Chapter Eleven

Elysia moved her way through the crowd, not truly moving in any decided direction. She decided she wanted to continue exploring the city while Tengeshi set up their home at the inn. For now, she needed some alone time.

She couldn't deny the feelings that sprung forth after he had announced her as his wife. Though they were not her own memories, she still saw the elf version of Tengeshi within her mind's eye whenever she looked at him. Yet she didn't want to become just a companion. She needed to feel like an equal, instead of being reliant on him.

The closest thing to a trade that she had was her combat experience, which wasn't much different than Tengeshi. Though she had started training at an earlier age, he had been with her. The difference was closed within the first two years they lived together. She wasn't exactly looking for the differences between them, more precisely she only wanted a way to forge her own path.

Her mind drifted to the healing glyph that her teacher taught her, yet Keerna had warned her that the person's own life force was supposed to be used to heal. If she healed with her own life force, it would be hard to know when to stop the flow of energy. Only the patient's body knew when it was healed.

She made a mental catalog of all the glyphs she had learned, most of them were tailored to combat.

"Braxton is the best. He's got the most support, and his fighting style has no equal!" Elysia's thought was cut short as she overheard a conversation between two friends having a drink.

"Codswallop!" The other man glared at his friend. "Raedon has the most wins in the Colosseum!" He belched and wiped his mouth, setting his mug down on their table. "As soon as the bell is rung, the man disappears as if he were invisible, the next thing you know, the other man is down!"

"That may be true, but Braxton is like a madman with his ax!" He stood up and held his hands above his head like he was holding the handle of a large weapon. "I swear the ground shakes as he brings that thing down, and he's not slow either!" He brought his imaginary ax down, knocking over his real drink.

"Hey! Watch it!" His friend got up, wiping frantically at his shirt and pants. "Now I'm gonna smell like booze when I go home."

Elysia listened to the whining for a moment, a small smile played on her face. It was not just from the humor of the two men, but also because she figured out what she was going to do next.

It took an hour of travel after asking numerous people directions before she found herself at the open gates of the coliseum. She saw a number of small dots in the center of the structure. As she walked closer, they grew into what was a group of men and women.

Elysia watched as one man walked the length of the large structure with heavy chains on both his hands and legs. She followed the chains with her eyes and was impressed to see that they reached twenty paces back. "Judging by his strength, he should be Braxton." When she heard of his strength at first, she thought he might have stumbled upon a glyph of strength. Yet now she knew that he relied solely on the strength of his body, not life force to win his battles.

"It looks like we have an interesting new recruit." A man looked up and met Elysia's gaze. "We don't get many of those often."

"I was just watching." Elysia smiled from under her hood.

"People don't just watch, unless they're up there." The man pointed to the stands. "This area is for people who have the courage to step into the ring." His eyes narrowed as he saw the steel under the cloak. "You don't strike me as a coward."

"I am no coward," Elysia's tone changed to match the challenge. "I didn't come here for a fight. I was thinking about joining, I just wanted to see what I'd be up against."

"Well, I'll tell you the rules. Afterwards, you can give me your answer."

Elysia nodded.

"Good girl." He chuckled and looked at the stands. "I guess the best place to start is that you won't die here. There will be healers on standby after the fights. Anyone who goes for a killing blow will be exiled from the coliseum in all cities, and publicly shamed wherever they go. No one wants that kind of attention, you get me?"

When he heard no response, he continued. "Your wage is figured out in many different ways. There are bets within the crowd with the coliseum, you get thirty percent of the cut. That amount goes up when you get a bit more attention. You can also get a patron, they would see to it that you get more matches. As of now, you might get one fight once a week. Though that's not much, it's still good enough to live off of. Lastly, you can get bonuses from the coliseum by winning five consecutive matches." The man held up a third finger. "All in all, it's a pretty sweet deal."

Though Elysia knew her combat ability was a cut above the rest, she knew that she would need much more experience if she wanted to make it back to Iryopin Forest. There were gargoyles. But she knew that was only part of the threat. Though she didn't believe all the stories she grew up with, she did know that there were many humans who were strong enough to match an elf. The gargoyles' wings could only cover so much distance before they had to sleep. There had to be some humans that broke those wings when they turned to stone. Not all of those humans were kind.

"Then I'll try." Elysia said this partly to herself, but the man smiled nonetheless.

"Good." His eyes beamed as he looked back at the others. "Clarabeth, you're up." He waved a hand, and a girl who looked to be the same age as Elysia stepped forward. "I hope you don't mind, but we at least have to see what ability you have in the ring before we let you fight, but don't worry." He waved a hand to cut off any argument, as if he were used to it. "Clarabeth is one of the newest recruits we have."

"Call me Clara." Clarabeth held out a hand which Elysia clasped. "Clarabeth was my mother." She smirked as she took Elysia by the clasped hand and led her to a space thirty paces away from everyone else. When they finally stopped, Clara looked Elysia up and down. "You can put that cloak over there if you want," She pointed behind them. "I wouldn't want to ruin it more than it already is."

