Following the natural layout, Alfred found himself in a large living/sleeping space moderately populated with other slaves. When he walked in, a few took notice, shot some pity filled glances in his direction, and got back to their business.
'Is it due to me being a kid?' he wondered. 'Slaves shouldn't have the wherewithal to be giving out pity…'
A few bunk beds at the back left corner were perfectly made and vacant, so he chose the top one just next to the corner to be his spot. Without wasting any more precious time and with his back against the wall, he hurried to refine more.
Different from his HSM, refining seems to speed up the passage of time. It could be because he finds it fun, but Alfred could care less. Almost as quickly as he began, he awoke to find the whole room (almost) vacant. 'Dinner, it seems.'
Alfred, in his rags, hurried after the last few slaves he saw walking to the canteen after feeling the effects of hunger. If he could, Alfred would willingly refine for days at a time, but sadly, his body would not allow such methods.
His meal went smoothly. Throughout the ordeal, almost all the other slaves completely ignored him. He also was allowed as many portions as he desired.
'We really are "the Empire's property", seeing as everyone here is as built as can be. They even serve alcohol!' he thought to himself.
Alfred's hunger was quickly satiated, prompting him to return to the residential area and continue his refinement. The only thing stopping him now was sleep. For the next five hours straight, Alfred refined feverishly. In his trance, his mind began to analyze the bits and pieces of information he gathered while eavesdropping in the canteen.
'First, tomorrow is Friday, and the beginning of this week's events. The children happen to be in the preliminary event.' Alfred couldn't help but inwardly curse his bad luck after initially learning of this news. 'And we're not even fighting ourselves! They're pitting children against beasts!'
Alfred was 90% certain he could come out on top against another child, but beasts were a totally different story. In this country, "Yahn" as it's called, beasts and monsters reside. Beasts, thankfully, are only slightly stronger than your typical animal, and are usually predators. Be that a bear with a stronger jaw, or a tiger with more nimble legs. Monsters, on the other hand, are supernatural. In his current state, he only has a chance to come out on top against a hostile beast. If he were to be pitted against any monster, he would surely lose within a matter of moments.
'They only give children a round metal shield and a standard short sword. I will have to play my cards right here' he inwardly remarked.
Had Alfred arrived just one day later, he would have had an entire week to prepare for the fight, but now all he could was make sure he was rested. When the final Lights were extinguished by the guards, Alfred joined his slave-mates in an anxiety-filled slumber.
.
.
.
The next morning brought conflicting emotions. The living quarters that Alfred had wandered into turned out to be a "slaughterhouse." Different living quarters are given this name for the obvious reason of being the gathering of newbies, slackers, and screw-ups. Friday was their day, and had always resulted in injuries, even death for those unlucky few. Throughout all of breakfast and leading up to the gathering at the "slave's encirclement", which was an area where the slaves could watch the events in the colosseum located slightly below ground level with a small opening spanning most of the circumference of the colosseum, the slaughterhouse's slaves were completely silent. Once they did reach the slave's encirclement, things differed.
There was at least 800 slaves in that room alone, many of whom were crowded around the narrow opening in apparent excitement to watch the carnage unfold.
Alfred couldn't help but chuckle softly and shake his head. "Is it really so entertaining, watching children get literally thrown into a pack of wolves or whatever the fuck?" he remarked under his breath.
Off to the middle of the quarter-circular room sat some more well groomed and dressed slaves, those of whom seemed uncaring and serious. '"Masters", they're called' Alfred remembered. Such individuals are the main show of the colosseum. Despite, as far as he had heard, none of them having awakened any of the fabled special abilities, they were able to accomplish extraordinary feats. Alfred promised himself to live through today to witness their battles on Sunday.
His and many other slaughterhouses congregated at the far edges of the room and near exits. Some felt it necessary to pray, others drank, some (mainly children) huddled in fear, while very few had decided to refine. Alfred's preferred position was a simple cross-legged stance with his hands on his knees, and he swiftly took it after finding a vacant spot on the wall.
