Agnes wrapped the old towel around her head and climbed onto her newly upgraded bed. She had been feeling sticky with the blood all over her, especially the few that got in her butt crack.

It was simply disgusting. She took a curing potion after every match so as to avoid any infections. That also meant that she spent a lot of money as those were quite expensive.

Honestly, Agnes found her life underground relaxing. The battles she fought, even the ones where she wasn’t sure if she’d make it out alive did nothing to change that fact.

She really wouldn’t mind spending the bulk of her life here but the audience wasn’t guaranteed to love her that long.

She’d rather stay here till that time comes as she had no reason nor goal to leave though. She had pondered about revenge before and realized that she had no inclination towards hunting down her parent’s killers.

Actually it was more that she didn’t want to repay her life saver, who was obviously part of the group that attacked her parent, with retribution. She felt reluctant to go hunting down the man that had preserved her life and simply going after everyone else but him felt rather half-hearted.

She believed herself to be an all or none type of person.

‘Doesn't that make me a terrible daughter? Wanting to repay him rather than seek vengeance for them’ she always wondered.

‘Actually, is he still alive? Are they still alive?’ she asked herself truly curious but had no answer to that. They seemed like very powerful people so it was more likely that they were alive than dead but nothing was ever set in stone especially in a world where thousands died off every second.

She could see the vague outline of her mother calling her name sweetly as she closed her eyes and let herself reminisce.

‘Besides as weak as I am, I would achieve nothing but my death’ she told herself for the umpteenth time.

Perhaps her weird addiction to battle and becoming stronger was fueled by the death of her parents. She would rather not have to run away while her loved one were being killed again, after all.

She couldn’t even remember how her life saver looked nor did she know his name but she was grateful to him, even though she shouldn’t be. Her parents could have run away with her but they stood their ground and fought to allow her time to escape.

They wanted her alive and alive she was. Colosseum slave or not, she was still alive.

And she did love her life. She loved being alive. Even though she faced death without fear most of the time, she knew she loved her life.

And she knew that she preferred keeping her life to seeking out some powerful beings in blind revenge as she didn’t even know what the situation was or why it happened. Even if that made her a selfish and ungrateful daughter. Even if she often despised herself for her selfishness.

Agnes lay down and stared at the blank ceiling. She had wanted to train for a bit before sleeping but it would appear she was quite exhausted after today’s fights. The last guy she fought was quite tough to kill.

She suddenly thought of Aileen and Noet. They both wanted to leave this place at all costs. Noet was a pure human, he could easily find a place for himself if he left but Aileen… she was more likely to be captured and resold into slavery as she was a semi. Most likely as a battle slave.

Agnes had to admit though, capturing Aileen would be very hard. There was a reason Aileen was called ‘Storm Queen’ in the arena. Her lightning affinity was extraordinary and her innate talent with mana was very high. Someone like her would already be in a high position if she wasn’t a semi.

Agnes thought the audience had an odd way of labelling them. Surely ‘Lightning Queen’ would have been better? Aileen controlled lightning essence not summoned storms.

'Well, whatever floats their boat', she acknowledged.

In just 32 years, Aileen had become a rank 60 mage. It was amazing talent that spoke volumes about where she game from. Volumes that Agnes had no fucking clue how to decipher.

Agnes was almost a hundred percent sure that Aileen’s goal when she left the colosseum was revenge. The expression that she saw when she asked Aileen about how she got here was frightening to say the least.

Agnes’ innate talent with Ki was quite high too. In 20 years, she had already reached rank 54…55 as she ranked up in battle today, just 10 ranks behind Noet.

Harvy always laughingly said he was with a group of monsters. Truly, the talent concentrated in their group was very odd for a group of slaves who were bound to fight for the colosseum.

Agnes knew that if she ever truly faced Aileen, she wouldn’t survive. It has been proven for centuries, over and over that mana triumphs over Ki which was Aileen’s specialty. Also, Aileen used a spear to fight even though she wasn’t very adept with it.

