Chapter 10: Chapter 10: The battle begins

The planet had completed a full rotation. It didn’t take twenty-four hours like Earth, but thirty-seven, using, of course, human standards. In the sky five moons, each with a different level of proximity with the planet Crixus, seemed to shine in a silver light. If Mares was there looking at the sky, he would notice that, though they looked close to the moon on Earth, there were clearly differences in what composed them, after all they were much shinier.

Near the coliseum, the most famous place on Crixus, there was a huge storehouse, though it wasn’t objects that they stored. From the inside, bestial snores and roars could be heard. That’s where the coliseum guarded their void beasts.

“Are they ready?”

Near to the entrance, further from the other beasts, five cages were locked with five different beasts, three that looked similar to each other and other two that also looked quite similar. Those were the three rank one and two rank two void beasts that the gladiators from the 7600 floor would be facing.

The beasts were in cages that had a technological base, but walls of energy, making any attempts to escape by the beasts of that rank, useless.

“Yes, we already feed them. They can be dispatched to battle at any time now.”

The guards were talking at the same time that they were taking one last look at the void beasts, after all no one wanted to be responsible for screwing with the first battle of the day.

The five void beasts were in their own cages, the three ranked ones were sleeping, but the two that were of a rank above kept looking at each other and advancing against their cages. They seemed to be trying to reach one another.

“What are they doing? They couldn’t be in heat, right?”

One guard asked, to each another shrugged and took out two cylindrical objects, plugging them to a circular entry in the bases of the cage. Gas started leaking inside the walls of energy, the two void beasts tried to resist only to, with roars of resentment, fall asleep.

“Isn’t it dangerous to send two beasts in heat?” A novice asked with some worry.

“It doesn’t, we just have to send them making sure that they are in condition to fight, and void beasts in heat are more than capable of doing so. Whatever happens inside arena is by no means or problem.”

Hearing a veteran explain that the novice became much calmer. They would only learn on the next day what the effects of their drugs, combined with the fact that beasts were in heat, were.

[…]

Mares looked around, he was surprised by how much the room he was in resembled a simple office, not so far fetched from those he could find on Earth. Of course, the materials and objects that filled the room were different, but the idea was the same.

“I believe you are aware of your own position better than anyone.”

An unpleasant voice reached his ear, making he look to the person sitting behind a floating table. It was Talho, who was talking while looking at some virtual documents, not actually looking directly at Mares.

“So?”

The silver eyed couldn’t understand why the owner of the coliseum himself had called him. There were a few possibilities on his head, but neither he or Esen were sure of any of them.

“So, I can’t have you showing your face for millions, otherwise, we both know someone is probably coming for my head. Use this.”

He still kept his eyes of Mares as he throwed a mask for him. The long haired got the mask midair and looked at it. It was a simple one, with no particular details, but at least the material it was made of seemed resistant.

“Is that all?”

‘Does he really needed to call me just to give me a mask?’

He thought to himself, while putting the mask on his face to feel it.

“Are you curious?”

Asking that question, for the first time Talho stopped what he was doing and looked at Mares. It even seemed as if he was trying to look beyond the silver eyed.

“I just wanted to take a look at you. I was curious of what could make them interested.”

Mares didn’t seem to react, but in his eyes there was only coldness.

Talho kept looking at him, trying to understand not who, but what he was looking at.

“You can go.”

The silver eyed didn’t know to which conclusion the owner of the coliseum got. He said nothing else as he got out of the room, and in no moment Talho looked at him again.

[…]

It was early morning, translating to Earth’s time would be around nine a.m., and even so the coliseum was already full. There was a mass of people in and out, those that couldn’t enter were watching real time projections of what happened inside. They were put by Talho’s orders, to give those that couldn’t go in a small taste of the battles. Of course, the projections were far from perfect, they mostly only made people even eager to enter.

“How are you feeling?”

The gladiators of the floor 7600 already were on the middle of the arena’s platform, holding their weapons with anxious expressions. The only exceptions being Mares, Elaso, Madera e Glarto.

“Calm.” The silver eyed responded with a tranquil voice. He had put the conversation with Talho in the back of his mind, the coliseum owner was not something he should be concerning with just yet.

‘He is a monster…’ Everyone thought at the same time.

