“Ninety-eight … ninety-nine …. Fuck my life one-hundred!” I exclaimed as I completed my one-hundredth sit-up and collapsed. I heaved air as I lay on the ground. Turns out that being one second too slow to beat someone did result in a punishment. A punishment Haze called the hundreds. One-hundred push-ups, one-hundred pull-ups, one-hundred sit-ups, one-hundred curls, bench presses, lunges, squats, kilometer runs, deadlifts, etc. Basically, one hundred of any and all weightlifting workouts.
“Get up, Zeana!!” Haze yelled at me, “You have eight hundred more ab reps to do!”
I slowly lifted my head from the training room ground and said, “I can’t. I have glamorous abs and a miserable life!”
“Can’t ye let ‘er ‘av a break?” Leila asked after finishing her assigned twenty reps. Lucky little shit.
“No, she knows why she’s being punished. And she’s going to go through it,” Haze said menacingly, her eyes still fixed on me.
“It’s best to take breaks,” I tried arguing, “otherwise … I might injure myself.”
“You can heal yourself with your Healing core with no permanent damage. Try again. With one-hundred oblique sit-ups.”
“Nooooooooooo,” I groaned. After a second, I flopped my legs to one side and was about to begin my count when the door to the weight training room slammed open.
“HEY! SCARLET’S FIGHT IS ABOUT TO START!!” Shiro yelled as he entered.
“Oh, thank the gods,” I sighed as I rolled over.
I heard Haze sighing behind me as she said, “Fine. We’ll go, and you can have a break.”
I raised a thumb but otherwise didn’t move. As I heard Haze leaving the room, Shersha and Leila came over to me and asked, “Ye nade ‘elp?”
“Yes, please,” I whined, and I felt the two shorter girls lifting me by my arms as I struggled to my feet. The twins chuckled as they dragged me out of the room and followed Haze and Shiro to the Colosseum.
***
Scarlet walked out onto the arena floor amidst the defining applause of the crowd. “AND IN THIS CORNER, WE HAVE THE SCARLET GOLEM HERSELF! SCARLET LIVINGSTON!!” Felix announced as Scarlet stopped in the center of the arena. Then he announced her opponent as they walked into the arena, “AND IN THE OTHER CORNER AN ELF SO TOUGH HE CAN BREAK DIAMONDS WITH HIS BARE HANDS! GIVE IT UP FOR JADE MALUS PUMILA!!”
A young-looking elf man walked onto the arena, his long blond hair flowing behind him, seemingly accentuating his handsome features and toned build. The red gi with the orange belt threw everything off though, and Scarlet didn’t feel impressed by him, especially since most of the cheers in the crowd sounded like women.
“Well, hello, gorgeous,” Jade said, throwing back a lock of hair, “What might your beautiful name be?”
“If you didn’t hear Felix announce my name, why should I tell you now?” Scarlet rebutted.
“TEN!”
“Well, it is only polite.”
“NINE!”
“After all, I will happily lend a shoulder for you to cry on.”
“EIGHT!”
“When you lose.”
“SEVEN!”
“HA!” Scarlet couldn’t help but let out a small mocking laugh.
“SIX!”
“What’s so funny, darling?” Jade asked, confused.
“FIVE!”
“This will be over in—”
“FOUR!”
“Ten seconds.”
“THREE!!”
“What do you mean?”
“TWO!!”
“You’ll—”
“ONE!”
“See.”
“FIGHT!!”
The moment Felix announced the fight to start, the ground beneath Jade became soft, and he sank to his neck in an instant before the ground hardened again, and he couldn’t move. “What the—!?” Jade exclaimed as he struggled to get free.
“You see, here’s your problem,” Scarlet began as she walked casually over to the buried elf. “First, you tried flirting for your opening move. Second, you expected to win against me. And third,” Scarled placed a foot under the elf’s chin, “I already have someone special in my life.” Then she drew her leg back as she cycled her Explosive chakra to her foot and kicked the man’s face, releasing the energy and turning his body into golden dust precisely ten seconds after the match started.
