Russataia, a fantasy kingdom

Lucas was watching the last match in Aylward's stead. Since Genox already knew who Aylward was, he did not want to risk causing any bloodshed by appearing at the arena. Lucas chuckled as Joseph put on a rather comical fight and made short work of the orc, and for once not killing his opponent. His abilities, however, intrigued Lucas. Perhaps the man would be able to assess Genox's abilities and tell them more. After all, they were at a disadvantage not knowing the true extent of Genox's powers, and his weaknesses. On the other hand, Genox seemed to know all about each one of them who were rebelling against him and what the former king stood for.

Leaving the stands, Lucas snuck around to the gate of the arena, where Joseph was making his exit. The man was covered in sand, and looking for place to wash it off. Lucas walked up to him casually and pointing to the area where the animals used in the games were kept, called out to Joseph. "Joseph, was it? There's a small well in the cage area where the beasts are kept that they use to draw water for the animals to drink. And when you're done washing up, perhaps you could help me with something as well?"

"Yeah, of course thanks" Joseph replied and went to clean himself. He splashed the water over his face but the sand was stuck on pretty well, he nearly rubbed his face raw to get it all off. After dusting his cloths off he stared in to his reflection in the water. All things considered he had done pretty well, he moved his hand through the water as Gabriella crossed his mind. He wondered what she thought of him not that she had seen him in action. Snapping back to reality he remembered the stranger wanted to speak to him. He returned to gate and approached the man. "What can I do for you?" He said politely.

Meanwhile Genox had finally sought out the bard at a nearby inn. "Have you pondered my offer well?" He asked the bard.

"I saw you in battle and thought perhaps you might be able to answer some questions." Lucas replied simply. "Regarding Genox. You can probably tell he's no normal man, and I want to know if you could determine what kind of magic he has or how he is able to sustain his immortality."

He laid the words simple and bare before Joseph, but his hand was ready to reach for his sword should Joseph even attempt to attack him.

=====

Aylward was waiting outside the arena, at the gates where the Montales would exit from. He was wearing a simple disguise. Anyone looking closely would realise who he was, but he was blending in with the crowd, and so far three patrols had already missed his presence. How long would his luck hold out? The last match should have ended by now, and the Montales would undoubted be making their exit soon.

Just then, a couple of guards pointed at Aylward, whispering to each other and casting glances at him. Aylward noticed this and immediately left for an alley. The guards followed without raising an alarm. Big mistake on their part. "Freeze! And don't you try reaching for your bow, elf." One of the guards yelled. Turning around, Aylward saw that one had a crossbow leveled at him while the other was approaching with his sword drawn. The alley was small, and the crossbow would be useless once the other guard was in the line of fire. Aylward merely waited for him to get close enough.

"Alright, you're under arrest, rebel. Come wit-"

The guard's words were cut short as Aylward swung his palm out and placing it on the guard's breastplate, fire a strong bolt of wind which blasted through the man's armor and left a huge hole in his chest, where his heart would be. The guard's body flew through the air and hit the other guard with the crossbow. While the guard was still on the floor, Aylward propelled himself on to the roof of the building, where he wielded his bow and nocked an arrow. As the remaining guard pushed his dead comrade's body off of him, Aylward let it fly straight as his face. The guard had no time to react as it sailed through his eye. The alley was covered in blood of the dead guards, and Aylward left hurriedly. Once the other patrols found the bodies, the area would come under lock down as the guards searched for him.

Aylward decided against returning to the inn, suspecting that Genox had already found out where he took refuge. Fortunately, he had already made preparations for such an occasion. Jumping back down to the street level, he headed for the city's subterranean sewers and making his way through the complex system of tunnels, reached a small tunnel he had dug out. He went down the tunnel and appeared into a spacious cavern where a simple cot and other daily necessities laid spread out on small makeshift shelves. Placing his hand on a rune on the wall, the entrance of the tunnel sealed magically shut, appearing to be a wall of rock to outsiders, and prevented anyone from simply falling through.

As soon as the last match ended, Alex and his family left the balcony, meeting Martin on the way back from getting cleaned up.

"Go on ahead without me, I'll be home soon," Alex said to the rest of his family. His father looked at him before replying with a nod. Alex watched as his family made their way out before he walked down the halls, making his way through the people gathering outside. Stopping outside the entrance to the royal box, he briefly checked over his appearance before looking towards it.

