GLADIATOR | ELYSIUM RISING 1 ✔️

⍢ | 10

"Where'd you go last night?"

Iggy stopped midchew to raise his brows at Tenn. Blue-tinted milk dripped from his lips as he swallowed the cereal in his mouth. No one saw him leave last night, not even the old man. No one saw him return either. Or so he thought.

"I didn't go anywhere."

"Don't bullshit me, Iggorii."

He cringed at the use of his full name. No one called him by that except for his mother—and when she did, it usually meant he'd done something wrong. Stuffing his face with another spoonful of sugary cereal, he pretended to not hear the Andradan.

"I know you can hear me," Tenn pressed.

Iggy groaned. "Fine." Rolling his eyes, he lowered his voice. "Well, you told me to 'gain the upper hand, so that's what I tried to do." The old man squinted speculatively at him. "I snuck out. Did some exploring. Not the greatest of ideas, but I did manage to find out something...something pretty big."

Tenn's eyes widened. "Go on..."

He looked around. No one else sat at their small table in the corner of the arena's cafeteria, but one could never tell whose ears were listening. At the moment, all the other tributes were too busy eating breakfast and the guards stationed near the door couldn't hear them if they whispered. It was best if he kept the little bit of inside information he knew under wraps until the games officially started. Vonn already wanted to kill him. He didn't need the other tributes or any guards getting on his case for being a cheater.

Peering at Tenn, he leaned over his bowl of cereal. "The first challenge...it's a race."

"A race? What kind of race?"

"Er, I don't know."

Tenn's lips puckered into a tight frown. "You don't know?"

"I overheard some guards talking about it last night. They didn't mention anything else outside of it being a race."

"That doesn't exactly give you an advantage, boy."

"Yeah, well, no one else knows it's a race."

"That could be true."

He rolled his eyes. "Look, I tried, okay? Cut me some slack." Tenn chuckled before taking a sip of water out of the metal tin near his hand. "Besides, I didn't have to tell you." He hadn't even told the old man everything that happened last night. The stranger's blue eyes and chiseled face stood out like Neon City's skyscrapers in his mind.

Who the heck was that?

A crude snort from Tenn scrubbed the question from his head.

"Like hell you didn't have to tell me. I'm likely the the reason you'll survive in here. You owed me that much."

Iggy lifted a brow at him, the corners of his mouth upturned in a slight smile. "So, you actually think I stand a chance at winning."

"I didn't say that."

"You kinda did, though, old man."

The Andradan snorted and looked away. A hint of smile hid beneath his bushy beard. "If you've learned anything from my teachings, then you've got a shot." He took a bite out of the burnt piece of bread on his tray. Munching loudly, he gestured at Iggy's physique. "It's only been a few days, but I see some improvement. You look less like a skeleton now and more like a little boy."

A sneer hijacked Iggy's grin. Still, improvement was improvement. One of the only upsides of leaving Novr included having access to multiple meals a day. With his wage from the mining company, he could never afford to eat more than once. The food on the Chyron and in the arena wasn't great, but it beat what he used to eat back home. Now instead of worrying about starvation, his main worry revolved around his survival in the Elysian Games.