5 Arc 1: Part 4

Tales of The Tower: Once, two dark mages were caught conducting immoral experiments on unconcenting villagers. Once captured, they spoke of the Grim Reaper. Claimed he was real and within reach of humanity. After telling their captors, their bodies disintegrated to dust. Leaving their robes and a contract. The contract was signed by both men, promising to keep their findings a secret.

"You get a full serving for your first meal, but after, you only get what you can produce," the beast feeder behind the counter said. She handed her a plate. On it were two roasted chicken legs, mashed potatoes, and an entire cob of corn. The aroma pierced through the nose, and grabbed at the heart. Her mouth salvated as she had to bare walking twenty yards away to sit down and eat. When she finally arrived she feasted like mad. Her chicken legs became chicken bones, and not a single corn remained on the cob. She never had mashed potatoes before, so she would grab at it with her bare hands and stuff it in her mouth. This drew a lot of attention to herself. For a moment, her entire table was looking at her, and beyond her peers was Corter looked with disdain. She tried to hold it in, but her throat kept fighting her control until eventually she let out a huge burp. The table turned to laughter, Corter-the beast tamer-face to disgust.

After lunch she was ordered to meet in the middle of the third layer of rings from the door. There, Corter stood with a boy four years older than her. He was four foot eight, six inches taller than the Girl, and two inches smaller than Corter The boy smiled wide. They were to fight in the circle.

"These fights work as follows," Corter said. "You lose if you cry mercy, go out of bounds, or by being knocked out."

His instructions were clear. He gestured the Girl to get into the circle with her opponent. Corter lifted his walking cane in the air and pointed to the ceiling directly above. The Girl gave a quick glance before returning her eyes to her opponent. A whip of air could be heard, as the wind from the swift ninety degree swing of his cane signalled the match. This was the Girl's first match, but she didn't want to lose. Her stance was sloppy. Her wrists were on level with her eyes, blocking her vision from her opponent. The boy, like a vulture, slowly made way to the Girl. She paniced and lowered her arms and went into a sprint, arms still over her eyes. When she approached, he lifted his knee in a horizontal angle and struck her in the chest. Her feet lifted off the ground as her body curled and rotated around the boys thigh. Once the knee ceased contact with her chest, she was left in the air. She fell down, her knees the first to make contact with the floor below, her upper body next.

"Say mercy," the boy laughed. "I won't stop until you do."

But she did not obliged. She was gasping for air as she struggled to breathe. After a second, she lifted her right knee of the floor and replaced it with her foot. Before she could do the same with her left, the boy grabbed her long, black hair and tugged hard in the air, causing her to lift to a stance. His right hand on her hair, and his left now on her chin, positioned her head to his. He never dropped his smile from before. His hand was clawing into her chin. Corter was on the side ready to stop the fight if need be, but no serious harm was being done. The boy laughed out loud as he alternated between kneeing her in the back and in the front. He let go of his grasp.

"Should I ask again?" he asked. She remained unresponsive. She tried hard to get back up, but her body fought her along the way. Her persistence said all he needed to hear. "Let's continue then."

She stood up, blood dripped from her left nostril and both sides of her mouth. Her eyes seemed dead, as if she was awake for a full week. She still ran forward. This time, he grabbed her by the throat as she approached him. Keeping with her momentum, he moved a few steps backwards with her in his hold.

"This is getting boring," he said. His smile faded. He twisted his body and hurled her two feet in the air and five feet out of bounds. She landed and bounced once before sliding another foot. His smile came back in just a second as he said, "Yippee, I won."

Corter walked to the downed Girl. He used his cane to poke at her thrice and asked, "Girl, can you stand?" She couldn't talk over her stomach begging for air. "Your next match is in three minutes, you are to move to the first layer by the door."

