Vitmori POV

  After a few moments, we found ourselves standing in front of the rat in charge of the club. The masked elite rested comfortably between his charming spouses as two masked attendants with large, ornamental fans waved away the smell of burnt flesh while fresh sticks of what smelled like incense wafted around him.

  Redgi flashed a seemingly friendly smile, waving a hand that jangled with bands of precious metals. “Thank you for coming to meet me. I apologize for the inconvenience of the terrible display you witnessed tonight.”

  “Well, it's not like we could say no to your request, now could we?” I gently teased, probing the ratkin’s reaction as I sensed all the guards glance at their boss to do the same. “Besides, it's not like I haven’t seen worse anyhow.”

  Redgi simply tilted his head at my words, a more amused-looking smirk on his face, and then nodded once. “Have you now? Hmm… Well, that is one thing I love about this country of mine.” He said as he rested his hands across his feline wife’s stomach, running his fingers through her fur. “You always have a choice; you can always say no or do whatever you like. Just as long as you have the means to back that choice up.” He mused with an ever-pleasant tone of voice. “Now then, to the topic at hand…” He said as the tip of his masked nose turned to Basti. “I have a request for you, in particular, if you could indulge me.”

  Basti’s ears perked with surprise, though her face remained stoic as she matched Redgi’s head tilt while studying his masked face. “Me? Whatever for?”

  “We’re short a fighter, as you no doubt noticed, and we need someone on the roster.” Redgi explained leadingly as his husband draped his arms across Redgi’s shoulders and gently pulled him to lean back against his scaled chest. “I know we have you scheduled to join the fun later this week, but if it's not too much trouble, we’d like you to participate in the cage rush tonight to fill in the roster. Of course, you’ll be properly compensated if you do join, but with this choice in particular, I promise you that it will be entirely up to you whether or not you wish to fight.”

  Basti glanced at me, deferring to my decision as I merely shrugged and left it to her. After all, she’s her own woman, and this choice affects her directly. After another moment, she nodded before regarding Redgi again. “Very well, I’ll fight… I suppose you can procure an outfit to suit my needs?”

  It only just occurred to me that Basti would likely be in one of those ridiculously exposed costumes that the other fighters had been wearing before now, and while I wasn’t exactly ready to see that much of her, especially in a setting like this… I had no place to object at this point.

  Redgi just nodded once as their rounded ears perked at Basti’s decision. “Of course, I’ll have my people procure something for you in no time.” He said rather enthusiastically as he snapped his fingers, two silver-masked attendants quickly making their way over as one gently took Basti by the arm.

  Basti allowed the attendant to take her away, though she flashed me a rather playful smile before she left. “I’ll do my best to put on a good show for you.” With that, she leaned in, kissing my cheek before following the attendants and descending the stairs, leaving me alone with the elite and his entourage.

  “Shall I arrange a place for you to enjoy the view?” Redgi piped up with apparent anticipation in his voice. “I can have my people bring you anything that you might need or desire to help you settle in up here.”

  I simply shook my head before offering him what I hoped was an apologetic smile. “No, thank you. If you don’t mind, I’d much rather be closer to the action,” I explained while taking a few steps toward the stairs. “That’s not to say I don’t appreciate the offer, but maybe we can share drinks during our next meeting?”

  Redgi sighed with what I could only assume was disappointment, though he thankfully made no attempts to stop me as he quietly squirmed in place to get more comfortable where he sat. “Very well, I suppose I shall just have to look forward to our next encounter with even more fervent anticipation than planned.” He said with what was an overly exaggerated tone of bored dismay, all while waving his hand at his guards to let me pass.

  With a slight nod of appreciation, I made my way down the stairs and allowed my eyes to wander my surroundings. Left to my own devices, I felt my sense of curiosity tug at the back of my mind as I couldn’t help but crave getting a look at the fighter whose manaheart had unraveled.

  From what I gathered, I had just twelve to fifteen minutes before the next fight started, so I had to act fast if I wanted to satisfy this particular itch of curiosity. While I had seen where the masked attendants had carried off the corpse of the combusted fighter, I ultimately had no idea where exactly they had left him.

  My mind raced as I slowly wandered around the Rat Pit, taking in the colorful variety of people who frequented this place. I tried to think of ways to track down the body or sneak into the corridor the attendants frequented when a thought suddenly struck me.

