Jay told them pretty much everything that happened over the last two days. Starting with the first conversation about cores and foundations, before going over both trials.

He left out the fight with Julian.

Jay liked his new friends; he almost trusted them. But he wasn’t ready for that yet. Once he uncorked that bottle, there was no going back. Jay wasn’t ready to face those feelings himself, let alone with a group of people he met barely a week ago.

Lyra seemed happy with his results, understanding a lot of the conclusions he’d made during the trials. She hadn’t found anyone better than the High Matron, so was happy that he’d found an alternative.

Akira reacted to the sage’s wisdom with far more excitement. He looked visibly shocked at the storm sage’s delicate explanations of the intricacies of modelling. When Jay mentioned Thane’s theories on the sage’s teleportation, all three of his friends sat in furrowed silence for a minute as they mulled it over.

Akira made Jay promise to record the conversation into a crystal as soon as the coliseum granted him the power. He agreed on the condition that Akira would teach him how first.

All three gladiators gave Jay impressed smiles when he described his solution to defeating his wizard clone. They congratulated him after he’d finished retelling his experience, impressed with his reflections on Harmony as well as the fact that he was still standing.

Over the last two days, they’d had a far less eventful time.

Preparation for the advancement tournament meant a hell of a lot of sparring, training, and analysing their weaknesses. Lyra told Jay that, other than always being a small group competition, the opening round of the tournament was different every year. So there wasn’t anything specific they could do in the way of preparation since they'd already formed their group.

The Moontide auction, however, was one such way.

Held only on the full moon, which on Eterna was approximately once every six weeks, the Moontide auction was the only regularly scheduled auction catering to E Grade. Only E grade gladiators were allowed to purchase items there, and there was a spending cap of 10,000 Contribution points.

Of course, that didn’t stop the higher ranks interfering, but it took something truly special to get them involved. D grade trash was E grade treasure, so Jay’s friends attended every auction, even if they didn’t particularly need anything.

Akira wouldn’t stop talking about the previous times he’d attended the auction. The items he’d brought, the items he’d seen, the items he’d been priced out of. He gushed about the people who attended as if he himself wasn’t one of the strongest fighters in their division.

Apparently scouts for larger fighting alliances, similar to the Flaming Tomb, attended these auctions. Keen to scout fighters that weren’t just meatheads running around gravel pits all day, and instead cared about the skills and tools used to win fights.

The whole walk from the tram to the auction house was filled with Akira's many facts and stories, occasionally punctuated by one of the twins filling in a gap that he passed over in excitement.

One thing all three of them neglected to mention, Jay noticed as he set foot on the pebbly beach and got his first glimpse of the Moontide auction house sat in front of a soon-to-be setting sun.

Was that it looked absolutely breathtaking.

A giant temporary stage emerged from the beachside cliffs, framed by giant curtains of lilac and baby blue silk. Extravagant swirls of white and silver cascaded into each other on a backdrop that gently shifted each time Jay glanced at it. Craters emerged whenever colliding swirls made contact, casting rippling waves that morphed the landscape of the set. The more Jay looked at the main stage, the more everything else dimmed in comparison.

Workers, in their hundreds, streamed in and out of the cliffs like ants. Laying out tables and chairs, along with everything else needed for the event.

Beyond the absolute beauty of the Moontide Auction, Jay saw function. He saw a seamless efficiency guiding every operation in front of him.

He saw beauty within that too.

“We’re here early.” Lyra explained. “But everyone gets here early. Part of the auction experience is speaking to people before the show. It’s important to scout your competition, as well as potentially forge a partnership. Especially for unaffiliated fighters like us. It doesn’t matter how strong me or Vega get, if five people gang up on us during the first round, we’re screwed.”

“Speak for yourself.” Vega scoffed, drawing a sigh from her younger sister.

“We usually split up and each go our own way.” Said Akira. He squinted into the crowd of people standing near the unoccupied tables, before nodding and smiling at Jay. “But there's someone I’d like you to meet first.”

----------------------------------------

Both twins peeled off, each chasing their own agenda before the auction got started. Bunched up around numbered tables and empty chairs were clusters of three to four people. Jay groaned internally as he recalled the least enjoyable part of being successful.

Networking.

At least the people here didn’t seem like the typical suits in power, toying with fighters’ futures over champagne and caviar. Over the years, Jay had developed a sixth sense for recognising fighters at these kinds of events. Fighters carried themselves differently to regular people, but it always showed in different ways.

In some, aggression bled from them like a fresh chainsaw wound. They all but bared their teeth and growled at anyone who’s gaze lingered on them for longer than half a second. Others were the opposite, they were almost too restrained, too stiff. As if they worried for the people around them. Storing all their anger until they allowed themselves to release it in the ring.

However, there was another type of fighter that, while they didn’t scare Jay, they certainly made him wary.

The ones with nothing to prove.

