“Wow! Beautiful as usual Agnes. Beautiful”, Noet chortled sarcastically at the girl who just walked out of the metal elevators.
She looked absolutely frightening, covered from head to boots with blood. She donned a skin tight black leather jumpsuit with a scimitar hanging by the right side of her hip and small throwing knifes hanging off the belt on her waist.
Her outfit was intact and she wasn’t injured anywhere so the blood was definitely not hers.
“Well, thank you”, she replied sarcastically trying to wring her hair dry which was soaked in blood, “This always gets in my hair. Maybe I should cut it?”
“I think she looks wonderful” Aileen commented trying her best not the smile.
Agnes burst out laughing at that, “Thank you Aileen”
“I think she looks hot”, Harvy admitted cheerfully, his eyes roaming Agnes’ body.
She had matured well, having an average backside but a bountiful front. It wasn’t too big or too small. Just perfect. If it was as big a Sarai’s, Agnes might have actually cut it off. She hated anything that interfered with her battle performance.
“I’m informing Bertha about this”, Agnes quipped, a smile on her face.
“What?! No, no, no. I’m just complimenting you” he quickly tried to explain himself.
“Right”, Aileen deadpanned
Noet couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
“That’s a lot of blood”, a monotonic voice floated over prompting them to look over to May. As usual, she had no presence and no expression on her face. The living doll’s eyes did show curiosity.
“Ah”, Agnes ran a hand through her hair, “I got 3 opponents. The beast one was ginormous so lots of blood got on me when I killed it”.
“Oh”, she replied in the same monotonous voice. Judging from her attitude, she had obviously lost interest.
Agnes wondered what May thought the blood was from.
No, it was obvious the blood was from her enemies so the quantity was what made her curious. Agnes scanned her body but shrugged as she looked the same as usual.
The colosseum was a platform for entertainment. To survive in this place, one had to not simply fight but have a performance on stage.
But a performance alone was nothing, the crowd had to love you enough to label you, then you had some form of standing in the underground.
The past 20 years, Agnes had worked on her ‘identity’. 5 years ago, she was finally given the label ‘Blood Bitch’ after her demonic side took over her body for a few moments. She had torn her opponent from limb to limb then proceeded to bathe in his blood after which she regained control but the damage had already been done.
Luckily for her, only her rationale was clouded not her demon side emerging. Her purple mana would have otherwise go wild, manifesting outside her body and then slowly her body would transform into a demon’s.
She had managed to survive till now hiding that side of her because the moment it was known, she would have been killed. Actually, if the King was at that battle he would have recognized her demonic aura. It was rumored that he was a Warlock after all.
Her control over that side of her was questionable, as a matter of fact. It wasn’t like she had another personality. Her demon side just made her lose her inhibitions. It also made her thirst for blood oddly enough. Demons didn’t even drink blood… well, they liked to bathe in them which was what she ended up doing so that was that.
It had always manifested when she was full of anger so she had to be calm all the time which was tough during a battle. It also manifested when she was horny, oddly enough.
The audience had loved the horrid display of ‘affection’ and named her ‘Blood Fanatic’. Agnes thought ‘Crazy Bitch’ was more appropriate but figured you take what you get.
Sometimes she truly doubted whether the audience truly loved the performance or the fact that she flung blood everywhere.
She took on that identity as it raked in money. She couldn't change it even if she wanted to though. Marshall loved money. All Marshalls did. And the more money one made, the faster one could graduate from being a savage. To graduate from a savage, the colosseum should have made 100 gold coins from your battles which was around 100,000 silver. That was gigantic sum.
Obviously designed to keep bought colosseum slaves underground till the end of their lifespan. If one did manage to 'graduate' from being a savage, 10% of the earnings from your fight would be given to you.
This 10% can be saved up and then used to pay the Marshall back the cost that you were bought. Of course plus 2.5% interest every month you stay at the colosseum.
Agnes sighed inwardly. It was nigh impossible to gain enough money to buy yourself. The longer you stayed, the more expensive you got. She gave Aileen a discreet glance and couldn’t help but sigh again.
“What?” Aileen asked obviously noticing the glance.
“How much do you have now?” Agnes asked, lowering her voice so only Aileen could hear. It was pretty useless as both Noet and May had battle sense. Harvy didn’t though.
A bitter smile crossed Aileen’s face, “1020 Silver”
Agnes couldn’t help but grimace. Aileen was bought for 500 silver and she had graduated from a savage the year that Agnes arrived.
