Michael

‘’So your mother in law sliced you up pretty good huh?’’ Max says after a sip of his ale. We are sitting around the fire on the balcony of the rooms they share.

‘’Shut up,’’ I yell good humouredly as the others laugh at the joke Max has so far repeated three times.

‘’That lady is a beast,’’ John says with a fist over his mouth in that gesture he has when being serious about something and trying to express how unbelievable something is. I smile as the others laugh at my expense. I’m annoyed by this jesting but the happiness of being married and the things I’ve been doing in bed has me seeing the humour in it as well. I still can’t believe sex feels so much more intimate between a married couple but I probably should have expected such benefits from this place.

‘’Yea, that lady kicked my ass,’’ I confess and it’s fuel to the flames as the volume of their laughter increases again. I share the mirth with them, it’s good to be alive and we are in an exotic world with dinosaurs and magic, will wonders ever cease?

‘’He was smart to marry into the family though, now he no longer has to accept another death-match at the arena,’’ Mirabalis says poking the fire with a stick and creating miniature figures of flame dancing and fighting each other before disappearing as though blown by an errant wind. She's gotten really good at her illusions since shes been here, but like us, she has also been fighting for her life in the arena apparently.

Her words have silenced John, Max and Edward as they think of the fights they still have to part-take in if they want to stay in this beautiful land the Paradisians call home. There is a solemnity to the moment as we all remember our own horror stories of being injured or near death in these arena fights all guests are compelled to be part of. More than once I've wondered whether or not the brutality of the fights is worth the non-material gains. The is a savagery to the Barbarian people that comes to the fore when they fight, the scariest part of facing one of these people is the joy in their aura's when they go all out against another warrior.

All our first fights were against that Adrea woman and that didn’t turn out well for any of us as she left all of us in a condition I would call ‘maimed’ if I was back on earth were such injuries result in permanent harm. My next challenge a ten-day later was from a young-looking barbarian woman with a whip and an axe on her hip she never needed to use, beating me bloody before I could get anywhere near her. Thankfully killing someone with a whip is no easy task so she eventually had to close the distance.

She nearly killed me of course, chopped into my shoulder and nearly taking my entire left arm but not before I managed to stick a spear into her chest. The problem with the spear against these people I realised in that matchup is that if you use it against a Barbarian you might not get it back. I survived by the skin of my teeth using my backup short sword after losing the spear but eventually passed out, I assume from blood loss.

Ed, though he isn’t as enthusiastic a fighter as either Max and I; he has become the first to Awaken amongst us that accompanied Mira’s company north to the Tundra. I’m guessing it’s mostly just about the amount of time he has spent on the planet but he also genuinely flourishes under stress. After his second fight which turned out to be a stalemate, and apparently bringing honour to our hosts he was set up with private training and guidance through his Awakening by the van Damages.

With Max, John and I losing our second matches our third was against that Adrea woman again, I guess as a form of punishment. At the time of the third challenge, something had already started happening with my mind, my body and my abilities. There is something about these fights that scares the piss out of me because going in I know myself to be the least experienced person standing on those sands.

But also there is something about these fights that invigorates me as the air around me seems to respond to the situation, my muscles are becoming denser and stronger without necessarily getting bigger, my instincts are changing slightly as I get more in tune with myself and the consequences of not being fully attentive at all times to all things during a fight that may be to the death. Even in my peak in the Rangers I was never this lethal or able though I was the best in hand to hand in my Unit.

With Edward Awakening we could no longer watch his fights as his challenges moved to the Awakened Arena, but seeing the condition he was in after his first match there I didn’t envy him his accelerated power level. But he seems to have settled into himself now, comfortable in his new self and there is an aura of power and competence that radiates off him like heat from an oven.

‘’Edward doesn’t have to fight anymore either,’’ I say looking at him and he grins knowing I am fascinated with his Awakening yet still he remains tight lipped about it all.

‘’I’m actually looking forward to my tenth challenge, be able to hold my head high in this bloody city without the stigma of being a foreigner or a guest in someone's house,’’ Max says while looking into the flames. Yes, there are quite a number of restrictions placed on foreigners that haven’t completed their challenges. I don’t even know how they all know just by seeing you that you’re still a newbie here, but they always know.

‘’Maybe I’ll finally have sex.’’ John whispers and the mood lightens again as we chuckle at his expense. I grin as I notice Max and Mirabalis exchange a look but otherwise say nothing.

‘’Didn’t you have sex during the mass hysteria thing-‘’ Max begins but is interrupted.

