A Friend

Nick sighed, sitting down on the edge of a fountain. He had taken Alyssa's advice and decided to walk around the city in order to find something to do. Originally he did not plan to take her advice, but once he did everything he had planned on doing he realized that it was his best option if he didn't want to be miserable and bored.

Over the course of the day he was able to get his clothes washed as well as his jeans repaired. He was also able to work out, get food, take a bath, buy a hard leather coin pouch, and complete various other small tasks. He officially had nothing left to do. He could do what he did yesterday and just train, but if that was all he did it would be like being back in the castle. He decided that there must be something to do other than drink, read, train, or talk... not that he could drink anyway.

Nick scanned the front of various stores, so far he had not found anything to do. There were a lot of stores, but none of them sold anything that he could afford if they sold anything interesting. He had found a weapon and armor store as well as an alchemy and enchantment shop, but he was way too poor to buy anything useful. They had served as decent distractions for an hour or so, but since he couldn't buy anything he decided to not linger too long. Damn, what did people do for fun during this time period?

It was times like this that Nick wished he had a more physical form of magic he could mess around with. Healing and shock were extremely useful, but also boring. He would give his left arm to have some kind of elemental magic, even if it was something boring like wind. Though, he knew the chances of having another affinity with the ones he currently had was about the same as winning the lottery five hundred times in a row. It was times like this that he wished he could go back to earth, a place with video, games, and music at your finger tips at all times.

"You look pretty depressed." A male voice said. Nick raised an eyebrow and looked over to where the voice came from. There was a young man looking at him with a large smile on his face. He had extremely light brown hair and bright green eyes, he was also at least six feet tall. Judging from his clothes he obviously had money, but he wasn't rich by any means.

"I guess. Honestly, I'm just extremely bored." Nick closed his eyes and sighed deeply once again. After a couple of seconds of silence he felt a hand roughly impact his back.

"Well, that won't do. Come on, I know a place we can go for some fun." Nick opened his eyes to see the man grinning from ear to ear.

"You are inviting someone you just met and know nothing about to come with you to some unknown destination with promises of fun... Yeah, this doesn't sound sketchy in the slightest." Nick eyed the man suspiciously, for all he knew this guy was trying to lure him to some back alley in order to rob him.

"You will never make friends with that kind of attitude. Come on, let's cure that boredom!" The man offered Nick a hand to help him stand.

Nick sighed, grabbing his hand. "Fine." He decided that if something bad did happen he would have a good chance of getting out of it on top. After all, not everyone had a guardian demon and the ability to generate shock waves from their hands.

"Name's Troy, Troy Griffin." He pulled Nick to his feet. "What's yours?"

"Nick Anderson." Nick let go of Troy's hand, now being on his feet. "So, where is this fun place?"

"Just follow me."

Nick began to follow Troy, after about twenty minutes of walking they turned down an alley. Shit, I knew this was sketchy. I'm going to get mugged. Once inside the alley and out of view of most on the streets, Troy began to look around. After a moment he looked to Nick and his grin widened. Here it comes...

Just as Nick started to brace himself for a fight, Troy swung open a door. When the door opened he could hear nearly inaudible cheering, he was confused. "What, never seen a door before? Go on in."

He gave Troy a cautious look before making his way inside. "Alright..." Inside the door was a dimly lit corridor that led to a flight of stairs. Once they were both inside, Troy closed the door behind them.

"Go on." Troy motioned to the stairs, Nick felt uneasy about walking in front of him.

"What is this place, anyway?" Nick asked, beginning his descent down the stairs. The stairs must have gone down several stories.

"You will see when we get there. I think you will like it as long as you don't mind large crowds."

Large crowds didn't really bother him, but how secretive Troy was being did. After a minute of descending stairs in silence they came to a large metal door. Troy knocked on the door a couple of times before a small eye slot slid open. "Password?"

Wow, this is cliché... Nick couldn't help but think, but at least it seemed like he wasn't going to get mugged.

"Oak." Troy said, an odd conviction in his voice.

"Oak? Really?" Nick raised an eyebrow.

"The password changes every day, you can't expect them to think of something witty for the password every time."

"Fair enough, I suppose..." The door slowly opened after a series of loud clicking sounds, the man behind it coming into view. A very bulky man with an eye patch. Troy motioned for Nick to enter, which he did. He had come this far, it was too late to turn back. He just hoped this wasn't something seriously weird or illegal.

