Chapter 6: Paltus

After two days of travel, we finally arrived to our destination: The city of Paltus. Last night, I tried asking the guards about Paltus but they did not answer me. I tried and tried again until the guards answered by beating me badly. I thought it would be a good opportunity to gain some knowledge from them and if I failed, I already anticipated that the guards would drag me and beat me up and they would use their magic to heal me. I wanted to see magic with my own eyes. My expectations were correct except for the latter part. They didn’t heal me to teach me a lesson.

As I leaned on the bars of the cage, I saw high walls at the distance. I scanned the area and I found farmers tending on the wheat fields surrounding the walls. The farmers looked at us with pity and continued to work after we passed.

The gates were open but there were guards standing in front of it. The guards were wearing leather armor but they’re different from the guards of the caravan. It resembles Roman light armor. They were holding spears and they have a short sword sheathed on their waists.

“Halt!” The guard stopped the caravan. “What’s your business here?”

The merchant stepped off the carriage and approached the guard.

“We’re citizens of the empire. As you can see, I ‘m a merchant and I wish to sell my wares in this city…” The merchant pointed at the cages.

“Do you have a manifest?” The guard asked.

“Of course...” The merchant said as he gave the soldier a piece of paper.

“Fifty slaves…” The guard silently muttered to himself. He nodded to the other guard as they started the inspection.

“As you can see, I brought these slaves from Rosum. I intend to sell them as fighting slaves for the arena…” The merchant followed the guards as they do an inspection.

“I see…” The guard said. The other guard went to him and whispered something on his ear.

“We counted fifty one slaves… Your manifest clearly stated that you only have fifty.” The guard stated as he glared to the merchant.

Hearing this as an opportunity, I quickly made up a lie to the guards. Fuck this. I want to get out as soon as possible.

“Guards! Please hear me and save….” I shouted but a mercenary punched me in the stomach and interrupted me.

The guard raised his hand. “Stop… Let him speak.”

I got up and turned to the guard. “I’m a citizen of the empire… I was traveller but these mercenaries attacked me on the road to Paltus. They robbed me and made me a slave…”

The guard glance at the merchant. “Is this true?”

“Of course not… I… uhhh…” The merchant’s face turned pale.

“We found him on the road but he’s not a citizen of the empire…” The merchant gave a signal to one of the mercenary and gave him the clothes.

“His clothes will prove that he is not a citizen.” The merchant handed Ben’s clothes to the guard. The guard carefully inspected the clothes.

“He’s probably a spy from the Eccretia Kingdom.” The merchant added.

“It’s not true…” I protested. “Those clothes were mine, yes… It was my own design. The blood and the holes of the clothes are proof that these thugs attacked me. They healed me with magic so I’ll live as a slave…”

I think I saw a vein popping on the merchant’s temple. Well, I don’t care. He’s dumb to pick me up on the road and sell me as a slave.

“Look…” The merchant took a few coins from his bag and gave it to the guard. “I think these coins would prove to be sufficient as evidence.”

The guard stared at the merchant for the moment as if trying to think. “Let them pass…”

‘Oh shit…’ I screamed in my mind as the merchant glanced and gave me a smirk. The mercenary punched me again in the stomach. I couldn’t believe that I overlooked one flaw in my plan. The guards can be bribed. ‘Fuck…’

Pimo looked at me. Even though he was saying nothing, his eyes were telling me to accept my fate.

“It’s worth a try…” I said to Pimo and sat beside him.

As we entered the city, the first thing that I noticed was the smell. It was horrible. It smelled like shit everywhere. Then, I realized that the first ‘circle’ in this city was the slums.

The houses were crude and almost primitive in design. There were people on the streets and they were mostly humans. Some of them belong to Nekon race and other beast race that I don’t recognize. They’re thin like they were always starving. Some of them tried to beg the merchant for money but they were all shooed by the caravan guards.

I don’t know who was luckier, us or them. They didn’t have collars so I assume that they’re not slaves like us. I can look at them with pity especially when I saw an Inun woman with a baby on her arm. She was begging the merchant for food but like everyone else, she was shooed away by the guards.

After a few minutes, we made our way to the markets. The caravan had a hard time passing the streets as it was too crowded. The market was livelier than the slums. There were stalls selling all kinds of goods that you would expect from a market: meat, vegetables and other food products. They were also selling weapons, armors and other stuffs that I wasn't familiar with.

Of course, they were also selling slaves. I heard a merchant trying to sell his slaves to the by-passers. All of the slaves he was selling were women. He was shouting that the slaves he was selling were good in housework and in bed as well. The women slaves have dead eyes like they were abused for so long. They have bruises and small cuts in their face indicating that they were abused by their master.

We finally arrived at the merchant’s place. The caravan stopped and the merchant prepared the place. I think he was preparing for an auction as I saw a crowd of people waiting for him.

