The next day Liz showed me where she was training. We only trained light, mostly stretching and doing light cardio and stretching that morning. We did our respective routines, then a bit before dark started heading out.
The place… wasn’t what I was expecting. I knew I was in for something unexpected the moment we took a bus into the slums. The bus ride was a bit over twenty minutes. We got off at a stop that was near a chicken chain that was popular. I followed Liz as we walked for ten more minutes, to a closed-down store. The store looked like it used to be a department store but was boarded up completely.
As we walked through the empty parking lot, Liz said, “Make sure not to tell them you’re scribed inside. I don’t think you have what it takes for the scribed brackets. Hells, the mana artists' brackets would probably be tough for you. I think martial arts brackets are where you’d do best right now.”
I nodded, acknowledging what she said as she kept walking ahead. The front door was also barricaded, and the glass doors were blocked off. We made our way around the back and Liz banged on the door til someone opened it.
It was an older-looking dude wearing a sleeveless white tee. His skin was tanned, slightly sunburnt, like he spent a lot of time outdoors.
“Ah, it’s lil’ empress with a friend. C’mon in,” he said as he opened the door. We were in a large room with a bunch of people inside it with couches, chairs, and tables set up for people to sit and relax. There was a large group in the middle looking at the large TV with several other groups scattered around the room with food, drinks, and other refreshments laying around. Liz swaggered her way over to a table on the left-hand side of the room and sat with a group of people.
“Ay, look who the demons dragged in!” A shaggy-haired youth with a bottle of alcohol in his hand showed. A few other people turned and looked, all of them of similar ages to me and Liz.
The guy next to Shaggy Hair, Grey Eyes, gave me a once over, looking me up and down then looking over at Liz.
“Who’s the newbie?” he asked, his voice monotone and flat.
“This is my friend, Trey. He used to train with me but is out of practice. Though he could use some live practice in order to sharpen up. Maybe make some money too.”
Shaggy hair cackled, “Oh the one trying to get into that fancy academy? He a mana artist too? Has the build for it.”
Liz shook her head and I answered, “Nah, martial artist, mana control is piss poor still, can barely do it while completely still completely focused on it.”
Grey Eyes raised an eyebrow suspicion evident on his face, “Isn’t the admission only a few months away? Are you going there for civics?”
I grimaced, knowing where this is going, “No, artifice,”
Grey Eyes, leveled his stare at me as I stared sheepishly into his namesake. He sighed a moment later and just said, “Good luck with that.”
I muttered thanks before Shaggy Hair cut in again, “You two should become friends! He’s planning on going to one of those fancy ones too! Austin Academy!”
Grey Eyes corrected him, “Aubrey. Aubrey Academy.
I raised my eyebrows in surprise, “You a combat specialist?”
Grey Eyes nodded, “Yeah, scribed too.” This was really surprising, I blurted out, “How?”
Grey Eyes stared at him for a bit before answering, “Gained through some luck relating to an inheritance.” He glanced back over at the screen, likely signaling this conversation was coming to an end.
Shaggy Hair, either not noticing or not caring about that fact decided to push it further along, “Yeah he is strong as hell, he shoots ice and shit!”
Grey Eyes shook his head, the exasperation he was feeling obvious, “Cryokinesis. And I mainly use frost and chilled air over condensing it into ice.”
Shaggy Hair laughed, “Same difference.”
I shot a glance at Liz who watched the conversation with an IPA in hand, a grin tugging at her lips.
I glanced back, and Grey Eyes was just blankly staring at Shaggy Hair as if his eyes could bore a hole into the other boy’s head. Shaggy Hair cackled again before looking at me again.
"By the way, name's Luther and this here is Lex. Nice meetin' ya," he said with a wry grin still plastered on his face. He held his hand for a handshake and I shook it.
"Nice meeting you too," I responded. "By the way, I know this place is for fights, how do those go down?" I asked.
Luther pointed to a small TV over the much larger one in the room, "see that up there? That's the fight card for the day. If you wanna fight you go over there to Big Mike and tell 'im," he said pointing to the guy in the middle of the room. After, he'll sort you out and you'll be able to either put yourself into the list of fighters readied or if you want someone in particular, just tell 'im and as long as their card is free you can fight 'em."
I squinted to make out the details of the screen above the one showcasing two people fighting in a large room. This screen had three lists of names recorded up there that were scheduled to fight and an order. Some had another name next to them while others would be there by their lonesome. The first list was for mundane martial arts, the second for mana martial arts, and the last was for inscription martial arts. I could see Grey Ey-Lex under the category for inscription arts apparently he was fighting today.
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Liz called out, “Ay, I want Mike today! Put me in!”
This was followed by Luther, “I got a thousand on Liz,”
A large man across the room snorted at that, crossing his arms as he glanced over.
"The Little Empress wants to end her win streak finally? Fine by me,” he said, voice swamped with mirth.
“Don’t worry,” she said smiling, “You’ll kneel like the rest.”
I looked between the two mildly confused. It was easy to guess that the other guy was the Mike in question, but I found that the relationships here were far more nuanced than I expected as I looked around at the various cliques and hierarchies formed.
I made some more chatter with Luthor and Lex to get some more information. Apparently, this “venue” was open from 7 pm to 4 am. It was a licensed fighting venue surprisingly considering it was just a dilapidated shopping center, I had no idea how they got the certification but apparently combat inclined people liked to come here to hang out, bring snacks and treat it as a ring. A blonde-haired older dude who sat in the back was the required healer and the girl cuddled up with him was his assistant. She was a nurse apparently, studying to become a pharmacist.
