Level Five

"What are you doing now?" For the tenth time in a row Kara asked Aker.

Barely able to contain his frustration Aker took a deep breath and without looking at the curious cat that won't stop asking questions he explained "He fought against another prisoner and he is suffering from hypoxia after suffering significant blood loss. The sword nicked an artery in his leg and while he didn't bleed out, had he been out there for three or four more minutes there wouldn't be anything I could do. Currently I am working on cauterizing the artery. I applied a field tourniquet to it so I could stop the bleeding. If I can't cauterize it in the next couple of minutes, he is in danger of losing his leg. So Little Kara if I could just have a couple of minutes to focus, I will explain whatever you want out of the anatomy book when I'm done."

"DEAL!" Kara was excited to hear Aker make the promise to her. Aker had been so busy studying or working with patients that he didn't explain anything to her at all.

Thankfully for the patient their artery was only barely nicked and it could be taken care of with a quick cauterization. Had the artery been cut any deeper Aker wouldn't have been able to take care of it as it would have required sewing up and he wasn't quite to that point yet and Doctor Life & Death was nowhere to be found.

At this point Aker had begun to surpass Fenton who avoided Aker like he was death incarnate. He was afraid with Akers advancing medical skills that Doctor Life & Death really would have him calling Aker Senior Brother, so he couldn't risk it. During the time that Aker was working the medic area Fenton would disappear.

"All done, I cauterized the artery and the wound. I put some balsamic fluid on it so it should hold together and not get infected. Sorry I couldn't do more, I don't know when your next fight is but I would stay off of it and get some rest as you lost a lot of blood."

As the little boy stood before the rough man, he gave him a quick rundown of what he did as well as a suggestion for recovery. In reality there was no recovery for this man as he would be back in the arena in the next day or two but that didn't change the advice that Aker had to give him.

Struggling to push himself up and working to catch his balance the injured fighter patted Aker on the shoulder "Thank you young man, you saved this one's leg. Not sure how much it will do for me in the long run but at least tonight I get to keep it." With a helpless and sorrowful smile full of missing teeth he hopped down and slowly walked away.

"OK my turn, can you explain what you just did? What is cauterizing? Why did you apply the tourniquet? What did you mean you only had a couple of minutes to finish working on the patient?" Question after question was posed to Aker as soon as the man hobbled away.

Hearing the questions Aker answered each of them in the order that they were asked. He took his time to explain why he took each action and what he was trying to be careful of. As he answered questions it created new questions. This back and forth went on for just over thirty minutes before Vance called the duo to head over to the blacksmith. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on who you asked, during the thirty-minute grilling not a single person came into the medic area.

Both Aker and Kara walked with Vance over to the forge. Aker who walked into the forge immediately went to his corner and picked up his 160-ounce hammers, picked up his tongues, grabbed an ingot and put it in the fire. As he put it in the flame Mavis and Aker would begin their comedy routine of what do you see in the flame, I see it getting bigger, and I see it getting smaller.

Aker enjoyed his time here as Kara didn't ask any questions and only watched as Mavis and Aker worked. Aker would swing his hammer and Mavis would pump the air into the forge and ask Aker the same questions.

Aker was now hitting the ingot at a rate of 24% and as he hammered it out, he was able to smooth out and shape the metal to a small degree. To be honest Aker wasn't quite sure how you were supposed to turn an ingot into a weapon or armor as he hadn't seen one made yet. As he swung the hammer and hit the ingot, he felt Mavis wasn't actually having him trying to make anything, it was more like he was trying to have him learn the feel for the different types of hits. Even if that wasn't his intention that's what was occurring. Aker was learning how to hit the metal to smooth it out, to get it to cut left or right and to fix areas where he went too easy or too hard in a section.

As Aker was leaving today, he didn't forget to call back "Thank you Teacher Mavis" as he left the forge after walking through the exit.

As Aker walked into the kitchen Sampson came over and spoke with both Aker and Kara. After Sampson finished talking with Kara for a couple of minutes, he took her and put her in one of the specialty stations. Turns out she had been cooking for her dad when she was able to and she had a profound appreciation for cooking.

Aker who saw the whole scenario play out was both overjoyed and depressed at the same time. He was afraid that Kara would ask him questions the entire time he was trying different flavors, recipes and cuts and he wouldn't be able to try everything he wanted so seeing her go off to another station was a bit of a relief. Yet, seeing her on her first day in the kitchen not only not get kicked out but moved to one of the inner stations was upsetting.

Aker went through his normal routine of digging through the waste pile and grabbing his ingredients. He would move through all of his different cuts and try different flavors with experiment after experiment.

Aker who was consumed with his work didn't notice the eye balls of a couple of the disciples who were working in the flavoring station as they watched Aker try different combinations. They were distracted by his creations to the point that they had stopped even pretending to do their work and were consumed with taking in Aker's movements and preparation.

In the last couple of days, the pure delicious aroma originating from the waste pile created a confusing and mysterious scenario for those disciples. They wanted to go over and ask Aker how he was coming up with his ideas and were beginning to feel a little jealous. While these disciples could cook Aker into shame if they were to compete, they had to follow a rigid and absolute formula. Whereas when they watched Aker's wild and innovative cooking, they felt themselves wanting to explore as an adventurer. They wondered if given Aker's freedom what wonderful flavors could they concoct?

As Aker finished his experiments for the day, he knew it was almost time for his battle in the arena. For the last ten days or so they had him fighting in the evenings at this time so he just felt like it was part of his routine.

