Chapter 4: Another Player
*BOOM* *PoP*
"Motherfucker!"
"Die!"
"Ahh!"
Countless fights were being waged constantly inside of a crude iron gaunt ring. Some were small, barely enough to swing a knife, others large enough for ten people to go head to head. They did. All manners of fighting and gladial death were being played out like the bout of a play filled with carnage that was all too real. It was.
"Solomon!"
"Solomon!"
"SOLOMON!"
He turned, holding his shoulder and waist. Even as they shouted his name he didn't hear it. There was this…ringing in his ears, it wasn't painful but it wouldn't go away for a little while. He felt coins pepper his body along with other things like flowers as a sign of their enjoyment. He'd bend down even through the pain to grab the coin, but he knew the rules.
As if on cue to the thought, 3 thin kids came racing out with burlap bags. People peppered them, instead of coin and flower, with anything they could get their hands on. The kids dodged and weaved nimbly obviously having been used to this treatment for years. Solomon sighed, fight after fight had worn him out today. Using his power for offense combat, drained him over several hours, one time use of the power on an object? Easy and eternally changed. However, it only made items better not the techniques of the user outside of training.
Fire could still burn, ice could still freeze, poison could still null, and being continually punched by a giant could indeed…hurt like a bitch.
*Crr…* *Crr…*
Solomon could start to hear his feet sliding against the ground and before he realized it, he had pushed himself to the edge of the stage and hopped down walking over and collapsing in a back room.
A sturdy looking man opened the door, and closed it quietly behind himself. This nice favor would've been appreciated but, "Good job! Another good round of fights, I know its tough kid but they are going to raise the stakes until we die….it is just what happens. Every step over a body, means all the more the next opponent will be harder to beat…sorry kiddo"
This was jack, to be exact it was Bear Jack. A man known for his powerful wide palms and looming frame. He had been here a while and always took part in the heavy weight fighting that went on, but he wasn't blessed with a power and so only watched the ability fights from afar.
Jack had met Solomon after watching him fight, and ever since then the two had become friends. Jack knew however that the power infused fighters died the fastest, one because the wounds could be supernaturally devious and that the fighting escalated the better they were. If they had a good power, they threw that person at everyone to see how they would use it. If they were a powerful person, then they would fight a bunch of opponents.
If they were both? Then they fight others on that same level, and after winning that fight go up the next level.
Slaves.
Murderers.
Psychopaths.
People down on their luck.
People with nothing left to lose.
Many people had all assortments of mixed matched reasoning and what made jack the saddest was Solomon was grabbed as a kid and put in here. He was one of the boys that scrounged for coins and was laughed at. Then, his powers showed when he crushed the changes in his body when he was sleeping and since then made him fight.
They didn't waste a talent though, they didn't understand his power and still don't. So, the kid has had the longest streak of not dying. 2 years, 2 years of bloodshed and blade.
"They got you good?" Jack asked, eyeing his shoulder and side.
"Yeah…send Miranda in…need her…cough…" Solomon layed there like a dead corpse unable to move. Jack sighed and nodded, hesitating on the door handle before stepping through the door and calling the healer.
A cute girl came in, about the same age as Solomon and layed her hands on him. White light showed on his body where he wasn't wounded, and when the light from her hands turned red it signaled a wound and from there began to condense the light until it healed the wound and turned white again. Of course, a girl with this ability was gods send in the arena for both saving lives…and prolonging the use of a fighter.
"Hey beautiful…cough…come here often?" Solomon smirked, and she slapped him in the side of the head. Solomon felt his waist finally heal over, and he sat up grabbing her with his one good arm before kissing her.
"Yeah…muah…yeah, yeah…I missed you too you goof…" She kissed him back, but got some words in thankfully.
He layed himself back into the cot, but she could see in his eyes he was distracted by something.
"What is it?"
"With the gold I make…I can buy and sell items, magical, infused items with good materials…but I don't think I'll make enough to 'Buy' us out of this place together…with how fast the leveling is going for the stage fights I've decided to just buy you out instead. Go live a life, live a good life."
Solomon had a certain tinge of tiredness to his voice.
"You know…they could easily just swipe me back up without someone to protect me, how could I leave without you?" She didn't speak fast, more or less matter of factly.
"Yeah…I know…" Solomon placed his arm over his forehead, looking up at the ceiling.
