Gladiator (2/3)
The next week, Haalfrin is once again standing in front of the arena. There's no dramatic story behind this next fight, though; it's just a dozen poor slaves that were basically thrown away so that the crowd could bet on how fast it would take for Haalfrin to kill them all.
In their mind, Haalfrin is a bloodthirsty killer who even ignores the crowd when they tell him to show mercy. Some people show up that day just so they can see the spectacle of a vicious animal tearing apart a horde of people.
And so, it comes a great surprise to everyone when Haalfrin merely knocks all of his opponents out. Even when the crowd votes for execution, Haalfrin completely ignores their vote and walks out without harming the slaves.
Of course, Haalfrin didn't do this out of the goodness of his heart; he just doesn't want to see Freyya right now.
As soon as Haalfrin disappears from the stage, several arguments break out among the crowd, since no one knows what the official results of their bets are supposed to be.
Everyone was betting on how long it would take for the slaves to die, but no one betted on the off chance that Haalfrin would spare them all.
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Once Haalfrin gets back to the clerk to collect his pay, the woman is barely containing her fury. However, her experience with him the week before has taught her that it's completely futile trying to argue with him; he clearly doesn't care about the pay, and he doesn't care about the voting system here.
Still… he'd managed to draw in an even larger crowd today, so her manager told her to just humor the mage and let him keep doing what he's doing.
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From then on, Haalfrin would go down to the arena once a week to fight in the arena, and each time, he'd refuse to kill his opponents.
Then, once he was done with his battle, he'd run off stage and flee the arena, as if he had urgent business to attend to.
In reality, Haalfrin knows that battles happen all the time there, and he doesn't want to stick around long enough for someone to die and for Freyya to show up.
From the audience's point of view, his strange habits only served to make him slightly more spicy to gossip about.
Of course… as the years go by, and as Haalfrin becomes more and more famous, the "spicy gossip" about his habit in fleeing the arena turns into full blown conspiracy theories.
Some people think that he has a baby he's looking after at home. Some think that he's using some drug to make himself stronger, and that he has to get home quickly before the drug wears off. Some think that he's just trying to build a reputation for himself and attract attention.
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On a certain day, about 10 years after the mysterious gladiator named "Haalfrin" appeared, a pair of young men line up in the que to enter the audience seat.
"It's a little crowded. Sorry master," says the taller, brown haired man. Given the man's bulky muscles and the 2nd gate mage emblem pinned on his shirt, one can assume that he's this "master's" bodyguard.
As for the other young man, he's a blonde haired, golden eyed boy with a look of maturity unbefitting of someone so young looking. More than likely, he's a mage himself, although he doesn't have the official badge on his shirt.
"Why'd you want to bring me here, Manni?" the young master asks his bodyguard.
Manni stands up and starts breathing excitedly, "Haalfrin's fighting today! I really wanted to show you!"
"Yeah, yeah," the young master waves Manni off dismissively. "You've brought me here before. There's hardly any good fights in this place. All the managers do here is put on magical spectacles for the commoners."
"It's different this time! Haalfrin hasn't been defeated in 10 years now! It's his 10th anniversary here, and they're having a special fight!"
One of the other people in the crowd overhears them talking, and he butts in, "Yeah! I heard that the managers are determined to make the fight overwhelming for the champion this time. Nothing they've ever thrown at him's ever worked, so I wonder what they'll do this time? Gotta be special, right?"
The young master hears all this, and he starts to calm down a little. He does trust Manni – at least a little. I mean, why else would he be here? So, the young master thinks, 'Well, I'm already here. Mind as well stop complaining and see if this "Haalfrin" is a big deal.'
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Given the fact that the young master and his bodyguard snuck away from home, he doesn't bother flashing his identity token to the guards to get himself a better seat, nor does he head to the front row seats, which are reserved for the nobility.
Instead, he hops in with the rest of the rabble and gets a seat somewhere in the back. If this were any other day, he'd be getting really sour about not having the seat he wanted, but he knows very well that the decision to sneak out was entirely his own.
And so, once he and Mani are seated, they end up waiting in the hot son for another half hour while the rest of the seats are being filled.
Once everything is ready to go, the young master Palandri watches as a long line of mages is marched out of the large gate on one side of the arena. They seem to be clad in Alanah armor – a rival empire across the sea.
"I assume these mages are probably going to lose," Palandri mutters aloud.
One of the men sitting next to him chuckles, "Cuz it's Haalfrin fighting?"
"No. It's because our empire doesn't have a very good relationship with Alanah. Obviously, when you live in the Brancotte imperial city, you'd dress the losers up as Alanah soldiers. Don't want to upset any overly sensitive nobles."
"Eh… I guess that makes sense," the fat man next to him shrugs before turning back to the arena down below.
As the army of mages gets larger and larger, even Palandri is starting to get a little worried. Sure, the 'Alanha' army stopped growing at about 200 people, but that's still a LOT of mages! – too many mages!
"Isn't it wasteful for so many mages to fight to the death?! Shouldn't these people be reported!?" the young master can't help but gripe.
Technically, there IS a law against private organizations being careless with large amounts of mage life. Mages ARE valuable assets, after all.
There's no reply to Palandri's question.
Not even Manni is paying enough attention to the young master anymore since the gate on the other end of the arena is opening now.
Palandri is expecting to see a battalion accompany the reigning champion, since he assumed that this was a special contest that was supposed to resemble a battle. Perhaps Haalfrin was going to play the Brancotte General?
Instead, there is a single man wearing Brancotte legion armor. On his right hip is a sheathed longsword, and on his left hip is strapped an ax that appears to be carved from bone.
This time, Palandri doesn't bother asking if the arena managers expect Haalfrin to win. In the young master's mind, this whole setup is because of 1 of 3 reasons.
One. This entire battle is staged, and all of these mages are amazing actors. In this case, Palandri is certain he'd be able to spot the trickery.
Two. Haalfrin has pissed off the managers, and they're trying to make a spectacle of their champion falling to overwhelming odds.
Three. There's something truly special about Haalfrin, and the managers are sure he'll win… Eh… That's unlikely. He'd have to be a dragon to beat that many mages without effort.
'Plus, Aunt Prella told me that the last dragon on this side of the world gate died some time ago… so that rules out that last possibility.'
Still, with Palandri considering the options, he's at least interested in watching the battle now.
Finally, once the gates close behind Champion Haalfrin, the signal flag drops to the ground, and the battle commences.
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The moment after the flag hits the ground, the 200 mages all release the spells they'd prepared at once, and a thick spatial shield envelops them.
This kind of spell is a formation spell, meaning that each caster is responsible for a different part of the spell, and they all contribute their mana to it.
Just like how 2 horses pulling together is stronger than two individual horses, the shield surrounding the mage corps is far stronger than what 200 people should logically be capable of.
(A/N: Yes. It's a real phenomenon that 2 horses pulling in unison has the strength of about three horses. When they're a team, their strength is more than the sum of their parts. Just the same way, 200 mages casting the same spell together is about as strong as 300-400 individual mages.)
Casting formation spells requires a lot of practice and teamwork. Frankly, it's something that only a well trained army of mages should be able to do. "Manni, who are these-"
"Shh!" Manni squeals in agitation, "You'll miss it! Just watch!"
Manni knows how quickly Champion Haalfrin goes through his fights, but Palandri was just wanting to know who this army of mages belongs to – which noble house was willing to donate their private army.