Chapter 53

The first thing Luke did when he woke back up was panic over the notification he’d received right before passing out. He was afraid he’d killed Kalishka, but as soon as he checked it, that fear dissolved.

[Congratulations! Counter has reached rank 2. 250 XP awarded.]

It was still a warning to him though. The fights could get vicious, but they’d gone too far. Towards the end, neither was holding back and both were determined to win. It had been a fight to the death, and the only reason they’d survived was that they both ran out of steam at roughly the same time.

“I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating. You are an idiot,” Zea said, crouching over him.

Luke tried to laugh, but ended up just wincing. “I know. Good thing I’ve got you looking out for me.”

Zea rolled her eyes. “Not if you’re going to do dumb shit like this. Neither of you made money off that fight.”

“What? Why not?” After a performance like that, Fatty ought to be giving him a bonus on top of his normal fight fee.

“It’s all going to go to the healer, and then some more besides.”

“Fuck that,” Luke said. “I’ll heal just fine on my own.”

“Maybe, but would you do it fast enough to fight again tomorrow?”

“Ah, well.” Luke stopped to consider it. “Probably?”

“No you will not,” she said, kicking his shoulder lightly. Luke grunted and shifted with the impact. “You’ll be lucky if you can walk home tonight.”

“Aldrick,” Kalishka said from her spot on the floor next to him. “Could I ask you for a favor?”

“Not really in much of a position to do stuff for other people right now,” he said. Between [Life Surge] and all the [Power Strike] attacks, he was thoroughly drained.

“Just hold my hand so I can copy your stamina,” she said, reaching out for him.

“What?”

“It’s my bloodline, Mirror Fiend. It lets me copy stats from things I touch, briefly. Your stamina is a lot higher than mine. I’ll heal faster if I can borrow it.”

“That’s so fucking unfair,” Luke grumbled. All his bloodline did was give him an annoying advisor who refused to answer anything but the most basic questions. Theoretically, he could do more with it, but only at one particular spot in the whole world. More or less worthless.

Kalishka put her hand on Luke’s and shuddered. Her breathing evened out after a few seconds and she said, “Thank you.”

“This isn’t going to do anything to me, is it?”

“No, it doesn’t hurt you, other than me knowing your stats, I guess. I know all the fighters’ stats sooner or later. Don’t worry though, I won’t tell anybody.”

“I’m kind of surprised you want my stamina and not Tantoro’s. His has got to be higher.”

“That’d be telling,” she said, “But he’s going to be out in the pit in a few minutes and I figure we can lay here together for the next hour until it doesn’t hurt so damn much just to breathe.”

“I hope it was worth it,” Zea said.

“Sure,” Luke said. “Ranked up one of my skills. Good fight.”

“You did?” Zammin asked, shooting to his feet. “That’s awesome! We need to celebrate tonight.”

Kalishka groaned. “Not tonight. Maybe tomorrow.”

The door opened and Fatty stuck his head in. “We’re ready for the next fight. Going to be impossible to top that last one though. I sent someone out to get a healer to look at you two.”

“Don’t need it,” Luke said. “I’ll be fine soon.”

Fatty snorted. “On the house. Next time you two fight, I’ll more than make it all back.”

Everyone in the room stared at the fight promoter in surprise. Luke hadn’t gotten the impression that the man had a generous bone in his body, and judging by the slack-jawed reactions of everyone else, they seemed to agree.

“What?” he said. “If I could get the rest of you to fight like that, I would keep a healer on staff to patch you back up afterwards. Hell, we’d need to move the Harbor to a bigger building to hold the crowds.”

Fatty left and took both Zammin and Tantoro with him. Zea admonished both Luke and Kalishka for being so reckless, then followed the others out. She closed the door behind her and cut most of the noise from the crowd. Luke let out a sight and shifted in place.

“You’re really good,” he said. “I’m glad you don’t go for the nut shots like Zammin.”

Kalishka snorted. “He does it as part of his image. When he first started, it was a tactic he employed to eek out wins against stronger opponents. Now he does not need it, but the crowd expects it, so he plays it up for them anyway.”

“I’m pretty sure he enjoys it. When I sparred with him before I started, he went out of his way to tag me once then too. Nobody was around except Fa-er, Sideon, and my manager.”

Kalishka started laughing, then choked and winced. “Owwww. My ribs are all messed up. Do not make me laugh again.”

Luke really wanted to activate [Life Surge] again, but his belly was still gnawing on his spine from the last time he used it. It was probably best to wait until he had a good meal in him. They laid there in silence, both beat up but with wounds closing at least fifty times faster than they should have, maybe more. Luke could see a bruise on his forearm from a blocked punch changing colors every few minutes, rapidly going from red to a dark purple. Within half an hour, it was yellowing, and by the time the healer showed up, it was completely gone.

Every few minutes, he felt Kalishka brush his hand with her own as she renewed her Mirror Fiend ability to copy his stats. “You know,” he said one time, “that ability is completely unfair. You could just put all your AP into skills and beat anybody with it.”

