Chapter 47

Luke followed Zea into the fight club, which he’d learned was named the Bloody Harbor on account of how close it was to the docks and how often it was frequented by sailors. It was practically empty early in the day, but he’d been told it would be filled to the rafters in the evening. That was apparently a good thing, since larger crowds meant more money in bets. That wouldn’t matter to Zea yet, since they needed to get paid a few times before she had the cash to bet with.

Gambling was her idea for increasing their income. Luke didn’t love the scheme, but it’d be a few days before he had to deal with it anyway. He wasn’t about to let her know about the money he already had, if only because most of it was already reserved for Donaley.

“I started poking around the docks like you wanted,” Zea told him while they waited for Fatty to show up. “I don’t think you’re going to get work as a sailor unless you can impress someone important who’s willing to vouch for you, but I do have some good news. I overestimated how much it was going to cost by a lot. Kind of.”

“What does that even mean?” Luke asked.

“There’s no such thing as an ocean-bound ship docked in Valtira. They just don’t make the trip from this port, which makes sense really, when you consider that you can go a thousand miles north of here and shave two thousand miles off the journey. The continents are way closer up there, and I guess sailing cold water is less dangerous.”

“Oh, I see. So we’re talking about a trip north of here. Damn, a thousand miles though. I guess I could walk it. If there were decent roads the whole way and nothing bad happened, I could do that in a few weeks. Maybe even less.”

“I don’t think so. A thousand miles is the ship route. The land route is almost double that on account of the Skymaw Mountains. You’ve got to go the whole way around them. There are no safe passes, from what I can tell.”

Luke shuddered at the idea of hitting up a mountain pass. The last thing he needed was to encounter another jumbo elemental. That thing had been the most terrifying, overwhelmingly powerful monster he’d ever met. It served as a stern reminder that, whatever the risks involved, Luke needed to gain a lot more levels.

“So the first leg of the journey is to get up north to a place called Sicanti. For that trip, fifteen gold. Maybe twenty if you get a big cabin on an expensive passenger ship. From there to cross the ocean is going to be more, maybe thirty or forty. The closest port I could find is in Naldrin.”

That was still a lot, but maybe it wasn’t as bad as he thought. He’d sleep in a hammock with the crew if that’s what he had to do and it saved him some money. Once he actually got to the eastern continent, he’d walk the whole way, barring any other options. But it still looked like he needed to come up with fifty gold at minimum just to get across the ocean.

He’d rather not do that in Valtira, so he set his first goal at fifteen. That was only a few weeks of fighting, maybe a bit less if they got real lucky with the bets. Then he’d get the hell out of there before the hammer of the gods came down on his head. Once he made it to the next port, he’d worry about funding the intercontinental trip.

“There you are,” a new voice cut in. Luke looked over and saw Fatty making his way over to them. He frowned and tried to remember the man’s name. It started with a ‘V’ or ‘C’ maybe. No, that didn’t sound right.

“What’s his name again?” he asked Zea in a whisper.

“Sideon.”

“Oh right.” Damn, he’d been way off.

“Come on, I want you back in the staff area until your fight starts. You’ve got half an hour.”

“Uh, alright. That’s okay, Zea?”

“Yeah. Normal stuff. Remember what I told you about not trusting that rat-fucker Zammin.”

Sideon started laughing and clapped Luke on the shoulder. “Come on, Aldrick. Let’s get you ready to fight.”

Luke momentarily blanked, until he remembered that he’d given that alias out. He followed Fatty out of the bar part of the building and past the pits. There were already a few people sitting on the bleachers bullshitting, and he saw a pair of guys down in one of the pits circling each other.

“Ignore them,” Fatty said when he saw Luke looking. “They’re just warming up. It’s not an official show unless you can place a bet. Speaking of, are you going to be wanting to put some money on your own fight?”

“Zea said she’d handle all the betting.”

“Oh I’m sure she did. Smart woman, that one, even if she does cuss like a sailor sometimes. All fighters have the right to bet their fight fee on their own match though. Double or nothing. I promise you, you’re not going to get better odds with the bookies.”

Luke took a second to consider that. It might piss Zea off, but he didn’t really care. It was his money. “You mean my cut or the whole thing?” he asked.

“Your cut,” Fatty said seriously. “Don’t go gambling money that’s not yours. I’d hate to have to send the boys around to teach you that lesson.”

“Fair policy. Alright. Just my cut of the fight fee. Zea can bet her own money when and where she wants.”

“That’s a good lad! Nice and confident!” Fatty started laughing, and his belly rolls jiggled. Luke honestly couldn’t figure out how the man was so big. The system provided them with stats! Without even trying, Luke was more yoked than anybody he’d ever seen in his life. He looked like a God damn movie star after they were done airbrushing the photos. Well, maybe not his face. But his abs! The abs were amazingly defined.

