Never Hurts To Take Notes

Rambone stood up and yanked Luca up, too.

"Hey! don't yank me up like that!"

He waved her comment off.

"Ppssh. Come on let's get warmed up," he said. "Let's do jumping jacks until Ganodo comes back."

"Ughh, fine."

They started doing jumping jacks, facing each other. 1, 2, 3, 4... Yeah, a few minutes passed before Ganodo walked back in with a short sword.

"Sup. Got the sword. Who wants to go first?"

They both stopped. Both of them had built up quite a sweat.

"Uh... I'll guess I'll go first," Rambone said.

Ganodo nodded back and tossed the sword over the counter.

"Luca, prop a plank up against the wall for him."

She gave a thumbs up at him and did so.

Ganodo rest his arms on the counter, loosely linking his hands, and leaned in. "Remember Rambone, focus in and focus your energy on the sword itself."

The sword itself was designed for training purposes. It was about the length of half an arm and wooden from head to toe.

He took a deep breath. In through the nose, and out through the mouth. He closed his eyes for a second and relaxed his shoulders.

He swung the sword. Blik! Again. Blik! Again. Blik!

Rambone stepped aside and clicked his mouth in disappointment. "Damn it. Guess it's your turn, Luca."

"No dice for you? That sucks."

"Yeah, guess so," he commented as he plopped the sword in her hands. "Just do what I did and I'm willing to bet it'll click for you."

"Oh yeah, what will you bet if that happens?"

Rambone scrambled in his mind for an answer. Unfortunately, however, his answer ended up burning up in flames before he could get it onto the plate. So, he gave her a silent and confused shrug instead.

"Dude, you've got have something to bet before you can make it," Ganodo chipped in.

Rambone sighed and rolled his eyes. "It's just an expression. I've got stuff to bet anyways, but not like I'm willing to do it anyway."

"That's just cause you're scared," he chuckled to himself.

"What no?" He was taken back by it. "I just don't like betting."

Rambone then turned around to focus his attention on Luca.

"Were you waiting for us?"

"Not really. Just wanted to take a few deep breaths."

"Yeah, no kidding. How are you still sweating?"

"I'm not as athletic as the rest of you two."

"Mhm," Ganodo cut the two off. "Luca, now do the next step."

She did as Rambone did after the deep breaths. She took a second to close her eyes and relaxed back her shoulders.

She swung the sword. Crack! Both parts of the plank fell to the floor. Poosh!

She jerked her face to meet Rambone and poked his chest. "See, I fucking told you I was gonna do it first try!"

Ganodo clapped his hands and smiled in glee. "Oh thank god... I was right! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"Your welcome! Now, listen up boys, I'm stronger than the both of ya!" She exclaimed in pride.

"I doubt that," Rambone playfully said. "You can't be stronger than me if you can't beat me in the first place."

"Bro, you're tripping balls if you think that's true."

"But it is!"

"If my only loss is to you and you've only beat me, then who's better?"

"Me! Obviously!"

"Calm down, both of you. You're both as good in this case." He put his hands in between the two of them to try and get them to calm down. It hadn't even been that long since he first met Luca and Rambone and he has already learned about their tendency to get into petty and sometimes playful arguments with each other.

They called him out on the bad analysis.

"Okay okay okay... chill. Your record isn't everything." A sweat drop rolled down his forehead.

"Is it really... because I b-- Yep, I got nothing." Rambone plopped his hand against his thigh.

"Sorry about that, kinda got carried away there."

"My fault too."

"Good. Now that you've made up, you two wanna go grab dinner?"

They both agreed.

"How about I pick the place as well? I know some good spots around here." Ganodo added.

"Who's paying though?" Luca asked. "We're kinda flat broke."

"Didn't you forget to get your payment from the front desk?" Rambone chimed.

She facepalmed and let out a hard groan. "Fuuuck. I forgot. Come on, Rambone let's go get it."

"What do you mean 'come on, Rambone', you just gonna leave me here?"

"For the moment, I guess, yeah. Shouldn't be too long."

"I don't like waiting for too long or else it makes me all kinds of grouchy."

Rambone walked over and grabbed the handle before leaving a few last words for him. "Chk. You can up with it. You're not like that trash can monster I used to see a bunch as a kid?"

"Nah, but it feels like it. When I'm left to wait for too long, I get all bitchy like when Scorcese gets criticized."

"Hope we don't accidentally turn on that mode then."

"I'll you see two back here in around an hour at most then. Just don't leave me hanging out like a dry fruit."

"Will do."

He chuckled, opening the door and stepping out with Luca in tow. The door closed behind them.

"Guessing you know the way to the front desk from here?"

"Yes, I do. Don't stress about it, sheesh."

"You're the one who's always doing that."

"We both do it equally. Let's get moving."

"Fine."

With some jogging and speedwalking, they both managed to get to the front desk in around 15 minutes.

"Hey, what's up?" The worker looked up from searching through the desk drawers, closing the one he had been looking through.

"We're here to-" She stuttered. "Sorry... I'm here to collect the money that I earned from winning my first match."

"Ah... I see." He wheeled his chair a bit over to the computer. "I'll need your name then."

She gave a quick nod. "Sure. Luca Pasteur."

The man typed her name on the computer and clicked through some things before answering. "Hmm... for your match... you have earned: 12 Styela."

"12 Styela?!" She was shocked.

"Mhm. It's what our systems gives you."

"I call bullshit."

"Call all bullshit you want, it's how it is for winning your match."

"I thought it would be more."

"Then you were too overconfident, then."

The clerk fumbled through a drawer and pulled out the money, handing the paper cash to her. "Have a good day."

She sighed and pocketed the money in her hoodie. "You too."

The main thing when it comes to the arena besides the obvious potential for massive money-making, below the surface lurks major problems for those at the bottom trying to keep themselves up outside Wolfshaus and the care of the arena.

Pay for participants is exponential with an eventual hard cap for those at the top. For winning your first match you're paid around 10-15 Styela, which can get one person roughly about one or two meals. If you can continue winning, your payout will double after each match. But for losing, you will not get paid anything and your next payout will be docked by 75% percent. The hard cap for earning from one match is 1,000,000 Styela, and even then the arena discourages the top fighters and participants from consistently and actively doing matches to prevent revenue loss despite their insistence.

Of course, it should be mentioned that they're lucky that they're even able to receive any form of income from the arena, much less in a currency form that is globally accepted. The arena typically relies on the attendance of citizens and popularity earned through the press around the small underground city which has an area of around 100 square miles for money. Lots of participants love to watch each match, something they each and every one of them have the luxury of watching for free.