Chapter 27

  Nectar Of the Gods

  Finally, after spending a long time of staring into the deep green eyes of the roguishly handsome guy do I realize that I am being inappropriate.

  Yes, only now that the chaos of the moment is over, do I realize that I am now straddling an unknown male and forcing him to stare at me, in what might otherwise be considered an intimate gesture.

  Ick.

  Realizing that my job is done, that the hideous wound that was bleeding and spraying blood wildly was now fully healed, do I jump up from the downed warrior. An apparent bad move, as I immediately feel the world spinning wildly around me.

  Dizzy.

  I am trying to move, and am about to fall, when a pair of strong but familiar hands grab hold of me and hold me still. It takes my mind a moment to notice that these are the sure hands of Markan the Bloom family coachman and so much more holding me in place. Then to my right, I see two more hands coming for me, one reaching for my mask and one with a drink containing a wooden straw.

  “Drink this,” Mr. Yi’s commanding voice orders. There might be a hypnotic suggestion to that command, or maybe my mind just really wants something to drink. Which I do, as I am suddenly extremely thirsty. Before I even realize it, my still mask covered face is already wrapping around the straw and drawing in a liquid that is amazingly cool to the touch. As it enters my mouth, I feel an explosion of berries and pop-candies, or at least what my mind considers to be pop-candies. Regardless of what it actually is, it tastes delicious and I can feel a cooling gentle tingle sensation fill my body as it slowly makes its way down.

  “This is a Mana regeneration tonic,” Mr. Yi comments, answering the obvious question I might have at such a time. “It will help you regenerate you Mana, which is good as you are extremely low at the moment.”

  I nod slightly, but even now I can feel the tonic’s effects taking hold. Within a matter of seconds, I can feel the thick fog that had filled my mind slowly begin to dissipate.

  Slurp, slurp.

  Only after a few moments of me standing there do a few things happen. First the bottle of tonic that I had been drinking from goes empty, a fact that is confirmed by the apparent slurping sound of my continued attempt to draw in more tonicy goodness. Then my mind begins to take in the complete and utter mess that is around us.

  The warrior who I had straddled a moment ago is still on the ground, just staring at me. Though now he is holding his own healed left arm up with his right. That’s good, he didn’t forget to continue staring at me, apparently. Still, I can’t help but shutter at his sight. He is now covered in blood, and has two handprints on his face from where my apparent blood coated right hand smacked his left cheek. Then another on the right side of his face where I used my left hand to hold his face in place.

  Then there is the blood spray that lines the entire ring.

  Even the big hulking brute of a man just looks shocked. It is clear that he is ultimately a good person, as he looks genuinely shocked by what happened.

  Seeing him, I stride over to him. His large frame easily towering over me. Getting close to him, I look up and just lock gazes with him.

  Tremble.

  His large body trembles with my stare, this is good, otherwise what I did next would be considered stupid. Still, I have to make it clear that this level of violence will not be tolerated. Since it is the second match, this will be a long night, if I have to do for every other contest. That is why I take two blood covered fingers from my right hand and gesture for the big guy to get closer to me.

  Instinctively, he leans forward to get closer. Now that he is this close, I point to the ground right under his feet, using those same two fingers. The intent is clear, as he kneels down immediately. At which point he just stares into my eyes.

  Shiver.

  His body shivers at the apparent intensity in my eyes, which is good as I apparently still can’t talk during this whole charade. Fortunately, I won’t need to if he looks this repentant. I hold up my two bloody gloves making sure to turn them before his face. Then I gesture at the blood trails that line the whole ring around us.

  Then shaking my head I lock gazes with him and do a Dikembe Mutombo finger wag, a gesture that is apparently universal, as the giant of a man just looks down at the ground in shame.

  At that, I reach out with my left hand.

  Splash.

  Again, my hand leaves behind a bloody print. One that is far smaller than the one left on the other fighter’s face. That’s when I begin to do my job once more, using my Rejuvenation Healing Skill on him.

  Instantly, he seems to let out a sigh of relief, as the pain that had been building up in his knees is gone in seconds. Seeing the damage, it is clear that this is not the first time opponents have targeted his knees, as he has long term build up and damage in those joints. I do as much as I can, but I know I can’t clear up everything wrong with his body. At least not with just one treatment. Still, I do more than I likely should as I hope he does take this to heart and possibly realizes that prized fighting might not be a worthwhile career path.

