Chapter 35

  They Did What?

  “Row-AWRR!” The unmistakable battle cry of a large cat roared, their voice echoed the microphone that just so happened to pick up their sound and blast it across the arena.

  “Uh-oh, did you hear that?” Sal the announcer cuts in.

  Flash-darkness.

  There is an unmistakable sound of power being cut off, then a crisp flicker of electricity that desperately tries to cling to life in all the luminescent light bulbs around the arena, the darkness. In the darkness a number of things happen all at once. The first is that I feel two different reassuring hands rest upon my shoulders. A right hand lands on my left shoulder, almost has to be Markan due to how fast the reaction was. Then a left hand on my right shoulder, which I also assume has to be the hand of Mr. Yi.

  Crink, crink, thud.

  The sound of tools being used echo in the darkness.

  For a moment, all I can do is just sort of stand there, but then I realize at the very least I need to make sure I have enough Mana to be helpful for whatever happens next.

  Golden Life Ratio Mana Regeneration*

  I use my newest Skill and instantly feel my reserves of Mana filling up almost instantly. All the while it is going, part of my mind is following the golden ratio perfectly, “one, one, two, three, five, eight, thirteen, twenty-one—”

  Green Poof.

  At twenty-one I more than filled my Mana pool causing an eruption of Life mana to pop out and illuminate the world immediately around me.

  “Whoa!” Nearby members of the crowd in astonishment.

  The glowing green motes of mana illuminate the immediate area and reveal what I already knew. Markan was protectively standing to my left, while Mr. Yi was to my right. Both had their hands on my shoulder and were scanning about in the darkness as if looking specifically for trouble. Only looking back once to see that I had created a photon burst of floating green mana particles in the air that were slowly falling to the ground.

  Given our current settings and our surroundings, I didn’t even think about removing the excess motes with my Trash Skill. Instead, I doubled down, once the motes began landing, most on me, but a few on Markan, and Mr. Yi, with the rest falling on the ground.

  “Thirty-four,” I thought to myself as the next burst came out. This time twice as bright as the last grouping. I was still over full of Mana, which my body for some reason treated as something to be disposed of, like sweat, but pretty and non-scented. At least, I couldn’t tell the scent of Life Mana, if there was any.

  With twice as many motes of mana falling, I was able to see further and could see that a whole construction team was busy working in the darkness, taking down the protective plastic casing of the ring, and even lowering the four posts, before shoving everything quickly under the ring’s apron. Just like the way I used to clean my room in my past life. Grab everything quickly and shove it under my bed. It wasn’t until I discovered totes that my method didn’t become quite so undignified. Maybe I should look into creating totes here? I can see it now, I will rule this world through functional designs and space optimizations.

  “Now’s your chance to place your wages on our next event,” Sal’s voice continued to boom.

  Only after hearing his words did I realize that there was something slightly off about this forced darkness that we were now in. Looking around, I could almost see the foreign Mana around me. Mana that seemed to be harshly repelled by my overly abundant Life Mana that I was now spreading.

  Then looking behind me, towards the large one-way polarized screens, I realize that the audience still has lights available to them, dim though it might be. But they can still see clearly, its just that down here, we are left in the dark, but why?

  Only after a moment of thinking does it make sense.

  If they were preparing a new stage, and wanted to work in darkness, they couldn’t very well do so, while nobles and foreign dignitaries were in the stands. Thus, creating an effect where it was a localized blackout made more sense.

  That was how I sort of got the whole blackout the working area down here. But my question went to why, they would even need to do such a task to begin with. What was so different about these two contestants that the protective casings around the ring, and even the ropes were not necessary? Was this some type of way to shame the women? To make it so the females were not seen as being as dangerous?

  I highly doubted that, as I saw some of the female fights from last night and they seemed no less skilled or dangerous than the male combatants. That was why I was suddenly lost at this ploy, unless I was missing something drastic.

  “We even have a few new prop bets available. Focused on the laps, the speed completed, and of course the melee combat at the end!” Sal commented, pausing only a moment before continuing to drum up this next event. “If this is your first time seeing a Tamer match, well then you will be able to go away happy as today, we bring you exotic animals from around the world.”

