Eli's POV

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"Oh shit" was all I had let slip out of my mouth before I got myself under control. Thankfully the surrounding crowd drowned out the noise.

I decided to just focus on breathing.

In. Out

In. Out.

When the elf had come onto the stage I noticed the flowing green robes, the distinctly elven ears and finally his crown, which sent alarm bells ringing in my head that I should know where I have seen that before. It wasn't until he said that he was looking for his brother that it hit me.

In the necromancers den, I had run across a pile of clothes that had a silver crown on them. A crown that looked exactly like the one that was on his head. Then Tansen came on stage giving a speech I couldn't give any less of a shit about.

My veins flooded with adrenaline and my legs were screaming at me to run. Experience was something that came with a lot of perks and while a lot of my time was tied up in technical work, controlling stress responses was something that came in spades from all situations and jobs. Right now I just had to figure out what was going on.

'So the elves are in cahoots with or even controlling the necromancers' I thought quickly. 'And the academy is helping them'. I teased out this line of thought for a while before I decided that this was a nonsensical course of action if they were knowledgeable to what their missing elf was doing. If they knew what had happened in the necromancers hideout they wouldn't waste their time with a search for him.

Not to mention the fact that I'm probably an unknown variable to them, that's assuming they even know about of my existence. Blasting the disappearance of one of the high ranking figures involved in such an unsavory business was about the clearest way of giving me a heads up, since I would probably put the time of his disappearance together even if I hadn't seen him or the crown. No. if they cared, or even knew of me, I would have gotten a quick kidnapping in my home on a pitch black night.

The increase in security at my home was another thing I had to keep in mind now. Another damn chore on my list.

A cheer went up in the crowd around me, apparently swept up in some proclamation Tansen made.

With that a gong was struck on the end opposite of the VIP section over-top a large almost cave like entrance. The center of the arena was a bare dirt oval. It had four large stone pillars made up of plain blocks in the middle set up in a square of stone one step above the dirt floor. All around this square and on the dirt floor up to the walls were white circles that I supposed were the dueling partitions. On the edges of the middle and the VIP end of this oval were gates, three in total with large metal portcullises that left the entrance with the gong as a pitch black cave like entrance.

A grating sound echoed throughout the arena as the gates gradually lifted up. Out from these came a large assortment of armed men numbering several dozen.They waved their weapons and hands as they soaked in the cheers of the crowds. I couldn't distinguish my combatant out this far but I'm sure he will turn up shortly.

From the cave entrance came another squad of green skinned people with a few having tusks. They had the same rags as before but also an odd assortment of swords, spears, shields, and hammers. A chorus of jeering and hisses followed them as they made their way to some of the circles.

'Ah so is there some kind of bargain for freedom if they agree to be good little pincushions and survive the ordeal?' I looked on the spectacle in contempt. The orcs may be parasites designed to destroy the human race, but still, to kill living things for a show was disdainful. I had thought this duel was going to be between skilled, equally armed combatants not just used to maul some nearly defenseless saps for an easy and cheap source of entertainment.

At the strike of another gong there was a mass flashing of blades and bludgeoning with hammers followed by mostly feminine screams. I saw one of the blond haired orcs fall to the ground crying as her left knee was crushed from the swing of a morning star. Her opponent had a bare leather coat with a large metal shoulder guard, the whole ensemble being finished out with a iron cap helm. He just laughed at her pain then casually walked up and crushed her skull.

'Very disdainful' I thought to myself. I could possibly understand this if it was made as a warning to the orcs or to discourage them from attacking in the future. But this wasn't any worse than anything they would be facing in combat out there in the wild. I saw several people raising mugs at his triumph, so I just sat back and leaned back against my stone bench trying to find my combatant in this melee.

The round came to a quick end but there were a fair number of orc survivors. These looked to be more in the mid-20's with many scars both old and new. A lot of their opponents had been injured but managed to get out side the circle before they were finished. Although, I could see two or three limp figures in armor being carried out on stretchers. But judging from the application of the distinctive red healing elixirs they could still make it.

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After a 5 minute breather, the gong sounded and the combatant's sliced and crushed their way through each other again. The crowd's jeers and cries of murderous glee reverberated whenever a fighter fell, be they human or orc. The blood lust here was apparently not inclined to prejudice when

deciding where it could get its fill.

This continued for a solid minute as these rounds had the more experienced fighters so the fights typically lasted at least several blows. I saw one orc with long black hair get two stabs in before the gladiator took her in the throat with his spear. Some of the humans dueled now, but these matches didn't have the gory deaths that the orc fights did so they didn't hold the crowd's attention.

