Chapter 12

Testy, testy

Even though the Dancing Donkey was only one district away, it still took us forty-five minutes to find the place. It was clean. That was my first impression. It was a small wooden building, but you could tell the owner really cared about the place. It was in the details. The floors had recently been swept, and the small number of tables were set simply, but everything was evenly spaced and precisely the same on every table. I mean, even the napkins were folded just so.

We walked in and sat down at a table. A few moments later, a young woman asked us if there was anything we wanted to order. She was a Lizardkin. For the most part, she looked like a young human woman in her early twenties, but patches of lizard scales covered her body. She had a forked tongue, a tail, and crazy-looking yellow-green eyes that were lizard-like in shape. Otherwise, she had long brown hair, two arms, two legs, and all that human-like stuff.

We each ordered a beer and then asked to see a menu. The Lizardkin was off, and then, quick as a flash, she was back with two menus and two beers.

“let me know when you are ready to order by pressing this button on your table here.” She showed us where a small black button was located on the side of the table. We thanked her, and she left us to our own devices. There were only a few other people in the place so early in the day, but the quiet atmosphere was kind of nice as I was still pissed off we had been kicked out of our room and would now have to find another place to stay. It wasn’t the end of the world. It was just frustrating. We sat there for a while, just sipping our drinks in peace. The drink was good and cold. It took the edge off at that moment, and I slipped into a slightly better mood.

We eventually decided to look at the city map and see if we could find out where we had to go after this for our meetings today. Meeting up with Michael and his friends would be fun, but if it meant missing our appointment with the Coliseum registry, then we would have to disappoint Michael and his friends. Fighting in the Coliseum was way more important. We sat there just talking and people-watching until about eleven when Michael and a group of humans entered the establishment.

It only took Michael a few seconds to see us in the small place, and for a moment, he looked shocked. Then, the guy smiled and waved. Michael was a skinny guy. He definitely had a bit of muscle under the rough gray tunic and leather vest he was wearing.

Other than that, he had on jeans, work boots, and a trucker hat with some band I didn’t know on his head. Michael’s friends, on the other hand, looked like the most random group of people I had ever seen.

There was a forty-something Indian guy, a twenty-something Asian girl, two twenty-something generic white girls, a thirty-something light-skinned black guy who looked like the jock type, and a fifty-something Hispanic woman who looked to be the unofficial leader of the group. All together, they were a group of seven, and they acted kind of like a family.

The Indian guy and one of the white girls were discussing something with the other white girl, and it seemed to be a heated conversation. Every once in a while, the Indian guy and the white girl who looked to be on the same side of the conversation would look at each other and then back at the other white girl. It was hilarious, and while that was happening, the light-skinned black guy was talking to the Asian girl, and it really looked like he was trying to keep her interest. Which was kind of hard to watch as the Asian girl looked like she was halfway ignoring what he was saying.

The fifty-something Hispanic woman noticed us first after Michael. She had been talking to Michael, so when he noticed us. Michael broke off his conversation and waved at us to come over. The Hispanic woman had looked over to see who Michael was waving at. When she saw us sitting at a table in the tavern, her expression stiffened, then softened a moment later, and she let Michael lead their group over toward our table.

The next to notice us was the black guy and then the Asian girl. Last were the two white girls and the Indian guy. They were so caught up in their conversation they didn’t even realize what was going on, just following their group till they were all standing arrayed in a circle in front of our table.

“These must be the new friends you were talking about, Michael.”

“Yeah, that’s them, but I told them you guys would be here at noon. You’re a little early.”

“Yeah, we had some trouble with the place we were staying at, so we checked out a bit sooner than we’d planned and then just decided to head over here. When you said meat your friends Michael, I didn’t think I’d be meeting such an eclectic group.” They were just such an odd grouping. I needed to know how that happened.

“Ah yeah. That is a funny story. Well, not haha funny, but you know. We all used to work at a place called the Spots Den in Salt Lake City. We survived the integration together, and after we realized we were all alone now in the world, we grouped up, and we’ve been together ever since. We made it to the city about a month ago and have been making our way here ever since. My name is Marissa. You know Michael already. The two white girls are Victoria and Brittany. The Indian guy is Kabir. This is Amy, and the guy next to her is Trent. Michael said you two were from, what was it, Michael, California? How the hell did you end up out here?” The group started taking seats at the tables around ours, and they began ordering drinks as we explained our journey to the Coliseum.