______________________________________

"That was amazing Big Brother Aker, the way you handled all of those Kulga was unbelievable, but why did you keep fighting them when you could have clearly won sooner?"

"My Master taught me to use every fight as a grinder for the next fight and so I try and make each fight a little bit harder on me. Plus, I'll be fighting a magical beast soon, maybe even tomorrow and I don't know what to expect. Master told me that he would teach me some things about them the day before I fight the magic beast. He didn't want me to lose focus and get hurt against these beasts by looking past them."

Aker and Kara discussed his battle and talked about some of the lessons that Vance had taught Aker while he was getting checked out in the medic station.

"Alright Big Brother Aker I have to go home now but I will be back tomorrow, let's do lots of fun stuff tomorrow too."

Upon hearing Kara's call for the night Aker had to check his ear's, 'did she just say let's do lots of fun stuff tomorrow too?'

After being checked out in the medic station Aker was walked back to his cell by Vance where he went over a couple of more moves with the sword. The last couple of days Aker had been practicing with the sword at night and with the knife in the morning. Just as he had thought, the fight he just finished up had forty-five Kulga he had to face off against. He is still only using his knives' in battle as he doesn't feel proficient enough with the sword.

Mavis had made him two custom short swords and a mini shield that way he could practice two handed sword and sword and shield. Vance had shown him the basics of using a sword which differed from using a knife pretty drastically.

Knifes were predicated on speed and the movements of the knifes from reverse and forward and alternating attacks. Precision was key as the cutting surface of a knife didn't allow for mistakes when attacking or blocking. Aker had become very comfortable using his knife in battles and didn't want to switch to the swords, but Vance is insisting. He had repeatedly told Aker that he needed to learn how to use a sword in combat as it was the most versatile weapon allowing him to face all manner of enemy.

Vance began teaching Aker by showing him a couple of footwork patterns while moving empty handed. As Aker watched he noticed the rhythm of Vance as if though he was moving to a tune only he could hear. Occasionally he would move quickly, other times very slowly, then into confusing cross steps but what Aker found most shocking was that Vance continued to step in the exact same spots over and over. Despite how it looked, despite how he changed up his cadence he was using the exact same step movement for all of it.

After realizing Vance was using the same step movement Aker was stunned. He was trying to picture how Vance was able to vary the same steps to such a drastic degree. After Vance added the sword in his hand, he began by showing basic sword swings and blocks. There was nothing fancy to his movements however his movements were concise and controlled.

While swinging his sword, his muscles bulged as if though he was putting every fiber of strength into each swing "Aker, when fighting with a sword you have to maintain control of yourself, control of your surroundings and control of your enemy. The sword can fight and kill one person or it can fight and kill one thousand. The sword lives for blood and serves no other purpose, so you should always be moving forward when you have a sword in your hand, you should always be trying to feed your sword!"

As Aker heard Vance's words, he could fill the chill as the words rolled off his tongue. Aker really admired Vance, he had been with him since his second day in The Pit and he considered him family. Vance was like a mother bird pushing its baby bird out of the nest every day. Every day Aker had to fight and survive and every day Aker would see Vance smiling as he left the arena and walked into the foyer. After each fight, when they would come back to his cell Vance would explain what Aker could have done better in his battle, he would teach Aker new techniques and he would answer Akers questions.

As Aker swung his sword finishing up his practice, he would think about Vance's words.... he would think about the swords need for blood, the need to be fed. "The sword is the King of weapons" is what Vance had told him. While Aker wasn't sure about that, he was sure that when he had a sword in hand as he practiced with all of his strength, he knew that there was no limit to how strong he could be.

Exhausted and tired as he finished up his sword training Aker was in an excited and jubilant mood. He was only twenty points away from his next level up. If his understanding was right then he should be going to level 5 tonight.

As Aker looked at his Level it began ticking off 1595...1596...1597...1598...1599...1600...

Without realizing it Aker let out an excited shout raising his fist in the air for his accomplishment as soon as he saw the 1600. Just as Aker expected the Level changed from 4 to 5 and the number reset to zero. The bar changed to red and the there was no further counting off...he was at Level 5 and 0 points.

As Aker thought about it, it wasn't that the Kulga he fought were worth exactly the points he needed, it was more likely that after he reached the next level the Kulga just weren't worth any more points.

With anticipation Aker's focus moved from his new Level over to his Skills column and sure enough there it was...SKILLS P5...seeing the P5 a broad grin formed on Akers face and he let out a breath of relief.

While he was fairly sure that he would level up he was still nervous. What if nothing happened? Even if he leveled up did that mean he was going to get Skill points too? Aker still had so many unanswered questions.

Looking at his new Skill points Aker immediately called out "Strength" while focused on it and looked to the point total next to the Skill. Sure enough the point total next to strength changed from 1 to 2.

"Strength" Aker called out again and just as expected the point changed to three.

"Strength" Once again Aker called out this time the excitement in his voice couldn't be hidden.

Last time Aker had Skill points he had mistakenly given them to comprehension and vitality and didn't want to make that mistake again. He had been thinking long and hard the last couple of days about how he would allocate his points.

"Agility"

Finally, after hesitating for just a moment Aker called out "Mana"

As he looked over his new Skills, he was excited to see the numbers change. He wasn't sure what it would do for him but just getting stronger even if just a little could mean getting to live.

Level 5 0 points

SKILLS P0

Vitality 2

Comprehension 5

Agility 2

Strength 4

Mana 2