was more for show and to keep low. I had already discarded my bear head shoulder in favor of two actual pieces of protective gear.

    Having bought the armor and equipped it, I headed towards the arena where the preliminaries would be fought. Though Alex had complained somewhat about the heat of walking in armor, I actually found it to be nothing much. This was probably due to the fact that I was essentially only wearing parts of the plate, strapped over my smelly hunting gear. Alex had been wearing a proper suit, with some additional chainmail to cover gaps.

    Arriving at the arena, I received a lot of demeaning and some hateful looks from passersby. There was a smaller section outside of the main arena where several participants were fighting inside squares on the ground. There were seven squares in total, with two fighters inside each one of them.  The squares formed a square with one side open, around a centralized desk with a long line leading up to it. As I was standing and looking at the competitions, a woman in leather fighting gear came up to me.

    ¡°Do you know the rules here?¡± She asked me with a happy smile. For some reason I didn¡¯t like those eyes though.

    ¡°Well, the two men fight inside the squares. The winner gets qualified to the competition¡± I said, not letting my thoughts show on the exposed half of my face.

    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re smart, huh mister?¡± Still smiling, she now was standing awkwardly in silence as I did not grace her response with one of my own. She did not seem to find it awkward though, in fact she looked to be enjoying it.

    ¡°So mister, are you going to join up?¡± She was still smiling, I was still not responding. I had a was getting a sinking feeling, why was I getting a sinking feeling? After a little while of more awkward silence with her smiling at me, she continued undeterred.

    ¡°Say mister, if you sign up, I¡¯ll sign up too. But don¡¯t you worry mister, I won¡¯t pick you for my first fight here. You see there are more rounds to this qualifier than just this one. We¡¯ll get to fight later, okay?¡± After this she stopped smiling at me. She kept smiling, just not at me. Instead she started to imitate the way I was standing. Was she mocking me for wearing dwarven armor? City people sure are weird. Eric, you¡¯ll fit right in here.

    I had come to this place with a reason though, so I went over to back of the line leading to the sign up desk. After enduring a good ten minutes of the lady behind me hitting me anywhere thinkable with her black ponytail, I was finally freed from hell as I stepped up to the counter.

    ¡°Contender number 1541, and what name should I sign to that number, mister¡­?¡± The clerk asked me while looking at the woman behind me with curious interest.

    ¡°Write down Alfred¡±

 9 Making friends

    After signing up I went over to one of the squares with no current occupant. The girl who was behind me spoke up as I walked off.

    ¡°Alfred, is it? Do you mind if I call you Al, Al?¡± As she was saying this she approached the counter to sign up herself.

    ¡°I¡¯d rather you didn¡¯t¡±

    ¡°Too bad Al, but you¡¯re not the boss of me, Al, therefore, Al, I will be calling you Al, Al¡± She said with a smile creeping up on her face. Having reached the counter by now, she moved her ass onto it, shortly followed by her legs. Sitting sideways on the counter she reached out to the confused clerk with one hand and stroked his chin firmly.

    ¡°Sign up contender 1542 as Lea, would you please?¡± Before the approaching guards took action she had gotten off and headed towards one of the other unoccupied squares. I felt like I should run away, as far away as possible.

    Once all the squares were occupied by two fighters, the clerk stood up and explained the rules.

    ¡°Touching the ground outside your square, inflicting serious wounds and surrendering are grounds for immediate disqualification. If your opponent for some reason cannot surrender or continue fighting, they are also disqualified. The remaining fighter gets qualified. The fights may begin!¡±

    At his signal my opponent, a young man with decent physique, charged me with his sword. Because I had my face covered, I was no longer afraid to use some of my power publicly, so I accelerated with a step into the range of his sword. Before he could react, I had pushed aside his weapon and thrown a fist into his face. Not allowing him any time to recover, I rushed him with my shoulder, blowing him back and making him fall. The added length of his fall with the steps he took backwards was enough to land his flailing arms outside the square for a moment, settling the match.

    As I was waiting for the central clerk to write down my qualification, I watched Leas fight. Mine had concluded so quickly that hers hadn¡¯t even really begun. She was standing still at the edge of the square with her arms raise while smiling at her opponent. Now that I thought about it, a female contender was very unusual in these types of tournaments. It just attracted the wrong kind of attention to you if you ever wanted to marry into status. There were female warriors and adventurers, but winning competing in these kinds of high stakes competitions brought you to the attention of illegal gambling. In turn, you might quickly find yourself abducted and sold to a brothel, as a means to get rid of you. On the other hand, if you were a man, you¡¯d just get killed. Is it better to be alive forced to work in a brothel rather than rotting in an alleyway? It¡¯s subjective I suppose.

    The fight had taken long to start because Lea was just standing there, arms raised, and her opponent was trying to figure out her plan. When he finally decided to approach with caution, she still remained immobile. Taking a swing at her, she finally moved, performing a cartwheel to the side. Once she finished it, she looked really satisfied with herself, and patted her own shoulder while chuckling. The man tried to strike her again, this time she did a cartwheel to the other side.

    This nonsensical cat and mouse game continued for quite the while, Lea¡¯s cartwheels becoming faster, her laughter becoming louder and her opponent¡¯s temperament growing warmer. He kept trying to keep up with her speed, slashing faster, approaching sooner and acting on instinct and rage. This ended rather abruptly when instead of cartwheeling away, Lea leapt into the air, landing on the rushing bull¡¯s shoulders, before she jumped off into the center of the square, pushing him out. After verifying his disqualification, the guards had to restrain and drag the poor sod away, while he protested rather loudly. Lea proceeded to applaud, herself? She was standing still, smiling and looking at the clerk in the center.

    ¡°Contender 1542, Lea, you¡¯re qualified and may leave the premises. Sooner rather than later, please. Contender 1541, I see you¡¯ve also qualified. It has been noted, you may leave too.¡± The clerk looked like he wanted to tell the guards to escort the nice lady far away. Though I agree, I cannot forgive him for giving her the attention she wanted. She obviously wanted to be signed off sooner rather than later, much like the rest of us here, yet he signed her off first? , unforgivable.

    As I was leaving I felt a presence with my spirit, following me through the crowd. I didn¡¯t want to raise any suspicion, so my spirit was only at the range of normal and untrained humans. This meant that, if I was right about my pursuer, she was following me very closely. When I stepped into a tavern, she followed me in. It didn¡¯t matter currently, as I was just going to scour for information. I went over to a table with one chair, sat down and ordered a drink. Using life magic, I dropped in on the conversations of other guests. Lea was sitting at another table, smiling at me while trying to catch my attention with a variety of expressions.

    The remainder of the day consisted of me going to taverns, ordering drink or food in small quantities while eavesdropping on conversations. Lea would follow me in and out of taverns, never speaking to me and only ever taking a break to start bar fights. After escaping ensuing chaos, she quickly continued her stalking habits.

    At night I went to one of the lesser known inns of the capital, paying for stay until the end of the tournament with my quickly diminishing funds. Those would soon be filled though, as I had located the rough part of town from conversations earlier. Though, that was business for tomorrow, and with that I slept with one eye opened after making sure all entrances to the room were shut tight.

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    What I had learned from my dining adventures of importance was that there was some turmoil in the empire currently. The Emperor was growing old, quickly, and predictions were that he wouldn¡¯t last another year. This caused the court to be split, noblemen went into two factions. One sided with the Emperor¡¯s heir, Magnus, a boy of young age. The other sided with the current emperor¡¯s right hand man, Lucas, a fine strategist as well as combatant, whom had proven his loyalty to the empire and the emperor time and time again. The current emperor had voiced his thoughts on the matter; he wanted his son to claim the seat of power. However, as he would die before one could be chosen, his influence was somewhat limited on the matter. He was a good man, so he did not enforce punishment for siding with his right hand man. After all, he of all people could understand why one would like his greatest friend. There seemed to be no bad blood between the two, and most people considered this as a most sordid affair.

    The current political side of the capital caused the nobles to behave cautiously, as any smaller mistake could have major repercussions down the line. As so, they were careful about their personal troops and guards, preferring to leave them outside the capital, in their estates. In response to this, most of the town guard focused their patrols around the nicer parts of town, or where the guards themselves lived. This caused a severe lack of patrols in the rougher parts of the city, and organized crime was at an all-time high. Especially known was a group that met up in a large bar in the rough part of town called the White Tiger. The group was referred to by the name of the tavern; henceforth they were called the Tigers.