The fight that was occurring right now came to an end with a clean mana bolt to the head that sent one of the contestants crumpled to the ground. The healer shot up and jogged to the double doors ahead, and then could be seen healing the man on the screen. The other contestant walked out with a smug look of satisfaction on his face.
“Good shit Mir,” Liz called out.
He looked over and smiled, “ Hey, thanks for the exercises, I've been feeling more confident in taking my shots lately.”
“Still a bit slow but you’re getting there,” she said with a smirk. He laughed and waved her off as he sat down on a couch and relaxed. The assistant healer came over and dealt with several cuts and bruises using ointments until the healer came back and finally took care of him. The other guy was carried over to a bed to rest and recuperate a bit before heading out.
I felt a little nervous at that as I looked up and saw Liz’s name next to Mike’s… in the scribed brackets.
I looked over confused, “Hey why is Liz in the scribed bracket?”
“Ah,” Liz said, “You can fight up in brackets if you want to, can’t fight down though.”
I nodded in understanding. That’s why she told me to not mention I was scribed. If I wanted to train against someone in a higher bracket I could, but this gave me the option of fighting others. The next fight was another scribed fight. It was Lex versus a person named Tina. I saw a girl get up and stretch as she looked over at our little cohort. Lex stood up and walked over to the doors heading into the arena.
There was a countdown on the screen, and then a bullhorn went off in the other room before the two started. Lex took a few steps back as Tina ran towards him. She was fast, but he shot several bolts of mana at her.
I raised my eyebrows in surprise, most mana bolts were wispy and barely visible, but these cameras picked them up perfectly. I know that larger areas tend to have modified cameras that can pick up mana signatures and display them with increased clarity but I was surprised by the fact that this setup was using those types of cameras.
On the screen. The girl Tina’s hand transformed as she ran, transfiguring themselves into massive bestial claws. She almost didn’t react as the mana bolts shot straight toward her, but at the last moment ducking them and then pounced on Lex.
Lex looked completely calm standing there as he put his hand in front of him shooting a blast of frost out at Tina’s face. Tina covered her face and the fur that covered her was coated in a thin, patchy layer of ice. Lex pulled back, shuffling around her and firing more frost. Tina rushed him again as he fired several more mana bolts at her. She had to slow down and dodge him and every time he would cover her in more and more frost. She started slowing down, trying to get some of the bits of ice off of her and that was when Lex rushed her. Startled, she fixed her stance and tried to rotate to face him again, but Lex was already on her. Moving blazing fast, he launched into a tackle catching her side. The two scrambled on the ground for a bit as Tina’s claws swiped out carelessly trying to catch Lex. She dug a clawed hand into the inside of one of his legs, but he took it with nothing but a grunt of pain as he shoved his palm over her face.
In the next few moments, we heard a muffled scream before Tina’s hand slammed into the ground repeatedly. She had tapped.
Lex fell off of her, splaying out on the ground next to her.
The healer was already sprinting into the room as I looked down from the screen with his aid following after.
Lex’s leg had a massive gash on it, and the healer immediately rushed to heal it, cleaning the outside of the wound quickly and then closing it. Lex was still laid out unmoving but the healer moved on to Tina.
For a moment I could see her face around her mouth was a frosty white color. The assistant pulled a needle from her bag, injecting it around the affected area as the healer treated it.
The guy who was sitting in the center of the room got up and walked into the area as well. We could see him talking in there with the healer and the assistant before picking up Lex and carrying him back out here.
With Lex slung over his shoulder, he brought him over to us and laid him on the couch. I looked at where the cut was, and the skin was red and raw looking. I realized why the healer rushed in there so fast: I was fairly confident there was an artery in this area.
The healer came out with Tina, her face was blistered and also a bit pinkish, but she looked pretty alright all and all.
I whispered to Liz, “How does this guy’s healing work? It doesn’t seem to completely fix the injuries.”
She responded, “Think it’s some type of accelerated and improved recovery amplification as opposed to the typical mend stuff. Usually, you’ll keep healing throughout the day afterward and be back to one hundred percent within twenty-four hours.”
“Huh,” I said, turning back to the smaller screen with the names above. There were two more fights scheduled before Liz’s. One for mundane martial arts, and one for mana arts.
The next two flew by. The first fight had a striker and a grappler face-off, but the grappler’s striking was far superior to the striker’s grappling. The grappler had a jab that mixed in a level change so it was hard to tell when he would jab and when he would shoot for a takedown. The striker lasted for several minutes, but eventually fell for one of the jab feints and got tackled to the ground. From there was a brutally slow grappling match until the grappler got him into an armlock threatening his shoulder and elbow leading to a tap out.
The mana artists’ match was a lot faster. The two of them threw a flurry of bolts at each other both keeping their distance. Thing is, neither of them were very good at dodging the bolts. Each one took hit after hit, until one of them took a string of them to the head, getting knocked out only a minute or so into the fight.
I paid close attention to each, hoping to learn from the different fighting styles and methods to find techniques that work. The martial arts match was far more useful in that regard as I didn’t have the mana control or supply to replicate the insane—and honestly wasteful—methods used in the mana artists’ match.
I looked over at Liz as she stood up getting ready to fight, she gave us a round of high-fives as everyone sitting here wished her good luck.
Finally, she headed out for her match against Mark.