“And that’s when we decided to head east and ran into the Coliseum completely by dumb luck. We’ve been here for almost a week now, and we’ve already been kicked out of one inn and made an enemy of some lordling.” The whole group had started off lost in their own worlds, while Michael and Marissa were the only ones really listening to our story.

Still, as we moved through the tail, more of them started paying attention till, by the end, everyone was transfixed as Janet finished our story up to this point. It hadn’t taken too long to share what had happened to us since the integration. We did leave out several significant details. We did tell them about the town of Treehouse, and several members of the group looked very interested in that part of the story.

We talked to the group about superficial things for a bit longer, then realized it was almost noon and let the group know we had to head out. Before we ran off, Marissa gave us the name of the inn they were staying at, and we thanked her, said our goodbyes, and ran out into the streets of the city. We had somewhere to be.

We barely fucking made it to the training yard in time for Janet’s appointment. It was 1:57 pm as we walked through the gates of training yard D11. The place was empty when we walked in, and for a few moments, we wondered if we were in the right place. The slip of paper had said training yard D11 at 2:00 pm, and this was that, I mean, that was this place, and we were on time. I didn’t really know what to do. Then the bell that indicated the time for all the citizens of the city chimed out two times, indicating it was now two o’clock. A woman who looked to be in her mid-thirties walked into the yard looking at a clipboard as she made her way over to a small table set to one side of the training yard.

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The woman was mostly human-like, as far as I could tell. She had long, wavy brown hair and a soft copper color top her skin. Her nose was a bit pushed back, like when I used to tape up my face as a little kid. Yeah, I was a weird kid, so what? She also looked fucking built like she worked out all the time. I talking fucking ripped. Other than that, two arms, two legs, and everything else. She wore a light suit of armor with a sword strapped to her hip.

The woman walked over to the table, put the clipboard down, and then looked around the training yard. When she saw Janet and me standing near the entrance, she started walking toward us.

“Janet, two o’clock? That one of you?”

“Yeah, that’s me, Janet, training yard D11, two o’clock.”

“Hi, I’m Travis, three o’clock.”

“Oh, you’re my two and three o’clock appointments interesting. You know what? Here’s what we’re gonna do. I’m gonna do both your assessments at once, then I can get an hour to myself.” The woman then punched her fist into her palm and laughed. The assessment turned out to be pretty straightforward. All we had to do was fight the lady, with no abilities, for at least two minutes. Janet was up first while I sat on the sidelines, cheering her on.

“I’m Maxine, by the way. I just figured you’d want to know who will be beating your head into the ground,” the woman, Maxine, said before she laughed again and got into a fighting stance.

“Woohoo, go Janet. Kick her ass, or at least don’t get beat so bad I have to stop talking to you.”

“Fuck you, Travis. You’re supposed to be my cheerleader, not my hater.” Janet said, and I laughed.

“Im sorry, Janet, she just looks really strong.” I chuckled a bit more, and Janet flicked me off before she got into her own fighting stance. All jokes aside, I was excited. This should be good. Maxine unsheathed her sword in one fluid motion as Janet readied her axe. Gripping the shaft so tight, I saw her knuckles turn white. They stood there briefly, eyeing each other up and down before they moved.

Janet and Maxine were like two fraught trains barreling towards each other at full speed. When they clashed, the impact of their attacks sent a fucking shock wave out that almost knocked me out of my chair when it hit me in the chest. They disengaged, and then strikes were flying. Janet and Maxine were dancing. Their movements were just as beautiful as a tango or a persuadable pre-integration, if not more so.

Janet ended up being the first to take an injury. Maxine had just managed to slip past one of Janet’s strikes, and Janet had slightly over-committed to the blow. Because of that, she could not entirely dodge Maxine’s follow-up attack. Maxine had stabbed in quickly with her thin sword. Janet had seen it coming and had started to move out of the way but ended up taking a small slash on the outside of her thigh. Janet had jumped back to get some distance from Maxine before she and Maxine were at it again.

When I looked down at the stopwatch Maxine had thrown me before the match to keep track of the time, I realized I had totally fucked up. The stopwatch in my hand was on its fifth minute and was quickly approaching the sixth. I immediately stood up from my chair and instinctively started running in to stop the fight. I suddenly stopped when I realized that I was just about to get in between two battle-crazed women, fighting with live weapons, having the time of their lives. I figured I should still try to stop the fight, but the way things were going, I thought they might just keep fighting for the full hour if I let them or one of them didn’t kill the other first.