After an hour, they opened that cages and they let us out. We couldn’t escape even if we wanted to because of the chains and the collars, of course. I learned that the collars act as a tracking device by using magic. The fact that magic was so common that even a lowly merchant can use it intrigued me. I wanted to learn magic so I can blast my way out and give a magical finger up the slaver’s ass. The guards put a gag on my mouth to keep me from talking.

We were lined up and after a short speech from the merchant, the auction began. Like a product, the merchant gave each of us a brief description about our origins and how we would fare in the arena. I realized that this merchant was selling us as gladiators and we would fight to death in an arena. Fuck!

The people made their bids and it seems that the average price was 5-7 gold coins per slave. I don’t know the value of their coins yet but I can only assume that we’re expensive. The people who bid were also accompanied by armed men. When I say armed, I mean armed like with swords and spears. They also wear well-made toga so I assumed that these people were rich.

After a few minutes, it was my turn.

“We found this man on the road near Forlon forest. We saw with our own eyes that he was fighting a minotaur with his bare hands.”

The bidders chattered as the merchant gave his speech.

“He fought with such ferocity that the minotaur could only flee at his fury. When the monster fled, he turned his gaze upon us and attacked us as his thirst for blood overcame him. Luckily, the minotaur left a wound in his shoulder.” The merchant pointed at the large scar on my shoulder. “Even though he lost some blood and unarmed, he managed to injure three of the caravan guards. Even when we put him to chains, he tried to attack one of the guards with his teeth. We had to put a gag on him to prevent him from doing so.”

What the fuck! Clearly, an exaggeration but this is going overboard. Unfortunately, the bidders were dumb enough to believe this son of a bitch and made their bids.

In the end, I was sold for 8 gold and 40 silver coins. As the man who bought me handed a bag of coins, the merchant’s smile would reach from ear to ear.

The man wore a toga like the other bidders. The man looked like Steve Buscemi with a beard. I guess they have a barber here in this world since his hair and beard was well-trimmed. His height was almost the same as me but I think he’s an inch taller than me. He was glaring at me with his blue eyes as if daring me to attack him. Without further words, we left the market.

The man bought 8 slaves .Three humans, including me and Pimo, two nekons, and three Inuns. He took us to his villa. The guards led us to the training grounds in the villa and lined us up. The other slaves he owned stopped whatever they’re doing as we entered the grounds.

I counted a total of twenty five slaves excluding us and the tall man in the middle. Most of them were demi-humans, only 7 were humans. They looked at us and smiled with contempt. The tall man was a demi-human, I don’t know the particular race but he looked like a bear. He’s huge and stood about 7 foot tall and had two round ears on the top of his head. The man doesn’t wear anything on his top to show his bulging muscles and countless of scars on his hairy body. He carried a whip on his right hand so I assume he’s the one who trains these slaves to fight. I don’t like pain so I was hoping not to get whipped by that bear hulk.

The man who bought us came and gave his speech.

“My name is Septimus Cassius Avilius…”

Cool! Not only this world resembles ancient Rome, they even got Roman names. I wonder what name I will use. Spartacus? Maximus? Or maybe Dickheadus Shitus.

“As your master, I will give you the greatest honor that a slave could ever hope for: To live and die in the sands of the arena. That honor comes with a price. You need to earn the mark of the brotherhood; the brotherhood of Avilius.”

“Avilius! Avilius! Avilius!” The slaves chanted.

Right… This shithead of a master has a twisted sense of morality. These slaves seemed to be brainwashed and they believed that there is honor in death. Even if you put sands on where you die, death is still death. I noticed that the older slaves have a burnt letter ‘A’ on their arms so I assume this is the mark of the brotherhood.

“I will not let you soil the good name of my house. You will train, eat, sleep and train night and day in this villa. You have a month to prove your worth and earn the mark. This man here is your trainer.” He pointed at the bear hulk of a man.

“His name is Barca, he will make sure that you don’t just die in the arena. You will prove to everyone that the fighters of Avilius are the best in the world.”

After the introduction, the guards removed our chains and they also removed my gag. They gave us wooden swords for training.

Barca called one of us to have a spar with one of the fighters with the mark.

I watched the fights carefully so I can try to defeat the fighter by analyzing his fighting style. His name was Flavius. I don’t know much about him but he looked at us with a grin like he wanted to beat us to a pulp. Like everyone who got the mark, they have huge muscles. Even the females have huge muscles.

His fighting style seemed to be more refined than I expected. It was unorthodox in way but still his techniques were organized. He’s good with improvising that made him adapt to his opponents. I saw openings but unfortunately, they didn’t take it. Or perhaps, they didn’t see it as I did.

In the end, Flavius defeated everyone except the Inun slave that ended into a stalemate. I was the last one to fight Flavius.

“You there!” Barca called me as I grabbed the sword. “I heard that you’re a wild beast who fought a minotaur, huh? Show Flavius what you got.”

I swung the sword in the air to get a good sense of balance with the sword.

