"Lady Ulrica. I am full. Finish off the food for me," Ultis lazily gestured at the table next to her, loudly crushing a bone of a cusack between her fangs and turning her seat to look at Annie and Virginia. The mercenary leader tensed when the Ice Fang came closer to her, taking the table with food in the corner of the balconies. Ulrica looked to offer the food to other wolfkins, but Virginia showed her not to bother, "A nice little spectacle down there, don’t you think? Hekanta and her crew brought me a bit of credits today. And caused me to lose some." Ultis said in a sore voice, showing up on the terminal’s screen. Annie saw that people were betting on how far certain slaves could reach in this match, rather than on a victory. Judging by the numbers, Ultis barely made a profit in this match.
Behind her, the person on a hill made her move when a group of four people nearly reached the hill’s slope. With a single thrusting movement, the person propelled air in front of herself at the slaves, sending them flying like broken dolls to the side of the arena. The foes in black cloaks charged at the fallen people, aiming to finish them off. Yet they darted to all sides, seeking the new prey when the person slammed the end of her spear into the hill. Soon enough, it was over and the winning team left the battle, proudly raising their weapons to the cheering crowd, while workers were busy removing the dead and the injured and preparing the arena for the next round.
"Why did you call us, honey?" Annie smiled broadly, showing her fangs, "Could it be that you miss my tender embrace by any chance? Come, step closer, let me give you a hug like never before."
"Shut it," Ultis said, pressing a button on the terminal, causing Annie to feel a brief surge of electricity run through her body. Ultis slumped on her seat, looking annoyed and angry, "I am in no mood for playing. You were brought here to see how her team fights. The bitch did me foul, and I want recompense. Hekanta and her team fight only once a week, so get your asses ready. In two rounds' time, you are going in and will bring me a victory. And money for us to spend, of course," She smiled to Roll, and he nodded, "Due to how people here hate you lot, this will be quite a profitable turn of events for us if you win."
"And if we don’t play by your rules?" Virginia asked in an icy tone, releasing her claws and trembling with rage, "What if we just throw the fight?"
Ultis looked at her, holding one paw over the terminal. Ulrica looked worried at this scene, while Annie merely smiled smugly in Ultis’s face. The mercenary leader raised one paw to her lips, playing with them like a child. Finally, a smile appeared on her lips, and she gestured to the wolf hags as the sirens of the arena announced the next round. Hilda stood up, loudly announcing the next fight.
"Why, I will simply give you to Palatine then." Ultis smiled.
Behind her, the arena started to fill. Annie saw how some stragglers, whom she and Virginia spared during their battle, were forced to step into the arena. Behind them walked two black cloaks. On the other side of the arena, another group of armored people were pushed inside. People of the Insectoid Commune, trolls, members of the Bento tribe, and normies. All were armored and all were afraid. Even the trolls looked warily to the sides, clearly hoping for any way out of the arena. The stench of fear and despair was easily felt in the air.
An orchestra began to play, filling the arena with angelic music. The musicians were skilled, yet Annie felt that unseen artists were playing out of desperation rather than love of music. A bridge, made of countless human bones, extended into the arena from the balcony of the blonde woman. The three-armed person stepped on the bones, bowing and smiling to the applause of the crowd.
"Death! Death is descending!" The crowd chanted, clapping their hands in mad happiness.
"Ladies, gentlemen, and all in between!" Hilda raised her arms in triumph, allowing a spark of lightning to come between her palms, "I present to you, Palatine! For your joy and happiness only, enjoy the coming storm!"
A beautiful doublet of a heaven color was on his body, paned trunk hose covered the lower part of his body, leaving his feet bare. His nimble fingers easily kept the thin body on steps made of bones while he walked down to a hill. He gracefully bowed to the fighters that surrounded the slopes of the hill and spoke in an unmistakably male voice, one that was clear as day and heard even in Ultis’s balcony, despite the crowd’s shouts of extasy and anticipation:
"Losers! Fools! Discarded! Unlucky! Condemned! Ambitious! Whatever your reasons are, I welcome you, one and all, to the end of the road! Feel free to attack this one however you wish, but also, please, feast your ears, for this song is dedicated by me to you all! Pass on to the next life without regrets. For when one dies, one must at least perish with some beauty!" He threw his head back while the bone bridge moved back, sliding onto the balcony of the blonde woman, who was sitting and sipping wine. The lights were gone from the arena, leaving but a circle of white light around the Palatine. His three hands were raised, fingers moved as if he was plucking the strings of a lute. And then he began to sing.
