For the first time, he faced the demons, though he would be able to bring down more than a handful of them. They almost felt slow. He hadn't moved his Athletics skill up that much, so the speed gains were something. It just meant that he was a little bit more frustrated, a little bit faster.

  Gia stood next to him on one side with Erebus on his other. Both attempted to funnel demons his way. Somewhere, Gia had found a shield she kept using to bash them. Between her one-armed grip on her spear and the broad force of the shield, they were easily able to keep them coming.

  Ludere snapped one neck, then another, deftly pushing his skill to the maximum. Every time you made contact with a demon, he looked out for a hulking one that was yet to come. Perhaps they were too in awe of his prowess. Or perhaps they were too tied up in some other skirmishes around. Either way, there were at least four hulking brutes milling about in the area. None of them had taken the time to go after them at this juncture.

  The twelfth demon in a row died to his spear before he had to take a supporting role. Killing was a difficult business, and he was all out of excess stock.

  Erebus feinted, then impaled one of them. That gave him enough time to recommit to the fight. A demon attempted a savage blow against him, but was rebuffed by Gia's tower shield. He really had to give her credit. For as much as he had never really wanted to approach her to ask her to do anything, when she was on his side? She was unstoppable. And perhaps just her stronger base of having grown up with more chances to use her skills. That was the way.

  If he ever got out of here, he was going to thank both of them. Still the line around them held, but Ludere expected that it would buckle and break.

  Looking around the arena, several demons had broken through the lines. For many reasons, it looked like all was lost. The things went to pass the human lines, and then turn back and start to chew into them. Ludere briefly considered running. Unfortunately, running away from this fight wouldn't solve any of his problems. But perhaps maybe running away for one of these visions might give him a better idea of what the vision actually wanted to do. The only reason he thought that it wanted him to fight the demons is because demons killed him. He could very well have just not been in the area.

  There was no reason for that.

  What would happen if he ran? He could just take Gia with him. But for her? For the long term? She would always be at the same level in each loop.

  ---

  There was little chance that the first demon would fall to his spear. That was no longer a gamble. Spear Proficiency set the stage.

  It was just a matter of getting that tenth one with the same ease as the first.

  These were odds that he could play along with. He still fought to the death in each vision, but it felt harder each time, despite how easy the initial grouping of kills went.

  With his Spear skill approaching what the Legion required of any centurion, it wouldn't be too long in coming. He didn't have a gauge for what a house guard needed in the capital, but it was clear that if he met the level of Theo, he would be well on his way to a respectable retirement when this was all said and done.

  It was on his fifth vision that he started trying to figure out who held a magic skill. He scanned the crowd, right after the end trying to get a sense for which of the Prefereti was about to use magic. On his fourth vision he'd seen someone using the purple magic that signified force magic. He'd seen it used before of course, though it was rare. Ludere was willing to roll the dice on making an ass of himself in front of a Prefereti or even a senator if he had to ask them for a personal favor. Even if not, if he could just get into contact with them, he might be able to just swap skills.

  The skill wanted him to ask for permission. It wanted consent to swap. For a moment, he tried to commune with it. It felt like opening a drawer full of options in his mind library. He poked at all of the shelves around. This skill was powerful, but if he didn't focus his efforts, he would just end up with a lot of skills at a lower level.

  He needed to specialize. His first step would be to get his Spear skill over level twenty, if not thirty, to be an acceptable level. His way with the spear had to be as effortless as Gia's way around his Unarmed Combat skill.

  That in itself was going to be one of the more difficult things for him to do. He might not have whoever her family used as a trainer, but he had her, and she was eager to teach.

  She couldn't learn anything in roughly the hour he had before the demons showed up. How else could he…

  One of the Prefereti launched a purple tinged force ball at a demon. He was the one. It was the same person who had given him the skill gem. If he could just convince the man that he definitely hadn't stolen his powerful gem, used it, and then gotten stuck in these visions of the future, his life would be so much better. Now he knew who to ask.

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  The man was in the Octavi section. All Ludere had to do was feign some sort of introduction after the man came to make his bet and then he just needed the man's consent. If he could make some sort of bet with the man.

  A hulking demon ended his vision, once again by picking him out of the crowd and making a bee line towards him. This had to end.

