Chapter 64 - Gladiorium

18 February 2024

Katalysis, 43rd Floor

No other player had hair as crimson as her.

At least, that was what I thought when I looked at the image of Kira that Kyozo had lent me.

I couldn't whip out that image record crystal again to confirm, considering the circumstances, but the sight of that red dot moving to the middle of the stadium had nonetheless surfaced the new questions forming in my mind.

If that player really was Kira, why was she part of the Council?

The Council, as I had understood (and assumed) of it, was a group of orange players with the responsibility of managing the city of Katalysis. For whatever reason the Council was formed, I couldn't fathom any, but what was certain is that they had something to do with the "peace" that I had noticed in the city.

Simply put, the orange players in the city were much less aggressive and probably didn't attack each other for no reason.

"Ain't the Council quirky, they are," Puma chuckled. "Must be a chore for them by now, announcing those trials."

"Trials?" Rakuno turned and looked at her across me.

"It's better if you see them for yourself, witch lad." Puma kept focusing on the stadium as her lips formed a slight grin.

The Council members waved for a good while, as the spectators clapped and cheered. The player which I presumed to be Kira for now merely waved with a single hand, which wasn't raised really high, unlike the others.

Beside her, a player taller than her by half a head stepped in front of the group, holding something I couldn't see from such a distance due to its size. Suddenly, a powerful voice echoed through the stadium.

"Welcome, everyone, to this week's Gladiorium! Let's just get to it, shall we!"

As the spectators cheered even harder, I frowned with even more concern under my hood. Rakuno was fidgeting a little in her seat, looking around at the orange players around us pumping their fists wildly.

A few more players entered the arena, walking in pairs. Pairs, as in one behind the other, the former holding a sword pointed directly at the latter, whose hands were wrapped behind his head, looking down at the ground.

The Council members formed a circle, spreading out to let the pairs, which were only 2 of them, in into the center. The 2 players who had been threatened with a sword behind their backs were let into the circle alone, their arms never moving a budge as they stopped in the center.

"Today isn't much!" The tall Council member announced. "But we'll deal with what we can, folks!"

"For the first trial.....let's get Shi to start it off, shall we?"

Another Council member stepped into the circle, facing the 2 players, who had suddenly released their hand grips on their heads and brandished their weapons. I'd thought their hands were tied up or something, but I guess that would only be possible in the real world.

The Council member brought out his own weapon in response, and as his weapon materialized, so did our shock. The long lean stick, with a curved fang for a blade attached to its top end, was spun around playfully by its owner, as he strolled closer to his 2 victims, who were staggering back in fear.

"T-that's.....!" Rakuno leaned even closer, though with futility.

"The scythe user at the entrance." I kept on watching, maintaining my frown to hide my shock inside. It was already shocking for us when he stopped us at the entrance, albeit for a brief moment, the fact that he uses a scythe blew my mind in many ways.

I'd never seen any player using a scythe as their weapon before. It was something I found intriguing, though. Was the Scythe skill a weapon skill which simply existed in the skill system without almost any body unlocking it, or was it much like the Double-bladed Spear skill mod that could be unlocked from the Spear skill, like I did with mine?

The 2 players in the middle charged at the scythe user, their cries echoing even through the cheers. The Council member called Shi simply took a step, and as his scythe glowed bright.....it was over.

The blur of the blade. A single swipe. All that was left was him in a stance with his left leg stretched out, his right foot stomped in front, and blue fragments floating around him. The glow in his scythe slowly faded off, returning back to its greyish complexion.

That was when the cheers exploded deafeningly.

I turned to Puma for a clearer answer about what happened, but she beat me to already starting off an explanation.

"Execution trials. Punishments for those who wronged the Council. It's their most common form of dealing with whoever they see as a threat."

"A threat to what, exactly?"

"They claimed that they're dealing with threats against Katralis, but as you can see, this is their definition of what such threats are."

The Council member with her voice amplified walked into the circle and clapped with excitement.

"Magnificent, Shi! Short and Sweet! Next up, we have just one more for the day, folks! Let's have Kira deal with this, shall we?"