Afterwards the bodies of the fallen were dragged off the field. Now there were only a few contests left for this opening performance. Surprisingly, the red haired orc with ponytails from earlier was still in it even as all her compatriots fell. She waved her two scythes in defiance towards the crowd. But from what I could see of her bloody face and limbs, she was worn down from the fights and with two more matches to go after this one, it was obvious her time was almost up.

When the last 8 opponents made their way to four white circles at the outer corners of the pillars, I finally spotted my combatant. He was nearer to the back side of the pillars which had obstructed my vision of him until this switch off of positions happened. As much as I held this whole spectacle in disdain I would be lying if I said I wasn't eager to see my crafts effectiveness in actual combat.

The gong sounded again. This time I had a full view of my combatant as he swung forward against the soldier with a bloody spear. From this view I could see why there were no bouts of flame on the battle field so far. He would step forward and shift to the side while activating the dodging function.

When my soldier ran forward to swing his hammer the spear man tried to dodge but the hammer managed to clip his spear near the middle, shattering it.The spear men then took out the crafters huge sword from his back and tried to shoot him with the swords rock spell but in the time it took him to put his hand on the cross guard the stone hammer head had connected with his gut. It struck with such force that he was thrown clean out of the circle. If I wasn't mistaken he hit him with the side of the hammer head instead of the single point of the hammer heads front, which helped keep the blow from being fatal.

What was so interesting was how my soldier hid his items ability with the move. The way he almost slid into the man made it look like the power of the strike was mostly his own physical strength. Of course, the physics involved were so obviously wrong that everyone knew it involved magic some how. But doing it this way made people think the power of this particular blow was in the hammer, not in his legs.

The other three matches came to a quick end. The orc girl prevailed over the fighter with the morning star, while the other two pairs eliminated themselves. One fight saw the contestants stab each other clear through in the chest at the same time and had both of them rushed off to the emergency ward. The other finished with a winner but his right arm and leg were so badly burned from his fight with a flaming whip that he forfeited and was also rushed to see a doctor.

"That bastard. If he hadn't been so useless the sword would have knocked that hammer out of his hands" I turned and saw the girl in the line from earlier gritting her teeth in rage. The impulse to gloat was strong but my mood was not lighthearted enough to engage in any sort of banter. So, once I lose the contest in the casters rounds the best thing to do will be to just try and graduate as fast as possible.

My soldier and the orc woman got into the main stage between the four pillars. He actually bowed to her. She was slightly taken aback but bowed in return. A long moment passed then the gong sounded out for the final death of the day.

She shot forward with her scythes cutting through the air with a whistle. He leaned back and brought up the hammer in a fast skyward swing. It caught her in the right shoulder, the breaking of bones being barely audible even from this distance. Before her arm was broken she managed to throw the scythe at him in the split second it took for the blow to connect.

The sharp point caught him in the side, while the man yelped in pain he still managed to maintain his composure enough to not give her any openings. They circled each other for a moment, the orc looking like a wounded animal trying to come up with a way to out wit a wolf. A loud series of cries came up from the crowd.

"Die green skin"

"Let's see her brains"

All the rest of the taunts disintegrated into noise. The orc squeezed her last scythe and seemed to reach a decision. She jolted towards her opponent and kicked a slight mound of sand near his face. Unfortunately for her, the sand mostly got caught in the soft wind and the rest hit the soldiers cloak. She made a desperate last attack towards his neck.

The soldier just shifted his cloaks metal should pieces against his neck and did another one of those sliding swings as her drove the hammer head into her sternum. Her spine reported a sharp crack with bits of bone sticking out her backside. She had managed a long cut on his arm but with that single hammer blow her time was now over. While everyone else cheered, I saw her looking into the crowd as she lay with her head in the dirt and her unresponsive legs on the stone platform.

I followed her gaze until I saw John, the portly fellow that had long brown hair and who had been whipped at the dorms. I took in the look of love in the orcs face and John who seemed on the verge of tears as he tried to curl into a ball.

'Come on. You can't be .. Oh sweet alpha cores' was all I could think as the sickening realization of what I was truly watching came to me. This was just.. Why?

What was the point of making him watch this? Yes punishments must be meted out, but this was beyond any reasonable discipline. Surely there was a better way to get him to realize the severity of his actions?

I looked back towards the center of the arena as my combatant walked up to her. She was trying to mouth some words to John but as the hammer was lifted up to the sky only blood came out of her throat.

A single blow caved in her head like a ripe melon. The crowd cheered at this last display of gore and death with the soldier taking in all the praise as he lifted the hammer in triumph.

I just sat there numbly. Disgusted at what I had seen through this whole event and the people who set it all up. All the more so that I had helped make this possible. Hopefully once this contest was finished I could slink back into anonymity and strike out on my own once I  graduate from the academy.