Wind and Steel - dRoy's side project

Carcibas Municipal Institution of Higher Education

Class Abarus – Applied Augmentation

Amira fidgeted around with her writing implement. The white haired girl’s focus alternated between the white board with numerous equations written on it and the clock tower. Even though Master Abarus’ lectures were some of her favorite time in the school, that day she couldn’t focus on the content at all.

She flipped several pages from her textbook and opened the page where she hid a first row seat ticket for Kargas Avelant. Even looking at the grey and red ticket made her grin in anticipation. Since the match would begin almost immediately after the lecture, she would have to run. It took her two months of working at the institution’s archive to get enough money for the ticket. There was no way she would miss even a single second of the match if she could help it.

When she looked at the clock tower again, she rejoiced at the fact that there was only one minute left. She immediately began to pack her things. She put on a light blue jacket over her uniform, which consisted of a black dress and a knee high white stocking, and put the books in her pouch.

Three ringing sounds from the illuminated bell tower signaled the end of the class. Amira was gone by the second ringing.

Carcibas Kargas Avelant Arena

Cardive was in the middle of one handed push ups when he heard a knock to his room.

"Cardive Merlane?" One of the tournament officials entered the room.

"That would be me."

The topless, brown haired man answered, not taking his eyes off of the book he was reading.

"You are up next. Hurry up and get yourself armed." The official said, somewhat irritated.

"Understood, good sir." Cardive jumped to his feet.

"Where’s your partner?"

"Oh, I don’t have a partner." Cardive answered, putting a chainmail shirt on and then a dark grey reinforced leather jacket.

"Ah, right, I forgot."

"How can you forget something like that? I was the last year’s champion, you know."

The gladiator joked, fastening his black boot and then putting the gauntlets on. Lastly, he grabbed his sheathed greatsword and wore it on his back.

"Okay, I’m ready." Cardive took a deep breath.

"Good." The official motioned the gladiator to follow him.

Soon Cardive found himself in a dark corridor. At the end of the corridor was a coffin, modeled after a dying swordsman with sword lying on his chest. No matter how many matches Cardive went through, he could never get used to it.

"Get in."

"Ah, my favorite part." Cardive spoke dryly.

When he entered the coffin, it stood up and it slowly rose to the surface. He could already hear the sound of the crowd cheering. The coffin opened up with a click and he walked out. He took a look around the round stadium and estimated that there were at least five to seven thousand spectators. The sky was mixture of violet and orange, with several stars visible on the darker corner. Over fifty orbs of ivory light illuminated the stadium, almost enough to make his eyes hurt a little.

"At the Sun corner, from Aikhias Combat School, Cardive Merlane!"

A low and grandiose voice of Perictas, one of the two announcers thundered and Cardive covered his ears. He was sure that the voice amplifying spell was becoming more and more intense every match. He wondered if he would go deaf before his retirement, which was not long away.

"It appears that he couldn’t find a partner this year as well." Dearsh, another announcer spoke, in a much quieter, but nevertheless loud tone.

"Does he really need one, though?" Perictas chuckled.

"I seems that is the case. Every year his victories seem to become closer and closer. Just look at his fight with Belatus Familon and Hered Gareom. He could have gotten maimed in that match."

"You sure have a point. It would be even truer this round." Perictas cleared his throat.

"At the Moon corner, from Bellastix Institution, Kaelrum Morwan, Jastus Eremiah!"

At the other end of the stadium, two coffins rose to the ground. Out of them, a large, heavily armored man with a sledgehammer and much slimmer man with two mid-length swords on his back walked out. Cardive tightened the hold on his sword.

"Ah! Those two are…?" Dearsh spoke in an awed voice.

"Indeed they are, the top students from the most prestigious gladiator school in the Carcibas District!" Perictas answered.

"They both got the Mark of Brave Citizen last month for stopping an entire gang of rogues in Parlan Saberan shopping streets, didn’t they?"

"And no one can forget about it, aye. Their skills as warriors excel in both inside and outside of the stadium. I remember Commander Ranovan saying that those two have fighting power of a platoon of the Defiants, even though I’m sure it was a joke."

"Judging from their track, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was true."

"And to think that they are only 26, it’s just amazing."

"Cardive is only 30 years too."

"Yes, he can fight for at least ten more years."

"I believe that he would have a bit of a problem in this round."

"We’ll see about that." Perictas cleared his throat. "Ahem, warriors! Stand and face each other at the center, please!"

The warriors obliged and the audience became a lot quieter.

"Rules are simple!" Perictas paused. "No fatalities. Other than that, all is allowed!"

Then large bells, located near the each of the stadium’s eight gates, started to ring, one by one in clockwise direction.

The first bell rang.

The gladiators looked at each other, grips on their weapons growing tighter.

"It is an honor to cross my blades with you, Mr. Merlane." Jastus spoke. He had his face covered with his hands, blades held in reverse grip on each hand.

"The sentiment is mutual." Merlane bowed slightly. He gripped his longsword with his both hands and rested his blade on his shoulder, preparing to make a striking motion.

The second bell rang.

"I’d like to warn you that Kaelrum is still a little twitchy from our last battle. He might have a hard time controlling his strength."

The third bell rang.

"Why, thank you for telling me. I, too, am a little twitchy from my last battle. I might have a hard time controlling my blade’s sharpness."

"I’ll keep it in my mind." Jastus spoke, without a slightest hint of sarcasm in his words.

The fourth bell rang.

"Oh dear, I’m feeling really nervous now." Kaelrum spoke. Cardive found it odd that the large man’s voice was much higher than it should be.

"Be brave, Kaelrum. Our Master has faith in you and so should you." Jastus said.

The fifth bell rang.

"I know that…yeah, I should…" Kaelrum took a deep breath.

"Would it help you if I tell you that I’m feeling a bit nervous too?" Cardive said, smiling.

The sixth bell rang.

"I think I’m already starting to like you guys." Cardive grinned.

"Let us socialize with our blades, then." Jastus smiled.

"…You know what, I take it back." Cardive groaned.

The seventh bell rang.

All was quiet.

The eighth bell rang.

Battle began.

Saberan shopping streets

Amira dashed through the streets, her white hair flowing in the night air. She had been running for good twenty minutes and she was not too far away from the stadium. She wished that she took time to change from her institutional uniform into something less restricting. Fortunately enough, she came to the class wearing her running boots instead of the shoes that were part of the uniform. She wondered what her father would have said if he learned that she went to watch a Kargas Avelant match. On the second, she judged that she didn’t really want to imagine the consequence.

While she liked watching Kargas Avelant matches, she never watched a live match before. However, when she heard that Cardive, her favorite gladiator of all, would be returning to her home city, she immediately began to search for work so she could afford the best seat. Although the work in the institution’s archive was very demanding, the fact she would be able to watch him fight so closely made it more than worth it.