Chapter 21

Kill the shit out of them

As we were leaving the check-in area, Eikman and Howsmer walked into view.

“You did it. You won, you won. Hahaha, I knew you would. See, Eikman is the best trainer.”

“Eikman, didn’t you say that…” Howsmer was cut off as Eikman shoved his hands over his mouth. Howsmer spluttered and pushed the man off him. After the Howsmer had sent a few curses at the Eikman, verbal, not actual curses. It was fucked up that I had to make that distinction nowadays, but whatever. Once the cursing, again verbal, was done, Howsmer had forgotten what he was going to say, and then another round of cursing ensued. When Howsmer was finally finished, Eikman looked impressed at the breadth of insults Howsmer had used.

“So when you said you wished I, how did you put it? Had a monkey crawl up my ass, find my lower intestine, and then rip it out to play? I think It was jump rope. Did you mean literally or figuratively?” Eikman asked the man. Howsmer looked like he would blow up, so I figured it was time to interject, or Howsmer might actually kill Eikman. It was a wonder Eikman had lived so long with how he acted.

“So yeah, we both won our first fight, thanks to the two of you. We should go celebrate, right?” I said a little louder than I probably would have otherwise just to get our two trainers' attention. Janet backed me up, seeing what I was trying to do.

“Yeah, come on. You both owe me a fucking drink, but I’ll buy the first round.”

“Buy now. The two men were definitely paying attention, and when they heard free booze, the fight was forgotten. We made our way to a tavern close to the Coliseum and had a few drinks. Or, well, we meant to only have a few drinks, but some of the other patrons in the bar had seen Janet and my fights, and then it turned into a bit of an impromptu party.

We ended up getting pretty fucking drunk. When it was time to leave, we left to cheers, well wishes, and hopes to see us fight in the Coliseum in the future. Janet kissed the serving girl as we left, and the tavern burst into cheers once again, which was cut off as the door to the tavern closed. I laughed at Janet only to get a punch in the arm and then a kiss of my own. Janet took my arm and pulled me close as we walked down the street back to the Inn. We were happy and drunk. The night was chilly, and the air was crisp, but we couldn't feel it as we held each other close.

We were about five minutes from the Inn. I had been drunkenly playing with my Mana while Janet was half-passed out on my back. I got bored when Janet stopped talking and decided to try to figure out why the Mana trick I had figured out during training hadn't worked in the arena.

I understood the reason, mostly. It was a sensory overload. So why had I been able to use it in the suppression array… And that was my answer: the suppression array. The suppression array must have acted like a filter. The noise from the ambient Mana plus any other Mana had been suppressed. Even my own Mana had been suppressed. So it had been easy to feel the shifts in the Mana around me and then use that to sense where attacks were coming from. Now that I wasn’t under the influence of the array, there was too much interference to get a clear picture.

I had decided to try focusing on creating a small area of influence around my hand. I had pushed a small amount of Mana out around the appendage in a fine mist, and at the moment, I was trying not to pass out from just feeling and understanding the ambient Mana all around me. I had gone through many paths forward in my head, but the one that seemed to make the most sense was to try and filter the information down to a manageable level on my own. How I would go about doing that was another story.

As I walked, Janet slept. I was trying to focus, but I think that was the problem. The harder I tried to clamp down and control the technique, the more it slipped out of control, and I experienced a sensory overload. The closest thing I could compare it to would be trying to look at something out of the corner of your eye or focus on one of the foliates in your eyeball. I had to try to observe the ripples in the Mana mist without actively focusing on them.

The easiest way I found to do this was to isolate an area, such as my fingertip. Then, create a small field of Mana mist around it. Then pretend it’s not there. It worked pretty well, and as I walked, I slowly increased the amount of my body I allowed to be engulfed in Mana mist. I knew I was on the right track when looking at a food vendor, wondering If I should stop and grab a snack when I, almost on instinct, dodged a man about to push past me.

I was staring at the vendor, lost in thought, when, out of nowhere, I got the overwhelming sense that I should move. I followed my instinct and moved, taking a larger step to the side. The next second, I felt the wind of someone passing me, and I turned to see a man catching himself from almost falling.

“Are you alright?” I asked the man. The man looked surprised momentarily, blinked, then shook his head.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Fuck off and mind your own business.” The man turned rude rather quickly, and I thought that he must have been embarrassed about almost falling. So I just shrugged, turned, and kept moving toward the Inn. As I was walking, I thought about the man who had nearly bumped into me. The thing that had started to bother me was that he had almost run into me. The street had been mostly empty, and the guy hadn’t seemed that drunk. It was like he had tried to run into me on purpose, but why?

I was so confused and caught up in the thought that I missed it when two people stepped out of an alley and began to follow us. I did manage to notice the next two. I would have been disappointed in myself if I hadn't, as they were standing in the middle of the road, blocking my path. It was at that point I turned and saw the two people that had been following us. Ah fuck, this wasn’t good.

