– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 217, Season of the Rising Sun, Day 52 –

Space distorted near the camp of the lizans and a tall figure appeared. Glowing blue eyes danced over the mana signatures of the lizans and then rested with shock on the giant wyvern corpse that had become frozen in ice. The lizan woman grabbed her mage staff tighter and the soft skin shining through between the dull black scales turned a shade lighter.

A loud exchange of hissing sounds washed over the lizan encampment and soon after, the group of lizans faced their visitor with hesitant steps.

A grey-scaled lizan woman reached out one hand in front of her and put the other hand on her mouth. Her eyes glistened. Further behind, other lizans had fallen down to both knees or began hugging each other.

The blue-eyed lizan mage walked forward and tried to suppress her warring emotions. Something about her mission had gone off course. She glanced at the giant wyvern carcass. Her eyes returned to her fellow lizans. Luckily, it appeared that she had still made it on time. She had found them. Now she needed to help them. Help them before they would be discovered. Or else.

When the lizan woman with the dull black scales returned her attention to the folks from the camp, her brain finally caught up with what they were telling her in the native tongue of their realm. Fear and rage flashed through her mana-filled eyes.

One of the other lizans approached her and held out a beaded necklace of which one larger bead had been shattered.

“So close, Fate… An ill omen… stroke of luck… or fortuitous?” The black-scaled lizan woman closed her blue eyes and subconsciously muttered to herself in the tongue of this human realm. "Fate." She repeated the ominous word that held deep meaning for her ever since stepping on her forbidden path. A word that had become her chosen name. “Both curse and gift.” Fate sighed. “But such a twist…?”

Fate could not avoid thinking back to the strange dungeon she had encountered weeks ago. Her own realm had only learned of dungeons after the permanent gates to this human-native realm had opened. “Unknown. Strange.” She shook her head. “Later.”

The lizan mage gripped her mage staff tightly and walked with determination. She would first finish her mission. Later, there would be time for inquiry and the payment of debts. Later.

***

Terry was sitting in a cell for contestants awaiting their battle in the Proving Grounds. He was scowling at the floor.

How did I get here again?

This is bullshit.

“Positive thinking,” grumbled Terry.

Are you relieved that soon, you’ll get to punch someone to vent your frustrations? Or perhaps you will get punched. Or killed. Relief might not be the correct word.

“Positive thinking,” repeated Terry. “At least this will be a single opponent or a few. Better chances than against several dozen mages from the Thanatos army.”

No rules. Killing allowed.

“Just like when facing a soldier in combat,” mumbled Terry. “I’m already lucky they did not immediately execute me.”

Terry exhaled sharply. He unintentionally thought back to the Path of a Mage.

Why did they abridge the story of the Veilbinder so much?

“Because it’s a huge tome even when leaving some parts out.” Terry answered himself. “That abduction did not have any connection to the major events. It only caused the Veilbinder to be missing for a few months.”

I’m sure the Veilbinder would have rejoiced at his abduction being described in such a manner. Just like you would. ‘Terry was only missing for a few months.’ No biggie. The world moved on. It’s just Terry.

Terry shrugged. His intrusive thoughts had a point. While such a situation may be of minor importance in the grand scheme of things, it sure sucked from the perspective of the individual involved.

Terry knew about the Veilbinder’s arena experience but he did not know any details. The Path of a Mage only mentioned it in passing. After the Veilbinder had gained some notoriety across different realms, he had caught the attention of a powerful magical individual that was organizing blood sports for the entertainment of influential guests.

The Veilbinder and his companions had just edged out a victory over a ruler from the shadow plane. While the Veilbinder was still lying unconscious and before his companions could reach him, a bunch of otherrealm folks had taken the Veilbinder away. The Veilbinder had woken up in a realm native to the lamias – folks with the upper body of humans and the lower body of snakes. The Veilbinder had been thrown into an arena to fight against other otherrealm warriors with considerable reputations.

Saint Petra only noted that the lamia realm would never forget the Veilbinder again. Apparently, the Veilbinder had made a farce out of the fights. He refused to engage in the battles and only dodged and evaded. He acted as if the arena organizers were trying to fix the battles, which did not go over well with the gambling guests. In the end, the Veilbinder had somehow managed to stage a rebellion and the arena went up in flames.