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Sometime around midnight Solomon had fallen asleep, he slept better than most days. Maybe it was because he had settled his mind with the idea of never leaving this place alive or dead; a sort of coming to terms with this life he's lead.
Solomon's ability was Density. Compression of molecules, it all its forms. This was a great ability, far away it could crush a car into a marble if he was that strong…however, there was a draw back. It only worked within an inch of his body.
Through countless battles, he had fallen away from blades and bows and worn full bodied armor in their stead. Most didn't down here, they were known for gauntlets or light armor but not Solomon. People called him the "Metal Knight" for the armors he always wore. Often, he used his ability of density to compress the armors metals to the extreme until they became impenetrable by blade.
He trained to the point he could solidify air molecules under his feet and kick off them, or punch before releasing them to explode forth with rough wind gusts.
Through battle, you learn a lot about yourself.
However, the drawbacks only continued. If he tried to condense water, the molecules became dense and froze everything around it. If someone splashed water towards him, or controlled it he wouldn't be able to do more than change their weapon into a solid structure.
Of course, he could go the other way and release molecules instead of condense them but this had even worse drawbacks. As molecules separated and became sped up, everywhere close to him set on fire. Phasing through walls? Pff. If he tried it, his clothes would first burst into flames and then after being burnt he would finally pass through the wall, albeit setting it into molten lava and fire.
Leaving? Would blaze a trail, the harder the material the harder it was to free it of its molecular bindings and thus he was truly stuck here. They only knew his ability of "Deepen Density", and thus gave him some good armor as his weapon.
Fighting though, he couldn't just negate fire or frost. Negate bludgeoning damage. He isn't god.
Solomon opened his eyes, thinking over his capabilities for the thousandth time as if to give himself hope for change. It wouldn't.
"Strange…silence." There wasn't the never ending roaring of a crowd and so it felt desolate.
Solomon walked over to the door, and opened it. Facing the familiar bars that looked out over the fighting stages. It was like a basement level, so when he looked out his head was level with the ground floor. Nobody was there though; the stage was empty as well as any and all seats.
A fog enveloped the edges of the large room several hundred feet across. When Solomon looked to his far right the fog was there too, slowly making its way towards him as if it was creeping.
It stopped when he looked at it, but out of the corner of his eye it was definitely moving.
'Could it be…a power user I didn't know about is freeing people? Fuck it, I will take the chance! If I am going to stay, I might as well use this strange ass miracle' Solomon went towards the fog, looking in through the line of doors to the rooms. However, nobody was in them. He knew everybody's schedule so the people to the right of his room would be out on the floor right now.
The reason why he checked, was to confirm that if they shut the arena down then they would be back in their rooms, but they weren't.
This means something else is occurring, check.
Solomon walked down the hallway to his left, glancing back at the fog that had now passed by his room. Stopping upon his gaze like a creeping predator.
'This fog…it unsettles me.' Solomon had been through many fights, bloody battles, and the edge of death and so his sense to danger was pretty high. This fog screamed danger, albeit…silently when taken litterly.
'Nobody else though, what the hell?'
There wasn't a soul in sight.
He finally passed by Jacks room and thankfully found him slumbering on his bed. He turned to face the fog, and without looking away knocked on the door "Jack! Wake up, something is up" He wasn't loud, but for the experienced grizzly of a man jack woke up straight away.
"What up kid?" He asked patting his face and standing.
"Everyone is gone…nobody is in the rooms to the right, nobody is on the stage, nobody…is around. I only found you." Solomon said in a grim tone.
"The fuck?" Jack stuck his head out as if to confirm it all, and when the silence met his ears a serious looked crossed his eyes.
"This ain't right…in all the time I have been here, this has never happened…what's with the fog, it feels like deaths breathe" Jack turned to look at the fog.
"If you don't watch it, it comes towards you. About a foot per 10 seconds, which if it's true, it hasn't been here that long and yet many people are already gone.
"That…" Jack trailed off, watching as a shadow ran down the left hallway across a window looking out into the next wing that went around the fighting stage.
"Someone down that way…come on" Jack walked to the end of the hallway and gave a silent whistle, Solomon backed up slowly watching the fog as he looked into the other rooms. There were some people in those rooms, but they were nobody he or Jack liked anyway and so left them.
