“Here it is folks, the match I’m sure you’ve been waiting for! An all out brawl of one versus five thousand! Who will win?!”

“That’sright that’sright, but I think theproper question ishowlong will they last! Afterall, Icouldn’t bet ona winner.”

“The Lord Duke is joining us for this match as well! Do you have any insights for us before the bell?”

“Certainly. Normally a rabble like this would be at a disadvantage compared to a small number of well trained fighters who are used to working together. Trying to coordinate twenty who haven’t worked together is terrible enough, let alone five thousand. However, if I’m seeing this correctly-“

“I assure you that you are.”

“-my war general Bravos managed to get selected, so we should expect to see some decent coordination despite this. There is one variable though that I would be concerned with.”

“Andwhat’sthat?”

“What weapons will he use?”

“I know we’re all waiting expectantly since that white haze appeared on one side of the arena! He gained the moniker The Singing Paladin the last time he made a public appearance over three decades ago.”

“Yessir indeed! Itwasrumored he defeated morein hisearly yearsby merely humming atune than withhis mace!”

“Oi, you two, it looks like he can hear you inside of that ball of light, it just doubled in size and I can hear him singing from here.”

“Well, he did manage to carry a tune towards the end of his career at least. And there’s the signal! Let’s Battle!”

Instantly, the white haze surrounding the Other grows to twice its size then his half of the stadium less than a second after that before exploding in a cloud of dust below and doves above.

As the dust cloud rolls over his opponents, most hurriedly place a cloth over their nose and mouth to avoid inhaling it. Suspicions were high that the dust would be some form of attack or concealment based on the betting category, so they took precautions, though it is in vain. The Other grandstands a bit and waves at the crowds while this is going on since most of the fighters decided to listen to Bravos. Several dozen however took off like an arrow from a bow after the light dissipated.

The fastest of these managed to cross a quarter stadia in under three seconds, which is impressive given the situation. However, that was still enough time for the Other to react by dodging a blow aimed at his head by ducking, drawing his weapon and pulling the opponent over his head to aim a shot at his stomach. It was a simple impact spell, but it managed to send the poor beastkin back to the other side via an arc that put him level with the press box halfway up the stadium.

“Ooooohhh! What is this! Are we opening with hand to hand combat? What a display!” shouts Fennec in a deliberate attempt to obfuscate the reality of the situation but pump up the crowd.

A number of the sharper eyed attendees noticed either the magic, the weapon, or both. However, by the time Fennec had finished his commentary, the other pre-emptive strikers had closed the distance and were dispatched in a similarly spectacular fashion.

Once again alone, the Other holds weapons in both hands, off to the side in provocation, while projecting his voice and bloodlust using magic to work everyone up.

“Have you come to battle or to cower in the face of the darkness?! Shall I give you a taste of feãr?! Should I just bring you to the gates of hell?! Come! Face your doom through the fields of ice and fire!”

With that, the Other launches field magic a quarter stadia wide, of ice and fire between him and the wall of the arena so that there is a funnel with him at the point. Quick orders are given by Bravos to a team to extinguish a path through the fire so that they are not boxed in, as well as those confident in ranged attacks to launch the first wave of magic.

The Other looks at the incoming fire and, still projecting, snorts, “Fools! Explode!”

He uses his left weapon to simply shatter the attack while pointing his right towards the attackers and launches six magic stones in less than a second, which travel fast enough to reach the magic corps in about the same time. After the stones bounce off of their face, armor, or fellow ‘soldier,’ they explode with enough force to launch everyone within 4 meters several feet into the air, and knock the surroundings off of their feet.

The next several minutes showed the colosseum many things about how magic can be used. First, the field spells were not just simply for show. The ice field changed the local temperature below two Hellspring’s heights to sub-zero temperatures. Similarly with the field of fire, it would encroach on any ground not burning and the temperatures were appropriately hot within that same height. Several score opponents could navigate above the field, but were immediately spotted and dealt with accordingly once they landed.

To make things worse, once the field had been reduced by about 25% the Other had shouted, “Do you not yet feel despair?! Or shall you taste the kraken’s lightning?!” And immediately split the forces in two with a narrow lightning field of about four meters, which acted similarly to the others.

Given the now significantly narrower opening, the Other’s opponents managed to fend off what they believed to be the worst of the attacks using support spells and a shield wall of the more robust members, while the ranged attacks continued to pour in.

Secondly, the audience noticed how simple magic attacks from the Other would negate or disperse the impressive elemental dragons and nova spheres by finding the center of balance in the magic. While widely known as a possible tactic for battle, this is the first time so many had seen it performed and in such a repetition that they began to understand. Though few would dare try and take as many attacks at once.

Third, the power of words shaping images shaping magic. First with the fields, then the basic attacks. And once the front lines were within a stone’s throw (from a standard adult), the Other continued his taunting.

“Are you the sons and daughters of chaos or are you merely fleas?! I see fear, confusion, terror, and rage buried deep in your hearts! You are weak, powerless, and should just go take a nap until it’s over!”

Every key word was a debuff that affected 5% of each half as he fired magic with both weapons, and the colosseum watched as the somewhat orderly march fell apart at the seams. Those who knew support magic tried to ameliorate the effects as quickly as possible, but very few were able to use any that would affect more than 5-10 at a time. Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem as hunting groups typically contained that number or less.

And last, that no matter what you do, there will always be a wall.

