Sarah gazed upon the thousands of spectators slowly filling the arena. She stood behind the metal bars separating her from the sandy battleground. A barely visible smile betrayed her excitement for the oncoming fights. Sarah and Linea had both noticed this in the last few days of training. Even though both had no inclination towards fighting for amusement of the masses, they couldn’t deny their shared thrill for it. But where it came from neither of them knew.

“You ready, girlie?” Ashul asked as he and Joven joined her.

The dwarf had helped with her training as Maria’s Palace was temporarily closed because most girls worked where the festivities were. Bored as he was Ashul had offered his and Ska’s fighting expertise to train. A fact Sarah was rather thankful her as it gave her an idea of the fighting style of different races.

“Sure,” Sarah replied and shrugged. “I’m just curious about who I’ll fight exactly. I only know about those wyverns but Akulis said I’m listed for three fights.”

“Meh thinks you’ll do fine,” Ashul said and patted her shoulder. At least he tried to but their difference in height hindered him.

“As long as I’m allowed to use all my powers to fight those wyverns I should be.”

“We already made sure of that,” Joven said.

“For now,” Sarah countered and crossed her arms as she leaned against the wall to her side. “Who knows what the emperor decides midway through the fights?”

Joven kept silent as he didn’t appear to have an answer to that.

“He may be the emperor,” Akulis’ voice sounded behind them. “But arena fights are supposed to be even matched. If he pitches you against those beasts without means to defend yourself… It would reflect disrespect on him.”

“So, no one ever died in the arena because the emperor wished it to happen?” Sarah asked with a raised eyebrow as she spotted the seasoned gladiator approaching.

Akulis’ face steeled for a moment.

“I didn’t say that…” he conceded. “If that were his plan he would pitch you against opponent after opponent. Every one even more difficult than the last one. You would tire out and eventually make a mistake. Which would most likely lead to your death.”

“The question would be who they have pitched me against, wouldn’t it?” Sarah asked with a pointed look at Akulis.

“Indeed,” he agreed. “My current information is as good as I could get it. Your first fight was the emperor’s idea. You against a company of newcomers. I couldn’t get a complete list of skills and fighting styles but that only means that most of them are actual new to all this. At least half of them are slaves with no substantial training apart from what they would have learned in the last few weeks.”

“That’s still a hard nut to crack…” Joven said frowning. “I’m not sure if I could do that. On the other hand I’ve never seen a fighter with Linea’s situational awareness…”

Sarah stifled a snort. In truth Sarah had no such thing in any way or form. She had learned Linea's sword skills but what Joven spoke of was a skill she had developed on base of her telekinesis. Something she called Field. A simple scan of her immediate surroundings and what moved inside. It had taken her two days to get it to work right as she had some difficulty to process the additional information fast enough. But her enhanced mind made it possible.

“I’ll be fine,” Sarah said with a smile. “What about the wyverns? Whose idea was it to let me fight them?”

“King Turandir…” Akulis said with a calculating stare as if he expected her to explode upon hearing the name. Sarah felt Linea seething as he said this name but she managed to resist lashing out.

“How am I not surprised?” Sarah asked. “I suspect he sponsored the wyverns as well?”

Akulis just nodded and Sarah sighed.

“Well, we’re prepared for that,” she said. “The sword you provided will do its job. What about the third fight?”

“A one-on-one duel,” Akulis said as he checked a scroll. “A Moon Elf who was captured and sentenced to death for treason.”

“Treason?” Ashul asked and snorted. “Why would the emperor accuse a Moon Elf of treason? Meh believes he has no Moon Elven citizens…”

“He has now,” Joven interjected. “Ever since King Turandir pledged his allegiance…”

“Do we know who she or he is?” Sarah asked cutting Joven short.

“The name is Evira,” Akulis said. “My sources tell me she used to work as a guard. You can expect… Linea?”

He stopped talking as he saw Sarah blanching and gripping the Fulchar so hard as if she tried to strangle it.

‘Do you think…’ Linea asked and her voice betrayed her fear.

‘A guard named Evira getting caught and sentenced for treason,’ Sarah summarized. ‘It would be highly unlikely if she wasn’t!’

“Can I meet her?” Sarah asked trying to keep her voice as neutral as possible.

“No,” Akulis replied fast. “You’re confined here until your fights are all done for today. Why? Do you know her?”

“Most likely…” Sarah said with trepidation.

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

Sarah had donned a custom-made full body armor of red-dyed leather. Fitted steel plates covered her shins and forearms and a chain mail provided additional protection for her upper body. It differed from Linea’s dress armor as it limited her ability, but Sarah assured Linea that she could handle the additional weight.

The news about her last opponent for the day still troubled them but Sarah had used meditation techniques to push the topic to the back of her mind for the moment.

