Ch 51

As soon as my match against the dark-skinned woman from the northern tribes was over, I was met by Lilly in the resting room. I had to suppress a groan as I am sure that normally, gladiators that stay in the arena are allowed to rest until they come to the training room as it had been for me initially. Now it seemed like Lilly was eager to monopolize every spare hour that I had leaving me none for myself.

“You call that fighting?” she called out as soon as she saw me enter the room. “I saw so many times that she almost had you and you actually let her hit you with that headbutt! There is no way we are continuing with the other training until you hit the floor a few times in practice against me.” It seemed that she had been watching the match and had decided that my form was still too sloppy.

We spent the next several hours practicing fighting, both with daggers and without. True to her word she dumped me on my ass several times during the session and I was beginning to get a little annoyed at the amused smirk she would wear every time it happened. That being said, I was getting better at dodging and parrying attacks and she had increased the number of random tricks she would throw at me.

Once I was sweating hard from the exertion and she had finally decided that I had been punished enough for my sloppy performance she finally decided that we could call it quits. “Go ahead and go get your dinner but don’t take forever about it. As soon as you are finished eating come back and meet me in the training room again.”

“We still aren’t done? How much more are you going to punish me tonight?” She smirked at me again and then replied “Don’t be such a crybaby. We are done practicing fighting for today. Get dressed in your other clothes. After you eat we are going out.”

With mounting excitement and anxiety over what she had planned I quickly went to collect my bread and cheese from the goblins before returning to the waiting room and equipping myself from the chest of gear she allowed me to keep in her section. It was just the basics that she had gifted me with my training.

A set of clothes that was easy to move in but covered every inch of skin and had mottled patterns of leather in different shades of grey and brown, a set of lockpicks rolled up in some dark leather, and along with the daggers I had inherited from Teka, my master’s former gladiator, I was fully equipped.

As soon as I was ready I spotted Lilly watching nearby and she headed out the door. Taking the cue, I began the pattern of movement she had taught me that would enable me to move around without being seen and taking care of the sound of my footfalls began to head out from the arena. Through the resting room, past the goblin at the door, through Gikats’s office, out the front door and right past the nose of the orc guard outside.

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I had been getting pretty ballsy with it lately, coming within a few feet of him, after having realized just how amazingly effective this movement style was. If I didn’t know better I would say that it was a form of magick but there had not been any of that arcane energy utilized as there had been in the other spells I had learned.

As soon as I was out of sight of the arena and on the path towards the abandoned house that Lilly had set up as our unofficial base outside of the arena, Lilly appeared beside me without a sound or a hint of movement. It was literally as if she had materialized out of thin air. Not only was she always able to see me when I was moving undetectably but I could never find even a trace of her.

“Follow me and stay out of sight. Tonight, we aren’t going to the house but instead going prowling.” She spoke casually and then sped up to take the lead without giving me any chance to ask further questions. Taking a look around I noticed it was almost dark out. The time when assassins and thieves and all the other crooks that make their living in the darkness would be on the prowl.

As we travelled, I noticed that we seemed to be moving further and further into the seedy part of the city. Silvan seemed to live among those who did the worst of the middle class, wealthy enough to own his house and a couple of slaves but not much else. The homes and businesses in this part of town though were much more rundown.

As opposed to the stone walls and wooden shingles of Silvan’s neighborhood, this part of town had mud daubed walls and thatched roofs. The businesses were a little better, with walls that seemed made of clay for the inns, bars, whore houses, and similar kind of business that made its home in this part of town.

I could not help but to wonder what we were doing here as Lilly led me around. After a while we came to a pub that seemed to be little more than a single large room with clay walls and a fireplace that had a chimney made similarly of clay. The thatching on the roof looked old and moldy, also there was a loud and raucous noise coming from the inside, indicating the heavily inebriated and angry state of the patrons.

As soon as we were passed it Lilly turned down an alley that led behind it and then she crouched down behind some debris and bags of garbage and motioned me to join her. Once crouched down there beside her, hidden behind the trash she began to whisper to me.

“This part of town is famous for its drunken brawls and criminal activity. We are going to wait here until we find someone I deem suitable and then you will kill then according to the rules I set.”

I blinked several times, sure that I had heard her correctly but still shocked at what she had so casually said. “Why? What purpose does this serve besides becoming a murderer?” My fierce whisper was laced with the sounds of my disbelief and shock. “You are going to become an assassin remember? That means you are going to kill people, not like in the arena but in dirty ways and in the dark.”

I sat in silence for a long moment to organize my thoughts. After a while I whispered, “What did you mean according to the rules you set?” Since I was watching her closely I couldn’t miss the exhalation of breath when she heard my answer. She had not given me an option to refuse but still I suppose she had been worried that I would back out now.

“Depending on the circumstances of the target and our surrounding I will set certain rules for the kill. For instance, in most cases one does not want the target to see or hear them, even when the act takes place. Also, it should be done in such a way as to not draw attention and the body should not be left where it will be easily found. I’ll tell you the rest once I’ve decided on your target.”