Deacon stood up straight. He shook the blood off of his hands while the gathered crowds chanted. He could hear half of the crowd chanting Chimera, Chimera, Chimera. The other half were cursing the Vasilly Empire. Just as Deacon began making his way back to his folded garments, the announcer bellowed out another message. He was starting to hate arena announcers.

“Citizens, hear me. The fighting schools would like to pause the proceedings for a recruitment break. Both The Azure Archipelago and the Crimson Summit wish to approach the Champion of Chimera. We will return to the action once negotiations have concluded.”

Both large doors on either side of the coliseum opened wide. From the left side Deacon could see three people dressed in blue monks robes. The one on the left was the spitting image of Sub Zero from Deacon’s favorite video game franchise. The center most person had a large barrel strapped to his back. Deacon could even hear some sloshing coming from it. Finally on the right was a woman with flowing clear-blue hair that fell below her shoulder blades. It almost looked like water. She wore a loose fitting white and blue dress that had slits along the outer sides of each leg. Deacon could imagine that aided in mobility. Then he spotted someone behind them in the corridor that startled him. Hani Al-Hamdani, the jester that picked him up from the guild hall was jogging past the opened door. He even waived at Deacon as he headed up a flight of stairs deeper inside the coliseum, his bells jingling the whole time.

Deacon’s attention was then pulled away as flames erupted from the opposite side of the arena. The other school had arrived. He could only assume these were the members of the Crimson Summit. A thickly muscled, bald and burn scarred man stepped out of the hallway. Deacon estimated he was at least six foot seven. There were chains wrapped around his torso, faintly glowing a smoldering red like that of coals in a fireplace. Behind him arrived a woman with short red hair wearing a flowing gown. The wrist cuffs on the sleeves were deep and yawning. She took very measured steps and held her chin up high. Lastly appeared a man with two swords crisscrossed over his back with half a mask obscuring his mouth and nose. Deacon was not looking forward to dealing with these people he was practically begged to avoid in the first place. He pulled his aura in close hoping they wouldn’t pull some jedi shit on him. Then he felt some pain from the arrow wound. Apparently, the adrenaline had finally worn off along with his summoned armor.

“Bow before the Sun at Noon. Submit to the Crimson Summit school and we will see your potential advance beyond the pathetic Early Morning Sun you are now.” Said the burned scarred bruiser.

“You can take that recruitment pitch and shove it up your ass,” Deacon replied stepping closer to the team in blue and their wide opened door.

“Please allow me to teach him some respect, master.” The big man asked the woman walking behind him. She slightly shook her head no and kept staring at Deacon.

“Don’t worry about those awful Summit students. My name is Malory Che, we come to you today with a gift and an offer. If you would enroll in the Azure Archipelago school, we will provide you with technique manuals to advance your current rank beyond what they could offer.” Malory said running one hand through the clear water of her hair.

“Well it is nice to meet you. I must apologize. I have no intention of joining any school. I have many quests to complete, and I have been here too long. Again thank you for the kind offer but I must be going,” Deacon replied turning toward the door behind them when her hair shot forward like fire hose over Deacon’s right shoulder making contact with what looked like a man sized lava fist that tapered back to the big man’s right arm. Deacon then found the ectoplasm ring he got to help him retrieve the Toll of Samhain started pulsing the closer he got to the water monks.

“That was courtesy since you respectfully declined our offer. You’ll have to deal with them yourself now, I’m afraid. Should you ever change your mind, come find us at the Archipelago. Your aura could use some work but not bad overall.” She said as she turned to walk back through the door they entered from. The sub zero knock off made a gesture at the Summit student with the two swords. Deacon turned to see the woman in the red dress put out a hand to keep him from advancing. The now cooling lava fist was like half a column of magma rock steaming in the middle of the arena now.

Deacon kept the door at his back while he watched the Crimson Summit students giving him the stink eye. As he began stepping backwards to keep them all in sight, he heard the doors behind him close. That left him in the arena with these three and an opened door behind them.

“Make it quick. Show all in attendance the cost of disrespecting the Crimson Summit,” came a raspy voice. It almost sounded like she smoked a carton a day for years, but her face was pristine. She was no older than her early thirties by the look of it. The big man grinned from ear to ear after hearing that and advanced on Deacon while the other two headed back through the door.

Deacon was in trouble. After the barrage and armor abilities he only had sixty percent soul energy left. His health bar still had one hundred and thirty five percent remaining. He needed to maintain some soul energy for the sleeping Zageracks. It didn’t look like this fiery jamoke was going let him off easy. The key would be in avoiding getting hit. Before Malory stopped the fist in motion, Deacon did feel the heat coming from behind him. Getting hit with that move might be fatal. Strike of the Phantasm Knight was out because of cost and the immobility clause. Spectral Dash was cheap enough, but it would only be a matter of time before he was caught. Most of the weapons used on the Gilgerith were bent and broke at this point. No bag meant no Adventurer’s Die. Add to all this he was still bleeding green blood from the damn arrow wound.

“Uh oh, people. Looks like the he’s run afoul of our first round singles champion Caphida Theldat. No contest here people. You better get those safety wards up quick or we’re going to have a crispy Champion of Chimera.”

Back on top of the wall, Ralph was desperately looking for something they could tie a rope too. Maybe they could get down to the windows of another level. Use that to get outside. Tantus was reviewing his notes with the new wand he got. A wall of paper was arrayed in front of him. Amanda had stopped moving and was statuesque looking at a hatch on the side of a more elevated section of wall.

“What’s that?” Amanda asked.

“A little busy, can you be more descriptive?” Tantus asked back.

A black and green substance was oozing out of the cracks in the hatch. Suddenly it burst open revealing a black and green colored arm the size of a tree trunk. It pulled the rest of the body out onto the wall. It had two large horns that grew back from its temples. It’s mouth was just a line of jagged teeth. The left arm was tiny in comparison to its right, but it still ended in sharp claws. It opened its mouth and belched out more of that green and black substance which pooled at it’s feet. It began swirling around the creature in a cloud. Suddenly, a line of holy light slashed across its torso. Ralph was at Amanda’s side and managed to get full double damaged draw on it. The demon stood wobbling as its torso was split diagonally. It was about to fold open when tendrils shot out from each of the exposed sides drawing it back together. Ralph re-sheathed his blade for another strike when lighting crashed down on the beastie from above. Apparently Tantus decided to stop reading and joined in on the fight appearing on Amanda’s other side. It was obviously damaged from the lighting strike, but it took one lurching step toward them. Ralph prepared to draw when a humming sound came from behind it. In a flash, its head was gone. The body of the creature collapsed to the ground in a heap of foul and ichor. Behind it stood Hani Al-Hamdani. He was holding his stupid jester hat with the bells on the end. Only one bell was in his right hand with a string leading back to the hat.

“Come, I work for Deacon. We need to get you all out of here,” said Hani with a jaunty bow.