Chapter 29: Freak Encounter 7
While Lance, Freakshow and the other warriors of the arena were preparing to sleep, Scorpio was on his way to the Landlords office, with the intent of reporting what he had witnessed.
As he walked up the stairs leading to the Landlords office, Scorpio could hear his heartbeat get stronger, sensing that what he was about to do, was going to change the destiny of not only the arena, but the entire city.
Without knocking, Scorpio slammed the door open taking the Landlord by surprise, as he was studying some wanted posters. Placing the posters down, the Landlord demanded an explanation for his sudden entrance.
Scorpio began explaining as calmly as possible what he saw in the balcony, what he experienced in his fight with Lance, and what he thought he would do next. In all this time, the Landlord listened carefully, but he seemed distracted by a particular wanted poster, with a very large sum of money as reward.
“Is that true, Scorpio?” The Landlord asked, as Scorpio finished talking.
“Yes!”
“This makes things very profitable for me.” The Landlord said with a devilish smile.
“Are you going to allow the fight between Lance and Freakshow?” Scorpio asked innocently.
“You fool, what good would losing our champion Freakshow do us?” The Landlord yelled.
“Why would you say Freakshow would lose!?” Scorpio asked, enraged by how convinced the Landlord was of that fact.
“I can say it without a doubt because of this!” The Landlord handed the poster to Scorpio, revealing to him Lance’s true identity and at the same time making Scorpios knees buckle from utter fear.
“I…I fought against such a monster…and I lived?” Dumbfounded Scorpio could do nothing but stare at the picture.
“What are you planning to do?” Scorpio asked him with a very worried voice.
“To take down such a monster, we will need a monster of our own, and I have just what I need to summon it.” Smiling devilishly, the Landlord left the room in order to prepare for the upcoming event, leaving Scorpio behind.
The night passed quickly, and the first rays of sun touched the tainted ground of the arena. Not long after that, people who had nothing better to do, or who were homeless were already occupying the seats.
This made Lance curious, and in the mess hall where all of the fighters gathered to eat, he began questioning several things that were on his mind.
“How long have you been in this arena?” Lance asked a fairly old looking man, with scars on his face in the shape bite wounds from a large animal.
“10 years.” The man answered shortly.
“Good. How does the Landlord make a profit if he doesn’t tax those that enter the arena?” Lance asked, expecting another short and simple answer, but instead the man stood silent.
“…”
“Hey, I asked you a question, it’s awfully rude not to answer.” Lance said with a threatening tone.
“It’s obvious you are not from around here, otherwise you would have known that the Landlord already owns every piece of property in the city.” The man said with sadness in his voice as he sighed.
“What? He bought everything?” Lance was getting even more confused, as he continued to ask questions.
“You really want to know this city’s past?” The man with bite scars asked.
“...” Lance nodded in agreement.
“Okay then, I will make it short.” After finishing the remainder of his drink, he began talking of a past not many remembered.
“Ten years ago, our city had barely any visitors, but we didn’t mind, we were mostly families of farmers and we could sustain our way of life.” The man said as he placed a few nuts on the table.
“But all of a sudden, without any warning, masses upon masses of crop eating mice and other vermin began devastating our fields.” The man said while slamming his fist, crushing the nuts beneath.
“We thought it was just a freak occurrence and that next year, our crops would be safe. We were still hopeful since we already had enough food reserves to last us through winter.” The man said as he gathered the nut fragments into small piles.
“A month after that freak occurrence, we were attacked by numerous mythical beasts, which were not indigenous to our area. At that point, we had no doubt that somebody was trying to corner us into submission with these attacks, thus we organized a hunting party of more than 100 men.”
“We followed the tracks left by the mystical beasts back to a secluded clearing in one of the least explored forests, and just as we were planning to capture the man that we observed for a few days…” The man with scars stopped, in order to control the shaking of his arm that was filled with regret and resentment.
“…we fell right into his trap. The beasts ambushed us, killed some and wounded the rest. The attacks seemed almost theatrical with no real killing intent behind them.” The man said while caressing some of his scars.
“The man that set that ambush, is the current Landlord. In exchange for our “temporary freedom”, we were given the “duty” and “honor” of informing the people that the culprit was killed.” At this point the man could hardly speak without hiding his hatred.
“Left with no choice, we traveled back to the city to tell them of our “heroic” endeavor. By the time we finally got back, we were shocked to find the people happy and in a rush to build something massive at the outskirts of the city.” The man said while looking all around him, forcing Lance to also look around.
“After informing them of our triumph, we learned that the people were given enough food to last them through winter, but in return they had to pay off their debt to this benefactor by constructing a massive arena.”
“We were powerless against his might and we didn’t even get the chance to warn the people. Once the arena was completed, we were forced to volunteer as the first of the gladiators.”
“Once we became gladiators, we lost all contact with our loved ones. While we shed our blood inside the arena, the situation outside worsened with failing crops and unexplained fires which burned the food down to a crisp.” Wanting to crush something in his hands he grabbed Lance’s pie and squeezed the death out of it, before giving it’s remnants back to Lance.
“Again our benefactor, was there to help, saving the people from famine another year. With each passing year, the people became more and more dependent on the Landlords charities.”
“Before they could react to the tyranny caused by a single man, it was too late. Killing him now would only result in a massive amount of losses for our people, maybe even the demise of our once modest city.”
“So I beg of you, whatever you do, don’t cause trouble for us.” The man said with a pleading voice.
“…” Without uttering a word Lance got up and left the man with the scars behind, and headed for the nearest exit.
Just as he got outside the arena, he noticed a poster with the Landlord on it. Wanting to release his anger he punched it as hard as he could, leaving behind a crater in the wall.
“I guess I won’t be satisfied until I punch the real life thing in the face.” Lance said with anger seething from his eyes.
