A Dragon's Curiosity

As the [Eternal Warrior] Tyne Pinewood described the rules of the arena, the cheering crowd eventually calmed down as the heavy armored warrior and the leather clad rogue met in the center of the sand pit.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my honor to preside over the fight of the day! Are you excited?”

Beneath the cabins for distinguished guests, an announcer sat behind a wooden table and used a spell array inscribed on the desk to amplify his voice, so everyone in the arena could hear him clearly.

The crowd screamed in excitement at his needling, as another fight was about to begin.

“To the left, we have one of the arena’s pillars, the Armored Giant Mark!”

Clanking his sword against the tower shield, the man in full plate hardly showed signs of acknowledgement besides that, eager to start the fight.

Nevertheless, the cheers of the crowd belied his calm appearance and it took several breaths before the announcer could continue with his work.

“And to the right, we have the aspiring challenger, Swift Claws Robin! He swept through the ranks like a whirlwind and danced on razors edge, yet he always won with more than a narrow margin!”

Again, the crowd cheered and whistled, eager to see the fight start.

Tyne Pinewood waited for the announcer to finish his introduction, before he resumed his explanation, or it would have been hard to hear him clearly over the magically enhanced voice.

“When the Arena League is not in session, the place can be used to resolve differences.

Imagine that you have constant clashes with someone living near to you.

It doesn’t really matter what the disagreement is about, but it has to be something big enough to cause bad blood, but not important enough to involve the city guard.

Rather than fall out with each other and both parties landing in the guard’s jail cells for fighting without permission inside the city, it’s smarter to go to the arena and fight it out.”

As the [Eternal Warrior] explained the second endeavor that made the arena popular, the announcer rang a bell, which also benefited from the sound enhancing magic array, and the fight in the pit officially began.

The rogue immediately backed away and strafed to the side, hoping to circle the heavy armored fighter and locate a flaw in his defense.

On the other hand, Mark slowly turned and kept his tower shield between himself and the other man.

He turned on the spot and covered as much of his body as possible with the shield, giving his fleet footed opponent not the slightest chance to assault him.

“And people would rather fight it out instead of trying to solve the issue with a discussion?

What’s the advantage of that?”

Aaren was clearly observing the fight rather intently, not even turning towards his instructor while he asked.

Perhaps he imagined himself as one of the fighters and what he would do in their place.

Nevertheless, he proved his ability to multitask by proving that he listened at least somewhat as his question made a lot of sense.

“Good point. It’s mostly those that begin hating each other's guts that want to enter the arena to settle their differences.

Sometimes, it’s not about the issue at hand anymore but an underlying and larger feud that builds up in a specific situation that becomes unbearable.

Furthermore, the arena allows the participants to pen an agreement beforehand, which they have to adhere to afterwards, regardless of who ends up being the winner and who the loser.

It’s a simple method to settle complex problems.”

Tyne Pinewood hardly paid attention to the fight in the pit and reclined in his seat, leaving half of it empty as he slumped sidewards and closed his eyes.

If it wasn’t for his steady explanation, the two students would have assumed that the man fell asleep.

Nisha wondered if she was the only one interested in the rules of the arena and paying close attention, but she also observed the fight in the pit from afar, so it was not fair to say that.

Seeing that the fully armored Mark revealed no openings to exploit, the dagger dual wielding fighter sprinted close.

If he could not find an opportunity, he just had to create one.

Almost as if he wanted to give up his life, the rogue Robin charged at the tower shield without putting up any form of defense.

Right before the armored fighter had a chance to smash him down with his shield, the rogue tumbled to the ground and used the forward momentum to rebound into a crouching position behind Mark.

Thanks to the cover provided by the tower shield, the armored fighter did not manage to follow his position right away and his shield bash only hit empty air.

Before he recovered from the strike, Robin jumped his back and aimed for the gaps of his armor near the joints.

“And the agreements work? If there are deeper problems at work, a piece of paper is likely not going to put a stop to that.

What happens when they start a conflict again?”

Nisha had begun dealing with contracts and agreements through the new Merchant house that she set up together with Annabelle and Lydia.

Unless everything was in writing and with defined punishments and fines for breaking the terms of a contract, it was not only hard to enforce the agreement, but shady merchants also tried to get away with anything of value they could get their hands on.

The elf did not think that it worked differently between normal citizens, a normal agreement was not going to change anything.

“Of course not, they might go against the promise they made as soon as they step out of the arena.

But it sets a legally binding agreement, so if the winner catches the loser going against the terms, he can beat him up without having to fear any consequences.

Even if the guards come and investigate, the agreement protects the winner from going to jail.

The loser, on the other hand, might even get additional charges from the guard, but often the beating is enough.”

At the thought of a beaten loser being chucked into jail for being a spoilsport, the [Eternal Warrior] chuckled languidly.