This was incredibly fast for someone who had spent only 12 years at the colosseum at the time. Alas, Aileen was one of the more expensive savages brought to the colosseum. She was completely healthy at the time unlike Agnes who was bruised and battered making her buying price quite high.
And staying in the colosseum wasn’t cost free either. Gear, weapons, techniques. Everything cost money. One could easily guess that the prices were inflated in the markets near the colosseum.
She wouldn’t be surprised if the day she left, she found that the sword she bought for 10 silver cost only 400 copper. 10 silver was 100,000 copper so it was much more than a simple price inflation honestly but she had no other options. She needed a better weapon than the wooden shit they gave her to fight with at first.
Savages didn't earn money but they earned points. Those points could be exchanged for gears and had money equivalents.
Agnes looked down at the brand on her wrist. It contained the record of the points she had and was the brand that all savages. Challengers had a different type of brand.
Escaping from the colosseum was actually very easy, security was quite lax. You’d simply die after getting 10 meters away from the building because of the brand.
And if you could get someone to help to wipe off the brand and then run, you still wouldn’t be able to leave the walls of the Kingdom. Only citizens of the Ferasi Kingdom could leave the walls, after all.
Sadly only a magus that has achieved their major breakthrough could wipe the brand off as it required 5th circle magic and no magus came underground the colosseum. Well, even if they did, it wasn’t like they knew the spell.
Agnes shook her head furiously. Her thoughts were wandering off.
‘After effect of being around Luken too much?’ she wondered. The fact that she knew all the bars against escaping meant she had wanted to.
She finally understood why sometime years ago when she asked Noet why he never escaped when he easily could, he said it was pretty much impossible.
The group engaged in mindless charter, walking towards the lunch area. After a battle, it was customary to eat here. Even if you were drenched in blood, even if you were injured and even if the food was usually disgusting. Well the food for savages. Savages always got the short end of the stick in everything ‘free’.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Many of the challengers preferred to keep to themselves and sat on the left of the dining hall. They saw themselves as people who would be free sooner or later and didn’t bother making ties with people that may die the next day.
Savages on the other hand, the newer ones especially, were more ‘bubbly’ and interactive. Grouping up and hatching escaping plans when they could then dying off as fast as they arrived. They usually sat wherever the fuck they wanted.
Unlike what one would expect though, quarrels that led to death underground were rare. Agnes attributed this to the fact that the colosseum never bought savages over 10. She couldn’t think of a reason why though.
“Storm Queen!!! My favorite!” A loud voice boomed suddenly, threatening to burst numerous eardrums. People looked up from their bowls and plates grimacing and covering their ears, throwing a fierce glare at the owner of the voice.
“Ugh, Marshall would you please!” Agnes screamed in response. It was more like a reflex at this point. The idiot always infused Ki into his words.
The only reply she got was a hearty laughter, “Aileen! Your earnings today were big as usual. Well done!”
Aileen flashed a fake smile at the man and briskly walked away to an empty table. Noet chuckled at her reaction and followed after her, leaving Agnes and Harvy alone with the uninvited company.
“I don’t think I did anything wrong this time?” Marshall had to ask.
Harvy rolled his eyes and patted the bulky man on the shoulders, following after his peers.
“I need extra throwing knives. I lost a few inside someone’s body”, Agnes immediately got to business ignoring whatever Marshall had said previously.
This Marshall was different from the Marshall that brought Agnes to the colosseum. He was the fourth one to inherit the title. His name was Raven. She never bothered to find out his last name as she didn’t care though.
Nobody called a Marshall by their actual name anyways. That’s just how things were.
Unlike the previous Marshalls though, this one looked fuckable. He had a well-proportioned body befitting of the warrior that he was and a nice face. The challengers here had gotten used to Marshalls that were walking lumps of flesh so he was a pleasant surprise.
The previous Marshall had died the day after Mavah died in the arena. Sarai had ignored all consequences and killed him. Aileen, Noet and a lot of the challengers had been beyond furious.
Apparently, the 3rd Marshall was the one that introduced the challenger system, allowing them to have hopes for freedom.
Sarai was executed swiftly afterwards by the Crown Prince’s declaration and the new Marshall came in. Luckily he didn’t change anything like they expected, making the savages and Challengers feel a tad grateful.
The highest rank one could be in the colosseum was a 100 for Fighters and 80 for Mages. Nobody, Savages or Challengers, knew how to ascend tiers, becoming a Warrior or a Magus. Once they reached the bottleneck rank, they were stuck there till they left the colosseum.
