K'lani:

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

Swords clashing, armor clanking, and laughter can all be heard as K'lani looks over the balcony into the fight pits, an; insectoid warrior swings two swords, with a third arm wielding a shield, covering its body; at their combatant, the human backflips out of the; blades way, landing on; one hand, the human throws a fan of knives with shocking accuracy, at the big; bug before getting back on his feet, the insect blocks three of the; knives, with its shield yet misses the one that hits them in their left leg, letting out a grunt, it leaps at the human with both swords thrusting at the human, the human attempts to dodge out of the way with a speed that the bug found lacking, while one, sword; scrapes against the human's chest, the other finds its target in the man's leg, his leg is pinned to the ground, as they try to take the blade out of their leg, the insect grabs the mans arms, holding him still, being seven feet tall, the bug towers over the man who appears to be five something, this was not hard to do, and dislocating the arms out of their sockets, "I submit!" the man yelled, he is then let go, victory found, the big; insectoid creature requests healing for the man. The crowd cheers and yells with excitement and satisfaction; they; begin to cry out the victor's name, Scylla, Scylla, Scylla. Feeling very satisfied after watching that fight, K'lani knows that gladiator is her ticket to having some proper training in the arts of combat; with her father being a lieutenant of the guard at the arena, she has an easier time at getting access to the gladiator's quarters where all the fighters rest up and prepare for the next battle, deciding that her goal was to ask Scylla for combat training. K'lani travels down to the cellar layer of the arena, where the gladiator courters actually are, as; she approaches the large doubles doors of wood and metal support strip, the two guards standing at the sides of the door; notice her and ask, "Hello miss, may we help you?" "Yes, may I go in; I am the daughter of a lieutenant," I say, "Uh, well; I guess it wouldn't hurt to let her in; it should be relatively safe in there," the guard on the left tells the one on the right, "I suppose so, ok miss you may enter," the guard on the right of the door said, "Thank you," I; say to them. As they open the door with me walking through, I thank them again, having entered the large room made of stone brick, with wooden support beams, the floor made of more stone bricks with wood lining the sides of the flooring with several doors around, already; I see gladiators sitting at tables either enjoying their meals or chatting to one another, and as K'lani scans the room for her target, she spots a sizable crowd that also sounds like their talking, "that's got to be where she is" I quietly say to myself, as I neared the; crowd, I could definitely hear them talking about Scylla's performance when I get to them, I can see between a few of the people to see that Scylla is not there, "anyone knows where I can find Scylla?" I asked them; a few of them; turn; around to see me while the others; look, in my direction, "yeah, her room is over there, to the door on your right, closest to the wall," one of them said while pointing at a door by the wall, "thank you," I tell them after looking at where he was pointing, leaving them to go back to their talking, I walk over to Scylla's room, filled with excitement over finally meeting her, as I arrive at the door I see a symbol on it, a sword with a shield, to signify a fighter.

