Gino’s room is Dana’s ste room where she keeps many of the non-perishable goods for her restaurant. His bed is a hammock from the ceiling in the er, while his sister’s is just below his own. It’s cramped, sure, but it’s also warm, safe, and surprisingly soundproof. Hopping out of his hammock with practiced ease, Gino takes a quice at the hammock of his sister. Usually, she’d still be sleeping and he’d have to wake her up with how much of a heavy sleeper she is. Now though, the hammock lies empty.

  Stretg and yawning, he opens the door to the sound of versatiohe entrance. Walking past the kit and around the er, Gino stops at the sight of Quasi sitting on a table and Dana mopping blood off the walls.

  “Gdius is a pretty ret city- I’d argue a good couple hundred years old. It was initially settled as a mining town after Copper and iron veins were found ihe cavern- only for the residents to realize that the veins they found were actually all of them. But, by then Gdius came to exist and the nd outside the city was already transformed into sustainable farmnd to support the popution. So Gdius then became a farming city that grew rge enough to have a pce for the wealthy, a pce for the merts, and on for the slums. It was here that the first two gangs known as the Royals and the Gamblers came to be.” Dana expins. She grunts as she puts more pressure to remove a bit of dried blood.

  “The Royals were initially a bunch of rich kids that funted wealth and started paying people in the slums to fight for their eai. Eventually, the Gamblers came along and started betting on the fights. This escated to the point of creating rger and rger rings, eventually creating the colosseums of today. Ohe colosseums were formed, the Warriang came into their own- sisting exclusively of fdiators] too old to fight but too skilled to retire. They became the muscle for the Gamblers and Royals so as to keep everyone in line.”

  “What about the Undercrust? How’d this underground city form?”

  “I was getting to that.” Dana says. She leans away from the wall and then notices Gino.

  “Gino, you’re awake.”

  “Y-yeah. Did something happen? Why is there blood on the wall? Why is Quasi here?”

  “It’s a long story- but the short of it is that I came to see you, but you were asleep. So I slept on the ter, only to be awoken by several mehily breaking their faces on walls until they went unscious. It was a very odd sight. Anyway, I disposed of the bodies and awoke Miss Dana here of the bloody mess. Now she’s regaling me of how Gdius and the Undercrust came to be.”

  Gino blinks for a moment. Then realization hits. “They came for me!”

  Quasi rolls his eyes. “If they did, they wouldn’t have been breaking their faces on the restaurant's walls. Anyway, Dana, please tihe tale.”

  Dana chuckles at Gino’s surprise.

  “With the rise and popurity of the colosseums, Gdius became a hotbed for anyone who wishes to not only watch, but also fight and gamble. Most specifically, it ce where the wealthy [Nobles] came to spend trist. At first, the money from the nobility flowed into the city’s coffers, enrig the city more and more. Unfortunately, this led to a point where too marying to enter into the city- resulting in such gestion that the city’s size couldn’t support. In the end, the city implemented signifit taxes on all gambling, greatly redug the profit margins and redug much of the gestion to something more manageable. Unfortunately, such high taxes resulted in underground gambling located in the cavern. These dens became the first pces for the formation of numerous gangs and where illegal activity started to prosper. Ohe leadership of Gdius, most of which are now the grandsons and granddaughters of the Royals and Gamblers, found out about the underground fighting- they too started to join in. They secretly created fighting rings throughout the cavern, even going so far as to create a colosseum sized o the bottom of the cavern.”

  Dana licks her lips and sits down on a nearby chair. “The rgest gang at the time other than the Royals were known as the Crusts. They sisted of [Gamblers] and [Merts]. They facilitated the trade in trist for all residents as well as created ws. To enforce the ws, they hired fdiators] that, once again, created the Warriang. At some point, the name Undercrust began to stid the city uhe city came to exist.”

  “What about the bck cards?” Quasi asks.

  “Those? It’s to avoid the previous problem of too many people. Instead of making taxes, the Crusts use these bck cards to restrict access to the Undercrust. They provide a certain number of cards to the minangs in exge for the gangs to guard the access points to the Undercrust.”

  Quasi nods and then stands up. “Thanks for the history lesson. I appreciate it.”

  “Is that all you o know?”

  “Oh, I’ve got more questions, but time is of the essehe tour is about to begin and I want to make sure that Gino arrives safely.” Quasi g the kid. “You ready to head out?”

  Gino blinks and then nods.

  “Wait,” Dana quickly stands up. “You both still have time. Let me get you something to eat first.”

  Before Quasi answer, Dana rushes bato the kit.

  Gino walks up to Quasi. “You khis would happen.”

  Quasi shrugs. “Cillian made sevehousand trist from that little fight yesterday- the same one you cheered at. That much money is not something people are willing to walk away from.”

  “Thank you.” Gino says truthfully.