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  Shiver.

  Hearing those words, I felt a long dull pang of fear enter my body as everything in me told me this was going to be bad. Maybe it was the fact that for whatever reason every animal treated me like I had the plague ever since I awoke my DiVoratore bloodline. With the only recent exception being Narco, my school’s guard dog, who must have gotten into the types of paraphernalia he was supposed to protect the school from. That was the only thing that made sense as to why he was suddenly nice to me.

  My mind hearing the comments, automatically tries to do something that will help me relax, which is why I go with old reliable, number sequences, “fifty-five.”

  Bright Green Poof.

  Yes, and ironically fifty-five is about as old as I now feel, realizing that I went to number sequences as a way to calm down. Especially, as I had already maxed out my need for that Skill and once again found even more green mana floating gently around me.

  “Look at that, I think our Healer is telling us that she is ready to get to action, and that is just what she will need to do for this next event!” Sal continues.

  Flash.

  Suddenly, the suffocating cloud of dark smoke over us lifts up, and I can see a solid black tarp begging pulled up to the rafters.

  Eeeker, squeaker, squeak.

  As it rolls up, I can hear the distinct sound of unoiled hinges and pulleys being used to lift the giant tarp up to the rafters once more, allowing everyone to peer in and see the now completely bare stage.

  “Baah!” Suddenly the faint bleating of sheep can be heard to my right. There in what is seemingly an open field with green grass, that was apparently wheeled in on a massive system is what could best be described as a children’s petting zoo. A petting zoo for sick creatures filled with rabbits, sheep, and even a baby doe.

  Just seeing the animals, it is clear that they all have some type of defect. The deer is clearly bowlegged, and has a faint greenish tint to its fur, the sheep have a similar green shading with their white wool, along with some type of defect in their eyes, and the rabbits. Well actually, I can’t see anything wrong with the rabbits, they looked cute and fluffy, despite their fur having an oddish green hue to it, but that looks to be natural camouflage, right?

  “Welcome to tonight's first true Tamer versus Tamer battle. For many of those who have never seen such an event and might think it barbaric, realize you are clearly mistaken. This is both a battle of speed, precision, and violence. To begin, we will have our master tamers come out to the ring. Where they will then sick their tamed pets on the Z-Rot infected creatures that you see before you.”

  Z-Rot? I questioned myself, but fortunately Sal continued his speech effortlessly keeping everyone’s attention as hey laid out the event’s details.

  “Yes, just being bitten by one of these creatures could cause any one of us to be infected with the cross-species virus and if left untreated, we too could be as cursed as these poor innocent creatures you see before you. So rest assured, we are not killing these creatures for malice, but out of a sacred duty to prevent Z-Rot from spreading. Now if you will all join me in a moment of silence while we honor those who have been lost to the Z-Rot wars.”

  With that, Sal bowed his head in a moment of silence, then at exactly fifty-three seconds, he looked up and continued his monologue.

  “Now, to help score the success, the one sickly doe is worth five points, the two sheep are worth three points each, and any of the rabbits are worth one point each. Animals and their Tamers will have the ability to make three trips where they deliver their Z-Rot infected prize to the feet of their Tamer. Once all three trips have been completed, the first creature back can begin fighting the defenseless Tamer. At which point the Tamer’s pet can come back and defend their Tamer giving up any possible future points from traveling. Then a final seven points will be awarded if a Tamer’s pet is left incapacitated, and ten points if the opposing Tamer is left incapacitated.”

  Suddenly, I understand the point of this violent exchange. It is not just what creature is better at quickly killing off Z-Rot infected creatures. But also, what species is more deadly to other tamed creatures and Tamers. Violence upon violence.

  “Don’t worry about being infected, as you can see, our Healer on hand is more than capable of dispelling any lingering traces of Z-Rot.” Sal states, clearly lying to everyone, acting as if I was purposefully disinfecting the area like I was some self-release can of Lysol, versus trying to see what was happening around me. Still, if that was all that it took to get rid of the Z-Rot, then I was fine.

