”What do you mean? Hanna asked.

“You heard me. The guy isn’t human”, Fritjof said, picking his nails.

“You’re making zero sense, old man”, Hanna growled.

Fritjof rolled his eyes and took a deep breath. “Look. You know of the clans, right? He is one of them. Or he is from one of them, rather.”

Hanna gritted her teeth. “Obviously, I don’t know shit about them or we wouldn’t be having this conversation”.

Fritjof studied her for a second. “You’re not pulling my leg? They are pretty famous where I come from”

“Well, I’ve never heard of them. Mind actually telling me?”

“Not sure how to sum it up for you.” Fritjof scratched his cheek. “There are all kinds of them. They look human, but they are not. You’ll meet a stray or two, but most of them live pretty far from here.

Hanna perked her ears. Someone that looks human but isn’t was a pretty apt description of herself. “What sets them apart?”

“Hard to say, it could be anything really. Main thing is that they can’t have kids unless they breed with their own kind and that they have some kind of quirk”

“Like what?”

Fritjof pondered for a bit. “Well, take old Mad-eye. I don’t know what clan he is from, but I’ve seen him fight. I’d say that his thing is some kind of frenzy that cuts him off from feeling pain and makes him rather… single-minded about going for the kill”.

Hanna nodded along. That sounded about right. It was nice to get some proper answers for once. Fritjof seemed a lot more willing to talk to her now that he didn’t considered her dead meat walking.

“What about the other people in here?” Hanna asked. She had tried getting their attention before the fight, but they had pointedly ignored her and Hanna with a level of apathy that put Fritjof to shame.

“Forget about them. They have given up on themselves. They only move if it’s to shit, eat or fight. Their spark is gone”.

“How did they get here?”

Fritjof shrugged. “Some might have pissed of the guild. I think most of them were simply bought”

Hanna was bothered by that. It shouldn’t surprise her given the medieval state of this world, but it just felt like something that everyone ought to be against. “Is slavery legal?”

Fritjof was intrigued by her question. “You ask a lot of moronic questions, girl. Where are you from?”

Hanna smiled. “You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you. Is it legal or not?”

Fritjof looked like he considered pressing the subject for a second before he dropped it. “It’s illegal. But it is kind of an open secret that the kingdom is run on the back of slaves. They wouldn’t admit to it, but take a trip to one of their mines and you’ll find a surprising amount of shackles and guards for an operation that is officially done by paid workers.”

“Then where do they get their slaves from?”

“Yeah, that’s the question, isn’t it? Given how I ended up here, I’d say the answer is pretty obvious. The kingdom is working with the many bandit groups that litter the area. Why else would they still be around? The kingdom isn’t incompetent, nor is it lazy. Why would the bandits be allowed to roam if the kingdom aren’t profiting from them?”

Hanna considered that for a moment. She was definitely taking Josef down, and since he was working with the Wolves, they would have to go as well. If they were working with the kingdom, that complicated things. The village could build walls for an eternity, they still wouldn’t stand a chance if they made an enemy out of the kingdom.

“What of the thief’s guild, where do they fit in all of this?”, she asked.

“They are the middle man. Officially illegal of course. But this city wouldn’t function without them. There are a lot of things that needs to be done that the queen doesn’t want to be associated with. Do you think they could run a place like this without approval from the court?”

Their conversation was interrupted by the door opening. A fat and squat man with dirty clothes shuffled through the doorway. He pushed a wagon in front of him with stacks of bowls on it, which he filled and pushed in between the bars in each cell. Hanna grabbed hers and studied it. It was barely warm and even calling it food was a bit of a stretch. It looked like it was scooped up from the side of the road.

“What’s this?” Hanna asked with her nose crumpled up.

“Your dinner”, the fat man answered with a sadistic smile. “Do you want a loogy in it?”

“No?”

“Then quit complaining and start eating.”

Hanna watched the man continue on to the other cells. She hesitantly stuck a finger in the slop and gave it a taste. It wasn’t any better than it looked. She would need to ditch this place pretty soon.

“How come you aren’t fighting?” She asked Fritjof when everyone had been served and the fat man had left again.