A staff would give her spells more power but she always used a spear. When curiosity got the better of Agnes and she finally asked why, the answer Aileen gave was beautiful.

“I’m not always sure if my opponents are dead when I use my spells. It looks like they are but I have to feel with my spear to make sure. Once bitten, twice shy, right?” she had said.

 Noet explained that Aileen had once run her opponent through with a spell of lightning spear before and assumed she had won from his seemingly dead state. As she walked away, she was run through with a sword and set ablaze. Apparently her opponent had gotten his hands on some lightning resistant armor and was just faking it.

She had barely survived that experience and always carried a physical weapon for surety.

To the rest of her group, Agnes was an oddity. She told them she was a human + high elf mix but her mana talent was not the best (high elves were famous for having huge mana wells and high innate talent). She was obviously a semi but her gray strand was nowhere to be found.

Ignoring the blatant lies she had told, Noet had taken it upon himself to give her a gray dye for her hair. Luckily, 3rd Marshall was dead and her peculiarity had gone unnoticed for now.

Actually, Agnes’ mana talent wasn’t terrible, she just couldn’t learn spells publicly as it would reveal her purple mana. Nobody had purple mana, not even demons. And there had never been any record of a demon and an enlightened being ever having a child.

Anyways, because of her situation, her rank rose very slowly. She wouldn’t even have been able to learn any spells if not for Luken. Spells were in the language of the gods so she couldn’t understand not read them without a blessing from a priestess or a mana crystal with the blessing sealed inside.

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And to get a blessing, you have to let your mana come in contact with the priestess or mana crystal.

Obviously, given her situation, there was no way she could buy a mana crystal. And revealing her mana to a priestess was asking to be executed. After the World War some 5000 years ago, Demons were absolutely despised.

As to why, Agnes didn’t even know. She was curious but that info wasn’t exactly available here.

“Raena” a soft voice floated into her ears jolting her upright. She found herself staring into a pair of green eyes that had somehow appeared without her noticing.

She tensed up first then recognition followed, “How many times do I have to….mmm”

Her words were cut off as her lips locked with the owner of the face in front of her. She embraced him, kissing back with practiced ease. He tasted like blood.

They broke off shortly and a grin surfaced on Luken’s face, “Hello”

“One day, you are going to be caught and killed”, Agnes admonished, “Why are you here?”

“True”, He admitted chuckling, “I just felt like it. You don’t want me here?”

“Yes” Agnes admitted.

“I’m hurt”, Luken playfully held his chest before bursting out laughing.

Agnes shifted on the bed, making space for him to sit on “I really want you to be careful”

“I know. We have this discussion every time we meet. Don’t you get tired?” he asked placing his head on her lap and looking at her. She was as beautiful as usual. And smelt like soap.

“No”, she snapped angrily.

Luken couldn’t help but smile. Was she really that scared he’d be caught? “Okay. I’m always careful but I will be more careful”

“Good”, she finally smiled but she didn’t really believe him. She started to caress his hair and asked, “How was today?”

“Oh, you were absolutely lovely”, he began dramatically.

“Not me, I know how I was”, Agnes immediately interrupted

“Oh do you?” Luken raised a brow

“As a matter of fact, yes”, she replied nodding.

Luken grinned, “Today wasn’t that bad. About a hundred fatalities? There were more beasts than savages in the arena today”

“Oh? That’s less deaths than usual. But Marshall seemed oddly happy today anyways. How did Aileen do?”

“Total decimation as usual. The crowd was excited but I think she might have to step up the game a bit”, he paused for a bit, thinking carefully, “She needs to give them a show. Like Noet does”

“Noet is off in the head. I don’t think anyone should do what he does”, Agnes objected

“I find his dances with the corpses of his enemies quite entertaining,” Luken admitted an amused smile.

“Well, I never said you weren’t off in the head too,” Agnes smirked.