Nisha had to agree that a good beating was a good deterrent, any monster that misbehaved under the area of influence belonging to the [Dragon’s Den] would behave much more cautiously after she gave them a good thrashing.

“You can ignore the second category though, most likely you won’t have much to do with it in the future unless you start feuding left and right with neighbours and anyone you meet.

The last activity in the arena is the Blood Sand Match, though people commonly call it Last Man Standing.

It’s the most loved and most hated event for most spectators.”

Tyne had his head resting on the back of the seat, eyes still closed as if he was sleeping.

Despite his odd posture and only occupying half a seat, his lethargy almost infected those close to him, inviting others to join him in lying down to rest.

Thankfully, his explanation disrupted the hypnotic sleep spell and allowed the students to follow his explanation, although the stands surrounding them were noticeably calmer than the rest of the arena.

Meanwhile, the fight in the pit heated up. Robin managed to stab the joint of Mark’s sword arm several times and stuck close to the man to avoid getting shoved back by the tower shield.

The armored fighter created a blindspot for himself and allowed the rogue to get close, who capitalized on the opening.

Although his armor mitigated a lot of the damage and protected his flesh underneath, the tip of the dagger still created shallow wounds and made the man drop his sword.

Just before Robin had the opportunity to further his lead by inflicting damage on the taller man, the fighter in question jumped backwards and yanked him along like a piece of baggage.

Half turning his body around, Mark made use of the momentum to fling his sword hand around and dislodge the leather clad man from his arm.

The dagger remained lodged in the armor around his elbow, while the rogue had to let it go to follow the momentum dragging him along.

He did not have the strength to resist and accepted the force flinging his body around, which ended with him tumbling over his shoulder on the arena sand.

Left with one dagger, he quickly turned around and eyed Mark like a predator.

The heavy armor made the tall man too slow to quickly pick up his weapon, so the sword remained on the ground.

Despite losing one of his daggers, Robin preserved his advantage.

“The reason why the contest is called Last Man Standing is because the fighters are not voluntarily participating.

Criminals, heavily indebted gamblers, that sort of riffraff is held in cells below the ground.

Every time they fight, there are two possible outcomes. Victory or death.”

The [Eternal Warrior] spoke while the fight in the pit slowed down.

Since Mark lost his sword, the rogue used his remaining dagger to threaten him away from picking it up by lunging close to the man whenever he tried to bend down.

Robin, on the other side, wanted to retrieve his second weapon as well, yet the dagger fell next to the armored man, and any attempt to get close would be met with a swift shield bash to his body, which could seriously hurt the lightly armored rogue.

Despite the lack of action, the crowd cheered every time one of the combatants made an attempt to break the stalemate.

“They’re really fighting until someone dies? Isn’t that bad for the arena, and why does the city allow them to hold such matches?”

Although Aaren had seen dead monster carcasses before and some fellow villagers had passed from injury or old age, it was the first time that the young man was confronted with humans killing each other intentionally and it shocked him.

Nisha also raised a brow, but she was much more disillusioned about the guards or the nobles caring about some commoners dying when compared to the [Thieves Guild] being allowed to run free.

There were probably other examples that the elf was not aware of either, so it did not seem too unlikely.

“Yes, Red Sand is also a reference to how the pit is often dyed with blood after such fights.

The arena buys the debt of gambling addicts and brings them in before they get thrown into prison as well as criminals that are already sentenced and have to serve for a long time.

There are also other reasons, but I’m not too sure of other ways how the arena recruits more fighters.

In return, the fighters have to follow the arrangement of the staff and enter brawls regularly.

Either in a one versus one confrontation or as a large group fight, only one person is allowed to claim victory.”

Seeing that the fight on the field intensified, the crowd worked up thunderous calls and whistling, each of the fans supporting their own fighter.

Robin knew that while he landed a blow previously, the injury was not critical and a prolonged fight would not favor him, as the towershield of his armored foe was a major hindrance if he only had one dagger.

Trying to replicate his earlier feat and build upon that advantage, the rogue tumbled on the ground again and wanted to close the distance, rendering the shield a non issue in their fight.

He clearly underestimated the armored warrior though, who learned from his mistake.

Bashing his shield forward blindly, Mark interrupted the tumble and threw his foe to the ground, although the soft sand prevented heavy injuries.

Unwilling to leave anything to chance, he also threw the shield down, pinning half of Robin’s body to the ground with it.

With one knee on the shield and the other on the rogue’s free arm, he panted and loomed over the struggling man.

Trying as hard as he could, Robin ultimately failed to slip out from beneath the large tower shield.

The arm he could move still had the dagger despite the fall, yet the weapon had no use as it was also immobilized.

And as a leather clad light fighter, he lacked the strength to compete.

“I surrender.”

Although unwilling, the rogue gave up.

“And our champion Mark emerges victorious! He defends his title. What a marvelous fight!”

The crowd exploded and chanted his name between thunderous cheers.