I still couldn’t believe that Tay was apprenticed to the guy who beat up the prince. And that mage just broke into my room and offered me an apprenticeship, for nothing. How could Tay not have told me! Though I still didn’t believe it was actually him. Things like that just didn’t happen. But it wasn’t like I had a choice anyway. He had me restrained,t and denying him didn’t seem like a good idea.

At the moment I was heading to my underground fight while a moustached man was following me. Providing extremely strange conversation about the weirdest topics. He was currently talking about the consistency of jelly. Ruther had somehow figured out I needed to be somewhere and asked if he could join. I didn’t really have a choice, so I agreed.

He was starting to make me think he was a creep. Forcefully undressing me and putting me inside a dress. And that was the second time in one day! Not to mention the entire class seeing me almost naked made me want to crawl into a hole and die. I stared down at my chest and with a sour expression. Girls always made fun of me for being flat and short. Especially Cloe, though I hated her brother even more than her.

Oh god, the entire class saw me naked. That thought stuck in my head the entire way to the arena. It was going to be horrible when I came back to class.

While in my misery a hand patted my shoulder, making me jump. I forgot Ruther was here. “Many guys like girls with flat chests. I really don’t care about size, and to be honest, most guys will take anything they can get. Don’t bother yourself over it.” I really wanted to punch him in the face. Instead, I crossed my hands over my chest and glared at him. He had also seen me half-naked, that thought didn’t help. How the hell did he know what I was thinking?

The silence grew icy but Ruther didn’t seem to notice, just continuing to talk about inane things.

We reached the underground arena, and when they scanned my ID let us enter. The place was as dingy as usual, only the high-class fighters got to prepare and fight in luxury. I walked towards the prep area and Ruther followed.

Some people gave me the side-eye as I walked past. I had never taken anyone with me to my fights before. As I was reaching my locker, Andrea came running up to me. “Hey Ash, haven’t seen you in a few days, who’s the new guy? You got a sponsor?”

I let out a sigh and turned to her towering over me, she had tattoos covering most of her body and was wearing a sword at her hip. I found Andrea pretty annoying and we didn’t really talk often, she probably wanted to try and get sponsored from Ruther. “No, he is not my sponsor. Just someone who wanted to see my fight.” I brushed past Andrea and walked to my locker. I heard her mutter something about me hogging the sponsor, I ignored the comment.

I put my excess stuff in my locker and took a seat at a bench. I was currently wearing my battle attire, which amounted to nothing more than what I usually wore, but a little bloodier, plus two axes. Luckily, Ruther had allowed me to change out of my forcefully acquired dress.

I just sat there for a few seconds trying to get my nerves under control, mercifully, Ruther shut up. I did some basic cycling, just a run-through of mana. I always got nervous before my fight, no matter how many times I fought. After a few round trips of my mana I stood up and Ruther followed.

I made my way to the fight. Before the arena was a rather shabby hallway. Standing next to the entrance was a fat man who managed all the lower fights. You could feel his greasy hair from a kilometre away. I walked up to him in slight disgust which I kept off my face. He was like a necessary evil. He gave out the money, but only through a tight fist, and you always needed to be careful he didn’t cheat you out of your due.

“A bit close to your fight Ash, you go up in 3.” The whale then turned to Ruther. “And who have you brought here, he wanna join as well? He looks like he could handle himself.” Colt said in a nasally voice as he appraised Ruther. I had a small hope that Ruther would beat him up, but that probably wouldn’t go over well for me.

I waited for Ruther to answer but when he said nothing, I answered for him, “No, he is just here to watch my match if that’s ok. Who am I fighting by the way?” We never got to know who you were fighting until just before the match. Well, that was only true if you were in the lower fights.

“Shame, he’ll have to pay to watch like everyone else, and you’ll be fighting Drax, don’t die.” My face paled. I had the sudden urge to run out of the arena, but I needed the money, and I would piss any number of dangerous people off if I did. Hopefully, the medics working here would keep me from dying. That was the only good thing about this place, few people died, and the healing mages were good at their job. Plus, it was free.

“How about instead of paying to watch, I’ll place a bet,” Ruther said. That instantly caught Colt’s attention.

“How much and on who. We are currently running 14:1 odds on the girl winning.” That did nothing to impede my sense of doom.