When I was in high school, I had no idea what club I should join in. As I looked for good clubs to join, there were various martial arts club that grabbed my interest. I joined the Arnis Club because not only they teach hand to hand combat, they also teach stick fighting. When I asked my master why we used sticks in combat instead of swords like kendo, he told me that when in one is in danger; one must grab any weapon available in his surroundings. A simple stick can often be found than a sword. It made sense. He also added that bladed weapons such as a knife or machete are compatible with Arnis techniques.

Arnis techniques include one stick or two stick fighting techniques. I prefer the latter as you can defend and attack at the same time. Although most Arnis practitioners find it hard to wield two weapons, I impressed my master when saw that I’m proficient with two sticks. I joined Arnis tournaments and I even won bronze medal.

As I faced my opponent, I put the sword on my right hand forward and my left hand near my chest. I moved my left foot backward 45 degrees away from my body. The body should not be too low or extended otherwise it will be hard to manoeuvre. I distributed the center of gravity to both legs. This was one of the basic stances in Arnis: Back Stance. I used this stance because I didn’t know my opponent well so it was safe to be defensive rather than to be aggressive. Back Stance was used blocking and backward evasion techniques. I won the tournament in high school because I was very flexible of changing stances.

Flavius and the others laughed because of my stance. Of course, for them it was weird. I don’t know if martial arts exist in this world.

Flavius charged at me and swung his sword on my right side. His moves were so obvious that he didn’t even try to feint his attacks. Perhaps, he was underestimating me and thought I was a newbie in fighting. I blocked his attack and moved backwards as he tried to follow through his attack with another swing.

He kept on attacking me relentlessly as I kept on dodging and blocking his attacks. After a few moments, I could feel that his attacks were becoming weaker and slower. He was starting to get tired because most of his attacks were heavy. I used this opportunity to switch my stance to Forward Stance.

I swung my sword to his left aiming at his shoulder. He parried the attack and countered but I stepped backwards to dodge his counter. Before he recovered, I saw a lot of openings so I thrust my sword forward and aimed in the middle of his chest. Normally, I would try to aim on his sword arm because it was Arnis principle to disarm the opponent but in this case I aimed for his chest because the chest was far large target than the arm.

I thrust my sword and it hit the solar plexus. If this was a real sword, he would have died but when my sword hit his chest, he gasped for air and moved backwards. I quickly moved forward and swung my sword to make an overhead strike.

When my sword hit him on the head, Flavius dropped his sword and fell on his back. I quickly kicked the sword away and pointed my sword to him.

There was a strange silence in my surroundings. I looked around and I saw that their smiles turned into blank expressions. I guess they didn’t expect me to win.

“Good!” Barca said. “But still a lot of room for improvement.”

I lowered my sword and I offered a hand to Flavius. He smiled and took my hand as I raised him up.

“You’re good…” Flavius said as he smiled.

I nodded to him and gave him a slight smile. I expected that he would be bitter attitude of his defeat. I guess I was wrong.

“I guess it’s true, huh? You defeated a minotaur. Not an easy feat.” He said.

“I didn’t really defeat a minotaur. I actually ran and he gave me this.” I gave him a wry smile as I pointed on my scar on my shoulder.

“I see… Want to be my sparring partner?” He asked and I gave him a slight nod.

After the spar, all of us, including the other fighters were assigned with a sparring partner. The new slaves were assigned to spar with the older slaves. Flavius became my sparring partner that day.

As we fought for about an hour, I already felt exhausted. Barca would crack his whip in the air whenever he sees us, the new slaves, on the verge of exhaustion. He whipped the other slaves when they fall over.

We’ve only done this for an hour but as expected, the older slaves such as Flavius didn’t even break a sweat.

Barca roamed around and inspected the fight. He gave instructions like how to handle the weapons properly. As he gave instructions, he would crack the whip in the air saying: “Remember that or I’ll whip you like a dog…”

I was whipped on the back when I fell because I was so exhausted. Fuck that bear. It felt like my back was skinned when he whipped me.

We spent the rest of the day sparring with one another. I was very thirsty but Barca didn’t gave us water or a break. It was already night when Barca told us to stop. We panted heavily as the older slaves were told to get back in their cells.

“The new ones will stay… You’re training has just begun…” Barca said as he grinned.

He made us lift a heavy log on our backs while walking on circles. It was so heavy that I thought my back will break because of its weight.

Whenever we fall over, Barca would whip us until we got up. Unfortunately, I was the one who was whipped a lot because I didn’t have the stamina to keep up with this hellish training. I wanted to kill him but I didn’t have a weapon to do so. Plus, I’m not stupid enough to defy him because his scars proved that he was once a fighter like them and I was too tired to do it.

We continued this heavy lifting all night. I didn’t even know for how long because it felt like we were doing it for almost an eternity.

When Barca told us to stop, we dropped the log from our backs. I was getting dizzy from exhaustion. Luckily, Barca gave us some water. I drank like thirsty camel and splashed some water on my face.

He led us to our cells where we would spend the night. Pimo and the other new slaves became my cell mates. We didn’t even have the time to talk with each other due to exhaustion.

Even though our backs were stinging in pain, we all laid our backs to the ground and slept.

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