Ludere did his best to make a list of his next steps.

  There wasn't a consolidated list of skills he could take. People were often cagey about their skills to begin with.

  Who was going to have to go and examine what he could for the people that looked like they might best serve him. He would have to revisit the senator at some point in time. He probably had some skills that some would find uncouth, being a senator and all.

  All that meant for him was that eventually he might get the next skill off the senator. And in the long term? If these visions never ended. It would be because of his actions.

  The worst part was that if he wanted to make an actual physical list, it wouldn't make it through the visions. He needed a plan that would get him through, and he had to store it in his head.

  His head was, up until recently, a terrible place for anything but facts and figures about arena matches.

  He would have to learn.

  His Spear skill was approaching the Adept level. The base level for soldering was having one skill in the thirties, or higher, was something he had wanted to achieve for years. Getting twenty levels in the skill in what had to have been the equivalent of a day was a meteoric rise. Maybe if he tried to use Glam against the demons, that would level faster as well.

  He didn't have much better to do than try it.

  This time when the horde came, he had already borrowed a good spear.

  The demons came at him as they always had; over-confident and direct.

  From his new setup on the wall, he started directing his spear into the path of quickest death for all of the demons trying to make their way up next to him.

  It wasn't a coincidence that he had picked the part of the wall nearest the Octavi section.

  If the Senators had magic, they would be using it from there. They could protect his back; or they could just be selfish.

  Ludere was counting on their strong self interest.

  The first ten demons to die this time hadn't seen the spear tip coming. Each one was a direct hit right through a neck. Many of their heads fell onto the arena floor, beating the bodies only by moments.

  After that the demons attempted to go around him.

  Ludere chased them to the right. Two demons fell in quick succession, both suddenly missing most of their necks. Ludere attempted to push the next one with Will. He aimed his magic at the place its claws attached to the wall.

  The small application of his Will put the demon off balance. This time, instead of the demon falling down dead, it fell down fully alive and surprised. Or at least that was the image that he was presented with. So far. They had always shown two types of expressions to him. One was surprised when they died, and the other was their general resting demon face.

  Demons were not built with faces that anyone could ever love. Ludere was absolutely certain. It was his current opinion and in no way subject to change, ever. It didn't matter if a large part of the legion was some kind of battle succubus. That was not distracting at all.

  The first problem they presented was that the rank and file of the demons listened to the succubi. Either all of them were in leadership roles, or there was something about them that made the other demons pay attention. Several times, demons that were heading in his direction stopped, and then began to work their way around, trying to encircle him. Each time, they stopped, looked at a nearby succubus, and then changed their direction.

  That might become a problem.

  Ludere continued to spear the ones climbing up, even as they slowed to a trickle. He nearly cut a dead demon down a second time; the clog of corpses had become a ramp.

  "Ooof!"

  A rock glanced off his arm. It had come from one of his sides, and with a start he realized that he had almost become enveloped by demonic foot soldiers.

  It stung, but not as much as moving to engage behind where he had been facing.

  With three savage strikes, the demonic circle became more of a 'u' shape. Ludere ran through the gap, feinting on both sides as demons clawed at his heels.

  Once through, he turned and repositioned himself. They would just envelop him again if he didn't use some terrain to at least slow them. The arena sloped upwards as it went further out, that was probably the best advantage he could get. All he needed to do was use that terrain to his advantage and pick up as many as he could. Further up, the Senators were still flinging magic down to the crowd. He took that moment to try and move another. This time he picked out a succubus, and just pushed out her knees enough to knock her over.

  At the same time, roughly a dozen demons also fell over.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  "That's curious," he said. "If they're under direct control…"

  He dodged another set of claws. This time he kept one eye on the hulking leader demons. He would not be destroyed. He parried one of the faster demons before getting it in the neck. Then he went for his first succubus.

  It was approaching him.

  "You seem to have talent, human. Why waste it fighting for a dead cause? Why not put it to use? You don't care about your… Prefereti, do you?"

  Ludere didn't care about them. They just used his people and him. He didn't care what they said their sandals were made out of. Nothing excused some of the behaviors he had heard of behind closed doors.

  But she was right, wasn't she? Of course she was. And she was so attractive.

  Before he knew it, he wanted to approach her and…

  Then she drove her sword through his stomach.

  "But baby, we could have been something…" He said.

  ---

  With a jolt, Ludere snapped back awake.

  He had been planning his wedding to a succubus, and…

  "Ludo?" The Prefereti was once again looking at him oddly.

  "Apologies, minister. Fifteen Dinarii?"

  "Fifteen. Yes."