    In addition to the increased organized crime inside the capital, organized crime and banditry outside the city had also increased. Villages further from the capital were living in constant fear of bandit raid, and the imperial standing army was already spread pretty thin. The requests for adventurer and mercenary guilds to take care of these bandits were quite high, and the need for additional adventurers and mercenaries reflected this.

    As morning broke, I headed towards the rough part of the city. Before leaving, I made sure I was not being followed, and continued to do so on the way. Was it because she didn¡¯t recognize me without my armor? That I had left in the room, since there would be no need for it today. I made my way towards the White Tiger, only stopping to play ¡°please don¡¯t kill me, here take my money¡± with some kind, knife wielding, hood wearing brats.

    When I entered the tavern, which was host to thirty something burly looking men, drinking and chatting. As I entered, the whole of the tavern¡¯s attention was on me, with an eerie silence descending amongst them.

    ¡°So, are you the kittens?¡± Gods, how embarrassing, that woman must be getting to me. As I was saying this, laughter blossomed at the back, from a table with one girl sitting by it. I broke into cold sweat when I saw who it was.

    The largest of the men, sitting by the bar, scowled in her direction with a bruised eye. He had a long face and an under bite that sort of fit his size. He then turned his attention back to me.

    ¡°What fuckin¡¯ day is it today? Are we getting a full moon tonight?, cause we got two lunatics for the bloody price of one!¡± It seemed that my petty attempt to aggravate the men had not worked, not in the slightest. Note to self, don¡¯t ever do something like that again.

    ¡°Look here, my new best friend, we do not serve milk here¡± At this, Lea coughed in an awkward, forced way.

    ¡°Okay, we served milk fuckin¡¯ once, but don¡¯t you go thinkin¡¯ the service is goin ta repeat itself¡± The man was obviously annoyed with having Lea here, both for this ordeal, and in general. I couldn¡¯t blame him

    ¡°I would like to buy your services¡± At this the big man smiled and chuckled.

    ¡°Mother of fuck-, look old beardo, it¡¯s yer lucky day. Today¡¯s special offer is two kidney removals fer the price of whatever¡¯s on ye!¡± His comrades laughed at this, and some started pulling out their knives and moved closer. I picked the closest approaching and caught his neck while he was turning towards me. My grip facing downwards, I bent his neck until an audible snap was heard and his body went limp. Then I took out his leather purse. All this transpired before any of them could take any counter action, and they stared mortified at their companion.

    ¡°Are you sure, I pay well¡± I said, holding up the purse.

    ¡°Like I said old man, It¡¯s yer lucky day! Keep yer money, we¡¯ll do what ye say!¡± He looked like he¡¯d simply had enough of lunacy for one day. He turned his head towards the bar again, and continued to down his drink.

    ¡°No, really, take it. I¡¯m feeling generous with your money today" I said, throwing the purse at him. He caught it mid-air without looking. Already, this man was more impressive to me than Eric.

    ¡°I¡¯ll come back in a while. Don¡¯t go anywhere until then, okay?¡± I said, not really wanting to reveal my plans in front of Lea. It¡¯s a pain, but I¡¯d have to come back some other time. Their leader simply nodded and went on drinking. As I turned to leave, Lea appeared at my side.

    ¡°You and I are going to be the best of friends, Al. Whether you like it, or not¡±

 10 Red dust

    After my meeting with the Tigers, myself and Lea had the second part of the qualification process to partake in. Since I was not wearing my armor at the moment, I had to go back to my room at the Inn to equip it. As if it had become a routine now, Lea followed close behind, and even came into my room with me. Why didn¡¯t the innkeeper stop her?, did he think she was someone close to me? Maybe I needed to have a word with him after this, showing him Lea and ask him to bar anyone looking like her from entering my room.

    Once inside my room, I began equipping my armor.

    ¡°Lea, how come you¡¯ve been stalking me?¡± I did not face her, doubting her facial expressions would give anything away.

    ¡°Why, for fun of course, Al!¡± Why of course indeed.

    ¡°Why do you insist on calling me Al?¡±

    ¡°Because Al¡¯s your name, Al¡±

    ¡°No it isn¡¯t-¡°

    ¡°Because we¡¯re friends, Al¡±

    ¡°No, we¡¯re not¡± Most decidedly not.

    ¡°You know the saying, Al. The one where friends are the family you choose? Well, Al, I chose you¡± At this point I was done strapping on most of my armor, and sat down on my bed to attach the remaining shin guards.

    ¡°Then why did you choose me, of all people?¡±

    ¡°Why, for fun of course, Al!¡± Of course, my ass. Is she trying to get under my skin? At this point, she was succeeding in that.

    ¡°How did you know I was going to the White Tiger?¡±

    ¡°I followed you, Al¡± I looked up from my shin guards.

    ¡°How could you follow me and then end up ahead of me?¡±

    ¡°Oh, Al, that¡¯s easy¡± Is it now? Well, I¡¯m waiting here, that¡¯s not an appropriate or fulfilling answer to the question. However, she showed no signs of continuing her statement as she simply smiled as usual. There was no happiness in that smile. It kind of hurt by now.

    ¡°Really, do tell?¡±

    ¡°Why, I can read minds of course, Al¡± Shit, could she? The fact that I was inclined towards believing her was unsettling in a major way. Though, thinking about it, that would make a lot of things about her make much more sense. Though, reading minds?

    ¡°Oh, my dear Al, you shouldn¡¯t think too much about it. It was only a joke!¡± Was it though? Because that¡¯s exactly what a mind reader would say. Anyway, thinking about it further wouldn¡¯t yield any results, only misery.

    ¡°Well, let¡¯s get to the arena¡± I said, standing up and heading towards the door.

    ¡°Good talk, Al. We should do this more often!¡±  Gods, is this a nightmare? Please be a nightmare.

    As we arrived at the arena, I remembered that I should have warned the innkeeper about Lea. Half of my brain was telling me to go back and tell him, to forget about the tournament, it wasn¡¯t worth it. In the end I still chose to enter the arena.

    Day two of the qualifiers was a last man standing ordeal. However it was more appropriate to call it last group standing. The fighters that had qualified yesterday would all fight at the same time in the arena, until ten were left. Unlike yesterday, though, the standing part was quite literal. You could kill people here, as this was a match intended for entertainment, and monitoring faults among the contenders was nigh impossible.

    The gate of the arena was a large metal portcullis, currently raised. The floor inside was filled with dirt the color of sand, scattering in the wind from the movement of the fighters inside. There were several banners hanging from the walls, both above and beneath the raised seating areas. I could recognize the bear from Brill on one of them, so I presumed the rest were also city banners, presumably from the cities participating in the tournament. The walls and the arena itself was primarily made from stone, with wooden supports in places and a wooden rain cover for the audience.

    Entering the arena, I could somewhere in around a hundred other contenders standing around. The bigger ones were doing some warm up, while the smaller fighters were talking to others in groups. They were probably grouping up, there weren¡¯t any rules against that. It¡¯s fun for the crowds, so I suppose the arrangers left it in. The champions were the ones expected to win anyway, who cared if the other fighters got eliminated unfairly? Thinking about groups I wondered if me and Lea were one. Then I discarded the thought, because that would involve talking to her, and I was not going to talk with her voluntarily.

    Before the fighting begun, I spent my time trying to get away from Lea. Surprisingly; she was not following me around as usual. Once I considered myself a reasonable distance away from her, I began inspecting the spiritual properties of the other contenders.  Like most trained combatants, they had their spirit in a layer around them, most of them at least. This was the sign that they were in control of their willpower, something men are not typically born with. I too, had my spirit in this way, as did Lea, though in my case I was hiding great amounts of spirit in the layer. It was manifested as mist currently though, so it wasn¡¯t protecting me. I kept it this way to avoid suspicion from seers, those with the power to see spirit, like me. I hadn¡¯t encountered any spirit magic yet, so using it myself would probably draw far too much attention.

    In fact, I hadn¡¯t seen any magic outside life magic used by humans. The arena was no place for mages, even with no specific rules against it, but still. I shouldn¡¯t use any kind of magic unless I saw my opponent use it, or it was necessary to win.

    As the sun reached its zenith, the gate to the arena dropped shut. Everyone present tensed up, many clutching weapons. I didn¡¯t, but I still had the sword Thomas had given me, sheathed in its scabbard. Maybe it would finally see some use.