"Hope I didn't miss them," He mumbled quietly to himself, thinking of Gabriella. Peering around, he tried to see if he could spot Genox in the crowd. He hadn't seen him on the royal balcony before, and he didn't want to run into him coming back.

"Just rumors" Joseph began. "I'm not from Russataia so I probably know less of him then you do, I had an..interesting confrontation with him once, I managed to escape but I haven't seen him since." Joseph continued to dust his pants off a bit. "Suppose if I'm lucky...or unlucky rather that I may meet him again, in the arena.." He laughed nervously.

Joseph leaned up against the wall beside him a bit. "Maybe if I could study him a bit more I could figure out who or what he is, my knowledge of magic far surpasses my ability to use it." Joseph pulled the goggles off his head and began to wipe them clean with his shirt. "Why do you ask?"

Josephs match had been amuseing and very interesting, she could still not figure out what kind of magic he had been using. Gabriella was very happy at the outcome and walked out of her families booth with almost a little skip in her step. She had done great in her match, Alex's little brother had won and so had Joseph. She had snuck out of the booth while her family was distracted with socializing, when she almost ran into Alex himself.

She smiled at him, "We have to stop running into each other like this."

"Definitely, I wouldn't want to knock you down like I almost did the other night," He said, a smile on his face. She's beautiful when she smiles, went through his mind, his thoughts drifting slightly.

"I see your fiance has joined the games. I haven't seen any magic like his before," Alex commented, and inwardly wondered whether this man Joseph might be able to defeat Genox. "I wonder if he'd be able to.." He hesitated, looking at Gabriella wondering whether to bring it up. "I'm surprised he joined the games, since he was engaged to you already," He said, interrupting the previous thought.

Lairn finished watching the match’s then he had his wounds stitched and cleaned. Lairn walked back to the inn where he found Arige still in the spell that gave him control over him. Arige released control back to Lairn. As Lairn came back to his senses he was nearly overwhelmed by the pain that had been caused to his body he fell to the bed and blacked out. Arige stood up and reclaimed his sword from Lairn’s belt.
“You have done well,” Arige said as he walked out the door to the first floor of the inn.
The time is almost here,’ Arige thought to himself.

(The second day of the tournament)

Arige walked the streets until night had fallen. There was almost no light tonight because the clouds were blocking out the moon and half of the candle lights had been blow out by the wind. This night was going to be a slaughter. Arige continued to walk down the street until he found an inn called the Almond Tree and walked inside. There were two guards and one officer sitting in one of the corners drinking ale, four men sitting at the bar, one man sitting at a table eating what looked like venison, one innkeeper serving drinks to the four men sitting at the bar. There may have been more people up stairs sleeping but Arige did not know for sure. Arige turned around facing the door.

“Ruza’dehta tpira,” He whispered placing a curse on the door that would cause anyone that touched it to die by every bone in their body breaking slowly. Arige walked up to the three guards and unsheathed his sword. The three guards quickly jumped up and unsheathing their swords at the same time.

“KILL THIS FOOL!” One of the guards yelled. Arige smirked. “Ruza’bihnt!” All two of the guards fell to the ground dead, the one in the middle tried to swing his sword at Arige only to find out that Arige’s sword was pinning him to the wall. The man that had been eating had just made it to the door. As he touched the door the room filled with the sound of screams and hundreds of bones breaking at once. Two of the men that had been sitting at the bar drew their swords and began to charge at Arige. At the same time the two other men turned and ran up the stairs to the rooms and the innkeeper was right behind them. Arige turned and looked directly at the two men that was charging at them and raised his arm towards them.

“Ruza’puzat!” Both men were thrown in the air along with all the tables and stools that were in front and behind them. The two men struck the wall behind the bar. They survived the impact but were impaled to the wall by some of the tables and stools that were pushed with them. Arige pulled his sword from the guard and ran up the stairs. There were two doors on both sides if the second floor and a small table with a flower vase on it at the end of the hall. Arige walked to the first door to the right and held his arm up to it. “Ruza’puzat,” The door flew open with the sound of cracking wood. The room was a small room about ten feet by nine feet and had a small bed at the end of it. But there was no one in it. Arige walked to the first door on the left and opened it the same way he opened the one on the right. This room looked the same as the last one except for the little boy and his mother. The mother must have heard Arige break down the other door because she was standing in front of her son with a dagger ready to defend her son. Arige smiled walked back down to the first floor of the inn. He drained the two men that were hanging from the wall and walked outside. When he walked outside he stood in front of the Inn.

