I slept through my normal time to wake, it was not until the movement around me had reached the point that everyone was no longer trying to be quiet and allow me to sleep. As I woke it felt like a short while I had overslept but I managed to rouse myself just a bit. And then found that there were showers, blessed showers, that I was finally able to wake properly.

With that, I sat down to eat. Someone had set up a table and chairs in the girl’s room, A large plate of food was presented in front of me by Fanny. It had all the foods I had most enjoyed. I started to eat and as my energy levels returned to functional levels, I was able to feel the power move back into the pathways.

Somehow, overnight the power that I had flowing through me for the week or so had stopped flowing and I had not noticed. By just sitting and eating I could feel a trickle start to leak back into the river bed. Yet at the same time, I could sense flows of power that moved through the air and deep underground. While I could not understand any ways that I could interact with those flows. The flows in the air gave me the same feeling that the title ‘Prophecy Touched’ gave when I considered it. I had only noticed this when I had viewed the notification that granted the extra feat that was linked to the title. I wondered what this meant for my future.

As more power washed into the landscape of my river system, the traces of the other paths was soon masked by the strength of the flows. At this point, they were only weak streams compared to the wash of power that had been running through me yesterday. Only a few of my skills were active as there was insufficient power to activate them.

The area that the river system had occupied had doubled or more in size. Where previously many of the pathways that the power flowed through were close together and the various eddies were next to each other, now the pools that represented the eddies were significant distances apart. The result of this would be surely significant, but I would just have to wait and see.

By the end of my third plate of food, which just seemed to appear in front of me I was able to look around and recognize my team. Each of them stood out as clearly as the instructors had previously done. They were just more real.

Elizabeth said while it would be nice to not appear in public it is safer to do so. So we are heading to the arena now. This week the other septs have moved their teams into group combat with the types of creatures that are common in the goblin front. So all the Red teams moved through the streets. But rather than the previous complex routing, we moved quickly and simply through streets that were open and wide. What had often taken considerable time was completed in less than a ¼ candle mark.

When we arrived The colored circles were absent, replaced with benches against one way of the arena. These were color-coded and the other groups were already occupying their benches. Many looked rather worse for wear. It did look like they had been in combat already. On the other side of the arena were tents that appeared at least to hold food and drink.

Opposite the entry, there were cages holding either small, feral, green, ape-like creatures or small bipedal lizards that had faces that were rather dog-like. I used Identify on each group the apes identified as Goblins, and the lizards as Kobolds.

The stands had filled up with general spectators rather than the representatives of the powers.

We all moved towards the Red benches. A Masters of Ceremonies announced “So nice of the Sphinx teams to grace us with their appearance. It is a shame but the individual competition has been completed with the Swordmaster from Green one declared the overall champion. You will just have to compete in the Team events.

Since you have no placed members I cannot seed you so what we will do is have each of the teams complete a simple elimination bout. He smirked rather than smiled. Clearly, this was not a fair or safe option for the Red teams.

Elizabeth whispered, “Don’t worry too much, it is clear that they don’t realize that you have all classed.” With a bit of a chuckle “ and what more three of you have even leveled.”

The ringmaster “Red 1, a team of three, will face a gaggle of goblins. This team did not even bother to attend the ranking tournament so either they think they are better than the rest of the companies, or most likely they are just trash.”

Elizabeth nodded and Fanny, Robert, and I stood and moved to the combat ring that was in the center of the arena. A cage of goblins was moved into the circle. The ringmaster chanted ‘Outer Shields, Outer Shields, Outer Shields’, then quickly followed by ‘Free, Free, Free’. As the skills were completed a greater shield surrounded the combat ring, and the cage dispersed into a cloud of sparkling lights. The Goblins simply charged going from naught to full sprint in the blink of an eye. I stepped forward and met the front runners with a blurring figure eight, the goblins shattered into small piles of jelly. Robert snapped two fire darts out at the two goblins that were attempting to flank me, each dart popped into an eye. Steam escaped through the ears of the flankers as they dropped to the ground unmoving. I stepped forward again, there was a pale green path of footsteps that led me from goblin to goblin. At each goblin, there were markers that indicated the best swings of my hammer. Unlike the experience with the troopers, I was unconstrained by worrying about killing the creatures.