“They have a business to run. They aren’t stupid enough to waste their best fighters if they don’t need to. Do you think it was a coincidence that they put someone fresh off the streets against Mad-eye, one of the best and a fan favourite? You were meant to lose that fight girl. People like me, we only fight when they have promoted it and found someone to put me against that they wouldn’t mind losing”

Hanna looked at the guy a bit more closely. He was on the scrawny side and age had clearly marked him. “I could take you down easily”, she boasted.

“Dream on, lass. I’ve been kicking ass in this arena since before you were born. I’ve won against meaner people than you.”

“Sure, but don’t be fooled by my pretty face. I punch above my weight”

Fritjof gave her a curious look. “You are not human either, are you?”

Hanna cursed silently. She had just wanted to banter a bit, not out her powers.

“I don’t think you can be. Someone your age and size shouldn’t stand a chance against Mad-eye. And I doubt a normal human would survive getting that metal head of yours.”

“Think what you want. I’m leaving soon anyway”

“Do you honestly think you can pull it off?” Fritjof looked as if he was toying with the idea of believing her.

“I know I can. Are you thinking of joining?”

He stood still for a full minute. “You know what? Count me in. The food here isn’t all that it’s cranked up to be.”

Hanna smiled. “Awesome. We just need to iron some things out, like the way out and such”.

“I sort of know my way around this place after all these years. But I think you’re getting ahead of yourself. We can’t do shit until we find a way to get out of these cells.”

“Don’t worry about that, I’ll take care of it.”

“How?”

Hanna considered outing herself, then decided against it. She was already trusting the man too much by telling him of her plans to escape. Showing all her secrets at this early stage would just be plain stupid.

“You’ll see when we make a run for it”

Fritjof scoffed and crossed his arms. “I wasn’t born yesterday, girl. Either you put the cards on the table or I’m out”.

Hanna shrugged. “Then stay here and rot. I don’t care”

“Fine. Good luck finding your way out on your own. This place is a maze”, Fritjof said and made himself comfortable on his bed again.

Hanna did the same, leaving him to sulk. Her face wasn’t hurting anymore, and a session of tentatively examining it with her hands told her that everything seemed to be in order. The only thing that weren’t were her teeth. She was missing a tooth and another was chipped. It was the first time that her body hadn’t completely healed itself immediately after being injured. The question now was if it was because it couldn’t, or if it just took more time to regrow whatever teeth were made of.

Hanna awoke some time later, feeling rested. She must have dozed off without noticing it. In the middle of the room was the fat man again, his entry probably what had woken her. The bowl she got from him contained what she feared was the exact same slop that they got yesterday. Hanna sighed. The food was honestly her main motivator to get out of here.

Watching the man do his trip around the room and then leave again, something caught her eye. There were a lot more bowls than there were people in the room. That ought to mean that there were other rooms like this one. Thinking back, she hadn’t seen Mad-eye as they brought him to the arena. He probably came from another room like this one.

“Hey Fritjof?” She called.

“Yes, love?” Fritjof answered with an ironic voice.

“How many slaves are there?”

“In the world?”

“Fuck you, you know what I meant”

Fritjof chuckled. “Don’t know. I know there is another room like ours, but since ours is far from full, there is no telling how many are over there”.

“You think they are itching to leave?”

Fritjof blew out air. “Some might. I’d guess that most are like our pathetic friends over here, content to just drone the time away between fights. Why bother with them?”

“Well, I figured it might me easier getting away if we had a bunch of battle-tested fighters to back us up”

“I thought you were some kind of hotshot. Now you want to bring the rabble along for the ride?” Fritjof laughed, then paused. “You might have a point though, they could serve as a good distraction”

The door to the room opened. It was the same two guards that had come yesterday. Hanna had her hands stuck out of the cell before they arrived.

“Would you look at that Frida? Some of them are actually capable of learning”, one of them commented. Hanna thought it was the one that had taken the rear yesterday.

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“You must have pissed someone off, Hanna”, Fritjof called gleefully. “They don’t put you in fights during the day unless they really don’t mind you dying. Day-fights aren’t worth shit, the only ones betting are drunks and losers who have no better place to be.”

“Shut up Fritjof”, Frida said. “Or I make sure you get to join her as well. You don’t fight like you used to anyway.”

Fritjof shut up but kept smiling. Once her hands were bound, they led Hanna along the same path as yesterday. This time Hanna was quick through the door and avoided getting kicked into the arena. The light outside was a lot brighter than the dim lighting she had gotten used to. Hanna squinted her eyes. Unlike yesterday, the seats were far from full and no one was cheering.