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    The audience¡¯s murmurs slowly died down, as its attention focused at a spot in the seating area opposite the closed entrance. There was a large seat there, with several smaller but still relatively big seats next to it. The large seat was unoccupied, but in the seats next to it a young boy and an older man sat. They were probably Magnus and Lucas, the hot topic of the capital. A nicely clothed man, middle aged, stepped out beside the row of seats and enhanced his voice with life magic casually.

    ¡°You may begin¡± He said, with a loud voice, starting not only the second qualification match, but also the roar of the audience.

    Since I wasn¡¯t using my spirit for detection, I was vulnerable to sneak attacks and ranged attacks at my back. With this in mind, I made sure to keep my eyes peeled as I unsheathed my sword and charged forward. The idea was to make it difficult for anyone targeting me to strike by continually staying in motion. A nearby man noticed me with a grunt and swung at my torso. Using my charging speed, I slid under the strike, permanently solving all of the man¡¯s future foot aches by literally removing the root of their causes.

    Doubling over, the man cried out in agony as I tried getting onto my feet again. However, the outcry called the attention of those nearby, who finished off the man as well as targeted me as I was on the ground. I rolled forward just as swords hit the ground behind me. Returning to my feet quickly, I simply ran away, as those who had been after me were now closer to each other, occupying themselves with each other.

    Performing a charge, I shouldered into a group of unsuspecting men that had clung together. The man I had hit first stumbled into the others, tipping them off balance while they looked for my next move. I exploited this momentary clash by burying my sword into my original target and the man behind him, before jumping back, out of range from their comrades¡¯ swords. I didn¡¯t manage to do this before one of the men lodged a dagger in my abdomen.

    At this point the amount of fighters had significantly dwindled down. I myself had only killed two, three if you count the man I assisted. Even if the others had only killed a third of what I had, that would result in a halving of contenders, all in mere moments. Though bloody and vicious, this method of eliminating applicants was efficient.

    After taking distance from the already small and rapidly dwindling group of men, I walked left towards the walls of the arena. There were far fewer targets to keep track of now, so I didn¡¯t have to fear being cornered by the walls and others. If somebody tried, I could just run away before they closed the trap. Turning my attention to the dagger in my abdomen, I drew it out slowly. The wound was non-lethal, especially to me as I could just use life magic to heal up. However I couldn¡¯t just flaunt massive amounts of life magic, so I only sealed the wound on the inside, stopping the bleeding. From the outside, the wound still looked deep.

    The group of men I had previously assaulted must have decided I was weakened, because they approached me by the wall. But as I previously mentioned, they had no way of surrounding me before I slipped out to the side. From the side I took them one by one before the others managed to assist. These men couldn¡¯t stop my enhanced thrust, like Eric could because of his life magic. They seemed to have some grasp on the fundamentals of it, however unfortunately for them their training was quickly becoming useless before me.

    As the last men realized this, they ran away from me. Although looking like cowards, this was a worthwhile tactic as the other fighters were killing each other. They might advance simply from staying alive. It was not a tactic I preferred however low a profile I was intending to keep, as I was approaching the remaining fighters in the center.

    As the number of contestants continued to drop, the edge of the battles was now far further in, which is why I was advancing on the perimeter of the fighting, aiming at the back of a currently preoccupied foe. Although I would never be caught retreating, striking somebody from behind wasn¡¯t something I considered dishonorable. I thought of it as mere exploitation, though I doubt the man now impaled on my sword shared my views. His opponent looked relieved for a second, because his assailant had stopped his flurry of strikes. However when looked up at the tip of my sword, the emotion quickly vanished along with his life.

    Now it was my turn to look up, as the piles of corpses made it difficult to spot remaining contestants. I quickly found the nearest threat however; as it smiled a bloody grin in my direction as we locked eyes. She stood on the spot, no weapons in hand and no blood shed on her armor either, as I advanced on her position.

    ¡°Congratulations!¡± A familiar voice boomed. Looking up, I spotted the loud mouthed man, from which the voice came from.

    ¡°We now have our remaining ten participants. Please stand by outside as we prepare the arena for the final stage of the qualifier!¡± The heavy metal gate to the arena lifted, and in came lots of staff who began dragging corpses onto broad carts. Me, Lea and the eight other remaining fighters walked towards the exit. Surprisingly, Lea wasn¡¯t doing cartwheels, though she still wasn¡¯t taking this seriously. Mind reader though? Those don¡¯t exist, right?

 11 Dealing with a demon

    Once my adrenalin had subsided, I felt the throbbing pain from my half sealed abdominal wound. I raised my smelly leather shirt after wiping away some of my blood with it, revealing a bleeding incision. I turned away from the other contenders waiting just outside the arena before properly healing it up.

    After the servants had cleared out the bodies and brushed some of the reddened sand to the side, we the contenders were allowed to re-enter the arena. As we did, I wondered why they hadn¡¯t simply let us fight till we were even fewer, earlier. That was when Lea came over to me and simply said:

    ¡°They do this part of the qualifier to drag out the entertainment; the all-out battle earlier is actually far too short for their tastes. I can¡¯t complain though, more fun this way¡± I invented a personal mantra there and then. It consisted of the phrase ¡°mind reading is not real¡±, and was mean to be repeated until Lea was no longer in sight. Then loud voice man appeared yet again in front of the two important figures on the big chairs.

    ¡°Honored challengers! You have braved two of the three qualifiers, and arrived at the final one alive! This alone is a formidable feat in itself, and now there is only one trial left before you have the honor of entering the arena, fighting against the champions of our great cities! There, you will have the unique chance to earn a comfortable titles and the land that comes with! And as if that weren¡¯t enough, if you have what it takes to win and the gods on your side too, you will get to request a desire from the holy Emperor himself! With this noble cause in mind, the royal family approves of this 5th and final qualifier to begin!¡±

    The crowd applauded and shouted as the spirits were high and rising. I could hear the occasional male outburst of ¡°and the ladies! Don¡¯t forget the beautiful ladies you¡¯ll land!¡± or ¡°money is really the noblest of causes! Amen to that!¡± There were several people in the audience that were obnoxiously selling beverages and leveraging illegal wagers between such men. Even in here the security was growing lax.

    ¡°I will now explain the final round and its rules! The qualifier will be one fight for each of you ten fighters, pitted once again against each other. Any kind of injury is permitted in these fights, including those resulting in immediate death. However, unlike the previous round you have the opportunity to surrender, sparing your life. Additionally, once the opponent can no longer put up a fight, further injuring them will disqualify you. We will now be selecting matches, the ones not fighting will have to exit the arena an may watch from behind a closed gate¡± I was not among the first two picked, neither was Lea so we both along with six others left the arena.

    The fight now taking place there was between an older man and a younger one was on a higher level than any of the ones I had seen in the previous rounds.  The old man was using earth magic to create and fling large rocks at the fully plated warrior. Countering this, the warrior seemed to be using enchanted equipment, as some of the inscription on his raised shield was glowing in a fiery red, taking the stones head on. Upon impact, the rock shattered as if struck by a force of equal size, sending pieces and dust everywhere.

    This confirmed the reasoning why magicians did not participate in these matches. The skilled ones were typically held in high esteem, and received luxurious positions within the church or the academic world, and simply did not want nor need to risk their lives further. The few magicians that were struggling to prove their worth, had a hard time beating the warriors that could afford powerful artifacts, especially the champions in the later rounds. There were other magicians that were capable of competing on such a high level, but they had more often than not signed with adventurer or mercenary guilds, which had rules against entering the qualifiers. Hence the stiff competition for championships of the larger cities.

    The current duel ended on a rather dull note, as when the plated warrior had finally reached the retreating magician, the old man surrendered. Magicians were wise after all.

    To me, though, this meant I could use magic to some degree without making myself too suspicious. Until I saw their fight, I was hesitant to use flashy spells that even commoners would pick up on. Following this display though, I be just another contender. After the applause and the occasional boo that followed the conclusion of their fight, the same voice rang throughout the stadium once again.

    ¡°Participants number 1541 and¡­ 1542! Next match is Alfred versus Lea!¡± The announcer announced to the audience. Lea looked at me with an evil grin, as she unsheathed a dagger from her hip. The gates slowly rose and we passed the winner and the loser on either side as we stepped into the arena, greeted by roars and cheers. Male comments about Lea¡¯s tight fitting leather armor on her fit physique weren¡¯t few or original. I could even hear some that cursed me, simply for being allowed to fight her or some such.

