Crimson stares at the nearest opened gate, waiting for a threat to appear. Try as he might even his enhanced eyes can’t see through the darkness that shrouds the threat.

A single creature flew out of the gates towards the group. A sharp thwang echoes through the pit and the creature hits the ground, an arrow sticking out the top of its head. Crimson pulls another arrow from his quiver as he examines the creature while still watching for more.

It’s slanted head, along with its thick body, give it the look of an anteater at first glance. As Crimson’s eyes adjust he can see that, unlike an anteater, this creature has nearly half a dozen eyes on its head, a tail shaped like a massive club, and serrated claws lining it’s four feet. The most disgusting part of the creature being its mouth, a tube like shape with small needled teeth giving it an almost demonic look.

“Wexus… seriously,” Hui relaxes his stance as he says this. “These things are just oversized rats, the scariest apart about them is the smell. They could have at least put more than o-“

Before Hui can finish his explanation more than a few dozen of these creatures begin piling out of the gates in front them. Their sizes varying from a small dog to a full grown lion. In an instant Hui reenters his stance and prepares for their attack, the creatures clearing the hundred-yard gap scarily quickly.

Crimson immediately begins firing arrow after arrow at the approaching swarm, ending twenty of the creatures’ lives before they even reach the initiates’ position.

Hui and Mon dive into the swarm, cutting through any of the creatures that they reach. All the while dodging most attempts of counterattack, any of the wexus that snuck past their guards quickly dying to an arrow.

Despite the aggressive beginning, Hui and Mon begin to become overwhelmed by the sheer numbers. Ensuring their safety, they focus on dodging rather than attacking causing more of the creatures to slip past them and charge Crimson. One of the creatures makes it within lunging distance of him, Crimson pulls out the blade given to him by Fey and prepares to strike. It throws itself at him, whipping itself around to hit him with its club like tail. Crimson jumps the strike and drops on top of the creature, sinking the blade into its eyes.

He looks up to see three pounce at the same time; Crimson tries to pull the knife free just for it to become stuck in the creature’s skull. Just as he’s about to abandon the knife and roll to safety Deidra dashes in front of him, her speed making the heavy armor seem lightweight. She raises her tower shield and the sound of three bodies slamming into it rings like music to Crimson’s ears.

“Cover the others,” She yells, not bothering to look back at him as she stabs into one of the downed wexu. “I’ll cover you.”

Not wasting time on a response, Crimson rips his blade free and sheathes it. Picking up his bow he begins taking pressure off of Mon and Hui, giving them leeway to strike into the horde. Mon lunges at one of the wexu, intent on gutting it just as Hui appears in front of her. Unable to stop herself she tackles Hui to the ground, leaving both of them open to be swarmed.

“Get out the way!” Mon screams as she plunges her fingers into a wexu who lunged at her. “You’re going to get us killed!”

Hui shoves her out of the way and pierces another wexu that tried to claw at her. Both of them try to stand just to be dog piled by the creatures, receiving multiple lacerations as a result. Before the two are consumed by the horde a boom rattles their ears. A massive cloud of dirt covers the two, blinding them as well and the wexu.

“Jump!”

Hearing Echo’s voice in their head, Mon and Hui use the moment of respite and leap out of the horde. As soon as they clear of the wexu Echo dashes into the cloud of dirt, her goggles down over her eyes. The wexu can barely register her presence with the immense noise and blinding debris. Her enemy debilitated, she spins the maul like a veteran, cracking a skull with each twirl. As the dust settles all that is standing is an exhausted Echo with a bloody hammer.

Mon and Hui collapse to the ground after seeing no immediate threat.

“We’ve got to work on coordination, I don’t feel like getting mauled,” Hui grunts, holding his bleeding shoulder. “By you or anything else.”

Instead of responding Mon just nods as she sits with her legs cross, a long cut traveling from her check to her jaw and a nasty bruise on her right leg.

Echo soon follows them, panting from the effort of using her abilities to that extent. Those three are joined by Deidra and Crimson, both with minimal injuries.

“Should we help the others?” Deidra says, her breathing steady but labored. “Some of them are still fighting.”

Crimson looks over the battlefield, shaking his head after a bit of time.

“No, we’re in no shape to do so. I’m out of arrows and useless with the knife, you’re tired, and these three are out for the count.” Crimson says logically. “We killed more than our fair share, we keep going and we’ll just get in the way.”

Accepting his decision each of them sit down and rest, aside from Deidra who stands guard from any strays. Crimson walks through the corpses, retrieving any arrows that seem recoverable. Eventually the fighting ceases, all of the remaining initiates sitting down and licking their wounds.

Crimson finishes collecting any salvageable arrows and sits next to Mon and Hui.

