Cutlery found Tall with Savannah. The two were exercising. Savannah did activities on top of Tall. If Cutlery and Savannah joined bodies they might have as much mass as Tall. Cutlery joined in. Tall's absurd strength was good inspiration throughout the evening.
Eventually, Lutae's daylight faded from their windows and they hit the shower together. The issue of Tall being a man and a woman in terms of anatomy came up.
"Let's keep up Rega's wishes Tall, you shower with us." Cutlery said. Tall was happy to oblige. Savannah also was on board with the novel experience. Tall explained in her homeland, and here in town, bathing together was a tradition. With only one sex there was no reason to make multiple bathrooms in their homeland. Fewer people got dragged away by dire wolves as well. No dire wolves here though, Cutlery hoped.
The showers on the second floor had partitions between each nozzle anyways. The first sliver showers had just been two rooms. Unlabeled doorways with a lot of nozzles inside. She had often found out the boys had switched which showers they were using for the day on purpose.
The partitions on this floor prevented anyone from seeing anything but turned heads. Cutlery and Savannah talked while Tall hummed a deep tune. Tall revealed when they finished, that they were a mix of blessed and simply ripped. In all human genders, Tall was blessed. Interesting.
They bid goodbye with some giggling. Angela was already snoozing quietly and perfectly when Cutlery arrived. Already classic. Cutlery tucked herself in. She thrashed about for half an hour before falling asleep.
She dreamt of a person in a white robe with red skin going through the doors of her mind.
-
Cutlery awoke at the crack of dawn and put on her minimal training gear. She looked ready to dive into the Zurkonian bay. At first, she wasn't sure about the clothes when Fish suggested them for her mobility, but it turned out he wasn't interested in her at all and wanted her to do better. Odd. He had said,
"More skin, more distractions for horny opponents. Helps a lot. You won't believe how many fights I won immediately following grabbing Gill's crotch. Gill was on my team by the way. If that was... hey I'm serious don't walk away..." Fish had said as she walked away from his stupid advice. Thinking it over, he was probably right. If she was gonna be super good at fighting, who cared if she showed off a little more than normal? It still itched at a deep level that she was six. Well, she would just kill everyone who tried to get with her for, uh, at least ten? Fifteen? A lot of years. Then she would feel better about it.
So she pranced from her room in her stretchy outfit and chowed down on breakfast. Very few people were early risers this morning. All of them were also in training gear. No one batted an eye at her new look. Not like they had known her for more than a day anyways.
She threw her food tray back into the kitchen. Dashing to the gym she practiced with her rapier. Creating new tricks to deal with opponents was her goal. Sneaky tricks only worked if you were fast and not bulky. The huge meat heads could throw around huge unblockable strikes. But they couldn't bob and weave. So they wore armor. Cutlery was able to climb, dodge, dash, and change equipment much faster than them though. Staying alive took more work, but it was more fun.
The armory had endless unique tools to test out. Once Tall showed up she had them help her. Then Savannah and Holly showed up as well. She practiced with Savannah. Through Savannah, she was able to hammer in her moves and learned what would instantly work, what was risky, and how to improve her moves. Once the general crowd and Angela showed up she went back to regular training.
She spent the two-on-two fights bargaining with Fish and Gill to let her into a real match. They caved once she promised to follow their orders and stay defensive. Boy did they not know her well. An unofficial fight during the start of dinner was their caveat. The defensive spell girl from yesterday would be their fourth.
She was a Hazfeni. She had super dark skin and a mostly head. A single golden tattoo of a yellow star shone on the left side of her head. When they met she had said,
"You are the little twerp who is trying to climb so quickly after killing our last leaders. We should be good friends. Hard work never fails you. I am named Asim." Asim said. Cutlery introduced herself and they got to planning the fight.
During lunch, word of the fight spread. Another team quickly formed. Holly's unique music spellcraft got her into the team. Fuck. She was joined by the shield wall of Astree and Lopulp from the last battle. A stranger who had performed well joined them as well. They appeared to be another Spellcaster of some kind. All they had was a robe. She never saw their spells except for an orange glow on their skin sometimes.
Lunch finished up and everyone rejoined training with renewed energy. A short round of two on two's went by. The chalk circles were cleared for the bigger battles. The night was packed with them as everyone seemed to be pumped up. A total of eight battles took place before the bonus battle. Gill and Fish took part in the first one and won by a landslide victory. They got healed and returned to watch the last few before their next. Around the sixth battle, the doors in the arena opened up.
Haze walked in. He was accompanied by another golden soldier.
The room's noise dimmed. Only those exiting the arena from the sixth fight made a peep. Haze stopped halfway down the stairs and looked down at all of them. He surveyed the scene.
"I've come to collect the next four candidates for a mission. If you have kept to tradition, your best fights are right before dinner. So I have come to see them. I will select from the winning teams." He said. His eyes glided over Cutlery and looked proudly upon Fish and Gill. He already knew who would make it, would he be surprised to see her in one of the best fights? She might set some kind of slivers consuming record.
The next fight was most interesting. Haze remained impassive as he watched. The groups were a team of four mages fighting four beefcakes. The mages at the start of the fight blasted a beefcake into unconsciousness immediately. Their plan to overwhelm with damage seemed to be going well until the distance was crossed. Then point-blank range turned against them. The mages went down quickly. One managed to catch all three remaining fighters in a wave of fire. The fire roasted them and a cheer went through the crowd. Two fighters emerged from the smoke and finished the fight.
The unbalanced team styles were fun to watch. The gamble on a one-sided strategy was easy to understand. So as Haze stood up when the fight ended he look baffled when Cutlery stood as well and made her way to the arena. He watched her intently. Fish and Gill joined her, then Asim. He smirked and sat back down.
Both groups stretched and got ready. Asim helped Cutlery stretch. Tightening her belts Cutlery was ready. New toys adorned her chest and arms. The extra forty pounds were new. Thank god for her flat chest, Rega could never put tools right in front of her.
The thudding of feet started. The cheer seemed louder, longer, and more intense. The seismic clap magnified in the small room. The battle began. Haze watched, leaning forward.
