Beneath the Dragoneye Moons
Chapter 653: Countless Joyful Dawns VII

169 Years after Elaine became a professor at the School of Sorcery and Spellcraft

I’d been salty for almost a year when the ‘make a treasure hunt’ project hadn’t worked out. If the materials weren’t strong enough, they’d rapidly weather and decay, obliterating the puzzle. If they were strong enough - like, adamantium - then they were too valuable, and people wouldn’t let them stick around. They would dig it up and dissect it for the materials. If we made the blocks out of solid adamantium, instead of stone wrapped in adamantium… well, rough calculations suggested there wasn’t enough metal in the entire world, forget the cost and logistics of it.

Fenrir was still deeply depressed over the entire thing. He’d had the absolute time of his life designing all the puzzles, riddles, and ‘cases’. The wyvern had flown off to carve the best riddles and puzzles into the side of a mountain range. I wished him luck with the unhappy locals, but not too many people wanted to mess with a wyvern of his size and level.

We’d pivoted to another project, and I swear it was purely for Iona’s entertainment. I was having fun as well, of course, but Iona was having fun.

Iona was rubbing in oil when the announcement came.

“From the north gate! The legend in the making, a warrior whose grace belies her unmatched might! She stands not in height, but in honor! Not in force, but in flawless finesse! With eyes that shimmer like starlight on midnight waves, I’m pleased to present the tempest in stillness, the storm that leaves no scar, the bloodless blade! Please welcome [Gladiatrix] Dawn!” The [Announcer] roared.

“Good luck.” My wife and lanista said, quickly kissing me. I smirked back.

“I don’t need luck.” I boasted.

“Alright, good luck not breaking your limits then.” She teased, and then it was showtime!

I strutted out as the gate opened, a smile on my face as I cheerfully waved to the adoring crowd, putting on a small show. It was purely for Iona’s sake, everyone else just managed to be nearby, and it was a little fun.

I was also in the least practical fighting outfit imaginable. My hair was long and unbound, flowing down my back, instead of cut short and stuffed into a helmet. Speaking of helmets, I didn’t have one. I’d go on about my armor, except practically speaking, it didn’t exist.

No. Iona had finally found a way to get me to wear a chainmail bikini.

“Go Dawn! Knock em dead!” Iona hooted and cheered from the waiting room. I spun and winked at her, also spinning for the crowd as a side effect.

Gladiatorial bouts weren’t fights, they were shows with the suggestion of bloodshed. For most people. I was deeply smug in my reputation of not a single drop of blood having been shed in any of my matches, by anyone. Both my desire and Iona’s design, the local press loved it. People showed up to see me, seeing if I’d finally break my bloodless streak.

“From the south gate! Not a man, but the ghost of every butchered soul that dared to stand against him! Born in a pit, raised on bone, forged in fire and fed by the screams of the damned! His blade is rusted from the blood it refuses to forget! The butcher with a thousand kills! The great devourer, the Carrion King himself! Please welcome Gravus Bloodmaw!”

The man in question burst onto the field, roaring with an oversized axe slung over one shoulder. In the colosseum’s defense, everyone was showing off way too much skin. Gravus had a lion’s jawbone over his lower face, bone-plated armor over his right arm, a loincloth and about a gallon of oil. He growled a few meaningless threats and swung his two handed axe a few times.

Hmmm. With his size, the weight of the axe and how he handled it, he had more strength than I was trying to display. He was also surprisingly quick.

Good. I’d started to fall into minor complacency before this little excursion of ours. Working as a [Guard], simply being faster than everyone was all well and good, but it had gotten me into the habit of horribly abusing my speed to solve every problem. My technique had started to slip.

Capping myself at lower stats and fighting ‘stronger’ people was an excellent way for me to regain, maintain, and improve my edge. Sparring with my friends and family only went so far, we knew each other and our respective tricks far too well.

We walked to the center, and turned to face the top box. In unison, we gave the traditional greeting.

“Ave Gubernator! Morituri te salutant!”

“Begin!” The [Announcer] shouted, and we started to circle each other. Gravus swung lightly at me, and I ducked under the blade. No sense in showing what I can do. He pulled the blade around and swung down. It looked a little too neat, too easy. We were still in the ‘test and prod’ stage though, so I simply sidestepped it, only for the gladiator to grin at me. An echo of his first slash materialized next to my arm, and only a quick twist got my shield in the way. The echoed blow wasn’t nearly as strong as the original, and I used the momentum to roll back and away from Gravus, to the cheers of the crowd.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

A flicker of flame caught my eye, and I smiled as I spotted Auri in the stands.

“First blood goes to me!” Gravus roared, to cheers in the crowd, playing it up to his fan. I paused and stood up straight, the tip of my sword pointing to the sandy floor. Time for me to play it up.

“Are you kidding me?” I projected my voice, not relying on the enchantments to make it carry. “I’m the bloodless blade, you haven’t left a scratch on me.”

That got my fans particularly happy, and I could hear Iona’s whistle piercing through the crowd’s shouts. Gravus roared with faux-rage - I’d been doing this long enough to tell the difference - and started to ‘wildly’ swing at me, cleverly linking each motion into the next one.

He was good for his age and level. One of his swings went a little wide, and I darted in with my sword, aiming to slap the side of his knee. Not drawing blood when I only had a long blade was fucking hard. Not for the first time, I wondered what the heck I was thinking when I let Iona talk me into this.

