Emperors War 36 Becoming Home

As the twenty-five ravenous and hungry Kulga came running out of the gate One Eye couldn't help but shake.

After he was removed from the luxury box, he was taken down below into The Pit and not thrown in a cell, but instead into a hole. The hole was 4 meters deep and One Eye was simply tossed in as if though someone was throwing away junk.

One Eye laid at the bottom of the hole blood still flowing from his calves staring into the sky wide awake no different than a frog. The poison they had used on him would keep his mind completely aware of what was happening but would slow down his motor functions. In essence it became incredibly difficult to move his limbs almost to the point of impossible. The poison was especially evil and known as Timeless. Timeless worked by slowing down the victim's mind at a rate of 3,600 to 1 or for every second that passes to the victim the mind feels an hour.

As One Eye saw the Kulga come out of the gate he screamed and tried to move but he wasn't capable of standing up. He watched as the Kulga slowly approached him over the course of several hours his body shaking and a cold sweat running down his back as he was building up anticipation of the moment they reached him.

Slowly the Kulga's visage became larger as they got closer and closer. His throat was beginning to hurt and he was losing his voice as he screamed and called out for forgiveness. He begged to anyone who would listen that he be given just one more chance. Somewhere in the far of distance he heard the mockery of a crowd and the laughter of mockery.

Closer....closer.... the teeth of the twenty-five Kulga drew closer to him, at this point he could clearly see his reflection in the eye of one of the Kulga. A couple of them aimed for his legs. Another three aimed for his torso, while the biggest one aimed for his face. Through his blurry tear-filled eyes, he could see the excitement of the Kulga who was about to satisfy its starvation.

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As Sneed and Fastagio sat in the luxury box watching the Kulga approach One Eye there was no compassion or care in their conversation.

"Looks like I'll be keeping that single franar." Fastagio jokingly fired off to Sneed.

With a slight laugh and with a cruel expression Sneed responded "Yep, looks like that One Eye let me down, well you win some and you lose some as the ancient saying goes by falling, we learn to go safely, this can only count as my lesson..."

Neither Sneed nor Fastagio gave One Eye another thought as the Kulga had a brutal skirmish over their meal each nipping and biting at one another while trying to lay claim to as much as possible.

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Aker who had no idea any of this was happening was sound asleep in his cell after a grueling back to back fight. He had a long day of training and put his full effort into fighting the Kulga One on One at the end.

The decision in the second fight to charge directly at the primary Kulga came after careful consideration of his options. As he was standing in the middle of the arena breathing heavily and sucking in air as fast as his lungs would allow, it took everything he had not to lose his calm.

There was a point as he watched the Kulga coming out of the gate that he almost panicked but it was then as he watched them that the thought occurred to him.... 'what if he was to take out the primary Kulga swiftly in a savage and harsh way. Would that be enough to deter the other Kulga?'

To an observer it may have seemed like a reckless and foolish plan but only Aker knew he was already at his bodies limit. Surely he could have ended his fight against the batch of Kulga quickly and fought the second batch with his same hit and run approach if he would have known about the second battle. Not knowing about the second battle led to a scenario wherein he was left exhausted due to his own lack of foresite and planning.

An important lesson was learned, if possible, leave enough for the unexpected. Sure, sometimes life doesn't allow you to hold back but at least in his last two fights he pushed himself to the edge when he didn't need to go that far. He could still train and leave enough for their sly and crafty planning.

Thankfully his plan had succeeded and he was now sleeping back on his beast blood stain in his cell.

Outside of his cell Vance had come for the third time to check on Aker and make sure he was doing fine. When he had come out of the arena, Aker seemed to be a little shaken despite the brave front he was putting on for the crowd. For Aker who wished nothing but misery and revenge on all of those who had put him here and wished him harm, letting them see him in a scared and defeated state would be detrimental to his mentality. As such it was imperative that Aker maintained that prodigious manner out there in front of the crowd so that those who were against him would be miserable, sorrowful and desolate. If he could make them cry, make them heartbroken nothing would make Aker happier. So giving them the satisfaction of seeing him scared, shaken or anything of the like was not something Aker was willing to do. He had already resolved himself that even if he was facing imminent death, he would not give them the satisfaction of feeling relaxed before he died, he would make them hold their breath in misery until the last second of his life.