Within moments all but the largest one lay dead. Heads shattered, ribcages missing, steam or flames flickering from holes that had been punched into their bodies. None of the corpses had come close to anyone other than myself. I was unfortunately covered in various unpleasant bodily fluids.

The last Goblin was larger by 50%. Had a helmet and light chain mail. Robert’s fire darts were not as accurate as before, He was tiring. And the metal armor was able to draw the darts to it.

The goblin was swinging what looked more like a small tree branch rather than a well-formed club. It did not make any difference as I stepped up. I could sense its weakness, a quick fake swing, and rap on the club to move it out of line. Then I used ‘strike’ to pass the head of my hammer through the head and the chest of the creature. Once more I was covered in bits of brain, lung, and bone fragments. Along with sprays of blood and other fluids.

Silence greeted the conclusion of the combat. Cheers and hoots started to ring from the stands. It soon became deafening. As a team, we moved as one towards the shields that surrounded the ring. The ringmaster whose eyes were popping, chanted ‘Drop Sheild, Frop Shield, Drop shield’ he stumbled through his skill. I doubt that it dropped because of the command; it seemed more likely that he had just lost so much focus that his skills could no longer maintain it.

As I walked back to the bench Fanny whispered “Cleanse, Cleanse, Cleanse” and the blood and guts sloughed off my clothing, face, and out of my hair.

Slaves, most likely, leaped into action and cleaned the arena. Somehow I did not think that servants would be so clearly mistreated. This place was full of contradictions, The Sphinx sept only seemed to keep servants who were happy and seemed cared for. Yet at the same time, thousands of lives had been sacrificed to summon us from our respective universes.

Red 2 was up next. Shamhila’s team had two warriors that operated as mob controllers. With clever blows and sharp quick movements that kept their goblins focused on them, the shaman in the team first activated a hidden skill that caused Shamhila and themselves to fade from the attention of the goblins. Shamhila then started to cast a complex summoning, and a horde of wasps appeared centered high above the ring, The shaman then cast a curse that slowed the goblins to a significant extent. At this point, the two warriors were causing a lot of damage to the foes. It looked like that within minutes the goblins would be cut to pieces when the wasps were released.

The goblins were stabbed repeatedly by the wasps and within moments fell to the ground frothing at the mouth and then they stopped breathing. The larger goblin was the last to stop breathing but only by two or three additional breaths. So Red 2 left the area unharmed by any of the goblins. While they did take a little longer to complete the kill, the skill of the team was impressive.

Red 3 started to enter the area even as the goblins' corpses were cleared. Red 2 had made a lot less mess than I had caused so the clean up was a lot quicker. After all, it is easier to pick up a dead goblin than having to use a shovel and a rake to collect all the various bits that I had scattered about. Once the goblins had died the wasps had just faded away so the slaves were not threatened by them

Dakota stood within a triangle formed by her team members. A glowing shield formed over the team. The three others were chanting something but the shield meant that it was inaudible. The Goblins charged the area and were repulsed by the shield. Wooden weapons ignited, Blisters and charing occurred across their bodies where they had come in contact with the shield.

The large goblin pushed the weaker ones around the shield expecting that it would fail. But before it did, Dokata's voice echoed through the shield with the skill phrase ‘Pulse, Pulse. Pulse’. With the last part of the invocation, the shield expanded outwards and crispy critters formed from the lesser goblins while the larger one was knocked flying with smoke trailing behind it until it hit the arena shield. The goblin then popped like a bug on a window.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

The crowd was taken aback by this creative use of skill. There were cheers and hoots, but at a much lower level than for the other two red teams.