‘’Yes but that just made me aware of what I was missing, and no one in this entire city wants me until I finish these bloody fights! Can you believe that? An entire city and I can't get laid yet people see anything wrong with walking around half-naked or even fully naked for that matter.’’ He asks shaking his head with a mix of exasperation and determination on his face.

‘’You’ve gotten much better at fighting though,’’ Mirabalis says gently to appease him, he looks away and huffs at the consolation. It’s true of course; we are all so much better at fighting and killing than we were a few months ago before coming to this beautiful park city. Much better if one sits down and really thinks about it.

There was a disconnect between the training we went through at the Conclave and the experienced gained in actual combat. But now it is much easier to understand and implement the moves taught to us, easier to see when an opponent makes a mistake or when an opening presents itself. See when a move painstakingly learnt through odious repetition and pain needs to be modified to fit into an actual situation instead of doing the move as taught by the theory.

‘’It was either get better or die, did you see that poor fool of a merchant get both his arms and legs cut off because he refused to fight? I bet he won’t refuse to fight a ‘child’ next time.’’ John says shaking his head again before downing his ale. ‘’The worst part is how attractive I found her after seeing her do that to another human being, I don’t know what’s wrong with me.’’ He says and takes another big gulp.

‘’Who are you talking about now?’’ I ask, I’m quite curious as I did hear something about a viscous amputation at the Arena while I was in recovery at Shea’s clinic.

‘’The fool has become of fan of the quiet deadly one, Ikigai,’’ Edward says with pity evident in his voice.

‘’Jesus John, that girl hardly does anything but spar and train when at home and fights for hours every day at the parks before going off into the forest Dungeon for hours more. All she ever talks about with me is weapons, fighting techniques, how many people I’ve killed...’’ Max trails off and sighs. ‘’To be honest I like her honest enthusiasm, but definitely not for you John.’’

‘’Whatever,’’ he says with a shrug of his shoulders before placing another log into the fire.

We all remain quiet a while as we ‘listen’ to the world around us, to ourselves. The fire crackling, the night creatures making sounds, the people still out and about like night has no meaning here. Everything is muted but nothing is stopped, the moon Selena is out brightening the night more than would be usual on earth. The shop doors are closed and there are less people about but I know that none of those store doors are locked and if I still wanted to purchase something I could.

Do all cities in this world stay awake all day and night? What kind of lifestyle would be led on earth if we had 100 hour days and weren’t enslaved to our appetites? The affliction of hunger these people see as some sort of curse placed on us earthlings, at least those that know of the existence of Earth to begin with.

‘’To be honest with you guys I really love it here,’’ John suddenly says looking deeply into the fire. ‘’I know I complain a lot and haven’t adopted very well here compared to you guys but this place is a paradise compared to back home, I didn’t even have any real friends there...’’

Max pats him on the back in acknowledgement but no one says anything, no one needs to.

There is a knock on the door before it opens slowly and the captivatingly lovely Katya walks into the apartment, looks around and uncannily walks through the sitting area towards the balcony as though she knows exactly where we are. She doesn’t even look at the various rooms but immediately turns towards us and comes directly towards a wide eyed John.

She is dressed as an elegant prostitute as she always is at this time of the night when in the home. Her dress is elegant and beautiful but does nothing to hide her beautiful erect nipples or the fact that she has no underwear under the short flowing almost translucent thing. Despite myself, I find an erection forming as she walks past me leaving behind a subtle scent of strawberries and flowers. Placing a wrapped scroll on his lap she bends to whisper in his ear before she leaves as silently as she had arrived.

We stay silent another few moments just not acknowledging that we are all aroused by that strange creature, even Mira. Her scent lingers but she hardly made a sound; had my erection not be subsiding or the large scroll still on John’s lap I would think her presence one of Mira’s illusions.

‘’Ahem,’’ John clears his throat before unbinding and unrolling the scroll. He now has our undivided attention, I know I’m curious.

A map is what he has but one I've not yet seen, and I've looked at a lot of maps since coming to this world. ‘’Where is that?’’ Edward asks curiously.

‘’This my friends is a map of the dungeon. Sachi and Iki are going dungeon diving tomorrow and we will be exploring in his wake.’’ John says proudly.

Phffff

‘’When did you get so familiar with Sachihiro, thought you were scared shitless of him?’’ Max asks and we laugh at the reddening John good humouredly.

We study it and talk through it excitedly, of course they can only go after their last arena fights but having a goal other than just surviving makes the fights that much more bearable.