Waking up and not seeing Vance Aker began his knife practice going through his different sets. As always Vance showed up while Aker was through roughly fifty sets.

Leaving his cell Aker went to the Medic area where he sat and studied. Doctor Life & Death came over while Aker was studying and told him the best way to learn was "to do" and so beginning today Aker would spend one hour in study and two hours in actual practice taking care of patients.

After leaving the medic area Aker would head over to the blacksmith forge where Mavis would have him swing a hammer and examine the fire as well as yell at him to swing with his heart. Aker's hammer was now up to 160 ounces and he was swinging it 10,000 times a day.

His accuracy would improve slightly each day as he swung the hammer but his temper wouldn't get any better when working with Teacher Mavis. Aker really enjoyed working with medicine and in the kitchen but the forge just irritated him. He figured it wasn't blacksmithing that he didn't enjoy but the way that Mavis was teaching him. He hated the question "What do you see in the fire?"

After Aker would finish his 10,000 swings, he would put his hammer back in the corner, grab his towel cleaning up and head for the exit. Just as Aker would head to the exit Vance would show up as if though he could see through the walls and knew that Aker was ready to go.

Aker stepping through the door would turn his head back and yell out "Thank you Teacher Mavis" before walking out. Hearing Akers words Mavis would turn beet red and rather than yell back at the boy he would pick up his hammer and begin taking his frustration out on the metal ingot.

Leaving the forge and heading over to the kitchen Vance asked him how his training inside the forge went and as always Aker responded back that Teacher Mavis asked him stupid questions. Each time Vance heard Aker speak like this he wanted to smack him over the back of the head but Aker was developing a sixth sense. Aker would take off running or change the subject each time Vance would prepare, leaving Vance feeling like this disciple of his was to mischievous.

Entering the kitchen Aker practiced by first sharpening his knifes and getting his cooking area clean. He would sift through the waste looking for the ingredients he wanted to practice cutting on. Recently Aker had been practicing some flavoring he was learning by watching the flavoring station work. He had seen how they grounded down and mixed herbs creating different kinds of flavors. Sometimes the flavors were so explosive and overpowering that the aroma would even reach over to the reject station and the wonderful smell would do battle with the waste pile. On those days Aker enjoyed taking in the battle of aromas and trying to figure out how these disciples were able to concoct such a powerful fighter.

After Aker got his first whiff of the tantalizing aroma from the flavoring station he was hooked on developing his skills. He would intently watch and study the disciples working in the station to learn how they prepared and drew out the most eruptive flavors.

Aker would practice cutting up and grinding down different ingredients throwing them together and learning how they interacted with one another. Sometimes he would create flavors and smells that would offend the dead and other times he would stumble upon flavors that would cause a seasoned warrior to beg for more. All in all, every single day inside the kitchen was thrilling for Aker as he was able to discover new and exciting ways of bringing new life to food.

As Aker literally had a mountain of waste to pick through there was never a shortage of exotic food for Aker to try and there was never a shortage of ingredients for him to practice with allowing him to create dozens of new and different combinations daily. Several times every hour disciples would throw failed food into the waste pile. Aker would recover the failed grub and try and recreate it using the ingredients available to him in the waste pile. For better or worse, due to the way that Aker was learning how to cook he was developing a rather unorthodox style of food preparation and food combination. It could be said that his skills in cutting, dicing, mincing, frying and sautéing were growing at an unbelievably rapid pace. While still just barely a beginner when it came to cooking his breath of knowledge was doubling and tripling daily.

Somewhere in between medic training, blacksmithing and cooking Aker would have to go fight in The Pit arena. He was quickly becoming a crowd favorite as more and more people began betting on him. Each day he would have to fight several more Kulga and each time he would beat them into submission.

As such Aker was beginning to find an everyday life in The Pit. For most people The Pit was a nightmare or a place straight out of Hell but for Aker it was becoming home.

Chapter end