  ---

  As if by rote, Ludere went through the vision again. It was no longer something he could deny. There was a reason for this. He didn't understand it, but someone was threatening the realm, and all he could do was show up and fight to save his country. His government could go toss it, but the ones next to him? Those ones he would keep. As soon as he got a breather, he waved to Erebus.

  "I've got to make a high profile contact. One of those in-person chits."

  The other man nodded. It so happened that many times, they couldn't just have a Prefereti walk into their area. Either they were too high profile, or they had to travel with Octavi security for the benefit of the Empire. Any and all reasons that they cooked up were enough to get him to appreciate the ones that weren't an issue.

  "Alright. Where are you heading, in case the arena manager asks?"

  "Octavi section."

  Erebus inhaled through his teeth. It wasn't his favorite, either. But if he was going to make this work, he was going to have to lean into what the man wanted. There was something about a man who just acted like he owned everything. He didn't want to think about it too much, either.

  He walked past Gia. Unfortunately, he couldn't take the time to explain the visions. They would have to wait. What he needed was to figure out some argument or bet he could make with the Prefereti.

  He steeled himself. The worst the man could say was no, though it was an option to have him just outright reject Ludere and toss him into the arena for having the poor idea to talk to someone of his station.

  That would be more than enough for a senator to have his Octavi rough up someone, as if they needed a reason. They didn't reach that rank without a few skeletons in their summer homes.

  ---

  The approach had to be professional. Erebus checked the man's records. Senator Celisar had often made bets that otherwise would have gone unnoticed. He had to pull a chit that looked ready for the flames to get the Senator's name. There were a significant number of lines leading to him, thinking that perhaps a senator had spent too much time considering which people to pay off and bribe, and which people to bet on. He hadn't pulled such an interesting chit before.

  Erebus had apologized profusely. There wasn't much he could do, but he did find an old debt that would cause Ludere to have a reason to bother the old man.

  "Ludo, what brings you to this section?" The gruff guard would not give any quarter. The man's forehead wrinkles could have crushed a rock.

  "Settling a debt with a Senator."

  "Is this a legal debt?"

  "Unfortunately, yes." Ludere held up the chit: it marked a debt of fifty Dinarii. It probably wasn't much to the Senator, but it would be more than he saw in a year.

  The guard looked at the chit briefly. He then nodded over his shoulder.

  "Go on, then, but don't try to do anything funny."

  He didn't intend to do anything funny. If he got the chance he would steal the man's skill. But still he didn't even want to if he didn't have to. And this situation? It was stretching his capacity to the limit. Each new skill felt like it expanded his inner library. He wanted to have every book possible.

  What was one more?

  "Hail Senator!"

  "Hail, Ludo. What business brings you to the Octavi section? Surely you're here looking for some political theory?"

  The man was exactly as he had remembered. The same crinkled smile, with eyes of a slight purple, rather than the normal white.

  "Unfortunately, Senator Celisar, I am here on official business."

  The man's face flashed irritation. "Ah. What is it, then?"

  "First, I want you to understand that your country needs you to do the right thing—imperatus colloquium service,"

  "Service imperatus Sum." The man spoke the words like he meant it.

  "Thirty Dinarii. Thirty Dinarii and your books will be settled. Plus the fifteen you were going to place on the next match. You were going to lose, by the way. The man with the spear loses too much when he gets a fist of sand to the face, and doesn't recover."

  For the first time, he had the senator's complete attention. "You know something."

  "There is about to be a demon invasion, Senator. I cannot stop it myself."

  "Ludo, are you a betting man? Is this a joke?"

  Ludere shook his head. The Octavi seating area was nice and mostly vacant. This ended up being a large part of the reason that he could pick out which Senator to swap skills with.

  "This is not a joke. I don't make jokes about such a serious matter. However, I am serious about needing one of your skills."

  "Why makes you think I would listen to anything you have to say?"

  Ludere shrugged. Behind them the crowd gasped. Hey turned to see that his bet had gone off correctly. He had timed it to when the man was hit in the face with the sand. He wasn't able to recover after that.

  "Because I just predicted how you would have lost a bet. Now, I would like to open negotiations."

  Senator Celisar blinked several times before nodding.