One who danced through interactions with a casualness that underscored unmistakeable confidence. The fighters whose conviction permeated through every pore of their body, whose every step was a declaration of invincibility.

These fighters were rare, and sometimes hard to spot. They were the ones who didn’t just think they were the best; they knew they were the best. They just didn’t feel the need to tell anyone.

At a press conference, or a media day, Jay might pass by one or two of these impressive fighters, and he’d always take note of them.

As Jay followed Akira's lead, he observed each conversation he passed by. The ease at which everyone spoke caught Jay off guard. These people fought to the death weekly just to stay alive. Against each other. But there was no bravado amongst any of them. Jay was pleased when he saw three impressive fighters in one day on earth.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

The Moontide auction was bursting at the seams with them.

Jay didn’t catch any hostile stares from the gladiators here. Nor did he feel the opportunistic, vulture-like grins of fighters hunting an easy win. There was an unusual undertone of honesty throughout the crowd. They all knew they were strong, so nobody felt the need to prove it.

----------------------------------------

“Fox! Come here!” Akira waved over a muscular man with light brown skin and close-cropped black hair. He walked over with a kind smile that didn’t waver as he sized Jay up.

“Nice to see you again.” He pulled Akira into a bear hug, effortlessly lifting him off the ground.

Jay remembered the time he tried to shove Akira during their spar and only pushed himself backwards.

And this guy just lifts him like it’s nothing?

Finally, Akira was let down. He tried to force a smile, but his puffy red face and rebellious eyes told Jay he was more than a little embarrassed.

“Who’s the new guy?” The man, who Jay presumed was called Fox, asked. “He from Earth too? He’s too normal-looking to be from anywhere else!”

Fox let out a booming laugh that rivalled even the storm sage in volume. More than a few heads turned to look, but he didn’t seem to care.

“Yeah. He was a fighter there, like you. A boxer.” Akira tucked a strand of hair behind his ear and straightened his kimono. “Jay, meet Fox. Fox, meet Jay.”

Jay shook Fox’s hand and got a closer look at him. He was slightly shorter than Jay, but stockier and probably heavier too. The same kindness from his smile carried through to his chestnut eyes, but there was something beneath it. A fire, a hunger, that Jay couldn’t quite pinpoint. Akira's comment, and the wealth of scar tissue covering Fox’s eyebrows, told Jay that Fox was a fighter back on earth too. One who’d been on the receiving end of a lot of elbows.

“A boxer?” Fox raised his eyebrows. The corner of his mouth twitched, and Jay immediately knew where he was going. “Why didn’t you choose a real fighting style. One that used elbows and knees instead of just fists?”

There was none of the usual mockery that came with that comment, well there was some, but not a lot. It seemed that Fox was genuinely curious.

“My brother was a boxer. I wanted to be like him. If he practiced MMA, or anything else, I probably would’ve followed him. But he didn’t.” Jay tried to hold his emotions inside when talking about Julian. It was far easier before. Jay had given up on ever seeing his brother twelve years ago. But the trial by fighting had sliced open the scar tissue from a wound that had never fully healed.

Fox nodded in agreement.

“Kicks, no kicks. Rules, no rules. Fighting is fighting. It’s fun either way!” He let out another bellyful laugh, although thankfully quieter than the last. “I’m from Thailand. I didn’t get a choice either!”

The pair of fighters reminisced on their time fighting on Earth. Retelling their stories to each other and Akira. Jay enjoyed the trip down memory lane, his past fights were radically different to the ones at the coliseum, but they were what got him here.

And as Fox said, fighting is fighting. It’s fun either way.

“How do you fight now? What weapon do you use?” Fox asked. He grabbed a pair of bronze coloured hand axes strapped to his belt and held them up. “These are my babies! Now I fight with ten limbs!”

Jay couldn’t help but smile at his exuberance, Fox’s excitement for fighting was infectious. Jay held up his fists in an old school boxing pose.

“These are the only weapons I need. I won’t fight any other way.”

It wasn’t strictly true, since Jay had just learned how to channel electricity through his kicks. But Jay had a long way to go before he’d be as comfortable with his feet as he was with his hands.

Fox couldn’t hide his shock. “No, you have to! Imagine walking into the ring with an axe! You’d win every fight! If you need a teacher, I’ll teach you.”

Jay considered Fox’s offer. It probably would be useful to learn a weapon, and Jay’s improved mind to muscle connection would make learning a hell of a lot easier. But he didn’t want to discard years of fighting and completely change styles. He’d already let boxing slip from his fingers, was he ready to completely let it go?

Akira fiddled with his sword, flicking it in and out of its scabbard with his thumb. He’d learned how to fight with a weapon. Although he was never a pro fighter, so he had no bad habits to break.

“Maybe.” Jay said. He wasn’t sure what the future would hold, but there was no use denying an opportunity. “And even if I don’t like any weapons, we can still train. It will be fun to practice, even without essence, for old times’ sake.”

