Making their way up the stairs, Azim and his group felt that the walk had already gone on much longer than they had expected. The amount of stairs they had climbed felt like that of 3 stories, and yet they had still not reached the second floor. On the bright side, torches lined the walls every few meters, so unlike the hall to the first floor, the adventurers could actually see the space ahead of them.
Toward the back of the line, Riva asked the knight how much further they had to go until reaching Floor 2. “Oh yes, should be about another minute,” he replied. “Enchanted stairs, make you feel like you’ve been walking forever, even though we’ve barely gone up the tower in actual spacial placement. I think it’s to tire you out even between fights so you get worn out quicker.”
“That blows,” Leone grunted.
“Yeah, whoever built this place clearly bothered to think about the details,” the armored man continued. “The barriers, the stairs, the fact that some enemies are other adventurers but some are just residents of the tower. It makes for a pretty remarkable landmark.”
“Ah, I think you mean… Le-mphph—…” Leone tried to utter, only for Riva to cover his mouth before he could finish.
“Well, thank you for leading the way, and for all the advice about this place,” Riva said instead.
“Hey, no worries, you guys helped me out way more than I could have ever expected anyone to, so it’s the least I can do,” the knight smiled back charmingly.
“Oh, I should mention, this next floor is one of those organized ones I mentioned. Rather than just a horde of inhabiting enemies to make our way through, Floor 2 is designed to pit one fighter against another. There are bleachers on this floor, where combatants wait their turn to fight one another.”
“So there will be other people there, we won’t just be fighting each other,” Leone asserted.
“That is correct,” the knight replied. “Surprisingly, there is a decent amount of waiting on these floors. While there is more at stake, as you are fighting someone with similar goals and skills as yourself, there are also moments to catch one’s breath, moments you do not get in the free fighting spaces.”
“Do you have any knowledge of how many floors the tower of Lemaerk has?” Azim asked the armored man.
“Unfortunately, I have not made it farther than Floor 4. Considering the height I was at when I fell, I would imagine there is somewhere around 20, however with all the enchantments on this tower, I suppose anything is possible. Maybe with the appearance of 20 floors, there are actually 50, or 100, or endless.”
“Wonderful,” Leone deadpanned.
Eventually, the group arrived at another door, similar to the first. The knight made sure everyone was ready, to which they all nodded, and he opened the door. Blue flashed over everyone. A moment later, they were inside, though this time, not directly in the arena. Instead, the group sat in a row of seats, lined up above the fighting area along with dozens of others on either side of them. The bleachers stretched entirely around the center arena, with a short wall in front of the bottom-most seats, acting as a guard rail to the arena.
When the adventurers first appeared, they noticed a fight already taking place in the center area. A half-giant carrying two medium-sized swords was facing off against a Batten mage. Battens were a bipedal species, which shared traits similar to both humans and bats. They often had bat wings either in place of arms or in addition to human-like arms, and had long, fanned-out ears on the sides of their head that stretched past their scalps. This particular batten had winged arms with clawed hands at the ends, and a chipped right ear. He more black pants with no shoes and no shirt, though he carried a small brown sack on either side of his waist, wrapped by thin pieces of rope.
Azim and his friends watched as the two strangers fought, the half-giant swinging her swords around her, while the batten flew around, dodging the sword-swinger’s strikes and trying to claw at her with his feet whenever he saw an opening. The two had a fair amount of scratches all over them, though neither one seemed to have an obvious upper hand in the fight.
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“Hey bro’, you see either of those two the first time you were making your way through here?” Asked Leone to the knight.
“No, they must’ve entered the tower after me,” the man responded. “Though this is a good opportunity for you guys to understand what you’re up against. Look over there… and there.”
The armored man pointed to two other sections of the bleachers across from the adventurers. In some other seats were other fighters, waiting for their turn to battle a stranger and process onward through Lemaerk. In one section, the knight pointed to a human, elf, terram, and gnome, all sitting only a few seats away from one another. In the other section, he made note of another terram, an amphione, two other battens, and a feliome. “This is the current competition,” he explained. “As far as I know, Lemaerk is not going to pit us against one another. Though to be fair, I came here alone, so I don’t know. Hopefully, that does not happen… Anyway, these fellows are who we have to watch out for. Any one of us will get paired up against any one of them, and we have to be ready.”
“I am curious, how come there are so many people here?” Leone inquired. “And I imagine there are tons more in all the floors above, filled with even stronger people, so how come there wasn’t really anybody outside with us? It didn’t really seem like everybody was flocking here and making the trek from all over Irvana to fight here.”