Luken reached out and brushed the wet hair off her face, “He also has a lovely singing voice”

“I have to agree on that one. When I first heard it, it took my breath away” Agnes replied with a reminiscent tone.

“Is that competition I hear?” he joked.

“Nah, Noet is not my type”

Luken was amused, “First time I’m hearing you have a type”

“He is too handsome” she deadpanned.

Luken immediately burst into laughter. Calming himself down, he nuzzled himself deeper into her laps, “I’m sleepy”

“Aileen’s going to be here soon”

“I can cast a cloaking spell” he offered.

“Don’t you have work to do?” Agnes countered.

“Raena” he said softly, stopping her words. He sat up and with a gently caress began to kiss her again. This time, they took longer as their tongues wrapped around each other in a meaningless battle for dominance.

Agnes had to break away when Luken’s hand stared wandering. She took a while to calm down before explaining her obvious reluctance, “It’s my time of the month”

Understanding showed on his face and he chuckled, kissing her once more.

“You know, semis can’t even get pregnant, why do you still get those?” he felt compelled to ask.

“Don’t ask me. I was born this way” Agnes smiled.

He suddenly grinned widely, “I truly was just sleepy, you know?”

“Right” Agnes rolled her eyes.

“Really!” he exclaimed.

“You’re not very convincing”

Luken sighed in defeat and closed his eyes then suddenly went still. His pale skin coupled with his current position made him look like a corpse. A trait peculiar to blood elves.

Obviously used to this, Agnes caressed his hair gently, letting him fully relax. Luken was how she found out that being too horny could also release her demonic side.

It wasn’t one of her best memories with him neither was it her worst.

At that time she wasn’t even attached to him. He was just someone she’d seen underground who looked out of place.

Out of place isn’t exactly the right word.

There were no blood elves in the underground colosseum and he was in every way a blood elf. If not for his gray lock of hair, she’d have thought he was a pure breed.

She found him half dead just lying in a dark side of the alley on her way back from getting some equipment.

As her thoughts reached this point, her eyes widened and she tapped her brand anxiously. ‘8 hours’ it read. She had completely forgotten about her shopping time today. She looked down at Luken who was probably sleeping at this point and sighed.

He had some other woman’s smell on him again. Who? She had no clue but it was definitely a noble otherwise he wouldn’t have the obvious smell of perfume.

Just like her, his body was his survival key. She wouldn’t say she loved the man but she liked him enough and cared about his wellbeing.

And try as she might, she just couldn't care less if he slept around or not. Maybe it was because she knew that his sleeping around was not voluntary? His body is his key to his survival.

A bitter smile floated onto her face as she once again acknowledged that fact.

Was it a fact though? She had no way to know about his situation as she was stuck in the colosseum. So was it blind trust?

Agnes smiled as her thoughts led up to there. Trust was a funny word.

Actually, when she’d seen him half- dead in the dark alley around 8 years ago, she had completely ignored him and walked away. If not for him grabbing her leg like a corpse that just gotten awakened, she would have never helped him.

She had taken all the money on his person as repayment and given him some of her potions to help him. It didn’t take long before he was up and running after that. Literally. He had thanked her and swiftly vanished. A spell most likely but she didn’t think her potions worked that fast for recovery. It was probably his own recovery rate that did majority of the work.

There was no way she would know at the time that his recovery had been sealed before he was discarded there, half-dead. His attacker had simply left his fates to the gods. Something Luken said he was grateful for. He never told her who the attacker was though.

She had actually forgotten about that incident back then until one day, she retired to her room and tried to lie down only to feel someone in her bed. She jumped back and scanned the bed but saw nothing. The bed looked same as usual.

She wasn’t an idiot, she knew something like the invisibility spell or the cloak spell existed. Sensing no movement, she assumed the person had fallen sleep and immediately riled up her Ki, attacking the being in her bed.

