Fairy Tail: Swallow the Fire

38. Blood

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Hargeon Port City.

It was a popular trade centre for the country of Fiore with thriving fishing, produce, culinary, and magic artifice markets.

Although many won't say it, one of the main contributions to the bustling commerce was the illegal dealings sponsored by many pirate and navy guilds.

Not all of these dealings occur inside rundown buildings, some take place inside well-furnished hotels and offices, others hidden in plain sight, and a fairly popular one doesn't involve the art of trade in any way.

In fact, it is often used as a front for more illegal operations than it.

Underneath the Silent Sirens tavern, you could find an arena almost always filled with VIPs in booths, the average citizens in the rafters and stage-side stands, and the fighters themselves sprinkled within every corner of the illegal fighting ring.

Within the centre of everything was a crude rectangular stage that turned into an angle on both sides with a flat middle. Blood, dried and fresh, could be seen splattered across the formerly white stage that had been stained with dirt.

On that stage, a young girl with white hair and a black dog mask could be seen sitting on a grown man's back. Pain could be seen evidently in his eyes through the mummy bandages he wore as a mask as she pulled his arms further and further behind him, however, no one was going to help him.

"Come on~! Scream for mercy~!"

"Please just let me go!"

"Ooooh~! That's the stuff~!"

While the man was in pain, the girl and the crowd were all clearly enjoying themselves at his expense. Half of them had bet on the man whose biceps were as big as her head and who stood twice as tall as she did, while the other half bet on the pre-teen girl purely for the sake of a joke but are now expecting a heavy payday.

The referee seeing that the man wasn't going to win decided to end the fight formally, going over to the girl and raising her arm above her head.

"The winner is the newcomer, The Devil Dog!"

Cheers erupted and were equally met with outrage, however, the girl didn't care in the slightest as she enjoyed the feeling of kicking the man while he was still down. The girl with the monicker of Devil Dog had to be forcefully escorted out of the stage as the other fighter was left to limp to safety, his fate unknown, though I don't doubt he might catch a blade in between the ribs later.

This was, after all, a fully-fledged blood sport.

The girl with the dog mask sat down excitedly in the seat across from me in our private booth, which sat in the rafters, giving me a view from over the arena. She hurriedly took off the disguise to reveal an excited smile.

"Oh, Lyssa! You should have shown me this place sooner! Getting grown men to cry so easily is the best Christmas gift ever! And I get paid for it!"

"Ehe~ Well, you only had your second fight. Get some notoriety and people will want to see you eat dirt and pay a heavy price for it. Rig the fight and you can get their money and win as well. And trust me, cheating is encouraged here."

"I can imagine."

"So, tell me how you lost in the promotion trials? Who was the winner?"

"There wasn't one," Mirajane said, "But that doesn't mean I lost. None of us proved adequate in the trial, and so instead of allowing someone like me or Erza or Cana to get ourselves killed, he declared no one the winner.."