"Cornelius, Jason, come come, look he's waking up!" a woman shouted running out of the room.

Eyes opening slowly and the sound of a woman shouting he thought to himself.

Where am I and what the fuck is all the noise about?

He closed his eyes and took a minute then realized it was his room and the woman shouting must have been Susan. Susan was Cornelius's wife. A relatively tall woman roughly 5 foot 10 inches, busty, had jet black curly hair, brown eyes, snubbed nose and a great pair of lips.

He thought about the fight, how he fell unconscious after it was over and how he had managed to reach back here.

Ah, Cornelius must have taken him after the fight back to his place. After about 10 minutes the family of 3 entered his room. A young boy ran and jumped on top of the bed and began hugging him and crying. He couldn't help but embrace the young child back. This was Jason. Jason was Cornelius's and Susan's child. He was 5 years of age and looked almost exactly like Cornelius with the exception of his lips which he had inherited from his mother's side.

"Jason are you okay, I've always told you, a man hides his tears you know," he told the child.

"But I thought you would never wake up and had left me," Jason told him with the tears running out his eyes.

"It's okay buddy, I won't leave you," he told Jason hugging him tighter than before.

Jason made the boy swear on his life that he'd never leave him.

"Susan, do you mind if I speak to Cornelius alone?" he asked the woman.

"Jason, come honey, you should let him have a word with your father," she said nodding at him.

The little boy ran to his mother and they headed downstairs.

"Cornelius...........how long was I asleep?" he asked.

" 4 days, you had 3 broken ribs and a concussion, I had called a healer immediately after I brought you home and she fixed your ribs but you hadn't woken up, she said it was something mental that's why you hadn't woken up and we should just wait," Cornelius stated.

The room went quiet for around 3 minutes as the boy stared out the window into the pitch black sky.

"I've told you before but you don't have to live this kind of life, you're a free man and you're always welcome here, you don't have to worry about anything, it's the least I can do for you after everything and I wouldn't even want to think about what would happen to Jason if anything ever happened to you," Cornelius said with an extremely serious facial expression.

The boy began to remember the days when he was Cornelius's slave 11 years ago. Cornelius was a cruel bastard. He would put the boy through rigorous training with the other slaves and if he faltered in any way he would have been subjected to severe beatings. Although he had suffered harsh treatment from Cornelius, it was one of the happiest periods in his life, it was the first time he had experienced a form of equality. All of Cornelius's slaves were treated the same way, there was no bias and punishment was always the same no matter the slave. Cornelius had been grooming all of the slaves to fight in the pit at some point in their life. However, around 6 years into the boy's slavery, everything changed when Cornelius met his wife Susan. Susan wasn't a big fan of slavery as she hated the thought of being subjugated and gradually Cornelius changed his ways but with the birth of his son that marked the turning point of his life. On that day he freed all the slaves he had in captivity and gave them a sum of money to help them get back on their feet and go back to their homes. He had not wanted Jason to become the type of man that he was and strived to make a difference and become a better man. 

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However, the boy had no home to return to and Cornelius offered to allow the boy to live with his new family which he accepted. As the years went by Jason grew extremely fond of the boy, looking up to him as an older brother and would spend as much time possible with the boy as possible forming an attachment to him. Cornelius's family had become the boy's own and the boy reciprocated Jason's feelings by considering Jason as a younger brother.

Every time Cornelius would look at the boy he would get memories of the past back when he was a cruel man, and he would always offer to take care of the boy for his life as a way of atonement. Cornelius had discovered gold on a piece of his land and opened a mining company as gold was always in demand by various countries and had grown wealthy off this.

The boy, however, did not wish to be taken cared of. Every day he would wake at the break of dawn and train. He beat the ways of the sword Cornelius had forced upon them back in the day into his head and it was at this point in his life a daily habit. When he would not train, he would head over to assist employees with manual labor in the gold mines.

It came as a shock when the boy had requested that Cornelius register him in the pit to fight. He told Cornelius that the reason he wanted to fight in the pit was because it would be a waste for all the years of training to go to waste and he believed he could make it and become the best. Although this was the reason he had given Cornelius, the truth was he had been looking for a purpose for his life, at the end of the day he had nothing he could say was his own and knew not what to do with his life, and entered the pit in hopes of finding a meaning for his existence.

He heard a voice talking to him, ah it was Cornelius asking him a question. He quickly snapped out of the daydream.

"So you gonna leave the pit?" Cornelius asked

He took a minute before answering the question.

"Ah, no, I haven't found a reason to leave," he responded

"You know that by living a life like this you can die at any day right!" Cornelius exclaimed.

"Yes, but my life has no value in this world so it wouldn't matter in the end," he muttered.

Cornelius's face showed great sadness by the boy's words. There wasn't really anything he could say that would change his mind.

The boy got out of his bed and began to stretch.

"Cornelius..................organize another fight, please, as quickly as possible" the boy said

Cornelius was shocked, not even a week had passed and he was already prepared to fight again. This was the making of a madman, he thought to himself but the boy's face showed resolution and that was more than enough to convince him.

"I understand, I'll see what I can do but for now let's go have dinner," Cornelius said as he stared the boy in his eyes.

 Both men headed downstairs, to see what looked like a feast. All sorts of food were arranged on the table in the dining hall. The 4 people seated around the table, it was picturesque just like any other family dinner would be. They talked on and on about the boy's first fight and how happy they were at the fact that he made it out alive and how thankful everyone should be, this had gone on until about midnight before everyone finally turned in and headed to bed.

At the break of dawn, the boy woke up and carried out his daily training as he would normally do. His body was working fine with no signs of the injuries he had suffered from the previous fight and Cornelius headed out to business as he would normally.

Later that evening Cornelius returned bearing news. He had successfully scheduled a fight for the boy for tomorrow. However, the announcer believed that the boy should have been given a heads up as to who he would be fighting. Not all details could be told but all the boy had to know was he was to fight a magician and take the needed measures to prepare. After he told the boy the news he headed to his horse and took a chainmail, a new standard broadsword and a new pair of black leather jeans from his bag and presented it to the boy. After the fight with the ogre, the cuirass he had worn was severe damaged and it would not have been repaired in time for the fight, so the chainmail would act as a replacement for the time being and the sword and pants were considered as gifts for winning his first fight.

The boy graciously accepted the gifts and headed to bed early to get a good night's sleep for the fight as he would need to be in his best shape for the fight against a magician.