“Weapon. No Weapon. Essence. No Essence. I’ll win every time!”

If anyone else had said that and smiled at Jay it would’ve seemed cocky, or belittling. But Fox radiated pure confidence. He said the statement like it was a fact.

Whether he managed to pick up a weapon or not, Jay knew he’d learn a lot from Fox.

Fox wished Jay and Akira goodbye and walked off to speak to another group of people.

“He’s a sweet guy.” Said Akira, as they watched Fox walk away. “But when you watch him fight it’s fucking terrifying. He’s rank eighteen, but that’s only because he finishes most of his fights so quickly that it’s so hard to rank him. If you ever get the chance to watch him and Lyra spar, don’t blink.”

Akira’s fist clenched around his sword’s handle and his face hardened. Jay could tell Akira wasn’t too proud to give other fighters their respect. But he was too hungry to look at someone and not chase them.

“I’m going to speak to a few more people.” He said. “Vega is sitting at table fourteen over there, you can sit by her if you don’t wanna mingle.”

Jay thanked Akira and made his way towards table fourteen. Jay wasn’t completely opposed to mingling, but he was outclassed and outgunned in this crowd. If he wasn’t attached to Lyra or Akira, he’d get no respect from gladiators hundreds of positions above him.

Jay looked at the faces in the crowd as he weaved through the tables. Fox was right when he called Jay too normal-looking. The people here came in all shapes, colours and sizes. A man with the head of a lion smacked his hand on a table with laughter as Jay walked past. As he craned his head, Jay saw a literal devil. Horns, tail, wings and all, laughing too as he told the lion man a story.

Jay watched as a woman with snakes for hair, looking straight out of a Greek mythology picture book, sat down and had a conversation with a grey-skinned man that couldn’t have been more than three feet tall.

The snake-haired woman snapped her head to the side.

She locked eyes with Jay.

They were pure black.

A deep, all encompassing, black that sucked him in and threatened to never let him go.

Jay stood still. Feet locked in place.

Am I-

Without too much effort, he snapped out of it. He must have at least looked shocked though, because both the gorgon and the grey dwarf had folded over from laughter.

Jay shook his head, trying not to appear too annoyed as he walked towards table fourteen.

Pricks.

As he was now, there wasn’t much he could do. Maybe once he understood the essence of electricity more, Jay could develop a similar party trick. Something to give people a static shock if they looked at him funny.

He tried to put the embarrassment behind him as he walked over to table fourteen.

----------------------------------------

“…so I think it’s clear to see tha-”

“I’m not so sure about that.” Vega interrupted the poor man speaking to her. Holding her palm up to his face. She glanced at Jay and waved him over. “I see your vision, it’s undeniable, I’m just unsure about its feasibility.”

“But you s-”

“Let me confer with my colleague.”

The man meekly waited, although Jay could see a clenched fist within the long flowing sleeves of his blue robes. Jay walked next to Vega and bent down to her level.

“Give him some bullshit about why his idea is crap.” She whispered, before leaning away and leaving Jay with the unfortunate man’s expectant stare.

“Yeah, you see, according to the constellation photosynthesis protocol, your idea doesn’t quite reach the required levels of electronegativity. In a long-term implementation agitation filtration methodology, it simply won’t work.” Jay said. Shrugging for emphasis.

“Maybe next time.” Vega added, shooing the man, who now looked more agitated than upset. When he turned away, she faced Jay with a grin. “What did that even mean?”

Jay shrugged again. “I just said all the longest words I knew.”

“Well, it worked. So why are you sitting here instead of talking to people? Finding training partners and forming alliances like nerd one and nerd two?” She gestured at the general direction of Lyra and Akira.

“Hard to convince anyone to ally with you when you’re rank 823. Plus, it’s not really my thing.”

“You should probably make it your thing if you don’t want to die.” Vega spoke about death with a nonchalance that oozed familiarity “Gladiators aren’t usually in a position to refuse advantages.”

“Well I don’t see you up and about, why are you refusing the advantages?”

Vega’s grin grew into a chuckle.

“Because I'm the best. I can afford to. Plus…” She pointed to another man standing at the edge of the table. This one wore metal armour and carried a lot more conviction than his predecessor. “…the people come to me.”

Vega took this guy far more seriously, giving him her full attention. Jay looked at the gladiators around them. Scouting out for anyone that looked approachable.

Maybe I should be out there talking to people? I can’t solve every problem by punching it.

A pair of piercing emerald eyes stood out from the crowd.

Not just because of their looks. Although they certainly were striking.

Jay recognised the person they belonged to, although it had been over a week since he’d seen him last, in the grand hall of the Flaming Tomb Alliance.

But even that wasn’t why the eyes stood out.

They stood out because they were glaring directly at him.