    As I was approaching my designated starting spot, I thought of Lea¡¯s fighting style. If there was one recurring theme, it was that she hadn¡¯t been serious, however apart from that she had won the first qualifier by surprising and outsmarting her opponent. During the second qualifier I had not seen her fight, but was that because I wasn¡¯t near her or simply because she didn¡¯t? Her armor was unsullied at the end of it all, had she cartwheeled her way out of everything?

    In order to prepare for the unexpected and surprising, I materialized a thin spiritual barrier. It still couldn¡¯t be seen, and within the spirit I already had around my body, it was close to invisible for a seer. Looking over at Lea, she too was at this point ready, so I turned my attention to the announcer.

    ¡°Begin!¡± I turned to face Lea again.

    Twang! Something hit my head so hard and fast I was forced to take three steps back in order not to fall over. The whiplash I suffered from the impact caused there to be a moment where my eyes were not on Lea.

    ¡°WHAT THE FU-¡° I began, before I was interrupted by lea, a mere inch away from my face.

    ¡°If you don¡¯t take this fight more seriously, Al, it will end with you in terrible amounts of pain¡± Smiling, she casually slid her dagger through my barrier and into my healed abdominal wound. She then proceeded to twist it, jump up and push away from me by kicking at the dagger, burying parts of the hilt inside me. Even through adrenalin and confusion I felt the searing pain and gave out a little yelp. Before any more damage could be done, I raised my barrier to the same thickness as my spirit and pulled out the dagger while sealing and healing the wound instantly with strenuous amounts of life magic.

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    The speed of which Lea had just moved, even though I had not seen the technique with my own eyes I knew, it was not human. Or if it was, it was beyond reckless, and considering Lea¡¯s character, this was entirely plausible.

    Lea had taken a second to land from the flip, but she now continued her assault. Now I saw the technique; she first used a combination of earth and fire magic to fire a pebble aimed at my head. This time however, my barrier was strengthened, and when hit I deflected the force and the pebble to the side. Next, she used her technique for speed. Again, she used a combination of fire and earth,  only this time the pebble was her. The earth magic was used between the explosion and the air around her, concentrating the blast and further boosting her speed.

    Because explosions were occurring so concentrated and directly on her body, she took considerable damage, sending pieces of flesh flying here and there and even scorching parts of her body completely. Before the damage could affect her movement, it was all healed by life magic. All of these processes happened in a flash, quite literally, as her body seemed to disappear in the light of the explosions. I would not have been able to catch on to what was happening had I not encountered this move before. In fact, I only knew of one person who had been capable and willing to perfect the technique.

    ¡°You¡¯re fucking Leo!¡± I spat at her, before dodging one of her blitz-kicks.

    ¡°And you¡¯re fucking Alfrey, though these are not presently our preferred names, are they?¡± She smiled, disappearing in a flash and reappearing behind me, with one leg raised.

    ¡°I¡¯m not letting that go all that simply, what the fuck happened to your dick!?¡± Dodging out of the way, her axe kick shattered the ground behind me, leaving cracks in the ground and raising a dust cloud. She was not one to lose on speed though; I all too soon found a pair of rocket pebbles fired at my face at close range.

    ¡°Oh dear, are you missing my penis?¡± A sly grin spread on top of her normal smile. I grabbed the pebbles with my spirit as they entered it, forcing them away and towards the arena wall where they embedded themselves. Lea used the time to propel herself backwards, pelting my barrier with rock splinters from the explosion. I cased my fists in jagged rock.

    ¡°Don¡¯t play coy, it doesn¡¯t fit you¡± It was my turn to respond, and I replicated her technique to a smaller degree, launching myself towards her mid-air. She only grinned and vanished in flash; the technique worked just as well while airborne.

    ¡°I¡¯ll take that as a compliment, darling¡± The voice came from below me, where several pebbles were being aimed at my manhood.

    ¡°Please don¡¯t be so disgusting¡± Forming a rock slab beneath my feet, I rapidly sank on her location.

    ¡°Your feedback is appreciated, though it has also been entirely ignored¡± She rolled backwards, away from the approaching slab. As the rock landed, she dove at me with a dagger pointed at my abdomen again.

    ¡°Why are you even in the human capital? Don¡¯t you have sinister affairs to attend, far from here?¡± I met her dagger with one jagged rock fist, the other closing in on her head.

    ¡°I have a better question Al, why are you in the human capital?¡± She blew herself backwards once again, out of range of the strike.

    ¡°Why do you think?¡± Expecting her to jump back, I blew up the stone on my fist with fire magic, sending splinters flying in her direction.

    ¡°I think you¡¯re the one with sinister affairs to attend to¡± Raising a small spiritual barrier, the splinters caused her no damage. Though she was constantly blowing herself up and growing the pieces back, her attire seemed to have no extra holes. Was the leather armor enchanted?

    ¡°Of which are none of your business¡± Punching my remaining jagged fist at her location, I blew it off in one piece.

    ¡°Does this business that is none of my concern include winning the tournament?¡± Childish curiosity manifested itself in her smile. Pure, unrefined evil intent manifested itself in her eyes. The jagged fist I sent her way she blew away with a concentrated explosion from her palm.

    ¡°Like I fucking said¡± Finally I drew my sword, only to instantly throw it at her.

    ¡°I have a proposal for you, Al dearest¡± She dodged the sword by blowing her body away. It embedded itself in the arena wall, between the two pebbles from earlier.

    ¡°Consider it rejected¡± Encasing my fists once again in jagged rock, I rushed her.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be so hasty, it benefits the both of us¡± She took my charge head on, preparing two more daggers.

    ¡°I doubt that, but how so?¡± I swung at her torso with my left, then right as she weaved and dodged out of the way.

    ¡°I don¡¯t tell the grand Marshall of the inquisitor branch who you really are¡± Having dodge, she moved in to strike with both daggers at the same time.

    ¡°And how will you support your claim?¡± I blew up my rock gauntlets from the top, propelling my hands into hers on the way down and grabbing them.

    ¡°You don¡¯t know?¡± Close as she was now, I could see no hint of trickery in her genuinely surprised expression. Then her forehead hit my nose with a wrath. Loosening my grip on her arms with explosions she broke free and cartwheeled backwards. The mental strain on her from using too much magic must be getting heavy.

    ¡°Your eyes, Al. No natural born human has such striking blue eyes¡± I didn¡¯t need to see her expression to know it was true. Now that I thought about it, all the humans I had met had had brown or green eyes, with the exception of two.

    ¡°Anyway, the agreement Al, I don¡¯t tell on you, and you bring me along for your plans. Purely as an observer of course¡± She had stopped her assault, as had I.

    ¡°Figures. The reason you¡¯re here, female, found me and now make me this deal is the same as always, isn¡¯t it?¡± I glared at her.

    ¡°Maybe it is. Then again, how could anyone not want to join you on an adventure? After all, it truly sound like fun¡± She returned my glare with her sinister smile.

    ¡°I don¡¯t really have much of a choice at this point though, do I?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll take that as a yes¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ll take whatever I say as whatever you want it to be¡±

    ¡°Always¡± At this she turned around and addressed the announcer.

    ¡°I surrender¡±

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Trying a poll to see which character people like the most so far.

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 12 Brewing trouble

    The crowd of the arena grew rowdy and restless from the conclusion of our fight. Here were two combatants that seemed to go at each other¡¯s necks without a moment¡¯s hesitation, with flashy and original moves and magic most of them probably had never seen before, and then one suddenly conceded. For some certain parts of the audience, this battle was really all about the eye candy, and these predominantly male groups were neither afraid nor ashamed of voicing their somewhat dubious opinions. When you factor in the alcohol and lack of policing guards, it was not all that weird that I quickly became the most hated of people participating in the tournament.

    Hopefully, this would not cause any problems for me down the line. Merely the fact that these problems were caused inadvertently by Leo was enough to make me uncomfortable. If there was one thing he used to exceed at, it was causing a dizzying array of problems, making it difficult for anyone close to him to figure out if they were caught in his schemes before it was too late to act. As me and Lea were exiting the arena, she continued with her smiling. She was also walking with a skip in her step and if you listened closely, you could hear her humming an eerie song.

