“And the bad news?” I was afraid to hear the bad news if that was her definition of good.

“You’ve been penalized for using magic and only acquired one million points instead of ten million.” She had me spinning in confusion, not about the point loss but the using magic part.

“I used magic?” I watched Eris give Selka a head nod who pulled up the footage of my match on the mounted tv screen along the far wall. It went straight to the scene of the Fire Boar charging me for the second time.

I saw myself sitting spread eagle on the ground with my eyes closed, stretching out my only functioning arm. That sensation I felt of the anti-magic bracer falling off wasn’t my imagination as it sparked and crumbled away from fracturing tears. I played out the sound of crackling lightning in my head from my outstretched fingertips although this time it was fully visible as a form of purple darkness.

I released a powerful shadow blast in place of my ki, causing the Fire Boar to disintegrate from the point of contact, all the way down to its hoofs as those vanished with the rest of its corpse. My body, whether or not the danger had been averted, fell backward already unconscious at that point. The match came to a close with Eris running out like she was the one to signal the end of it. The rest from there led to the plush bed and worried companions surrounding me.

“What exactly was the bad part about all that?” I scratched my head, not really able to see her point.

“Everyone saw you use shadow magic and worst of all it's been recorded.” Eris’s tone sped up. “Shadow magic is rarer than a no-mage. If the reforcers weren’t coming after you, they sure are now...” Now that she mentioned it, I never saw anyone with shadow magic around. Balthazar's words never truly sunk in about the eradication of people with the ability to possess shadow magic. She made it sound like not killing all the witnesses in the stadium was a bad thing.

“They were coming after us anyway, we just need to be ready for them.” It was too much all at once and I was still trying to wrap my head around her blood and my severe condition. I needed to fully remove the seals even if it causes a catastrophic burst of shadow magic to destroy everything within a mile radius. The only downside was the chance of dying along with it.

I finally swiped the two rings and watch to wear them, pausing a look at the vials of blood before securing them into my storage ring. Thinking about the situation, I should be safe from an outburst for the next four days with her blood coursing through my veins. Aside from that, my point total came out to a total of four million after being penalized for use of magic. It wasn’t enough to spend on anything of interest, even the second slave token cost five million points to acquire.

“What are the betting results?” I asked Jade, remembering an amount of one hundred thousand from the Death Spider event.

“The new total is three-hundred fifty thousand points.” It nearly quadrupled from last time, though lackluster enough to be considered chump change. The only way to multiply it some more would be from my third event against the wasp, which happened to be tonight.

“Is Rachel around?” I had a question that could be easily answered by her.

“She should be waiting across the hall in her unit.” Jade answered, following up with a question. “Would you like me to get her for you?”

“No, it’s a simple question. I’ll call her instead.” I closed my eyes, even though I didn’t have to, and reached out to Rachel.

“What kind of backlash are we talking about if someone decided to last-minute back out of a scheduled event?” There was a short pause, unsure if the message was received at all.

“...A fine worth the number of tickets sold would be issued to said individual and the barring from our facilities until the debt was paid would go into effect.” It was Rachel’s informative voice.

“Great…, just verifying to make sure.” I already knew from having read the pages of fine print during sign-up, hoping for there to be some kind of loophole out of it.

“I’ve got a message for you.” Rachel initiated, catching my attention. “My boss, William, wants an audience with you. He told me to contact you when possible.”

“Did he mention anything as for the reason why?” It was my plan to grab upper-managements attention regardless of the troubling outcome that has transpired.

“Unfortunately, that was it. So, what do you want to do?” Her words were short and to the point.

“ Sure, let’s meet him. I’ll be ready in an hour.” Canceling the event would end up being too much of a hassle to follow through with and meeting this William guy happened to fill out my empty day.

I explained the situation to the others and took my time to wash up and grab a bite to eat before heading out with Eris. I had Lyra stay with the others, in case they needed protection for some unknown reason.

Rachel led us into a lounge room inside of her unit, letting me know that he was already waiting for us inside. The opposite of any appearance I had envisioned for the boss of an underground fighting arena. Sitting in the chair across the room was a skinny tall guy, someone I’d picture spending his days in silence, in the corner of a random library.

“Have a seat, I’m sure Rachel has informed you about me.” William stood up and motioned with a hand, waiting to sit back down until we did. “You’re looking wonderful compared to the results of your recent event.” Eris took the seat beside me and I met his gaze to feel for the meaning behind his words.

“What can I say, I’m a fast healer.”

He returned a smile, looking over at Eris. “Who might this young lady be?”

“She’s one of my slaves.” I thought it best to keep up appearances at least until we knew him a little better. “You wanted to speak with me?” I made him get to the point, uncomfortable with Eris garnering his eye.

“Right…, right.” William fixed the wrinkles from the top of his pants, priming up for some kind of long-winded speech. “I’ve been waiting for someone like you to appear at my fighting pit. I’d like your help with something important.” He was beating around the bush and I could only wonder what he had in mind. There seemed to be a trend from Ella and now this guy. They all wanted me to do something for them, before tending to any of my goals.

“I need you to find this woman for me.” He set a tiny holo-device on the table in between us, activating an image into the air. I couldn’t help squinting in confusion, even going so far as turning to Eris to get her confirmation on the image on display. It was the woman that Ella wanted us to investigate the whereabouts of, the one that's been missing for several days.