  I am an elite… Or, at the very least, pretending to be one. I could probably simply ask an attendant to take me to the body, and they’d just as likely listen to me and do it.

  After a quick survey of my surroundings, I soon spotted what looked to be a half-elf, if the slight point of their vaguely round ears was anything to go by. They were carrying a tray of empty bottles and dirty dishes towards the corridor, wearing the same silver mask that all the workers wore. “Hey, you there.” I called out firmly without raising my voice. “I need a few moments of your time.”

  I watched the half-elf flinch at being called out, an almost tangible weariness permeating around him as he struggled to pull on a customer service attitude, forcing a smile, even if his face was still very much concealed by that mask. After a full second, the half-elf carefully pivoted on his heel while still managing to balance the tray rather skillfully.

  He looked me over, his eyes trailing across the collars of my clothes, and spotted the badge before finally meeting my eyes. “Yes, ser? How may I be of service to you?” He answered with a voice that was surprisingly effeminate.

  I decided to be as direct as possible; there was no point in dancing around the topic. “Take me to the corpse of that fighter,” I requested before flashing a mischievous smile and stepping closer, making sure to hold eye contact with them. “I’ve never seen anybody die in such a dramatic way before. I want to take a closer look and examine what happened.”

  The nature of my request perturbed the half-elf, and I could feel their nerves as I physically pressured them and wondered when I would blink. Oh, right, I probably should blink. However, that didn’t seem to help as their eyes searched my face for some ulterior motive, though that seemed complicated to deduce given how oddly this whole interaction began. They shifted in place, carefully adjusting their grip on the tray as their thoughts raced through what they were supposed to do, considering nobody had ever died since they started working here.

  After allowing them to stress for a few more seconds, I snapped them back into the moment as I stepped closer and spoke out in a quiet but harsh tone. “Are you deaf? What are you standing around for? Get moving!”

  The attendant was startled into a stammer as they tried to find their words, and it certainly didn’t help that I was in their face when they finally crumpled to my demands. “O-of course, Ser, i-if you’ll follow me.”

  To their credit, they were quick to lead me further down the corridor, passing a couple of other masked attendants who watched after us in quiet confusion, though they couldn’t be bothered to intervene or even speak up.

  The corridor wasn’t too long or even that complex; from what I gathered, the corridor was along the lines of an employee area. A large break room, the kitchen, and a storage area for unused furniture, if the open door leading to a room filled with spare couches and benches, was anything to go by.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Not much further ahead, but definitely nowhere near the end of the corridor or perhaps corridors that made up the employee area, we approached a set of metal doors as the attendant turned on their heel to face me while gesturing to the doors with their free hand. “We had the unfortunate fighter placed in cold storage to be dealt with once the night is over.” The attendant explained almost sheepishly, their voice still carrying an edge of uncertainty.

  “Good to know, you may leave me now.” I said as dismissively as I could manage, all while pulling two gold pieces from my storage, holding them out between my index and middle fingers, and showing them to the attendant as I made the coins glint in the corridor’s crystal lamps. “I’m certain I can find my own way back when I am done; now go.”

  I could feel a protest forming in their throat, a sense of unease about this whole interaction. That is, until they spotted the coins and came to the very concise conclusion that they were now being given several days' pay to not care about something for just this one moment. After only another second of hesitation, they gently plucked the coins from between my fingers and lowered their head in a very brief show of thanks. “Of course, Ser, it was my pleasure to serve.” With that, they pivoted on their heel again and quickly left, disappearing from view as they rounded the corner.

  Left to my own devices, I quickly pulled the heavy latch-style handle of the metal door and was greeted by the Rat Pit’s cold storage. The walls around me were lined with racks loaded with a wide variety of barrels of alcohol; what they were specifically, I had no idea, nor did I care.

  The object of my momentary desire was located in the center of the room, the fighter’s corpse lying on the floor and hastily wrapped up in a canvas tarp. “Ah… There you are.” I said aloud for nobody in particular.

  I took a knee beside the man and pulled away the covering. What I saw was… A corpse, of course. The damage the body was subjected to was even more grisly up close, with flash-broiled flesh, shriveled eyelids covering shrunken eyes, and veins scorched until they were black and crumbly as coal. Oddly enough, now that I’m taking the time to study the damage, only the pulmonary veins suffered such extensive damage. In contrast, the systemic veins were only slightly darkened and hardly visible through the half-cooked skin.