  No wait, Sal is clearly lying. For a moment, I almost panic, but then looking around the arena, I actually manage to see my Master, Madame Bloom, in what appears to be a VIP section talking with other nicely dressed nobles. That’s it, she must have the cure, to this Z-Rot.

  How bad can Z-Rot be? I mean, these animals all look fine, despite being a little sickly.

  “With that, we will bring out our first contestants for the night. Please welcome Kiera Bembry, and her tamed pet, Lady a phase panther.” Sal called out.

  With that, I saw Lucia pulling back the curtain and looking more than a little nervous as a chest high white with black spotted panther creature began swaying her way languidly forward in front of a well dressed woman who wore a few pieces of metal over what had to be a designer bathing suit that only showed off her toned muscles and abs. It was clear that her pet, this Lady had been a bit rough a few times with the Tamer as I could all but see long healed scars glowing under the bright lights, and poorly colored makeup.

  For a moment, the creature looked like nothing would bother it, as it just followed gracefully. Always keeping just a half step ahead of its master. Then, I could all but feel the moment something was going to go wrong.

  POOF!

  An old-fashioned camera with a focused light bulb went off, causing Lady to look up and break its focused gait towards the stage. At first, I like her handler thought she would go after the photographer, which caused me to instinctively take a step forward as if to protect the photographer.

  Then as if sensing my presence by my taking a singular step forward, I could feel the moment it recognized my presence. Having grown up as a DiVoratore, I knew full well how large and apparently loud our alerting radius was to creatures. That was why, when the creature looked up and locked gazes with me, I knew it had sensed me.

  Poof!

  Not the flashy poof of a camera going off. No, this time, it was the black smokey mist that was apparently left behind as a giant four-hundred-pound, chest high spotted killing machine lunged through space. My mind had just enough time to process what the words phase panther meant, when I felt the creature’s presence appear right next to me.

  Poof!

  The creature appeared right outside my normal reaching range. Then it just stared at me.

  “Whoa there,” I calmly call out, as I hold up my hands and in what I hope is a calming gesture, and not resembling at all my offering of gloved meat on a stick. While I am not supposed to talk, I feel that trying to calm down a suddenly appearing pinnacle of killing dominance is worth breaking that rule.

  “Oh no,” always comforting words to hear from an animal owner who has found that their animal has run off and about to maul a poor healer.

  Sniff.

  The giant cat just sniffs my hands for a moment, then proceeds to do the craziest thing possible. It began rubbing it head up against my outstretched hands while purring. But purring in this case would be like trying to survive a small but targeted earthquake.

  Purr!

  This cat purrs so powerfully that I can feel it pulsing and vibrating through my arms, down my feet and into the ground around me.

  “Oh phew,” the Tamer finally calls out, “she just loves her Healers! Don’t cha girl.” With that the Tamer proceeds to go from behind and gently stoke the back of the long beast.

  Terrified, I am literally terrified, as I know if this beast so chose, I could only last a second or two at best. Able to teleport, and deadly cute? I carefully begin petting the creature, which causes the massive beast to purr even more affectionately.

  I am so lost in finally being able to relax at the seeming affection offered by Lady, a surprisingly well trained killing phase panther, that I almost miss the introduction of the challenger, almost.

  “And their challenger, a house who needs no introduction as their training with dragons and other exotic creatures is unparalleled. Today, we will witness the rise of House Serpente’s newest rising star, Bianca, and her colossal winged-snake, Hydra!” Sal’s voice boomed, and suddenly that pit of fear that had been growing within my stomach suddenly bloomed to full life.

  “Did he just say, a colossal winged-snake?” Markan asked in disbelief, his words mirroring my own words that I was about to break as well.

  Then I saw the beast, and suddenly I wondered how humans didn’t all die off due to their own stupidity. The creature was massive, and all I could think was what I assume everyone would think at that time.

  Who the fuck thought training a flying snake to be better at killing was a good idea?

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

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