Korva's Bar (Part 1)

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A large group of dirty and haggardly clothed people cheer and shake the thick metal bars that surround a large indented pit of sand where two humans stand face to face, armed with two slim laser pistols held at their side. Both humans sweat, their pupils dilate, and every other sign of stress and panic fills their face. Atop a raised stand above the pit a lady stood, she was covered in expensive clothing that seemed out of place compared to the rags that the people around her wore, yet the people around her seemed very comfortable in her presence. Contrasting her clothes, a large red warpaint mark crosses her left eye like a scar across her brown skin. The lady has a look of excitement and euphoria, watching as the people around the pit cheer and yell, ready to watch an entertaining match of tooth and bone, she waits as the excitement reaches the peak before exclaiming loud above the cheers of those around her.

“FIGHT!”

Immediately the energy in the room reaches above the previous peak, the observers gluing their eyes to the pit and releasing dopamine into their body, carrying themselves away in the mob mentality that would make even the strictest person join in cheering.

The two humans in the pit could not be any more different from those watching, they are all but twenty meters apart from each other yet still felt a world of pain and hurt only a foot away. One of the humans raises the slim and long laser pistol in his hand, pulling the trigger and releasing a blue bolt of condensed energy cackling with electricity towards the other human, who does the same just a split second too late as the bolt hits him in the chest. The human falls to the ground while his body spasms as if he was tazed, the bolt firing from his weapon and hitting the cage which surrounds the pit, being deflected into the ceiling. The unhurt human breathing a sigh of relief that he was fast enough to shoot first.

The crowd watches as the man continues to spasm on the sand floor of the pit, laughing at his misfortune and inability to shoot first. Laughing and drinking alcohol to forget about the daily troubles they face throughout the day and seeing someone else do the suffering instead. The crowd was only slightly disappointed that no bones were broken, no blood was split and that nobody died but death was rare and mostly accidental in the pits.

The lady who announced the beginning of the fight breathes a sigh of relief, those around her are laughing and enjoying themselves, eating and drinking away the troubles they face in daily life. She steps down from her raise platform and heads through the crowd that thanks her for another entertaining event. She accepts all the compliments and blends together perfectly with the crowd’s personality despite the obvious difference in clothing and quality of life they seem to have.

One man, holding a glass of very watered-down alcohol turned to the lady, “Thank you for the fight madam Korva!”

 The lady, Korva, turned to the man with a smile, “Of course, you are welcome.”

Another person, holding a few empty glasses that once contained drinks, “I had a lot of fun tonight thanks to you madam Korva!”

Korva took some of the glasses the person held, smiling at her words, “I am glad to hear it friend!”

Every compliment she receives is responded to with honesty and a wide smile on her face, despite only having to walk a few feet to behind the bar it still takes her a minute to arrive through all the praise. When she finally arrives at the bar, she is already tired from talking, but still takes out a glass to serve to those that wish to buy a drink. One customer, who has been at the bar for a while seems downtrodden and sad, especially when compared to the other customers that seem to be very happy for themselves. However, Korva isn’t someone to let another person be unhappy in the bar & arena she so painstakingly built from the ground up.

“Something wrong dear?” Korva asked, genuinely interested.

The customer looked spooked, not expecting someone to approach them and ask, “Oh, sorry madam Korva am I bothering you?”

Korva shook her head, “No silly, why don’t you tell me your issues and ill make you something to drink.” Taking out a glass from under the counter and setting it on top.

Shaking his head, he opened his mouth with a hushed tone, “I must refuse; pirates took all my money for their protection fee.”

Korva nodded in understanding, expecting that to be the cause since the start, “Well in that case, take a free one, no harm in it dear"

A small smile replaced the frown the customer once wore, “For real, madam Korva? You’re a stark contrast from the others in this dump of a city.”

Korva pours the man a drink, who finally smiles for the first time after setting foot in her establishment. Satisfied to have made another person happy, she moves down to the other end of the bar counter which is reserved for the fighters in the arena pit. In the gap between two barstools a massive vesk stands at slightly below eight feet tall.

Vesk are a race of large humanoid lizards that are covered in thick scales and even thicker muscles. Along their chin are a beard of short and sharp horns. A thick tail that sweep behind them to balance their heavy bodies and claws that act as their own natural weapons. They are just as blunt and warlike as their appearance can be described, and usually less intelligent but far stronger than most other races in the star systems.

This vesk is a reasonable size for its race, covered in bruised dark green scales and large muscles that seem tenfold as big as any on a human. Its beard of horns is large and sharp but not as numerous as most of its race, the claws on its hands seemed unnaturally shaven down to be smaller but much sharper than usual. The tail of the creature is slightly less thick than the torso of a human and lined on the top with smaller horns like those that it is bearded with.

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Korva fearlessly approaches this massive behemoth that dwarfs her in size, making her look like she is an ant with her small frame that doesn’t seem built for fighting. She looks into the blue eyes of the vesk and slams her palms onto the table, looking sternly right into the eyes of the vesk. After they both stare each other down, the vesk can no longer bare the tension and cracks a smile.

“Ha-ha, Korva you win.”

The vesk speaks in a deep guttural voice, but Korva seems used to it as she also smiles and lets out a cute laugh.

“How are you today Vahl? You usually come to the arena a lot sooner than you have today.”

The vesk, Vahl, scratched his head, guilty for being late and searching for a good reason, “I had a workout that was longer than I expected last night and overslept”

Korva shook her head, only disappointed he did not get enough rest, “Oh please, you are massive from just being a vesk, you don’t need to workout to fight here and have a good chance of winning you know.”