  Daurns with two full bowls of stew. She puts them down oable, both bowls glistening with rge cuts of meat. She then turns to Gino and looks him in the eye.

  Theeps forward and gives the kid a crushing hug.

  “Gino,” She whispers, her throat seemingly hoarse. “I don’t care whether you win or lose. Just don’t die.” She releases him from the hug and wipes a tear from her eye.

  Gino nods slowly as he feels an overwhelmiion in his gut. He’d seen Dana hug Julia, but him? This is a first.

  Swallowing, he nods. “I won’t.”

  A very heartwarming se, ohat clearly isn’t iing enough to pay attention to for a fluffy kitten with a pieeat in his mouth.

  ____________________________________________________________

  Arriving at the Coliseum with Gino, I’m met with numerous long lines of people filtering into the colosseum.

  “Shit. Are we going to have to wait in line?”

  “Just you,” Gino says and points at a singur booth where Boriss waits.

  Gino walks to Boriss who quickly grins when he sees us. “rade Quasi, I vas scared you be te.”

  “Sorry for the wait. I was offered food and I couldn’t it first,” I say to Boriss. “Thanks for waiting though. Where is everyone else?”

  “Inside vaiting for you.”

  I pout. “Why didn’t they wait for me?”

  “rade Cillian says to fly io save money.”

  Oh yea. I do that.

  “Good idea. I’ll head inside now. Both of you, good lud have fun.”

  Gino frowns at me. “You fly?”

  Without answering his question, I transform into a bird and asd into the skies and over the colosseum. Looking down, I find that the colosseum is covered in a hill of sand that’s rger in the ter and smaller at the outskirts. Throughout the arena, numerous ons are strewn about- most of a rusted quality with edges quite blunt. Towards the ter, the ons are ber and of better quality- though only in parison to those found farther from the ter. They still have rust, just not as much with edges that aren't going to fun as blunt objects.

  After assessing the battlefield, I quickly find my crew and desd towards them. Cy is the first to notice me. He opens his arms and I fly into them. Then I covertly transform bato a cat.

  “Fluffy,” Cy squeals. “This is going to be fun.”

  “Yup,” I answer and then pause. “Why are you here? Aren’t you too young?”

  Then I notice that Myers isn’t here. “He doesn’t know, does he?”

  Cy grins with a blush. “I left him a note.”

  I shake my head.

  Myers is going to skin me when he finds out.

  “Welp, what's done is done. Is everyoed for the match?”

  They affirm and nods, though one of roup is far more excited than the rest.

  “Yessss,” hes hisses iement. “This reminds me of the tests of sughter between my sisters- where we race to hunt for the flesh of greater and more dangerous prey until such time we do battle with one another.”

  Of course the crazy warrior-pnt woman would be into this.

  “Quasi,” Cillian voices to my right. “The ter is a trap, isn’t it? The hill isn’t steep enough to allow upper-ground superiority. You’d have a longer on but you’d also be surrounded,” He assesses.

  I nod. “Not just that. The sand’s not firm at all. Running is going to drain your stamina like crazy. Unless you’ve got a hell of a lot of endurance, you’ll be out of breath when you do reach the peak. It’s far better to take it slow and steady.”

  Cillian reaches into his coat arieves a bottle that he opens and takes a swig of. “What do you think Boriss is going to do? Take it slow?”

  I chuckle.

  “Boriss is built different.”

  ______________________________________________________________________

  Entering the holding grounds with Boriss, both are supplied a locked chest where they are directed to strip down until they are only wearing their undergarments. Until the tour is over or you are defeated, your items will be unavaible to you. In the meahe colosseum will provide clothing, nourishment, and a pce to safely rest.

  Once Gino is practically naked, he looks at all the other petitors. Some have a more streamlined skinny build like his own. Others are more muscur. Theices Boriss. The man is wider, taller, and signifitly more muscur than the petition. Hell, Gino ’t help but notice the abnormally rge bulge between Boriss’s feet.

  Boriss notices Gino staring. He waves at him with a smile. Gino waves back, thankful that the big man isn’t directly peting against him.

  Ondressed, a numbered runed colr is ed around each person's neck. His number is oy-eight. The colr will allow onlookers to quickly designate who is who by number alone. His name and number will be public before the tour starts, allowing for st-mis.

  After an hour, he is shuffled to his starting gate. With a max of two-hundred entrances in the current arena, he expects to see fighters starting much closer than he’d like.

  He takes a deep breath as he hears the rumble of a horn and the screams of the crowd. He hear the [Announcer] speak with a magihanced voice. It booms loudly, shaking the stadium and f the crows to die down. The man speaks and makes introdus- nothing that Gino hadn’t heard before. Instead, he takes a stand focuses his breathing.

  Then he waits.

  And waits.

  And waits.

  Finally, the horn is blown. The gate crashes open and he sprints forward.