"Boy!" a man yelled at Palinus before he could get comfortable on the hard bench.

The man was enormous, with a massive moustache that was starting to show his middle age with a light speckling of greys. He beckoned Palinus to come over to the big noticeboard mounted against the side of the spiral staircase.

Curious about the board and what the man could want, Palinus stood and walked over to the board. The whole surface of the marble tablet was etched with information: the fight schedule looked packed even this late in the evening and dominated the centre of the board with dozens of tables of information bunched around it.

"I am Dravian, well met."

"Hello, I am Palinus. I am new-"

"I know boy, I can see it from your fight record." The man pointed to a section on the board.

Details

Name

Palinus

Attunement

CXXXIX, IV, II

Aspect

Smoke

Tier

II

Calculii

II

Arena Record

-

-

Physical Statistics

Strength

I

Resistance

-

Vitality

I

Essential Statistics

Area

II

Force

II

Power

IV

Mastery

Mastery

II

Besides his own details he could see a panel displaying Aurelius's

Details

Name

Aurelius

Attunement

CCLII, CCXL, XCIV

Aspect

Light

Tier

II

Calculii

II

Arena Record

-

-

Physical Statistics

Strength

III

Resistance

I

Vitality

II

Essential Statistics

Area

-

Force

II

Power

II

Mastery

Mastery

I

"This fight interests me." Dravian said, giving Palinus a look like he was sizing up a race horse. "Normally for a low tier 1v1 fight I would back the melee fighter with superior physical stats, and that is what it looks like the majority of the gamblers are banking on."

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He gestured at the numbers below the fight.

Palinus : XXXIX - LXI : Aurelius

As he watched the numbers changed, they blurred and shifted as if the stone was made of unbaked clay being recarved as they spoke.

Palinus : XXXVIII - LXII : Aurelius

"The money is pushing the odds towards the other boy…" He gave Palinus an intense look, "But when the odds were posted, the bookmakers gave you the favour. Why is that boy?"

"I…" Palinus hesitated. He knew what he wanted to say, the confidence he felt was a new feeling and he didn't know quite how to express it.

The man waited patiently as he observed Palinus warring within himself.

"I have beaten him before, and I am going to do it again." Palinus spoke slowly with a building conviction. "Can you tell me what the Arena is like?"

"Hmm. I see." Dravia said, nodding as if he had come to a decision. "Come with me and I will explain."

He walked towards the main desk with Palinus in tow.

"It is a special type of rift," he started explaining "It can accept as few as one participant and 3rd night is always 1v1s. The rift is projected into the arena using essentia so the crowd can watch and make wagers."

"How do they control the rifts like that?" Palinus asked.

"The Tremona Arena has been around for a long time. The rumour is that there is a tame rift beast somewhere down here…"

"How do they proj-"

"Bah, you are asking the wrong questions boy. You do not have much time, and you need to focus. The rift will have minions and a nexus as per a normal rift, but there will only be two solo towers on each side."

"Oh, that's…" Palinus considered the scenario and with a concrete idea of what he was going to be facing his confidence was suddenly much higher, he thought he could probably duel Aurelius and win half the time if he could dodge a few of his sword blasts. If they had minions and towers, it changed the odds dramatically.

"Hehehe." Dravian gave a low chuckling laugh as he saw the expression on Palinus's face.

"Palinus!"

"Aurelius!" The shout came from a man with a cone to amplify his voice behind the central desk to indicate that it was time to fight.

"Be patient boy!" Dravian yelled as Palinus turned to walk up the staircase.

"Five Denarius on Palinus…." he heard the man place his bet and grinned.

As he ascended the stairs he felt light, and almost a bit excited. It was a totally foreign as if new found power made him drunk with a sense of confidence and invulnerability. For the first time in his life he felt like he held the power, and it felt good.

Once the spiral staircase led him through the high ceiling of the holding room and up into the arena, Palinus could hear the noises of the crowd watching the end of the previous match.

"Boooooooo." It seemed the crowd was displeased with the participants in the previous fight.

"Fight you wussies!" A jeer filtered through the hubbub of noise and yelling from above.

The stair finally passed through the thick Arena floor and continued up into the air and Palinus could see what was going on.

Suspended above him was a bright semi translucent projection of a bridge, from the underside it was impressive but all he could see was the light from two opposing nexuses and the unmistakable sounds of minions fighting punctuated with the occasional hiss and bang of a wand fight.

"The savages are mostly here for blood and gore." An attendant wearing the black arena uniform said from the landing beside him sighed. "They don't appreciate skill or talent... Fortunately, you won't hear them when you are in the rift so it's best to just push them out of your mind."

"Thanks," Palinus said, grateful for the advice. Now he could see the arena, the idea of being watched suddenly became a reality and nerves were beginning to take hold.

"As you are new I am here to brief you-" The man's words were cut off by a roar from the crowd and a flurry of explosions and a high pitched scream that culminated in one final explosion that lit up the sky like a bonfire.

*Bang*

"... well it seems we are short on time." The man said as he gestured for Palinus to climb up the final flight of stairs to a platform above them. "Just enter the rift as you normally would, but be mindful that you are on a platform…"

The arena filled with equal parts cheering and jeering as Palinus ascended the stairs. The Platform he walked up to was currently unoccupied with the bridge crossing horizontally between two different platforms to his right and left.

To his right he could see a mage shooting off his wand into the sky in celebration as he stood on his platform beside a closing rift portal.