Well, I knew what I’d been thinking. That she’d love it, and I wanted to make her happy.

Gravus grinned, and I realized I’d been baited. A second skill of his had a burst of sand come up from the ground into my face, and his feet shifted unnaturally as he repositioned himself. His axe came down on my arm.

I was forced to cross my round shield over my off-arm, and used the tip of it to ‘punch’ the axe blade away. I felt that I could easily ‘sway’ the motion the difference in momentum had with my full dexterity, but instead used the push to roll back again.

“Ha! Not all that, are you?” He called out again, choosing to loop his massive axe in several showy motions instead of following up. I had to mildly respect him for properly playing the ‘this is a show’ game over ‘I am trying to cause you harm’. Didn’t mean he wasn’t trying to win, just that I wasn’t about to find myself fighting for my life. Like he’d be any threat.

Occasionally, new [Gladiators] didn’t quite have the right mindset, and thought the goal was killing each other. They made the best show… once. For other people.

I mimed a yawn.

“I haven’t used a single skill yet.” I bragged. “You’ve used what, four that I’ve seen so far?” I did my best unimpressed professor glare, which had cowed greater men. “I think you’ve harmed a single hair on my head. Maybe. I believe we’re in an arena, not a barbershop though.”

The crowd ooooohed with my diss, but then again, they were a fickle lot who agreed with whatever [Gladiator] was trash talking that moment. Unless the trash talk was really bad, at which point the rotten fruit came out.

I swear, some people picked up skills just to conjure and throw things at us. Given the cultural impetus, most civilian classes should…

No! Bad Elaine! No System analysis like this mid battle! I’m here to help break some bad habits, not muse!

He snorted.

“You’ve never shown an active skill. Little bunny, I don’t think you have any active skills.”

Ouch. He’d successfully called it, and the fickle crowd went right back to cheering on his trash talk. I flipped my hair, finally able to lean on my reputation.

The [Announcer] hadn’t been kidding, I was undefeated.

“I’ve never needed to use one.” I primly responded. “Perhaps you can be the first to make me.”

And the crowd was back on my side, just like that. According to Iona’s research and polling, I was a big hit among teenage girls. She kept having to reject their applications to join her training school!

Speaking of, showing off was a bad habit, and we’d done the requisite back and forth. I moved in with a flurry of blows, weaving my shield and sword with expert grace. I had to be careful, I had to be thoughtful, I had to move exactly right, playing a deadly game of chess with limbs and blade, with sword and shield. If I stabbed into the opening there, the optimal counter would have his axe swing like that, giving me a new opening there… assuming no new skills were used.

In spite of Garvus’s advantage in reach and strength, his ability to use skills, and his experience, I slowly gained an advantage, then ruthlessly exploited it to slowly, carefully expand my lead. No need for dashing heroics or wild gambles. Just the cold, clinical dismantling of a fighting style.

It was a coinflip if a given gladiator would try to exploit my reputation as the ‘bloodless blade’. Some decided I wouldn’t risk my hard-won reputation on a single fight, and deliberately fought to exploit that weakness. Others weren’t quite as willing to risk me skewering them in front of a crowd doing something obviously stupid.

Garvus eventually swapped from the second type to the first, recognizing that he was going to lose if he didn’t change the pace of the fight. It didn’t matter. He would’ve been much better off continuing his usual style of fighting, instead of stumbling into a brand new style midfight and turning into a complete amateur.

It took me three strikes to destroy his axe and put my blade at his neck.

“Yield.” I demanded. His eyes flickered to his axe, and I raised an eyebrow at him. I wasn’t good at communicating silently with random people, not in the way Iona was, but the message was hopefully clear.

This was a game, a show. He could try to manipulate my desire to keep my reputation by refusing to yield and continuing to fight. It’d be a petty tantrum, and by the rules, tradition, and culture of the colosseum, he was far more likely to end up with a blade in his throat for his troubles.

Or… he could do what dozens of other [Gladiators] did, what he’d surely done many times before.

“I yield.” He said, dropping to his knees.

I help my sword up triumphantly, basking in the adoration of the crowd.

“The butcher, the beast, the carrion king himself is defeated! His crown lays broken at the bloodless blade’s feet! A feat of precision and grace, sharper than any steel! She stands triumphant, her blade unstained, her shield undented. No blood spilled, and the mercy only a winner can give! Lords and ladies, citizens and freemen, I give you the undefeated winner of this bout - [Gladiatrix] Dawn!” The [Announcer] roared.

Quite a few members of the crowd sent up a flashy skill to help show their approval. I particularly liked a brief snowflurry one woman sent up.

At which point, my friends had to steal the show. Auri sent up another pillar of flame, needle-thin at the base near everyone before it bloomed into a huge cloud above the arena. Artemis, clearly not wanting to be outdone, rattled the seats with a Lightning bolt.

I skipped over to Iona, giving off the impression of youthful exuberance, and I tried to match the size of her grin.

“Hey!” I hugged my wife as soon as I was back in the waiting chamber, and batted my eyelashes at her. “Where’s my reward?”

She moved in to kiss me, and I put a finger on her lips, arching an eyebrow.

“No no, my other reward.” I said.

Laughing, Iona pulled a mango from her bag, and I gleefully sank my teeth into its delicious flesh.