NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 21.1 It Begins
It was a beautiful day in Shatak as Rick and his friends entered the arena.
Just like in his old world, it seemed that the allure of public spectacle was simply too much to ignore. He honestly shouldn’t have been surprised. In a world filled with dangerous monsters and unstable magic, why wouldn’t the people flock to watch sports, racing, or even a combat tournament?
The building itself wasn’t the largest stadium Rick had ever seen, he guessed it was slightly smaller than the Roman Colosseum. That made sense. While Shatak was the largest city in the kingdom besides the capital, the population was barely a quarter of a million.
While that was a huge population for this world and its technology level, it could barely hold a candle to many of the cities he had lived in prior to arriving in Parva. He briefly wondered how Sade or even Tyr would handle navigating a concrete jungle housing ten million souls. No matter what, it was sure to be somewhat entertaining.
The five hunters enter into a small lobby labeled for contestants. Rayna and the others all decided to come to show their support and cheer Sade on but split off to enter through the general public gates. A somewhat familiar spectacled face sat behind a small desk as the party walked in.
“Is one of you competing in the tournament?” The woman asks.
“I will be. I am Sade of Kanho.” Sade replied and stepped forward.
“Ah! I remember you! You have changed quite a bit since you first registered for school. I must say, you sure have made a name for yourself.” The woman said excitedly. Sure enough, it was the very same person they had met when they first arrived at Mya University. Rick was happy to see the clerk was just as friendly as he remembered.
“T-thank you.” Sade said with a slight stammer. “Is there anything more I need to do?”
The woman smiled gently. “Your name was on my list, so I will just mark you down as arrived. All that’s left is for you to walk through the door behind me and await further instructions. Is there anyone else in your group participating today?”
Sade shook her head. “No. They just wanted to see me off. Is there any special seating for close friends or family for those participating?”
“There are indeed. They just need to head through the doors on my left and there will be signs guiding them from there. Anything else?”
“No, that was more than enough. Thank y-”
Before Sade could finish, the door directly behind the spectacled woman slammed open and a pale figure stormed out.
“Clerk, you are late in giving your report on- oh! Sade. It seems you have finally deigned to grace us with your presence.”
“Oh, I was unaware that two hours before the event starts was considered late.” Sade said with such an honest tone that Rick would have thought she was genuinely confused if not for her words themselves.
The sweet approach seemed to throw the rude woman off as well. She took a step back and coughed to compose herself. “Uh, yes, well, I am simply glad that you are here. I take it that these people are your…”
Her voice trailed off when her sweeping gaze fell upon Tyr. Rick watched as her neck had to tilt more and more upwards just to look the wild woman in the face. Her already pale skin became a few shades lighter as the realization of just who she was looking at finally hit her brain.
Tyr stared right back. When it became apparent that the smaller elf was frozen in shock, she decided to break the ice in a predictably Tyr fashion.
“What ya starin at ya wee posh cunt? Ya looking ta have a fookin fight or wot?!”
Lilie and Daniela were trying, and failing, to contain their laughter. Both women were clutching their stomachs and vibrating visibly with the effort. Sade meanwhile, palmed her face and let out a long suffering groan.
Rick rapped his knuckles on the forest elf’s broad chest. “Quit teasing Tyr. You know that will only lead to misunderstandings.”
“Come on! How could I resist when she was right there, all cocksure, prancing about like she owns the place. It would be a crime not ta mess with her!” The aggravating amazon whined. She thankfully had already decided to drop the extra thick accent and was back to her mild brogue, which Rick hoped would reinforce the idea that she was just messing around.
“Not everyone can see through your facade like we did.” Rick sighed. He turned back to the stricken high elf and held out his hand. “Hello, I’m Rick. I do apologize for my boisterous friend here. You can largely ignore the nonsense that comes out of her mouth since she’s quite harmless.”
“Oi!”
“Fine. Mostly harmless.” Rick corrected. Tyr snorted but didn’t argue with him further. He gestured to the others. “This is LIlie, a fellow student at Mya University, and Daniela, a good friend who has been invaluable since she joined our hunting group.”
“C-charmed.” Ariwyn said shakily before lightly returning the handshake.
“Careful, Rick ripped off a troll's dangly bits with that hand.” Tyr whispered with a mischievous grin.
Ariwyn yanked back her hand like it was just bitten by a snake.
“Oh come on! Seriously, Tyr?” Rick groaned.
“What?” She asked innocently. “I would have done the same if I wasn’t trying to keep the little one safe.”
The high elf’s eyes traveled down to where Tyr was rubbing her swollen belly affectionately. Her womb had expanded significantly in the past month in preparation for the child. Her chiseled abs, that she had elected to show off at every opportunity when not out hunting, were stretched wide over her more rounded stomach. There were still many months to go until the pregnancy would be over, but she was already starting to show quite nicely.
Tyr noticed the other elf staring at her swollen belly and grinned at the woman. It wasn’t the usual kind of wild grin, or even the expected sneer that was reserved for dealing with her highborn cousins. No, this was a grin filled with warmth. The sort of warm pride of someone who knew they had received the greatest of blessings, and was simply happy to share in the miracle.