  He cleaned up that business and was pleased to see that he would have enough for a long honeymoon with his bride-to-be.

  "Ludere, you look like you're in love!"

  "Oh, I've met the most wonderful woman. She is strong, has a commanding presence, and is red like a ripe tomato. She's perfect."

  "Red like a tomato? What are you on about?" Erebus looked at him like he didn't want to be a part of the wedding party.

  "The most beautiful demoness. She had eyes like…"

  He found himself being bodily shaken by his friend.

  "Snap yourself out of it. Did you see a demon some where?"

  "She's been in my dreams for so long. I will make her mine."

  Erebus frowned. "We need to go to the Medica. Shoot, we need to close down for a minute."

  Erebus neatly packed up and closed out his work and Ludere's. Then he bodily grabbed Ludere and lead him up. "Dead Gods, when did you get so strong?"

  "That would have been in the first six visions. You helped me a bunch you know? I think you would be a great best man."

  Gia flagged them down. "You can't both go on break at the same time without me!"

  "Er… Yes? My friend here is having a little trouble right now. Can you help me bring him to the Medica?"

  Gia walked over to Ludere's right side. She gripped his arm in what he knew was a 'come along' technique. "Hey, you taught me this move. What was it called? 'Drunks at the Forums'?"

  "He sounds drugged. What was he doing?"

  They staggered down the steps to the Medica. "That's just it. One minute he was with us, the next he was talking about his beautiful red bride! I've never heard of anything like this!"

  "Beautiful red bride? Have you been reading too many of those fancy scrolls?" Gia provided the exact amount of force to make him want to agree with her on any point she made ever.

  "Nope. I've just met the one for me!"

  They were in the Medica. Jay was once again treating his one patient. It was earlier in the vision than the last time they had been there.

  "Whoa." Jay was wearing dark glasses as he observed them. He pushed them over his nose. "How did your soul take so much… Bring him over."

  Jay brought him directly to the first cot by the door. It wasn't the first time he had assessed Ludere.

  "He's been babbling about this new demon wife out of nowhere. You said if anything this is what a succubus attack would look like," Erebus whispered.

  "What occasion did you have to ask such a particular question?" Gia whispered.

  "You don't have to whisper. I can hear you both fine," Ludere said.

  "This one isn't about you!" Gia almost spat.

  It was the same kind of passion he had for his bride to be. What was her name again? That was odd. He should know her name off the top of his head but it felt like it was a hundred miles away.

  How had they met?

  Why was his memory so cloudy?

  "Ludere. Mental damage is different from physical damage, but in some ways it's the same. Still, I have to ask. Have you recently gotten some new skills or skill levels? Your soul, it's stretching."

  Ludere looked at him, briefly understanding. "I've gotten three new skills inside this morning. Will Magic, Spear Proficiency and Unarmed Combat. Oh, and the Skill Swap skill. But that's probably why I've been having these visions. Do you think I'm going to be good enough to plan out this wedding? I'm so excited for this new chapter of my life."

  Jay took a deep sigh. "That's what I was afraid of."

  "Commitment isn't something to fear, even if you've been working off your debts. You, too, can find a savage red beauty to have gorgeous demon children with."

  Jay pinched the bridge of his nose. Gia patted him on his back. If she did that to him, would his new wife consider it cheating?

  Shoot, the whole walk down, Gia had been basically holding his hand. It didn't matter if the girl was bad or anything!

  Ludere was horrified.

  "Ludere! Come back to us. What are you thinking about?" Erebus said. He had taken up a spot against the inner wall.

  "I just realized that I was holding Gia's hand on the walk down here. I think my new bride might not like that."

  Gia grunted. "Your new bride? Who is this lady? She's got to be a piece of work to have you all twisted up like this."

  "I… I don't…" What was her name? He couldn't think of it. It was on the tip of his tongue, but it was so far away. Had he even learned her name, or was this love at first sight?

  "I… I…" Ludere wiped the tears off his eyes. How could he forget someone so beautiful?

  Jay huffed before sitting back on his little stool. "I'm going to be honest. I've never seen such extensive Soul damage. I feel like I should be able to see it without my glasses on. A real Soul mage like my mentor would pick this out immediately. I'm so glad he imbued my glasses, otherwise I wouldn't even have a clue."

  "How could this happen so fast?" Gia said. "All I know about soul damage is that it's one of those things that takes a long time to recover from."

  "Unfortunately, the answer to that is inside his brain, and I don't know if I can help him more. My mentor might be in the arena right now. Hold on. Can the two of you watch him? I'll go check."

  "Of course," Erebus said. "He's not just my coworker, he is my comrade."

  "Thanks."