She turned and exited the arena ignoring the applause and boos of the crowd. “And there you have it, folks! The Scarlet Golem is still as cold as stone when it comes to men! But what an excellent display of power on her part!” Felix commentated. Scarlet gritted her teeth at his commentary and proceeded to blush angrily.
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‘Who does he think he is!? Saying I’m cold and don’t like men! I like men a lot. I just—’ Scarlet cut off her train of thought and shook her head, ‘It doesn’t matter. It’s fine. I’ll just tell Shiro how I feel on our next mission. Yeah! Then all those cold-like-stone jokes will go away. It’ll be fine.’ As she thought about this, she mindlessly walked up to the stadium stairs on the opposite side of the Colosseum from where her team sat, waiting to congratulate her on her victory.
***
Once the last of the singles fights finished a half hour later, Haze sat in the waiting room for her match, which started in five minutes. As she waited, she pondered what to do for her new core. She had recently unlocked it when she sat with Zeana and talked with her. Talked about her scars. About her lost family. She idly rubbed her belly where there was once someone growing, someone she would never get a chance to meet.
Shaking her head, she recentered her focus. ‘Maybe it would be worth learning a control chakra. If my senses were correct, Olia Orthal used Dark chakra to move from shadow to shadow. That would be very useful to have in my arsenal. I’ll look for a mission in Niflheim. There I can get a good concentration of Dark chakra to cultivate. And Zeana can get her chakras as well. I’ll look into it after my fight.’
“Master Hazaizil. It’s time for your fight,” a man said from the door, reading from a clipboard.
Haze stood and strode confidently out of the waiting room. She ignored the applause and cheers of the crowd as Felix announced her arrival in the center of the arena, where she waited for her opponent. She didn’t have to wait long as a tall, slender elf woman with tattoos on her bare arms walked onto the arena.
The elf woman wore an orange gi with a golden belt. Her gi had the sleeves ripped off, revealing the viper tattoo on her left shoulder and two roses, one black with multi-colored thorns and one red with red thorns, intertwined on her right shoulder. Her shoulder-length purple and hazel-brown, curled hair was tied back in a ponytail, revealing her long pointed ears, beautiful angled face, and piercing green eyes.
“AND IN THIS CORNER! THE FEROCIOUS GATOR OF THE ARENA! GIVE IT UP FOR HARU ‘GATOR’ SUNA!”
Haze smiled and waved, “Been a long time, old friend.”
“That it has, Haze. Hey, I heard you started teaching again. Good for you!”
“And our first field will be … FOREST!” a forest biome full of exotic trees and plants came up behind Gator.
“Yeah, thanks,” Haze said, scratching the back of her head, embraced.
“And our second field will be … SALT FLATS!” a flat solid white field of salt rose from the ground behind Haze.
“How’s that going for you, by the way?” Gator asked.
“It’s going better than I expected. I was able to unlock my next core.”
“TEN!”
Gator clapped her hands together excitedly, “Oh, that’s wonderful! You’ll be a grandmaster before I know it!”
“NINE!”
“Awe shucks. What about you? How’s your life been?”
“EIGHT!”
“Oh, the usual. Teaching, training, drinking, and cookie dough.”
“SEVEN!”
Haze chuckled, “Well, we should catch up properly soon.”
“SIX!”
“Yeah, we should.”
“FIVE!”
“Oh, and one more thing Gator.”
“FOUR!”
“What’s up?”
“THREE!”
“I just wanted to let you know—” Haze began hesitantly.
“TWO!”
“That I—”
“ONE!”
“Will crush you in under a minute!” She exclaimed.
“FIGHT!”
Power surged through Haze as she shot forward, closing the distance between her and Gator with a sonic boom! And Gator smiled, “I would expect nothing less,” she said as several spells flashed around her, and she turned into a bold of lightning, dodging Haze’s attack and stopping behind her.
“Fuck,” Was all Haze had time to say before she felt a hard kick in her back send her flying forward into the forest. She crashed through several trees before she planted her feet on the ground and turned to face her opponent. Gator was gone, and Haze cursed again and opened her chakra sight to locate her. Looking around wildly, she saw several chakra concentrations around her in the forest.