“Phyi’brumia blesssit!” The entire first floor of the inn burst into flames quickly engulfing the whole building and setting the buildings around it ablaze. Screams and smoke quickly filled the night.

After their battle, Avis had carried Toya back to the Montale estate, letting the maids fuss over himself and his brother and deal with their injuries. Most were worried for Toya's state, seeing as he was pretty much ready to pass out, but after Avis explained what he'd done - then they knew that they just had to let him rest. Toya slept for the rest of the day, while Avis had his shoulder seen to, the puncture from the rusty dagger having been patched up as best as possible. They had some ailment that reduced the pain from it, which definitely helped.
He was thinking about returning to the training room, but was advised not to, the others having wanted him to rest like his brother.

The next day, they did not see Gabriella at all either. The maids said that she was ill, and shouldn't be disturbed, so the boys continued with their training now that they both felt alot better. They even missed her appearing to go to the games. Either way, they continued to work hard, working on more ways of fighting an enemy as a team, rather than divide and conquer - the tactic that seemed to have worked so well in the previous match. Both brothers knew that it was definitely going to be harder the further into the games they got. But after that first match, the brothers seemed to have found a new confidence - that they might actually be able to make it to the end of the tournament, even if it was still early days at the moment.
Toya was going to need alot more work with his electricity though if they were going to get any further. He wasn't going to be able to use that kind of wave of energy in the middle of a match and keep fighting strong without more training with Gabriella.

"Need you ask? Because I hope to end his existence one day and truly free our people." Lucas replied. "My immortality came by chance and fate, and I find it hard to believe a human could find or control strong enough magic to grant immortality to Genox. There's something else at work in this country... And the more we know about it, the better."

A shuffling of feet could be heard as slaves entered to clear up the area and handle the dead bodies. Lucas knew he could not be found here. "I'll have to take my leave, but do consider what I've said. You will find me in the slums should you ever need to find me, though I suggest discretion when you do." He flattened himself against to listen for sounds of other people outside the room they were in. He could hear none. "Farewell, Joseph, and good luck with your research."

Endymion got up and swayed to the door, responding to the gentle knocking. The gentle knocking sounded like kettle drums. It had been a long night. The blonde in the bed didn't even stir.

Endy opened the door, expecting breakfast. The inn keeper was standing there nervously.

"My pardons Master Ba..." he looked at Endy's privates and quickly looked away. Endymion looked down too, realizing he was naked, and smiled.

"Yes, Joshua, what is it?" the bard said groggily. "Bring breakfast up as usual..and extra caffe."

"Um yes sir, um I , um well sir I will but, ah, um, sir, The King is down stairs and wants you right away."

Endymion came quickly awake. "Downstairs? Shiet" He hurredly got dressed and made his way shakily down the stairs.

"He can't send a messenger?" thought Endy...

Gabriella smiled sweetly she wished she could tell Alex the truth, that Josephs engagement had just been a huge fraud just so the she could have more time as a free woman. Alas she could not tell anyone because the amount of trouble he would get into with her father would be worse then fighting in the arena. "He had signed up for the games before we were engaged and it would be most dishonorable to draw out of a fight, not to mention illegal." She chuckled. "If every fight goes like today's then I don't think it will be an issue."

She wondered if he had watched her fight earlier and it took every bone in her body to not brag about. "What were your thoughts on the other fights, your brother did quite well versus that necromancer, and I heard about another fight between a mage and a ninja. I would have loved to see it, but I was feeling ill from yesterdays fighting and was not able to get of bed, until just before Josephs fight."

Alex laughed a little. "And here I thought you might've been faking it. I did that a few times during the years." He wondered absentmindedly if she had faked being ill, but shown up for her fiance's fight or whether she really had been ill.

"I have to admit, the mage vs ninja was one of the more interesting fights I've seen this year," He said. "It's not as common to see women fighting in the arena, and not as highly skilled either. Especially the masked one.." He trailed off, wondering who it could possibly be underneath the mask, and whether he could find out.

"At least you weren't present for my brother's fight, what happened at the end might have scared anyone off," He commented, the look on his face not an entirely pleasant one as he recalled the event. "He still has a long way to go."