“You’ve just gained the ability to understand and speak thousands of languages, and that’s how you describe the way you feel?” an amused Lyra replied. The golden light vanished from her eyes as a screen filled the entire wall behind her.
“Well, I guess you just told me. But still, what the fuck was that?”
“The crystal contained concentrated language essence. The crystal itself links to a larger database of every language ever spoken by someone who visited the coliseum. It’s an interesting two-part system. The essence prepares your brain by embedding key concepts within you, whereas the crystal accesses the database. It effectively auto-translates everything you say and hear.”
“That’s… a lot.”
“It’s best not to think too much on it unless you intend to pursue language essence, it’ll just waste time. Time that could be spent watching fights.” Lyra pointed to the projection on the wall behind her. It now showed her, clad in armour, facing off against the axe wielding barbarian he had seen previously.
“Fair enough. After this can you fully explain essence and Harmony to me, please? This is the second time it’s been brushed off, but it seems kinda important.”
“Kinda important is an understatement, past your first five fights it’s a necessity. Everyone experiences Harmony differently, so my advice is to see an expert if one will take you. They’ll be able to give you a much better introduction than me or Akira.
“With the way your first fight ended, and your nickname, you probably have an affinity to lightning. There’s a place called Tranquillity tower, near the end of Reveller’s Avenue. An old man called the storm sage lives there. He’s never fought in the coliseum, so I don’t know, but I’ve heard he’s one of the ten strongest harmonisers on the island.
“I’ve also heard he’s a weird old sailor that never takes in students, but it’s worth a try. Also, try to stay away from skill crystals like the one you just used.” Lyra added. “Languages are simply too useful to pass up, but it’s best to learn skills organically.”
“I’ll add the sage to the list.” Jay sighed “Fight time?”
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The pair settled into their seats and Lyra rattled off a few facts to Jay. She was 48-0, her opponent was 29-0. Her opponent had won his last five fights in under thirty seconds, overwhelming his opponents with a savage opening salvo. He’d never been in a fight longer than 5 minutes, and Lyra aimed to take full advantage of that by exposing his potential lack of stamina.
Lyra’s opponent, Kerron the Giantslayer, looked like a Viking on steroids. A lot of steroids. Barely any armour covered the man’s truly impressive physique, every inch of exposed skin on his body looked red and strained trying to contain the muscles beneath. Tiny animal skulls and coloured ribbons adorned the warriors matted grey hair. He wielded a battleaxe made not of metal, but serrated bone.
The fight began. Immediately, with a series of heavy stomps, Kerron claimed the centre of the dirt ring the two fought in.
“Why wasn’t my fight in a gravel pit like yours?” Jay asked.
“We fight in the newbie arena, so does all of E Grade, most people’s first fights are there but occasionally a great prospect comes around and they get bumped up to the intermediate arena, where you fought. C and D Grade fight there. Either you, Valorus, or both of you, were deemed to have enough potential to warrant the bigger stage.
“A and B Grade fights are even crazier, the coliseum can simulate whole cities or even countries for them to fight in, but they’re quite rare. The next B Grade fight is over a month away.”
Satisfied with the explanation, Jay went back to the fight. He could see why Lyra thought she could outmanoeuvre her opponent. The barbarian didn’t move especially fast, but something about the way he moved that confused Jay. An odd rhythm concealed his next step behind layers of motion.
“I expected him to be swinging wildly.” Said Lyra. “That’s how he fought before. When he came out like this, most of my prep became useless.”
“He must have watched a lot of your tape. If he knew you were way faster than him, he probably had to change up his gameplan.”
“Probably. He never pulled any of this stuff before.” Lyra said as Kerron whipped out a throwing knife and threw it at her. Simultaneously planting his right foot into the ground and lunging in, closing over five metres in only one stride.
The knife distracted Lyra. She had almost no time to react before Kerron got within his range. Lyra slipped off to the left, poking the barbarian with her rapier as she dodged but keeping her hatchet cocked and ready for a parry. This exact exchange repeated a few times. Each time Lyra just barely managing to get away.
“Why are you playing with him?” Jay said. “I haven’t known you for long, but it doesn’t seem like you.”