“Oi Janet, wake up,” I said softly to Janet on my back. She didn’t answer me, so I slapped her legs that were wrapped around my waist and tried again.

“Janet, Wake up seriously. Time to wake up. This time, I felt her move a bit.

“I don’t want to Im sleeping. Are we back at the Inn yet?” Janet said back this time. At least she was awake. While I was standing there trying to wake Janet, the newcomers hadn't wasted any time. They all pulled out clubs. Every club looked the same, almost like a billy club, but with small spikes around the tip. As they started approaching us, I figured Janet needed to wake up now, and I didn’t have time to be polite about it. So I dropped Janet onto the ground next to me.

Janet woke up pissed as hell. I had to dodge a punch moments after I dropped her.

“Fuck Janet, not me. Them, fight them.” I said and pointed at the men with clubs walking at us. Well, they were running now. Janet quickly realized what was going on to her credit, and I think the fact that she woke up on the wrong side of the bed right now helped. Janet looked pissed off, like rip your balls off and shove them down your throats, breathing fire mad. The one thing I forgot was that Janet and I were both piss drunk.

As the muggers came at us, I turned to face the two coming at us from behind while I left Janet to deal with the two in front of us. I heard Janet begin to engage her opponents as I dodged a club swing at my head. I followed my dodge up with a swing of my own. I lashed out a fist at one of my attacker's heads and connected. The man fell to the ground. I don’t think he was knocked out, but he was out of the fight. However, I was so caught up in the fact that my punch had actually landed that I didn’t notice the club swinging down on my head. I felt it thought when it connected.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

I swear I saw little cartoon birds circling my head when it happened, too. I didn't knock myself out, and I shook my head to clear the fuzz, but before I could, I got hit again and then again. By that point, I was utterly unable to defend myself. There were just too many blows hitting my body. I couldn’t help it, and at some point, I passed out.

I woke up to someone kicking my leg. When I woke, my vision was blurry, and my head was on fire, but I was still fully dressed, and as I checked, the bags of holding that were hidden in my clothing were all still there. I felt the kick on my leg again, so I looked up to see who the fuck was kicking me.

I had to hold my hand over my eyes, blocking out the morning brightness, to glimpse my kicker. It looked to me like a merchant of some kind, or at least he was dressed like most of the shop owners in the city. Tight, comfortable clothing for easy movement, comfortable boots, and tightly cut or tied-back hair. The guy had just asked me something, but I had missed it.

“What was that?” I asked the guy.

“You need to get the fuck up. Leave! You’re sleeping in the alleyway that I need for deliveries. The flower boy has already threatened to leave if he can't make his delivery. So move now!” The man was almost shouting at us by the end of his little speech, and now Janet was up. I did my best to calm the man as Janet and I got ourselves together and then headed off.

We hobbled our way back to the Inn and then into our room before closing the door and locking it. At that point, I let out a breath that I didn’t realize I had been holding. It felt like a weight was lifted. I had felt incredibly vulnerable ever since I had woken. Now, I could finally check myself over, see the damage, and count up what had been taken. I was still standing at the locked door with my eyes closed, taking a second to myself, when I heard wood splintering behind me.

I turned around, fist raised, ready to fight, still feeling on edge after getting jumped. Janet stood over a coffee table or, well, what remained of a coffee table. It was just in pieces now. Tears were falling from Janet's face, but she didn’t look sad as she stared daggers at the splintered table on the ground. She looked furious. She was so mad she was visibly shaking.

“Janet is…” was all I said before Janet screamed. It was a scream of pure rage, and I didn’t really know what to do for a moment. We both stood there, and Janet let out heavy breaths. I decided to try again.

“Janet, are you okay?” Well, I guess I knew she wasn’t okay. It was a stupid question, but I really didn’t know what else to say. Janet didn’t respond immediately. She just stood there for a few moments, breathing heavily and staring at the remnants of the table she had smashed. I watched her waiting for, well, something, anything, a response of some kind. Then Janet slowly lifted her head, tears still falling from her eyes, burning with rage. Janet answered me.

“Yes, Travis, I am fine, or I will be, but those mother fucking assholes who jumped us last night are fucking dead. You hear me dead. I’m going to kill them, Travis. And if that’s not clear enough, I’ll put it like this. I’m going to find them, corner them in some dark alley, and murder them by ripping them apart piece by piece. Until not even their mothers could recognize their bodies. This will happen.” That was all Janet said before she slumped down onto the couch.

I walked over and sat down next to her. I made to put my arm around her, and I could see as I did. She almost told me to fuck off, but then her shoulders fell, and she let me embrace her. We stayed like that for a while. I don’t know how long exactly, but it was dark when we got off the couch. I fell asleep at one point, and I think Janet had too.