  Once his body is done, I take a step back, and realize that the effects of the nectar of the Gods that Mr. Yi gave me, that Mana regeneration tonic, is still in effect. As I can feel more of my mana coming back every second. Realizing it was likely a draught that was overly powerful for my small body, I decide to use the excess energy and begin cleaning up the ring with my Trash Skill.

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  “WHOA!” The crowd cries out, as they see me cleaning up the ring in a matter of seconds. While the spray does cover a wide area, the area it does cover is relatively flat, making it so that with just a few motes of Mana I am able to clean myself, the ring, the referee, and the smaller of the two fighters. The fighter that had his wrist nearly snapped off.

  I look around and even get the soles of the feet of Markan and Mr. Yi, making it so they don’t continue to spread more stains for me to have to clean up. Once everything is cleaned, I give one last look around, and then see that one blood stain still remains. The bloody handprint from where I touched the mountain of a man to heal his injuries.

  The mountain of a man looks momentarily confused as I gesture for him to get closer to me so I can remove the blood from his face.

  “No, I will keep this a memento of this event, thank you great healer!” The mountain of a man states while bowing in reverence to me, appreciation clearly meant with every word.

  Seeing him, I shrug, not wanting to say how disgusting having blood of any kind on you is, especially if it is the blood of someone you don’t know. But I can’t talk, and honestly, I don’t even know where I would begin with such a comment to this man. A man who clearly seems to have changed.

  That said, I am moved by his response and bow back to him.

  Cheers!

  With that, the smaller of the two stands up, holding up his two hands triumphantly and waves them around to the audience.

  More cheers!

  I bow to the second fighter, again trying to garner respect with these fighters. Many of whom are far more experienced than I am, and could likely crush me like a bug if I was not prepared.

  The smaller of the two fighters also bows back to me, clasping his hands in the same way that Red Reed had from the previous round.

  I bow and nod again, before making my way out of the ring.

  Markan races ahead before me, and this time when he offers me his hand, I don’t resist. I’m still a little tired, from using so much Mana so quickly, but the tonic and amount of time the aftermath of this round took are catching up to me.

  Seeing me, the two ring girls immediately get up and check me out.

  “Are you okay?” The blond one asks, concern evident in her voice. I just nod, and then wink back at her, knowing that this seems to be her signature gesture.

  Blush.

  At that the blond girl just blushes, must be an Actor related Skill as she does it nearly on command, that is impressive.

  “Here, sit down, and we’ll draw this next part out a bit,” the blond girl demands as she grabs my hand and all but forces me to sit down in the ringside chair. A chair that should technically be mine, which is the only reason why I take her up on the offer.

  “Let’s hear it again for our Healer folks! Thanks to her, we can get our next match underway immediately." The Announcer calls out, his voice finally filtering to my mind. I know he has been talking this entire time, keeping everyone aware of what was happening and what we are doing.

  I let out a drained sigh, as it feels like I just got to sit down, before I have to be ready for the next contest.

  “Hey Boss!” The Blond girl calls out, her body in the ring and hanging out over the top rope facing towards the announcer.

  “Yes, dear?” The Announcer replied back, having apparently heard the call of the blond ring girl over the crowd.

  “We are going to give the Healer ten minutes to recover,” the blond girl called out.

  “Ten minutes?” The announcer replies, his voice almost incredulous. That’s when the blond girl proceeds to work her magic on the crowd.

  “Come on everyone, lets give a shout out for our healer and her getting ten minutes to rest!”

  “ROAR!” With that the crowd cheered their approval. Honestly, I’m kind of glad as that was a lot of work. Even the use of Trash at the end was almost too much. Not that it was mana intensive, but that it forced me to focus on cleaning away thin layers of blood. In what could only be described as a mentally taxing process.

  “You heard them boss!” The blond stated.

  For his part the Announcer looked somewhat annoyed but finally seemed to acquiesce.

  “Fine, ten minutes. And as a special waiting bonus, we will make it, so any wagers placed this round have a five percent bonus towards any payouts!” The Announcer conceded and seemed to begrudgingly walk off the announcer’s platform.

  Cheers!

  The crowd seemed even more energized after that announcement.

  “Let’s hear it for our Healer, who not only saved the day, but also our ring!” The blond ring girl called out.

  While she was amping the crowd up during this time, the dark-haired ring girl came over and gently led me to the stage.

