Plutonian

Chapter 17

All the fighters stand around the large translucent screen that appears on one of the walls in the training center. We gather before the combat ring and read the names that form out of thin air and arrange themselves into the columns on the screen.

Everyone erupts into a fit of whispers  as our names form below one another. I see Leslie's and he is paired of with someone else and then my name appears. My toes tingle with anticipation and nervousness as I see the letters form the word Christina next to my name. 

I will be facing her next week. 

I look around at the all the people standing around me. Some tall, some short. Some bulky and intimidating, others small and inferior looking. She could be anyone. 

The girl I had been training with bites her lip as she sees her name appear. I narrow my eyes at the screen and see the name Rosie.

"Rosie?" I ask in shock. The girl next to me not only towers over most of us here, she is also broad shouldered and muscular, with taut tanned skin that stretches over her long, lean limbs. The name just does not stick with the image I am given.

She nods her head grimly and squares her shoulders as she stares at the name beside her. "I know it's not very threatening. They asked me to change it for the pits but I refused because it is my birth name. Now I am known as Ruthless Rosie."

She laughs at the nick name but it doesn't reach her eyes. They are still fixated on the name next to hers. 

Browin. 

"Tough opponent?" I ask curiously.  

"One of the toughest. I've never been able to beat him," She sighs and begins to walk away. When she notices that I have followed her she speaks again.

"They always do this. They make sure we never win four fights in a row so that we can never join the army."

"But people have joined before, right?" I question. We walk past the doors of the training center and through the green gardens that lead to the recreation room.

"That's the problem. If you win three fights in a row, all you need is a Plutonian to nominate you to their squad and you're in but if you win four fights in a row you automatically join the army without needing a nomination. In other words you don't need to be used to get what you want," Rosie says angrily. "They arrange the matches in such a way that no one has won four matches in a row ever."

"You mean to say the last human to join the army was also nominated?" I stop in my tracks, stunned by this news. I wonder why Asta never told me any of this. It now makes perfect sense why they prettied me up for the celebratory dinner and what she said to me before I was presented.

It also makes sense now that she has a Plutonian lover. 

"Yes," She answers in a clipped tone. "They paint us a pretty picture about the honors of joining the army when we are slaves because they want us to become fighters but the truth is they don't want us to win. They want us to need them. If we can win without them then it just goes to show that we don't need them as much as they think we do." 

"That's disgusting," I say honestly. "How did you find out about this? Did they ever tell you what you need to do?"

"Not, directly no. I've seen officers like Asta lurking around the training center, whispering deals into fighters ears and they've told me, though not many are lucky enough to be chosen by a Plutonian for some purpose. It's usually for sex, or dirty errands like lying and stealing, things you have to be good at to begin with. Some fighters who respected themselves too much actually refused those offers and remained fighters. I was never pretty enough or quite so "talented" at manipulation like Sergeant Atmos so I never had the chance to choose."