Not like a majority of them could actually reach the bottleneck rank though.
And unlike before, the Marshall rank was a rank 33 Warrior. Simply put, he couldn’t be killed unless all of them joined hands.
Although Agnes tried not to, she disliked Sarai for killing Marshall. Not because they brought a higher ranked Marshal but because she had wanted to do it herself. She had also wanted to get to know the Bear Lurk but she got herself executed before that couldn’t happen.
The procedure for ascension into a higher tier Ki user or Mana user was a secret withheld from the numerous challengers and savages limiting their firepower and preventing possible rebellion. They were fated to be weakling forever, under the colosseum.
Marshall’s eyes roamed Agnes' body diligently, finally stopping at her breasts and nodded appreciatively, “Understandable. Hands”
Agnes stretched out her hand in a practiced manner and he grabbed her wrist tapping her brand. It glowed bright red and then stopped glowing, going back to its tattoo like form.
“12 hours” he smiled, his voice booming throughout the dining hall again.
“Aye” she cringed, briskly walking away. Judging from her reaction to his obvious leering, it was not the first time.
Looking on the bright side, he never did anything except look. And she wasn’t the only one he did it to.
Grabbing a bowl of whatever goo was being served today, she joined the rest at the table.
“I don’t know if I should be happy I am on his good side or not”, Aileen said poking the fish in her bowl as Agnes sat down.
“I think you should be happy. I was on the bad side of the 2nd Marshall here and that just sucked. I couldn’t buy any weapons because she wouldn’t let me”, Noet commented heartily.
“Well, I don’t think you should. He might cheat you out of your earnings to keep you here if he likes you too much”, Harvy frowned, obviously thinking through this seriously.
“I agree with Harvy on this. Stay away from him if you can” Agnes nodded. Although the Marshall seemed approachable, living here long enough would tell you never to trust officials from the palace
Aileen burst out laughing, “Do you really need to tell me? I know, I know. How long have I been here? I’m not stupid”
“Where is Bertha?” Harvy asked shifting the topic swiftly.
Agnes had to admit, his ability to shifts discussions this time was not bad. He sucked usually.
“She was in Block D this month so should be in battle? I didn’t have to face her though”, Noet admitted, “How come you didn’t know that?”
“Hmm?” Harvy mumbled his mouth full with soup. Soundly swallowing, he spoke, “I think she’s tired of me.”
“Already? I am actually impressed. I thought she’d take longer”, May spoke dryly. Once one spent enough time with May, her voice didn’t sound so monotonous and you could figure out the emotions in her words.
Agnes burst into laughter, “I think Harvy isn’t bad at all. He’s quite good in bed”
“He is but that’s the only good thing about him”, Aileen nodded, obviously agreeing.
Agnes was surprised to hear they’d had sex before but quickly hid it.
"Really?" Noet asked, vividly interested. He didn't seem to care that his girlfriend had fucked Harvy nor was he even surprised. Actually calling her his girlfriend was a stretch. It was more like sex friends. They did get along exceedingly well regardless.
“I am quite uncomfortable with this discussion” Harvy spoke flabbergasted, his eyes widening.
“How come you never tried seducing May” Noet asked beaming, “I’ve been curious for a while now.”
Harvy sighed dramatically, “I still love my life.”
“That’s rude”, May scoffed but the expression on her face… well there was none but she obviously wasn’t serious.
“Here comes the topic of this discussion”, Noet announced and the group turned to look in the direction he pointed to.
"I thought we were talking about Harvy though", Agnes smirked.
"Me too", May nodded, agreeing.
"I didn't think so" Noet objected.
Bertha flashed a grin at the group as she walked over holding a bowl of beef soup just like Agnes’. It was more water than soup though. Free food was always a disaster but people came to the dining hall anyways.
It was more a discussion hall than a dining hall if you looked at it objectively. If one wanted good food they could buy some with their points. For those who were saving up points then the dining hall was the place to go. The underground motto was TINSTAAFL (There is no such thing as a free lunch).
Even the watery food there were given was bought with the money they bled for in the colosseum arena even if they didn’t directly pay for it.
“I am fucking exhausted dammit!”, Bertha made it her obligation to yell as she sat down beside Harvy. She had quite a few cuts on her body but was otherwise looking ok.
“Today’s fight wasn’t bad I’m guessing?” Agnes quipped from the side. Bertha actually looked better than usual. She wasn’t losing an arm or a leg.