Noticing the slaughterhouses had arrived, many of those along the small opening chuckled at their expense, some even taking notice of Alfred's actions.
"Pipsqueak is soo~ diligent! Give us a good show, will ya?"
The man who joked was ignored by Alfred, but he and his friends had expected that reaction, so they chuckled and left Alfred alone after their short mockery.
Not five minutes after Alfred's group arrived, a short but deep five note drum beat interrupted the excited chatter of the stadium, and was quickly followed by deafening cheers that shook the stadium. Guards then forced the children-slaves to line up near doors that seemingly connected to pathways leading out into the colosseum. Alfred had ended up second in line.
The burley boy in front of Alfred, despite wearing a poker face, was shaking in his boots. In fact, he was so mortified that he initially ignored the guard's order to walk through the now open gate into the walkway, forcing said guard to throw him out before slamming the gate shut once again.
Alfred looked to his left, trying to get a view into the colosseum, but to no avail. He inwardly sighed, 'I can only listen.'
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The cheering slowed and eventually quieted down enough for a deep voice to announce:
"~Wolves~"
"OOooOOooooOo" the crowd excitedly chimed in.
On que, Alfred could hear three wolves barking and yapping as chains rattled and clanged against themselves.
"~As usual," the deep voice rumbled, "~It shall be a fight to the death.~"
He gave a pause.
"... ~Begin~"
The crowd roared in excitement. All Alfred could hear was chains snapping, and the Slaves/crowd reacting to the fight. A few gasps, winces, yips, yaps, heckles, and eventually applause gave him a general idea of what had happened. The boy, with the sword and shield he was most likely given on the walk into the colosseum had stabbed a wolf, but was swiftly mauled and eaten before the injured wolf was retrieved and replaced with a new one. Only four minutes had passed since his entrance into the battle.
"Your turn, kid."
Alfred nodded and walked through the opened gate and arrived at another guard who handed him a small Roman-looking gladiator sword and shield, along with small, loose-fitting leather sandals and a similarly fitting leather chestplate. Alfred adjusted them and walked towards the exit.
The difference in brightness was immense, and Alfred had to shield his eyes until they adjusted. The sight he saw, however, was almost as stunning as the sun itself.
The diameter of the area had to be close to two football fields in length, and the stands held no less than 150,000 people. Higher up above and across the sandy field were a few walkways, all ending up to the middle where a large dome with a glass bottom sat. That dome had colors of red and gold, and in the middle he saw an old woman staring down at him.
Alfred would investigate later, as now he had to focus on his adversaries.
Three, mean looking wolf-like creatures were chained at the center of the field. Their eyes were fixed only on him. Alfred proceeded to do some general stretches and cleared his mind of the distracting crowd.
'This will be tough. Those things' shoulders are almost my height, and they obviously aren't happy. HSM is a must for this' he thought to himself. Alfred jumped a few times to make sure his legs were warm. He then swung the sword a couple of times to feel out the weight. 'That training Roma recieved will only help me so much in this situation. I know vaguely how to hold and swing the damn thing, but that's it. No techniques, no special moves, nothing. How I wish I had a gun!'
Alfred's complaining was only half serious, he knew that he could only rely on his efforts to become stronger, so despite the fact that he was mis-matched against the three wolves, he prepared himself to fight.
The crowd eventually quieted down. Alfred activated the second level of HSM, in this state of concentration he crept towards the chained wolves. His heart was pumping blood fast to every inch of his body. He felt his hairs stand up while his eyes widened to take in more information. Finally, he heard those ominous words.
"... ~Begin~"
The wolves' chains snapped off their collars and retreated into the ground while they began to encircle Alfred.
He intended to give them no time to complete this action, and shot towards one on the right. 'I have no chance against all three, one at a time may be doable.'
As expected, the other wolves gave chase. Despite his body looking close to that of a 9 year old girl on earth, reality was different. Physically, he was almost at the level of a 13 year old boy (earth), and his speed even exceeded that to the point of being a 15 year old boy. The wolves were fast, but he was close enough to arrive before they could catch up.