To make it worse for the involved lamias, some of the Veilbinder’s companions had taken the abduction of their unconscious friend from right under their noses very personally. After the Veilbinder’s return, there were a few that made sure to hunt down all related parties, which caused a huge upheaval in the realm’s leadership.

Saint Petra also recorded that one of the companions had made it a point to seek out similar blood sport arenas and eradicate them from the realms.

Unfortunately for Terry, the battles were not described, nor were the steps that had allowed the Veilbinder to stage a rebellion and bring down the arena.

“I guess I could try the fight avoidance approach…” Terry muttered while daydreaming when he heard the door open.

“You’re up,” barked one of the soldiers.

While walking down the corridor that led to the battle arena, Terry’s thoughts drifted away from him. Pictures of himself leading an arena rebellion like the Veilbinder had done were invading his mind.

Terry knew it was silly.

Still…

Merely knowing something was different from truly understanding something.

***

Terry stepped forward and found himself in a large arena. The floor was simply flattened earth. Terry could feel the sun-warmed earth, small pebbles and the occasional patch of grass under his bare feet.

“Holy mana…” Terry could not help but mutter with astonishment when he spotted the thousands upon thousands of eyes resting on him from the audience seats.

“Whoooo!”

“Look at the rookie!”

“Manaless? Looking to die?”

“That brat is supposed to be from Arcana?! Was that just to create hype?”

“Booo!”

Terry gulped. In addition to his lack of equipment, this was now a second reason for him to feel exposed. Terry had not expected an audience of this size.

Are so many people in Thanatos the type to enjoy blood sports and death games?

“Focus.” Terry reminded himself. He tried his best to tune out the spectator’s utterances and focus on the approaching figure on the opposing side. A scrawny man with sunken eyes was glaring at Terry. The man was wearing a similar pair of shirt and pants to Terry.

No equipment. New contestant? Unsuccessful contestant? Or with the confidence to progress without equipment?

Terry focused on his mana sense. The man’s mana appeared weak at first glance, but Terry could detect an unusually large variation in the emitted mana at times. Terry narrowed his eyes with suspicion.

Cloaked but imperfectly.

“Don’t try to undress me with your eyes.” The man jeered loudly.

Laughing resounded in the audience seats. There was some booing mixed into the laughter as well.

“We’re here to fight,” said the man. “Enough of the foreplay.” He held out his hand with its palm pointing to the sky and then curled his fingers repeatedly. “Come.”

“We don’t have to fight.” Terry blurted out. A chorus of mixed reactions from the audience assaulted Terry’s ears.

“Oh? An alliance builder?” The man lowered his hand. “Are you sure about that?”

No. Terry’s mind pointed out. “I’m open to it.”

“Gracious.” The man smiled thinly. “Fine, let’s shake on it.” He held out his hand.

Now what? Terry was not sure how to go about this. He did not trust the other, but if it avoided a fight, then why not give it a try?

‘Hope for the best but prepare for the worst.’ Terry recalled one of Isille’s favorite proverbs. He reminded himself of the mana signature incongruence. He prepared himself before stepping forward.

Terry approached his opponent. When Terry was only a few steps away, he held out his hand as well. Just when they were about to shake hands, Terry caught the flicker of mana movement.

Before Terry’s mind had registered the spell structure, Terry had already unleashed his prepared spherical disruption discharge. In the blink of an eye, Terry’s mana that had been circulating at a relaxed pace through his body accelerated explosively.

The spherical discharge sliced apart the man’s spell structure before the spell had fully ignited.

The man attempted to dodge with his own burst of mana. Even though the man had sacrificed his cloaking for his burst, he was still too slow to keep up with Terry’s burst technique acceleration.

Terry rammed his elbow into his opponent’s stomach. He grabbed the man’s wrist and with a quick half-step to position himself according to Bjorln’s hand-to-hand training, Terry smashed his opponent violently on the floor.

“E-hurgh. Easy!” The man shouted and held up his hands in front of his torso.

Contrary to his own expectations, Terry stopped and eyed the man resentfully.

“I was just testing you, damn,” The man spoke amicably. “You can’t expect others to enter an alliance with a manaless loser, can you? That would be brainless beyond belief! There simply aren’t any manaless in here that aren’t convicts with questionable characters. No manaless is stupid enough to enter the arena for recognition, which means all of them are here without a choice. Damn, even now I can’t sense mana from your body. How do you manage that?”

