The Elementalist: Sky City (Book One)

Chapter Six: The Arena

A loud thunder echoed, groaned, and shook in the distance, muted but never ending. Ben's eyes rocked around under closed eyelids as he was finally forced to consciousness. The darkness spun and eventually settled, light and blurred lines forming as he gained composure. He could slowly make out blurry figures in the distance both far and near. A strained cough left Ben's lips as he breathed in the dry, arid dirt his face was buried in. Slow to his feet, he stood from the hard, dirt-covered brick floor he'd woken upon. There was a scraping like chalk on metal as his feet found their balance. Dizziness overcame him, but soon the figures around him began to clear as if from looking at them through droplets of water. Shaking his head amidst nausea and confusion, Ben felt a firm hand grab his shoulder.

He turned to see an armor-clad warrior standing beside him. The man's teeth growled from behind a grizzly face and a body that was Olympian in stature. His large muscles showed through the cloth of his sleeves, and his stance was very tall and even more firm. A metal breastplate with little scrapes or cuts revealed how little he'd been hit in battle.

Ben moved to get away from him, dragging his feet, but the man held his shoulder firm.

"Hey," his deep, gritty voice said. "Wait your turn. I haven't waited this long for this match to have my glory taken by a scrawny kid like you."

"What?" Ben murmured in confusion.

A violent clatter of metal soon drew Ben's attention away from the brute before him to the rest of the arena he found himself in. The thousands of blurs and colors had formed and figured, and Ben found himself at the edge of circling stands and a loud crowd.

What passed for a building was brick, rubble, and dirt, arranged to encircle a fighting pit, drenched in dirt, sweat, and blood. At a glance, one could close eyes and replace the rubble with an image of a once grand and glorious arena. It'd be easy to see away hundreds of years of decay to witness the arena in its once mighty stature, but with open eyes, this would soon melt away to the remains and rubble that now stood. Hundreds huddled around, either seated upon these relics of brickwork or standing, too excited to rest weary feet. All of this could clearly be made out in the blackness of the night, as many torches lined the outer perimeter of the circle, casting a bright glow on the entire arena.

Ben could see that past the crowd, beyond the arena, was a forest of trees with bright-red leaves. Hidden in the forest, this forgotten arena of the Magma Kingdom radiated in the dark like a forgotten home that'd been found again. There was a warrior's energy that came from it, not only from the cheering spectators, but from the history and legacy of the brickwork itself.

Ben again noticed the red of the trees and assumed correctly that it must be the patch of red they saw from a distance when he and Wade were about to leave Burnstown.

At the center of this spectacle were two Magma Kingdom citizens. The first, with a broadsword, was an average sized man with battle armor, heavy on his feet but quick in the swing of his sword. The other... the girl named Fred.

Unlike her opponent, Fred did not wear heavy or even what might be considered medium weight armor. Her red civilian's clothes were protected by the same hide-skin armor, covered in reddish animal fur, that he'd seen her wearing before. Under this, she wore plain pants and black, leather boots that held her body firm to the ground as she assumed a fighting stance. To Ben, all of this seemed to offer almost no protection from the man's broadsword she now faced. He soon realized how unnecessary real armor would be for her, though. With two small blades in both hands, she quickly and effortlessly dodged each of the man's attacks, with no weight of armor to slow her down.

"What's going on...?" Ben heard a voice murmur from his feet.

Looking down, he finally noticed Wade lying on the ground close to where he had just awoken himself.