Adept of Chaos Ch. 26

Good news! I've completed my editing passes on Adept of Chaos, and it grew slightly during the editing. Not much, but it's a little longer. I also sent it to my editor, and got a guaranteed date that I'd get it back. So I've updated the release date to October 15th. I'm really, really looking forward to getting it out there!

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Chapter 26

People were watching her as she walked through the building. That much, Evelyn had expected. Even if she wasn’t in her armor, this time she wasn’t trying to hide who she was, and the stares and whispers were about what she’d come to expect over the last week and a half.

Ilyra, Moon, Star, and Vaneryth had been doing well on the whole, as after the first match they’d thrown themselves into the online arenas to improve. That had the side effect of allowing some of their opponents to figure out some of their tactics and prepare more easily, but it’d also solved some of their more egregious tactical mistakes. At the very least, Ilyra wasn’t being foolish enough to stand out in the open anymore, and while they’d lost two more matches, they’d won three, and were rapidly improving.

The only problem was that Evelyn was heartily sick of hiding from the fan club, which had been steadily increasing their efforts to track her down. She was fortunate that station security hadn’t been willing to let them know which ship was hers, as otherwise Evelyn might have had to murder someone. Which might be why they refused to tell them, when Evelyn thought about it.

But now that the team was doing better, and the equipment from Mountainback Athletics was almost ready, Evelyn had decided that it was time for her to participate in a match of her own. Which was why she was in the admin section of the Grand Arena, making a direct line toward the registration area for high-rank gladiators to sign up for matches. It was combined with a bar, which amused Evelyn to no end, but the best part from her perspective was that people who weren’t high rankers couldn’t go inside. That was useful, considering some of the shrieks she heard from behind her. It seemed that a couple of fans had just caught sight of her, but they weren’t going to be quick enough to catch up.

“Um, are you—” an elven man in heavy powered armor began, but Evelyn passed him without a sideways glance. She knew every gladiator in the upper ranks after looking them over for a couple of weeks, and he wasn’t among them. She imagined the brown-haired man would be annoyed, but he could live with it.

Striding up to the doors, Evelyn pulled out her competition token. It was a thin wafer of mythrite, translucent with integrated electronics, and it contained her entire gladiatorial history. Considering that, it also was designed to allow access to more exclusive areas of the arenas that Evelyn had visited. So as she flipped the token into the air, the doors slid open, allowing her to enter the registration area.

The room was just as odd as she remembered, though at least the bar had been renovated. Most of the room was taken up by the bar, with several tables and booths, each with a privacy projector to allow people at them to relax without being eavesdropped on, and a long bar with stools had a variety of liquors from across space behind it. Most of the furnishings were a garish red, though faux wood paneling was underfoot. Evelyn remembered when the floors were actually wood, but it’d been destroyed by the armor so many gladiators wore, so they’d changed to a more durable material.

To her left was the window into the secretary’s office, along with a hallway leading to private training rooms and the infirmary for if gladiators got hurt in major matches. Behind the window was a dwarven woman, whose blue eyes went wide when she caught sight of Evelyn and her jaw dropped. Better yet, Evelyn recognized her.

She also recognized the gladiators in the room, though only one due to knowing him. The rest she’d simply researched, and she smiled as they looked at her. One orc whistled under his breath, sitting back in his chair, while the one man she knew slowly stood from his much larger seat.

Bradford Demoneyes, better known as Stonewall, hadn’t changed in the decade and a half since Evelyn had last seen him. When standing, he was over three meters tall, and the minotaur-like horns atop his head made him seem even taller. His skin had a faint red tinge that Evelyn knew was from his demonic father, while his mother had been a hill giant. He was a big man, and she knew from experience he was much faster and more agile than he looked. He was wearing a simple yellow and brown jersey, his colors, and appeared to be unarmed. She knew better, of course.

“Well, well… look who blew in from the astral! It’s been years, Tornado. I heard you were on-planet, but since you hadn’t shown up, I thought it was just a rumor. How’re you doing?” Stonewall rumbled, offering a hand.

Evelyn laughed, walking over and taking his hand, though it was more like his hand had wrapped around her entire forearm. Then his grip tightened to a nearly bone-crushing level, and her eyes narrowed. Was that how he wanted to play this? Well, she certainly wasn’t going to let it pass unanswered. With a single, solid jerk she pulled Stonewall in close as her other hand grabbed him by the belt and lifted him off the ground, over her head. Only then did she speak pleasantly, as the gladiators around them just stared.

“Really, is this how you want to play things? I’d throw you, but Stacey doesn’t deserve to have you thrown through her window.” Evelyn said, holding him above her effortlessly. Stonewall froze for only a moment, then laughed, relaxing his grip a bit.