Terry had maintained his cloaking despite his burst technique. Terry realized that he had done so subconsciously simply because he could.

“Testing me?” Terry was scowling at the downed opponent. “What if I don’t like being tested?! Not to mention that you picked a peculiar way to test me. An ambush with…” Terry’s mind had caught up with his mana sense and he recognized the spell of the shadow aspect and his opponent could not have picked a worse spell to piss Terry off. “Shadow Claws?” Terry involuntarily recalled the scene of his sister being seized and then threatened with the same spell in Tiv.

The man was visibly taken aback by the fact that Terry had recognized the spell structure despite his quickened casting. His face quickly melted into an apologetic smile. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I should have picked a better approach.”

If I had been weaker or less prepared, I might have been seriously injured from that ambush. ‘Better approach.’ Terry scoffed inwardly. Arsehole.

“Well, I’m convinced,” said the man. “I’m certainly open to the alliance idea.”

Terry wasn’t sure anymore.

“Stop your blabbering,” barked a voice from the sidelines. The match overseer glowered at them. “Fight, yield, or nominate an alliance leader.”

“There’ll be more fights today.” Terry’s opponent pointed out. “There is no benefit to getting ourselves seriously injured this early in the day, right? I’m liking this alliance idea.”

Terry could not help but think back to the Veilbinder’s story. His childhood hero had frequently managed to turn enemies into companions and sometimes even into friends for a lifetime.

“Alliance.” Terry could hear himself announce.

“Alliance,” echoed Terry’s opponent. “I’m Nash by the way.”

“Terry.” Terry was still not sure if this was a good idea. Nevertheless, a part of him wanted to try it. To see where it would lead.

“Alliance leader?” asked the overseer indifferently.

“What do you think?” Nash asked Terry with no hint of his previous apologeticness.

Didn’t I just spare him? Terry tried to reign in his flaring temper. Then again, I’m at zero anyway, so I wouldn’t lose anything. Does it matter? Terry exhaled slowly. “Nash can get the alliance win.” Terry had given the point distribution some thoughts between his day-dreaming. “We can alternate who gets the win.”

The audience saw the two contestants off with unsatisfied booing and ridiculing jeers.

***

Terry’s clothes were already charred in many places and fern-like scars covered his body. Terry burst his mana and dashed once more into the barrage of lightning. His mana was circulating at high speed in the pattern of his resistance training. Terry punched out several disruption discharges to ease his way forward but more lightning followed.

What’s taking Nash so long?

Terry did not have the leeway to glance back. He could only rely on his mana sense. His alliance with Nash had started rough but the man had fought together with Terry against their current opponent – a woman who had attacked immediately.

Nash had fallen back, which made sense to Terry, because Nash was able to cast a few long-range spells. Nash had suggested that Terry distract their opponent while he prepared a Shadow Bind spell. Unfortunately for Terry, the woman was a pain to distract. Literally.

Since I’ve come this far in… Terry ignored the stench of his singed hair and decided to close in completely. Right when Terry had broken through to the lightning mage, Terry could sense Shadow Bind activate.

Terry silently lamented the fact that Nash’s spell hadn’t arrived sooner. From what Terry could see, the woman relied on finger movements for many of her spells and therefore, a proper Shadow Bind spell would have interfered with her spellwork.

Better late than never… Terry used the chance to smash a palm of disruptive mana into the woman's back. He kicked the inside of her knees and locked their paralyzed opponent in a grappling hold. Terry applied pressure and barked: “Surrender!”

Nash stopped his Shadow Bind spell.

“Cowards!” hissed the woman.

Terry sighed. “We could have formed an alliance. We didn’t need to fight.”

“With scum like you?” The woman glanced from Nash to Terry. “Piss off.”

“Surrender,” ordered Terry. “I don’t want to hurt you…”

“You little— AHHH!” The woman screamed when Terry applied pressure on his muscle crusher grip.

“...but I will if I have to.” Terry continued flatly.

“...fine. I surrender:” The woman hissed resentfully.

“Don’t take her word for it.” Nash yelled. “In here, she is free to change her mind until we leave with the overseer’s assistants.”

What?

Terry’s eyebrows twitched. He recalled the rules of the Proving Grounds. ‘Stopped displaying an intention to fight.’

Oh mana damn it. A declared surrender isn’t enough? Seriously?!

