Chrysalis

[Ha ha! Is this really all the fabled warriors of the Folk have got? I can do this all day long!]

Grey raises his brows as I send my declaration ringing around the stadium, broadcasting to all and sundry in the crowd. The audience, normally reserved and respectful, are well caught up in the atmosphere at this point, watching their skilled swordsmen fall one after another.

I mean, they don’t boo or anything, but many of them frown, which is pretty severe by their standards. I’ve been working this crowd all afternoon.

[Are you really that keen to continue?] Grey asks privately, knowing full well what the answer’s going to be.

[Absolutely not, are you crazy? I’m getting burned, I’m getting frozen, I’m getting… beams of… dragon-shaped light shot at me. The last one grew a tree out of their sword and hit me with it!]

[You seem fine.]

[I’ve been taking damage and healing it, that doesn’t mean I’m fine. My guts hurt, my carapace has fine cracks that’ll take time to repair and I’ve run my healing gland so often it’s demanding a paid vacation!]

Grey grunts.

[Those healing glands are cheats. Monsters can repair themselves with criminal ease.]

[You really want to get into a conversation about balance between monsters and you weaklings? Maybe we get to be stronger so we can survive the murderous hellscape of the Dungeon and not get sliced by people like you? Think about that?! I mean… how much money am I even worth at this point of evolution?]

Grey squints at my gleaming carapace.

[A lot.]

[Don’t get any ideas. I come in peace. Also, think about how hard it would be to get shoes in my size.]

[Well, the line for fighters hasn’t gotten any shorter. You can keep fighting as long as you want to. More and more schools are sending their pupils, even some of the better ones.]

[Like the sword-tree lady?]

of Surging Life. It is ranked

the proportion of nines going up over time. One on one, they can’t really hope to beat me, especially if I’m going all-out, but defeating them gracefully, one after

know that it has been stolen. Report the

surge of people, arguing, gesturing

The entire point of my escapades here in the arena is to help make it

it here for today, Grey,

robes, the

be

I shrug my antennae.

don’t want to step on any toes, culturally speaking. I’m learning a bit about your people, but I’m hardly an expert. We want good relations between the Colony

his arms across his

will be disappointed they didn’t get to see more good fights. Ninth swords lining up

Great.

[So… I should stay?]

he snorts. [If you want to leave, then leave. We are the Folk, our appetite for the fight is bottomless. You could stand on this sand for a hundred years and people wouldn’t have

in the arena. Any time someone leaves, their seat is snapped up in

I tell

be good players, come

Grey seems less sure.

is…

a game,

aren’t religious,

[Not yet.]