“How are you two doing?” He says, concern obvious in his voice. “No missing limbs?”

“Besides a good chomp to my shoulder?” Hui says, a smile on his face despite the pain. “Nothing but scratches and a hurt ego, I’ll have to repay for that covering fire. I’m going to talk to Echo, need to thank her for that save.”

Crimson smiles as he leaves then looks at Mon who has yet to respond, noting the upset expression she is wearing.

“You ok?” Crimson says, tapping her shoulder. “You look sad.”

Mon looks at him, her upset look changing to a smile.

“I just wish there were more,” She says with a sigh. “Felt like it ended too fast.”

“I’m not sure what I expected from the crazy cat girl,” Crimson deadpans. “We were just forced into a gladiatorial arena and you’re thinking there weren’t enough enemies.”

“I’m also thinking I want to do this again,” She says with an innocent smile. “If that helps at all.”

Crimson looks at her like she’s insane, then again she probably is.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“Of course you are.”

Before they can continue the loud sound of a door opening launches Crimson to his feet, bow drawn and ready for another attack. Just for him to see Fey standing near the door.

“Congrats on living,” She says. “Who’s ready for teams?”

Crimson sits back down in disgust.

“You try to kill us and then act like nothing happened, honestly you might be crazy,” He grunts. “What was this even for anyway? And don’t tell me it’s a test, anyone who got inducted would have been chosen by a Stena member anyway.”

Fey nods her head.

“Yup, but even Stena has some bad apples. Lots of people would pay a lot of money to be inducted, and some have enough to sway some of our members to do so. I consider this to be a process of getting rid of those who don’t deserve to be here,” She says with a smile. “Good news is only a few of you died.”

“How many?” Crimson asks, his face not revealing any emotion.

Fey rubs her chin for a moment, looking for the answer.

“Out of the sixty-seven of you? Seven I think,” She says, no grief in her voice. “That’ll make creating teams simple.”

“That’s good?” Crimson yells. “What is good about them being dead!”

Fey just looks at him as if he’s a child throwing a tantrum.

“Think about it this way. Wexu are weak, some of the weakest, even in numbers. With all of these other initiates anyone that died would have never been able to pull their weight,” Fey explains. “If they can’t pull their weight they’ll eventually get their team killed. It’s better the weak die alone, instead of bringing the strong down with them.”

“That doesn’t make their death a good thing!” Crimson argues. “If this is what Stena thinks of initiates I’m starting to regret my decision.”

Fey shakes her head at him. She licks her finger, igniting it with her signature blue flame.

“Think about it a different way then. One person is a small flame one that, if given fuel and protection, can become a large flame. A flame capable of keeping lots of people warm in the cold hell hole we call a world. The next is nothing but a bundle of sticks, it can become a flame, it could even become a large flame like the previous one. But the effort it would take is increased tenfold and most of the time it won’t ever become what we need it to be,” She says, snapping away the flames as she does. “Why should I waste my time making a new fire when I could use those sticks to fuel the already burning one?”

Fey points towards Crimson, then to Mon, then Deidra, and then spreads her arms around the arena. Her point made.

“If I spend a moment protecting a coward, who knows how many initiates capable of becoming the best in the world would die,” She says with a grin. “It’s a cruel number’s game, but it works. Everyone here knows they could die at any moment, you agreed to those terms. As did everyone else.”

Crimson remains quiet, pondering her words. Seeing no other act of defiance Fey stands, making a circular motion with her hands. In an instant, dozens of hooded figures jump from the top of the pit. Each of them land without a sound and begin performing various duties, some cleaning up bodies, others tending to the wounded, and a couple collecting any recoverable equipment.

Mon tries to look at the face of the one bandaging her but can’t see through the darkness of the hood, even with her eyes, almost as if it’s face is darkness.

“Hey Fey, who are these people?” Mon says, trying to grab at the person’s hood. “Are these other Stena people?”

“That’s correct, those are the janitors I was talking about,” Fey says, walking towards Mon. “They keep the place running so we can do our jobs.”

Mon stares into the janitors hooded figure, unable to see anything besides the shadowy outline of a face. The simple brown robe they wear the only thing giving them any sort of shape.

“They’re cool,” Mon says, licking her wounded leg despite the janitor’s efforts to make her stay still. “Though a little creepy, what’s with the hoods?”

“They work outside a lot,” Fey lets the lie glide off her tongue flawlessly. “Have to make sure they don’t overheat.”

Mon nods understandingly, not pressing further. Seeing no other questions Fey walks back over to Crimson, who is still pouting.

“How did you think your first little skirmish went?” She asks, sitting down next to him. “You seemed to handle yourself well. The injuries on Mon, and that duelist, would have been a lot worse without you.”