“Well, kid, I think the simplest answer is just… magic. People use all kinds of magic to get here, Transport spells, Teleportation spells, save point spells, you name it. I’m sure some adventures travel their way here in the fashion that you folks did, but I would wager most, especially strong and independent fighters, arrive here with much quicker methods.”
“Hm, are there other arenas or coliseums like Lemaerk?”
“I’m sure there are others around, but none like this one. Lemaerk is a unique place, both in the kind of attention it draws and in what the place actually is. Sure you could visit another coliseum, maybe even a towering one like this, but Lemaerk is the original. The blueprint. It’s been here longer than most history books. Ain’t no way anything is going to replace it.”
“Wow,” Leone awed, impressed by both the lore of this magnificent structure and the knight’s knowledge of it.
“Indeed. Now why don’t we look back on the fight and see—“
The knight was interrupted by the emergence of several new audience members. Sitting together, a few rows away from the adventurers, was a pair of elves, each carrying an intricately carved bow. One was tall and lean, while the other was short and somewhat stubby. They had matching ponytails of straight black hair and braided strands in the front that ran down their cheeks.
“Oh look, two more, they must’ve shown up a few minutes after us,” the knight addressed. “Must’ve cleared through the skeletons a bit faster than us, too. Impressive. Though… what is it with elves and their bows? I’ve never understood why they always seem so attached to those things.”
“It’s because they’re more efficient than any brutish blade your meaty fingers might pick up,” the tubby one retorted, surprising the group with the idea that he had been paying attention to the knight’s words.
“Oh shoot—“ the knight froze. “Geez, alright… touchy subject, I guess. My apologies. ‘Meaty fingers’…?”
The round elf shot a dismissive glare at the armored man before returning his attention to his companion.
“Wow,” laughed Leone. “They did not like that, dude. You better hope you don’t get one of them or you’re gonna be screwed.”
“Actually, I may be screwed already,” replied the armored man, unsheathing his sword-less hilt from his back. “My blade is still broken, and once engaged in combat, I will likely not have a way to get another. I almost went through with taking one from those skeletons, but considering what happened with your cat, I suppose it's for the best that I didn’t. Regardless, I am a knight without his weapon, a warrior without his tool for victory.”
Leone, still excited by the knight’s presence, asserted, “Well, I know we’ll figure something out. Let’s wait until we see who you’re going up against. Maybe you won’t even need one.”
“I suppose you’re right, kid. I appreciate the confidence.”
“Of course, that's what I’m here for!”
Down below, the batten was standing on top of the half-giant woman in triumph, who was lying on the ground asleep. The winged combatant had succumbed the sword-wielder to a powder-induced sleep spell, subsequently coming out of the match victorious. The unconscious half-giant disappeared from the arena while a doorway leading to a staircase appeared inside it. The batten made his way up the stairs and left to the third floor.
Just then, Leone started glowing. “Woah… what’s happening, guys?!”
“Calm down,” the armored man answered. “That just indicates that you’ve been selected. Look… over there. That gentleman has as well. That is your opponent to pass this floor.”
The young man looked to see where the knight was pointing. Sure enough, across the arena on the opposite side of the bleachers, was the feliome he had pointed out earlier, glowing the same glow as Leone. He wore a thick turtleneck and brown slacks and carried with him a large sword strapped to his back. A few seconds later, the two strangers disappeared from their seats, reappearing in the arena about 12 meters apart from one another.
“Oh shoot!” Leone exclaimed, looking up behind him at where he had just been sitting and back down. “That… felt weird. Do all teleport spells feel like that? Ah, whatever.”
“What’s up, man?” he asked his opponent causally.
“Can it!” the feliome growled. Despite the calico fur he possessed, the man’s voice was surprisingly deep and raspy. “I ain’t here to make small talk with small fry.”
“Ouch…” Leone winced. “Noted. Let’s get this crap started then.”
The short, clay wall that surrounded the bottom of the bleachers extended a thin, translucent gray barrier from the top of it. The stretching wall of magic shaped itself together above the arena to form a dome, sealing the fighters inside. A moment after completely taking shape, the barrier cleared up, allowing those watching from the bleachers to see unobstructed. Azim noticed several of the observers lean in so he decided to as well, despite his visual receptors likely already picking up more detail than anybody else in the crowd would.
As the barrier lost visibility, so did the glow that enveloped the two strangers. With the fighters no longer protected by the building’s magic, and the crowd watching intently, the match had officially started.