《Re:Hammer》Chapter 28
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Back in the pit where she had been given the weapon, she was met with a laughing Druchii who took the chain-blades off her and exclaimed he had never seen a woman use them quite the way she did. There were no more plans for her since she was meant to die for the crowds amusement, but the level of skill she put out could get her slotted in with a few others who were actually going to fight proper. Only, maybe she should change out of her clothes?
“Filnon dressed me up like this. I assume she had some horrible plan for why, and I don’t want to go against it in case she takes offense” she replied, before leaving to the waiting room amidst more laughter from the Druchii. Hanging around the waiting room was probably not the best thing to do. Here, there were true Gladiators and Warriors, blooded and bold. Their broad shoulders, thick muscles and scarred bodies claimed a long and successful history as a Gladiator in this pit. Not the most glorious of pits, but that was how she survived.
Taking their glares of disdain and debauchery for about a minute, Estaria beat a retreat and returned to the training grounds. Here, Gladiators and Slaves fought each other to hone their skill. It was no fun to see people die to quickly if you were there to watch an actual fight, so them knowing what they were doing was helpful on occasion. Though what she was going to do was questionable. She wasn’t getting a training quest like usual, and those strange flail-weapons were not on the rack to be practiced with. It felt like all she had to do was wander about the place aimlessly. Fortunately, her aimless wandering was curtailed by the Druchii in charge of this whole thing. Here, he gave her a pair of large, spiked gauntlets to wear and directed her to the gate where a half-dozen Gladiators stood, armed to the teeth and baying for blood. So focused on their own battle meditation and prayers to their own gods, that they didn’t notice Estaria being pushed into their ranks. Just focused on the door, and when it opened, The Foe.
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Men took off at a sprint, charging the gap with reckless abandon and crashing into the gladiators charging at them from the other direction. No beast on peasant slaughter here, but a true and actual fight. Fortunately, Estaria had a weapon that she at least knew how to use, having seen it used by some Chaos Warriors. Forsaking a shield, they would use these fists in an off-hand manner to drive their spiked hands deep into the foe, were they to avoid the attack. A countering weapon more than a weapon to be used by itself, Estaria had enough strength and speed to make up for the inherent problems. Still, she didn’t want to get on the bad side of these big men by taking any of their kills, and lingered at the back, a slow jog to their rabid sprint. And lo, a man on the other side had the same idea.
Far more lithe and smooth than the rest, he walked with a confident gait and a natural ease. He clearly focused more on the precise nature of moving and striking than most Gladiator’s “Superior Force” tactic. And to confirm such tactics, he had a whip, segmented into blades rather than leather. A Weapon that would require skill and precision to hit the enemy, and not kill the wielder in the process.
“Ahh, to mar such a beauty. Send down by my feet, and I-” the man started to speak. It was a nice voice, and the attempt to persuade Estaria to just give up was not lost on her, but she ignored it and closed the gap with her inhuman speed, delivering a spiked punch to his torso, and then using Second Slice to slap on another. Blood spilled and bones broke, and his frenzied attack in response did not land very well. Instead, using them as they were intended, Estaria shifted her body away from the bladed whip and then delivered a punch that drove the spikes into his neck. The man did not get up from that one. And having dealt with him, she was allowed to linger in the corner, standing near his corpse with gore dripping from her fists, and deal only with the one or two Gladiators so driven by ego or bloodlust that they would come to try and fight her despite the way she had dealt with that man. From the reaction of the crowd and the way he moved and handled his weapon, the man was not unknown, and her crushing defeat of him had drawn eyes and startled hearts.
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Eventually, her “team” were victorious, and the crowd broke into vigorous cacophony, so many topics it was hard to keep track. Though the little whore was the main one on people’s lips. Where had she come from, who owned her, were there going to be more fights with her today, what could she get to fighting. If it was any other place, she’d feel good to be popular, but here was not exactly a place she wanted to get known for anything. The Druchii had a habit of playing rough with their toys, and then just getting new ones like a spoiled nobleman’s brat when that toy broke from all the rough place. Of course, in the crowd, not talking to anyone, just smirking to herself, was Filnon. A look of satisfaction and delight. Neither emotion was good for Estaria’s well-being or continued nature as not having been molested by a horny Druchii…
Getting ushered back in with the rest of the Gladiators, Estaria was pulled to one side by Filnon not ten minutes after she had found a bench to sit and start pondering her life from this point on and how she was going to keep her head together. Sex and Killing would quickly have a way with anyone’s head, to drive them to the darker side of human mentality. Surprisingly, the Druchii didn’t immediately start to suck her face off, and instead, just talked.
“Well, look at you, making a name for yourself the first day you get here. If I was a more paranoid woman, I would think you are trying to get away from me~” Filnon gave a teasing wink, and then carried on. “So, you’ve broke the whole thing for today. They are going to be shuffling it around and then make something tomorrow for you to do and if you pass that, which of course you are going to, then it’s on to fame and glory” she held out her hand and pointed the the horizon with vigor. It was here, that Estaria realized what Filnon wanted. More than sex, she wanted fame and power in Druchii society. And Estaria, was exactly how she was going to get it...
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