“He’s the one playing with me. He’s testing out his new moves. I thought he was hiding something, that’s why I wasn’t going all out. I didn’t want to give him any information. It gets interesting here though. Watch.”
Jay turned his attention back to the screen. The two fighters remained locked in a stalemate, neither wanting to reveal their cards. Kerron bit first. Dancing flames engulfed the axe, the serrated blade turned a shade redder. He advanced, using the same lunge again, but this time he stopped short. Still outside his range. The barbarian still swung his axe. Flames leapt off the axe head, arcing towards Lyra from multiple angles.
The soaring wisps of fire caught Lyra flat footed. She retreated, the only direction without wildfire in her path. A throwing knife, hidden amongst the flames, shot out at Lyra. Only revealing itself at the last second. She raised her axe with superhuman speed, smacking the knife out of the air.
Jay turned to Lyra and the replay paused.
“Next time he attacks you’re gonna dodge backwards again.”
“Why do you say that?”
“You’ve done it three times already. Whenever you barely dodge an attack, you always dodge the next one in the same way. Why?” Jay said. He furrowed his brow in concentration as he looked at the freeze frame on the projection.
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“I guess it’s to remain unpredictable. It shows my opponent just because he almost got me once, doesn’t mean he’s onto something. I didn’t think I did it that often though.”
“You don’t. It’s just something I picked up on. Let’s unpause the fight. Sparring with your sister has probably given you some good counters to fire.”
Lyra unpaused the fight. Jay noticed her gaze in his peripheral vision. While she was half watching the fight, one glassy eye remained locked on him.
Lyra closed the distance immediately after deflecting the knife. Foregoing finesse, she punched him in the gut with her rapier’s guard. Vega wasn’t the only sister with freakish strength. Lyra sent Kerron flying back a few feet with just one punch. Jay's eyes widened in shock. That punch would have folded him like a deck chair, but Kerron stood nearly unfazed. Planting his right and launching a running swing at Lyra.
“He always launches off his right foot when he does that lunge thing.” Jay said.
“Yeah, I noticed that too. I think it’s a new move, I didn’t see it in any of his older fights. He probably wasn’t comfortable enough to launch off his weak foot.”
Just as Jay predicted, Lyra dodged backwards again. This time holding her axe up to deflect a knife which never came. Kerron followed up with a sideswipe, trying to hook the smaller axe away with his swing.
His plan worked, but he didn’t anticipate Lyra’s counter.
If a fighter used only one weapon, they could generate far more power than someone who used multiple. It wasn’t an exact comparison, but in his head, Jay likened it to a boxer who only threw straights with his right. When you stop even looking for hooks or uppers, your sense for an opening for a straight increases dramatically. It’s not just a flat power increase, but an increase in your opportunities to land.
Specialising in this way sounds great, you can narrow down your focus and reap the benefits inside the ring.
But when your one weapon gets completely nullified, you’re in for a shit time.
Lyra’s guard didn’t just get broken by Kerron; her axe got completely swept aside. But she also entangled the barbarian’s weapon with it, launching his axe off to the side too. Both fighters found themselves unprotected.
But only one held a sword.
Kerron tried to step back. He was far larger than Lyra, and a single step would put him out of range. But he was too slow, and since his axe was caught up with Lyra’s, he couldn’t get out fast enough without dropping his weapon. In his compromised position, taking the hit was the best option. Lyra scored a shallow hit to Kerron’s abdomen before he yanked his axe back and retreated out of range.
Lyra paused the fight and faced Jay.
“You’ve seen the fight so far. If you’re me in this situation, how do you finish the fight?”
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Jay thought in silence and formulated a plan of attack.
“It’ll be during one of the lunges, his tell for that move is painfully obvious. Maybe dodging in towards him and catching him unexpectedly? You’ve mostly dodged sideways and backwards so far; he’s probably conditioned to expect that by now. Another in might be after he throws the knife. He mostly follows that up with the axe, if I were him, I’d switch it up more try throwing 2 or 3 knives in a row.
“You’ve had some success up close in the last few exchanges, is that your fire counter? You’ll have to tell me more about that one, I can’t say I’ve ever fought anyone on fire. Boxing has a pretty strict no flamethrowers allowed policy. But seriously, an ultra-short-range attack is what I’d go for. Especially as the smaller fighter.
