Author’s note: Caught a slight cold. Currently have a week off, so you might get more chapters. Don’t forget to visit the loading screen. It contains information you might be interested in knowing, along with chapter progress details. Also, this chapter has a quite a lot of names (4) with various meanings in different languages. See if you can figure it out.

Episode 6: The Arena

Arthur’s POV

“GOOD CITIZENS OF THE IMPERIAL CITY! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! WELCOME TO THE ARENAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

The crowd roars. I could see them from behind the dusty iron gates.

“TODAY WE HAVE THE YELLOW TEAM VERSUS A HORRIFYING MONSTER! WHO WILL WIN? PLACE YOUR BETS! GET YOUR REFRESHMENTS! THE MATCH BEGINS NOW!”

The iron gates slowly creak upwards.

Dastur looks at us all. “Okay mates! Let’s get this over with. Ready yourselves.”

He walks into the arena.

I ready myself. I will be mostly staying in the rear, supporting the vanguard. Thinking rationally, I felt that I wasn’t going to be in much danger.

That was until I saw the monster. It was easily 16 feet tall, with a grayish skin. He was humanoid in appearance. But his face was something out of a horror film. Bulbous eyes, crooked eyes and sharp teeth for eating flesh. Whatever it was, it was certainly capable of killing us all.

“It’s a troll! A mountain troll!” Cartamor shouted next me.

The troll then screamed a deafening shout that silenced the whole arena. He then charged at us, screaming like a madman! The monster had gone berserk.

Fortunately, even if my mind had stopped, my hands had not. Almost reflexively, I drew my arrow, nocked it and fired it within a second. My aim was true; it buried itself squarely into the troll’s eye.

Critical hit! Your enemy is blinded! Attack did 10% more damage!

Dastur gave me a thankful nod, before turning to the troll.

The troll howled with pain. He waved his hands wildly, shocked at his blindness. A spiked black ball attached to a chain then flew at us. The troll was wielding a flail!

“Everybody, duck!”

I hit the ground before he had finished his sentence. I could feel the air whoosh as the flail passed above me.

Zaubern was not so lucky. He was in the midst of preparing his spell when the chain hit him. His body was sent flying to the wall. A dust cloud erupted where he had stuck, making it impossible to see his condition. But, I am sure he wasn’t going to fight in this battle.

“Damn, look at his eyes!”, someone shouted, most probably Cartamor.

I looked back at the troll. It had managed to pull my arrow out his eye. The blood flow too was slowing down. He blinked his eyes and then looked directly at me.

His left eye, which I had shot, was fully healed. Damn it all! How were we going to kill it?

How had I gotten myself into this mess?

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Few hours earlier

I had logged off in the night, so as to not to exert myself. It didn’t make a difference; both the game and my home were the same. My workshop was empty. I decided to spend some time reading up on the forums. All the game content related facts were posted under the FoF site. It was a company rule. They wanted to harvest all the traffic. And judging by the views on each post, there was a lot of it. No beta player had less than a million views. I skimmed through a few of them.

The stat window riddle had stumped a few of them, but they had managed to solve it. The book was the greater challenge. Everyone seemed to have received it from different sources. Some from a old beggar, others from a mysterious man, others found it after helping a old lady and so on. I decided to rest for a little bit.

By the time I had logged on, there was a thumping on the cell door. An ugly guard was staring at me.

“Get up, maggot! It’s time for your initiation!”

I wearily get up from the bed and ask, “Initiation? What’s that?”

The guard opened up the door and shoved me aside. “Just keep on walking. You will figure out soon enough.”

I nod my head at the guard and walk with him back to the warden’s office again.

“Ah! Kyle! Today is the day of your initiation! You should be impressed! Platoon leader Kent himself has come to plead your case.”

“Ah, excuse me, but what is the initiation you speak of?”

“You must have been told that when you were indentured, right? No? Well, I’ll explain again. Initiation is the formal registration of a person to the Arena. We will see your records, and a legionnaire personnel will verify your guilt. It’s a simple process.”

He then ushered me to a small room behind the office. It was mostly blank with only a small chair and a table. It looked like a classic interrogation room. I saw Kent as soon as I entered the room. He was still wearing his plated armor, but had taken off his helmet. I noticed that his eyes were red. Had he been crying?

As soon as he noticed me, he leaped up to attention. The warden, clearly startled, said, “I’ll leave the interrogation to you, sir. I’ll be going now.” Saying that he hurriedly left.

Kent and I stared at each other for a moment. He was the one to break the silence.

“Sir, I’m sorry. You counted on me and I failed you. I should have been more focused on you, sir. I am sorry that your plan failed,”

“Failed? No, not failed, Kent. It is still possible to work it out. The rest of the plan is still intact. Look, you are my investigating officer, right? So, just go tell the warden that I may be innocent, but you’ll need to find proof. And when you find that, I can walk out of here as a free man.”