“All right folks,” the promoter said. It was a different voice than yesterday. It sounded a lot less enthusiastic. ”Coming up we have…” He paused, as if to check his notes. “…some new guy of eh, average build. He will be fighting Metalhead, that girl from yesterday that won against Mad-eye”. No one cheered. Hanna wasn’t sure if the fight had begun. On the other side of the arena, some young bloke looked equally confused.

“You can start now”, the promoter added when he noticed that no one was moving.

Hanna smiled at the awkward promoter, figuring that he must be new at his job. It was kind of disgusting that they could treat this so casually. Two people would be fighting for their life in this arena, one of them her, and they couldn’t even be bothered to make a proper show of it. It proved how little a human life was worth around here. Since her opponent wasn’t doing much, Hanna walked towards him. Someone among the spectators had begun booing and was quickly followed by a few others.

“First time fighting?” Hanna asked her opponent when she was close enough, ignoring the growing noise from the onlookers.

“Yeah”, he answered weakly. “I… I can’t do this, I don’t know how to fight, I’m just a normal guy”.

“How did you end up here?”

“I couldn’t make a payment and when I asked for more time I…” He was interrupted by an arrow that burrowed itself into the ground next to him.

“You know the rules. If you won’t fight, then you die”, the promoter said, doing his best to sound assertive.

Hanna didn’t know the rules, but she hadn’t expected to have much choice in the matter. It still felt weird to fight someone who was doing her zero harm and had no way to fight back.

“Sorry kid”, She said and punched him in the gut, catching him completely off guard. She held back as much as possible, but he still bent over. She punched him again, hitting him in the head and throwing him to the ground. Before he had a chance to stand up again, Hanna straddled his chest.

“How many were there in your room?” She asked him, a second before she raised her arm theatrically and struck him with as little power as possible.

Her punch still hurt the guy, knocking his head to the side.

“What?”

“Quickly!” She urged before punching him again. “How many where there in your room?”

“I don’t know, maybe ten?” He spat out with teared eyes.

“Talk to the others, tell them to be ready. I’ll come for you someday soon”

“Ready for what?”

“Escape”, Hanna said. Then she struck him a final time, using a lot more force. Consciousness left his eyes. Hanna stood up and searched the arena for the promoter. No one was cheering but at least the booing had stopped. It felt rather anti-climatic. She found the promoter on a platform to the left of where she had entered the arena.

“We done?” She shouted to him.

“Uh, yes folks, there you have it. The girl who survived bolting metal to the head won and the no-name kid lost. What a shocker! Come back tonight for another fight!”

Hanna shot a glance at the kid on the ground. His face was a messy mix of blood and snot and both his eyes were beginning to swell. She turned around and left the arena.

Back in her cell again, Hanna started planning her escape in earnest. Most of it was already worked out, the big question marks were how they would leave the compound and where they would go afterwards. They could probably fight their way out of the place, but if Fritjof was to be trusted, they wouldn’t be safe just because they got away. They needed some place to go in the city that was out of reach for the guild. Hanna could probably just leave the city and be done with it, but she wanted to check up on Elsa and maybe hitch a ride back to the village with them. Preferably without leaving all her equipment behind.

They would have to look out for Greta as well. Hanna felt comfortable that she could fight her way through just about any regular guard. The problem was that people like Greta and Kurt had made it clear that there was a limit to how far her strength and healing could take her. Opponents that were skilful enough to dodge her blows and incapacitate her was a very real danger.

“Fritjof. Where would you go if you managed to escape?”

“Hypothetically you mean? Because I’m not going anywhere unless you tell me how we are getting out.”

“Yes, hypothetically”, Hanna obliged in a deadpan voice.

“Well… Not everyone is loyal to the queen, at least they weren’t when I got stuck here”

“Like some kind of rebellious group?”

“They call themselves The people’s democratic movement,” Fritjof said with a stuck-up voice. “I wouldn’t want to be dependent on them though. They are a bunch of loudmouths, not fighters.” He hummed for a bit. “Then again, if they are still around, then they have survived years of persecutions from the queen. That’s something at least.”