The Blue teams were next into the arena. But without particular advantages, the combat was heavy and bloody. Each of the teams won in the end but each had members that were significantly injured. They had been taught the attack at all costs strategy and while it worked rather than fighting as coordinated teams the fight had quickly dissolved into a free-flowing mob of individual combats. In two cases individuals were more capable and so were able to wrap up their combat and assist others allowing those teams to win. In another case rather than the more common double teaming from the goblins, three of them attacked one member this left a blue team member able to finish her combat and assist the others. The problem with that event was that the team member that was triple-teamed ended up needing the assistance of three healers. The last two combats were just battles of attrition. Slowly the teams were able to wear the goblins down and eke out victories. Those teams were also receiving significant healing.

Robert and I had to grab Fanny as she showed that she was about to leap to the aid of the battered blues.

I did notice that there were no higher-grade monsters that they had faced. If the red cohort had been as skilled as the blues it was unlikely that any of us would have escaped serious harm.

The crowd was much more vocal during these fights. This was what they had come to see. These outworld heroes were winning but being beaten to a pulp in the process. They wanted blood and splatter. Thrills and chills. The crowd was more of a mob than an audience.

The next team that appeared was announced as a troop from the House Grey who were facing enforced discipline due to individual infractions.

They rapidly form a shield wall, with the front rank holding short swords and the second rank a short spear. There were eight of them, and they looked like they knew how to fight as a unit. The only problem was that they faced 14 of the lesser goblins and 2 of the larger ones. Their discipline held them together as the lessors charged and 2 of the goblins were struck by spears that reached past the shield wall. Just as I thought that they might be untroubled by the lessors at least they were flanked by the goblins at both ends of the line. At each end of the line, the goblins swarmed the spear wielders who were unable to disengage from the unit structure. Which resulted in the goblins killing them. Rather than continuing to ravage the line, the goblins started to gut and eat the troopers. The last two spear wielders dropped the spears and drew their swords. Without shields, they rapidly fell to the goblins that did not start to eat the previous corpses. The two larger goblins arrived at that point and ripped through their ilk so that they could grab a shield each from the front line. This broke the formation and within minutes the goblins were busy eating the corpses of both the soldiers and the goblins that had been killed.

After a short interval, a cage emerged from the sand around them. They and the remains were dragged off and disappeared into a gap in the arena wall that I had not previously noticed.

By this time I was struggling to hold Fanny, I whispered in her ear. Robert had joined me in restraining Her.

“There is nothing we can do now. All that will happen is that you will die and we will follow. Because we will not allow them to slaughter you without acting. We will act but not now!

We must gain the power to stop things like this.”

Class level - Inspired Leader +1

Attribute improved - Dexterity +3

Attribute improved - Memory +3

Attribute improved - Wisdom +3

New Feat from class Choose from

Hateful Projection

Strong Shields

Unit Cohesion

Unit Targeting

New Feat from Prophecy Touched

Healthy Body

Strong Mind

Both the two new feats were useful but I had to feel that right now control on the battlefield was the best for our survival. We were unlikely to need to target a particular creature as a group, and we were already a strong team. So I picked “Hateful Projection.”

With that, a new skill announcement appeared

New Skill - basic Taunt - 1 / 10

I then picked “Healthy Body” hoping that this improved my survival chances.

Slowly Fanny relaxed in our hold. She leaned back against Robert then turned her head and started to cry into his shoulder.

Things just proceeded as if nothing of significance had just happened; the single yellow team was called forward. At some point, the previous ringmaster had been replaced. When I attempted to identify her, all I was able to determine was that her class was a Master Entertainer, with a secondary class of spatial controller. I had no idea of the levels of either class but since I had been able to judge Lara with some precision and was unable to even determine Holly’s classes, I am certain that she was somewhere close to Elizabeth.

In other words, not someone that was worth aggravating.

The Yellow team faced the same scale of forces that the unfortunate troopers had been confronted with. As the afternoon progressed, I had been quietly used ‘identity’, and perception skills to gain an understanding of the various forces. The five members of the yellow team all had classes, they all appeared to be combat classes such as Forceful Warrior. Skillful Swordwielder. They had all leveled, which struck me as odd. I remembered that they were the least surprised of any of the summonses, they had the feel of a people that knew what was happening to them. This might explain the rapid progression of the classes that they had acquired.