Once we were up, we each took a long shower, communal showers or not. After that was done, we finally started checking out our wounds and losses. It turned out the goons had stripped us of the armor, and I was honestly shocked I hadn’t noticed until now. We had made it a habit of tying our bags of holding under our clothing, so surprisingly, only one of them was missing, but it was a bag I kept only a small amount of coin in for daily spending. Like if I wanted to get some food or pay to enter the Coliseum. It probably would be a good idea to move most of our wealth onto our GIC, but I liked having cash on my. Still bothered me that they took anything from us at all.

When it came to the amount of wounds on our bodies, however, we had definitely seen better days. I was basically black and blue from the neck down. My legs seemed more or less okay. Not to say they were fine. They still got all fucked up. They just weren’t as bruised. They were cut and scrapped up more. My head was another story altogether. It was lumpy and swollen, painful to the touch, and every time I moved, it felt like I was moving through water. Janet and I drank some healing smoothies, and after we looked each other over, we knew we would be okay with time.

We ordered some food up to the room from the tavern connected to the Inn and called it an early night. The next morning, I felt much better. My head especially. It didn’t feel like I was underwater, at least, and the pain was so much better. It hadn’t left me all the way but had significantly decreased. I woke up slowly and then went to the bathroom. Janet was awake when I returned, and she went through her morning routine before we got dressed and headed out. We were going to Eikmans, and we were going to train.

We had talked about it, and both agreed that punching our frustrations out would be the adult way to deal with our emotions. It didn’t take us long until we were standing outside Eikmans house. We had been wondering if the man would be home, but when we arrived, we saw Eikman and Howsmer passed out in chairs on Eikmans porch.

“Hey, wake up,” Janet yelled over to the two sleeping men as we approached. I bent down, picked up a fist-sized dirt clod, and tossed it at Eikman. On the way over, it mostly fell apart in the air, but a substantial chunk still struck Eikman in the chest. Eikman sputtered and fell out of his chair, grabbing Howsmer on his way down and taking him down with him. That had Janet and I laughing our asses off.

“Fuck I needed that,” I said.

“Oh my god, me too. That was exactly what I needed. Thank you, Eikman, and you too, Howsmer.” Janet said. Both men looked at us, then at each other, then back at us, clearly confused.

“Where were you two yesterday? I know you won your fights, and we all got good and drunk afterward, but that was no excuse to miss your training.

“What are you talking about, Eikman? You didn’t move from that chair all day yesterday.” Howsmer asked Eikman.

“Oh, shut it, Howsmer. They still should have come, so I could have got to tell them to fuck off.”

“About that, we had a small altercation after we left the tavern,” Janet told the two.

“What are you talking about?” Asked Eikman.

“We got fucking jumped. That's what the fuck I’m saying.” I clarified. Eikman and Howsmer blinked in confusion and shock for a moment before Eikmans face turned to one of anger while Howsmer’s face became one of pity.

“Eye, that can happen in the city if you're not careful, and you two were quite drunk when you left the tavern hell we all were.”

“Who did it,” was all Eikman said.

“We couldn’t tell, but I don’t think it was a random mugging. It felt like they were waiting for us and had targeted us on purpose.” I told the two. Eikmans frown seemed to deepen at that, and he got quiet.

“Yeah, these assholes came at us with fucking clubs and beat the living shit out of us. Even stole our shit as well. It’s fucking bull shit. I swear I’m gonna find them and fucking kill them for what they did. So Eikman, until then, I need to hit something hard.” Janet told the men. I just nodded in agreement, but Eikman looked like he hadn’t heard a word we said.

“Hey, earth to Eikman, anyone home?” I said after a little while. I had to say it two more times, increasing in volume until Eikman broke from his thoughts.

“What? What did you say, Travis?”

“I said, earth to Eikman. Anyone home? I was just trying to get your attention. You were pretty lost in thought there, you good?” Eikman shook himself slightly, and with that shake, he had all so shaken loose the cloud hanging over him, and the old Eikman was back.

“Haha, save no worries for me, Travis. I am the great trainer of champions. I will be fine, especially if you two keep performing at the Coliseum like you did the other day.” Eikman said and laughed again. Howsmer looked slightly concerned at the man’s mood change but seemed to think nothing of it after a few moments.

“That's why you need to train more than ever. Then the next time four people want to jump you in an ally, no matter how drunk you are, you’ll be able to turn the tables and…” Eikman was cut off as Janet finished his sentence.

“And kill the shit out of them.” Eikman looked shocked at Janet’s words, as did Howsmer, but then Eikman smiled at Janet.

“I like that, kill the shit out of them. Yes, that, definitely that. Couldn't have put it better myself. Well, shall we get to it?” Eikman laughed as he practically flew out of his chair. Howsmer just shook his head at the man. I shrugged at Janet, and she shrugged back, and I followed after our mad new trainer, Janet, close behind me.