I was very surprised by Captain Raven's proposal, she always made it very clear that she didn't like underground arenas because in this type of arena they tend to only have fights to the death and organizations tend to use many slaves to feed this type of support.
Raven is extremely anti-slavery and even classifies the poor who are basically 'forced' to work for the rich in order to live in some cultures as slaves because their lives are completely placed in the hands of the rich. Arenas and sports that only take advantage of this type of person to be able to display violence and cruelty are hated by Raven.
That's why the unarmed fighting arena I participated in was very important to Captain Raven, it was an example of good competition and she still contributes a lot to it so that it works correctly. So, I wasn't surprised by her saying that I should fight more in it to gain experience, but now she also gave me the idea to join a new club that allows elemental energy in fights.
"But aren't these types of fights much more violent? Using elemental energy in unarmed combat is no different from using a weapon. Even if the participants do not use weapons made of elemental energy, just the raw use of elemental energy is enough to shatter the body of someone who has a core at the same stage."
"Yes, but there are several rules that prevent large-scale use of elemental energy and many of the opponents deserve to die. Fighting between athletes is quite rigorous and depending on the form of combat the contest can be seen more as a contest of skills and elemental control than a real fight, even mages have their combat categories to participate."
"What do you mean so many opponents deserve to die?"
"Well, to a limited modality that was born in the last few months. Killing cultists and traitors, many people involved with the evil gods in recent times and some nobles managed to get low-level cultists or associates transported to the prisons in the southern area of the kingdom."
"They are being used in the arena for various reasons, the main one being to show the nobles and other civilians that the cultists are not too scary, in the months after the attacks of the apostles of the evil gods in various realms a lot of panic has spread, but after many people hurt the cultists being used in this way the fear in our city and region greatly diminishes it. It seems that arenas like this have been opened in other cities to use the cultists captured in arenas like this."
I didn't expect this.
"It seems that decapitating or burning cultists is going out of fashion, I didn't expect them to be used as gladiators or should be called prisoners. But won't that make the arenas a target for cultists or anyone who is offended by it?"
"Yes, but obviously any high-level apostle who tries to attack one of these arenas will find himself surrounded on all sides by red-core warriors and mages. High-level apostles aren't stupid enough to fall into such shameless traps, but if they do show up, the kingdom is ready."
"I thought you were going to ask more about the rules of the fight than the safety of the fights."
"Well, with my luck I wouldn't be surprised that in my debut fight the arena was attacked, but it would also be nice to know the rules."
"Although it seems strange athletes are not encouraged to kill or cripple prisoners, the idea is to have them be defeated several times in risky fights to show that they are strong, but not strong enough to defeat the people of the realm. But if one of them dies no one will complain, but if one of them is crippled you will get a fine, preferably you should break some of their bones and hit them a few times in the face the more pathetic the prisoners are at the end of the fight the bigger your bonus will be."
Cultists really aren't seen as one of the sentient races anymore, they are barely considered slaves and their only use is suffering to raise morale. But I didn't expect them to switch from fast executions to slow executions, I wonder how long they'll last and whether these arenas will close after the cultists dwindle.
"It sounds pretty profitable to torture cultists, but what are the other modalities?"
"As I said before, athletes can fight each other, but this type of combat has many more rules and two variations. The first consists of a close-range fight using elemental energy, but the aura is prohibited. The second is to fight at a distance using only elemental energy and aura, as you may already know from experience that it is difficult to fight at a distance greater than two meters for us warriors so the distance of the two competitors is not too great."
That must be a funny sight, and like imagining two warriors trying to fight each other without being close to each other. I don't understand why this is becoming popular.
"Doesn't it seem strange two warriors hitting each other from afar?"
"Well, a fight like that can be quite embarrassing and to avoid that the elemental moves ended up being the focus of these fights because it's a more beautiful and flashier move. There are even some warriors who have used flashy elemental arts in contests to become more popular, as I said before ranged fighting is more a competition between skills than actual fighting."
"When there's a real disagreement the warriors go to real combat in the arena, blood, broken bones and goldsmith wounds on the skin. There was an idiot who came out of the arena, half his body was black."
"Was the fighter who did this punished?"
"No, because the reason for this fight was because the idiot who got burned tried to rape the other competitor's sister. The fight was stopped when they tried to fight on the street in front of the arena, but as there was no way to calm one of the athletes down so a real fight was allowed in the arena, without the judges' consent a can can't happen no matter what. competitors want to fight each other."
"On this day, almost the entire audience is rooting for the idiot who tried to rape the girl to be killed in the arena, when he left the arena, all burned, he was the target of boos and trash until he left the building."
"Sounds like an interesting place, but I'm kind of surprised you're so excited about someone else's arena. As far as I can remember you have always had strong opinions about sport involving a lot of violence."
"That's because the overwhelming majority of this type of arena or spectacle and made using slaves or poor, have kingdoms that more than a hundred deaths daily in each arena. All these deaths are victims of unethical nobles and merchants who are profiting and enjoying the suffering and death of victims."
"Is the arena that opened in the city excessively violent? Of course, but the main targets of this violence are a disease even worse than slavers, the damn cultists kill people to feed their faith in their gods who demand even more violence and death to bless them with the ability to cause even more pain and suffering. The world has many problems and cruelties, but the apostles and believers of these gods dedicate their lives to making the world a worse place, the world would be a much better place without them."
"I have my fears and concerns about this arena and the ones that will open later, Ulric, but I also have faith and hope that they won't twist into something bad. When this offer of cultists and traitors passes, I hope the arenas don't disappear and focus on competition and not on replacing cultists and traitors with potential victims."
"It can start with bad criminals then go to any type of criminals, then it will go to those who need money and to finish the slave market is open in our kingdom to fill these arenas. I am very afraid that this will happen, and if I see this happening, I will find some way to destroy these arenas because I will not let our country be contaminated in this way."
There's the Captain Raven I know, was finding this conversation rather strange to be having with her.
"I hope you don't have to; I hope they become a great venue for sports and contests and not arenas full of death after cultist availability dwindles, but remember that even if cultist numbers decrease always there will be worshipers of evil gods to be thrown into the arena."
"You shouldn't talk like that, Ulric, it sounds like you're happy with the cultists' existence. In the current climate you can be labeled a sympathizer and end up in the arena, so don't speak phrases that can be misinterpreted."
"I am going to try."
"So, you're going to go to the arena to apply your latest earnings to a fight more real than training with your friends?"
"I think so."