No one else was quite as chunky as Sideon, or really, chunky at all. Most everyone was in extremely good shape, and Luke wasn’t just looking at the other fighters. Everyone he’d met had been some variation of fit, except for this guy. He kind of wanted to ask where Sideon put all his AP, but mindful of the conversation he’d had with Zea, he kept it to himself.

“Alright, here we are,” Fatty said, leading Luke into the back room. There were five other people there, two men and three women, including Zammin. “Someone will come to get you when it’s your turn. Probably… third round I think.”

“Tall-boy!” Zammin called out, racing over. “You showed up. Good. Come on, let me introduce you.”

The dwifkin grabbed Luke’s hand before he could even start to protest and dragged him forward. He couldn’t have done it if Luke fought him, but he let himself be hauled around until he was standing in front of a man, of a sort. He was somewhere over seven feet tall and probably weighed three times as much as Luke. His skin was apple green and there wasn’t a single strand of hair anywhere on his body, which was entirely naked. Thick, corded muscles stood out on his… everything.

“This is Tantoro,” Zammin said.

“You are very naked,” Luke said.

“Yeah, you should see it from my angle,” Zammin said. “It’s a cultural thing, I think.”

Tantoro made a low rumbling noise, like two rocks scraping together, and said, “We wear only the hides of our own kills, and only if the kill’s level equals our own. I have grown too old and too strong, and cannot afford to take on more of the curse.”

“Well, that’s… I don’t know what to say here.” Luke looked over at Zammin, who shrugged back.

“Ostals have a lot of rules. I don’t know. Makes it easy to unleash the ball buster on him.”

“So you are the new fighter. Strong, for one so young,” Tantoro said.

Luke had learned not to rely too strongly on his XP sense, but Tantoro didn’t give off much stronger of an aura than Zammin did. In fact, none of the fighters did. He didn’t think there was a single one of them over level 15. Maybe XP hiding skills were more common than he’d thought. Or maybe the levels were accurate and they just had higher ranked skills honed over years of use.

“That happens sometimes with humans,” one of the women said. Luke glanced over at her and his brow furrowed. She looked as human as he did, except for a pair of horns growing out of her hair and the electric green color of her eyes. She ignored the look and kept talking, “They get overeager, addicted to the AP. Why worry about the consequences years down the road. Foolish.”

“Not quite what happened to me, but okay,” Luke said.

“Ignore her,” Zammin advised. “No one plans for the future like Revara.”

Before anyone else could reply, Fatty came in with two more humans. Both were in their twenties, both looked nervous, and neither of them said a word. “We’ll call you up in a few minutes,” Fatty told them. “First fight of the night. Just as soon as everyone gets seated.”

“Oooh, openers. We haven’t had new ones in weeks,” Zammin said. “That must be why your fight got bumped back.”

“That or because Tantoro refused to do another opener against a no-name,” Revara pointed out.

“The fight fee is too low,” the big green guy agreed. “Though now that I’ve met you, I look forward to our match.”

“Same, I guess?” Luke said. He didn’t actually like fighting that much, truth be told. That didn’t seem like the kind of trivia that would go over well with this crowd, so he kept it to himself.

Zammin made introductions for the new trio, though Luke promptly forgot most of their names. The other two newcomers were low level, maybe 7 or 8 he thought. It was no wonder they were the opening act. They both looked like farmers, and Luke was willing to bet their AP hadn’t been spent on combat skills.

Fatty showed back up after a few minutes and dragged them off. “This is boring,” Zammin said. “I hate waiting for last billing.”

“Feel free to trade with me,” another fighter said. She was vaguely human-shaped, except what visible skin she had was dark blue with red and green markings on it. Luke wasn’t sure if it was natural or some kind of tattoo. Her hair was blindingly silver, cut short and split by two horns coming up out of her head.

“Yeah, I’d love that last billing bonus. What’s that, an extra six silver?”

Zammin shrugged. “I wouldn’t mind if Sideon wasn’t so much of a hardass about keeping us all here waiting.”

“Well he wouldn’t be if you’d ever showed up for your matches on time. So thanks for fucking that one up for all of us.”

The noise picked up, and the fighters all stopped talking. About two minutes later, it got quiet again. “Quick fight,” one of them commented.

“Newbies. They’re not going to last, no matter who won.”

There was a chorus of agreement around the room, except from Luke. Tantoro looked over at him and shook his head. “No fight promoter wants a fight that only lasts a minute or two. That’s why they went out first. They are a pre-show.”

Fatty showed back up and hauled off two of the ladies, including the one with the blue skin. “Settle in,” Tantoro advised Luke. “These two always take at least half an hour. Then it will be our turn. It will be fun.”

Luke looked up at the big green fighter, who was sitting calmly and serenely, listening to the sounds of the crowd. “Yeah. Fun.”