Elaso sighed, he even considered that the boy would show some nervousness when the time for battle really came, but his worries were for naughty.

Seeing the rookie so relaxed moments before a battle for their lives, it weirdly made everyone less tense. They ignored the memory of him beating all of them, ignoring the gap on strength between them. It made them feel like they had better chances to live.

All eyes were on them, but for they that didn’t know if they would survive to see one more day, it meant nothing.

That day there was something unusual on the coliseum, all the VIP seats had been taken by the same group, an academy. Actually, most of those occupying the seats were teenagers of different races, a lot of them sharing Mares’ age, some even younger than him.

Of course, there was a lot of adults as well, each VIP room had at least three to five instructors and one or two guards from the academy on them.

The reactions and expectations of each young student was different, some were excited, some were just as anxious as the gladiators on the arena, some were not paying attention and some were indifferent. A particular group of five was even sleeping, not minding anything around them.

On one of those VIP rooms, a girl with silver blue hair and a horn on the right side of her forehead, seating at the right side of her teacher, had an anxious expression.

“You are not even going to fight but already look like this.” Her favorite teacher, and personal master, teased her.

Lhian bite her lower lip, even if she didn’t particular enjoy battling, she was still ashamed of the way she was acting.

This time her teacher didn’t sigh or made a lecture, she gave a small giggle and looked at the arena.

“Are you seeing that boy there?”

Who else would she be pointing to if not Mares? Lhian looked at him, he was using his cloak and his face was not visible because of his mask, however the special technology applied on the VIP rooms made easy for her to notice him.

“What about him?” She asked looking curiously at her teacher.

“He has your age.” Any playful tone on her voice was gone.

Lhian eyes went wide, shock write all over her face. It couldn’t really be blamed on her. She was used to a live of peace and it was common knowledge that the universe lived a period of time where large scale conflicts were almost non-existent, at least in the front stage. Even as a member of a once military academy she, and other students as well, never actually had to partake in dangerous fights or conflicts. Maybe only their seniors would, but even so the danger was usually very limited.

So, the thought that someone that shared the same age as her and her friends or colleagues, was on that arena moments away from a battle to the death, made her empathize with him and get shocked.

After a few seconds of silence, she opened her mouth.

“This… is too cruel…” She was even more tense for the upcoming battle, as if the one on the arena was herself or any of her friends.

Her teacher observed her reaction attentively.

‘Lhian, you are too good…’

She was about to say something to her student but the door to the VIP room opened and a man in expensive clothing with two guards behind him entered. The two guards were covered in armor and just by looking at them the gladiators on the arena could tell they were stronger than the usual guards on the underground, and they were not robots this time.

“Lady Qiulei, is an honor to have you and your Battle Crown Academy visiting my humble business.” Talho said, his tone showing all the dexterity that a business man needed.

All the students and staff of the academy turned around and saluted him with a respectful nod of their heads, they were the guests after all. Lhian was the only one that bit her lip and barely moved her head, and if Talho noticed he totally ignored.

An intriguing smile formed on Qiulei’s, Lhian’s favorite teacher and the head teacher of the excursion. It was hard to say what that smile represented.

“Sir Talho didn’t need to put so much effort as to come see us, but I am thankful for it.”

Both had smiles, someone that wasn’t much experienced with the higher roles of society could easily be misguided and believe their happiness was genuine. Lhian wasn’t one of those. As much optimistic she tried to be, as a favored student and someone with a relatively good background she was more than used to this type of play.

“You are too humble, is my great pleasure to receive such scholarly people.” He says while waving his hands to all the other ones around him.

‘You mean our money… Never thought someone would be so annoying to just look at!’ Lhian thought to herself, her eyes could clearly showcase her emotions, but once again, if any of the older ones noticed, they ignored.

“I noticed you took interest in one of my new gladiators.” Talho inquired looking at the image of Mares being reflected in front of the room. Qiulei couldn’t tell what he was thinking, though she now had a feeling that the boy had more behind than she would have firstly imagined. Otherwise, why would Talho suddenly mention him when he would usually ignore even the higher-ranking gladiators.

“I was just curious because I noticed he was young.” She replied, nothing in her tone of voice had changed.