“The emperor and his guests have arrived,” Akulis said as he joined her. They watched as the remnants of the last fights were cleaned up. To build up the mood of the peasant spectators, the organizers had prepared simple concurrent duels of merchant level gladiators. Nothing too impressive but it catered to the bloodlust of the common people.

Sarah nodded and checked her blindfold for the last time. Joven and Ashul had both argued with her but one thing Sarah was absolutely adamant about was her refusal to wear a helmet. She had tried it but it was to limiting even for her.

Ashul entered the corridor with her weapon.

“Thanks,” Sarah said as she pulled the Fulchar from the sheath. Akulis had suggested a spear for this fight but he understood that the time frame was too short for her to get acquainted with such a weapon. But it was something Sarah planned on rectifying.

The weapon itself was a simple steel sword with no enchantments as the rules of the upcoming fight dictated. No magic in any shape or form.

Akulis ushered her into the middle of the corridor where she awaited the announcer to do his job.

“And now rise in honor of our most esteemed and honored ruler! Rise for His Imperial Majesty Tiberius Seranus, Emperor of The Seven Holy Kingdoms, King of Tavaris, Overlord to the Moon Elven Kingdom Avandir and Protector of Luna’sindra!” His voice vibrated throughout the arena.

‘How dare he to call himself protector…’ Linea spat.

Sarah ignored her soul sister and focused on her breathing. Even though she was not much concerned about the fight, Linea’s emotional reaction threatened to distract her.

“To His Majesty’s entertainment the first major fight of the day shall be an initiation. Several gladiators' schools have put forth fighters who wish to be entered as gladiators. Please welcome the contenders!”

Sarah opened her eyes to get a glimpse on her opponents who marched onto the battlefield in neat rows led by a heavily equipped gladiator. As they had expected a mixed group, Sarah was slightly surprised that all of her opponents were humans.

As soon as they positioned themselves in front of the emperor’s balcony they yelled the customary pledge.

“My life for the Emperor!”

Sarah chuckled as she remembered the moment Brice had explained what was expected of her a few days earlier. He mentioned the pledge but had not placed it as an order.

The gladiator maneuvered the company to the side, and the announcer got back to his work.

“At the request of the Emperor, today’s initiation shall be performed differently. His Imperial Majesty has ordered that today’s contenders will fight a champion of his own choosing!”

The crowd went silent and Sarah could hear murmurs and whispers.

“Please welcome Linea, the Slave Princess!”

This time even Sarah was raging inside. This title was absolutely degrading.

The gate opened in front of her and with forceful steps she walked towards the balcony with her unsheathed weapon in her hand where she saw not only the emperor but also Turandir, Tovandir and his new wife, Brice and Levi and even Cardinal Huvis. Her eyes fluttered shortly at Turandir who gave her a smirk. After that she fixated her gaze on Tiberius.

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Moments became seconds and everyone looked at her expecting her pledge. The announcer even tried to gloss over the awkward pause.

“And now the Slave Princess will give her pledge to show her respect!”

Sarah snorted again.

“What respect?” Sarah asked with a raised voice so that all could hear her. “I refuse to pay respect to a man who has not earned my respect. If he wishes to do so, I would accept a duel between him and me.”

With the last words she raised her sword and pointed it at the emperor.

The arena was silent but Sarah ignored it while starring into the emperor’s eyes.

Brice stood up from his seat and his look was furious.

“I order you to make your pledge!” He yelled at her.

Sarah suppressed a grin and gripped her collar with her free hand. She faked pain as the collar send her impulses to obey.

“My life… for… the Emperor…” she pressed between her clenched teeth.

She then turned around to assume her position opposed to the contenders.

“That… Well…” the announcer struggled. “Yes, so the rules are as follows: Neither side is allowed to use any kind of magic. Should the contenders win, all of those still alive shall be entered as gladiators. They win as soon as the Slave Princess is unable to continue fighting.”

The announcer let the rules sink in before he continued.

“Get into position!”

The crowd who had still been stupefied by the spectacle moments before started cheering. The contenders fanned out and the full-fledged gladiator left the arena much to Sarah’s relief.

“Fight!”

As soon as the announcer yelled these words, Sarah dashed towards her left to the contenders’ flank. Those on that side of the formation leveled their weapons towards her but as soon as she reached them she parried the first thrusts at her and slipped by their defenses. This made her realize that she had mostly untrained men as opponents. The men closest to her looked at Sarah with absolute terror which confused her. Following her intuition she smashed her weapon's hilt against the head of the guy to her right and punched the one to her left with her left with into the stomach. Both went out cold.

Others surrounded her, and she had to evade multiple attacks. She had counted thirty opponents earlier. Twenty eight remained.

But there was doubt nagging in her mind. The next man to attack her was disarmed after Sarah skillfully weaved herself around his defense. She grabbed him and pressed her blade against his throat. She turned him towards his team who slowed down their approach slightly confused by her course of action.