That sounded like a dead end to Hanna. They couldn’t hinge the success of their escape on a group that might not even be able to help them, even if they managed to get in contact with them in short order after escaping. It would be plain foolish. Not that braking free without a proper plan was much better. Another thing to consider was when they ought to make a brake for it. Common sense dictated that there should be less people around in the night. Given the large crowds that came for the fights each evening, the opposite might as well be true in this case. Decisions, decisions, Hanna mused. She had a lot to think about. A part of her was telling her to just stop stalling and try to escape here and now. She wrestled that part down though. At the very least she ought to wait until her last opponent had woken up and talked to the others in his room.

Another night passed. Hanna wasn’t made to fight anyone, which was a disappointment to be honest. Just sitting in her cell was dull as fuck. Instead they had brought out one of the many apathetic slaves that Hanna and Fritjof shared the room with. He hadn’t come back from the fight. Hanna found it hard to care. If he had given up on himself, why would she be bothered? A positive thing was that it seemed like her teeth were starting to heal. They hurt a ton at least and something had begun to take shape in the gaps. Dinner and breakfast had been the same sorry affair as always. How long would she be made to eat the same shit over and over?

Fuck it. Hanna decided then and there. It was time to move on, consequences be damned.

“Fritjof, are you ready to leave?”

“Nope, not unless you tell me how you plan on getting out”, he answered without leaving the sparse comfort of his bead.

“Yeah, not happening. Just be ready to leave when it is time. I’m thinking tonight.”

Fritjof didn’t respond. Hanna wanted him along for the ride, even if it was just as a guide. A rare, cautious part of her told her not tell any more than she already had. It felt silly to withhold just that part of her plan, but she decided to listen to that cautious voice. As far as she knew, nobody had yet learned about her powers and she was going to keep it like that.

With her mind settled on escaping that night, time moved slower than ever. It was with great relief that Hanna saw the door open, revealing the same guards as ever, Frida and what’s her name.

“I think management are starting to like your consistent victories”, the unnamed guard commented as Frida bound Hanna’s hands. “They wouldn’t keep making you fight otherwise”.

Hanna didn’t really care about that, so she just shrugged, annoying the guard who was tying her hands.

“Break a leg!” Fritjof called as they were halfway through the door. Frida snapped her head around and gave him a curious glance. It seemed like an overreaction to Hanna but whatever, it might not be a very common saying around here.

Her opponent this time was an older woman. Her eye’s sparkled with determination. Hanna wasn’t sure if that would make her more or less of an asshole if she killed her. The fight proceeded as would be expected. The promoter gave them the go and the woman ran at Hanna. The first unexpected turn was when the woman dodged Hanna’s half-hearted swipe at her head. The second surprise was when the woman opened her mouth.

“Striking high!” She called.

Hanna was almost too surprised to dodge in time. She got struck with a glancing blow that was too weak to do any damage. By the time she had regained her balance, Hanna had caught up to the woman’s scheme.

“Low kick”, Hanna said and the woman nimbly jumped her sweeping leg.

“You are Metalhead?” The woman asked.

“What gave it away?” Hanna joked and stepped to the side of a straight kick.

The two of them continued their careful choreography to the growing excitement of the spectators.

“I heard you will try escaping?”

“Yep”

”When?” The woman asked before blocking Hanna’s uppercut.

“Not telling. Soon”

The woman looked bothered. “Okay, I’ll trust you anyway. We’ll be ready”

“Good”. Hanna said. “How do we end this?”

“I take you down”, the woman answered with determination.

Hanna scoffed. “Like hell you will”. The next punch that she threw she didn’t call beforehand. The woman dodged anyway. Their friendly dance quickly turned into a proper fight, even if Hanna and probably the woman as well were careful to not do lasting damage. In the end Hanna won, but only because the woman hadn’t expected her to recover quite that quickly from a kick to the head. She took the woman down with a careful jab to her chin that caused a knock-out. The crowd cheered as she went down and a moment later, Hanna was led back to her cell.

The rest of the day was spent in restless and anxious waiting, only interrupted by the loathsome fat man and his even more loathsome mockery of dinner. The guards came and left with one of Hanna’s anonymous roommates in tow. When he eventually came limping back, Hanna waited another hour before she stood up from her bed with a beating heart. It was time.

She gripped one of the bars in her cell with both hands, and then put both of her feet on the bar next to it, feeling more like a monkey than a gymnast. She began pushing as hard as she could and the bars started to bend. They were durable as fuck and bending them took every ounce of strength that she had. But it was doable. The metal groaned loudly as she slowly forced them apart. Hanna stepped down on the ground and took a couple of heave breaths. Then she squeezed through the gap that she had made. It was done. It was time to leave.