After knocking on the door; I waited until I heard a chittering behind the door, and then I heard a muffled "coming" from the other side of the door; hearing claws grip the knob of the door, it turned, and the door opened, revealing the towering figure of Scylla, "(chitter) may I help you" Scylla questioned me, "yes, would you be able to spar with me, I need the training if I want to fight monsters," I ask of Scylla, "uh, well I don't know, I am; quite rough with my opponents, sparring or not, as you may have noticed from the match" Scylla said to me, "yes, I'm aware, however in the real world, there are worse things than simple pain" I tell her, "I guess, but first I have to know, how did you get back here, why did the guards just let you in here" Scylla questioned me, "well my father is a lieutenant of the guard here, so I get a couple privileges from that" I tell her, having taken my answer positively Scylla says, "alright, meet me at the sparring grounds tomorrow, I need to rejuvenate from the last match" she told me, "speaking of which, do you know if your opponent is ok, he seemed pretty messed up from the match" I ask her, "oh, yeah he's fine, I made sure of that" she told me, "ok, thank you so much, you have no idea how much this means to me" I say to her, "no problem" Scylla says to me before closing the door. After leaving the fighter's barracks, I spot a small group heading towards the sparring grounds; I have seen them before, their regulars, in the fight pits; it's a group of four people, three of whom I have seen, but I have not seen, the new person wears a blue cape, boots, and a pair of gloves, the fact that they are new, is not what draws my focus, no, what draws my focus is the fact that the new person, is a Reborn, someone resurrected with a powerful necromantic spell, or through the whims of Iztar, the god of death or souls. The birth of a Reborn is a; very event; the human kingdom even has a holiday for the creation of all Reborn, mostly because Iztar is very popular for most mortals. I' could introduce myself to them. Father told me to make friends, and I would need some when I become an adventurer; you do need a group; to make a party. As she was deep in thought, she bumped into someone, breaking her thought process; as; the person turned around, she heard, "Woah, careful there 'lani, you have to watch where you're going," the person spoke; "Yes, Father, I apologize for that," I; told Father as I tried to look at where the group had been, but they were not there anymore, "what has; you distracted?" Father asks me, "Well, I saw a reborn, and I was curious; about them," I say, Ahh, so you want to make some friends if possible," Father; says, "I guess," I replied, in reality when I saw those people, I felt; something inside me; as if something is telling me to follow; them, "alright; well; if you want, you can go ahead and find them to introduce yourself while I continue my conversation with these two," my father says to me while he gestures with his hand towards two people, one of whom appears to be a death acolyte, the death acolytes wear black robes, and a bone white bird mask, some decorate their outfits, whereas, others wear the clothing as they come, to show further respect to Iztar, god of souls, though those are the more, fanatical sort, "as you can probably tell, it is some pretty big; importance," father, tells me "ok father, I won't interrupt again." I replied, Thank you 'lani, you; can go, now; sweety, "Father said, "ok, Father, I will. With that, I walked away from the group. Walking away, I decided; I had nothing better to do than to watch more fights. When I got to the entrance of the audience stands, I could already hear combat, and it sounded amazing, blades clashing, the crowd cheering, and the odd scream of pain or two. Entering the room, the first thing; I notice; is that it's packed; most of the seating is taken up by a crowd craving violence. I can count myself as one of them, with glee. Walking up to an empty seat; close to the front, I gain a clear view of the battle. It is a battle between a Human and a Hue'tinx, typically outside of the pits, a Hue'tinx would be treated like dirt, I think it's because everyone thinks they caused the madness about a century ago or something, but I'm not into those types of things, Inside the pits, however, if you can fight, you get the right to fair treatment, and a cut to any bets on your side, if you win anyway, if you lose though, your only reward, is a night or longer, in the medical ward, and a hit to your reputation. Both fighters are using a longsword; from where I can see anyway, there is also a dagger on the ground; in the middle of the arena. With how both of them are using the same type of weapons; and how their both; glancing at the dagger, I can't tell whose it was; they both inch forward, wary of the other's next move. From where I am, it seems like the Human is losing, having a few cuts on his limbs and chin, and has burn marks on his armor, the Hue'tinx, on the other hand, has more cuts on their body, but they seem like they have more energy than the Human, nevermind the hints that may be able to cast fire magic. Suddenly, the Hue'tinx casts a firebolt at the Human, who fails to dodge it, paying the price by getting hit in the ribs, "aarrghh!" the man let out a sound; the Hue'tinx saw an opportunity and used it, charging in, in an attempt to end the match; however, the Human noticed this and once when the Hue'tinx got close, slashed at them, leaving deep gash through their armor and in their flesh, "ah, fuck!" they gasped, following up on his strike, the Human fighter, slashed the Hue'tinx again, but in the leg, causing them to fall to the ground, getting up, the Human fighter pointed his sword at his foe, winning the match. The crowd went wild; with the sudden spell; and the unexpected reversal of tides, with the two strikes by the Human fighter, the audience absolutely loved the fight, and with what little of the match I saw, I agreed; soon, I will find myself in the pit, and with a full audience cheering my name, before, I could only dream, but now, it's more possible then I originally; believed. I stayed, for some more matches, with a couple meeting the first match in excitement; hours went by; before the fighting pits had to close; to allow the fighters to; rest and recuperate.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.