    ¡°Before we begin your ¡°observement¡±, are there any schemes I should know about?¡±

    ¡°No schemes currently, Al, but I never know. They just sort of come to me, you know?¡± She reassured me, I could only hope for it to be true. Honestly, her not having a scheme was a little disconcerting. It made me think she simply lied, and that I was involved in a running scheme. Perhaps it was better to ignore the possibility, and move on. Attempting to guess her thoughts would only leave me with a headache.

    As the two of us had finished our fight, me qualifying for the tournament and Lea not so much, we were done with the arena for the day and were allowed to leave. The match behind us was between two of the retreating cowards from earlier, amusingly. Why they were still participating was anybody¡¯s guess, some woman maybe? Honestly, suicide had easier alternatives.

    ¡°That reminds me Lea, where are you staying?¡±

    ¡°Why, I carve people open and sleep inside them for heat¡±

    ¡°I see, well then I¡¯ll be staying here then, bye¡±

    ¡°Sometimes I try to pilot the meat suit the day after¡± I was already inside the inn, walking up the stairs. Lea showed no signs of stopping to follow me.

    ¡°Do you know how hard it is to insert your own limbs into somebody elses? As if they weren¡¯t made for it¡± I¡¯m not going to argue the obvious flaws in her statements, it¡¯s what she wants.

    ¡°Then there¡¯s trying to adjust the eyeballs. I have to replace them you know? With my own, bringing my face as close to the surface of theirs so that telling from the outside is hard¡± I put my hand on the door to my room.

    ¡°Look, even if I agreed to let you observe me and my goings, can¡¯t you observe me sleep from somewhere else?¡±

    ¡°Somewhere else? How do you suggest I do that?¡± She snickered at me.

    ¡°Through the window or something¡± I opened the door to my room, quickly realizing it had no window, but simple wooden panels on hinges. Lea noticed too, as a subdued laughter was escaping her.

    ¡°Maybe not through a window, but maybe you can just take up residence in another room? I could even pay for it¡± I tried to smile at her. I failed at smiling at her, as her face was enough to tell me the answer.

    ¡°Now why would I do that? Give up such a nice opportunity for .. observation¡± She sat down on my desk, neglecting the perfectly good chair.

    ¡°Because I would like some sleep?¡±

    ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t you be sleeping?¡±

    ¡°Because you would be in the room¡±

    ¡°Am I too alluring for you, Al?¡± I turned around and started to drop pieces of armor on the floor as I unstrapped them.

    ¡°Quite the opposite, I fear getting molested¡± She laughed before responding.

    ¡°Relax, Al, just because I swapped genders and bodies doesn¡¯t mean I turned gay¡±

    ¡°You might not have turned gay, no, but I heard you already were¡±

    ¡°Those were rumors¡±

    ¡°But were they only rumors?¡±

    ¡°Do you want to find out?¡± She said, attempting seductive poses on my desk.

    ¡°I want to sleep, undisturbed¡± I said as I sat down on my bed.

    ¡°Oh, I won¡¯t wake you¡±

    ¡°Those two things are not the same!¡±

    ¡°But they might be?¡± Was she planning on sleeping on my desk? It did almost fit her when she was lying down, and I¡¯m sure she had slept on worse. Keeping an eye on her for movement I lay down on my side.

    When the morning came, it turned out that I had kept an eye on her too well, since I hadn¡¯t gotten a wink of sleep myself. She, on the other hand, stretched out yawning as if the desk had been the cure for all of her ailments. Groggily I stepped out of the inn, in contrast to Lea¡¯s skipping as we headed back to the arena.

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    ¡°Hey, Al, what do you think about starting our own arena?¡±

    ¡°Sounds stupid¡±

    ¡°We could find the strongest people from all over, and have them participate for glory!¡±

    ¡°I doubt they would come far for just glory¡±

    ¡°If that¡¯s a problem, you could add some money to the prize pool¡±

    ¡°Why should I?¡±

    ¡°Because we¡¯ll find the strongest people around?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not seeing a reason here?¡±

    ¡°For fun?¡±

    ¡°Not for me¡±

    ¡°Who knows, we might even find some girls with dicks?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t like what you¡¯re implying¡±

    ¡°Some really strong and muscular girls with dicks¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re not being convincing, but then again, I doubt you were intending to be from the beginning¡±

    ¡°Is that not your type then? You prefer them more slender?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t prefer them at all¡±

    ¡°Oh, don¡¯t be shy. Weren¡¯t you looking at me all night, wondering if I had one in my pants?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m already assuming that you do, it makes it easier for me to handle you¡±

    ¡°Oh, how forward. At least take me on a date before undressing me with your eyes, pervert¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not something people usually do, is it?¡±

    ¡°Oh I know what you mean, I never take anyone on a date before imagining them naked¡±

    ¡°You, dating?¡±

    ¡°Me, dating?¡± She was copying my intonation as well.

    ¡°That¡¯s more like it, you almost surprised me there for a moment¡±

    ¡°Rude, I have the young body of fair maiden. My chances of finding love are vastly greater than yours¡±

    We arrived at the arena, cheers were heard from the inside, where more qualifiers were held. Outside was the usual ordeal, seven squares, central desk.

    ¡°Remember when we first met, darling?¡±

    ¡°Well it wasn¡¯t here, and I wouldn¡¯t call that ¡°meeting¡±¡±

    I went over to one of the idle staff members and asked where I could get information on my next fight. I was then told the front office of the arena would have such information.

    ¡°We should commemorate coming back here¡±

    ¡°No, no we shouldn¡¯t¡±

    The front office was in the walls arena, between two entrances for spectators. There were several clerks in there, from the masses that wanted information on the next fights. Asking one of them, I was told my next fight would be on three days¡¯ time, on the first day of the tournament. Having fulfilled our purpose for coming here, we next made our way to the White Tiger.

    Before we entered, a man that had been standing outside spotted us and quickly went inside. He must have been the lookout, previously not there because Lea had entered.

    ¡°They¡¯re back Sebastian!¡± the young boy yelled, loud enough for us to hear it out here. He must be new on the lookout duty; perhaps I killed his predecessor yesterday?

    Inside there were less men than yesterday, did they lose some? Most of the men here today were younger, in their late teens. Some looked younger. Sebastian stood in front of the bar, showing off his imposing height that complimented his brutish looks. I was usually quite tall amongst humans, but he was a good head taller.

    ¡°You did say you¡¯d be back. Honestly mate, I was hopin¡¯ it¡¯d just been your crazy talkin¡¯ yesterday.¡±

    ¡°You and your boys steal, yes?¡±

    ¡°We might, yeah, what about it?¡±

    ¡°And do you know of the current political state of the capital?¡±

    ¡°Just tell me the fuck you want, yeh?¡±

    ¡°Answer the fucking question, yeh?¡±

    ¡°I know as much as most about the right hand man and the little boy¡±

    ¡°Then this should be simple; I want you and your boys to steal from the nobles supporting the right hand man, Lucas¡±

    ¡°The fuck it¡¯s simple old man, they have all their men in those fancy houses of theirs¡±

    ¡°Then don¡¯t go there, the nobles don¡¯t only own those fancy houses, they own land and farmers working there. Head out to the local fields and rough up the farmers, only from the right nobles though¡±

    ¡°Even then, how are we ¡®spoused to know who¡¯s right and who¡¯s wrong out there?¡±

    ¡°In these parts of town, there must be some people in the know, ask them. Or persuade them to tell you¡±

    ¡°We could do that, yeah. And you said something about payment last time, yeh?¡±

    ¡°And you said something about special offer?¡±

    ¡°That offer ended was only valid yesterday¡±

    ¡°Then I¡¯ll make you a new one; do as I say, and less of you die¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m only trying to help you here, man. No pay isn¡¯t going to convince anyone to rob some farmers, they don¡¯t have much in the ways of money. People are just gonna ignore me, that¡¯s not what you want is it?¡±

    ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll pay you, but you¡¯ll  have to do a little extra for it¡±

    ¡°Whaddya have in mind?¡±

    ¡°Kill the farmers and burn their crops¡±

 13 A hard days work

    Before me and Lea left the White Tiger, we discussed the finer parts of the agreement with Sebastian. When asked who he was planning to ask about the noblemen in Lucas¡¯ faction, he wasn¡¯t very willing to give up the answer. After a bit of lifting some of his minions up by the neck, he gave in. His guy in the know was his friend called Nasty Noel. The boys didn¡¯t look too happy about him being involved in this, murmuring something about him not being more than a little mischievous about giving out free potion samples, only having them be prototypes with varied side effects. I had sort of figured it out, but Sebastian verified my suspicions when told me Noel was a potion master and an old friend. His information brokering was a side business that stemmed from his frequent contact with nobility looking to adventure or with assassins looking for the latest in poisons.