“It’s not so easy as all of that. I have to figure out how to work my own body when my stats change so much instantly. I’ve gotten pretty good at that, but it’s still a challenge sometimes, like for example when someone had a ridiculously high strength and agility and stamina and perception. The noise… it was overwhelming. How do you live like that?”

“You start to filter it out after a while,” Luke told her. “And the rest, you just get used to it. You could crush an egg in your bare hands, but that doesn’t stop you from picking one up and handling it, does it?”

“No, but there’s just so much energy. Even now, I am barely able to move, but I want to get up and run. I want to climb buildings and do back flips off roofs. The only thing stopping me is that it hurts too much. How do you deal with having this much energy all the time?”

“Well,” Luke said slowly, drawing the word out, “I joined a fight club so I could beat the crap out of people in a pit while a hundred other people watch, and get paid for it.”

Kalishka started laughing again, then cut off with a wince and glared at him. Luke grinned back, but before either could say something, the door opened and a young woman walked in. She was probably four or five years older than Luke, dressed in simple unadorned pants and a shirt, and was wearing too many rings and bracelets for his tastes. They clinked against each other as she walked, which she didn’t even seem to notice.

“Ooooh, that’s annoying,” Kalishka said, and Luke could see her eye twitching with each clink.

“You get used to it,” he told her again. “It’s all background noise eventually.”

“What are you two whispering about over there?” the woman asked.

“Guess her perception isn’t very high if she can’t hear us,” Luke said.

“Well we’re barely audible at all.”

“True. It would be rude to not answer.” Luke craned his neck to look at the woman. “Just discussing the burden of having higher than average perception. I’m Aldrick. Are you the healer?”

“I am. My name is Ortessa Maldalva. Are either of you in immediate danger?

Luke and Kalishka exchanged glances. Simultaneously, they said, “No?”

“We’ll start with you then,” she said, stepping over to Luke. “If you’ll just hold still for a minute here…”

She started muttering under her breath while she worked, though it wasn’t hard to pick out what she was saying anyway. “Internal bleeding… muscle tear… dislocated… fractured rib, not completely broken…”

When she finished, she announced her findings. “You’ll need to take it easy for a few days. I’d guess you’ll be fine again even without intervention in under two weeks. We’ll try to speed that up to a week. Now, let me look at your friend here.”

Luke doubted it would take a week. He doubted he’d even have a problem fighting again tomorrow. All he needed was a good meal and a good night’s sleep, but he wasn’t going to turn down help, especially if Fatty was covering the tab. Or rather, Sideon. It really wasn’t nice to call the man that, even if it was true.

Kalishka got a similar diagnosis, though with the added distinction of a minor concussion and three broken ribs, as well as a torn ligament. Luke didn’t know shit about medicine, but he was pretty sure a lot of those injuries were life-long problems that people never fully recovered from. Whatever this world had going on in terms of health care, it was miles ahead of Earth’s technology.

Ortessa activated some sort of skill that made Luke start to glow green with generous splashes of red over his injuries. Slowly, the green started to bleed over, shrinking the red spots down at irregular rates. After a minute, she cut the skill and started channeling it to Kalishka instead.

“There you go. How are you feeling?”

“Better,” Kalishka said. “It doesn’t hurt as much anymore.”

“Good. You’ll need to avoid anything strenuous for the next few days, but by this time next week, you should be ready to recklessly risk your life pummeling each other for the amusement of the unwashed masses again.”

It did feel better, though not by all that much in Luke’s opinion. He thought the healer had spent a little more time on Kalishka than on him, but then again, she’d been the one to lose that fight. Probably. He’d landed on her at least, which meant she went down first. That should mean the winner’s fee was his, by his way of thinking.

After Ortessa left, clinking with every step, Kalishka reached out and grabbed Luke’s hand again. “Whew, that is much more comfortable with all the extra stamina,” she said. “I’d rather just hang around with you than have the healer.”

“Well you got both, at least for now. I’m just waiting for that last fight to be over and the crowds to filter out so I can get a meal.”

Luke wondered why the healer didn’t just heal them fully. There was probably a reason for it, but as always, he didn’t dare ask. Maybe Zea could tell him. He made a mental note to add that to his list of questions to ask once he got home, wherever that was. Hopefully his manager wouldn’t go off without him.

The sound of cheering picked up outside the room, signaling that the fight had either ended or was almost done. “Who do you think will win?” Luke asked.

“Zammin,” Kalishka said without hesitation. “Tantoro almost never beats Zammin. He’s too slippery to get ahold of, but Tantoro is so tough that it takes Zammin forever to wear him down. Their fights take ages, but the audience loves it.”

“Tantoro must have balls of steel to jump down into the pit with a guy whose main combat strategy is ‘punch them in the groin.’”

Kalishka started laughing, this time without the wince. “Hah, yes, it’s quite the match up. We do always seem to have more women than usual whenever Tantoro fights.”

“I still wish he’d put on a pair of pants.”

Kalishka threw him a haunted look that suggested she had her own traumatic experience fighting the naked wrestler. “Me too, Aldrick. Me too.”