Chapter 34

  Rule Three of Pit Club

  “Wait me?” I ask, pointing to myself. My mind trying to understand if kicking a deserving contestant was really worth being kicked out of this arena death match for. Only realizing after I spoke that I had broken the number one rule of my position here, that of be seen but don’t speak.

  “No, the putz who dared continue to attack an opponent who already submitted and then tried to attack our healer while they were actively healing a contestant.” Sal declared.

  I was nodding along when I heard the first part. Then I almost did a spit take when I heard the second part, he tried to attack me?

  “Wait, you can’t kick me out, I didn’t break any rules,” Golden Flare protested, fortunately Markan and Mr. Yi were both there to hold him back.

  “You did, you broke rule three of the Pit. Do not harass the Healer,” Sal’s booming voice commanded. Then gesturing to the other staff security that were already in position he pointed. “Escort this man out in the walk of shame!”

  “BOO!” The crowd erupted, though I could not tell if they were booing Sal, or booing Golden Flare or both. Regardless, nothing seems to be more embarrassing than seeing a greased-up oil wearing wrestler get perp walked out of an establishment wearing nothing more than long boots and brightly colored underwear.

  “You can’t do this, do you know who my father is?” Golden Flare shouted.

  Then as if summoning Beelzebub himself, a man wearing the finest of tailored suits shot to his feet and screamed.

  “You have no father, you ingrate! Now get out of here and congregate with the other street walkers!” The well-dressed dignitary, I’m assuming the father, shouted.

  With that, I watch the man in nothing more than his glittery underwear get perp walked out. That’s when I realized I was wrong, when I didn’t think it could get worse. Apparently getting disowned by your political father, who you were trying to invoke for leniency, only to be further disowned by that same father, now that is lower.

  He should have just stopped while he was ahead in just having his glittery underwear, hopefully winner of thoughts I didn’t think I would ever have tonight. As I don’t want to tempt fate and get them to come up with something worse.

  Everyone watches in near silence as the once aspiring warrior was promptly handed off to the external guards. The guards that had always been on duty, but never seemed to pose too much of a problem.

  Seeing them, Golden Flare’s entire body began to shake, “NO-NOOOO, WA-WAIITTT!”

  Slam.

  On that happy note, the metal door to the outside slammed shut, as no less than two guards proceeded to take care of the unruly fighter.

  Barbaric, but it did set a sort of precedent for the night.

  “Now that we have cleaned up the place a bit,” Sal’s voice cut in. His voice booming and echoing around the stadium. Then gesturing to the stage, I felt all lights converge on us. Well, El Penumbra, who was next to me and of course my two bodyguards.

  “We have to ask, El Penumbra-umbra-bra,” Sal’s voice echoed in a majestic way that added a hint of mystery and magic to the words. “Will you continue your journey to greatness? You have been tested with fire, but will you still continue to climb to the top?”

  Hearing the question, El Penumbra got close to me, but let his voice carry. “You’re still going to be here, right?”

  I nod, trying to get back to the whole part of not talking as a healer. Especially after my one slip up, when I thought I was kicked out.

  “Well, then I fear not a thousand trials in Hell, nor the nether realms, so long as she is our healer!” El Penumbra coos my praise, and I just want to shake my head. Again, I’m glad most of my face is hidden by the mask and hood.

  “Well then, you shall have your chance. Unfortunately, you did lose, so you will be subjected to the losers bracket, but just a reminder that there is a prize for your placement in the losers bracket, along with a chance for the winner of the losers bracket to face the ultimate winner in a final battle.” Sal explained.

  I assume he was laying it out like this, so the crowd would know the format, as I was still confused myself.

  “I accept the challenge!” El Penumbra declared.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Cheers!

  The crowd went wild at the thought of continued bloodshed. Meanwhile, I began leaving the stage to get back to my spot as an on-call healer.

  Seeing my departure, Sal made sure to embarrass me as much as possible, “let’s give a big hand to our Healer, capable of putting out flames and repairing burn damage like it was nothing!”

  Hearing those words, I only glanced in Sal’s direction as I felt that there was something deeper going on by his making such an announcement, particularly in front of so many people.

  The next match was a bit more as expected, two new Uncommon classed individuals fought. Their Skills and techniques were very good. It was clear that the one that Lucia walked down had a more quick striking approach. While the contestant that Luna walked down had a Hapkido defensive approach. Overall, I thought the striker was a bit better, but he did get angry, overextended and then lunged out with his arm, resulting in an arm lock.

  Normally, that would be it, the match would be over as a logical person would tap out. And for a moment, the striker looked like he was about to tap out, but then glanced out the ring and made eye contact with me. That’s when he did the stupidest thing possible, he grinned wildly.

  Cr-crack!

  We all heard the sickening sound of the combatant’s left arm being broken and shattered into multiple pieces. But that didn’t stop him, as he had a look of blind rage cross his face and features as he spun about, pinning his stunned opponent under his body and began pummeling the contestant with his one good arm, while he used his two legs, and some type of Earth related Skill to apparently increase his weight and crush both arms of his opponent.

  “AHHH!” The Hapkido warrior screamed out in pain, as he now had double the pain that he had previously inflicted upon the striker.

  Within seconds the massive increase in weight caused by the use of the Earth attuned Skill quickly waned. Even the once upright rage of the broken arm striker seemed to dissipate quickly at the loss of so much Mana.

  While he had fooled everyone into not realizing that he had an Earth attuned Skill in his Free Slots, he apparently didn’t have enough Mana to keep his rampage going for too long. Looking back, he likely started using the Earth attuned weight gain, after he swung his feet in the air, trying to switch positions with the Hapkido fighter.

