After Alfred's relatively short session with Nidas al-Djol on Wednesday, he woke up an hour earlier on Thursday. The canteen was a lot more lively, but all of the conversations were useless to him.
Alfred had dramatically increased his effort that day. He treated each session as if it were life or death. To be fair, the training was a bit more dangerous than Joku or anything else he had trained in.
Throughout yesterday and today, he had built up a hefty amount of thin, dark bruises that stung like hell from the opposing wisp's sword strikes.
Still, even before the slaves arrived, he mastered it.
"Pshah!~"
Alfred sat on the ground and dragged over the grimoire. 'Great feeling, that is,' he thought to himself. 'I won't have enough time to complete the three 3rd Division techniques, so I have to pick and choose what to learn before tomorrow.'
Alfred got out the paper that Cysandoth wrote. After memorizing the names and page numbers, he went on to memorize the rest of their pages (save the videos).
'Ok, so, my options are:
p. 411 | "Continuous Remise": Continuous remise is a technique that helps you keep up an offensive without pause. Any remise that you make will return with the same vigor, power, and speed no matter the angle or distance.
p. 462 | "Nidas' Cobra": After a parry, this technique will allow you to repost so quickly and accurately that the opponent won't even realize that they've been hit for a moment.
p. 500 | "The Perfect Thrust": The perfect thrust is a formula for a thrust in any situation. It will increase the speed, power, and slipperiness while reducing the effort/energy and startup to perform this classic move.
Each has a place in my arsenal, and it seems the Perfect moves continue on into swordplay as well.'
Alfred shook his head. 'The other two sound fight-winning! But, it seems that the perfect thrust will suit me best in more situations, and might even prevent the situations where Nidas' Cobra and Continuous Remise are used in the first place.'
He still watched all three videos, and that made his chest sting even more.
It wasn't like he wouldn't learn them in a day or two, but the addiction to training martial arts had grown so strong that having to wait that long caused near withdrawal symptoms.
.
.
.
===
Authors Note: Text in " <"Bla Bla Bla"> " is a language Alfred doesn't understand.
===
The day was slowly coming to an end. Even so, the city of Demitri was bustling in the setting sunlight. Understandably so, for tomorrow was the start of the yearly tournament held by the four main continent's capitol colosseums in the Elephant continents, which happened to be in Demitri.
A particularly large crowd had formed along the main road leading up to the legendary colosseum following the entrance of one particular carriage.
Once that carriage had arrived in front of the main gate of the colosseum, two individuals got out.
<"You were right, Brother! This establishment is quite grand! Fitting for the capitol of such a country!"> a young boy said with a confident smile to a familiar lion-like man next to him.
<"Do not be fooled, the outside of this place is by far the least interesting part"> Heinlich said to his younger brother. <"As both you and I know very well, the man who bested father all those years ago resides in this place. Better yet, just last week, a young girl about your age got a hit in on me!">
Heinlich's younger brother whipped his head around and stared wide-eyed after hearing the last sentence.
After a long gaze, he seemed to determine that his brother wasn't messing with him, and consequently a wide smile appeared on his face.
Just then, more carriages with similar colors and bear-ornaments rolled up. Even without the ornaments, the carriages would be a sight to behold. They were drawn by massive and intimidating jet-black bears. Still, even without those, the carriages were enormous. When their doors swung open, at least 50 to 60 slaves and gladiators walked out of each.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
<"Let us make our way into this fine establishment! Split into your master groups and stay together, the guards will lead you to your residences!"> Heinlich yelled to the groups that exited carriages. <"We shall go meet the warden, Jürgen.">
Jürgen, Heinlich's brother, followed him passionately through the massive gates adjourning the entrance to the Demitri colosseum.
.
.
.
Alfred woke up the next morning hungry but confident. He had skipped dinner and lunch to complete his goals, but the results were worth it. Now he felt snappy and sharp after refueling.
After breakfast was wrapped up, Alfred and the rest of his slaughterhouse made their way over to the SE.
The guard standing watch outside the door opened it for Alfred, who for the past two weeks had led the pack due to his general speedy natural walking speed after mastering the Isolation footwork.
Once inside, he spotted his master and handed him the grimoire he had been carrying around.
Cysandoth nodded in approval, "As expected, Öthe, you are quite intelligent. It is a dangerous game to play, leaving this grimoire around unattended."
Alfred did a short bow and turned around. He had noticed it earlier, but now that he was getting a better look at it, the number of slaves and gladiators was immense. Each table, wall, and each spot at the opening were filled to the brim.
Newcomers, both young and old, were the reason behind this change. Before Cysandoth left at the beginning of the week, he told Alfred some information about what would be happening.
