Galactic Gladiatorial Games

Ow, what? She didn’t want the jewels, anyway? Way to go, Mura; you better grab that purse before some random thug snatches it under your nose. If anything, it came as a surprise; Beira proved supporting to the benefit of the doubt, not as ‘thug-like’ as he previously interpreted her to be from their short interaction together. Apparently, she sounded far more formal than he assumed any person hanging out in Shinku would. And she even, somewhat, forgave Kyuken’s transgression… or sorta just gave up on following up on that annoyance, since Kyuken was intangible by normal means. A slight part in Mura wanted Kyuken to pay for his actions, but alas, nothing that could be done about that.

She was also quick to make her leave… oh, wait, he- wait, what was her name, again? He never even got her name! What the hell?!

Well, that was awkward… but hey, at least he could go back to the prison cage now. He should go and convey the good news to the other prisoners about the death of the tall alien which had engulfed the life of calamari, as well as the fate of the cloaked creature who was but ash blown away by gust. They would likely be joyous to hear that they could go free now… which begged the question; how was he going to prevent this whole business from rising again? And how was he going to prevent some of the prisoners from committing the same mistakes?

He thought about this as he walked back into the prison cells, where silence slowly took over after the roars outside died out with people leaving since the two hosts never returned to bring them more entertainment. Mura clapped his hands once as the prison bars melted cartoonishly along with the handcuffs that each prisoner carried. Some of them had the same devices that Beira had, which Mura quickly removed himself.

“The tall alien and the Cloaked wizard are both dead. Now, follow me,” he informed them while opening a way to a tunnel through the wall that led to outside. It carved out perfectly, no less thanks to his magic.

He would merely lead them all outside, where they would arrive at the portal. They could either go back and roam Shinku for longer, or they could dip into the portal and explore new worlds… and Mura made sure to tell them that verbally.

WC: 405
TWC: 7623 + 405 = 8028

The raid on whatever passed off as a treasury was to Beira's satisfaction, even as she exited the subterranean coliseum and sprinted across the barren wastes of Shinku, bearing a number of miscellaneous items of expensive value. The guards who had been assigned to the keeping of these wares had given chase angrily, and Beira had only run away for no other reason than to look for trouble. As matters stood, she could have easily stood her ground and slain anyone that dared approach her, but this was more fun... even if for the moment she was not acting dignified.

After a bit of cat and mouse, Beira saw the Shinku portals up ahead, with a number of creatures heading towards it. Apparently those were the prisoners of the arena whom the Wizard Saint had freed. As she ran up, still being chased by the guards, though there was a great distance between herself and them, the God Slayer could hear Mura informing the group that they were free to go where they willed. "Are you fellows still here?" she asked, feigning surprise. "I was thinking you'd all be screaming and trampling each other just to get out of here." She laughed at the surprised expressions on their faces, even as the other human who had been with her in the arena prison voiced the general thoughts of the escapees.

"You? But we thought-- how did you survive Stonehand?"

Beira scoffed. "That lump of dirt? I'm insulted you actually thought it would be a match for me. But then--" at this point, she turned to Mura. "This is for you; think of it as a consolation prize," she said, shoving a golden object into his hands. It was shaped like some ceremonial baton, and had one or two gems studded in it. Of course, the general question would be, 'consolation prize for what?' The answer came as a shout, "stop, thief!" rang out from the guards who had pursued Beira from the arena. "Could that possibly be you they're talking about?" the God Slayer asked, before, giggling like a schoolgirl, she jumped through the portals and was gone from that world.


WC: 361 words
Total Personal WC: 11562/...

Mura watched the portal being entered by a couple of men who were more on a hurry than the rest - which begged the question, why were the rest waiting for so long? What did the wait for? Just go in, already - Mura had gone through quite the hassle to get them out, so at the very least, if they wanted to stay here, then they could just voice their wishes… maybe he had made the atmosphere awkward for them. “Hey, guys, c’mon - the portal’s not gonna close anytime soon…” Mura reassured them, “Do I have to kick you through or something-“

Once he turned back to see what they were all about, he spotted her again. A surprised look on Beira’s face who had joined up with them did cause an alarm to ring, but all he could do was have a drop of sweat trickle down his face.

One of the humans among the prisoners had no doubt that she would have gotten killed by this Stonehand person, to which she shrugged it off. Mura expected not many people in Shinku to be able to square up to a God Slayer…

“Pretty sure God Slayer Magic triumphs anything you find here, dude…” he informed the dude with ragged cloaks, before suddenly having a golden baton in his hands from Beira. A consolation prize? For what, exactly? What had he-

“Stop, thief!”

His face contorted into black and white, his eyes dead and in disbelief. She was trying to set him up! That little- where’d she go?! Where was she?!

That giggle was the last thing he heard from her… darn her! She jumped through the darn portal! He had no idea where she would be, now! Oh shit, he couldn’t be carrying this thing around - at the same time, the guards were probably easy to reason with… but then, he remembered that he was in Shinky and he had just saved an entire group of prisoners from an underground gladiatorship. There wasn’t much to look up to here, man.

“… EVERYONE, GET THROUGH THE PORTAL NOW!” he shouted at them, rising the earth up with his magic and folding the surface to push them all through the portal at once. The portal would lead them to the world between worlds where the Wakusei Portals were, and from that point on, they were free - the portals were often random, teleporting people into cities or into the wild, but at long as they clung to each other, then they would be fine.

…

…

So when Mura returned to Capital Crocus, he was actually accompanied by all of them… it was quite a spectacle, seeing them all stacked up on top of each other.

WC: 458
TWC: 8486

Thread TWC: 20048 <-- 10-Year Job WC reached!