Chapter 156: Hartdom City

POV Cornelius

“So the city ahead of us is Hartdom City. The journey here has taken long enough.” <Cornelius>

“We've been traveling here for over two months. And for the last two weeks, we've seen nothing but this gray-green prairie. Nothing grows here, only this dry grass.” <Ansgar>

Hmm, no wonder. It hardly ever rains here, so it's very dry. It's a complete contrast to the lush grasslands north of here. There are many lakes and rivers over there, but there's nothing like that here. I'm surprised there's no desert here. I'm sure one will form here in the future." <Javier>

“There's only one river here, and Hartdom City is located on it. That's probably why they have few problems with fresh water. The city is too big to exist without access to water.” <Cornelius>

“I'll be glad when I can finally take a bath. And my butt hurts from riding so long.” <Eleonore>

“We're almost there, Eli. Then we'll get something decent to eat again. I can't stand instant food anymore.” <Cornelius>

“And we can see the Colosseum. There are supposed to be various competitions and fights there. I'm really looking forward to that.” <Ansgar>

“Me too. There's also a labyrinth here. It's only supposed to have 20 floors, but it's a welcome change. The next dungeon is either the Earth Dungeon or the Air Dungeon. We have to decide which one we want to go to next.” <Cornelius>

“Hmm, the Earth Dungeon is further south from here. More like southwest. Unfortunately, it's actually desert territory there. Nearby is the academy city of Oasis Rainbow with its magic towers. I'd like to go there and study." <Javier>

“Is that okay? As a member of the church, I'm not welcome there.” <Eleonore>

"Hmm, I think it'll be okay if we get permission beforehand. Unfortunately, I only know that it's possible. I don't know how we can get it." <Javier>

“Then we'd better continue on to the other dungeon. The Air Dungeon is further east of here, also in this large prairie. You can see in the distance that it's becoming hillier. We should ask around in town for more information.” <Cornelius>

“Let's finally ride into town. Your babbling is getting annoying and I'm hungry. And I feel like having a proper drink.” <Ansgar>

“Barbarian.” <Eleonore>

Three hours later, in the middle of town, we approached the Colosseum of Hartdom City. We had checked into a mid-range inn. We didn't want to spend any more money because our reserves were running low. Since we had left the empire, we no longer had any support and had to fend for ourselves.

It was our first visit here. We wanted to watch a few matches. The first two matches today were singles, while the next three were team competitions. The last two were singles again. All the fights here served to entertain the paying spectators. There was also the opportunity to place bets. Many of the participants were also financed by sponsors, which is why they often had better equipment than the others. The pairings for the fights were mostly determined by a ranking list, in which the number of previous victories played the most important role alongside the assessment of strength via the level.

We had gathered some information about the individual participants in advance. Apparently, it was possible for people to be seriously injured or even killed, even though medical care was good. What's more, it was free. I was particularly interested in the team fights. We could all benefit from them as a group. After we had to leave Lightburgh, we hadn't fought anymore. Even on the way there, we hadn't encountered any robbers or monsters.

I then turned my thoughts back to the upcoming battles. One group caught my interest. In the battles so far, there had been a defeat in every match. The group had fought in the Colosseum for almost a year and had returned a few weeks ago after a break when one of there teammates died. This team's reputation was very poor, and today was their first battle.

There were many myths surrounding this team. The first myth was the choice of their name, the Mad Angels. According to rumors, they had little angelic about them, but a lot of madness among their members. The party consisted of a total of five members, all of whom were around 20 years old. The first member, who was also the leader, was The Duke. The Duke was a warrior with very polite manners. According to rumors, he was a former nobleman from the Empire.

The second person was The Bishop. No one knew where the man came from, but he was the group's light magic user and always at the Duke's side. In battle, he seemed to take pleasure in inflicting as much pain as possible on his opponents. In any case, he preferred to shatter bones with his mace. Rumor had it that he was the Duke's lover. He had little that was holy about him and, according to public opinion, was not a member of the Church of Lumos. The Church of Lumos had only a very rudimentary presence here in Hartdom City though, and there were hardly any other cults worth mentioning. Hartdom City was virtually religion-free.