“You should cripple her to make sure that she isn’t able to fight anymore,” suggested Nash.

This is… Terry scowled.

“I said I surrender, let me go already,” hissed the woman.

‘Mercy to the enemy is cruelty to yourself.’ Enemy? Terry looked at the woman whom he knew practically nothing about.

‘The time for mercy is when you are in complete control of the situation.’ Terry recalled the words that Isille had once told them after their failed bounty hunt examination.

Terry took a deep breath. He unleashed another disruption discharge right into the woman’s body. Afterwards, Terry let her go. He retreated three steps and prepared to unleash more disruption discharges if necessary. His eyes were calm, which stood in stark contrast to the feral appearance that all the lightning marks had given him.

“What are you doing?” shouted Nash. He released a quickened Fire Spear spell.

“Give her a chance.” Terry blocked the Fire Spear with a disruption discharge.

The woman stood up and glared at Nash. “Not everyone is as dishonorable as you. I said I surrender.” She looked at the overseer. “I accept my loss.”

“This way.” The overseer for this match pointed her to the exit. After the lightning mage had left, the overseer turned to the two remaining contestants. “Fight, yield, or nominate an alliance leader.”

Terry and Nash both announced their intention to end with an alliance.

“Alliance leader for this match?” asked the overseer indifferently.

“What do you think?” Nash turned to Terry casually.

“We agreed to alternate the wins,” reminded Terry.

“No, you proposed to do that, but I’m not sure if that’s the best course of action,” objected Nash.

Terry frowned. He suddenly realized that he had in fact something to lose: time. He can’t quarrel for hours on end if he wanted to return to Arcana quickly. He also needed wins if he ever wanted to leave this damned arena.

“I’m just saying that I’m only missing a single win to earn the permanent privilege to wield my first piece of equipment,” said Nash. “That would strengthen our alliance for the next battle and improve our chances.”

Terry had to admit that Nash had a point. Considering the fact that Terry was still at zero and wouldn’t earn the right to wield an item anytime soon, he begrudgingly assented. “Alright then.” He turned to the overseer. “Nash gets the alliance win.”

***

Terry walked onto the third battle stage of his day. He tried to ignore the stinging sensation of the fern-like scars all over his body. Terry had discovered that there would be no healing between battles in the Proving Grounds – not unless you could heal yourself.

Terry looked up to see Nash enter. “Wait, where is your equipment?” Terry blurted out.

“Don’t have it yet,” said Nash. “I’ll explain later.”

“Why not—” Terry was getting ticked off.

“Greetings, peasants!” arrived the shout of the third contestant, who swaggered into the arena. He was dressed in shimmering combat robes. A large sun and a small golden crow were stitched into the chest area.

Terry could detect several clusters of mana spread over the man’s body. He had seen similar mana structures before. They had reminded him of mana cores but they appeared less rigid. These mana structures were the sign of a mana martialist.

Terry furrowed his brow because the man’s combat robes were obviously a non-standard item but Terry could not sense any mana.

Why would anyone waste wins on such an item?

Terry could see Nash next to him frowning.

“If you kneel and grovel at my feet, I’ll consider letting you off with a light spanking,” sneered the mana martialist.

Terry was already in a foul mood and he saw no reason to discuss alliances with such a person. He looked at Nash. “Same as last time?”

Nash visibly hesitated but then shrugged his shoulders. “Sure.”

Terry was already charging at the martialist.

The man’s eyes showed surprise and he gathered mana for a movement technique. The faint image of a large golden crow appeared from the mana resonance behind the man’s steps. He left a trail of blazing fire behind him.

Terry had to remind himself that he was not able to step into the air anymore. Instead, he relied on his resistance training and nimble movements to limit the damage he took from the fire. He punched out a rapid succession of disruption discharges to disturb the flames created through mana resonance.

“You—” The man was incensed at the lack of caution Terry displayed. He jumped forward and attacked Terry with a flying kick.

Terry casually stepped a half-step to the side, grabbed the outstretched leg flying at him and rotated his body to hurl the martialist onto the ground. Terry fleetingly thought that Bjorln would harshly rebuke the martialist’s hand-to-hand combat style. Terry still remembered how his accepted father had stressed the difference between body control demonstrations and real combat. Suffice it to say, Bjorln didn’t have a high opinion of flying kicks and considered their applicability rather limited.

