Rise of the Living Forge

Eleven stared at the arena floor as the Menagerie’s team walked off, her eyes wide. She drew in a breath, not even realizing that she’d been holding it, and leaned back in her seat as she ran a hand across the side of her face.

The private viewing room that One had rented for her as an apology for sending her on yet another mission proved to be useful in keeping anyone else from seeing the surprise in her features.

She’d thought she had a pretty good grasp over the Menagerie as a whole. Granted, she really hadn’t spent that much time observing them, but the members of a guild usually ended up being fairly similar to their guild leader in mannerism.

Not counting us. Setting Sun is different in all the wrong ways. Gods, this guild is such a pain in the ass.

But even Eleven’s internal complaints couldn’t keep her distracted for long. She could barely tear her eyes away from the woman that had just executed all three of her opponents one after the other.

And not just that. Even from where she sat below the stands, Eleven could feel the bloodlust that came from the woman’s wooden arm. It was like the heart of a furious demon had been sealed within that wood.

The smith made that thing? That’s more than just a replacement for an arm. It’s got will. What kind of fucking nutjob creates an arm that wants to kill people that badly? And the girl clearly wasn’t even pushed to her limits. She killed each opponent in a single blow… so just how much is she capable of when going all out?

Eleven swallowed and squinted at the young woman as she walked off the stage alongside her two allies. Both of them were suspicious as well — the bandages covering the man’s features were clearly hiding something important — but Eleven was used to that. There were always people with things to hide. Few of those things ever ended up mattering.

But the girl with the wooden arm might have been something different. It was only the faintest of chances, but even if it was nothing more than the fart of a fly, Eleven couldn’t dismiss it.

And if she did, unless Eleven wanted to completely let One down, she had no choice but to investigate.

“What a pain in the ass,” Eleven muttered. “I was only supposed to be here to observe the new potential recruits and see if they can get their classes Sunsetted. There wasn’t supposed to be someone here that already had

Life did not respond.

Eleven pushed herself up from her chair with a slew of poorly suppressed curses. She wasn’t even sure how she was meant to investigate this. Her specialty was spying. Not interrogating. It wasn’t like she could just walk up to the Menagerie’s team and ask if their classes were Sunsetted.

Pain in the ass. Ugh. Maybe I should just wait to see her next fight, right? That would give me more context. It would also mean I can just sit here and do nothing while I wait to see our potential recruits stumble around and pretend like they know what they’re doing.

Eleven hesitated for a few more seconds. Then she flopped back down in her chair. When life gave her an option between doing something and doing nothing, especially when they would achieve the same result, she would always go with the latter.

But if that girl really does have a Sunsetted class… I’m going to have to bring her to One.

***

“That was… something,” Art said as he watched Olive’s group walk back to their waiting room.

“Brutal,” Vix muttered. “I never thought that would be Olive’s fighting style. I mean, Id didn’t know her that well, but I always thought she was kind of just a relaxed warrior. That was brutal.”

Art rifled through the deck of cards in his hands. He’d studied every member of the Menagerie fairly extensively, but the cards hadn’t said anything about this.

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“Don’t get any delusions about Olive’s strength. She’s probably the one with the highest offensive power in their entire guild,” Art said. He hesitated for a moment. “Bar Arwin. I don’t actually know how strong he is. But Olive is incredibly strong in the right situation. It’s that arm of hers that I’m more concerned about.”

“Could you feel it?” Kien asked, turning to glance back at Art.

In the distance, Kraven called up two more teams. Neither of them were of any interest to Art, so he paid the announcer little attention. All that mattered was what they were capable of — and he would only see that when the fight officially started. Ɽ𝘼ＮΟ𝐛Εs̈

“Feel what?” Art asked.

“Her arm,” Kien replied. “The bloodlust that came from it.”

Art blinked. “Bloodlust? No. I meant that Arwin made her arm, and I don’t know the full extent of what he can do. He’s a complete anomaly and I’d be a fool to assume his gear would be any different. I mean, our own armor is ridiculously strong and he made it in a day. Imagine what he can do when he’s working for his own guild’s team and has more time. But what’s this about bloodlust?”