Kira. So that redhead was her, after all. Behind her, another pair of players entered the circle, the one in front pushed roughly into the center. Kira strolled in front of the player, who was on edge, whipping his sword out like the earlier 2 did with their weapons.

The redhead brought out her own sword, giving it a few smooth swings in the air, all without a word as the crowd watched, their cheers almost resounding into hollers. She charged first, swinging hard onto her victim, who swung against her. Both swords clashed, the sound of the collision drowned out by the crowd.

Unlike the scythe user, Kira wasn't one to win her fight early, exchanging hits with her opponent seemingly as many times as she did. As the fight prolonged, the noises switched up into tones of frustration, as the crowd spew out complaints across the seats.

The way she fought wasn't at all aggressive, much less without a thought to kill. It was blindingly obvious that she was expected to kill the player moving frantically in front of her, yet her movements didn't show signs of trying to spot exposed points to even score a hit on her victim.

In fact, all she did was swing at her victim's sword, as much as she could. I dared to assume that she was really only trying to aim at that, and nowhere else.

"What a way to screw up her first trial.....," Puma shook her head slightly. "Bet Tori's gonna be pissed about this, heh....."

".....Is she new?" I turned to her.

"They introduced her last week, but this is her first trial," Puma turned to me with a grin. "Can't imagine a Council member being this lenient to their victims.....don't you think so, lad?"

A shrill scream pierced through us, as we turned back to the arena. I'd had thought that Kira had finally finished the trial, but my expectations were brutally betrayed.

Over there was now a scene of the tall Council member having a sword impaled through Kira's victim from the back, right in front of Kira as she stopped, no, froze in place, clearly shocked by the interruption of her trial. The Council member swung her sword out as it was still stuck through his body, cutting through his right waist as a mess of red pixels erupted out of his right waist.

"Oh ho, pissed Tori," Puma grinned even more. "Called it."

The Council member, which Puma had called Tori, sheathed her sword and turned to Kira, who stared back, as the both of them stood for an awkward and strange while, as the victim shattered into fragments between them. Whether they talked or not during that stare-off, I could never tell, as the crowd continued to make the stands as bustling as they already were.

Tori then turned to the crowd and with her voice amplified, gave another announcement. "We're done this week, folks! Stay tuned for next week!" She headed straight for the exit of the arena, with the other Council members swiftly following suit. The crowd dissipated as well, many of them heading to the stairs down from the stands.

Rakuno and I were still sitting, trying to understand what we had just seen. To the crowd, it was entertainment to see a player die in front of their eyes without any grief. To us, albeit being first timers to watching that, we would have thought that we had witnessed a massacre. Even though we knew that only 3 players perished on this very day.

It didn't matter how much the death toll would have been in the previous Gladoriums. As long as we were aware that there was one constantly growing in the city of Katalysis, it was more than enough to instill much more shock than we already had felt.

".....Who exactly is the Council?" I turned to Puma, who was already on her feet, stretching leisurely with a relaxed smile on her face. "You know them?"

"Only the prominent ones," The bartender replied without batting an eye. "The announcer's Tori, leader of the Council, or -----if you'd like to think it this way-----mayor of Katralis. The scythe user there is Shi, the vice-leader, and also in charge of the security 'round the city."

"And the others?" I stood up from my seat, as I took a better view at the Council members exiting the arena.

"I got nothing on them, lad. Even if I knew a snippet, it's gonna cost you a whole load of trouble if you're planning on getting closer to any of them," She wagged her finger. "Let alone the fee that you'd be paying for it."

I turned slowly and stared straight at Puma. For a while, I couldn't believe her last few words, as I mouthed the words 'no way' in subtle motion.

"Lad, my bar's not the only business that gives me the profits," Puma chuckled. "The stuff on Tori and Shi's an exception to my profit-making policy, though. It's practically mandatory to be in the know on them, if you wanna make sure that your visit here in Katralis keeps being bloomy and joyful, that is....."

She leaned close to me with her shoulder almost touching my chest. Her voice, apart from being clearer, had a flirtatious tinge infused in it.

"If you wanna know more, my bar's always welcome to your patronage. Of course.....you're gonna need to pay for more than just the drinks, heh."

The bartender turned and waved, smiling away as she headed for the stairs down the stands.

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