“You dare—” Before the martialist had a chance to fully voice his misgivings, Terry had kicked the man in the face.

Talking in the middle of an exchange. Another no-go. Terry remembered how Bjorln had rebuked him in training whenever Terry so much as separated his teeth before getting some distance. Clench your teeth unless you don’t like them.

Sure enough, Terry could see that the martialist must have bitten his tongue. He probably cracked a tooth too.

Should be enough to get the point across… Terry reminded himself that this didn’t have to be a fight to the death.

“Surrender,” barked Terry.

“Don’t you know who I am?!” The martialist glared hatefully at Terry. “You so much as break a hair on my head and my sect is going to—”

“Surrender.” Terry cut the man’s rant off.

“I am one of the scions of the Blazing Sun Sect,” screeched the martialist. He got back up on his feet. “My grandfather is an elder of the punishment hall. If you kneel and beg forgiveness—”

Terry charged at the mana martialist without warning. The man tried to use a technique but before the surrounding mana could enter a state of resonance, a disruption discharge from Terry already flooded the area. Overcoming the disturbance quickly was beyond the man’s abilities.

After another short exchange of fists and kicks, the man was down on the floor again. His once shimmering robes were now dusty and smeared with dirt.

“Surrender.” Terry glared at the martialist coldly.

“Never.” The man sneered. “Kill me if you dare!”

Seriously?

Terry sighed inwardly but tried to maintain an indifferent expression. After several exchanges that had left the mana martialist bloody and injured, Terry could not help but glance at the overseer.

No intervention from the people running the show, huh?

Terry wasn’t sure how to continue. He had already won, but evidently this wasn’t enough to end a fight in the Proving Grounds.

“A lowlife peasant dares to…” The mana martialist moved his bloody fingers over the mess that had once been his beautiful face. His bloody lips contorted into a snarl of fury: “I’ll make sure you’ll die a horrible death!”

Seriously? Terry clicked his tongue. “Just surrender for mana’s sake.”

“I’ll eat your flesh and drink your blood!” A violent red mana emerged from the man’s body.

Forbidden technique? Terry recalled a chat he once had with his Tiv sparring partner Vicente about mana martialism. Before the man could fully activate whatever he was using, Terry had already arrived with a palm that carried a disruption discharge. He had aimed it for one of the mana clusters that seemed to be the most active.

“You—” The mana martialist stared in disbelief at Terry. “You dare to try and cripple my cultivation?! I’LL KILL YOU!”

Terry retreated with a backflip. “What the Wastes is wrong with you? Just surrender already.”

“I’ll kill you!” screeched the frenzied mana martilist. “No matter what, I’ll kill you! You and everyone you care about, I’ll…”

Terry took a deep breath. Another old memory surfaced in his mind. His accepted parents had once remarked that if people tell you who they are, you might want to listen to them. Fine, have it your way!

A moment later, Terry had broken the martialist’s neck. Terry tried to ignore the excited cheers and gasps from the audience.

Terry had won, but this victory tasted sour. He did not like the feeling of killing an already defeated opponent, but he also knew that leaving trouble for himself was a stupid idea.

If this had been a combat practice match at the Guardians, an instructor would have long ago called the match and it might have never gotten that far. Terry once again became aware that the Thanatos Proving Grounds were different.

“Fight, yield, or nominate an alliance leader,” barked the overseer.

Terry, who had been deep in thought, realized that Nash was still there. He had almost forgotten that he arrived here in an alliance.

“What do you think?” asked Nash in the same tone as after the past two matches.

“What do you mean?” returned Terry with annoyance. “What happened to your equipment privilege?”

“Yeah, sorry, I must have miscounted,” replied Nash sheepishly. “It will take a few more fights for me to reach the wins required to earn the privilege to wield my first item.”

“Then we can just go back to alternating, right?” Terry held back the desire to go off on Nash.

“I mean, we could do that, yeah, but that wouldn’t be very rational would it?” retorted Nash. “It’s still true that it makes sense for our alliance to focus on strengthening ourselves and if we alternate, then it will take twice as long until either of us can wield an item.”

Terry reminded himself to stay calm and consider Nash’s point.

“I already have a few wins under my belt,” continued Nash. “The quickest way to strengthen us is still to focus on my equipment privilege first.”

Terry had to admit that the argument made sense, but Nash’s behavior still pissed him off.

***