“How will I find proof sir? There isn’t any.”

“You don’t actually have to find proof! You know I am innocent, so come back after a week, tell the warden that I’m not guilty, and free me.”

Kent appears to consider this a moment. Finally he looks and says,

“3 days, no longer than that.”

“6 days, I need time to become a pit dog and find Iorveth.”

“Absolutely not, Sir! If you become a pit dog, then it will attract attention. Then, if you simply walk out of here, people will be suspicious. Four days, maximum.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. I am not going to become a pit dog. Give me five days, to work it out.”

In the end, we agreed on five days.

After Kent had left, the warden entered the room, looking a bit sullen.

“Ah! Mr. Kyle! Platoon leader Kent just informed me that you decided to plead innocent.”

I shrugged, not wanting to say anything that gave me away.

“Apparently, you’ve convinced him too. But I’m sorry to say, until evidence to the contrary, you will have to participate in the arena.” He then waited, hoping for a reaction. When I didn’t say anything he scowled at me. “Take him to the Bloodworks!”

The bloodworks is the location of the training area I had seen, just below the ground. It was quite large, larger than what I had originally seen. The guard led to me a bulky woman sitting at the corner of the Bloodworks.

“NAME?” she shouted.

“KYLE REESE, MA’AM!” I shouted back.

The woman must have been surprised, whether at my shout or politeness I couldn’t tell, but she appeared to soften a little. Just a little.

“Alright, there. No need to shout. Which team you want to join?”

I remembered Erasmus’ advice and said, “Yellow team, ma’am.”

“Good choice. Doesn’t mean anything though, as I was going to put you there anyway.”

“Why?”

“Because the red team hates the weak, the blue team hates the indentured and the green team hates human. As a result, you could only be on the yellow team. Now, what type of armor; light or heavy?”

“Light.”

She hands me a packet from under the desk. It is a garish yellow color, but otherwise it looks okay.[tr]Arena Leather ArmorBasic leather armor for the Arena warriors. It reduces physical damage by 12%, magical damage by 3%, and speed by 3%. Can be enchanted.[/table]

“You must wear this armor, while fighting in the Arena. Anything else, will lead to your disqualification and death. About your weapons, you can fight with anything you want. Knives, swords, axes, spells, all are fair in the battle. You can choose your weapons here.”

It was a large room with various weapons adorning its walls. There were various small showcases too containing exotic weapons. I didn’t waste my time on any of the frilly things. I quickly got myself a bow, the throwing daggers and a shortsword.

“You must have fought before. Otherwise you couldn’t have chosen them that quickly. Come on; let me introduce you to your team.”

She led me through various rooms. I followed after her, making sure that I didn't fall too far behind.

“Dastur! You have a new team mate!”

“Matron! So glad to see you! And you are?”

The two exchanged greetings. Dastur was a dark skinned, relatively young person. His eyes were pale blue in color. Like me, he wore the yellow light armor. But it seemed to suit him better than me. He carried two scimitars around his hips. Because of that, he seemed to be one of the Mongols of the old.

“Kyle Reese.”

“You seem to have prepared yourself quite well, Kyle. Follow me; I’ll introduce you to the rest of the team.”

He led me to a large room were few other people sitting and introduced me. None of them were non – humans, but even so, their diversity was astounding.

Dastur was the team leader, and was a fighter who wielded scimitars. He was a Redguard, from Hammerfell.

Cartamor was a bard. He used “song spells” to provide the team with different buffs and the enemy with debuffs. He also acted as a scout. He was a Breton from High Rock. Out of all of us, he seemed to the youngest.

Shūsa was from the Seishinshima islands, west of High Rock. He had come to this land to seek fame and fortune, but an impossible contract by this unscrupulous business man had forced him into this position. He carried a giant sword that appeared to about 6 feet tall and about 2 feet wide. It seemed to be really heavy, but he carried it with ease.

Zaubern was a mage. He was squinting over a book as I introduced myself, not even bothering to look up. Apparently, as

Dastur explained, he was an eccentric magician who had forgotten to pay his bills. And he decided that since he was already here, he might as well fight in the Arena.

I introduced myself, remembering to provide a background as an orphan in Lower District. The others looked touched at my sob story.

After some time, they had dispersed, Dastur asked me, “You carry a bow. Can you shoot?”

“I can shoot. But my skills are a little rusty.”

“The way you are holding the bow, it seems that you’re itching for a fight. Practice rooms are over there. Good luck, and don’t worry too much. It’s going to be all right.”

I make my way to the practice room, and see that Zaubern is already there, casting fireballs at a dummy. He did eight before stooping, presumably due to lack of mana.