The gist of it is, each of the four continents' capitol colosseum would send as many of their slaves and gladiators to the Elephant continent's capitol colosseum as they were willing to, which really meant however many they could afford to.
The Bear continent of the North usually dawned dark blue colors, the Wolf continent of the West green, and the Stag Continent of the East dawned red. The continent they resided in, the Elephant continent of the South wear sandy-yellow to outside events, but it isn't customary in the Elephant continent to dress up the slaves or gladiators for the yearly tournament.
Going by this knowledge, it seemed that at least most of the Bear continent slaves and gladiators were stationed in his section of the SE. Each had comparatively nice blue button ups and dark blue pants with a slightly different design of sandal to Alfred's on.
With the entrance of the slaughterhouses, Alfred expected the announcer to begin, but instead, the guards began to speak.
"All children, line up! Do it quickly! Everyone will be going in at the same time, so position doesn't matter!"
Alfred looked back at his master, who nodded. Alfred did a short bow and got in line. Excluding the Bear continent's child slaves, he noticed six new faces with noticeably less fear plastered on their mugs than the others that had been in before him. He couldn't really say for sure why this was, but he assumed they were here specifically for the tournament itself as it would have been too great a coincidence for it not to be the case.
Still, he memorized their faces and builds.
Even more so than the newcomers, the Bear continent's group looked even less afraid, to a point where he thought they might be… excited.
'Not to say I blame them, though. Fighting is exhilarating, but the unknown is too great here. For all I know we'll have to zerg some high level martial artist' or some monstrous beast' he thought to himself.
Once a line had formed, the guard at the door opened it and let the group through. On the hallway leading up to the entrance, there was one guard who worked the door, but the rest who usually dealt with the weapons and equipment were gone.
Alongside Alfred's SE, the other three SE's children emptied out. Directly to his right was the (presumably) Wolf continent's green clothed slaves, and just next to them was the Stag continent's red clothed slaves, all noticeably unworried and each outnumbering the "locals" by a 2/1 margin at the least. Around the whole way to Alfred's left was an odd sight. The kids located in that SE were more unfamiliar faces, but they obviously were unaffiliated or at least from the Elephant continent, as they were dressed in neutral or "regular" clothes. Alfred noticed that they too had a similar air about them as the other continent's kids did.
Alfred made note of this, but continued on until the guard signaled them to stop. In this time, he properly counted each slave in the colosseum.
'Even with all 203 of us, we don't even come close to filling up this colosseum. Evenly spread we would have a football goalie-box's worth of space between us!'
"...~Now that you have all gathered here~" the ominous announcer began, abruptly silencing the entire crowd, "...~we shall begin the preparations~"
In an instant, exactly 35 figures appeared on the walls of the colosseum. Each of them, by Alfred's guess, should be at least masters. The technique they must have used to appear, no, teleport like that could only be a 1st Division technique.
"...~These are masters of her majesty's personal squad here to act as officials for this coveted tournament. You shall all be pitted against each other unarmed~"
He paused for a second. The silence was deafening.
"...~You will be disqualified if you are incapacitated… or killed. The officials will retrieve you when one of the two happens. It will all end once 100 remain.~"
"..."
"...~Begin~"
"!!!"
The sudden start of the event startled some, surprised others, and for the majority of the crowd, didn't register that it had happened yet. Alfred was one of the few that reactively shot backwards to avoid the initial and inevitable bloody brawl ensued.
Seconds later, one of the wolf continent's slaves swung at another, who was caught off guard and took the strike right in the chin. He hit the floor hard with the back of his head and started bleeding bad. The kid who hit him went for a soccer kick right to his rib-cage, but as he wound up, the one on the ground's body disappeared. Alfred had HSM up then, and only caught a glimpse of one of the officials retrieving the body and disappearing without as much as a speck of dust moving out of place.
The kid didn't realize it, and continued with his kick, tripping him off balance into another slave. The whole interaction lasted three seconds on the dot.
The slave he ran into grabbed him, and slammed his back and head onto the ground with full force. In that same moment, the slave that slammed the kid on the ground got kicked in his temple. Both were knocked out instantly, and promptly disappeared.
At this time, it was a bloodbath, with only a few lucky ones escaping completely unscathed. After their stupor wore off, the frequency of knockouts decreased significantly from the initial two, but bodies were still vanishing left and right.
On the far edge of the middle tussle where Alfred was standing, one of the largest kids there just threw one of the slaves Alfred recognized from his SE. After he completed this, he turned to the outside and spotted Alfred.
'Ah! A girl!' the kid thought. 'I don't want to waste my energy on stronger foes right now. Weeding out the weaklings will act as a great warm up!"
Alfred smiled inwardly, almost reading the kid's mind through his smug walk towards him. Making sure not to seem intimidating, he stood rooted in his position in wait for the big kid.