Elysia hesitated, but then moved to the side. If this was the path she was going to choose, it would be nearly impossible to fight while concealing herself. Besides, she had a good impression of the people she had met so far. She took her cloak from her shoulders.

Clara's breath caught in her throat as she saw the green hair. It wasn't just this, but the full armor underneath the cloak looked incredible, yet extremely thin. Any clothing she had under the armor looked like scrap. Her abdomen was bare aside from a small amount of cloth from the garment above. Her greaves and belt covered up most everything else, but she looked more like she was prepared for war than a simple spar. "That armor looks expensive, yet I don't think it'll hold up quite well." She said to herself.

Elysia folded the cloak and turned back to Cara, her piercing green eyes set to the other's with determination. She removed the block to the durability glyph on her chestplate in order to block damage to her armor, but didn't activate any others. She wanted this to be a fair showing of her strength. If she ever found another combatant that used glyphs, she wouldn't hold back so much.

Clara drew her sword and held it at the ready. Her stance was something Elysia had never seen before, the blade pointed straight forward towards her, both hands on the pommel of the blade.

She had always been taught to keep one hand off the sword, in order to increase the strength of the arms, but also to free up one in case she needed to be flexible. To have two hands on the sword made a person much more rigid. Elysia kept this to herself as she assumed a relaxed one handed stance with the other behind her back. She kept her legs loose as well.

"You aren't going to take this seriously?" Frustration colored Clara's features as she saw the stance. "I'll take the first strike then!" She cleared the distance between them in two large strides, the sword coming down diagonally.

Elysia caught the blade with her own, but instead of taking the brunt of the blow, she redirected the force and sidestepped her opponent. Clara's blade continued harmlessly past her, as if she had missed her target.

To her opponent's credit, she recovered quite quickly. She looked a little confused, but went for another swing. Instead of hearing the usual clang of steel against steel, the coliseum only heard metal sliding on metal, following grunts of effort from Clara. Blow after blow fell from her blade, yet Elysia danced around as if it were a stage instead of a ring, every once in a while she redirected the blade, easily maneuvering. Though as the fight continued, to her surprise, Clara's form changed slightly to match her own. Her two hand grasp changed to one hand. Though her movements were still rigid, she was able to close the distance bit by bit.

Eventually the brushing of metal became the normal clang of steel against steel. Sparks flew occasionally as Clara was able to land a solid blow against the sword.

Elysia was still more graceful in her moves. Her eyes followed the flow of her opponent's attacks. Though some of them got through and grazed her armor, she was able to redirect the ones that would have landed on her skin. Meanwhile, she gradually went on the offensive, striking out whenever she saw an opening. While Clara's rigid stance was not suitable for offense, she still had a solid defense.

Cara was barely able to keep up with the dancing Elysia. It seemed that every time a foot fell, she would appear in another location. When she swung her blade to intercept, Elysia would jump back, just out of reach of the blade, then move into her defense, offering a blow here and there.

The fight continued for well over an hour, neither of the opponents giving the other an inch. Elysia had to admit, in a fight with no glyphs, Tengeshi wouldn't be this girl's match.

"That'll be enough!" The man called out.

Elysia leapt backward and put her sword in its scabbard.

"That was quite the show." He approached them while clapping his hands. "I'm not sure anyone has given Clara such a run for her money before."

"She is quite talented." Elysia admitted while she wiped the sweat from her brow. "I haven't met an opponent who can adapt their fighting style so quickly."

Clara's face turned a shade darker as the man put an arm around her shoulder. "That's our Clara," He chuckled. "She is a genius when it comes to adapting. If you give her ten minutes in the ring, she'll dissect your entire fighting style."

"Except yours." Clara took an offered towel from the man and wiped her face. "I was able to gain some understanding of your technique, but it's so unique."

"I learned at a young age." Elysia grabbed her cloak and put it back on, covering her face once again.

"I don't think I need to say this, but you've made the cut." The man held out his hand. "I'll put your name in the book, your first fight will be in five days."

"Thank you, my name is Elysia." She bowed to both of them.

"A name about as common as your appearance." Clara smiled and offered her hand. "If you have any money, I can take you shopping for some clothing. You can't like wearing that."

Elysia wrinkled her nose. She of course wanted to find something else to wear. She hadn't had a proper set of clothing since she had left home. Though the armor she had just gotten was nice, it wasn't something she wanted to wear all the time. "I think I'll take you up on that. Would forty silver be enough?" Tengeshi had split his earnings from his sale earlier with her. She was eager to find something new to wear, but didn't know where to go.

"It should be more than enough!" Clara put a hand on her shoulder. I'll make sure you don't get swindled. I swear, whenever a shop owner sees someone with silver, they try to get their hands on as much as they can. Make sure you ask for the price before you show your money."

"Wow, it looks like little Clarabeth has taken quite a liking to you, this is quite rare." The man turned to go back to the rest of the group. "Make sure to take care of each other. I sense that the two of you don't open up too easily, but you will be partners in the future, and a friend is priceless."

"Right, Karlson, don't worry about Ely too much," Clara smiled as she walked Elysia to the entry gate. "He means well, you'll see." She patted her on the back, leading her to the shopping district. "I hope you have a decent wardrobe space."