  “Cone on cutie,” was all the dark-haired girl said, and once again I could only shake my head. Realizing they likely thought I was someone else. At least that is what my still groggy mind thought, until I thought back to the blond girl’s comments from earlier. Then as if confirming my thoughts, that I hadn’t hallucinated anything, the blond girl rushed over to grab my hand as I got to the top step and the lip of the ring. Where she reached over and grabbed my hand.

  “Let’s hear it for her! And give her a big ol’ welcome to the Pit shout!” The blond ring girl shouted to the audience.

  RUMBLE!

  The cheers were so powerful that the entire arena began to rumble. I was glad I was wearing a hood, partial mask, and a veil at the time as I was certain my face went bright red with embarrassment.

  Her comments also confirmed my earlier thoughts, ones where the blond ring girl apparently knew I was a female. Had she always known?

  Thinking back, it seems she must have. But why flirt with me? Then only after a moment to truly think out the problem did I realize, she wasn’t flirting with me. She was flirting with the fact that the Pit had a healer on hand and could likely get through matches without any serious injuries.

  Realizing that, I felt both relieved, and a bit saddened by the fact that it was all likely just an act.

  With that revelation, I remembered an old but crude comment from my past life’s high school acting teacher, “acting is like professional wrestling and prostitution, if it’s done right, you thought it was real.”

  After remembering that sobering comment, I realized this was effectively all three combined. After a few minutes, I feel both refreshed and energized, as my body finally caught up to the excess mana that my body had produced and I was ready for the remainder of the fights.

  In a matter of minutes, everything calms down, and I am once again standing next to Markan and Mr. Yi.

  “You sure you don’t want to join us?” The blond ring girl playfully calls out from what must be my seat as she gently pats her lap, beckoning me to sit.

  Her acting skills must be maxed out, as I look for any signs of deception or chicanery with my Eagle Eye Skill and realize I still need more practice with my Skill as I can’t see any signs. Again, I almost allow my mind to think that their might be a chance between the two of us, when more of her byplay with the Announcer comes back to me. Not only had the blond ring girl called me, her then. But the Announcer also called the ring girl Dear, a term of endearment and one that likely slipped out due to the stress of the moment.

  While the Announcer looked to be far older than the ring girl, I knew that age often meant nothing when love, money, or convenience were concerned. Given that they were part of the same industry it made sense that there might be some type of emotional attachment between them.

  These sobering thoughts and more filled my mind, as my skills were once again called upon after the next bout ended in knockout punch brought on by an expert use of Flurry Step, followed by a Hammer Blow combo that caught an opponent completely unaware. I found that the faster I went and tended to the knocked-out opponent, the less brain swelling I would have to deal with.

  Everything was getting into a fairly consistent rhythm of me running up to have to heal sweating me, when the whole venue changed as I saw two oiled females with glistening abs show up.

  I found myself mesmerized, not only was she Amazonianly tall, but she was gorgeous with fiery red hair. I am not ashamed to admit I stared at her strut to the ring. My first thoughts were what Skills and Class did she possess to look like that, like a goddess made flesh. As I was seriously considering a Class change if I could somehow look like that with a little effort.

  Giggle.

  While I was busy staring at the Amazonian contestant, someone else was busy staring at me.

  “Hey Leah, it seems you have a fan,” the so not helpful blond ring girl cooed out and drew the giant woman’s attention. For a moment, the Amazonian just gave a cursory glance back, but after seeing where the blond ring girl was pointing, her disposition seemed to change.

  “Oh, the vaunted healer, it seems like I might be favored today,” the Amazonian woman, Leah apparently, called out and winked at me.

  CHEERS!

  Apparently, there is an acoustic set up so noises and spoken words on the ring can be amplified and heard throughout the entire amphitheater. As the crowd went wild at her words.

  With that the crowd went wild, “a thousand on Leah the Destroyer!”

  “Two thousand!”

  Final bets were being cast, and I could now see effects of my Eagle Eye Skill in effect, as there was almost an impossible wink and slight head bob that was passed between the two combatants.

  “Fighters take your marks!” The referee called out, and with that Leah the Destroyer and her opponent got to the center, knocked fists as a sign of respect.

  And for a moment I swear I could almost tell the future before it happened.

  “Fight!”

  Then my premonition proved to be correct.

  200 Followers, almost there!

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