“You have a sharp eye, as expected of the great lady Qiulei. I know you take pride on your students, but that boy is quite the prodigy.” His voice didn’t carry any arrogance or mockery, for everyone it truly sounded like he was simply stating something he truly believed.

For a split second Qiulei frowned wondering about Mares’ background, but it passed mostly unnoticed. Talho said nothing, even if she knew there was no way he would have missed that.

The owner only said a few more words before leaving.

“Say nothing, we can talk later.”

Qiulei’s voice only reached Lhian, who barely nodded her head in acknowledgement. The girl also wasn’t feeling like talking, all her attention was on the arena. The battle was a few moments from beginning.

Mares could feel the change in the air. It was not like the silence before the storm, the change was because one of the gates of the sides of the arena started to open. Even if he was hundreds, probably even a thousand or more, meters way from the gates, he could sense the aura of the void beasts.

He got his spear in hands, his shining eyes focused on the gate.

“What beautiful eyes!” On the VIP room Lhian exclaimed impressed. No one could see his face because of the mask, but his eyes were clear and eye-catching.

Lhian was considered the beauty of the academy and of her family, and she had met countless people of various races that could be described as stunning. However, in front of those unusual shining eyes they seemed quite lacking.

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“Oh, my cute Lhian finally took interest for a man.” Qiulei wouldn’t let an opportunity to make fun of her favorite pass.

The gaze of the male students around them changed. Mares could feel a sudden wave of resentment going in his direction for no reason at all.

‘Where the fuck this is coming from?’ He had the urge to look around but kept looking at the gate.

‘I bet other man are simply envious of how handsome you are.’ Esen said sounding quite proud.

Back to the VIP room, Lhian was blushing. She couldn’t even reply because she had no chance of victory with her teacher in an argument, or in any field probably.

They said nothing more because the gates completely opened. Even those that were only watching felt the change on the air and the pressure, after all, regardless if they watched this type of “show” countless times, they were only normal people and the simple presence of terrifying monsters put them under an unconscious pressure. At least for them, as the battles went on, they would eventually forget that feeling and enjoy more and more of it.

All gladiators had weapons in hand, cold sweat running through their foreheads, both effects of the temperature and of the anxiety of what they are about to battle against.

Five beasts run out of the gate, their bodies were immense, though they still manage to keep a scary speed. It reminded Mares of the speed some cars could achieve on Earth. It didn’t impress him, as for the long haired, that wasn’t much anymore.  He used the few seconds before moving to watch closely the void beasts.

Three were majorly identical, they were moving in four legs that resembled a bunch of boulders put each above the other. On the top of the body there were a few necks, five to seven varying to each one of the beasts, but the longest and thickest one was the neck with the head, that resembled the head of a snake, the only difference was that the scales seemed much fiercer. On the end point of the other necks there was only mouths with sharp fangs. 

Though those three had such an appearance, the pressure Mares felt from them was neglectable. The other two were the ones who he would deal with.

As the three of lower ranking, the two of the second rank also had a reptile style of appearance. Mares wondered if they were from this planet and if these types of creatures were somehow most common here.

They were standing on two legs, and seemed to have at least twenty meters. Their bodies were of the color of charcoal, their small arms reminded Mares of a T-rex, though in contrast to the extinct dinosaur these void beasts didn’t have a curved body, instead they were almost as straight as a tree, making their movements seem clumsy at first, but even so they kept steadily advancing. Their heads were a bit oval, with three horns on their forehead and protuberant fangs on their lower teeth.

‘Huh? There is something weird with them.’ Esen observation made Mares narrow his eyes.

Because of her words he did notice that the rank two void beast’s eyes seemed widened and with blood veins on it. Nobody else seemed to have noticed this or they would have been even more frightened.

The silver eyed didn’t need to exchange words with anyone because their roles already had been decided previously. With a tap of his feet, he jumped several meters, going in collision against one of the rank two void beasts.

His speed was such that, forget the spectators, even the other gladiators were surprised.

“ARE WE GOING TO STAY BEHIND A NEWCOMER?” Elaso’s scream took everyone out of their daze, his tone was provocative and achieved exactly what he wanted.

Everyone on the arena had already fought some battles to the death, some more or less than the others, though the amount it didn’t matter now. What mattered was that, since they were already tempered before, with Mares taking the initiative and Elaso’s scream, they all felt their blood rushing through their veins. They didn’t need a reminder that they had to attack if they wanted to live.

