Author's Note

Welp I lost some readers XD. This is like my first draft I still have to rewrite some stuff ya'know but I can't believe just cause I killed one character (well two) apparently my fiction is filled with pure tragedy.Death happens it's a part of life but I guess people read to escape reality.Hmm I'm getting philosophical now. Anywho I'm lazy.

Oh I also got some art.I did like a very very basic sketch and sunwalker added some details and colored it.So you know check his stuff out Here his Deviantart if you want to see the original sketch do go to the art section on the character/location sheet.The link can be found at the bottom

Anywho here's our MC Edin as a teen and Royal guard

As always reviews,ratings,Recommendations,Corrections,Questions and comments are greatly appreciated

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Chapter 25: Struggle

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Beginnings are always messy.

—John Galsworthy

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>Mek

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Mek was standing upright on the selling floor being looked upon by many people browsing the ‘wares’. Now, he was eleven and had survived a year in the slaver’s training. He had been in charge of the other kids for only a month since the position was rotated every month. The children had hated him that first month because he had to been strict with them for their sakes. When his turn was over, he was isolated and the new kid in charge decided to be the nice guy. Lacking discipline their teacher had hit them much more often than when Mek was the one in charge.

After that second month, the kids understood Mek and the next group leader was just as strict as Mek if not stricter. The kids ate, worked, and slept—if their teacher was in a good mood, they would be allowed some free time—Mek didn’t really hate it as he had clothes and was fed daily, but it was no better than living as a pet for him. Even so he understood one thing in those painful days, the strong controlled the weak.

And I am the weak.

As he was having such thoughts, the slave vendor was showing off his ‘products’ to a large muscled man when he walked up to Mek.

“This one is very obedient,”

“I don’t need obedient; I need strong aggressive warriors,”

The slave vendor looked conflicted on his next words.

I want to be strong!

While the potential buyer started to leave Mek stepped forward and grabbed the man’s arm.

The man turned to look back at him

“What!?”

Looking at the man—Six feet (182 cm) with large muscles and several scars—he gulped.

“I want to be strong!”

The man gave him a fierce look, but Mek didn't look away. This man looked strong and maybe just maybe he could teach Mek a thing or two.

“Fine I’ll take him,”

“A gold coin sir,”

“Eight silver,”

The slave vendor frowned and looked at Mek

“Fine then what contract will you be selecting?”

Slave contracts were varied when buying a slave. The most expensive contract was a magic master-slave contract in which the slave would die if he ever left the master. The second most expensive was similar to the first one, but the slave could escape from the master’s will if he went past a certain limit. However, the cheapest was just a paper contract that said the slave had been purchased, in other words a receipt.

“A paper contract please then,”

After half an hour of paperwork and another thirty minutes of riding a caged carriage Mek had arrived to the gladiator school.

The man who had bought him left him and gave him to some random man—Most likely a worker for the gladiator school.—

It was a large compound with cells, training yard, showers, bathrooms, for more than sixty gladiators. Mek was led inside in shackles and put in cell.

It was a small cell with a bed and some simple furniture for clothes. The man locked the cell

“Sleep young one tomorrow begins your first day of training,” said the man as he unlocked Mek’s shackles.

Mek nodded and lied down on the bed anxious for tomorrow.

The next morning Mek awoke to someone rattling the cell bars

“Wake up said the man, follow me for breakfast,”

The man opened the cell and put the shackles onto Mek.

“Let us go then,”

Mek followed the man through the compound until reaching a large room filled with benches and long tables.

“Get a tray then line up for food,”

Mek was excited the smells coming from the food it was better than anything else he had been fed. It reminded him of the generous dinners his neighbors had had when they celebrated their wedding anniversary.

It was finally his time to be served and he was given a generous amount of food. Eggs, meat, bread plus steamed vegetables and garlic aioli

He was astounded.

“Can I really eat all of this?”

“Hahahahaha of course!” said the cook

Mek sat down on one of the benches and began to eat as if someone were threatening him.

The man who held on to his shackles started laughing

“Ehehehehe relax kid no one’s taking the food from you, I mean look around you,”

There were several men ranging from preteens to adult men. Many of them were covered in tattoos and scars. They were all eating great amounts of food and drinking water.

“All you have to do is give it your all in training and once you’re fifteen you’ll be able to fight in the arena,”

Mek couldn't finish all the food even though his stomach was almost bursting. His stomach was still small from lack of food.

“If you're done let’s go,” said his guardian.

Mek was taken to the training yard filled with wooden dummies and a dirt floor. Then another man brought several different wooden weapons ranging from swords to spears and everything in between.

“I want you to hit the dummy and try out the different weapons,find what fits you the most kid,”

Mek grabbed a wooden sword when several men came in and started to watch him. They varied in size but each looked as menacing as each other. One had a large girth big enough to hide Mek completely. Another was extremely scrawny even when compared to Mek. The other’s had muscles that only proved they were fighters with years of experience due to the scars over their bodies.

Smash!

With all his might the wooden sword smashed into the dummy. His hand started hurting from the aftershock.