The circles were arranged so the middle lot, housed all of the best fighters in the unit, and as the circles expanded out to the wall, they had less competent fighters. On the outer layer were mostly women, but a few men resided as well. She came to her assigned ring, and fought again. Although her opponent wasn't as strong or fierce as the boy she fought before, she lost again. This time she also didn't put up a fight. She fought until it was the afternoon. A bell rang and everyone lined up from the door to the cafeteria in single file, ordered by their fighting position. The strongest up front, and the Girl was near the end.

They walked out the complex, out a back gate, and down a dirt that lead down a hill to a river. On the way down, the Girl noticed pretty flowers on the right, in the grass as she walked. Purple and beautiful. Beauty marks on bright green grass. While she couldn't stop walking, it was as if the flowers walked with her. She didn't know where she was walking, but she found out when the front of the line started walking back. The man in front was almost twice the size of the five men behind him. He carried six buckets of water on wooden stick positioned right over his shoulder. The men behind him carried a one lower until it became a consistent four buckets for awhile. As she reached the bottom, close to the river, the girls were carrying back only two. She arrived and a large man, triple the size of the man in front was standing, back to the river, front to the Girl. He was almost double her height, at seven feet six. His chest pushed out with immense muscle. Veins painted on his arms. His hair was short, but a little bit hung down in front of his left eye.

"You're new right?" he asked. She didn't answer. "You need to carry two for a full meal, one for a half."

She nodded and grabbed a stick from a pile below, and attached two empty buckets, one on each end, and dipped it into the river, filling it. Although, she couldn't lift it out from the river. The big man took pity and lifted it up for her, placing it on her shoulders. She could barely manage to hold on. Her right shoulder gave in to the strength and her body leaned to the right. Water flung from both of the buckets, but each remained on. She tried to balance, but ended up leaning out of control to her left. More water flung out, but this time, the water soaked three girls. One, was shorter than her, one was chubbier, and another was really tall.

"Watch where you are going," the chubby one said. Her friends called her Chub

"Can you even carry a third of your own weight?" the small girl named Smol mocked.

"Come on gals, we can't scold the stupid." the tall one said. She was called Alta They continued down the hill.

The Girl felt bad. She felt a pain in the heart that almost matched the physical pain he endured from the boy earlier. A few people passed her during her scrutiny. She gained her strength and continued up the hill. At the top, she saw the rest of the unit standing and talking. Corter came to her and checked her buckets after she lowered them to the floor.

"These buckets are half full, did you really think two buckets with half the effort would give you a full meal?" asked Corter. The Girl felt ridiculed, and showed as much with her face. "You get half a portion." He marked down on his board.

Later, the girls from earlier came up, only carrying one bucket each. Corter judged them as well.

"You three have carried two before, why only one today?" he asked. Eyes as judgemental as always.

"We…" Chub tried to answer, but stopped after his eyes matched hers.

"The beast that belches, soaked us with water." Smol said assertively, while pointing at the eight year old girl with long hair.

"Yeah," Alta added. "The water made the stick slide off of our shoulders."

The accused Girl felt attacked. On one hand, their story was true, but on the other, they were shifting blame for their lack of work. She didn't understand why they would do something like that. Or why it hurt so much inside. Why would they do that, She thought to herself. She wanted to cry, but she wouldn't let the tears out.

"So, the beast that belches," Corter said. He found amusement in the situation. "At first, she tries to pull a fast one on me, and next she sabotages her fellow beasts. That deserves a punishment."

That added on to the pain in her heart. Why was he siding with them? She asked herself, but she couldn't think of a reason why. The three girls smiled. The small one whispered to the chubby one, and the latter laughed out loud.

"I think you don't deserve even half a portion tonight," said Corter. His sly grin relaxed his eyes.

She remained silent. The girls walked by her with cruel grins. The unit was entering the building. She stood still, looking at the ground. A man touched her shoulder from behind. The arm had the same sleeve as Corter, but it wasn't. A man with a calm voice said, "It's time to go inside." She looked up and it was a taller man. He smiled, and she felt better.

The unit fought a few fights before and one after labor. She went inside and went to her designated circle from before. At her circle, a larger group surrounded it. Corter was in the middle.