“Move as we trained!”

This time it was Madera that spoke, she had two rods of metal that were as thick as a bone in her hands. It was an unusual weapon, at least for Mares.

“Let’s bring down these fuckers!”

Glarto was not behind his equals. Each one of them was working to raise the morale of the group, and they achieved their goal splendidly.

Mares moved against one second rank void beast and Elaso did the same. Madera took a third of the group to deal with one of the rank one and Glarto and Naal had the other two thirds to the fight the remaining two.

“Amazing team work.” In the room VIP Qiulei had praise in her eyes. Lhian got surprised at her teacher and paid even more attention to the battle.

They managed to separate the beasts and were putting them further away from each other, this way each group could focus more on their battle and not worry about being attacked by the other beasts.

In her group, Madera put the tips of the two metal rods together, both objects trembled but the marble skinned woman’s hands were as firm as ever. From the tip of the weapons waves of sound went out, going straight to the beast’s head. The monster was put in a frenzy, added with the attacks that were being sent in its direction made it easy for them to guide it.

Five were attacking, their weapons were a bit special. They looked like a mix of a common spear with a knight’s medieval spear. Above the part where they would hold the spear a conical format began, with lines that made it clear that the weapon worked as a drill. Besides that, the hands the five were using to hold their weapons were covered with gloves that had strong strings connecting the spears, allowing them to retreat it every time they throwed at the beast.

The throw movement was enough to make the drill spin, with the gladiators’ strength and the fact that it was only a rank one void beast they had an easy time harming and annoying it. Though Madera looked more pale than usual and her forehead was covered in sweat.

The damage they were doing seemed ignorable, but as soon as the beast got further from the other groups, they started using fiercer attacks. While five were responsible for the long-range attacks, the other ten attacked in close distance, most of them using heavy weapons. They could be the last ranking group, but the years spent on the coliseum allowed them to accumulate enough weapons and strength.

If the tentacles got too close, they would attack it, sometimes they would be pushed or even bite, but the others reacted fast and the tentacles would retreat for a few minutes before attacking again.

The scene Madera created was repeated by both Glarto and Naal. Glarto was running around, avoiding the tentacles with mouths and fangs, he was too fast for the beast. His tail was moving, it could seem aimless but the weapon that was attached on it actually split in various parts, each one looking like gigantic needles, with one thinner than the other. By using astral energy, Glarto made them float around him. Each time a tentacle got near him, he would direct the needle to it, annoying the beast.

‘It’s only a shame that we have no poison.’

He thought to himself as he avoided the attacks. While they didn’t have something like Madera’s weapons, Glarto single handedly annoyed the beast to the point most of its attacks were focused on him.

Naal was not too far behind, he also succeeded in moving his beast away. Everyone on his group was using heavy weapons of all kinds, a lot of which Mares didn’t even manage to recognize. They were the ones that were taken the most beating, but still were all on their feet, punching back.

The beasts all tried to make use of their tentacles and even their head, but the group seemed experienced with those monsters, giving them almost no break or space to attack, even Naal’s group that was taking the most damage was handling the monster with expertise.

“See? That’s the result of experience. They were nervous before but now are all calm and going according to a plan. That’s something I don’t think a single student here could do.”

Lhian paid full attention to her teacher’s words. She nodded all the time in agreement. Putting herself in that situation she had doubts if she or any of her classmates could keep the same calmness. The blue silver haired girl was also aware of the fact that even she, as her teacher’s favorite and prodigious student, would not be able to leader them like that, at least in a first try. She simply did not have the real experience.

The other students looked down in shame, some seemed that they wanted to retort but everyone kept quiet and simply watched the battle unfolding.

As everyone managed to achieve their objectives, Elaso and Mares were already fighting the rank two void beasts.

Through the control of the elasticity on his body Elaso could jump amazing heights, easily getting near the beast’s face. He had around ten meters of distance between him and the beast’s head, but it was still near enough for Elaso to feel the putrid smell of its breath.

He was holding his sword with both heads, and as he looked through the beast’s eyes the blade of the sword became covered by a light red energy. He moved the weapon forward and a blade of pure energy in a crescent moon format went from his sword in the beast’s direction.