“Hui, his name is Hui,” Crimson says, glancing toward Hui relaxing next to Echo and Deidra as he’s bandaged by another Janitor. “And yeah, I know. Feels like I came out a lot less injured though, mainly thanks to Deidra I guess.”

Fey looks towards Deidra, the warrior’s attention focused half on the conversation with Hui, the other half examining the borrowed armor.

“Yeah, you two seemed to make a good team,” Fey says. “We’ll have to make sure you can defend yourself though. Can’t have her being your lifeline.”

“I’d have been toast without her,” Crimson says. “She’s really good at this.”

“She’s probably been doing this a lot longer than you h-“

Suddenly Mon tackles Fey from behind, sending both of them sprawling to the ground.

“Wait! Wait! Wait! Can you make toast!” Yells Mon, saliva dripping from her mouth. “That’s possible right?”

Fey sits up from her prone position, removing Mon from atop her as she does.

“I can make toast yes,” Fey says, confused at the question. “I’m sure most people here can.”

“No no no!” Mon says, jumping up and down uncontrollably. “I mean with your mouth!”

Fey looks down at the girl, a look of amusement and disbelief on her face.

“Those hyper sensitive ears of yours are going to bite you in the rear someday.” Fey warns, patting Mon’s head as she does. “The answer is I don’t know, never thought to use it that way.”

Mon’s eyes practically glitter with anticipation.

“Can you try?” Mon asks, her face attempting to mimic puppy eyes.

“Maybe after we get all of you set up with room, and if you don’t gut any initiates while I’m not around.”

“So I can gut them when you are around.” Mon says, clearly not understanding the request.

Hearing the conversation Deidra trots over, her helmet under her arm.

“Have you already come up with the teams, Fey?” Deidra asks, standing next to Mon. “I believe we worked together quite well, and our composition is nearly spot on.”

Fey looks between the five of them, Hui and Echo having joined them after Deidra.

“I still have to corral the rest of the teams, but you all can bet on being on a team together.” Fey says with a grin before trying to trot off.

“Not that I’m unhappy with the results, but why am I on their team,” Echo asks, stopping Fey from leaving. “I only did one thing while they did most of the work, I don’t want to weigh them down.”

Fey turns around and pulls something out of one of the pouches on her hip. A small medallion with the symbol of a forge on it, and the number two.

“Not everyone on the team has to be the best at combat, though you certainly held your own,” Fey says, handing the medallion to Echo. “Some are logistics, tacticians, or the smiths. Their equipment needs to be repaired and built, and from what I heard your work is top-tier. So have fun with your personal forge, and get to know your team.”

Echo looks down at the medallion, a smile stretching across her face. Before she can thank Fey, the Siren has already walked towards the rest of the initiates.

Crimson stands, walking towards Echo. As he nears her he looks at the medallion, the medal it’s made from clearly high quality.

“Well I guess you’re definitely making our equipment,” Crimson says with a grin. “I prefer lightweight gear.”

“Oh oh! Can you make my claws first?” Mon jumps up. “I really need new ones; these don’t fit well.”

“I would also like a helmet, and a secondary rapier,” Hui adds, patting Echo on the back as he approaches. “I’d prefer it with no guard though.”

Echo nods vigorously at all the requests, her excitement growing by leaps and bounds.

Crimson steps away from the group to see Deidra still examining the borrowed armor. He walks to her and settles himself next to her.

“What’s wrong?” He asks. “Not wanting to let it go? I bet Echo could make you a similar set.”

Deidra runs her hands over the helmet, fascinated by the design.

“I’ll have to get Echo to just adjust it, Fey told me to keep it,” Deidra says, looking at Crimson. “Despite my arguments.”

“That’s good, why are you so quiet then?” Crimson says confused. “I’d assume that would make you happy, it is quality armor.”

“It is good, it just feels so familiar,” She mumbles. “The craftsmanship is almost identical to my first set. Though way more advanced.”

“I wish I could understand, but I’ve never seen it,” He says, standing as he does. “You still have it?”

Deidra stands with him, placing the helmet on her head.

“Not in this life,” She says, her emotion hidden behind the helmet. “Let’s return to them, we have to get settled in our room anyway.”

Crimson nods, walking towards his team.

“Wait, do they have male and female restrooms or is it shared?” He asks suddenly. “I really hope we have separate bathrooms.”

“You’re an adult Crimson, I hope you’ve at least been around women before,” She laughs. “With a routine we can minimize the awkward situations.”

“One, none of us are over twenty. Two, I have thank you very much. Three, and most important. Females take forever in the restroom, imagine three of them,” He says with a sigh. “Me and Hui are screwed.”

Deidra shakes her head at him, not bothering to give him any sympathy.