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His voice was beautiful. Annie was never a music fan, but this person's song struck a chord with her. He was singing about a home, about a family waiting for a long-lost loved one to return, about an old mother's tears, about an elderly father's wrinkled face closed in an eternal frown. At the desperation that they were feeling, looking from the window at a road that runs away from a house, hoping that one day, one day, a person will come ba…
The fighters charged. They climbed up the hill, the armored forms of the black capes jumped all the way up, swinging their claymores at the beautiful face. They missed, Palatine simply danced past them, continuing to sing his song, about how the pair of parents were walking to the sea each morning, asking sailors. The ring of white light kept following him, leaving his attacks in the dark. Bullets were shot at him, and the person danced past them, evading the aim. He jumped into the sea of angry faces, still singing. People shot at him more, and he dodged again, dragging others gently from the danger as well. None died in a mad crossfire, none was even hurt. One person, with tears in her eyes, pressed a pistol to her temple, seeing the utter hopelessness of the situation. Her pistol was snatched away by the hands of Palatine, he gave the despaired woman a gentle pat on the head, still singing his song. The pair of black capes turned their swords at the people below, slashing with all their might. Their attacks were blocked by Palatine’s claws. Even their clever and cruel plan to draw this being into the line of attack failed. And he was singing, going on and on, dancing amidst the bullets, evading the shots and saving others. The crowd was ecstatic, chanting his name over and over again, while the unseen orchestra put on their best show. And finally, he ended his song by telling the people how happy the parents were when they embraced their child once more, reunited in the next world.
And light returned to the arena. With it, death came back. The orchestra stopped playing, but a new tune was now playing. Screams of the dying. Palatine touched the head of a person next to him, just a light tap. The fighter’s head was torn away by the impact behind the tap and was flung into a wall, leaving a bloody smear behind. Palatine began to dance again, but this time his dance was one of death, leaving behind broken bodies and sliced people. Each movement of his arms left a dead body behind him, his aim was always true. Palatine cared not for the suffering of others, just for the artistry and efficiency of his movements. He made sure to dance just at the brink of becoming a blur, slowing himself down just enough for everyone to see the carnage that he brought. Arcs of blood, like petals, wreathed patterns around his lean body.
Yet at the same time, Palatine was growing bored with simple performance. He killed one of the black cloaks by pushing a hand through her visor and catching the blade with another hand. He turned to the remaining black cape, challenging her to a sword battle. The woman attacked with mad determination, but her opponent was something else. In a single motion, he disarmed her and charged past her, throwing the blade aside just as the bloody line appeared on the chest of the woman’s armor. In a moment, she fell apart in two parts. The woman who tried to shoot herself found a pistol pressed to her temple. Before he shot her, Palatine spared a single comforting smile for the desperate eyes of the member of the Insectoid Commune. Throwing aside his weapon, he moved on, killing with his fists the ones that tried to punch him and shooting the ones that tried to shoot him. The trolls, famous for their regeneration abilities, were torn asunder by Palatine's arms. There was no salvation or mercy. It was only inescapable death that this creature was bringing. Palatine ended his "performance" by making a split and throwing his arms up, surrounded by the corpses. Eighty lives were snuffed away by his casual killer spree.
"Thank you, thank you, you are too kind." While the bone bridge was lowering itself, he smiled at the cheering crowd. Unlike with other slaves, no one forced him to put back on the slave collar, and the creature nimbly leaped back to the blonde woman, who frowned at him and gestured for him to take a shower.
"As you can see, the fate of those sentenced to a meeting with Palatine is not a kind one," Ultis smiled, a small trickle of blood dripping onto her armor from the left corner of her mouth. Ultis hit her seat in annoyance as blood fell onto her armor. Ulrica stopped eating herself and feeding the hound at her legs. The Ice Fang came closer, wiping off the blood from Ultis’s mouth and armor, causing the mercenary leader to shudder, "Enough! Go back to eating, lady, or Rexy will eat the rest again." Ultis glanced at Annie and smiled, showing up the terminal, "Something to… give you an additional drive to win."
Annie looked at the display and froze, mimicking the times when she felt cold sweat on her body. The text on display was written by her "sister", who begged whoever took Annie away to liberate her. An impressive sum of tokens, easily enough to buy a whole apartment in Houstad, was moved to a secure bank account. Annie charged, screaming and frowning in righteous anger, feeling the electric shock running around her body. She fell on her knee before Ultis, pretending to breath heavily.
"I will kill you," She gasped for air, looking in the mocking eyes of Ultis, "I don’t care what it takes, but I will end you."
"See, now you have one more reason to live." Ultis smiled back.