As they approached, the faint cheering that Nick had heard from outside became deafeningly loud. Once they opened another door a large area came into view. There were hundreds of people all gathered around a small arena where two grown men were fighting. "The hell?" This was not at all what he expected.

Most people here were young adults, all watching these two grown men beat each other senseless in some kind of bare knuckle boxing match. Overall, the place was well lit and seemed to be pretty well kept in order. However, even with how professional it all seemed, that was all overshadowed by the blood soaked floor and people that were inside the small fenced in arena. It seemed kind of like a mix of MMA and gladiatorial combat. Though, it would be dishonest of Nick if he said he did not find it a little bit entertaining.

"Welcome to the Underground Bloodsport Arena, a place for the wealthy and desperate alike." Troy grinned, walking past Nick with his arms spread out to his sides.

"Taking the word 'underground' a bit literally..."

"Well, these guys make a lot of noise, being far underground helps."

"Fair enough."

"However, there is one rule. You are either betting or you are fighting. If you don't do either more than twice a month you will be kicked out and forced to pay a large fee to get back in."

"I don't really have much money... But I'm also not too fond of getting the shit kicked out of me."

"Don't worry, you are my guest so you don't have to do either. You look pretty strong, though. You could always try one match and make a bit of money. Even the loser gets money as long as it's not a death match."

"Death match?" Well, that doesn't sound good.

"Yeah, the two or more people who will be fighting have to decide on a type of match. Sometimes two people hate each other enough or need money desperately enough that they lay down their lives to bring in the big money. Don't worry, all parties have to agree for a death match to happen." Nick breathed a sigh of relief, happy that if he ever did decide to fight that he would not be forced to lay down his life.

"Let's go sign in. Also, if you have a gold you can sign up to get the password schedule. It's a monthly payment and each week you will get seven passwords sent to you."

"Yeah, I don't have that kind of money."

"I can only have the same person as my guest four times, so if you want to keep coming you will have to come up with a gold at one point. However, as far a betting goes you can bet as little as one silver so you might be able to make that here. How much you bet determines how much of a percentage you get of the winnings. You could potentially bet one silver and make a gold if enough people bet enough money against you."

"I'm not sure if I have enough money to be betting. I still need to eat and I only have fourteen silver left."

"Oh, you will be fine. Just bet a couple of silver on someone and see if you get lucky." Suddenly a chorus of cheers and yells rung out, causing Nick to cover his ears. "...Looks like that fight is over. Come on, let's go sign in before the next fight starts." Nick nodded and began to follow Troy to the two tables at a far corner of the room.

One of the tables was for sign in and registration and the other was for bets. A total of six people were working the tables. Four were working the bet table and two were working the sign in/registration table. "Signing in, Troy Griffin and a guest. The guest's name is Nick Anderson." Nick watched as one of the people working the table wrote everything down on a piece of paper.

"Will the guest be signing up for a membership?"

"No, not right now."

"Alright, betting or fighting?"

"For right now, betting." The man nodded, writing more things down.

"Alright, you are good to go, best of luck."

Next they both made their way to the line to the betting table. The two fighters were standing behind the table and were holding signs with what looked to be their names. After about twenty minutes of waiting in a line they eventually made it to the front. "This will be a knockout match. Please choose a fighter and an amount."

Nick looked at the fighters, one was named Dave and the other was named William. On the table it had general stats on the two fighters as well who was the favorite to win and who was the underdog. You win more if you put money on the underdog. Dave was the favorite currently and William was the underdog. Both Troy and Nick decided to put two silver on William.

William may be the underdog, but he had a better win/loss ratio than Dave. Dave was a lot larger and a lot more intimidating than William, but they decided it would not be hard for William to use that against him. Once they placed their bets they sat on what seemed to be the equivalent of bleachers in this era. They were wooden and unpleasant, but it did not matter. Nick did notice that most people brought cushions from home in order to make it a bit more bearable.

It did not take long for the fight to start, both men instantly charging each other. William was able to duck under a right hook and plant a solid punch in Dave's gut before following that with an uppercut. William was able to back out of Dave's reach before he could compose himself and retaliate. The majority who bet on the much larger man were groaning and yelling while the minority were cheering for William. Even Nick was cheering, it did not take him long to get into this.