Jack fiddled with the gate, and soon it creaked open. Solomon was still watching the fog far down the hallway, keeping it at bay with his gaze. They stepped through, slamming the gate right behind themselves before running off after the shadow. Jack looked forward, while Solomon looked back at the barred gate. The fog wasn't going through, even though there was a bunch of places for it too. It didn't go through the barred gate. The window looked opaque from the fog on either side of gate too, this only meant it couldn't go past boundaries!
"It is someone's power. It is…" Solomon turned to Jack, "You're right kid…fog would go through, only someone's ability would have a flaw like that."
Flaws were the common terms for powers, like Solomon who set things aflame or water solid. Or could only use his power within an inch of himself, these three things were flaws.
This flaw wouldn't let things passed the boundary, meaning the people they left behind may very well survive.
They neared the end of the hallway, checking different doors for people on the other side. Some woke up, and Solomon and Jack mischievously sent them towards the gate with the fog.
Truly, many here were assholes, most of these people were vile but when they heard they could escape or leave some merely stayed in the rooms without care. One however stood up abruptly, racing towards the gate and swinging it open before charging into the fog. The man disappeared through the fog. Jack and Solomon looked out the barred floor window, angling their heads to see the hallway on the other side. They saw movement in the fog but it never reached the other side.
"What kind'ove ability is this…" Jack muttered racking his brain. The fog was already moving into this hallway, so they leapt through the door at the end of the hallway and slammed it behind them before locking it this time.
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They were now in a large hallway that raised up by stairs to be level with the battle platforms peppered about back to back. There was a large door leading into the room, but for obvious reasons as they looked through the large panoramic windows; they didn't open the damned thing.
Fog, so deep they couldn't see an inch passed the window.
"This just doesn't seem right…" Jack's voice trailed off as he reached his hand out behind a stall for vendors and grabbed someone by the throat. Solomon had heard the creak and breathing of someone there as well, and had acted like he was looking through the window on Jacks cue.
"Wait! Please…don't kill me, come on man I am just a vendor. Don't send me out into the fog…please…"
Indeed, this was a noble dressed man. He fit the description of a vendor, and in fact Jack and Solomon knew him well.
He crafted, but most sold most of the weapons here in the arena.
"Sol? Jack? Oh fuck thank god…I couldn't see that well because my glasses broke, when I saw two shadows moving down the hallway I booked it…fuck…" The man slid glassed up onto his face he was clutching in his hand tightly.
"Malcom…ya know, if you were someone else I swear I would've shook the shit out of you" Jack gave him a grin, but let go after lifting him up on his feet.
"What the fuck is all this" Solomon asked.
"I…I fell asleep back in the vendor stall, when I woke up everyone was looking out the windows to the fog that was enveloping the room. When people seemed to just disappear, everyone moved into the room wondering what the hell was going on. The fog rolled in as if sensing them, slamming towards the crowd of people. Right before their eyes people vanished, disappearing into the fog…I closed the door right as the fog struck. Someone got to the side where the fighters dwell on the far left side over there…and slipped inside, the fog caught him though…that wasn't that long ago."
Solomon nodded; indeed the fog had rolled down the left wing not that long ago. It would correlate with what Malcolm said.
"Have you seen Anna…" Solomon asked looking around.
"No…I…haven't I'm sorry, I would've noticed anyone I knew going into the room." Malcolm turned back to his stall, as well as others.
"What now?" Jack asked following Malcom's gaze.
Solomon looked over the stalls, "Malcom…I know you have kept tabs on everything here, what magical items and artifacts can we nab…."
Malcom coughed and pulled out a small notebook, "Well…including things like artifacts from beyond the cities from old ruins and otherwise…several items. City crafted magical items, a deal more…I have some things myself."
Jack smiled mischievously, Solomon albeit a bit less but enough to cast his gaze over the other vendor rooms.
'Artifacts' were related to two groups of known found objects outside the cities, magical items lost or the much more powerful mysterious objects of power. These, were from unknown origins but had strange abilities entailed within. Some had their guesses to origins, as the world was a vast place and the ruins they were found within were always related to gods or demons of an unknown past. History was lost left and right, so the true 'Origin'? Who knows.
Solomon nodded to the windows before flicking his thumb over his shoulder, "Tell me what you got…we have two choices, go into the fog or find a different route out."