"Welcome, Belcher," Corter said. "I've decided to let you fight for your meal." His slight grin, with his old eyes surveyed around the group surrounding. "Who else better for the task, than those you've wronged," he said looking toward the group of three girls. He lifted his cane to the small girl and shrugged. Moved over to Chub, and nodded no. Next the tall girl, Alta. His cane was only an inch from her eyes. "I choose you."

"Me?" Alta asked.

"Yes you," Corter's grin turned to frown. He didn't like repeating himself, even if it was for reassurance. "Now get in the circle."

There were fifteen kids around the circle spectating. The fight was about to begin. The idea of dinner consumed the Girl's mind. Blended in with her hatred for the three women in front of her. Her face hostile. The two girls behind the tall one said a line or two of support. They didn't worry. The belching beast in front was almost a foot smaller.

Corter raised his cane in the air and swung down to signal the match. The Girl for once, used caution going into the fight. She did not charge in like she did her first few matches of the day. Alta on the other hand, ran. For a second, she saw what the boy saw in her first match. She replicated his moves, and took a side step, raised her knee, and struck her in the lower stomach. The recoil from the strike hit hard, but it was effective. Alta fell to her stomach, but she got up quicker than her opponent expected. The Girl went over to the taller one as she was recovering. Alta fought back and grabbed her long hair. They fought over control for a second, before the shorter Girl brought her knees up as high as they could go. One strike, two strikes, three. The strikes all landed slightly above the belt. Alta let go of her hair, her feet were slipping on the floor as she struggles to maintain her footing. She approached the end of the circle.

The Girl was near victory. But, she wanted more. Before she could step out of bounds, she grabbed Alta with both hands by her clothing, and brought her into her chest. She twisted her body and slammed her opponent into the ground below.

Now in the middle of the floor, Alta was under the belching beast on top of her. Her mouth opened wide in anger. For a moment, she feared that she was her next meal. Her legs sat under her shoulders. Alta's hands clawed the ground below. In a rage of fury, the Girl threw one punch after another. After the fourth, Alta started to block her head with her arms. That didn't stop her. One punch landed on the the defenders knuckles. Blood rained on the downed Girl as the two fists collided, she screamed as her opponent below whimpered. Blood flew off once on the trip back up from her opponents face, and everytime after going down. Every punch shed a few drops. The guard broke, and the punches started landing one by one on the face of the Alta. Her pride would not let her give up. Not like her body. She lost consciousness, and Corter decided to call the match. She earned her meal.

"You really are a disgusting creature," Corter said. "All of this for a meal."

She got off Alta, and walked out of the circle. The unconscious girl's friends rushed in to help her. She saw how worried they were. Smol cried a lot of tears on the girls head, washing blood off. The beast that belched did not feel sorry. She felt pride, not pity. The group around the circle faded. Corter limped off. And she moved on to her next match.

After lunch she was ordered to meet in the middle of the third layer of rings from the door. There Corter stood with a boy four years older than her. He was four foot eight, six inches taller than the Girl. The boy smiled wide. They were to fight in the circle.

"These fights work as follows," Corter said. "You lose if you cry mercy, go out of bounds, or by being knocked out."

His instructions were clear. He gestured the Girl to get into the circle with her opponent. Corter lifted his cane in the air and pointed to the ceiling directly above. The Girl gave a quick glance before returning her eyes to her opponent. A whip of air could be heard, as the wind from the swift ninety degree swing of his cane signalled the match. This was the Girl's first match, but she didn't want to lose. Her stance was sloppy. Her wrists were on level with her eyes, blocking her vision from her opponent. The boy, like a vulture, slowly made way to the Girl. She paniced and lowered her arms and went into a sprint, arms still over her eyes. When she approached, he lifted his knee in a horizontal angle and struck her in the chest. Her feet lifted off the ground as her body curled and rotated around the boys thigh. Once the knee ceased contact with her chest, she was left in the air. She fell down, her knees the first to make contact with the floor below, her upper body next.