    Sebastian was willing to tell his boys to go outside and raid the farms of targeted noblemen and women, at a reasonable price. Problem for me was that paying this price more than once was enough to almost drain me of my funds entirely. I did not mention this to Sebastian of course, there would be no real point, I only gave him what money I had now and told him I would be back with more once I saw the results.

    Having left I would have to come up with a moneymaking scheme. The best schemer around was Lea, but when I asked her if she would plan something she refused, saying she wanted to observe me and my plans. There was also the matter of the tournament, and Eric. I really didn¡¯t want to run into Eric during or before this tournament, and wearing my armor all of the time, though an option, was somewhat taxing and uncomfortable. I¡¯d rather just stick to the rougher districts, no real chance of him just dropping by here. Thinking about the tournament, when it started I¡¯d have even less time to earn money.

    ¡°Lea, when the tournament begins, will you be observing me?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry darling, I¡¯ll be rooting for you¡±

    ¡°Please stop that¡±

    ¡°Stop what darling?¡±

    ¡°That¡±

    ¡°Do you prefer Al, Al?¡±

    ¡°Honestly, yes, though honestly, I¡¯m not sure if my preferences matter at this point. If anything, it¡¯ll probably work against me, right?¡±

    ¡°Correct, darling¡±

    ¡°Anyway, during my matches, you will be amongst the audience?¡±

    ¡°Correct, darling¡±

    ¡°In that case, do you mind handling some bets?¡±

    ¡°Illegal bets? Are you out of your mind, darling?¡± Her face betrayed her words, on purpose no doubt.

    ¡°Yeah, illegal bets, I¡¯m sure you have a strong dislike for breaking the law and such¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, darling. I was already planning on handling my own bets, though I guess that¡¯s not what you had in mind?¡±

    ¡°No, I¡¯d like for you to handle some for me, while you¡¯re at it¡±

    ¡°I suppose I could take some of your money¡±

    ¡°And bet it on me?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll see, won¡¯t we? You¡¯ll just have trust me darling¡±

    If she did run away with my money, though, I¡¯d be glad to be rid of her. Peace of mind was far more valuable to me than money I could possibly get elsewhere. Maybe I could borrow one of Sebastian¡¯s boys as a front. They would be unlikely to run away from both me and Sebastian, and even if Sebastian were In cahoots with him, he¡¯d lose larger parts of his crew in the process. The more that I thought about it, the more I wanted Lea to just run away.

    Having sorted the finances for the tournament days, I¡¯d have to figure something for the coming three days. I couldn¡¯t go around taking it from thieves, most of them were working for me now, taking their money would reduce the raid¡¯s impact and make it more difficult for Sebastian to convince them, in turn pushing his prices up.

    This train of thought brought me back to the potion master. I might not be able to steal from thieves, and the middle class wasn¡¯t walking around with a lot of coin any day, but nobles were another matter entirely. Taking down those that sided with Lucas would also help me turn the nobles against him, while making the heir, Magnus, seem like a less trustworthy leader. With this in mind I asked passersby if they knew about a Noel or a Nasty Noel, and after a small amount of time I found someone with knowledge of his infamy and location. A shop called the Nasty Brew, presumably named after the taste of most potions, and possibly the taste of poisons, not that I¡¯d ever tasted that.

    Potion craft was an interesting profession. Though I was not entirely familiar with it, I knew it somehow involved storing life magic in some sort of fluid. I had my suspicions said fluid was using the properties of blood along with something else. Blood magicians could after infuse their own blood with magic to manipulate it, though could somebody else drink or apply such blood and have it automatically heal them? Life magic wasn¡¯t that simple, but Eric had demonstrated an innate ability to control it, so I suppose it was possible to do something like that. In fact, I knew it was possible to do something like that, potions were no mere tale after all, and they used the healing properties of life magic.

    Arriving at the Nasty Brew, I could see a closed door to a smaller shop on the first floor of a two story building on the outskirts of the rough parts of the capital. Though I hadn¡¯t checked more than the front, it looked very gloomy with no windows apparent. Heading inside I found it to be almost entirely dark, with some light streaming in from the open door I just came through. There were some smaller vials of red liquid stored in some sort of science equipment on the shelves, with varying amounts of liquid in each of the similarly sized vials. In the middle towards the back was a countertop with more vials and some interesting herbs, powder and liquids of a different color than red. Behind the disorganized counter was a disheveled man, roughly the same age as Sebastian who was middle aged. Though, in contrast to him, this man had dark hair on his head and face. Frankly, he had too much of it, and especially the nose and ear hairs were a bit too much, as if the man had never heard of scissors.

    When we entered, he looked up at us, grimacing at the light and looking at us as if we didn¡¯t look like customers. To be fair, we weren¡¯t his usual kind of customer.

    ¡°What do you two want?¡± He finally came about to ask, after he had returned his attention to some project in from of him. He was mixing liquids and noting the smell of them.

    ¡°We¡¯d like some information¡±

    ¡°What kind of information? If you wanted potion recipes, I doubt I can help you, most of my stuff is more or less made on a whim¡±

    ¡°I¡¯d like the kind of information your friend Sebastian said you¡¯d sell¡±

    ¡°I see, well then you¡¯ll give me the request and I¡¯ll give you a price¡±

    ¡°We¡¯d like a list of the nobles supporting Lucas¡±

    ¡°Supporting the emperor¡¯s right hand man, I presume?¡±

    ¡°Yes¡±

    ¡°Supporting him in what?¡±

    ¡°You know the current political strife between him and Magnus¡±

    ¡°The heir, right?¡±

    ¡°Are there others?¡±

    ¡°That will cost you¡±

    ¡°Yes, the heir of the current Emperor¡±

    ¡°Well, I certainly have parts of that information, but there are layers. Some of the information puts me more at risk than others¡±

    ¡°How many won¡¯t put you at risk to tell me?¡±

    ¡°About half a dozen or so¡±

    ¡°That will do¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll give you that information for, say, ten gold?¡±

    ¡°That will be fine¡±

    ¡°Then there¡¯s the matter of me keeping my mouth shut¡±

    ¡°What do you mean¡±

    ¡°Well, if you don¡¯t want people that come in here asking about people asking about them or others, to get your appearance and request, you¡¯d do well in paying me to not divulge said information, no?¡±

    ¡°Who¡¯d want to look for something so specific from you?¡±

    ¡°That would cost extra¡±

    ¡°You won¡¯t let just anyone know though, right?¡±

    ¡°Of course, I don¡¯t do free samples. I would charge them, on the other hand, I would tell someone that I have such information, if they would look like prospective buyers of said intel¡±

    Looking at what I had left after today, and thinking about what expenses I had before getting hold of more money, I set aside what I could possibly need for food.

    ¡°I¡¯ll pay you 15 gold to keep quiet then, but only if you keep quiet about Sebastian and give him the information you gave me for free¡±

    ¡°I take it you and Sebastian are in cahoots then?¡±

    ¡°You could say so¡±

    ¡°Well then, I find those to be acceptable terms¡± Noel grabbed a note and some ink, then a few seconds later gave me said note.

    ¡°These are the names most of the young nobles divulge to me being open about their support to Lucas. They should therefore not be able to link the information back to me, as almost anyone of the nobles would know. I also added a few unconfirmed ones that the nobles speculate could be a part of the faction as well, though bear in mind they do not openly support Lucas, so this is all just speculation based on their characters and past actions. Should you pay extra, however, I would be able to add to and scratch some off that list¡±

    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.¡°No, this will be sufficient¡± There were only three days until the tournament after all; I would have neither the time nor the purpose to strike more than a handful of targets.

    ¡°Very well then, I wish you a good day¡±

    Leaving the shop me and Lea returned to the Inn to prepare for tonight¡¯s activities. Meaning, I tried to sleep because I was at this point dead tired. Lea did what Lea does, annoy me or, well, annoy me, but in different ways.

    Night was upon us and we headed towards the first target. The loudest of the supporters and also one of the richer was currently residing in a city villa in the nobler of districts. My armor was clunking slightly as I approached the manor, but I had to wear it in case Eric decided to go for a nighttime stroll. Meeting him now would possibly foil my plans, so I had to disguise and hide.