The person quickly blasted her away with a gust of air “Air Volley”, obviously not asleep like she assumed and pinned her down with a barely visible whip “Air Bind”, knocking her breath out. She could barely recover before she found herself in a prison, “Water Prison”

Not giving her any time to break the obviously fragile prison, he solidified the water into ice, readying ice shards “Ice Arrows” at her vitals effectively stumping any thoughts of escaping the now ice prison.

One would think an ice prison would be easier to break through as you could simply shatter it but experience has told anyone who ever has the fortune to be in an ice prison to never want to be in another. Well, that was only if the person who cast the spell had put a lot of mana into solidifying the ice or was proficient in mana efficiency.

Luken wasn’t like one of those royal bloods with ginormous mana and he never actually went a magic school so he probably didn’t know what the hell mana efficiency was, meaning his ice prison was very easy to break. He made up for that with the ice arrow spell which was set to kill at the slightest movement.

The ice prison was just there as a psychological thing; made the target feel trapped.

Which was exactly how Agnes felt surrounded by those pointy roads to hell, ‘It’s a fucking magus. I am so screwed’.

Seeing as he was just calling spell names here and there not even bothering to chant the spells, he was definitely a magus and one that had gone through their major breakthrough.

As to what a being of that caliber was doing in her room, Agnes had no clue.

She heard a click and the room brightened up as the light bulbs came to life.

‘Where the fuck is Aileen?’ Agnes wondered then answered herself, ‘With Noet obviously. She will be looking for a 46th roommate soon enough it would seem’

With that thought she bitterly smiled and looked up to face the intruder.

“Hello… uh blood fanatic? Sorry I don’t really remember your name” she heard a silky voice come out from the familiar face.

“You…” her eyes widened in recognition. She didn’t recognize him from his voice announcing battles in the colosseum but as the man she had saved some time ago.

“Oh so you do remember me”, He smiled, beginning to walk up to her before stopping a few feet away glancing at her hands which were glowing red with manifested Ki.

“No need to be hostile really” he chuckled, “I am not here to hurt you”

“I know. That’s why I am in a cage ready to be maimed at the slightest movement” she barked angrily.

He gave a nervous laugh, “That was just reflex… I felt a threat to my life, you know”

Agnes’ mouth twitched but she said nothing.

“Ok, this is not how this was supposed to go” he thoughtfully caressed his chin.

“Oh really?” Agnes muttered dryly, “What do you want?”

“Thank you for helping me, a few weeks back”, he finally said after some silence.

Agnes didn’t let down her guard but gave a toothy grin, “You’re welcome”

A minute of silence passed tensely.

“Do I come another day? You seem to be in a bad mood?” he asked with a laugh.

“I wonder why” Agnes mumbled sarcastically. Was he serious?

“Right?” his eyes twinkled with mischief.

“Get these things away from me” Agnes growled. The ice shards were still there and too close for comfort.

“Oops, my bad”, he returned the toothy grin but didn’t move the deadly magic shards.

‘This son of a b…’ Agnes cursed inwardly.

“If I remove them, you’ll immediately attack me. I know”, He said moving over to the bed and sitting down, “So we’ll have to talk like this”

Agnes couldn’t help but ask, “Talk about?”

“You’re exactly my style. Date me” he replied swiftly.

The half-demon couldn’t bear the situation anymore and snapped, charging blindly to attack him rupturing major veins and organs as the ice shards did their jobs. She didn’t get close enough before she collapsed, bleeding profusely.

As she drifted into unconsciousness, a thought passed through her mind, ‘Well, that went swell’

Luken’s eyes widened in surprise at the sudden change in situation. He quickly moved to stabilize her condition, forcing potions and pills down her throat.

“This definitely isn’t how this was supposed to go” he mumbled, “Or was I too straightforward? I feel like an asshole”

As he watched her slowly heal up while still unconscious, his eyes couldn’t help scan her body, after which he nodded appreciatively.

‘This is what people call a feast for the eyes’ he thought and he reassessed the lady known as the ‘Blood Fanatic’ in his mind.

His final assessment of this lady after their brief interaction was ‘a hot-headed idiot.’