Chapter 268: Chapter Two Hundred Sixty Nine

Owen was incredibly relieved to see us go. Sloane and the others were  disappointed to leave, but when they heard we were heading for an arena  they perked up. Arenas were pretty popular among Ascendants from what  I'd been able to find. We were all show offs who loved to make a scene  and being able to make flashy moves in an open space against a strong  enemy while potentially thousands of people watched was a popular pass  time.

I couldn't pretend to be any different really. I'd  gotten excited as soon as I'd heard about the arena, and I was  DEFINITELY going to fight someone there. Maybe not Lament, since I  didn't want any part of a combatant someone would equate to Abel in  terms of skill, especially not someone who knew and had fought with him.  Granted, from what I could tell, Abel had gotten exponentially scarier  after years of being a sausage selling hermit who presumably trained  constantly because he had no social life, but still.

So we  were all in a pretty good mood as we headed for the Bone Arena,  Doomtown's answer to the unspoken questions on every Ascendants mind:  'is there something stupid and violent we can do today, and how many  people will watch?'. As expected, traveling with our full contingent was  apparently more than most people wanted to bite into, so we weren't  attacked again, and we made good time getting to the arena, which was a  massive black stone coliseum that somehow managed to look squat and dark  despite being ten times the size of every other building here.

When  we got to the Arena, Mel was the one who took the lead, stepping past  Abel and waving jovially to the dark armored woman standing to the left  side of the entrance. "Ceras! I thought that was you. I haven't seen you  in years. They have you on door duty huh? You still fighting? Or is  this your usual gig." She stepped up to hug the surprised guardswoman,  shooting a perfunctory nod to the man on the other side but otherwise  ignoring him in favor of an old friend.

As Ceras responded  and the two began catching up, Abel stepped up to us and leaned in to  murmur. "Mel was always much more interested in the arena than I was.  Don't get me wrong, I came here often enough, but I've always preferred a  spontaneous battle to scripted combat. Mel practically lived at this  place during our time in the Twenty though. Starbreaker was the queen of  the Bone Arena for years, so don't be surprised if she seems to know  more than a few of the people here."

As if on cue, Mel  waved us all over. "Alright you lot, Ceras says there are a few fights  on the card for the evening, but we still have time for the open bouts.  Some of the Spear Legion are here. That Wren guy that Owen mentioned is  around, but Lament doesn't show up until right before her matches. They  have her up against the reigning champion tonight." She turned to Abel.  "Apparently Blight is still fighting here. He moved up after I left and  has been undefeated for quite a while recently."

Abel  snorted out a laugh. "Blight? That super pale kid with the long hair and  the skinny chest who only wore leather pants and a vest and followed  you around like a puppy? I forgot that kid even existed. Oh wow, this  place has slipped since we left." He shot her a wolfish grin. "Though I  suppose it became obvious when we first arrived that this place  had...gone to the dogs."

We all groaned at that, and one  of the Beast Lord Garden intitiates actually booed loudly, though when  Abel turned to see who it was he didn't seem to be able to tell. Shame,  I'd have liked to tell them how funny I thought it was. Mel had just  rolled her eyes and ignored her boyfriend. "Anyway, there are still  plenty of matches open for sign up if you two want to fight against  Wren. If he accepts you can try challenging him two on one. There aren't  a lot of limits in the arena aside from what the contestants agree on."

I  turned quickly to shoot Callie a pleading look, which she saw  immediately, prompting an eye roll and a giggle. "Oh stop it. I'm fine  with a fight. Even if this guy is too tough for us it'll be good  practice for the tournament and give us something to work off of. If he  isn't we can put the fear of us into the Spear Legion, so really it's a  win win." She turned to Mel. "Do we have to pay for this?" We had some  money, but most of it had gone into expanding the Pavilion, so we  weren't carrying much of it on hand.

Luckily, Mel just  shook her head. "Not directly. They charge to watch the fights, but its  sort of an all access pass for the open challenges, and fighters are  exempted. The rest of us will be fine, Ceras will let us in just this  once. The owner, Melkar, is an old friend, and he won't mind her letting  me in for free with some friends. So, are you going to challenge Wren?  Because if so I have bets to place."

I snickered at that.  "Place some for us too then, because yes. Most of our liquid cash is in  the Pavilion so just take it out of there. Though I'm not quite as  confident as you are that we'll win. We've been training our asses off,  but competing against someone like this is a level of combat we haven't  ever really experienced. Beat and Sever were the closest but they were  distracted and they're locals anyway. This is a guy from a force  considered powerful in the star system as a whole. I have a feeling he  won't be an easy mark."

