Chapter One Hundred and Five - Altering the Deal

“Have you been a, um, fighter for long?” I asked one of the big amazon-looking women.

She sighed and turned away from me. “Talk to me once you’ve cut your teeth, kid,” she said.

“I cut things with my teeth just fine!” I pouted, but there were plenty of others to chat to. I skipped over to the shadow-y-est part of the room. “Hello!” I said to the two people in dark cloaks hiding in the dark. “You guys look really sneaky. That’s cool!”

They turned towards each other, then edged deeper into the shadowed recesses of the room.

Well, okay, that was a pretty clear message.

I rocked back and forth on the balls of my feet and took in all the people in the room getting ready to fight. Some were stretching, others were standing and chatting in low tones. Some seemed to be praying or slowly going through katas or practicing with some magic, motes of mana swirling around them. A few of the calmer ones were reading or quietly smoking next to a window that was open a crack.

The crowds outside were getting excited. I could hear the pop-pop of fireworks and what I suspected was Zac stoking the crowd into an uproar.

I counted about sixty or so people across three rooms that were joined together by some corridors. There was a fourth room, a sort of armoury, but it was guarded by a pair of big guys who only let people in for a minute or so before they exited with a weapon.

Was I supposed to grab one too?

“Okay you nitwits!” someone called.

I turned to find a chubby man in a long coat standing by the door, arms in the air to catch people’s attention.

“You should know how this works by now. But for our newcomers, and those of you who got too plastered and forgot, let me explain right quick. We’re doing this by brackets. You get called up, you exit. A guard will bring you to your side of the arena. Zac says some nice things about how pretty your eyes are, and you wave to the crowds. Make a show of it. Then it’s on the stage and when the bell tolls, you handle your aggression between each other. You hear?” he asked.

There was a mumble of assent. I nodded along. It sounded simple enough. I could do it.

“Now remember, no decapitation!”

What?

“Broccoli, Arugula, you two are up!” the man shouted. He spun on a heel and stomped out of the building, the sounds of music and cheering loud for just a moment as the door opened and closed.

I stood for a moment, feeling just a little faint.

Then someone big and hard bumped my shoulder hard and I had to step fast not to fall. I looked up to a huge man wearing thick pauldrons and armoured greeves and little else. “Get going, girl,” he growled at me.

I swallowed but resisted the temptation to shy away from him. I wasn’t someone just anyone could bully! And just because he was taller than I was... my eyes widened. With my new ears, I was technically taller than he was! I was now at model height!

I followed Arugula out of the waiting area, then stopped as a wall of sound and scents hit me. There had to be some magic around the door keeping the worst of it out, because the sounds outside were crazy.

We were behind one of the taller platforms where large trunk-sized pieces of wood held up the stalls that were trembling as people cheered. An explosion from above had me looking up in time to see a fireball the size of a house detonating some hundred meters up. Sparks and embers rained down from the sky, winking out a few dozen feet off the ground.

Then a spiralling pillar of water shot into the air and burst apart, turning into a huge flower for just a moment before the image broke apart.

A few scattered drops dripped across my face.

“Miss Broccoli?” a young man with a clipboard asked.

“Oh, yeah!” I said, snapping my attention back to the ground. It was busy behind all of the crowds. There were little stalls where cooks were working up a frenzy to make little hot-dog like treats and popping corn. Others were quickly filling some bottles from large wine kegs and giving them to younger people in colourful outfits with bells on who were carrying boxes with prices next to them.

Guards were rushing around, and I saw a group of what had to be mages marching by. I caught a snippet about ‘magic flares’ and ‘illusions’ before they brushed by.

“This way, miss!” the young man said. He tapped my shoulder and nodded ahead before he took off.

I had to jog to keep up.

I was never the sort to get nervous in front of a crowd. In school, whenever we did group stuff, I often got to be the one to present things. I was a bit of an extrovert sometimes. Still, stepping out from between two of the stadium’s stalls only to see what had to be well over a thousand people standing up and cheering had my heart beating fast and my tummy flip-flopped a few times.

“Whoa,” I said, but the sound was lost as a familiar voice boomed out from above.

Standing on a floating platform lined by runes, with Zac, his outfit looking fresh and his smile radiant as he gestured for the crowd to be quieter. “Everyone! Welcome to Rosenbells thirty-second annual grand tournament!”

If I had thought it loud before, the noise now was outright deafening. I reached up and pulled my bun ears down. It helped a bit.

The boy with the clipboard placed his hands on my shoulders and guided me to a ramp next to the stage. “Go up when he calls you!” he shouted.

I nodded.

“Ladies and Gentlemen! We are about to begin! We will rotate until all sixty-four of our fighters across four brackets have cycled through! You will see legends born, blood spilled, and entrails spread out across the ground!”