Through the fading projection he could just make out the platform opposing his, Palinus pushed any thoughts about the previous fight from his mind. He had a plan to win, all he had to do was remain calm and execute.

The light faded and he could see Aurelius on the platform clearly now. The young man was pacing on the stairs behind his platform as he glared at Palinus and the crowd was responding to the clear anger and the physicality of the swordsman.

"Yeah, get him!"

"Kill him!"

"Put your sword through his gullet!"

An opposing section of the crowd that seemed amused at him being so upset with a clearly much younger teenager.

"Pick on someone your own size!"

"That's a big sword to fight a little boy!"

A part of Palinus bristled at being called small and the jabs at his age, he was less muscular than his opponent but he was most of his adult height.

The lighting focused on the platforms made it difficult to see into the stands but Palinus could hear some familiar voices.

"Whip him till he likes it shitbird," a woman yelled.

"Go for the crotch Palinus," a man's voice laughed along.

The prismatic light of the rift opened up fully to reveal the bridge that stood between them in the underworld. The arms of the rift waving towards him made Palinus quickly consider the practicality of entering the rift. His body was going to be left behind on the ground, and the platform felt like a precarious place to lose consciousness.

Stepping up onto the platform gingerly he noticed a feature he couldn't see from below. There was a section hidden on the platform with lipped edges that would make his body invisible from the crowd, it looked like it was padded to soften his landing when his body fell to the ground. Appreciating the thought behind the setup he turned to give a nod of thanks to the attendant still standing below him on the stairs and strode towards the rift.

This rift felt different as he pushed himself out of the pillar. His avatar felt lighter and less real, as if his mind was still partly within the body he left behind on the platform. Trying to focus he set aside the strangeness of the feeling, then the surreal metacognitive spiral as he wondered how much he had changed to be having feelings of preference

towards how his avatar felt within rifts. He shook his head to dispel the thought as he noticed that his nexus was already starting to ramp up as if the minions would spawn pretty soon.

He rushed out towards the middle of the rift to get the lay of the land and figure out how he was going to be positioning himself. As he ran towards the middle he took note of his surroundings.

There was only one turret standing in front of the nexus, and the nexus itself was a smaller version with less room to manoeuvre within the spawning chamber.

The singular lane of the rift was paved with an ancient looking stone and had a low wall to each side. Interspersed along the lane were small patches of tall grass that didn't make sense thematically but that Palinus instantly considered as potential threat as well as an opportunity for manoeuvring and concealment.

Fortunately he could see his opponent directly in front of him. The fierce look in Aurelius's eyes promised violence and it did not look likely that the boy would be ducking into a bush to ambush Palinus. If Palinus had the swordsman's skillset that is exactly what he would be doing, hiding in a bush and popping out with his sword buffs to hack him to pieces.

It seemed that he had a mindset advantage, the unreasonable anger of the boy was stopping him from making a smart play. In their previous battle Aurelius had also been too headstrong and let his ego get in the way to make him dive the tower, it was starting to look like a pattern that Palinus could exploit.

The middle of the lane was marked by a tower on both sides and the bridge widened a bit with tall grass covering the left side. Aurelius marched up the middle of the lane and was moving with a quick march and limbering up as he swung his sword.

Sensing an opportunity to gain an advantage on the first exchange, Palinus sped up his jog as fast as he could without revealing to his opponent that he was in a rush. As he came to the middle of the lane he swerved off to the left and dove into the tall grass.

"You coward!" Aurelius yelled as he stalked forward. "Fight me like a man."

In response Palinus selected his level one ars and channeled it.

He stepped out of the brush and struck quickly with his whip.

*Crack*

The whip only did minor damage as he instantly retreated to step back into the brush.

"HA! Thanks for the cute tickle little boy! No wonder no one thinks you can win this." Aurelius crowed. "I am going to make this painful."

From the bush Palinus smiled, the lash mark on his enemy's tunic leaving a smouldering line that only did minor damage but trickled a thin line of smoke that trailed through the air to add to the shield that protected him. The swordsman stood a chance if he could find a way to burst Palinus down, but if he didn't he was going to be in a world of pain.

He stepped out of the brush from a slightly different spot and attacked the swordsman again.

*Crack*

The whip again did minor damage, though the combination pushed the base damage up slightly.

"Grrrr!" The swordsman's weapon lit up and he charged at Palinus as he swung wildly. The white lines of the ranged sword attack missed as Palinus took cover in the brush, but the swordsman kept charging.

As Aurelius entered the brush Palinus hit him again with his whip as he continued to retreat towards the tower.

"All you do is hide in bushes, you little coward!" Aurelius yelled as he swung his golden sword again.

This time the sword struck true and the line of golden essentia lashed against the shield of smoke that swirled around Palinus. The smoke blocked the blow as if it could somehow neutralise the light but the shield that was left was fainter.

Moving within the range of the turret Palinus made a face at Aurelius.

"All you do is swing your golden dick around, you big dumb dumb!" Palinus cringed as he wished he could think of a better taunt, but he could see from his enemies bulging eyes that the juvenile taunt had hit the mark. Even better after another 20 seconds of posturing he saw the golden glow on the sword fade, and he knew that the ars was time limited. When his shield dropped a few seconds later he confirmed that he had a slight edge and a prolonged exchange.

With the minions streaming in to clash in the middle of the lane and both avatars abilities on a short cooldown the opening exchange was over and the true dance of the lane began.

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