The third person was Charming Betty. Betty was a beautiful catwoman and a former prostitute from Hartdom City. Since we were in the allied city-states of the south, there was no slavery, so she was not a slave. While the first two members of the party were considered relatively normal, Betty was the first to be considered crazy in public opinion. She allegedly castrated every man she became intimate with. Men who clearly made sexual advances toward her or even tried to buy her for sex were said to be attacked in their rooms at night and robbed of their manhood.

Even less was known about the last two people. The fourth person was The Silent. No one even knew if this person was male or female. Supposedly, The Silent never spoke a word and communicated only with gestures. Furthermore, The Silent never took part in the competitions in the Colosseum. They were also not registered as a mercenary in the guild. Otherwise, much more would have been known about them. Exactly, mercenaries. In Hartdom City, there were no adventurers, only mercenaries. From what we heard, however, it was just another name for the same activities. I don't care.

Then there was one more person in the party. This person was new to the group, so no one knew who they were. Therefore, there was no information about them.

The first competition took place in the late morning. You could buy tickets for any number of competitions. We had day tickets for all the competitions, even though Eli had to be persuaded before each fight. Her aversion to fighting grew stronger each time. We had to get this problem under control.

In the first match, a fighter with a trident and a fighter with a sword competed against each other. Although the female fighter had better stats according to Javier, her opponent won. He managed to bind her sword with his trident and then disarm her. She then gave up because she couldn't get her weapon back.

The second match went on much longer. Here, a mage competed against an archer. Since both fighters relied exclusively on ranged attacks, this duel was all about who could land the first effective hit. Normally, the mage should have had the advantage as long as he could fend off the arrows. With his area spells, an archer would normally have difficulty dodging all attacks. Only when the mage ran out of MP did the archer gain the upper hand. In such a duel, a mage usually won quickly and an archer won the longer the fight lasted. This was also the case here. The archer was able to dodge the spells well enough without suffering too much damage. Then he hit the mage in the leg with an arrow, causing him to fall to the ground and give up.

After a short break, the first team battle began. Both teams were well positioned and, according to Javier, roughly equal in strength, so they fought a balanced battle. Unfortunately, their tactics weren't very advanced, so we couldn't learn anything from them. But they were good at teamwork. Fortunately, we were quite good at that ourselves by then.

Then the battle I had been waiting for began. The odds were clearly against the Mad Angels, but I was still curious to see how such an unbalanced group would perform. First, the members of the other party entered the arena. They consisted of two warriors, a scout, and a mage, and called themselves Lightning Fury. I was curious to see if they would live up to their grandiose name.

“Javier, what's the situation with the four of them?” <Cornelius>

“Hmm, they're all experienced fighters. The scout and one of the two warriors even have advanced classes. Their levels are between 36, 37, 42, and 44. We'd probably have trouble defeating them unscathed if we underestimated them.” <Javier>

“They're very similar to us in terms of equipment. One warrior carries a spear with his chain mail armor and the other a sword and shield. The scout has a bow and the mage is just a nerd with his staff. They don't look very dangerous.” <Ansgar>

“Why do I have to be here, Corni?” <Eleonore>

“Calm down, Eli. We're here to learn and have fun before we move on to the labyrinth and train there.” <Cornelius>

“Pff. I'd rather spend time alone with you.” <Eleonore>

“What classes have the two of them improved?” <Cornelius>

"Hmm, the scout is a hunter. His highest skills are archery and monster taming. He also has advanced water magic, so he's probably the healer of the group. The warrior is a lancer. As far as I know, this allows him to partially ignore the enemy's armor protection when fighting with a spear weapon. The other warrior is nothing special, and his magic specializes in lightning magic. He probably uses stun spells." <Javier>

"That puts them in a really good position. Let's see what the others have to offer." <Cornelius>

Then the others entered the arena. Leading the way was a tall man wearing expensive clothing instead of armor. He carried a rapier and a buckler. That had to be The Duke. Behind him came a burly man in leather armor. He carried a large mace. That had to be The Bishop. Next came a very attractive catwoman in tight leather clothing that barely covered anything. She carried no visible weapons. Bringing up the rear was a tall, slender figure in a robe. I had the feeling that it was a woman. She had pulled her hood very low over her face. If she really was a woman, at over 180 cm tall, she was unusually tall for a woman. Maybe I was wrong and it was a man after all, but the way she walked made me think it was a woman. She wasn't carrying any visible weapons either, but she could easily have had smaller weapons hidden under her clothes. I was curious to see what Javier would come up with.