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“What?” I asked the clipboard guy. He blinked at me as if he didn’t understand. “I want to keep my entrails,” I explained.

“Then win!” he shouted back before tapping my shoulder and walking off a half dozen steps.

I was alone next to the stage.

When the cheering began to calm down a little, Zac gestured to the far end of the stage from me. “Our first brave warrior to enter the arena today! Arugula! The Bloodletter!”

Arugula jumped onto the stage, spread his arms wide, then bent his back until he was facing the sky. He roared, a bestial sound that shook the air and that had some of the kids watching squeaking in terror.

He beat his exposed chest and stomped around in a tight circle screaming to the crowds who screamed right back. He reached behind his belt and pulled out a foot-long piece of wood with a spikey ball at the end. A twist of his hand and the ball fell, only stopping when the braided cord holding it snapped taut.

He spun the flail around, then smacked it into his own hand. Blood spurted out of his palm, coving the flail’s head and splashing onto the ground.

“Magnificient!” Zac shouted. “It seems Arugula’s thirst for blood knows no bounds!”

The man on stage wiped a bloody hand across his face, then roared again.

I had a sudden pressing need to be elsewhere.

Then someone shoved me from behind and I stumbled up the ramp and onto the stage. I turned, spotting the clipboard boy wearing a blank expression as he betrayed me.

A glowing semi-transparent wall appeared before me, blocking me from exiting the arena, then another appeared to one side, then the other. Soon there were walls all around and I was stuck on the stage with a grinning Arugula.

“Hailing from mysterious lands comes today’s strangest contestant! The Dragons speaker, the happiest Bun in the West! Broccoli Bunch!”

The crowd cheered.

I smiled weakly and waved.

“Aww, isn’t she just adorable?” Zac asked. “Like a bunny smiling at a wolf! Let us see how she fares!

Arugula pointed at me with his bloody hand. “I am going to end you!” he shouted.

“C-can’t we just be friends?” I asked.

Arugula

Desired Quality: A punching bag.

Dream: To rip an opponent in half before a crowd of horrified onlookers.

I wanted to run, but there were walls all around. Arugula didn’t seem keen on negotiating. I... I had to fight? No, there had to be a time limit. I could drag it out. But that would be hard. Really hard.

But I could do it! People would see that I didn’t wanna fight, and they’d stop it!

“Begin!” Zac shouted.

I stared up at the man. Wasn’t he meant to explain the rules? To rile up the crowd some more?

It was only the crowd screaming that gave me the time to react. I dove to the side, barely avoiding the head of the flail as it swiped through where I’d just been.

Arugula twisted around and his flail spun a quick orbit around him to come whipping back at me. I hopped over the swing, then landed and rolled as far from the man as I could.

“Just stand still!” he roared.

Swallowing, I back up towards the middle of one wall, then tapped it with a closed fist. It was as hard as stone, but slicker.

No good.

Arugula ran at me, charging headlong like a mad bull. I jumped up, planted a foot on his head, and skipped over him to land in the middle of the arena. The extra shove at the back of Arugula’s head sent him sprawling into the wall with a dull thud.

The crowd roared with laughter.

“Oh hoh! The bunny is mocking Arugula! Is he too weak for her tastes?” Zac asked. “We can only hope that the man caught an eyeful from under that pretty skirt in passing!”

I glared up at Zac. That man was rude.

My glare turned into wide-eyed shock as Arugula turned and came rushing back at me. His flail was glowing now.

I spun out of its path, then gasped as I watched the head smack into the ground so hard it left a crater. Some sort of flail skill? Oh, that wasn’t good.

“Are your friends watching, little bunny?” Arugula growled as he began to pace around me, he held his flail by the rope, spinning in around and around with helicopter-beats.

A glance up and to the side showed Amaryllis, Awen and Booksie standing by the edge of their box. They looked worried.

“I wonder, will they be disappointed that you’re so weak?” He grinned. “I could make it easy for you. No more dodging, just me, and your blood, and this arena covered in it.”

I tightened my jaw. “You don’t want to be my friend, do you?” I asked.

Arugula snorted. “Sure I do. You can become friends with my flail.”

I felt a frown pulling my brows together. “No. That’s not what friendship is like. And this isn’t what I thought these fights would be like.”

“Oh, did you think they’d be fun and ga--” Arugula paused mid word to lunge forwards, his flair a glowing line that tried to connect with my gut.

I danced around the head, spun closer to Arugula, stepped around a poorly aimed kick, then ducked under an attempt to grab me by the throat. Another few quick steps and I was behind and past him. The crowd applauded whooped and hollered.

“Fine, I’ll show you that we can fight, and have fun at the same time,” I said. “It might hurt a little, but there won’t be anything too bad. It’s like sparring, kinda,”

Arugula rushed at me again.

I shook my head. The man lacked imagination, that was his biggest problem. Maybe I could show him a few tricks?