“Sorry about that, but I’ve had a few really convincing impostors come in, so I wanted to make sure it was you. Truce?” the giant asked, just a hint of anxiety in his voice. Evelyn nodded and set him back down carefully. While she was strong enough to pick him up, her magic didn’t do that much to correct for the difference in mass. Unless she tried to compensate, anyway.

“Fair enough, I suppose. They should be glad they didn’t run into me. Glad to see that you’re still in the game, Stone. I saw that you’ve worked your way up to thunderbird, which is good to see. I still remember how you threw me against the wall the first time we ran into each other.” Evelyn said, grinning at him.

Stonewall laughed, though he looked a little embarrassed as he rubbed a horn, giving her hand a shake before letting go. “Yeah, I’ve been working hard. And don’t bring that up, you put a crater in the opposite wall. I thought you were going to get disqualified with that much force.”

“It was close.” Evelyn agreed, glancing around. “So, are you the only one of the Usual Suspects still around? You had a solid team going, there.”

“Blaze retired after going to Garnhold for a match. He lost a leg in the fight and decided that he was slowing down too much, even if he did get it regenerated. Hurricane sent me a message last month saying she was heading coreward for some tournament or another, and Chaos bedded a pirate, and last I heard was on the run from her and her crew since she had his kid.” Stonewall replied succinctly.

Evelyn couldn’t help a laugh, shaking her head as she murmured. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. Blaze was getting old, and Chaos was always the type to act without thinking things through. Anyway, I’m doing well. I thought about coming by earlier, but decided to wait. Some of my crew has been competing in the lower ranks, and I didn’t want to cause them any problems by drawing too clear of a connection, or depress them by mopping the floor with someone in the upper ranks when they were getting beaten soundly.”

“Really, you’ve got a crew?” another gladiator chimed in, the orcish woman’s eyebrows rising. “I wouldn’t think you’d have started a gladiator team.”

“Wrong type of crew. I bought a ship, and ended up with a crew. Since most of them had exactly no combat experience, I thought they needed some training.” Evelyn explained, examining the woman for a moment before dismissing her. There were over a dozen orc women in the upper ranks of Skaloth, but this one was only in the roc class. “They’re the Phantom Djinns, a bunch of fledglings.”

“Wait, that group? The one with the angel?” Stonewall asked, his eyebrows rising. At her curious look, the man flushed. “Sorry, but whenever an angelic type shows up, I get all sorts of jokes, so I noticed them early on. Is she really an angel?”

“Vaneryth certainly is. Though she’s somewhat chagrined, as right after I rescued her from slavers, she got exiled back here due to some mistake or another on her part. Dropped her from, oh… eagle or roc tier down to her current level.” Evelyn said, shrugging. “She’s improving, at least. The rest of my crew is either decent at combat or not interested, so they aren’t participating in the arena. I just hope they aren’t causing trouble.”

“Slavers? That’s a story that I’ve got to hear.” Stonewall said, his eyes widening, and Evelyn laughed.

“Maybe once I’m done setting things up, hm?” Evelyn replied, grinning at him, then meandered over to the secretary. Behind her Stonewall sat back down, and Evelyn caught the soft comments from the other people at his table.

“Is that really her? She’s smaller than I thought she’d be.” A half-elven woman said, a note of disbelief in her voice.

“You going to fight her?” a human man asked eagerly, which almost prompted Evelyn to roll her eyes. Fortunately, Stonewall wasn’t stupid.

“I’m not suicidal, you numbskull. I’ve worked my way up the ranks, yeah, but she reached nightmare bird after leaving the planet, and that was before she went and conquered a country. Based on everything I’ve heard, she only got stronger from there. I like having my bones intact, thanks.” Stonewall replied, not bothering to keep his voice down. It made Evelyn smile.

“It’s been a while, Stacey. How are you doing?” Evelyn asked, depositing her token in the middle of the counter.

The brunette dwarf looked at Evelyn for a few seconds, then at the token. It took several more seconds before she sighed, shaking her head as she tapped a few keys. She didn’t need to take it or anything else to access the information, after all.

“I thought I’d seen the last of you, Evelyn. It’s been fifteen years since you left Skaloth, fifteen! You ran off with that scary teacher of yours, and did you come back? No! Your status is inactive, you know that?” Stacey replied, a note of incredulous anger in her voice.

“Of course it is. I haven’t participated in a match in over a decade. If I’d been to a planet with an arena during that period without going into a match, I’d be listed as retired.” Evelyn said, grinning. “Since I’m here, I’ll be damned if I’m going to go out because I didn’t participate in a match. What do you have for me?”