“Had to use the damn pills”, She replied crisply, stuffing her mouth with the tiny pieces of meat in her soup.
““Ugh”” The whole table groaned in unison at her response.
Bertha was a semi just like the majority of the savages and challengers. Pure breeds were actually rare underground. Bertha was a weird rarity.
In a semi with a dwarf counterpart, the dwarf part is usually not dominant but the dwarven part in Bertha was dominant giving her more explosive strength in battle like a normal dwarf.
So even though she didn’t have much Ki talent or a mana channel she used that and survived till today.
“I think the audience wanted something rare today. I was paired up with someone who had gone through a major breakthrough” Bertha grumbled banging the table, “That Marshall… Just want to snap that son of a bitch in half”
“You could. He’s right down there” Harvy smiled sweetly pointing towards the elevators that went deeper underground.
“Oh shut up, I didn’t ask you” Bertha snapped at him.
“Was just trying to help” He shrugged, revealing a fake pout.
“I’ve always thought son of a bitch was quite rude to dog lurks, why is it even an insult?” Noet quipped.
“We’re not dogs, we’re wolves”, Harvy corrected for the umpteenth time.
Agnes chuckled "I was pitted against crazy people too, Bertha. Around same rank though"
"You're always pitted against crazy people", Harvy pointed out.
Agnes nodded, "True. Makes me more willing kill ‘em and bathe in their blood"
"Agnes, we're eating", Aileen reminded her.
"So Marshall pits you against crazy people on purpose?" Bertha asked wide eyed.
"Actually, I somehow don't think so. Most of the people my rank are crazy. Look at me for example" Agnes explained.
Aileen and Bertha nodded in agreement. Harvy smiled shaking his head.
“Eat quickly and go get healed up before you die. You know what those pills do” Noet interjected seriously making Bertha grin widely.
Noet provided them with pills. They either doubled your strength while killing you at the same time or put you in a half dead state, making you lose a few ranks as a result.
‘Better than actually dying, right?’ Agnes scoffed inwardly as she was reminded about the pills.
It was how this group faced each other and were still alive today. Only the gods knew where he got the pills from but they still took the pills. Details weren’t always necessary for everything.
“I know. I was just freaking hungry”, Bertha replied heartily and then slurped down the rest of her food.
“Is that actually tasty to you?” Agnes mumbled putting a piece of meat in her mouth. Almost immediately she gagged spitting it out. It felt wrong to not have a plate in front of her in a dining hall, that’s why she always got one.
Not for the food. Definitely not.
“Such a good match. You both have beautiful eating habits” Aileen commented sarcastically at Bertha’s extravagant eating manner.
Harvy burst out laughing and copied Bertha, wolfing down the rest of his food. Noet began to laugh and choked on the chicken he was eating mid bite at their antics.
Aileen hurriedly patted his back, surprised and amused.
Bertha stood up, nodded to them and left, deeming Aileen’s comment not worthy of a reply.
“One of her lung is ruptured,” May spoke up quietly, “She doesn’t feel pain?” causing the group to turn to her, descending into abrupt silence.
May was a complete mystery. It wasn’t like all of them knew everything about each other but they at least knew the bare minimum. But not about May. All she has told them was her name and that she was 147 years old.
Noet said when he arrived at the colosseum 62 years ago, May had been here looking just like she did now. Even if fighters that had gone through their major breakthroughs barely aged until the later part of their years, the key word here was ‘barely’.
They did age, just not quickly so there should have been some change in the way she looked after 62 years.
Agnes couldn’t help but narrow her eyes at May’s comment. To know Bertha’s internal condition, May had to be a Warrior that had gone through their major breakthrough or even a Magus. May was a dual specialist or at least she seemed to be. Her talent as a Ki user and Mana user were pretty much the same.
If she was a Warrior or Magus though, then what was she doing under the colosseum? And why hadn’t she told them how to ascend tiers?
Aileen sighed loudly breaking the tense silence, “I think she feels pain, May. She’s just very good at now showing it”.
May always had a way of destroying the mood.
“Ah”, the doll replied nodding her head a few times as though gaining enlightenment into the being called Bertha. She apparently found nothing wrong with the group’s reaction. It was a usual occurrence after all.
“I really can’t get a read on you May” Harvy chuckled grimly staring at her. His hazel eyes seemed to burn with curiosity.
“If you could though, you’d be dead”, May replied sweetly as she stared back.
The whole group couldn’t help but smile at her response.
She wasn’t kidding.