The attack hit the right cheek of the monster, the impact making its head go back a little before for a moment. A line of a cut showed up on the point where the energy blade landed and a viscous blood, that had the color of magma, was running through it. However, overall, the attack didn’t seem to do much damage and the beast was more furious than before.

‘Why does this beast seem… weird?’

Elaso had his fair share of battles, even against rank two void beasts, so he sensed something was off, he just couldn’t point out what it was.

Taking Elaso as its target, the beast attacked with its tail. It was fast and the leader of the room was still in midair, by all means he should be hit with full force. What happened instead is that he moved, almost like he could float, up, making so that the tail passed under him.  He used this opportunity to aim a second energy blade attack, this time in the eye of the beast.

As the previous attack the second also landed, making the beast further infuriated.

“Guess I should step back a little.”

Making sure no one was in the direction he was going, and using his technique to basically step on air, Elaso moon walked, keeping his eyes on the threat in front of him all the time.

The spectators went wild, most eyes started focusing on him. The maneuver left most of them speechless, people were cheering enthusiastic.

“That was a technique, right?”

Lhian asks her teacher, hoping that Qiulei would elaborate on it. The teacher nodded and went on to explain.

“It looks like a learned technique. He converted his astral energy into a form of energy that, I suppose, repels what he touches. Air seems to be included on this list.”

“Wow, cool!” Lhian also joined the cheering for Elaso. Her teacher laughed; her attention was in the silver eyed boy.

Mares’ speed was about the same of the beasts, and in a frontal attack it shouldn’t be able heard to keep up with him if it wasn’t for its tail.

The tail moved just as fast as the long haired, but there was no change in his expression. He covered his spear with his astral energy, the color of which was similar to the color of his eyes, that resembled stars shining through space.

“What in the universe…” Qiulei had a frown, her eyes were full of doubt. Her expression was that of someone facing something that they were supposed to understand, but simply couldn’t.

The tail meets the head of the spear, making a big wave of impact move through meters on the arena as cracks formed on the floor where both Mares and the beast were standing. Even with this impact Mares’ expression remained the same, it was the void beast that seemed infuriated that this small being was able to take its attack head on.

“AAARRRGGG!”

Its scream reached till the audience, irritating innumerous ears. That was not the beast normal roar.

‘Something is seriously wrong with this beast!’

Esen warned, but it was already late for them to notice.

For a split second the long haired felt a sensation of his body becoming paralyzed, thankfully he fastly managed to overcome it. On the other hand, the rest of the gladiators didn’t do so well.

It was a few seconds, everyone felt their bodies stopping to respond them, they were as paralyzed as statues. However, they were lucky, because the rank one beasts also got momentarily paralyzed for a few moments, but they still recovered faster.

It was the difference of one or two seconds, almost imperceptible by normal people. But in a death battle that was the thin line that kept life and death apart.

One attack pierced through the middle of a body, splashing blood and throwing organs on the ground. The gladiator had an astonished and unwillingly expression before death.

Another attack came, someone lost a head and a geyser of the blood of a friend bathed those around. Someone else was bitten around the area of the shoulder and neck and rapidly died.

Some had their body parts bitten off, those fell on the floor, with their bloods and organs falling out on the ground. Some of them didn’t die instantly, but slowly left the world suffering in pain. The luckier ones didn’t even notice that their deaths had come.  

In one to two seconds, the battle had changed completely.

“Oh my…”

 Lhian went pale, her stomach was turning in ways she didn’t even knew it could. Remarkably enough, she was still doing better than some other students, who either fainted or throw up. Even some of the teachers had unsettled expressions.

“That’s the difference between battling for real and in the academy.” Qiulei remarked in a low voice, but enough for everyone to hear here.

Hearing her teacher’s words Lhian bit her bottom lip and stubbornly fixated her eyes on the arena.

“Shit…” Glarto had his teeth clenched. In the moment his body paralyzed he used his needles on himself, the pain allowing him to move and avoid the strike of the beast. Since the monster was mostly focused on him, his group had the least number of casualties.

In the moment Talho paralyzed he thought he was gone. However, the void beast completely ignored him, turning around, screaming, going to the other second ranked beast.

“Boy…” With his body falling on the ground, he wondered if the silver eyed boy he meet few days ago could win against two of those beasts.