Round 1-4

I almost felt amusement in the flames that I attributed to our lord. "Meet the law when the horn sounds, I don't care who bleeds. Though I am finding this list to be a little long, 165 combatants, that will be a minimum of 83 dead today, just over a possible 450 liters today. So my priests will not bleed the incapacitated today, they will become the collared slaves of the victor." There was a surprised whisper that broke out among the women watching from above. Clearly our lord had not told that to any who had not asked. The men didn't know the significance of a collared slave over what they already were. I was still watching the red eyes as they seemed to be watching me. "The blood of the collard will count towards the law requirement, after 26 deaths." That was new, slaves weren't dead yet but they had no recognized life. "Of course their blood won't count towards a surplus calculation, until spilt." That was still 130 liters for the victor at least. I signalled to my unit again and hoped they noticed. "Do you still wish to bleed others?"

"Yes, master." I breathed a little easier hearing my unit answer with me. None of the other men had spoken.

The priests and our lord would have known what I signaled to my pack, but none of the others should. Most of them had missed it anyway. The red eyes flicked to a female priest that was standing on the side the hornblower normally stood. The note rang out. The other animals hesitated no doubt sensing death near. My pack obeyed their alfa. Taking a knee before the sound faded away.

That snapped a few of the other animals out of their fear. Too late. I clapped my hands just over my head. While I tried never to show it, being almost a head or more shorter then the other males bothered me sometimes. Today it worked to my benefit. A razor sharp force raced in a circle from around my knuckles. The men had no protection from the power and only my pack was safe from the invisible force. It weakened as it expanded and it barely left a line in the stone arena walls, but that was more then enough.

I separated my hands and put them back down. It took me a moment to realize someone was laughing. I looked up at our lord as the last body found the ground, "Don't kill the priests while they clear the field, Mir. Round two will begin when the last body is cleared."

I bowed to our lord, that trick had taken less power then I had thought it would. Our lord was making it so that it would be hard to do the same for the next round as long as the houses realized they didn't have to wait until the field was reloaded to try and kill me. "It will be as you say, master."

The priest hurried out and collected as many parts as they could quickly before too much was lost to the ground. That was the other problem with killing by dismemberment, the heart was still pumping but in all cases it had been fatal.

I signalled wait as the last priests took the last bits out of the arena. There hadn't ever been a round match before. There was no tradition, or known rules for the transitions. The iron gate closed behind the priests and the other gate opened that had the next round of men behind it. I felt our lord's eye on me as the first house entered and spread out. They hadn't been able to see through the iron gate. They knew what they heard and they knew that the last fight had not lasted long enough. Not for the number of fighters.

More houses entered behind them, they were spreading around trying to find a weak point in my pack. Some of the women started yelling, but the men knew the arena, what did the women know. These were bloodied warriors, that last group had been weaker then they were and fewer of them had been armored. Only one of them understood and listened to a woman yelling at him. He flew into action, just over three quarters of the next round were already in the arena. He ran forward trying to get to me. I clapped again.

The men that hadn't entered yet survived the strike. They almost bulked at the iron gate as the men in front of them fell into two pieces. They then looked up at me and while they didn't know how I had done it they knew they needed to kill me before I could do it again. They charged into the arena. I gave the signal to clean up. The men who had been kneeling moved and they were on their targets as soon as they stepped into the battle ring. They had moved much faster than men should have been able to move. The last man had raised his hands, completely unnerved by the speed of death in this arena. The trainer reached the man first, the man flinched as the purple glowing gloved hand of the trainer touched his face. The glove hadn't glowed long and the trainer looked ok.

The men returned to where I watched them return to their sides and took a knee. "Don't kill my priests, Mir." The iron gate on the men side had only just closed, and the priests moved just as quickly to get the bisected bodies; they left the ones that my pack had killed for last, they weren't bleeding.

A female priest checked the last man that had fallen and paused looking up at our lord. "I am sorry, my lord. This one is not dead, what should I do with him?" The air felt a little thin from all the people who had just breathed in at the same time. Good thing this arena was open air.

"Put him in a cart for now. That one will be out for days. When the match is over I will provide the collars."

"Yes, my lord." She then picked up the big man like he weighed nothing. I had seen the black flames in her, so it wasn't only males favored by our lord.

The iron gate closed after she left. The trainer looked over his shoulder as the other gate was going back up again. "That wasn't more tiring then killing him would have been."

"He wasn't fighting, it won't be the same if they are still active. Wait until round five to find out."

"Yes, sir."

I signaled to wait again. This time only a quarter got onto the field before someone figured out what the women were saying. I didn't bother doing the ring trick again. I gave a different instruction to my pack. The men tried to organize to fight, three quarters were gone before the men behind them realized that we were still following the arena rules. You weren't a player until you stepped into the ring. I left them to my pack and some of them didn't die. I was busy with a seemingly bad aimed strike. Most of them still killed men, though. Round three was done before I was. I had already returned to the center of the ring. Our lord waited until the last of my pack took a knee. "Don't kill my priests, Mir."

I bowed as the iron gate lifted again. More bodies were whole this time. The priests spent more time checking the bodies. There were quite a few more slaves in this batch but nowhere near half. A group of women had taken up a chant which told the men waiting what they had learned. Our lord didn't stop them, he seemed more interested in what I was going to do.

Round four, spread out around the edge. They had listened to only that part of what the women were saying clearly. The women were yelling at them. They had to keep me busy but they clearly didn't understand what that meant If I wasn't going to attack them until they entered the ring. One man stepped wrong and fell into the ring. My power lashed him and the wall behind him. Clearly these fools weren't going to let me finish. Not that they knew it. A few launched into an attack from each side. My pack moved to stop the men from getting to me. They stayed below where I had been blasting before. I can use that.

I moved towards one and seemed to miss. I then missed a back swing at another. That made a couple more bold enough to enter the ring. I pointed at the men who had just entered and nothing seemed to happen. Then my pack dropped and I smiled as a purple light filled the space just over my head.

All 26 men dropped even the ones outside the ring. I then frowned and fought to keep myself upright. I guess they couldn't all break my way. That had used more power then I had thought it would. My mind was racing on how to transfer some of the cost of this idea.

I looked up, our lord was laughing again. The iron gate on the priest's side was opening again, "You are going to need more carts rabbit. Mir just k.o.ed the whole field, didn't kill a one."

"Yes, my lord." the female from before bowed.

I bowed and looked back up, "Master?"

Our lord seemed to realize he hadn't ordered me to not kill the priests this time but he didn't bother, "Something you wish to say, Mir."

"I am sorry, for killing two players before they entered the ring, master."

Our lord paused and I could almost see the thoughts flying through his mind, "You are right, that was wrong. Even more so since you just proved you could have removed them without killing them. If you win this match then you will have to give two slaves to each house that lost a man, that way. If you don't survive it will hardly matter that you cheated. Of course that also leaves the question if a person is k.o.ed outside the ring were they players?" our lord paused again, "I am going to say they are the equivalent of guards. If they are in the arena they can be brought into the fight. Control players."

"As you say, master." So I could knock them out and they counted in the terms, I just couldn't kill them freely outside the ring. Or rather, I could kill them but there would be a punishment. Which was probably my own fault, but my mind was having a hard time with fatigue right now.