“Why are you here?” she hissed to the man who trembled in her grip.

“I’m a slave!” he cried in panic. “Please don’t kill me! I didn't want this!”

Sarah cursed as she looked at the others who approached carefully.

“All of you are slaves?” she asked loud enough for her opponents to hear.

Two of them looked at each other and nodded.

“All right,” Sarah said as she removed the blade from her victim to knock him out. “I’ll try to be gentle. Don’t fight it too much or else I may kill you by accident.”

She could see the relief in some faces before her. She then proceeded to fight the men with utmost care not to kill them. As she employed her Field, she felt everyone around her and even after she was completely surrounded she knew where everyone was. She nimbly fought around the attacks aimed at her and worked herself through their ranks.

It became clear after a few minutes that those man had not even nearly enough skill or even will to fight her. Especially after they realized that Sarah was not out to kill them.

However, Brice thwarted her plan when he yelled at her.

“I order you to kill every last one of those useless bastards!”

Sarah tensed as much as the contenders and looked at the man on the balcony with hate. She turned back to her opponents who watched her in terror. In that moment she decided to trick everyone.

She fell down on one knee and pretended to be in pain by disobeying the order. She hoped that the men in front of her understood this.

‘This won’t work…’ Linea commented, her voice laced with concern. ‘You know the collar is supposed to be increasingly painful. You would have to fake falling unconscious which would make us fair game for them.’

‘I know,’ Sarah hissed. ‘Do you have a better idea?’

‘Well… Kill them?’ Linea asked. ‘I don’t want to sound egoistical but… I don’t see a way to save them without blowing our cover.’

‘You do a pretty shitty job at not sounding egoistical!’ Sarah hissed.

Their discussion was cut short as one of the contenders took the opportunity that presented itself. He charged at her relying on her defenseless state. More of Sarah’s opponents realized his plan and followed him.

It frustrated Sarah to no end. She understood the logic behind their attack as they didn’t know she only faked the pain. In their eyes she would attack and kill them as soon as the pain became unbearable.

She rolled to the side to avoid the first strike.

“Don’t…” she tried to warn him but he swung his sword towards her new position forcing her to roll away again.

“Fuck!” she screamed more out of frustration than anything else as she parried the next attack while crouching in front of her attacker. The man realized that his opportunity had just disintegrated.

“I’m really sorry about this…” she said and plunged her sword into the man’s chest. His eyes became unfocused as he tried to understand his situation. He noticed the blade and tried to say something but only blood sprayed from his mouth sprinkling Sarah’s face with blood.

She took a step back and saw him gliding from her blade onto the ground. His lifeless eyes drilled into her and with a deep breath she had to focus herself again.

A quick glace told her that the man’s companions had stopped in their tracks and starred at her.

“I’ll make it quick,” she said and dashed towards them.

The first man blanched and raised his sword to meet Sarah’s attack but found himself overpowered fast. Sarah swatted his sword away, made a pirouette and beheaded the man with one quick strike. The remaining attackers split up. Three of them ran away in panic while the other four attacked her together.

Sarah parried the next strike and made a side step to position the man between herself and the other three. The man took a step back from her but didn’t saw his friend behind him. They stumbled both and fell to the ground. Sarah used the opening to rush towards one of the standing men and parried his strike. She used her momentum to bring him off-balance. With little resistance he fell down as well losing his weapon in the process.

Before Sarah could kill the man, the last of the quartet intervened. Sarah noticed him inside her Field and instead of taking another step forward as the attacker had guessed she stopped. This caused him to miss her and losing his balance. Not giving him the chance to recover Sarah rammed her Fulchar into his back. He screamed in pain and Sarah noticed the distinct smell of urine.

Without another thought she ended his life by cutting his head off. She didn’t like what she was doing, and she saw no reason to prolong her opponents suffering.

When his body lay in front of her unmoving, Sarah fixated on the guy who she had kicked down earlier only to find him petrified. Even though he had enough time to recover his sword, he had remained where she left him. A small patch of darkened sand explain the smell.

“P-Please! Don’t kill m-me!” he pleaded as Sarah stepped closer.

“Sorry,” Sarah said and decapitated him with a swift strike. The two others who had fallen crawled away from her.

She followed them with her eyes but noticed something on her cheek. With her free hand she wiped it away.

Tears.

Tears and blood.

Next thing she checked on the guys who had run away. They had already reached the gate from which they had entered where they tried to get it to open again. Discarding them as opponents for now she looked towards the guys who had not attacked her. One man stood in front of the group and some looked at him for guidance. He was taller and gave the impression of someone who had fought before. Which was probably the reason the others hid behind him.

“I’m really sorry about this…” Sarah said again as she approached them. “But I can’t disobey.”