“I’ll bet on the girl, 10 gold.” My mouth nearly fell off. That was enough money for me to live for half a decade, and he was betting all that on me winning.

I was about to protest but Colt already grabbed the coins out of Ruhter palm, “Deal!”. His eyes were sparkling as he stared down at the coins.

Ruther leaned into my ear and whispered, “If you win, I’ll give you 10 gold of my winnings. Go, have fun. Don’t die.” He gave a push on my shoulder and I stumbled up to the arena.

I gulped as I walked up into a haze of bright lights, to the sound of a cheering crowd. The slope up to the arena levelled off and I entered the cage. The arena was a 20-metre long and wide hexagon with black fence walls. The ground was grey with some blood marring its surface.

I couldn’t see out into the crowd because of the bright lights shining down, but I could hear them. They yelled in an incoherent mess, louder than usual. The reason for that was standing right Infront of me. He was an over 2-metre tall wall of muscle that held a great axe larger than me. He was showing silver teeth as smiled at the crowd. His axe was still bloody from his last victim.

I gulped again as I stared at him, no one in the lower weight had ever beaten him, at least to my knowledge, and everyone that had ever fought him had at the minimum lost a finger. I would have already run, damn the consequences, except for the fact that Ruther was probably more dangerous than this guy, and that the medics here could reattach anything, except a head.

I entered my side of the arena and the door behind me closed to the roar of the audience. Drax turned his smile onto me, and my hand started to shake where they gripped my axes. What was with me, I was never this nervous before a fight. I took a few deep breaths and slightly calmed my nerves. I could do this, all I had to do was get in fast enough and get a good few swipes with my axes.

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The crowd quieted as the announcer spoke. “On the left, we have the challenger. She is a veteran in the arena, defeating dozens that have stood in her way. She may be small, but she can annihilate someone twice her size, Burst!” I lifted my axes to the approaching roar. I always hated the audiences in my matches, but if you wanted some extra tips you had to make a good showing. I didn’t make much from tips, but I did have a few followers.

“Now we have the reigning champ, the unstoppable, unkillable, unbeatable, Ruthless DRAAAX!” The crowd deafened me with their applause and screams. My introduction was nothing compared to Drax’s. It hurt a little that they liked him so much more than me, but an axe tot eh head would hurt a lot more.

I looked back and found Ruther on the edge of the arena giving me a thumbs up and mouthing something. I swear he said, ‘you’re so dead’.

The announcer called us to our positions and started the countdown. I took a steadying breath, readjusting my grip and started moving my mana to my feet and arms. I would need to finish this quickly; one swipe of his axe and I was done for.

The announcer reached one and buzzed us to a start.

I ran at Drax with mana enhanced legs, crossing the distance between us in a second. I swung with one of my axes at his chest and another at his legs. The haft of his axe blocked my right swing, and he kicked my left arm, sending it painfully in the other direction. I moved with the kick, bringing my left arm in an uppercut and my right down onto his chest. I strained my mana channels to their limit, but it was like I was moving in slow motion to Drax, he didn’t even bother to block. He simply brought up his leg in a lighting fast move and kicked me in the chest, sending me catapulting back.

I tumbled in a roll as I landed and got up, coughing and wincing at a few possibly broken ribs. Drax just stood where I fought him earlier, leisurely leaning on his axe. I got up and stood still for a few moments considering how to attack him, seeing as he was giving me the time.

As I was just about to say fuck it, and attack him again, with the goal of not getting too beat up, a voice spoke to me, somehow clearer than all the others in the arena. “Don’t just attack him head-on, use the walls to your advantage. He is inflexible.” It was Ruther’s voice.

Just as Drax looked as if he had enough of waiting, I attacked. I ran at him, and he brought his axe to the ready. But instead of charging right at him, when I was a few metres away, I swerved from my path and jumped at the fence, getting one foot into the link and changing my direction to fly high and towards Drax.

I soared into the air, ignoring the pain in my ribs, and when I was about to reach Drax’s head he brought his axe up to try to swipe me down. I easily avoided the clumsy swing by grabbing onto the weapon and pushing myself and the weapon away. My motion brought me to the side of his head, and I kicked off his skull, sending him staggering. A lot of pain shot my feet, it felt like I had just kicked a brick wall.

