Chapter 34: Unwanted News (Patreon)

I wiped my mouth with my sleeve and placed the sandwich wrapper on top of the stack on the corner table.

“I never questioned it, but eventually we don’t have to eat anymore, correct? And you guys can technically abscond from having to consume anything for a couple weeks before your body starts to fatigue,” I said.

“Technically, yes. In reality, mana takes energy, energy and nutrients still affect our bodies. If we were to gorge ourselves and lock ourselves away in a secluded room without moving, we could go nearly a month before our mana channels would suffer degradation,” Teddy confirmed.

“You don’t have guts.”

“You know this already. What’s your point?”

“Just realizing that adventurers live up to the stereotype.”

“Of?”

“That you eat like a pack of hungry teenagers on a weekend. I think Igas ate seven sandwiches. That’s crazy.”

“I’m a growing warrior,” Igas chuckled.

I rolled my eyes, and subtly turned to observe Sereza as the second to last match of the one on one duels came to an end. The warrior put up a good fight, but his lack of a movement skill made him easy pickings for the caster. A caster who specialized in control skills using wind and water. It was effective, though I had a feeling that Sturmrorex would sneer at the challenge.

Sereza caught me staring and narrowed her eyes.

“That’s the fifth time I’ve caught you looking at me. And the others have done it too. What’s wrong? Is there something on my face?” she huffed.

Oopsy. Not as sneaky as I thought.

“You can’t even tell I’m looking at you. I have a mask.” I countered.

“You’re not denying it. And the ink turns black when you look at me. The tell is too obvious. Is that not a conscious choice?”

“No,” I frowned. “I was trying to practice playing with the enchantment by shifting the colors into specific patterns but it's not working. The item is too attuned to me. It responds without any real input, like I’m breathing.”

“Fascinating,” she said deadpanned. “Now answer my first question.”

Conveniently, the rest of Broken Tower, including Khrem, kept themselves busy with the last match before the free-for-all. A bunch of traitors, the lot of them.

For a second, I debated asking Eodyne to put a wind barrier around us to block out sound, but Khrem was a part of the team now. Whatever dangers we’d face, he deserved to know.

‘Fine, but you won’t like what I’m about to tell you,” I admitted.

Sereza stiffened. Her eyes scanned the room, noting the odd behavior from the others before stopping to linger on me. Eventually she sighed and ran her hand through her hair.

“How bad?”

“Honestly? No idea. But it concerns something you may not want to hear.”

She breathed in and out. Sereza nodded. “I’m ready.”

Fifty-fifty chance she stabs the chair.

“I’ve received news about the blood rituals along with some very minor information regarding the culprit behind it.”

There was a sharp thunk that repeated twice more as Sereza’s stinger excited the wooden limb propping it up. I winced but she stopped and dropped her hands into her palms.

Not the worst reaction.

The room was quiet, Teddy having adjusted the sound enchantments to near mute to give Sereza room to speak. Her groans echoed out and she dug her nails into her jacket.

“Is that all,” she breathed. “If you’re talking about the rituals, that must mean…”

“Lezka is not here. Apparently not in Solunaria either. That’s all we know. Unless Isaac has something more to reveal?”

Isaac gritted his teeth. “No. The orucan told the truth. We found the ritual circle and surveyed the area. Teddy’s parents were unable to find anything else, but more hands were called to scout the underground. But they were unable to find anything else.”

“They’ll keep one hand inside the underground, have the scouts place wards to detect for increased blood mana,” Teddy added.

“But we know that the one who turned Lezka into…” She sat straight and collected herself. “They are there? Hiding?”

“Supposedly,” I shrugged. “For all we know, they could have left the city by now. Considering how Lezka isn’t in Solunaria, and the portal we saw, we can probably assume that they have the means to move spatially.”

She looked up, revealing a mixed set of emotions roiling behind her eyes. “Who told you this? Can we trust them?”

“No idea. And his name is Zog, an orucan. Get this, he’s the guy who keeps staring at our booth.”

“Firehand?”

“Who?”

“Don’t you pay attention? That’s his alias for the tournament. Firehand. You telling me the creepy guy knows about Lezka, his master and the blood sacrifices? How?”

“Remember how I said, you won’t like what I’m going to tell you?”

Sereza groaned and slumped onto the chair’s armrest. “What now?”

“He’s a scion. The information is supposedly from his god. I’d call dragonshit, but he showed me his perk. And since Isaac confirmed the ritual circle information, I don’t see why we should doubt him about the kid or the asshole bad-guy.”

She released another groan, and the others gave sympathetic looks. I didn’t begrudge them, nobody seemed happy. Only Khrem remained indifferent but I could tell he was thinking about something. He glanced my way and gave a slight headshake before steepling his hands and leaning back.

Later then.

“Well, that’s everything.”

Sereza didn’t speak. She nodded and turned to watch the final fight. It was a decent match, the two combatants being close-range experts. One employed metal mana using brass knuckles to extend into spikes and change shape while another used short-bursts of fire to assist in his attacks. But from what I saw, they weren’t the best fighters, their skills lacking variance which meant they had lower slot limits. In the end, I favored the metal user more. While the fire was flashy, he moved around twice as much as his opponent, spending more mana while the human brawler stuck to manipulating only the knuckles.

We gave Sereza time to think. I leaned into Arturous’ belly and scratched at the fur, waiting for the match to end. She wasn’t entirely unresponsive, when I offered her a drink she took it. When the match ended with the brawler being the winner, she downed the rest of her drink and stood up.

“Excuse me, I’ll be back.”

I stood up to join her. “Do you need help?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m going to send a message to my father. If the crown is keeping their eyes in the underground, he’ll need to know.”

She didn’t give time for a response and walked out of the booth.

I sat back down. “Think she’ll be okay?”

