The eve before the fight

In a dark silent cell barely illuminated by one light crystal, a young man sat bare chested, his back against the wall. His entire torso was covered in scars and new fresh wounds. His skin was deadly pale and he had a lean muscle build. His black hair seemed to shine despite the insufficient amount of light. His black eyes seemed to have all the light sucked out of them.

The silence of the cell was broken when the door to the cell creaked open. His previously dead eyes seemed to have some of its light returned when he saw who it was. The door opened fully to reveal a young woman probably the same age as the man. The girl was dressed in a light blue loin cloth and a tattered blue breast covering leaving little to the imagination.

The girl, probably a slave walked in, holding a basin filled with clear water and a clean cloth. The girl st the basin down dipped it in the water. She begun to slowly wipe his body paying special attention to his wounds.

The man watched the girl closely. She had long black hair and bronze coloured skin which had started to become more and more paler the past months. He watched as her beautiful full lips parted and she spoke. "What did you fight today?" she asked her melodious voice bouncing of the walls of the cell. "Lions" he answered in a gruff voice. She let out a small giggle "Lions won't be enough to wound you." she stated. "They would if their made by Operandi" he defended.

The girl paused her work then let out a breath "How long has it been Marvos?" she asked. "How long has what been?" the young man Marvos asked back. "Everything, Your fighting, me coming here, us" she answered with a shaky voice. "I've been in the arena since I was eleven name days and am probably about 17 right now. So I guess six years. You said you were traded by your warlord along with others for some mithril and the last time we had a large slave influx was about two years ago and I wanted to be with you the moment you started taking care of me which was a few months ago if I'm not wrong." Marvos said. "Yeah, that sounds about right" she said with a chuckle, her voice still shaky.

"Everyday you go into that arena you come back with new wounds most of which leave scars and it hurts, it hurts that I can't do anything to lessen your pain." She said as she let out a sob. Marvos sighed as he took the now bloodied cloth from her hand and held her. He pulled her close before raising her head to look at her beautiful face, now marred with tears. He leaned in and claimed her lips with a chaste kiss which she quickly reciprocated.

They remained that way for a while before the girl pulled away. "I have to go, see you tomorrow" she said with a sad smile. She got up took the bloody water and soiled cloth and left, closing the door be hind her.

Marvos grunted as he lay on his bed, remembering what the warden had told him after his fight.

'Rest well today, lord Operandi needs you at max performance tomorrow. We have guest.'

He sighed as he held out his hand. Almost immediately, sand burst out of his chest and settled into his hand turning into his grimoire. He opened it reading its content like he did every day

GRIMOIRE OF DEATH-FRAGMENT

SORCERY OF NECRO

BRANCH MAGIC

NECROMANCY THE FIRST

STATUS

Name:Marvos Dante

Titles:Death's advocate,The immortal warrior, the crowd favorite

Age: 17 name days

Talent: Unknown

Statistics

Strength:43(35)

Agility:69(26)

Dexterity:56(20)

Intelligence: Slightly below average

Wisdom:Below average

Luck: Bad

Health: Healthy but injured

Magic: Average

Magical talent: Incredibly high

Perks

Death's advocate: due to being Death's chosen, your body and soul a slowly prepared to handle the full brunt of Its sorcery.

You have been gifted with the power of death...

Soul eater: In your pursuit of power, you have reaped and absorbed the soul for hundreds in order for your soul and body to handle the influx of energy, the Lord Death has blessed you with the unique physique of a soul eater, consider youself honored. You absorb the souls of your fallen enemies without worry of any kind of adverse effects.

Unknown: unknown

Traits

Death's advocate: A perk can always be a trait, due to being the advocate of death all advocates and worshipers of any of the four horsemen including death will show hostility due to natural hate or jealousy in the case of Death. Be ready to face them.

All creatures and worshipers of life show distrust but not outright hostility towards you.

Unknown: Your actions are being monitored.

Blessings

Mark of death: As death's advocate you must bear his blessing all things related to death show love, respect or fear and CONTEMPT.

????'s Love: A random being has shown affection towards you be grateful lowly mortal.

Unknown: He blesses you.

Magic

*Arms of the forgotten…Due to in dept understanding of the spell you can summon and manipulate the arms anywhere and any how.

*Undead hounds: 'A dog is a mans best friend, yet it lives no longer than a mans childhood. I had a best friend and he left me, I was too late to save his body but his bones still live on and with this power, I summon forth my best friend. Come forth, Undead hound.'--Thoughts of a random practitioner of the sorcery of necro first order

Just like the arms of the forgotten, the undead hounds spell is one of the five basic spells in the grimoire. It calls forth skeletal hounds from the unknown. This spell is rarely used for combat but due to your constant use, you have understood the spell to a fundamental degree allowing you to summon a combat hound at the cost of what is normally ten tracking hounds.

*Blades of the forgotten: ' What is a blade? Is it a weapon, an extension of the body, a life partner, a tool for war or a method to defend oneself and others. You ask this question to different people and you receive different answers but, in the end when the wielder dies, the blade falls forgotten on the battlefield left to rot till the end of time.'_Writings of a random philosopher.

One of the five basic spells, Blades of the forgotten is quite easy to grasp, it has the same principle as arms of the forgotten, it summons sword of different kinds which are found beneath the area of casting. Despite your understanding of this spell you cannot summon blades from anywhere like the arms of the forgotten but you can summon any amount of blades at the same time until the source is depleted.

!@#$%$#:…

Marvos nodded as he saw the last part. ' A new spell is about to be unlocked.' he thought. ' Well then might as well catch some shut eye before tomorrow'

**************

Marvos took his usual leather braces and a leather pauldron but as he was about to enter the arena, the warden pulled him back. "Here" he said handing two dark blue braces and a pauldron of the same colour. " Lord Operandi wanted you to have them, they're mythril, said you'll need it" he added. Marvos took them a contemplative look on his face.

"Don't worry yourself over it, just don't make the Lord look bad or else…"the warden warned.Marvos nodded I and kept the armor on before entering the arena

The moment Marvos entered the arena the crowd wen wild. "Immortal!, immortal!, immortal!!!…" they cheered. Marvos tuned them out as he watched the stands like he always did. To his surprise, in the executive booth, Operandi wasn't alone, he was with another man. In fact, taking a closer look, Marvos saw that Operandi was covered from head to to in gold ornaments even his mask was gold and that's surprising because gold was one of the scarcest and most expensive mythical metal.

Marvos looked at the other man and saw that the man had a mask covering the lower half of his face, the mask looked like a gs mask. The man had short brown hair and blue eyes which seemed to gleam in curiosity and mischief. His face was adorned with tattoos that looked like a dark river. 'Another warlord' Marvos concluded

Looking closely Marvos realized there was another person in there. A slave girl one he was very familiar with. An involuntary look of fondness appeared on his face which vanished as soon as it arrived but not fast enough to escape the gaze of both warlords. It took a while for Operandi to realize who that look was for after which a small frown appeared on his face which slowly turned into a cruel grin all of which hidden behind his mask.

Marvos looked towards his opponent a muscular man carrying a large spear with a blue head. Marvos walked forward, a slightly noticeable limp in his movement, a memento from his first fight.

The crowd became silent as Operandi got up and opened his mouth "….

To be continued....