When I landed I didn’t give him a chance to reorganize and charged in, I brought my right axe in a swipe, which Drax barely had time to block, but my left swing passed his defences and bit into his flesh. He was already moving away from the swing, so it only gave him a small wound.

I jumped at him before he could get his balance back and swung both my axes at him again, he managed to block both hits, but my kick went through. His knee bent back but didn’t snap as I hoped. That kick was powerful enough to snap the knee of 20 normal people, but his body was made of stone. Still, I pushed the joint back further than it was supposed to.

I managed to get one more swipe at his other leg’s hamstring before he completely regained his balance. His eyes stared at me, blazing. He lifted his axe and pushed off with a speed that was significantly faster than me, even when injured. His body rocketed towards me and I rolled out the way, missing cold steel by a few millimetres. I didn’t get a chance at a reprieve as he barrelled towards me before I could fully regain my feet, hitting my sternum with the but end of his axe. A crack reverberated through my body as a coppering tang filled my mouth.

I tried to push him away with my axes as I doubled over, but it wasn’t even an inconvenience as he smacked my hand out of the way, forcing me to drop my weapon, fingers cracking with the force. My final sight was of a wooden pole coming right at my forehead.

. . .

I woke up groggily, this wasn’t my room? I looked around the room until the white walls and lined beds came into view. I let out a groan, expecting pain when I sat up, but I felt good as new, better actually. That had never happened before. The healers here made sure all your body parts were attached, but that was about where their help ended. I had never woken in the infirmary and not felt like I was dying.

I tried to remember how I ended up here. I was fighting someone, right Drax. And as expected he completely kicked my ass. I would have been regretting my decision not to just give up, and reduce the damage if I didn’t feel fine. Seriously, why was that?

I was about to get up and ask, when a voice beside me made me jump up in my bed. “Not bad. You did a decent job fighting the brute, too bad you lost. You could have made some decent cash from my bet.” Right, the mysterious master mage. I still had my doubts about him truly being who he said he was, and I definitely didn’t trust him, even if he was who he said he was.

For that reason, my heart started beating as I remembered his bet. I didn’t have anywhere near that amount of money, so if he asked for recompense I was completely fucked. I was about to say something to that effect when he spoke before I could.

“Don’t worry about the money. I didn’t actually expect you to win. It was just there to make you fight your best. Though I heard many people in the crowd liked your performance, apparently most people don’t even try to fight the brute anymore.” Well, that was a relief, especially the extra money bit. I could really use some more cash.

Since you did a satisfactory job, I healed you up and repaired some old scars. Here’s my calling card, say my name three times while holding it and I will appear. Also, don’t tell Tay I met with you. You can ask him about me, but just make up something about how you know he’s my apprentice.” My mouth hung open as I numbly grabbed the card. I opened my mouth to thank him, but between one blink and another, he was gone.

I grabbed my blanket and pulled it down to look at my thigh, which now was missing a large and few smaller scars crisscrossing it. I checked my arms, chest and every other part of my body, I was completely healed.

I had to hold back tears; I had never really gotten comfortable with all my deformities. It made me feel like I was a walking zombie when I looked at myself naked. I was lucky I only had a few small scars on my face. Still, I wouldn’t trust him just for this. He could still be looking to kidnap me. Though that idea seemed less likely now that I had seen the magic he had at his disposal. I had looked into getting a healer to remove my scars but they all required a fortune to do it, as apparently, only master healers could do it.

I stared down at the card. It was thin, black and made of a flexible material. It had words written in silver. “Congratulations to the holder of this card. You have received a one time contact with the marvellous Ruther the ‘inset title’. You want someone dead? An enchanted item that can destroy a city? A pendant that will make all the boys want to come to your yard? How about teaching from an immortal mage that literally fricked the moon? You can ask for this and more, just say the name Ruther three times and I will appear within 1-5 business days.

Anything you ask will come with a variable price. Amount of time in ‘one business day’ is subject to change at my discretion. This card will disappear when used. Any injuries received due to people looking for my calling card are not at the fault of Ruther. No refunds.” The last bit of card was in small letters that I struggled to read.

I had a lot to think about.