  As much as I would love to do a proper autopsy and study the full extent and nature of the fatal damage this fighter’s body was subjected to during his death, I had a fight to observe and not much time to get back to it.

  Focusing on my objective, my eyes landed on the corpse’s mouth as I reached out and began carefully prying his jaw open, doing my best not to actually break anything despite how rigid the body was.

  My mind wandered back to the last fight, the moment the now-dead fighter suddenly gained a surge of power and the subtle crunch between their teeth as it occurred.

  Now, peering into the dead man’s mouth and studying the teeth, a smile creased my wooden lips as I very quickly spotted something that didn’t look like it belonged. There, on the right top and bottom molars, was some kind of thick, chalky substance that was a very familiar deep shade of red.

  I had an awful feeling that I knew what the primary ingredient to whatever this substance was supposed to be, but at the end of the day, I shouldn’t really be assuming anything about this world and the surprises it had around every other corner.

  Focusing back on the moment, I wiped the inappropriate smile off my face and decided to take a sample of the red substance. Krys may know what it is or, at the very least, someone who can identify it. With two hollow-sounding ‘thoks’. I carefully pulled the two molars free from the dead fighter’s mouth and stashed the teeth away.

  With my prize safely tucked into my storage, I went about covering my tracks and putting everything back the way I had found it, closing the corpse’s mouth and wrapping the body back up in the tarp.

  With no time to lose, I quickly made my way back to the main event as attendants busily restocked the drinks and snacks at every table and tallied up the bets for the upcoming fight. Looks like I missed out on placing some coin down, but that’s fine. It’s not like we actively need more money anyway.

  Finding my place back at the seats Basti had chosen for us before, I settled in as the lights were dimmed and the fighters were led to the center stage by masked attendants, their keys noisily unlocking the heavy doors before shutting them behind the fighters.

  Basti looked… Fantastic.

  Wide wraps of white cloth were bound across her chest and waist, covering what needed to be covered but leaving little to the imagination as she fully displayed her tanned and impressive musculature, which was littered with pitch black splotches that matched her hair and fur.

  She sauntered into place across from Krox, working the crowd as she flexed her arms before sliding into a combative stance, punching her left fist into her right palm and conjuring shadowy fists with menacing claws.

  Krox stood tall, an unhinged grin plain on his face as he regarded Basti. "A powerful opponent. Your blood will be an excellent tribute to The Seeker of Red Fountains!" He declared as he brandished his massive axe, lashing it through the air as his manaheart pulsed, flooding his body rapidly before lunging for Basti.

  “Your god will just have to be satisfied with your own blood as tribute, since I won't let you have mine so easily.” She called out with a fanged smile, dodging the axe as shadows suddenly enveloped her and she seemingly disappeared out of view.

  I suddenly found it much harder to focus on the fight unfolding before me, my head feeling full in a familiar way as I am now all too aware of another presence using my avatar to observe the battle with my eyes. An invisible droplet of what felt like mana glimmered radiantly above Krox for a single moment, taking shape before falling like a drop of blood from an open wound as the mana coursing through his massive body surges again; yet it didn’t go wild like the now dead fighter, his brilliantly developed body seemingly containing it all and making proper use of it.

  I watched Krox wildly lash out with his axe, whirling around as he did his best to cover all directions in this limited space. Though suddenly he hears a faint whisper. “Behind you.” Basti said teasingly as he lashed out with his axe once more, only for Basti to emerge from the shadows at his feet and slash out in a wild fashion.

  Her hands sheathed in menacing, dense shadows as she swiped at the air with the first slash; Krox proved surprisingly mobile despite his size. She quickly closed the distance again, dragged her claws against his chest in the next slash, cut air in the following slash, and then threw a slice along his long jaws.

  Despite making contact so many times, I watched Krox's body take no visible damage, his stoneskin reinforced scales easily shrugging off her attacks. The beast of a man whirled around, his manic grin bigger than ever as he recklessly cleaves his axe towards Basti’s chest. "You were a fool to reveal yourself!”

  Basti’s surprise was clear to me as she moved to dodge and get away, yet Krox was moving much faster than anticipated as he managed to catch her in the ribs. Even as he did that, Krox leaned in, looking as if he was going to headbutt her before his massive maw split open wide and clamped down on her shoulder.

  Basti recoils, yowling with fury as she rips herself away from Krox’s axe and jaws, blood spilling from her side and shoulder as her manaheart flares from the sudden change in the flow of her blood, as the wounds gradually begin to close.