He grabbed several of the wooden weapons until he picked up a spear like one. It was different from the ones he had seen. It had three spikes at the front—in other words a trident—and it felt good in his hands.

After testing multiple weapons he was tired and sweaty.

“That’s enough tomorrow you start training with your new teacher.” said his caretaker

“Uh,OK”

The next morning after a large breakfast his caretaker took him to a different yard than the previous one. Standing in the middle of the yard was one of the men from yesterday. He wasn't extremely large like some of the others but nevertheless he had the body of a warrior.

His caretaker— whose name he still did not know— freed him from his shackles.

“Go on then,” The caretaker pointed towards the warrior “He’s gonna teach ya how to fight.”

Mek walked towards the man.

“Here!” The warrior threw a blunted trident towards Mek. Three prongs on one end and another spear like point at the other end. Of Course they were blunted but it felt balanced to Mek.

“Right then my names Alarius, I’m the resident expert about the trident. From now until you reach the age of fifteen we’ll be training you, In other words you have four years until your first match.”

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De’rek

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His face hurt from the punch he had been given. Groggily he woke up and realized he was tied down on the deck of the pirate’s frigate. He and a couple of the other fishermen were tied to the center mast of the ship.

A large man with a full set of white hair and beard was standing over them.

“So, yer all finally awake?”

None of the prisoners said anything. De’rek looked around looking for his uncle but did not find him.

“Now you've all got two options, Becoming part of my crew and living the great life of a pirate or you can take your luck with lady Seriah and be tossed into the sea,”

The captured fishermen looked at the sea. Only the blue of the sea could be seen, not a single speck of land.

The Captain smiled

“That’s what I thought.”

Another man started untying the fishermen.

“Pete here will show you all what to do,” The captain turned his head towards De’rek “You boy I’ll let you be my cabin boy, be glad since only noble children can get such a position.”

De’rek was confused and simply nodded his head.

He followed the captain.

“You know usually we would have made you a powder monkey but we only have eight working cannons.”

The pirate ship He was standing had over three levels of gun decks.

You serious?

The ship was dirty filled with even dirtier men but somehow De’rek was excited.Too bad he spent the next four years doing nothing but chores.Serving the captain wine,helping the cook,passing messages etc.He didn't even have a decent place to rest.Usually he’s sleep near the bags of flour that is until the rats started biting him.

The pirates didn't see much action as their ship was their bluff continued to work on smaller ships.So De’rek never saw any actual combat.

He continued being the cabin boy of the Slow wench until he was sixteen

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Edin

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He whistled but no matter how many times he called for KFC the falcon would not come.He sighed.

I totally forgot about him

He was on his way back to the inn carrying a pair of cloaks for their highness's.He had bought everything for the trip back to Hawk’s Nest.Two horses and necessities enough for the one month to reach The harbor of Dragkagua. From there he was gonna take a boat to the port town of Naoni and then home.

The queen and her daughter were already prepped and ready to go when he gave them the cloaks.They mounted the horses and began the journey.

An hour into the trip they were trotting without a word.He was bored and put his left hand into his pocket.

huh what’s this?

He took out a ring from his pocket.The ring given to him by his brother.

Oh that’s right Herbert. Damn I’m sure he’s fine but still

Not wanting to lose the ring he put it on.Their wasn't anything particularly special about it.Just a bronze ring with runes engraved in it.He would still treasure it after all Herbert had given it to him.

He felt weird somehow.A shiver ran down his spine.

Weird.

It was fairly hot day with zero wind.He looked at the Queen who was riding together with the princess.

‘wow she’s got a nice rack’

“WHAT!?”

“What’s wrong? asked the queen

“ah erm nothing.”

“That was weird.” He mumbled to himself

‘Are you okay?’

“Yeah it’s just…”He stopped

“Did you say something?” asked the Queen concerned.

“Ye yeah I’m fine.”

‘You can talk in your mind just direct your thoughts towards me’

‘Who are you?’

‘ah erm’ The voice cleared his non existant throat ‘I am the Second EROGAMI and I have chosen you as my disciple’

‘Yeah no I refuse’

‘Ah boo lil bro you're no fun’

‘bro?’

Wait a minute this voice

‘Herbert!?’

‘The one and only’

‘Are you using telepathy magic or something?are you ok!?’

‘er somewhat I’m not dead so I guess that’s a good thing but I have no physical form.I’m actually inside the ring tehee’

‘Wait what!?’

‘You see for my graduating thesis I started researching magical artifacts.I was attempting to create a ring that could hold various things and take up zero space.However after weeks I thought of putting myself in the ring.I tried different chants well I don’t want to bore you with the details’

‘Get to the point Herb’

‘Right then.I made my self into an ethereal form as a last resort’

‘So you're a ghost trapped in the ring!’

‘Um no I’m not dead.I just need to gather enough mana to return to the physical plane’

‘Then do it’

‘Can’t, you don’t have enough mana and since the ring lacks an engraved mana stone I can’t store enough of it to turn back’

‘then’

‘Yep were stuck like this for now’

‘why didn't you think of putting a mana stone you idiot’

‘Tehee I forgot’

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