  “I yield!” The Hapkido fighter cried out. After which an exhausted but clearly moving solely due to the use of adrenaline rolled off, never moving his broken left arm, and instead raising his right arm in jubilant success.

  These fighters were crazy.

  I went over to treat the still downed Hapkido fighter. A fighter that would have won in my old world. Likely would have won had there not been a me on hand. But there he was, two broken arms, internal bleeding from where a knee clearly impacted his stomach, along with a few broken and bruised ribs.

  Seeing the extent of the damage, I began cycling my two primary Life Skills almost in unison. Rejuvenation Healing, to begin healing the vital damage first. Then Golden Life Ratio Mana Regeneration* to begin regaining the Mana that would otherwise be lost.

  Pop-wheeze.

  I hear the moment that my Skills begin taking effect, as I focused first on the internal bleeding and ruptured ribs. Knowing that most might only go towards the shoulders first, not realizing they are not part of the vital core of the body.

  With that, I relax a little bit, and begin healing the crushed shoulder bones. Fortunately, most of the actual shoulder is right there and able to be healed. Unfortunately, there are a fractured splinters that are off in the blood stream. I focus on those loose bones and try to get them with my Trash Skill, only to realize I have no control inside their body.

  Turning around, I look and see Markan and Mr. Yi both there for protection.

  Never had I been so glad to see Markan and his stupidly long boots. Seeing him, I gestured for him to come over.

  “What is it?” Markan asks getting close, but I am already lunging for his left boot, the one with the obvious bulge patter of having a folded up knife right there. Similar to the way you could tell girls in my last life would always put their cell phones in their back left pockets. This was no different, but it did give me a blade.

  Flick-slink.

  Having grown up with an overly protective father in my past life, I knew how to wield a knife. Or at least how to open one quickly.

  With the blade open, I went over.

  “Wait, what are you?” the Hapkido fighter was frightened at first, and tried to get up, only to find that both of his arms were still sore. “AHH!”

  “Shh!” I hiss at him, placing my right hand over my face, while my left hand tries to get closer to the spot where I will need to use the knife. A minor incision is all I will need, then I can have the bone fragments pump themselves out of his body, then use Trash.

  Simple.

  “Hold still,” Markan offers, and goes to help hold the Hapkido wrestler still. “Follow the doctor’s orders!”

  Hearing that, I bristle slightly, I am not a doctor. I am a registered nurse, or at least I was in my past life. There is a difference, as not everyone can put up with the Doctor’s when they are not being cordial.

  Shaking my head, I go and using my Rejuvenation Healing already begin to numb the area first. Then I make a quick incision, letting the blood pour out of the wound. Then slowly shard by shard of bone fragments come out. Once his body tells me that all of the fragments from the one area are gone, I hold up my hand, letting him see the blood covered fragments, before using Trash to remove them all. Bone, blood, and any remaining sticky residue on the ground.

  “Holy shit, what type of voodoo is that?” the Hapkido artist complains.

  I just glare at him for a second, before I finish healing the first arm, his right arm, but the one to my left. Then I proceed to work on his left arm.

  “Hey, that worked, it feels great. Actually better than great!” The Hapkido fighter exclaims loudly and excitedly. Of course, he makes my work on the left arm just that much more difficult.

  I glare at him, basically telling him, I am waiting on him to stop.

  “Right, right,” the Hapkido fighter grins begrudgingly and lets me finish on his left side. Not even complaining when I make a similar incision on his left arm to let the bone fragments come out, so I can cleanse them with my Trash Skill. Then one final heal for his left arm. A quick search around his body, and I direct the excess life mana to his older injuries and then call it a day.

  Getting up, I can almost feel my back pop from the sudden shift, then turning around I see the masochist who started all of this. The winner of the fight, but the one who had to sacrifice his left arm to do so.

  Going over to him I just shake my head. Due to his actions, I had to heal two for him, and six for his opponent, all because he knew he could go wild and not worry about the down time that it would normally take to heal a broken arm.

  Shaking my head, I just healed his arm. A clean break, without any bone fragments that broke loose. I was sad, as I was really looking forward to using a knife on him, you know, for medical purposes.

  With that done, I stepped away, and the fighter that had won the match just raised his arms high in the air in triumph. Then his hapkido counterpart also stood up and did the same, raising both of his once broken arms high over his head in triumph as well.

  “YEAH!”

  Cheers erupted from the stands as both contestants looked like they had at the start of the fight. As all signs of the fight itself and aftermath had been wiped clean by my Trash Skill.

  I even made sure to clean up the blade before handing it back to Markan.

  “You keep it, I have a feeling it will not be the only time you will need it,” Markan stated.

  At that, I just glared at him, as if he all but dared for this level of violence to continue.

  “Healer you good?” Sal called down, from the booth, seeing me easily walk out of the ring. Truth be told, I was good. While I had been healing with my Skills the entire time, I only used up half of my starting Mana by the time I was done. That new Skill was truly impressive on maintaining Life Mana.

  I just raised my right hand in the air and made a circulating motion for him to continue.

  “You heard it, we are good for our next match!”

  Thunderous Applause!

  This time people stomped their feet in excitement as they were ready for the next round.

  “Bring on the babes!” A spectator from the front row called out. Pausing for a moment, I realized they were right, it was time for our first female contestants to emerge.

  At his comments, I just smiled, not that anyone could see it under my mask, and pointed at the loud spectator.

  Hopefully the females would be a bit easier to clean up after.

  Little did I know, that I would never be as wrong, as I was when thinking that last statement.

  per day, until our reign on the top 50 stops.

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