”Motherfucker!” Fritjof exclaimed as she stepped out of her cell. “You weren’t kidding when you said that you punched above your weight”.

“I’m not much for boasting”, Hanna lied. “Are you coming or not?”

“Sure, do your thing!” Fritjof answered eagerly.

Hanna did her thing. She tried hurrying up as much as possible. Breaking out had been far louder than she anticipated. Guards could very well be on their way over to investigate.

“How about you guys?” Hanna called to the rest of the room with bathed breath. Someone spat. It was thick enough that you could hear it as it hit the ground. “What’s the use? You’ll be dead soon anyway” The speaker was a woman with dead eyes in a corner cell. She was for once standing, leaning against the bar and sizing Hanna up as she walked over to her. The woman gave her a look that Hanna had seen before, the kind you get when you talk about your ambitious future, and the one you are talking to have lost their drive or never had any, so they resent themselves and in extension, you for reminding them about it. It was a look she had seen far too much of in the countryside that she had grown up in. Good thing then that plainly leaving was a fantastic way to deal with such people.

“Forget about it then, your loss.” Hanna said, not particularly keen on wasting time.

None of the others had answered her. It was strange to her that they wouldn’t grasp a chance at freedom. Maybe they had just been in here for too long. Whatever, someone who couldn’t be bothered to try to get away wouldn’t be much use anyway. The door leading out of the room wasn’t even locked, something Hanna found out by pure coincidence as she prepared to kick it down. Hanna and Fritjof left the room behind and hurried off to the arena so that they could free the other slaves.

The corridors that they ran through was deserted and quiet, making their escape so far a rather anti-climatic affair. The door to the arena was unlocked as well, with not a soul in sight. Hanna darted over the sand towards the other side, thinking about the arrow that had been fired in her second fight. They would be sitting ducks if they were caught here. No one saw them though and the they soon found themselves in the unknown corridors that held the other fighters somewhere. Since they had no better plan, Hanna crossed her fingers and betted on the building having a symmetric layout.

The building was symmetric all right, they found a room with cells in it exactly where they expected it. Hanna threw the door open without caring about the noise it made. By now, the guards had either already heard them, or there were no guards around. In either case, they were probably best helped by hurrying the fuck up.

“Metalhead!” Someone shouted. Hanna oriented herself in the room and found that it was the same woman that she had fought earlier.

“Guys, it’s time!” The woman shouted, causing the ten or so people that Hanna spotted to stir in their sleep.

“How are you going to… Oh.” Was what the woman had time to ask before Hanna began forcing the bars to bend. She stepped out as soon as the gap was big enough and followed Hanna as she worked her way around the room. The people in here seemed to be a lot more eager to escape, with no sign of the fatalistic apathy that dominated Hanna’s and Fritjof’s room.

The very second that the last slave was out of the cell, the woman began herding them out the door.

“Nice job with the bars!” She complemented Hanna. “I wasn’t expecting that.”

“Well, I’m full of surprises”, Hanna answered. “Do you have a name?” She asked as they hurried along.

“Lena” was all she said. She sounded short of breath.

“Take a left here”, Fritjof told them. Hanna was curious how he could know about the layout in this part of the complex. It was kind of strange if he had been mostly kept in his cell. But they took a left and after that a right, working their way through the empty corridors. Eventually they ended up with no way forward but straight ahead, through a locked door. It took Hanna three solid kicks, then she broke the wood that surrounded the lock and the door burst open. The group stepped through the remnants of the door into a slightly larger, dimly lit room.

“Surprise!” Frida called as she stepped forward from around a corner.

Fuck, was all Hanna could think as she took in the sight. The two guards that she had sort of come to know stood there waiting for them. Next to them was eight more guards, all armed and armoured. Hanna shot a glance to the people behind her. Lena and her friends looked just as confused as Hanna felt.

“Don’t tell me that you honestly thought you would make it?” Frida asked.

“We’re not done yet”, Hanna argued. Then she charged at Frida. At least she tried to. Someone struck her in the back of her head and she felt herself stumble. Then she was overcome with the searing pain and the bizarre sight of Frida’s sword piercing her stomach.