Vahl did not look embarrassed, “Yes, I know Korva, but I must become stronger somehow”

“Well, in that case, why don’t you finally consider partnering up with someone, that way I can finally sign you up against other arenas and we can finally start making progress.”

Vahl paused, not sure how to turn her down, “You just want to make more people happy; you’re already doing that.”

“You’re avoiding the point.”

Vahl scoffed back the drink that he poured himself and grunts.

“I don’t want someone to be my partner.” He said, clearing his throat from the burn of the odd alcohol.

Korva poured him another glass from the cheap liquor bottles, “You are lying to yourself again Vahl. You just have trust issues and don’t want to fix them.” topping off his glass and putting the bottle out of reach from the man.

“Shut up, you have trust issues too you know, why else would you avoid hiring anybody to help you manage this joint.”

Korva smiled, already expecting this to come up, “That is completely different Vahl, I don’t have trust issues, I just know who to trust. You have difficulty with that part, and with making friends.”

Korva bends down to reach the higher quality drinks at the bottom of the bar counter, grabbing her best liquor. She uncorks the bottle and pours it into the large reinforced glass that Vahl held in his hand. Getting closer to his face to make sure what she says next is heard.

“The balance between trusting people and not trusting them is important. You won’t be able to charge through every issue on your own you know.”

Vahl doesn’t respond at first, but he nods his head and looks at his drink to take in her words. Korva smiles, hopeful that her first friend on this planet had taken her words to heart. After looking at a clock on the wall she turns back to Vahl, who finished the drink while she wasn’t looking.

Her face had a sudden and odd look of excitement, “Your fight is going to start soon; I think you will like this one.”

“What should I be expecting?” he asked, not knowing what to expect.

“It’s a surprise Vahl. Trust me, I really insist that you start looking for a new friend Vahl.”

Giggling at her own little joke to poke at Vahl, she moves back to the other side of the bar to announce that another fight would soon begin and that Vahl would be one of the fighters. The crowd hears his name and the excitement for the fight ramps up to a premium, their favourite and bloody fighter will be entertaining them again today.

Vahl finishes the bottle he grabbed from behind the bar counter, trying as hard as he can to avoid being sober, but failing every time for god knows what reason. To his right three figures enter in through a door that is locked with a bio-scanner lock. The door leads to the fighting pit, meaning those three would probably be his opponents in his match, the thought of fighting against three other people put a grin on his face but he hoped they would put up a fight. Most pit-fighters and regular people on the planet were not trained, and the equipment they wore is usually from off-world factory planets that mass produce low quality equipment.

He moves his massive body to the door, lowing his body so that the scanner can see his face. A click sounds from the door and he opens it, walking down the stairs into a room full of low-quality equipment covered in dirt and tar from outside. On the weapon rack were dulled knives and swords, there were also the modified laser weapons that would stun people who are hit but not kill them. Three of the knives on the rack were gone, including the higher quality one placed for the rare fighters that had a good eye for equipment. One of his opponents obviously was more experienced than most or just got lucky. There was no body armors for the fighter to equip here, however there were bent pieces of metal that were used by different people for creative uses, Vahl’s favourite were the metal bracers which were really just scrap metal from some house that he bent to hit people with. He didn’t bother grabbing one of the dulled swords or knives and just head towards the pit, dusting off his rough looking clothes to tidy himself up. If he had a bigger weapon to use, he would, but his hands usually did a lot more damage than any sword or knife that found its way on the poor planet.

When Vahl emerged into the light of the pit the people cheered even louder, some yelling his name as asking for a good fight to watch. Vahl and the other fighters were never allowed to kill any other fighter, however, the better the crowd responds the bigger the bonus you got. He raised his arms and let out a guttural roar from his thick body, getting the crowd even more excited. Vahl found doing this very embarrassing but it was needed if he wanted to earn more. Korva was smiling and trying not to crack down in laughter as she knew he wasn’t really the type to do that.

Vahl finally got the chance to look at his opponents and was pleasantly surprised. In the front were two humans, holding two dulled knives and looking at him in fear as they have rarely seen anything nonhuman on this planet. Behind the two humans was the real surprise, a kasathas stood in the back, holding the higher quality knife in one of its four hands.

Kasathas are a race known best for their four-armed body. They are gray-skinned and humanoid, with four arms and pitch-black eyes. They do not have a nose and their skull extends out the back beyond the neck, making their skull look like a cone, but do not tell that to one or you will be slapped. The race is lean, even when compared to humans but are known for being far stronger than they look due to the enhanced muscle fibers giving them surprising strength. They are hard to differentiate from each other even when they are of different genders. The race is known for its focus on culture and yet other races know nothing of their culture besides the covering that is always placed on their mouth to hide it.

The kasathas in front of him looked a lot wiser than the humans, looking up and down Vahl’s body, looking for its strengths and weaknesses. Vahl could tell this person had gone through battle or was at least slightly trained but didn’t look too experienced and still young. He also guessed that it was a male, however, who knew as they look nearly the same when clothed. The tension in the pit raised, a stare down between two nonhuman fighters made it feel like an imaginary fight had already begun. The people watching held their breath, waiting for the fighting to start, excited to see what kind of show would be put on in their honor. The fists on Vahl tightened, the kasathas dug its feet into the sand, the humans gulped. And...

“FIGHT!”

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