It was a half lie, but it helped her accept the situation.

“I understand but I’ll try to kill you either way.”

Sarah nodded and closed the distance. Instead of awaiting the impact of her attack to parry the man stepped to the side. She canceled her strike when she saw this but instead walked past him and attacked one of the other guys. If the leader didn’t want to fight her, she wouldn't wait for him.

The man she had picked out from the group hadn’t expected to be targeted and was too slow to react. Her Fulchar plunged into his chest. As his dying body slumped down, the leader moved inside her Field towards her. Another man attacked her from the front stepping over his dead ally. Sarah parried his attack, gripped him and turned him around to use him as a shield. The leader couldn’t stop his attack in time and he cleaved the head of the poor man in half.

More blood and splattered over Sarah making her wince.

She tossed the dead body aside and made some distance between her and the group which was still standing unsure of how to react.

“Like sheep to the slaughter…” Sarah murmured and frowned.

“Ansrin!” the leader yelled at her.

“What?”

“That’s my name. Ansrin. Remember it when you kill me!”

Sarah smiled at him.

“I shall remember your name, Ansrin!”

“You stay back!” Ansrin said to his men and approached her. “Just you and me, Linea.”

Sarah stretched her neck and shook her body to release some tension in her body.

“All right. Your move, big guy!” She said and raised the Fulchar in front of her.

Instead of rushing at her, Ansrin slowly made his way towards her. When he came into striking range, he tested her defense with a quick stab which she side stepped. When she retaliated with a strike from above, he parried it with enough force to let her stumble. Sensing an opportunity he made a slashing motion towards her lower body.

One thing Sarah had learned from her trainers in the last days was that faking openings was a skill often used in duels. A calculated risk often reaping the best results. And even though Ansrin was better trained than the others, he was no fighter with years of training and experience.

And so he fell for Sarah’s trap.

She moved forwards in a situation in which he had not expected her to do so. His sword grazed her chain mail but ultimately fizzled out. Sarah swung her Fulchar with full strength from below. Stuck in his forward motion Ansrin tried to mitigate the blow by doing the same as Sarah and going sideways.

His pained cry told how this didn’t go well for him. Leather had protected his chest, but a Fulchar was primarily a weapon for slashing and stabbing. The blood dripping through the cut was proof of that.

He panted heavily as he tried to regain his balance and pointed his sword towards Sarah again while his left hand clutched his wound in a feeble attempt to stop the bleeding.

“I really don’t want to kill you,” she said to him, “but I want you to know I respect you more than everyone of those bastards on this balcony.”

She nodded towards the Emperor’s group.

“Thank… you…” he replied in between coughing fits.

“Ready?” She asked, and he confirmed with a nod.

For her next strike she went all out on her strength and even aided it with some telekinesis. It was obvious that the man was in severe pain and she didn’t want to make him suffer any longer. Ansrin took a step back not willing to test his luck by parrying. He tried this three more time before he stumbled over his own feet dizzied by his blood loss. While he managed to remain standing, he couldn’t avoid Sarah’s strike. He wasn’t even fast enough to parry the attack.

The Fulchar went deep into his upper body starting from his right shoulder and ending in the center. His eyes went wide and before he realized it, his body already went into a shock induced unconsciousness.

But death wouldn’t wait long for him.

Sarah took a deep breath. How much she hated this.

The rest of the fight wasn’t a worth to be called a fight. While the crowd watched in silence Sarah went to work and struck down opponent after opponent. The rest of the men couldn’t match her even if they still had any will to fight. After that the collar made it clear she even had to dispose of the unconscious fighters.

It was a slaughter house.

After her gruesome work was finished Sarah glanced towards the balcony. The common people had realized that this fight wasn’t entertaining. Those few who just wanted to the death and blood were served what they wanted but no one cheered. Not even those responsible for it. Turandir looked rather bored while Brice and Tiberius were engrossed in a discussion. Enia and Levi had apparently left while Tovandir frowned. Only Tiva watched somewhat interested.

Following a sudden inspiration from her life on Earth Sarah picked up a sword from one of the killed and walked towards the balcony. Even before the announcer could say anything, Sarah aimed at the table beside the emperor and threw the sword. Guided by her telekinesis as she didn’t want to risk actually hurting the man in this moment it crashed into the table knocking it over. The dishes fell onto the floor breaking on impact.

Guards rushed in front of their charge while allowing Tiberius to watch what was going on.

The arena was absolutely silent.

“Are you not entertained?” Sarah screamed at the emperor who looked at her with wide eyes.

“Are you not entertained?” She repeated and turned around to face the crowd. “Is this not why you are here?”

No one reacted to this. Sarah looked back at the emperor with disgust. She threw her Fulchar to floor towards him and spat on it. She then turned around and left the arena through her gate without looking back.