“She’s a strong girl. She’ll be fine. If she can handle a super-charged rift, dead gods and more, she can handle this,” Teddy said.

“Give her some time to walk the anger off,” Eodyne added. “Rage is a tool, but it's better to approach the fight with a clear head.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” I said. I drummed my fingers along the armrest and clicked my fangs. Suddenly, an idea occurred. “I can offer Galarion’s help. Take away some of the stress.”

A round of ‘no’s’ rang out.

“Cyrus… That’s a terrible idea,” Celenae said.

“Why? I’m saying Galarion should eat her memories. Just blunt the emotional scratching. Take the edge off if it bothers her. Besides, it's her choice, I’m not forcing it on her.” Isaac tossed a crumpled wrapper at my chest. It bounced off and I glared his way. “What?”

“You’re terrible at handling things. Don’t go fucking her up with your crappy coping mechanisms. You know it’s not healthy,” Isaac scoffed.

“It’s a one-time offer. Jeez. Calm down. I’m not giving her drugs.”

Another wrapper pinged off my shoulder. I I speared it with my tail and flicked it back, earning another eye-beam tossed my way.

“Children… Please,” Igas sighed.

“He started it.”

“And he’s an idiot!” Isaac snapped.

Celenae summoned two barriers that flicked us in the head. It didn’t hurt but it made a comically loud thunk as it collided with our skulls.

I chuckled, accepting the tension breaker. My eyes grazed the arena, where men in robes worked to shape the earth in preparation for the next stage of the tournament. Rocks were summoned from below the sand as someone flattened and compacted the earth while another took the rocks to create rough, hexagonal-shaped slabs.

“What are the chances of Sereza and I getting put into the same bracket?” I asked.

Teddy hummed. “It’s possible, but I would think the chances are low. The arena knows that you two are part of the same booth. As much as they pride themselves in being above noble politicking. They still avoid throwing the same house members against each other.”

“So they’re hypocrites.”

“More likely they do this in order to avoid underwhelming matches. While intentionally ceding a match in a tournament will result in a ban, it would still happen. And any person can make the claim that they were not privy to their opponent’s intentions. It’s a facade that is maintained but accepted as the lesser evil.”

“What are the odds of finally giving Zog what he wants?”

Teddy smiled. “Higher.”

I let silence lapse and the earth mages continued to shape the arena. Within half an hour, the stage had changed. The sand existed but as little more than a foot and a half wide pathways between the twelve foot slabs of stone. Once the whole of the sandpit was filled and morphed, a new mage stepped in and walked to the center. Their robes were different, showing gold filigree that matched the impressive staff that thumped the ground with every step.

With their hood up, it was impossible to tell what kind of individual was under the robe but they radiated a deep well of mana that far surpassed the previous members of the guild.

As they reached the center, mana gathered into grey rings mixed with brown swirls above the yellow crystal embedded into the stone staff. It swelled into a rising tide that turned visible to those with poor senses and formed a glittering ball of dark-steel hovering above their head.

The more the mana gathered, I leaned in further pushing myself against the glass.

Is that… It is. Huh.

The mana threaded itself into the metallic sphere and formed a lattice of swirling lines. It embedded itself throughout and began to form a rune I recognized.

Enforce?

Suddenly, the mana stopped gathering and the rune settled into the sphere. The ball lost shape but the enchantment kept cohesion and joined the material as it slid down the staff and sank into the tile below the user.

Slowly the sand shifted as black lines snaked through the grains and connected to each tile. Once the final tile joined the network the rune faded into the stone and briefly flashed a golden light before smaller flashes erupted throughout the connected slabs.

I leaned back and whistled. “It looks rough, but that was impressive.”

“Did your skill reveal anything?” Celenae asked.

I heard the hunger, but I had to shake my head. “I could see it, could you?”

“No, actually. The guilds go to great lengths to hide their work. Are you saying you could see it?”

“Yes? It was a simple rune, one for enforcing? Enforcing, strengthening, more solid? Not entirely sure, but something along those lines. It’s embedded into the central stone below them and connected together. I think I saw it spread into the walls but I’m not sure.”

Celenae started scribbling into her notebook and she clicked her new pen. “Tell me more.”

“I don’t think-”

“I apologize for the delay, but as you can see, the arena is set for the next stage of the competition! We promise violence, we promise blood. Before our fighters were allowed to display their skills and test their mettle. But the safety is off, and there are too many participants to proceed. They’ve proven themselves adept at handling a single opponent. Will they be able to repeat their victory against multiple combatants at the same time? That’s what we are here to see today! Fill your seats and prepare for the feast! IT'S TIME FOR THE FREE FOR ALL!”

Celenae sighed. “Can you have Galarion share the memory later?”

“Sure.”

“Good,” she smiled. Her eyes widened and she patted my shoulder. “Looks like you’re up first. Go and… Kick ass with some bubbles!”

“It’s kick ass and chew bubblegum,” I groaned. “Hah. Not going to warn me not to do anything crazy?”

Her eyebrows lifted and she stared. “Must I?”

“Nope! When Sereza comes back, tell her about my offer!” I said while rushing out the door.

Isaac attempted to ping me with another paper missile but I slammed the door shut and relaxed against the booth’s door.

An attendant saw me and promptly turned around, disappearing into the crowd.

Yeah, that’s a good reaction, Cyrus.

I bit my lip. Sereza hadn’t returned, but I doubted she missed the fight. I was concerned, but as Teddy said, she’s a strong woman, capable of handling herself. She didn’t need me worrying about her.

Especially if I’m the one about to have my ass kicked.

The thought of a bunch of bratty nobles gunning for me brought a light pounding in my chest. I channeled mana into Verdant Healer and headed for the stairwell.

It was time to cut loose and take out some pent up frustration.