    There were two guards outside the main gate. They were posted outside the gate¡¯s pillars, luckily, meaning no one could see them from the inside of the manor. Confirming that there were no spectators on the street, I used earth magic through the ground and forced it with my will. Then I separated the earth under them and made long earth spears rise up in the underground pitfalls.

    Graves prepared, I opened them simultaneously, and with a yelp from each guard they were quickly sealed and impaled beneath ground as I began filling the holes. If anyone heard the yelps of the guards, they might come looking, so I stayed put a distance away, waiting to see.

    After a while of waiting, no witnesses showed up, so I walked over to the gate and peeked in. There were several windows on this side, through some of which I could see guards. However, none of them were currently looking at the gate, they seemed to be just standing close to the windows, and not actually looking out. This could change at a moment¡¯s notice, so I grabbed the opportunity and moved over to the doorway with haste.

    Once there, I filled the keyhole with spirit, sending it inside to map the first floor with a thin pulse. Having confirmed people only in the rooms to the left and right, meant there were none watching the door from the inside. While keeping my spirit inside, I

    ¡°Isn¡¯t this exciting¡±

    ¡°You promised not to interfere¡±

    ¡°Am I?¡±

    ¡°Yes¡±

    ¡°No I¡¯m not¡±

    ¡°Yes you are¡±

    ¡°How am I interfering?¡±

    ¡°By distracting me¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re distracting yourself, darling¡±

    ¡°You know what, you¡¯re right. I should just treat you as a figment of my imagination¡±

    ¡°Lovely, I¡¯ve always wanted to narrate a figment of imagination!¡±

    ¡°Can the figment be quiet?¡±

    ¡°One does not normally have control over such things, does one?¡±

    Continuing with the lock, keeping my spirit on the inside keeping tabs on the people that didn¡¯t seem to notice its presence, I now used earth magic as a pick, pressuring the pins with one and poking them with another. After a while the lock clicked open, and I quietly pushed the door aside.

    ¡°Brilliant work, darling¡±

    The inside was lined with items on display, items I could steal and probably sell. However, I could not walk the streets at night with a sack of goods without raising some amount of suspicion, so I ventured on into the house. The door leading to the left room was closed, but the door the right was open, and judging by the position of the people in there, they might have view of the doorway.

    ¡°That is quite troublesome, isn¡¯t it, darling¡±

    Lea had not extended her spirit; in fact I was unsure if she even had that amount of control. Had she just guessed the situation, or did she have her own tricks? Either way, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised.

    With my spirit, I now made some of it tangible but not visible, and with the liquid form of spirit I willed it to push gently at the door. The second it hid me from their view, I tip-toed past to minimize the noise from my armor. The people in the room didn¡¯t react to the door moving by its own, claiming it must¡¯ve been the wind. At the end of the hallway was a staircase which I promptly ascended.  Once on the second floor I had once again used my spirit to look for people. This floor two larger rooms, each filled with presences of people, lying on the ground. What these rooms were ordinarily used for I had no clue, but currently they seemed to occupy the guards that were ordered to remain within this noble¡¯s premises to not cause problems for him. I ascended the stairway once again to the third floor.

    ¡°You¡¯ve been quite lucky so far, haven¡¯t you?  No guards in the hallways what so ever¡±

    This floor had one big room with a long table in it and two smaller rooms to the right. If I had to guess, I¡¯d say one was a dining room and the other was a kitchen. The kitchen then had a room In the end, in which two presences were laying down on the ground. Before ascending to the fourth floor I checked the hallway, only to find a single person sitting at the end of it. So, after checking the locations of the other people on the fourth, I walked up the hallway on the third floor until I was underneath the sitting guard. Once there I softly leapt up to the sealing and used life magic to attach my hands to the wood there.

    ¡°Oh my, how silly of you¡±

    Hanging from the ceiling, I manipulated the wood underneath the guard and up the walls. I willed the wood underneath him to open a hole the size of a finger, before putting one finger through it. Once on the other side I created a short but heavy spear and made the walls sprout branches. These branches then stretched over towards the spear under the chair and pulled it along the floor on the carpet. Once At the wall behind the guard I made the walls attach their vines to the spear and hoist it up. Once on the top, the ceiling took over, positioning the spear over the guard¡¯s head. There was a squishy sound made, but the body remained in the chair, held by vines.

    ¡°Did you hear that noise, darling? I think there may be intruders!¡± Lea did her absolute worst impression of a noblewoman. The guard taken care of, I dropped down from the ceiling and went up to the fourth floor. There was the guard there, a female one, slumped back in a chair with an earth spear sticking out of the top of her head. The other living presences on the floor were in the room to the left. The one to the right was empty, perhaps some storage or bathroom? After retrieving and dispelling the spear, I headed into the left room once I confirmed the presences to be lying down.

    In a large bed was a man and a woman. And in a crib at the foot end was a crib with a smaller presence. The child could cause trouble if he woke up, so I made it a priority to end his life. Reaching down into the crib I placed my hand on his head and empowered it with life magic, crushing its fragile and soft skull without much sound. Its body went into a bit of a shock before going limp from suddenly missing its brain.

    Next I turned my attention to the parents. Wanting it to look like an assassination, I couldn¡¯t squash them both with slabs or blow their heads off with an explosion. Nor would it be quiet either. I settled on once again using earth spears, after all one could believe the wounds caused to be from some dagger or sword. The man was lying on his back, so I grabbed my earth spear with my spirit and held it high over his heart. The woman was at his side, sleeping on his arm, so I crept up behind her, spear held high. As I released one spear with my spirit over the man I thrust the other into the heart of the woman from behind. Simultaneously they both let out a little sigh as they slowly woke up only to quickly die. Lea let out a little chuckle at the scene, then went over to look at the small corpse at the foot end. Then, she looked up at me with a smile.

    ¡°This here gave me an idea¡±

    ¡°No¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ve had kids before, haven¡¯t you?¡±

    ¡°None of your business¡±

    ¡°Would you like to have some again¡±

    ¡°If I did, what would you say¡±

    ¡°Well, I¡¯ve never raised a kid¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t continue that sentence¡± She made a pouting face before striking a childish pose of silent anger.

    I walked over to the dressers and rifled through them, stuffing jewelry into my pockets. Done with one dresser, I proceeded to the next, only to find it to belong to the man and therefore filled with even more jewelry. Neither of them had any gold though, so I went through their clothes and found some in their inner pockets. Then I checked the room for a hidden safe, finding it embedded in the wall behind the clothes in one of the wardrobes. The safe was opened with a little well placed explosion, without damaging its contents. Inside were some documents pertaining to ownership of various lands, as well as the farms on them. The only things of any value to me were the gemstones and purses of gold.

    The next three days, the security around the estates of nobles grew increasingly tighter, allowing the reign of organized crime to operate freer than ever.

 14 Trials

    The day the tournament started, all thirty-two participants were gathered in the arena while the emperor himself addressed us and the crowd. We stood evenly spaced in a cubed formation, five in length and width with seven contenders in a line in front. These seven were wearing expensive looking equipment, with the exception of Eric who was still staying true to his surname. Even here, amongst fellow warriors, he looked out of place with his armor-less outfit. Had I not known his innate ability for life magic, I would have a hard time seeing him as a match to the other six champions, whom each were brimming with enchanted armors.

    The seven in front being champions meant that the remaining twenty five of us were qualified participants. Considering my own qualifier which began with somewhere around two hundred and ended in five, this meant that about a thousand people had participated in the qualifiers, and at least four hundred and fifty people had died during them.

    The emperor did not look healthy. It was apparent he was getting help from his aides, which looked to be priests casting life magic on him while he was speaking. Whether he was the one using life magic to amplify his voice or not was impossible to tell from a distance, as his spirit was straining from something though it was impossible to discern what.

    ¡°As emperor of the holy human empire I thank you all for having gathered here for this annual celebration of the warrior spirit. It is at occasions like these that we are all reminded of what separates humans from those that would stand against us. We should also take a moment to think of the brave souls that sacrificed their lives during the great conquest half a millennia ago, when the demons attacked. We live our lives today in gratitude to them, and the gods of light that we owe everything to.¡±

    The old man took a little breather before continuing with his speech, making a pose of prayer or thought, inspiring the crowds to do the same.