The battle lasted about thirty minutes until the five thousand were beaten, broken, and exhausted. Twirling his weapons on his fingers, the Other places them into their holsters and says, “All those who want to keep their battle scars and heal on your own, raise your appendage.”

Unsurprising to anyone in the crowd, everyone still conscious in the arena did so, some albeit slowly due to their injuries. The Other nods, claps his hands and spreads them wide. A massive green magic circle appears above the colosseum and all the participants are wrapped in red. The unconscious awaken from this in time to see the crowd being healed of all but their scars. Surprising or not, the most serious wounds were burns and broken bones, with any other internal injuries healed on the sly.

With a snap of his fingers, the Other dismisses the field magics, though the fire leaves behind slag and the lightning smoldering craters. With another snap he raises 200 sets of golems with stretchers from the ground and tells them to gather the critically wounded in the area behind him.

“And that’s it you rabble, quite possibly the fight of the century! The colosseum will close in four hours so make sure you cash in your tickets before then! Concessions will close in an hour!”

The Other continues to grandstand a bit and eventually decides to fire off sparkly light from his weapons like fireworks. After about ten minutes of this, he holsters the weapons again and rips open a hole in spacetime and walks through before it closes.

- - - - - -

“Welcome back you old shyster. Did you have fun at least?” says Hellspring.

With a wave of his hand and snap of his fingers, the Other changes back into his clothing from earlier. “Oh a bit. I made sure to shoot your general a few times in particular for you. So, any idea how much I made today?”

“This is Fontine, and she’s the second in charge of gambling here,” Hellspring replies, pointing out a sheepkin the Other had failed to acknowledge.

“Hello~!” Fontine replies with only a hint of nervousness. “For the referrals and delivery of the manticore and kraken, 750,000 gil. From the 80% split for the exhibition raffle tickets, 4.9 million gil, and for the 10% split for the betting pool, 10.21 million gil. And change.”

“Is it just me, or is has this payment already been recouped with the matches today? It seems like it based on that last number at least, let alone whatever you got for the new matchup.”

“It’s not a bad deal though right? And besides, how much were you going to spend anyway while you’re here?”

“Realistically, I was hoping to get by with less than 20 million. Throw in Fontine and we’ll have a deal.”

“That’s fine by me,” Hellspring replies, getting a surprised look from Fontine. “You’ll help this cozener2 with his shopping list tomorrow. The old dinosaur gets lost easily enough and I’d rather not have him wandering loose.”

“I never get lost, I just go on adventures!” the Other declares while sitting on the couch and kicking up his feet. “It’s just that some of those adventures are rather inconvenient for one person or another.”

“So what are you looking for anyway? 20 million gil seems like a lot but you can go through that pretty quickly,” asks Fennec.

“Oh, some of the usual. Gems, ingots, ores, stall food, weapons, armor, clothing, some fruit, vegetables, leather, a couple of horses, a * slave and maybe some jewelry.”

A very still silence ensues while the other occupants of the room finally catch up on processing the list. The pale sheepkin immediately turns bright read from the tips of her ears to her toes while the other three narrow their eyes at the Other.

“What was that one near the end?” Jack asks, slower than he’s spoken in decades.

“Jewelry?”

“Not that one-“ begins Fennec.

“Horses?”

“This * slave has a name and a story I take it,” interjects Hellspring bluntly.

“Ah, that one, yes. Foxkin from the eastern shores, Daughter of a merchant friend of mine. Or maybe it’s granddaughter? Eh, no matter, he had some trouble with some brigands a month or two ago and I managed to track her here. Goes by the name Helen, supposed to be quite pretty.”

“And what happened to the brigands?” Hellspring asks with suspicion. Long-lived administrator that he is, his intuition on things like these is almost to the level of a skill if such a thing were available.

“Oh them? I left them on an island without food or water. Or boats. Or weapons. Told them if they could survive and make their way off the island that was the end of their sentence.”

“Gaaa, which island?” Fennec asks while rubbing his temples.

“One with an active volcano, just a ways off of the coast. Every couple years I run into bandits or brigands here that’s where I take them. Not sure what you all are calling it now but it’s the one where the elemental sprites like to play.”

“Skeleton island. Because the only thing we ever find there is skeletons. And flesh eating vampire bats.”

“Oh right, there were those too. Well, I didn’t search them too hard for hidden weapons so they should be fine if they don’t go out at night, or decide to live in their cave.”

“Hmmm, well that’s fine I suppose,” says Hellspring while stroking his chin. “There had been rumors going around about some vengeful ghost that would make entire groups of bandits disappear without a trace. I suppose that’s you then?”

“Probably, mostly. I did actually run into a vengeful ghost during one of those times and we got along quite well, so maybe like 95% of them? Any~who, would you actually mind leaving now-ish? I’d like to get her before too many get free with their newfound wealth.”

Hellspring turns to look at Fontine, who nervously waves her papers and says she should at least take them back to the office. The Other nods at this and tosses her a wooden coin, telling her that he will pick her up in 20 minutes if she isn’t back by then, so hold onto the coin.

Fontine stares at the coin in bewilderment for a moment, before quickly bowing and slowly walking out of the press box. As soon as she makes it to the hallway with the door closed behind her, she takes off in a panic as she doesn’t want to be late and find out what the wooden coin actually does.

[2] cozener - one who tricks or deceives