Malcom looked at the fog warily, "Well…come…uh…look at my wares." He raced off through other stalls and rooms, VIP sections; he gave no regard to any and all securities as he had long scoped them out and easily knew the magical passwords or mechanical systems.
This was Malcom's less known skills, but of course Sol and Jack knew.
After a while, Jack and Solomon gathered around Malcom's now packed stall and several tables he had brought over.
Some of these looked exotic as hell. The sad part on fighters, was their patrons had to give them things to fight with. Way back in the past they may have done this, but as of a decade ago the weapons that came in were a part of the building up above ground that had….well to say the least a history of black market sales, and an over the table Merchant Hall.
The black market, or items market, was set in a system of large rooms next to the gladial spaces. One for entertainment and bets, the other for the sale of people or items for business. You could even buy someone, and then send them in the arena.
Malcom gave a showy cough as if a crowd was before him, "To begin…we have 4 artifacts, 10 magical items, and quite a few exotic weapons and armor today.
The artifacts are as follows, Dimension compartment cylinder, Adamant Breaker, Wind Knuckle Scythe, and last but not least eternal lantern of flame. Magical items next?"
Solomon furrowed his brows, "I have heard of the whole dimension bag thing…what this one is."
"Well..." Malcom pulled over a cylindrical looking holder, except the ends were rounded metal looking bowls. They were such perfect halves that if you placed them together, they would make a perfect sphere. Inbetween the two however was the cylinder made of some unknown leather or material. Malcom pulled a strap through a buckle, and rolled the cloth out on the table.
"Hmm…oh its an illusion, its just a bundle but when you roll it out a picture of a box appears…so lifelike…so…" Jack reached his hand out and touched what he thought was an image only to fight his hand sink into empty space.
"Woh!" He clamored pulling his hand back.
Solomon and Malcom both looked at him funny, "Nobody ever talked to you about all these things?" They almost shouted waving their hands.
"Listen…I came from a farm, I aint supposed to know this shit, I fight." He gave him both the bird.
Indeed, it was a dimensional box tucked away within a rolled cylinder which would defy all logic…but magic made it possible. The boxes top edges, or the cloths edges, were 3 feet long after being rolled out and 2 feet wide not including the half spheres. It was 1.5 feet deep, giving quite a bit of room for things. The spheres were attached to a metal rectangle that ran from one side to the other attaching to the cloth.
Malcom smiled, and undid a hinge turning the sphere onto its bottom. Solomon reached his hand into it and found that it had become 2 feet deep within. The sphere itself had a 7 inch diameter so it too had a good amount of space.
Malcom looked Solomon's amazed expression over, "They say…this was used by an archer, and that he kept his arrows in these. Each space is identical within both spheres and only give access once turned sideways. There is a thin film covering the box, so that when you fold the cloth nothing spills out…as if it's unaffected. Someone found this puppy and was going to sell it in the black market for a high price heh…however…their security to keep it in hand while watching the Arena fight was stupid…idiots."
"Malcom…I want this one." Solomon looked him over pleadingly.
"You're lucky I already got a bag or I'd say no…too bulky for me anyway." He patted a small coin purse on his side. Jack laughed.
Solomon rolled it up, putting the latch in place. It had a belt attached going across the cloth, Solomon put it through his pants. He hooked his hand behind his back, and indeed the spheres halves could be undone and brought down for an archer. It must have been a bitch, and quite dangerous to find this wherever they did.
Too bad for them.
"Alright next...come on, come on." Jack was excited now, like a kid in a candy shop.
"Okay so as it applies…for the Wind Knuckle Scythe you need an affinity for Wind within magic…it aint like powers, this thing is driven by magical energy…" Jack snatched it off the table without a second thought, "Well then I am one lucky fuck"
Solomon and Malcom looked at him with wide eyes, he laughed at them however, "What you thought I didn't have an affinity? Usually if you don't have a power…which in and of itself is a manifestation of the combinance of certain affinities…you usually have an affinity for something.
Remember I ain't from here…in fact; I am from a city of magic. I use my affinity in fights…it always goes unnoticed, so I just look experienced as hell. Another reason I can't break the hell out of here? Because I don't have a good enough magical item to use." Jack placed his hands into what looked like a brass knuckle. A blade was attached pointing down in an arc from the knuckles, Jack flicked his hands as if starting a car and the blade floated off from the brass knuckles. Wind curled around th floating blade, and a literal blade of wind extended around the blade and down a foot!