    ¡°The tournaments will last for five days, with each participant having one fight per day to allow for proper rest. With the gods willing, we shall have a glorious celebration of strength and honor! I now declare the tournament officially open!¡±

    He finished his speech with a slam of the royal scepter, a golden staff with a pointed crown shape on the top. The audience applauded and yelled, even the two to his sides were standing and clapping. Once this had settled he finally sat down again, along with both Lucas and Magnus whom sat down on either side of him. Then the loud man from the qualifiers stepped forward used said talent.

    ¡°The first match will be between the champions, Eric of Brill and Marcus of Helmfirth! We ask that the other contenders step out of the arena and wait their turn!¡±

    Several hours of waiting later, my name was finally called. Though, my first match would be against one of the cowards from the second day of my qualifiers. The one remaining after the two cowards had fought for a spot amongst the five qualified. The loud man then explained the rules for the tournament; there were to be no serious or mortal injuries, and fighting after one party surrendered would disqualify the attacker.

    After the formalities were over, immediately after we got the signal to begin, the coward surrendered. Luckily for me, I had not thrown anything at him. Who knows, I might have gotten myself disqualified, though I highly doubt that was the coward¡¯s intention. Though, with the ever growing hatred against me for wearing dwarven armor and defeating the only female participant, the crowd might have called for my disqualification, and the emperor might have listened to their wails.

    Unfortunately for me and the nobles openly backing Lucas, Lea returned with the money from me beating the coward, which was not a lot. As such, I was forced to supplement my payment to Sebastian¡¯s men with money from said nobles.

    The next day however, I met another man from my own qualifier, perhaps this was how they organized the fights? The man was the one wearing plated armor with an enchanted shield. The signal to begin was given and I approached him with fists clad in jagged dark rock.

    The enchantment on the shield had glowed red on the day he had fended off the bombardments of the mage, signifying its origin to be mostly fire magic. If he was using the same shield, it would probably deflect direct attacks with fire¡¯s explosive properties, so charging in and hitting him could be dangerous. Therefore my first move was to verify his enchant. Taking off one of my fists of rock, I threw it at him with some force., aiming for his torso. With his metal plated armor it would be difficult to dodge projectiles, though, unfortunately for me, my little glove of rock wasn¡¯t much of a threat to said armor. Therefore, instead of empowering his enchant, he simply raised his shield as the rock failed to even stagger him in his steady advance.

    This is why I made a bigger rock, about the size the magician from the qualifier had summoned, and threw that at him. Proving large enough to halt his advance, the rock shattered against his shield like the ones previously. His enchant was indeed the same, even if he had a shield with a similar appearance and a different enchantment, using it this early in the tournament might be foolish.

    Knowing his shield¡¯s properties, and not seeing any other enchantments on his gear, I too began approaching. At this the warriors pace slowed, probably confused at why the magician would advance toward the warrior. When we met, began swinging his sword at me, while keeping his shield ready to parry. I, on the other hand, was dodging his slashes, supporting my speed with a little life magic. These strikes only served to prove how talented Eric really was, being able to match my speed. The man in front of me however had no chance of landing a hit on me, and was clearly becoming fatigued faster as his slashes grew more desperate and less refined. Letting this little game continue for a little while, I ended it by reaching out to the flat of his sword as it passed me by. Having reached it, I then encased the entire blade in a burly rock, almost making the man drop his weapon from its weight alone.

    After attempting to use his sword as an improvised club, he quickly realized how useless it was to attempt hitting me with a now even slower weapon. When he did realize this, however, he raised his shield to cover his entire body as he slowly advanced towards me again. Not failing to understand his plan, I raised a few rocks in front of his feet without him noticing. Once he arrived at these, he stumbled forward a little, giving me the opportunity to get around him. Now at his side, I snuck in between him and his shield, not allowing its front to face me, and grabbed his shield arm. Realizing what I was about to do, the man tried to escape my grip with vigor, and punches to my sides. His plated fists landed on my armor, but would sometimes find their way in between, bruising my flesh. His efforts were rendered in vain, as his shield was soon in my hands, and I allowed him his space.

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    Now, I was wielding his shield, and all he had left was the earth clad sword he had dropped earlier. For a short period, the man raised his fists against me in a guard. At this, I just waited, as he quickly realized the futility of his own situation and surrendered.

    This time my winnings were substantially higher, as Lea told me she overheard people betting against me in anger. Was their hatred a blessing in disguise? I could only hope that would continue to be the case.

    Having some time off, and some extra cash, I went to the Nasty Brew after dropping off a payment at the White Tiger. Meeting Noel in the dark again, I bought a potion, and went home to taste it. Its effects were good, and as I predicted it had a slight tinge of copper in its taste. Though slightly disgusting to drink another man¡¯s blood, the copper taste was one of the better aspects of the potion¡¯s flavor, as the other parts were better described as hairy or snotty.

    On the fourth day of the tournament, my opponent was the one Alex had called a dark horse. She had learned from the crowd that there were several rumors of his origin and nature, all of which were obviously lies and speculation. From watching his fights while I rested, she had learned that he was a magic user capable of strong earth and possibly fire magic. In addition to this he was carrying sword at his hip, though he had not drawn it in his two previous fights. That said, he had only really fought once, yet it was enough to convince some that his strength was unmatched in this tournament.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Alex had been worried at me entering this match; she was saying she had a bad feeling about it. Since I had reassured her it would be fine, I had best demonstrate just that. That was why I had already drawn my claymore from its sheath on my left hip before the signal to begin was given. Alfred, too, had drawn his sword; I guess he was taking me seriously too.

    The signal was given and the battle begun, my claymore¡¯s large size was intended for devastating assaults so it was a shame I currently cautiously had it in front of me ready to parry. Though my claymore was large, Alfred had demonstrated speed that could rival my own, and was additionally about a head taller, giving him a longer reach with his arms. With my blade being longer, it was hard to judge which of us had the longer total reach, as we cautiously approached each other.

    The claymore was a sword given to me by father, saying it was a family heirloom that only the strongest of warriors could properly wield. Having never seen him use it, I suppose that was the difference in strength between us. Or maybe he simply preferred his bow; after all he was more of a tactician and would stand further away from any battle that might occur.

    Alfred was the first to strike, dropping his front knee as he advanced with a rushed pace. The swords thrust reminded me of another man, whose speed had been similar and whose tactics too. Like I had done with Alphonse, I guided Alfred¡¯s thrust to the side with my blade, before using the length of my blade to arrive first at his finger. As I was about to sink into his grip, he released his sword and went for mine, holding its flat with two hands and preventing it from advancing further.

    After he had held it for a little while, he quickly retreated back a few steps, leaving his sword at my feet. Having made him lose his weapon, I now advanced with claymore held high, ready to swing. Alfred had used his magic to surround his fists in some dark and menacingly spiked stone, the likes of which I had never seen, not even in the halls and tunnels beneath Brill. If he parried my strike with those, would they break? Or would my sword break? I guess I¡¯ll find out shortly.

    As I was thinking that, Alfred readied and fired a punch at me, somehow shattering his rock mid swing, sending pieces of it my way. Having little time to react, I turned my head to the side and closed my eyes, preparing for the incoming wave of splinters. They hit me all over, some having enough power to pierce through my garb and lodging themselves into my skin. None of them damaged my face luckily, as I turned back to face Alfred. When my eyes opened again they were met with a rapidly approaching jagged, black stone.  The hit had connected with my face before I had time to understand what it really was.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The fight against Eric had ended quickly, all things considered, though not as quickly as I would have liked. His brutishly large sword being immune to my magic was certainly not something I had expected, as I had not seen any inscriptions on it whatsoever. Judging from Eric¡¯s spirit, he didn¡¯t seem to be powering any such enchant either, truly quite the surprise. Having the fight drag on any longer would have made my chances of being exposed to him exponentially higher, as he would likely enter his berserker-like state of mind if I just slowly wore him down. I could probably handle him even then, but drawing on excessive amounts of mana might make me a hot topic in all the wrong places.

    Though, that was now in the past, as Eric¡¯s misshapen face was slowly recovering with help from his natural life magic. The jagged rock of the fist that had knocked him unconscious, had pierced his face nastily in several faces, but the judges of the match did not consider lasting damage to the face a serious injury, as most warriors sustained such injuries during their lifetime without hindering their progress or power. Additionally, since Eric was such a natural talent of life magic, I doubted the injuries would leave anything but minor scars, maybe not even that.

    With the third match won there were now only four contenders left, as the original thirty two had been halved three times.