I give him a friendly smile and ask, “Can you teach me that?”

Zaubern looks at me and says, “What do you know about it?”

“Nothing, actually.”

Zaubern sighed and sat down on a chair. “You should be more knowledgeable about the arcane arts. Even if you don’t practice it, you should know how to counter it. You’re lucky that you didn’t fight someone with magical arts.” Saying so, he explained to me the different schools of magic. They were -

Alteration – It involves manipulating the physical world and it’s properties.

Conjuration – It involves raising the dead and summoning elementals from other planes to do your bidding.

Destruction – it involves harnessing the elemental energies to ravage your enemies.

Illusion – it involves manipulating minds of your enemies.

Restoration – it involved manipulation of life forces.

Out of all these Zaubern was skilled in Alteration and Conjuration. He was currently trying to practice his Destruction, as it would help him in the arena.

After this, I practiced with my bow. I was genuinely fearful that I had forgotten how to wield it, but I need not have worried. I could still hit the target properly. I made sure to advance my archery skill to the 5th level. It was easy for me, as once I remembered I could fire the arrows even far away, up to 200 meters. The longer I shot, the more the skill level increased itself.

At the 5th level, I could finally unlock my first skill perk, which would cause 2.5% more damage with bows and arrows. It wasn’t much, but every little bit helped.

When I was about to work on my dagger moves, Dastur interrupted me. He had a serious look on his face.

“Hey, it’s time. You ready, Kyle?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. You’ll need this.” He gave me a quiver with steel arrows in it. “This will hurt more than the iron ones you’re carrying.”

I nod and walk with him.

“You’ll be the rearguard. I and Shūsa will be the main damage dealers, and stay at the front. Zaubern will stay in the middle and support us with his elemental. You and Cartamor will stay in the back. He will provide us with buffs and you with ranged attack.”

I nod to him. It made perfect sense.

No matter what came before us now, I was certain that we had a decent chance of defeating it.

*******************************************************************************************

Now

Our chances had dropped pretty dramatically. Our mage had been taken out of battle quite quickly, and without a way to seal the troll’s regeneration, we would get tired out and lose.

The troll had decided to focus on me, as I was the primary damage dealer till now. I decided to provide a diversion so that

Dastur and Shūsa could get close enough.

“Cartamor! Run to a corner and start buffing us! I am going to check on Zaubern!”

Cartamor nodded and ran away.

The troll waved his flail again, but this time I was ready. I rushed towards the flail chains and dived below them. The troll was crafty too. He pulled the chain towards him at the last moment, intent on crushing me. But I was faster. I escaped his swing and made my way to Zaubern.

I could see him sitting dazedly at the wall.

“Zaubern! You okay?”

“Yeah. Don’t worry about me. I put up my mage armor before every battle. Now let me rest a moment to recover my Magicka. I will take care of the troll after that.” And he closed his eyes.

“But how? The troll isn’t that weak! And he keeps on regenerating himself!”

“Well, a troll’s regeneration won’t work if he is hurt by either fire or poison. Remember that. And you should also know that our teammates are strong, too.”

Immediately, a bunch of messages popped up in front of me.

You have listened to: The Song of the Berseker.

Your strength increases temporarily by 20 points.

You have listened to: The Song of the Mermaid.

Your Magicka regeneration increases temporarily by 10 points/sec.

You have listened to: The Song of the Lucky Lady.

Your luck increases temporarily by 20 points.

By this time, Dastur and Shūsa had reached the monster. Without any closed ranged weapon, the troll tries to defend himself with his bare hands. But my teammates are too fast for it.

Both of them attack the different legs intending to bring it down. Dastur breaks out into a whirlwind of slashes at the leg joints, effectively killing its muscles. The monster howls in agony.

But what Shūsa does is even more amazing. He simply runs at the monster, grabs his gigantic sword and neatly cuts the monster’s leg in half.

The troll falls to his knees and loses his grip on the flail. But Shūsa doesn’t stop there; he jumps upon the monster’s back and sticks his sword in his spine, drawing blood. He then roars; not louder than the monster, but much more ferocious in his intensity.

Zaubern says to me, “Shūsa is…… unique, to say the least. He can’t cast any spells and his Magicka is non-existent. However, he has extraordinary strength, more than any of the Arena competitors. Hmm, looks like the match will be over without me lifting a hand.”

“What do you mean?”

Shūsa has dragged his sword and cut off the whole spine till the head. The troll was thrashing about in agony. But he was still regenerating. Shūsa screamed and raised his sword straight up in the air.

“Apart from fire and poison, there is another way to kill a troll. Decapitation.”

And the sword came down.

Just like that, my first match in the Arena was over.

***********************************************

Author: Yeah, Shusa is OP. Deal with it.

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