'Three seconds real time, I have thirty minutes in HSM. Let's see what I can do.'
Alfred's full focus was on the battle. Every movement of the wolf was taken into consideration as he thrusted his sword towards its body. It had attempted to side step the attack, but Alfred adjusted the trajectory of the tip of his sword with a flick to intercept it. The attack lost some power in the process, as the action was purely reactive on Alfred's part, but a noticeable cut had formed on the beast's front-right leg.
'.2 seconds have passed'
The wolf had barely noticed the nick on it's leg, as the blood had yet to even begin flowing, and had already committed to attacking as it sidestepped his thrust. Alfred moved his step that came alongside the thrust into the beast's path. While stepping, he pushed his metal-plated shield into the maw of the beast and thrust his already upward-pointing blade as hard as he could through its throat and into its spinal cord, instantly severing it. The entire exchange lasted barely half a second.
The crowd paused for another second to process what had happened. It was quite unexpected for anything truly interesting to come this early on in the day, but they eventually reacted with thunderous cheers.
As Alfred heaved the limp body of the wolf off himself, covering his body in blood in the process, the other two wolves stopped in their tracks, both finally realizing that their companion was dead.
Alfred turned towards them and released an intense killing intent as he did a quick, snake-like lick of the right-corner of his lips.
Now, their instincts were telling them that the little human in front of them was dangerous. Without much thought, they began again with their encirclement, this time neither of them broke too far away from the other.
Alfred stared into their eyes, prompting both to release intimidating growls. He responded by slamming his shield with the flat side of his sword. Alfred's physical speed at this moment was too slow to make it plausible to separate them now that they are determined to stay together, so they had to be dealt with simultaneously.
Alfred crept towards them with bent knees with his shield raised and sword at the ready. He knew no "real" stance, so he copied what he had seen in historical pictures and followed his instincts. Each step he took was made more and more quiet as he remembered to use the light-footed techniques he had learned as/from Roma.
After Alfred noticed earlier that the wolves were temporarily stunned, he deactivated HSM to prepare for this moment. Both he and the wolves saw it in each other's eyes that they were all planning on making this next exchange their last. Alfred mumbled to himself "Any significant hit could prove fatal. I have to kill one instantly, recover, and then kill the next within a second."
He exhaled, and then inhaled deeply.
"I cannot afford to miss.
"I cannot afford to miss."
Of course, he already knew this. Repeating things, at least for him, helps his body react as his mind orders it to.
'Two steps 'till impact.'
He activated the maximum level of HSM could muster.
'... one step…'
His body bent for his initial quick-step towards the remaining beasts. The muscle fibers on his legs all received orders from his brain at unimaginable rates, and followed through by contorting rapidly to provide the best spring-then-recover they could muster in the moment.
'NOW!'
Alfred's eyes widened and pupils contracted as a slight blur filled every part of his vision except for the two wolves. Both beasts reacted instinctively by converging both on his right flank and on the blindspot created on his left by the shield. They were still in his range of perception, though.
In his mind flowed a scene where, despite one now being out of his field of vision, he could still "see" them perfectly, like a wire-frame 3d model had just appeared in his mind. He stutter-stepped towards the blindspot-one who flinched, but shot vigorously towards the second while keeping the shield up at an angle.
He took a solid step in and contorted his body into an upwards-facing thrust motion. From the stutter step to the upwards-thrust, only .25 seconds had gone by. The beast's body had finally begun to take action, but that was when the tip of his sword was only millimeters from its eye.
A guttural "ca-chunk" ringed throughout the almost silent arena, but that didn't stop the other wolf from charging Alfred on the spot. Its eyes showed a mixture of desperation, fear, and determination to survive. But most importantly, bloodlust towards Alfred.
It swiped with its paws towards Alfred, but he responded by hugging the shield to his body and slipping through the beast's claws. He ignored the triple-gash that had appeared on his right shoulder, and proceeded to perform an upper-thrust while he still had control over the arm.
The beast tensed up, and just to be sure, Alfred stabbed again and twisted at its heart before throwing it off his body onto the dry ground.