Mel just shrugged. "If you lose  you lose. It's not like I'm betting my life savings on you. Besides, if  he's been doing well the odds should be pretty good. I'll make sure not  to put too much of your own cash on you either. I figure ten G-rank  chits or so." We followed her past Ceras and into the arena, but the  other guard led us away from the group and down a side hallway. We had  to stop to do a bit of paperwork before being led to a waiting area with  more than a few other Ascendants in it.

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We'd signed up  for pairs, with the option to fight singles as a team, and when we  arrived we sought out Wren, who was actually really easy to find. A huge  man with olive skin and long red hair, he was easily identifiable by  the absolutely colossal bone spear leaning against the wall next to him.  Made from what appeared to be a femur the size of a person, the thing  had been shaved down to be grippable by Wren's dinner plate sized hands  (seriously, he was at least seven feet tall) and had a single steel  coated tooth molded seamlessly into the end, honed to a razor's edge.

We  stopped in front of the big man, whose amber eyes remained closed as he  reclined in his seat, at least until he heard us stop. They creaked  open slightly. "What do you want?" He said in perhaps the most relaxed  voice I'd ever heard. "I'm trying to nap before my next match." He  yawned expansively after he spoke, but despite the relaxation and  laziness, I noted that his hand was never more then a full arm's  extension from grabbing the spear. He might be napping, but if he was he  wasn't stupid enough to leave any openings.

Callie smiled  cheerfully, holding out her hand to shake. "Hi there! I'm Nightstrike  and this is Solomon. Can we both fight you at once?" Her tone was upbeat  and entirely without shame for how unbalanced the match was, and  everyone in the room turned to look at us in confusion. They had all  been sitting quietly, staring down opponents or trying to look  disaffected and tough.

Wren's eyes opened completely,  focusing on Callie, before his lips twitched into a wide grin and he  burst out laughing. "That...that was the weirdest challenge I've had  since I got here. Wow. No posturing or excuses huh? Just 'let us gang up  on you so we can kick your ass?'" He paused in contemplation before  standing up, cracking his neck and hoisting the spear up over his  shoulder. "You know what? Sure. What the hell. I was going to let them  do a random match thing, but why the hell not?"

He  strolled over to the window where a clerk was quietly doing paperwork on  one end of the room to accept a challenge, and I turned to Callie.  She'd been smiling widely at his acceptance, but as soon as he was out  of range her face turned serious. "I'm assuming you noticed that?"

I  nodded grimly. "He was straining to lift that spear. Not a lot, but  anyone at peak G-rank in a physical combat style should have absurdly  high Might. Whatever the fuck that thing is made from, it's HEAVY." I  wasn't sure what the weight ratio was on bone, but since Ascendants in  the G-rank clocked lifting power in the TONS I was pretty sure that  thing wasn't any normal type of bone.  It seemed to be made from  F-ranked materials if the Impact was anything to go by, but it was  probably on the high end of that scale.

Instead  of coming back, Wren gave us a broad wave and gestured over to a  hallway across the room with a sign next to it saying 'left gate  enclosure' he turned and vanished into the one on the right, and I got  the obvious idea. Callie and I headed for the hall, walking down it to a  small stone room with a dark metal gate on one side. It was lit with  widely spaced torches, though the flames were the same red we saw in  most of Doomtown.

Seeing  the closed gate Callie and I posted up nearby. I turned to cock my head  at her. "You ready for this? Our first taste of real combat at the star  system level? I'm pretty psyched myself." My hands were basically  shaking with anticipation. One slipped down to my coat to slide my cane  free, twirling it between my fingers so fast the sand at our feet was  blown around.

"I  can tell." Callie said fondly. "But yeah. This will be fun. How is your  Balam Skill by the way? We've been training a while, and I forgot to  ask. I know you're at Lesser, but with all the non stop work we've put  in I'm assuming you're coming close to Beginner?" She sounded hopeful,  which I got. Even if it wasn't much of a restriction, the geas was  inconvenient, and I would be just as glad when it was gone.

I  shook my head sadly, but before I could answer, a loud voice rang  through the stone. "Ladies and gentlemen! Our next match is going to be a  special treat. A two on one showcase against Wren, who you've all seen  in here the last few days." The gate began to rise. "Now, coming in from  the left gate, put your hands together for NIGHTSTRIKE and SOLOMON!"  Taking that as a cue we headed off out the gate and into thew massive  expanse of sand that was the arena proper.

Seeing  us enter, Wren gave a cheerful wave before gripping his spear one  handed and whipping it through the air around him. The weight and force  caused small explosions of air and sound as the thing broke the sound  barrier, blowing the nearby sand around in a storm of motion. "Well!" He  called across the sand. "Hope you two can give me a decent workout. I  haven't had a solid fight since I got to this mudhole." There was an  explosion of sand as he rocketed himself forward, moving so fast I  wouldn't have been able to move out of the way if I hadn't been  expecting it. Guess we were starting.

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