Once combat started four of them had spread out forming a skirmish line with a single archer that waited at the rear of the formation. The front line turned the fast-moving goblins into chopped-up fragments of goblin meat as soon they hit the line. The odd attack from the goblins which did land on the warriors only caused light wounds, but no significant damage was done. The larger goblins were arriving as the last of the lesser were cut down. The archer then started to fire. Arrow after arrow lept from the archer to the first of these goblins, As the second goblin started to attack, a single arrow sprang into existence penetrating deep into the eye of the goblin. It stopped and fell forward dead. The arrow had reached through the back of the eye into the brain.

The other Goblin was so distracted by the flood of arrows that it did not even react to the sword wielder who stepped forward and gutted the goblin from side to side. The Goblin simply folded as the hips fell forward and the shoulders dropped back to strike the heels of its feet. It was likely dead even before it hit the ground.

It did not take too long to clean up the arena compared to the various splatter messes, but the chunks of goblin were hard to spot. The slaves started to rake the sand as they had been spread far and wide. The announcer proclaimed

“Now two teams that have been ranked as the most powerful, will take on a crowd favorite Kobolds, These fire-breathing lizard forms don’t use weapons, but with all four limbs that end with dagger-like claws and sets of teeth that would make a shark proud. These little critters are a swarm of nastiness.

Of course, we cannot waste our top rankers, so we have decided that it will be a slaughter event and all four teams will face a small horde.”

The smile that flickered across her face did not reach the eyes.

My awareness flared, since I had bonded with Lara, my skills had been transforming. Some form of synergy was strengthening aspects of the skills, yet on top of that, I was gaining insight into how the skills related.

I would have never caught the hateful spite that appeared deep in her eyes previously.

The Green teams into the arena and combat. Three cages were dragged from the passageway that was now so clearly visible. Snarling dog-faced bipedal lizards filled the cages. As they approached the arena, the creatures settled and focused their attention on the combined green teams. They radiated a mix of hunger and hatred.

Oddly many were lightly wounded. The wounds were not serious, but given that they were not even attempting to harm each other, unlike the goblins who as they were brought out were slapping at each other. Each cage had creatures with differing markings. They glanced at each other. It was at that point I realized they were not acting as individuals but as groups that had a common sense of oneness.

I had a feeling that the green teams were about to suffer. There were not fighting 90 small lizards but 3 creatures that contained thirty components each. I feared that they even had a common mind. But even as these thoughts ran through my mind the cages collapsed and the kobolds charged.

There was no coordination.

Each of the two colossi leaped forward, their strength and speed were staggering. Each of them struck different mobs. The Kobolds started to die, but they were willing to die if they allowed one of the others to strike. But the male and female started to accumulate injuries quite quickly, One kobold managed to snag the ear of the male and bite it clean off. Three others died to give it that chance, it looked like it had been going for the face but the hero had moved his head just enough that the bite just caught the ear.

While this was happening the remainder of the teams had merged. Over the next 5 minutes, the colossuses destroyed the mobs that they were fighting, but picked up a large number of nicks and cuts that were bleeding freely. The worst injury was that missing ear. While this happened the remaining thirteen chopped, slashed and various killed the kobold mob that reached them. They were nowhere as lucky as individual kobolds had penetrated their defenses and their wicked mouths sliced wide segments out of the warriors. Several of the warriors had been pulled into the center of the defense as they became heavily injured. I saw at least one hand missing. That person was back fighting in the line in less than a minute after a tourniquet was tightened around his lower arm. There was a sucking chest wound. A missing calf muscle. Several with large pieces of their faces were bitten off.

The two colossi returned quickly and wrapped up the combat. Within a total of ten minutes, the kobolds were defeated, But I doubt that some of the weaker team members would ever be the same even if the healers regrew their missing parts.

“And that concludes today's events. See you all back here tomorrow morning. Remember stakes are doubled tomorrow.”