“What do I have for you? What do I have for you?” Stacey demanded, her voice rising slightly. “Your certification is expired! To get you into a match would require you to start at the hawk tier and work your way up, just to make sure your skills are up to standards! That doesn’t even consider what—”

“I believe that we can waive that requirement, Stacey.” A man said from behind Evelyn, his voice smooth and confident. Evelyn’s eyebrows rose, since she knew that voice as well.

She half-turned to look, only to see a human man who didn’t looked like he’d aged a day in the years since she’d last seen him. Probably age-extensions and some precise gene therapy, Evelyn suspected… it was expensive, but humans could live almost two and a half centuries these days, so some of them thought it was worth it.

The man had slicked back brown hair, brown eyes, and a face that would inspire many people to like him, especially with the easygoing smile he bore. He was wearing a stylish suit, and in one hand he was holding the one thing that surprised Evelyn, as the striped, green stick of candy didn’t suit his image at all. She was used to him carrying a cigar.

“Rhett, it’s nice to see that some things haven’t changed… much, anyway.” Evelyn said, looking at the stick of candy pointedly.

“My new wife hates the smell of smoke, and insisted I break my tobacco addiction.” Rhett said, grimacing slightly as he looked down at the candy. “Not pleasant, but at least I was able to scrub the worst of the addiction with a treatment. Sadly, I relapsed once before I realized I needed something to occupy me, so I picked these. Besides, she likes the flavor.”

Evelyn inclined her head, resisting the urge to laugh.

“Be that as it may, we can’t just ignore the rules, Director!” Stacey interjected, the dwarf spreading her arms dramatically. “It could cost us our cross-venue certification!”

“Yes, but if we’re willing to offer Evelyn a waiver, and the other participants agree to accept it, that’s inside the rules. That’s how they allowed Glacier to participate in a special match twenty years after he retired.” Rhett countered, pointing the candy stick at Stacey, which then shifted to point at Evelyn. “If I know you, Evelyn, you’re not planning to stick around long enough to work your way up the ranks fully.”

“I suppose it’s possible…” Stacy said reluctantly, her expression sour enough that it could have curdled milk.

“You’ve got that right. I’m planning on a single match.” Evelyn agreed as she answered Rhett’s question, glancing between the two. “The question is, do you have anyone available who can give me a good run for my money? I went over your contender list online, but I didn’t see anyone in the nightmare bird rankings that’s on planet.”

“That’s the main issue, yes. My biggest problem is that you’re damned destructive, you know that?” Rhett retorted, shaking his head slowly. “I’ve kept track of you over the years. Oh, you were quiet for a while, but do you really think word hasn’t gotten out about your little display with that passenger liner? The footage Nald had leaked within a week of you handing it over. How do you expect anyone to compete against you when you have a spell like that up your sleeve?”

“Please, there’s no way I could use that indoors, or even planetside. It’d annihilate a chunk of the city.” Evelyn scoffed, shaking her head. “I have far more potent spells for personal combat than that. I was trying to destroy the darkborn ooze, not participate in a gladiator match.”

“I also heard something about you burying a starship full of mercenaries under the surface of an ice planet.” Rhett replied, his tone modestly cross. The room had grown quieter, Evelyn thought.

“They irritated me, and I was being paid to deal with them. They were poachers on a draconic protectorate world.” Evelyn said. She thought a couple of the gladiators watching them might need to sit down, they were so pale. “Now, if you wanted something interesting, I had a fight with an insane senne who trifled with wish magic. She threw me through a few walls.”

“Evelyn, you are not—” Rhett began, but Evelyn raised a finger to silence him.

“However, I didn’t come here without a plan, Rhett. I know my own power and the accompanying issues better than anyone, so I have a few concessions to offer.” Evelyn said, raising three fingers and ticking off her points. “First, I’ll agree to not use direct magical attacks unless the opponent brings in a mech, and even then I will keep them to single-target spells. This includes, oh, walls of fire or such. I’m not going to promise not to wield my sword via telekinesis if I feel like it. Second, I won’t use direct magical defenses like shields, since that would render me almost impossible to scratch for most people. I shielded a dryad ship from a pirate assault last week for over ten minutes, so that would be downright unfair. Last, I’m willing to face two or three people from the top five rankings of those on the planet. Personally, I think it’d be fun to face the reigning champion and his runner-up, but I have no idea whether they’d be willing.”

The sound of a pin dropping in the room could have been heard, and Evelyn grinned at the stunned looks on the faces of the people present.

Hopefully her concessions would allow her to get a proper match.