I gave them another ten minutes to just go crazy, and it truly looked like Janet had found a kindred spirit. When eleven minutes had passed, yeah, I gave them an extra one just because, you know, it looked like they were both having so much fun, but then I had to intercede. I picked my moment, and when they brought their weapons together in a great clash, I darted in with Step Lightly and grabbed both of their weapons with mana-infused hands.

“Lady, I let you have your fun, but come on, it’s my turn now. I can’t let you two have all the fun.” Maxine blinked, shook her head, then smiled with embarrassment and put her weapon in its sheath.

“I’m sorry. Sometimes I do that. How bad was it? I mean, how far did we go over time?” Maxine looked like she was waiting for a physical blow to land. Her reaction confused me, but I didn’t think much of it, so I just tossed her the stopwatch.

“Almost twenty minutes! Shit. Thank you for at least stepping in when you did. I do appreciate it.”

“It’s okay. You galls looked like you were having way too much fun. I wasn’t going to get in the way of that, and besides, it was a great show.” Janet walked over and punched me in the chest. She was still hyped up from the fight, so I think she put a bit more behind the punch than intended and almost knocked the wind out of me.

“Okay, okay, my bad,” I said between coughs. As I tried to catch my breath.

“Maxine, Would you like to take a second and rest a bit before our match? Do you want to get started?” Maxine, who was visibly sweating, let out a laugh and then smiled at me.

“I like your attitude, young man. Give me just a moment, and I will be ready.” Maxine then walked over to a stool and sat down. She pulled a water skin from a bag of holding and then pulled out a small yellow vile. Maxine drank some water, then popped the cork on the small vile of yellow liquid and downed it before gulping down some more water. Maxine wiped her mouth, burped, and stood up.

“Ahh, that’s much better.” She twisted and did a few stretches before turning and smiling at me once again.

“Ready human? Travis, was it? If you fight anything like your friend Janet, I can’t wait for our fight to begin. Come.” Maxine finished talking, jumped into the middle of the training yard, and gestured for me to follow. So I did. Janet had tried to beat the woman at her own game, skill versus skill, who was better. I was just going to try and overpower the fuck out of her. I didn’t know Maxine’s level, but I would still give it a shot.

We got into our fighting stances facing each other. I summoned my Teremnocal to my hand, spun it a few times, and then stood ready for the fight to begin. Maxine gave me a slightly crazy smile before pulling her sword from its sheathed. Getting ready herself. Janet was the one who would start the match. Janet had the stopwatch in hand. We were waiting for Janet when she finally said the magic words: fight.

We both moved faster than any animal pre-integration. We were like two cars playing chicken, but neither one of us was going to turn to get out of the way. Our first clash wasn’t as intense as Janets and Maxines, but we still rocked the training yard. Our weapons locked, and I kicked out, landing a blow in the center of Maxine’s chest. Pushing her back a good five feet. I took advantage and put Maxine on the back foot.

I was definitely stronger than Maxine. Maxine was a fucking beast, but Janet and I were a different kind of animal. Our fight came to a head when I enacted a series of moves. First, I caught Maxine’s blow on my blade. I then snacked the blade of my Teremnocal around Maxine’s blade and pushed her blade to the side. That left an opening which I took full advantage of, stepping in close. I then placed my leg behind Maxine and smacked her in the chest with the butt of my weapon. Sending her slamming into the ground hard. I then spun my Teremnocal around and placed the blade of my weapon against her throat.

“You give up?” I asked Maxine. Shooting her a shit-eating smile. The next thing I knew, I was falling. Then, I was on the ground with a sword pointed at my own throat. I was shocked at first, then all I could do was laugh. As I got to my feet, Maxine sheathed her sword.

“So, did we make the cut?” I asked Maxine.

“What? Oh fuck yeah, you guys will be fine in there, at least in the ground-floor matches. You need to work on your technique, Travis, you in particular. Janets is like a fucking animal sending never-ending blows down on her opponent. While Travis, you’re good, but the problem is you think you are a smarter fighter than you are. Let me tell you now that is a dangerous road to walk down. You should both go find a trainer for sure. I know some good ones. I’ll give you a list in a second here, but as far as fighting in the Coliseum, you’ll be fine. You’ll definitely need a trainer to get to the level of the fights on the second and third floors. Those fights are a whole other beast.”

We grabbed the list of trainers and locations where we could find them, thanked Maxine, and headed out. Janet and I were still filled with adrenaline as we left the training yard, so we headed into a tavern and grabbed a drink. The drink was heavenly. It was cold and soothing on a hot day, and after working up a sweat, it was just what we needed. We thanked the tavern keeper for the drink and headed back out into the streets of the city.