Dave ran forward again, this time sending a series of jabs towards his opponent, though William was fast enough to dodge all but one. The one hit was devastating, blood was flowing from his nose like a leaky faucet. Dave sent a couple more jabs, but this time William ducked under them and sent a quick series of four punches to Dave's gut. Dave couldn't help but stumble slightly and hunch over. Once he hunched over William took advantage, grabbing Dave's head and bringing it downward as his knee shot up to meet his face.

Dave howled in pain, gripping his face as blood poured from his nose and mouth. Nick guessed that he probably had a couple of broken teeth and a broken nose. William did not miss a beat, grabbing Dave's leg and pulling it out from under him, making him fall on his back. Once on his back, William mounted him and began to furiously beat the man as he tried his best to block. It did not take long for Dave to forfeit, causing Troy, Nick, and all who bet on William to stand up and cheer as all the others grumbled in defeat.

Troy and Nick high-fived and continued to cheer as people started to get up to make their next bet. "By the way, we collect our winnings at the end of every hour, but we can make bets with our winnings even if we haven't gotten them yet. Feel like making another bet?"

Nick thought about it for a second, it was fun to bet on these fights, but he also knew that it was unwise to keep betting when he did not have much money. "Nah, I think I will quit while I am ahead for today. I might make some more bets later on when I have a bit more money to play around with."

"Do you have a job or are you betting with your allowance?" Troy asked.

"Ah, I guess you could say I have a job. I'm in the adventurers guild."

"No shit?" Troy's face showed his obvious surprise. "What rank are you? D rank I'm guessing, you look pretty young."

"Actually, I'm C rank. I'm stronger than I look."

Troy looked even more surprised. "Seriously? Dude! You should totally fight! I bet you could wipe the floor with these guys!"

Nick chuckled. "Doubt it. From what I just saw, these guys are a bit more skilled than me in hand to hand combat. If I could use magic then I might have a chance."

"You can use magic in some of the more high-risk matches."

"What even are the types of matches you can have here anyway?" So far, Nick knew that you could either have a death match or a knockout match.

"There are four types. You have knockout, breaker, everything goes, and death match. In a knockout match there are set rules and you either lose by tapping out or getting knocked out, in a breaker match it is the same but you are allowed to break the bones of your opponent. Everything goes is exactly how it sounds, you are able to use everything, including magic, in order to win. In everything goes you can win by knockout, tap out, incapacitation, or death. A death match is much like an everything goes match, but the only difference is you have to kill your opponent."

"Man, that is brutal." Nick winced at the thought of people getting killed in front of him. "How often do people die here?"

"There is usually one every couple of days, maybe a couple more if people die in an everything goes match. There are some nights that are death match only as well, those happen once a month. They let people know by putting 'DMO' beside the password for that day."

Nick sat in silence for a couple of seconds, thinking this over. "Man. Well, I guess I could always step out during a death match... By the way, this was a knockout match, so shouldn't it have been illegal for William to break Dave's nose?"

Troy shook his head. "No, minor breaks and fractures are allowed in knockout matches. He would have been disqualified if he did something like break and arm, leg, or a rib. Something that causes an extreme amount of pain and takes a long time to heal."

"Ah, I see." Nick watched as more and more people came back to the bleachers.

"Seems like the next match is staring soon." Troy grinned.

Nick and Troy stayed to watch for a few more hours, they even bet on another two matches. Nick now had thirty silver, over twice what he had started with. They got to watch several Knockout matches as well as Several breaker matches, the breaker matches were brutal but still entertaining. There was also one everything goes match, luckily nobody died. They both needed medical attention however, one for burns and the other for broken bones.

"I think I have had enough violence for tonight, I'm going to get out of here."

Troy nodded. "Alright, if you ever want to come here again, I usually hang out in or around the taverns near the fountain where we met. Just come find me and I will bring you as a guest again, just remember to bring enough money to get a membership. You can also pay in advance for different months in case you are headed out of town."

"I'll keep that in mind." Nick smiled. "See you around."

After a brief goodbye, Nick left the underground fighting arena. When he got outside the change in temperature sent a chill through his body. It was about sixty degrees outside but about ninety where he just was. After a couple seconds the cool air began to feel nice, judging by the position of the sun Nick could tell it was somewhere around Five in the afternoon. It would be dark in a couple of hours. I'm hungry...

After a quick dinner, Nick made his way back to his room at the inn. He burned some excess energy by practicing his swordsmanship with his sword at twenty five pounds for a few hours before heading to bed.