"Holy fuck!" Malcom and Solomon almost shouted.
"If you have magic…you can rival those with powers, why do you think the big wigs hate us sort of people" Jack looked sad speaking these words, but the look was soon gone as he once again felt the stimulation of magic flowing through his veins into a source.
Malcom looked at Solomon who just eyed him with a 'Okay keep going, even I want something more now'
He nodded, "This is called the Adamant breaker…it as you can see has a handle bar, and from the top forward an inch is metal connecting to a rectangular piece of metal going to the other side…It's like brass knuckles if it was 2 feet wide and for two hands…" Solomon nodded taking it into his hands.
"What can it do?"
"Nothing…you just can't break it, the material it's made out of makes it nye indestructible."
"That's perfect actually…" Solomon smiled.
"I am going to keep the Eternal flame Lantern…never goes out, and I like light so." Malcom had the ability to perceive magic, a mix of power of sorts. That's what made him so damn good at crafting as well as cracking. He could see the energy, and looking over at Jacks Knuckle Scythe it was no different than a dense object. Of course he wanted something for himself.
"Okay…magical items" Jack said putting the knuckle scythe into its sheath with love and care.
"Uh…magical potions for healing, good bit of em… there are also some magical items that rival those artifacts in potential, just related to affinities of course…stolen or taken from other cities.
They're great, but I have a power and so does Solomon…the only wind type was the blade I gave you Jack, the rest don't really have value then. Never mind…"
Malcom sighed, he could've made a lot of gold off these things but sadly those with powers seemed unable to use magic, like a divine law. Who the hell could have both?
Jack looked over the items, "Not everything seems to be user based though…that is an alchemy lantern."
Malcom turned to look at an old looking candle holder vase thing?
"Yes…I haven't seen one of those in a long time"
There was a flat bowl at the bottom, with what looked like a faint circle in the middle of it. Two curving metal connectors connected up to a cylinder that was bulbous on top. 4 holes surrounded the bulbous top like a cross. Each hole had threading for a potion or bottle to be screwed into them.
By heating flame magically from the bottom, and pouring liquid into a central top hole surrounded by smaller holes, the flame would heat the liquid and send the purest parts of it into the bottles and also emit things into the air.
"Botany…healing…brewing…bring it" Jack said with a determined look, he personally wasn't an adept at alchemy but it was a well-made device they could use for countless things. There also seemed to be a small pile of fire based crystals in a bag with it. So they didn't have to go find any.
"Uh okay…" Malcom looked to Solomon who nodded, unstrapping his dimensional bag before unfurling it. He placed it gently into the dimensional box before rolling the cloth back up.
Jack looked around, "That…is a bomb, and it siphons energy and then detonates. Useful, if I fill it over time it can let loose a maelstrom on activation…only 3 though damnit. They're good though. That's about it…"
Solomon looked at them both before turning around to the gate, "Whatever that fog is…doesn't feel right, do we leave or go in."
Jack opened his mouth, but didn't speak.
Malcom looked at the two, "Well…if I leave, I might get caught as a known black marketer. I might as well follow you two."
Solomon knew he could easily take on any identity he wanted, it was his specialty and yet Malcom wanted to stick by them. Friends really were hard to come by.
"I bet you know a way out of this shit hole…I need to find Ana, but if she was taken into the fog I will too…go into it." Solomon's eyes fluctuated with a ferocious glint as if in the event the fog took her, he would cut it all down.
Malcom flipped his hand over his shoulder, "I honestly waited around to see if you two were still kicking…I have a hatch in my room leading up." Jack and Solomon laughed. Malcom led them into the back room, eyeing all the magical items and gear.
He pulled down a ladder from the ceiling leading up to a hatch cut quite litterly from the floor above. He hesitated as if a sudden realization struck him, "Wait! I will be right back!" Malcom dashed out.
After about ten minutes Malcom came in with a shit eating grin, "Where did you go?" Solomon and Jack asked him simultaneously.
"I just robbed your handler, forgot he had a crap ton of bets off you….heh" Solomon laughed and gave him a wink to say 'I earned it…you can keep it for coming' which caused Malcom to reached subconsciously for his dimensional coin purse with a smile.