“You could either go for the kill, or land something just big enough to weaken him. If you hit him with something damaging enough, he’ll be too slow to hit you for the rest of the fight. You’ll probably do the latter. Smart choice considering he could be hiding something else new. You said he brought out a few new tricks for this fight, who’s to say he won’t have a few more? One more big hit and you’ll be able to dance around him without taking any damage until he messes up. Then you capitalise and end the fight.
“There might be a safer, faster, or easier way, but it looks like you’re trying keep your cards hidden this fight. I can’t comment on factors I don’t know. Who are you hiding them from? You mentioned not showing your opponent, but if you can beat him without them, surely he’s not important enough for you to care? In my experience, hiding something only makes people pay more attention to you.”
Lyra's focused face told Jay nothing. She tapped her fingers on her chair as she analysed Jay’s words.
“Well. You’ve got a good set of eyes… You must have done this thousands of times before?”
“Thousands sounds right. I once broke both wrists in a fight, worst four months of my life. While I was recovering, my coach banned me from the gym. I spent the whole time just watching fights, didn’t know what else to do with myself.”
The story was mostly true. Jay really was injured once, and he did spend a lot of time analysing fights, but he took a few creative liberties with his explanation to Lyra. After all, it sounded a lot more impressive than I made a good prediction because I’ve already seen the end of your fight.
She didn’t need to know that.
“When you get a chance, watch some of my old fights.” Lyra asked. “I’d like to see what you think of them, Vega’s and Akira's too if you have the time? You might catch something we haven’t. In return, we’ll help you with essence, Harmony, and adapting to life at the coliseum in general. From what Akira’s told me, it’s quite different to where you come from.”
“Deal.” Jay said, holding out his hand to Lyra. It was the easiest deal of his life. He was already going to watch the fights, and guidance from rank 2 was an opportunity he couldn’t refuse. Lyra seemed far less predatory than Q, or anyone at the Flaming Tomb Alliance. No halls of meditators here, just a woman looking to be the best. That was something Jay could respect.
“Did you use essence at all in that fight? If Vega can throw fireballs, I assume you can do something similar. Why didn’t you?” Jay said. It was the biggest question he had left from the fight. Not wanting to show people her abilities didn’t feel like the full answer to Jay.
“Watch the fights and try to figure it out. I was trying something new this fight. I think it worked.”
Lyra was about to unpause the fight when a timid head poked through the doorway.
“Sorry I’m late. Last night got a bit too wild.” Akira said as he stepped in. The bags under his eyes backed up his words. He gazed at Lyra, meeting her cold stare for a second before giving Jay a what the fuck do I do expression.
Jay shrugged.
“Good morning Akira. How was last night?” Lyra said.
“Look I’m sorry for the way Vega spo- “
“You’ve got no reason to apologise. You didn’t do anything wrong.” Lyra said, forcing a smile. It worked, as Akira looked visibly less stressed after she said that. “Vega knows I only want the best for her, she’ll come around eventually.”
For her own sake, Jay hoped she did. A fighter getting too high on themselves was a tale as old as time. Jay had seen far too many people not reach their potential because they didn’t put in the hours. He thought back to the poor recruits forced to meditate under the flaming tombs castle. Each and every one of them would kill for Vega's abilities. Jay hoped she didn’t waste them.
“So what happened last night? You look like hell. No offence.” Jay said, trying to lighten up the mood.
“None taken. I barely remember, but I’ve been told I took a shit in a urinal.”
Akira started on what happened the night before, what happened before he lost his memory of course. Vega partied hard. Jay was surprised Akira was even standing here right now.
Jay stopped listening when something else caught his attention. A small golden screen in the bottom left corner of his vision.
Your next opponent has been announced.
“Hey guys, I just got a notification, something about my next opponent being announced?” Jay said. Although he expected it to be just a text announcement, he still looked to the pair in front of him for advice. After the craziness that merely sitting down with a crystal had caused, Jay decided to exercise caution.
“Well, what does it say! Who’ve you got?” Akira said, eyes beaming with excitement.
Even Lyra seemed intrigued.
Jay flicked his eyes to the screen, it enlarged and filled most of his vision.
He took one look at the words, before closing the screen and turning back to his friends.
“What the hell is a Goldenback gorilla?”