It was that unexpected smile that finally snapped Ariwyn out of her daze. She shook her head to clear it from whatever thoughts were clogging it and turned towards Sade. “While this has all been a pleasure, I believe we must go. Come, Sade, there is much you need to know before the tournament starts.”
Sade politely nodded her head and waved goodbye to Rick and the others before following her rival through the door where the other competitors waited. The door closed shut with a click. A few heartbeats later, a loud explosion of laughter erupted from right next to where the party still stood.
“Ha hahaha- oh goodness- hehehe haha!” The clerk gasped out. “I’m terribly sorry! That was unprofessional of me. It’s just-” More uncontrollable giggles escaped out of her mouth. It took nearly half a minute before she could control herself to speak clearly. “It’s just that the young miss has been quite unbearable nearly all morning. Then you all just stroll in and-” She barely stifled down an unladylike snort. “And I have never seen anyone catch her off guard so completely! Oh, that will be quite a story to tell when the day is done. Thank you for allowing me to witness that.”
Lilie and Daniela were also snickering while Tyr stood tall, a goofy grin plastered on her face. Rick gave a wry smile, waved goodbye to the clerk, and ushered the three troublesome women through the other doors that would lead to their seats.
“What am I going to do with you?” Rick asked his silly friend.
“Love me.” She replied simply and grabbed him in a gentle side squeeze.
Rick shook his head and hugged her right back. “Always.”
It was not difficult to find decent seats in their section of the arena. Despite Ariwyn’s complains, they had indeed arrived quite a bit earlier than most of the other competitors, let alone their friends and family. The seats themselves were simple stone benches that ringed around the arena. Not the most comfortable of arrangements, but Daniela had anticipated the situation and brought several thin cushions and blankets to soften their seats.
Over time, the crowd slowly filed in and filled up the stadium. As the time grew close, the excited murmurs around them swelled to a dull roar. Rick was pretty surprised that a school event like this would draw such a large crowd. He then remembered that this was roughly the equivalent to college basketball, and suddenly it all made sense.
“People of Shatak!”
A loud voice roared through the arena. Everyone settled down in their seats and looked towards the center of the stadium. Two figures suddenly appeared in the center of the ring with a puff of bright smoke. One was a relaxed looking dwarf, the other an older looking human. Both men wore intricately decorated robes, but the human’s looked a tad fancier than his shorter colleague.
The taller man stepped forward and opened his mouth to speak. “As the Dean of Mya University, it is my great pleasure to welcome you all to this prestigious mage tournament!”
So he’s the guy in charge of the school. Rick mused. He found it quite fitting. With the high class robes and a long gray beard on his chin, the man looked like a textbook definition of a wizard. It truly was strange how some things fight right into the stereotypes he was used to, while other times Parva seemed dead set on bucking all his preconceived notions.
The dean droned on a bit about the school's history and its tradition of facilitating mage duels. The man never seemed to raise his voice above normal speaking levels, yet everyone could hear him clearly no matter where they sat. It was an interesting bit of magic, one Rick greatly appreciated. He always thought that stadiums set their speakers just a little too loud for his tastes.
“And now our esteemed Professor Armondo shall demonstrate both types of protective enchantments we will employ to keep both the competitors and you the audience safe.”
The previously silent dwarf stepped forward. Rick had heard Armondo’s name come up several times in passing, and he was glad to finally put a face to it. A training dummy was set up several paces away from the professor. With a snap of the dean’s fingers, a transparent dome shimmered around both the dummy and the arena itself before disappearing from view.
“For you, my dear audience, we have erected a simple shield that will prevent any stray spell or shrapnel from reaching beyond the confines of the fighting space. As for our young students…”
Professor Armondo waved his hand. An icy breeze swirled around him and several small white balls formed in the air above his head. With a wave of his hand, the balls flew forward and crashed against the dummy but otherwise produced no other effect. Some of the missiles sailed clear over the target and slammed against the invisible wall protecting the audience and exploded in a shower of sparkling ice shards.
“Any spell that would hurt but otherwise leave participants healthy enough to keep fighting would be let through. But here is an example of what would happen if a spell would be considered crippling or outright lethal.”
Once more, Armondo began casting a spell. He crouched down with his hands at one hip. The hairs on the back of Rick’s neck stood on end as power swirled and gathered between the dwarf’s palms. When he had gathered enough, Armondo thrust his hands forward and a pillar of water flew out like a laser beam.
The water crashed up against the dummy like a wrecking ball. Rick anticipated it being sent flying across the arena, but a heartbeat after the spell hit a wave of power shot out and neutralized the attack instantly. The crowd gasped in amazement as a glowing shield surrounded the wooden target in a protective bubble.
“As you can see, when the magic activates it will negate and disrupt any spells targeting the contestant and even set up an auxiliary barrier to prevent any further attacks from landing. These students are our future, we will do everything in our power to keep them safe while letting them grow into the best mages they can be.” The dean announced to the crowd.
Did he just cast freaking hydro pump or a mother flipping kamehameha?! Rick shouted inwardly. Regardless of the true answer, his inner nerd was squealing with joy at the display he had just witnessed. His eyes sparkled with wonder and delight.
Once more, the dean addressed the crowd. “And now my good people of Shatak. Let the tournament begin!”