‘Damn it! Where is she!’ Haze thought as she quickly dashed out of the forest. As she took her third step, the grass beneath her feet stabbed through her shoe and into the sole of her right foot. Sending a blast of Explosive chakra through her foot, she shot forward and out of the forest. Quickly switching to her Mother Nature core, she healed her foot with a thought.
“And like that, I win,” Gator said above her. Haze looked up and saw the smug-looking elf woman standing on a blade of a saucer of light.
Haze looked down at her foot and saw her veins turning purple around her ankles and the top of her foot. Cursing again, Haze looked back up and said, “We still have time for me to kick your ass!” With a wave of her hand, the trees below Gator grew their branches exponentially fast and shot toward the woman.
Gator chuckled and burst into lightning again, dodging Haze’s attack and going on the offensive. Haze raised her fists, blocked three punches instantly, and shot a blast of fire from her palms. The elf woman staggered back, no longer covered in lightning.
“How did you get so strong?!” Gator asked in amazement, “Last time I used that attack, you were the one stumbling back.
Haze just shrugged, “My students hit harder. I got used to it.” Then her black and purple armor burst into existence around her, and she charged. Gator dodged blow after savage blow. But eventually, couldn’t keep up with Haze’s endless stamina. She landed her first blow on the elf woman’s right abdomen, followed by a loud crack. The elf began to slow after that hit and received three more blows before jumping back out of reach of Haze’s fists.
“What? … You scared?” Haze asked, panting and surprisingly out of breath.
“It’s just a matter of time,” Gator panted, clutching her side. Then she waved her hand, and Haze saw chakra form into invisible swords using her chakra sight. The blades shot toward her incredibly fast, and Haze began punching them once they got within range. Shattering each blade in a flurry of motion. Soon her movements began to slow, and several blades got through, slicing her arms off at the elbow and cutting off one of her legs.
Haze screamed in pain as she fell back and quickly rolled over. “Well, that was a good fight, Haze. Let’s do it again sometime,” Gator panted, clearly just as exhausted as Haze.
Haze pushed herself onto her knee and turned to face Gator, dispelling her armor. “I never told you, did I?” Haze asked.
“Told me what?”
“Why my name is Haze, the Hellhound of the arena,” Haze answered, and fire formed around her, creating three powerful dog-like legs and fur running down her back, forming a long flaming tail. She then stood on all fours as a flaming dog’s head formed around hers, and she turned to face Gator again.
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!” Gator exclaimed, and tendrils of blood shot from her fingertips as she slashed at the flaming hellhound. Haze dodged the attacks and charged forward, clearing the distance between them in an instant, and closed the flaming jaw around Gator’s neck. As the elf began to turn into lighting again, the flaming jaw touched Gator’s skin, and an explosion of fire erupted from Haze’s flaming maw.
Gator didn’t even have time to scream as the fire turned her head to dust, and her body soon followed in a golden plume of particles. Haze dispelled the flaming armor around her, and she collapsed, exhausted. Then she felt her heart stop, and she, too, bust into a plume of golden particles, reappearing in the waiting room a second later.
“AND WITH THAT STUNNING CONCLUSION, FOLKS, MASTER HAZAIZIL WINS!! WITH THREE MINUTES AND FIFTY-EIGHT SECONDS LEFT ON THE CLOCK!!”
“FUCK!” Haze yelled as she heard her time remaining.
“What’s wrong? You won,” Gator said from the seat next to her in the waiting room.
“Yeah, but I lost a bet.”
“What bet?” Gator asked, curious.
Haze sighed, “I bet one of my students that if I couldn’t beat my opponent in under a minute, I would stop punishing her with the hundreds.”
Gator grimaced, “I thought you stopped doing that punishment?”
“Yeah, well … I also stopped teaching then. Guess I have to stop doing that punishment … again.” Haze answered with a disappointed sigh.
Gator put a comforting hand on Haze’s muscular shoulder and said, “Well, tough shit.” Then stood and left. Haze sighed, and after a few minutes of waiting, she got up and returned to her spot in the stadium where the all too smug Zeana waited for her return.
***