  It's all too apparent on Basti’s face that Krox’s sheer ferocity utterly took her aback as he displayed strength and speed that was notably greater than his last match.

  Basti rushes forward again, leaving a sparse trail of dripping blood as she savagrly clawed and slashed at his scaled body; fighting with a notable increase in ferocity than before as she realized the danger she was facing, only now just managing to shave away at Krox’s stoneskin defense finally drawing blood after she raking her claws across his chest.

  Krox’s only response is throaty growl which shifted into a delighted, deep chuckling as he managed to swipe at Basti with a heavy arm, breaking her flurry of swipes only to swing his massive axe at her again; the weapon emitting deep crimson glow as he caught Basti in the upper arm and sent her spinning on her heel as she had been attempting to dodge, only to have been thrown off her balance as the mana from Krox’s weapon shot through her arm and erupted under skin.

  There was no structural or visual damage, but looking at her supply of mana, it was clear that it dispersed much of her reserves as more mana rushed from her heart to fill the gap in her limb.

  Basti is now fully on the defensive, doing her best to keep her distance as she lashed out again and again as Krox repeatedly closed the distance, her blood spilling along the floors as she missed, strikes, strikes, and misses again. Managing to draw more blood from out of Krox’s scales, but it was nothing compared to the damage she's already suffered.

  Suddenly, a dark red panel appeared in the corner of my eye as words scrolled out on it, an amused, deep masculine voice ringing out in my head. ‘Good game, as your people put it.’ And just like that my head feels light all over again as I turned my attention to the fight as it draws to a painful close.

  Krox the Zealot POV

  Cornering the slippery catkin, Krox simply sneered as he raised his axe once more, his trusted weapon glowing with the Seeker's red radiance as he swung down, burying it in the woman’s shoulder and forcing her to her knees as her blood sprays up in a beautiful display. “FOR THE SEEKER!” He bellowed out with victory as he ripped the axe free of her body and kicked her away from him with his heavy, scaled foot.

  The cheers from the crowd of warriors and the polite clapping of the wealthy well-to-dos reach his ears as he raised his axe and fist into the air, relishing in the victory he earned for his deity as the catkin lay in a crumpled, bloody heap at his feet.

  As the silver masked attendants go to open the cage, the one on catkin's side is flung away by the unremarkable-looking man who Krox had seen serving as his opponent’s arm candy.

  He watched the man quickly slide onto his knees by her side, his hands pressing down on her body as her wounds seemed to close and stitch themselves together almost impossibly fast.

  Though as her condition stabilizes, Krox happened to catch the man's gaze as the man glanced up at Krox.

  The two locked eyes for simply a moment but in that instant his already cold blood all chills in his veins as he’s forcibly pulled from the delightful delerium of his frenzied state at the sheer level of pure killing intent that radiated from the once unremarkable man as the memory of his emotionless eyes burned into Krox’s mind.

  Through the primal instincts he has developed from the years of bloody combat that he has indulged in through his service in the name of the Seeker, Krox got the impression that the man… The being he was now facing... He didn’t even know what to make of it... Just... It can't even be called a being… Not even a creature... A thing perhaps... All he knows is that no blood can be drawn from its flesh, no matter how hard he tries.

  Krox took a few steps back as his constant manic smile faltered for a second before he got it together. "You..." But his composure falters once more as the following words die on his tongue while a shiver visibly coursed through his body.

  The thing quickly lifts Basti despite her large frame as he carries her out, cradling her body against his and promptly leaving without saying a word.

  It was only when he left down the hall towards the entrance of the Rat Pit that Krox was finally able to take a breath, and all his other senses rushed back to him as he was all at once hit with the intoxicating wave of scents of smoke, food, and blood that filled the Rat Pit.

  And it was at that point that he realized his legs had long since given out beneath him as masked attendants rushed to his side to tend to his wounds.

  Thank you, everyone, for your unwilling patience. The long hiatus has finally come to an end.

  I don’t really intend to get into all the details as to what was going on, but things have been slowly improving ever since my career change several months ago. All in all, I’ll do my best to write with some regularity again, and I intend to release at least three more chapters of TSBAD before working on any of my other series.

  With all that said, if you’d like to hear from me more often, I recommend y’all join the Discord server since I’m on there frequently enough. I hope y’all enjoyed the chapter, and cya again soon!

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