“Her arm is like a separate entity,” Kien said, turning back to the arena — but not before Art spotted a contemplative frown on his features. “When you spend enough time fighting, you eventually start to recognize it. Things that take delight in slaughter have a certain feeling to them. Her arm was normal up until she killed the first assassin. And then it changed.”

“To what?” Vix asked.

“Not a physical change. It was more like it woke up,” Kien said quietly. “We should be glad to avoid fighting her, I think. I would not care to pit myself against such an object with just two people as backup.”

Vix crossed her arms in front of her chest. “I’m not taking offense to that, but ‘just two people’ is looking down on us a bit, don’t you think? We aren’t half bad.”

“It has nothing to do with your abilities,” Kien said.

“What would you bring, then?” Art asked. He was starting to wonder if Olive had somehow tricked his information-gathering abilities. It wouldn’t be the first time that Arwin’s guild had pulled the wool over his eyes… and Kien seemed to know what he was talking about. “If you were to try to fight against Olive.”

Kien leveled a flat gaze at Art. “An army.”

***

Arwin and Reya stared down at the arena in silence. Two new teams had already taken their spots up on it and started to fight, but their battle barely even registered to either of them.

“Was that really Olive?” Reya asked, finally peeling her eyes away from the arena to turn to Arwin. “I’ve never seen her act like that before.”@@novelbin@@

Arwin nodded after a moment of hesitation. The arm he’d made her did have the ability to take over her body in the right circumstances, but he was pretty sure that hadn’t happened until the end of the fight, where something had definitely changed in her demeanor for a brief instant.

Olive had killed the first two assassins entirely under her own desires. That wasn’t to say it hadn’t been the right move. They’d definitely been going for the kill on Maeve. The Secret Eye had only said to attempt to avoid killing, not that it was banned. This was well within the rules that they’d set for their own tournament.

He truthfully couldn’t have given a shit less about the dead assassins. Arwin didn’t think much of the Falling Blades. They were just a group of murderers for hire. The dead assassins could rot.

I’m a lot more worried about Olive herself. Being forced to kill isn’t something that weighs easily on the soul, even if it was to defend an ally. I hope she’s okay.

Arwin caught a glimpse of the furrowed look on Reya’s features and blew out a small sigh.

“It was necessary, and we know who they were. Those were the same bastards that went after Melissa. Don’t think any differently of Olive because of what she had to do.”

“She just ran some dude who had already lost straight through the head,” Reya said, swallowing heavily. “Do you think she’s okay? She probably wants something to eat to get her mind off things, right? That must have taken a lot of mental energy.”

“Sometimes, that’s just what has to be — wait.” Arwin blinked. Reya didn’t care in the slightest about the brutal executions they’d just seen. She was worried that Olive was hungry.

I guess it’s easy to forget that Reya isn’t just some kid. She might not have grown up in the hell that I did, but she’s still walked with death for most of her life. I can’t believe I’m thinking this, but that’s a relief. It would have been unfortunate if this impacted her view of Olive. They suit each other well.

“What?” Reya asked, squinting at Arwin. “Why are you staring at me like that?”

“Nothing,” Arwin said with a shake of his head. “And yes, she’s probably hungry. I’m sure she’d appreciate if you swung by to check up on her and brought some snacks for her group along with you. You want to do that now, before they get called up for their next fight?”

“Yeah!” Reya gave him an energetic nod and hopped up from her chair, darting out of the room.

Arwin turned his gaze back to the fight unfolding on the arena floor, a finger tapping against his chin in thought.

Olive had definitely gotten pretty strong. The Falling Blades weren’t exactly pushovers. He couldn’t wait to tell Melissa just how badly the Kererus Coalition’s team had gotten crushed. But more importantly… they hadn’t even scratched her armor.

A part of me hopes nobody will. I’d much rather not see things get to the point where the full power of her armor gets activated. But if it does… I just hope the team that manages it is one of our enemies, because Olive is going to add more kills to her name.