“Yo.”
Kass jumped. And let out a small squeak. And maybe leaked a tiny bit. She span around in a panic, turning to the nearest shadow, away from where she had heard that voice. She wasn’t armed currently, but that didn’t matter. All Kass needed to get away was a dark shadow. But Kass quickly calmed herself down as she realised she recognised that voice.
“Psiksi!” Kass didn’t mean to snap, but she was a bit wobbly. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
The fourth ever Triumphant Champion, and the only one still alive, shrugged as he leaned against a wall, partly hidden in shadows of his own. While Skyavok rarely considered “Skyan perfection” the same way other races had their perfect specimens, Psiksi would have been a prime example of said “Skyan perfection”. At 2m tall, with heavy, bright green plating and shining, perfect emerald eyes, not to mention how insanely dense and muscular Psiksi was, there was an obvious reason as to why Psiksi was such a renowned gladiator.
“I wanted to check in on my replacement and congratulate her on her 75th win.”
“Oh…” Kass completely deflated. Yes, she had just won her last singles match against a Vrekan gladiator, but it had been incredibly close. Down to the wire, almost, with Kass having to make a hard comeback towards the end. Because of it, she was on edge and incredibly tired.
“It’s alright. You wanna get a drink or something?” Psiksi asked as he wandered closer. “You look like you need a pick-me-up.”
“I think I just want some water…” Kass sighed. “And to get out of this damn armour. The green house fighter gear is fine but I think I’ve put on weight or something and parts of it feel tight.”
“That’s because you probably have put on weight.”
Kass stared at Psiksi. Psiksi remained smiling.
“You know I mean weight from bulking up, not weight from getting fat!” Psiksi teased.
Kass rolled her eyes. “I know. Still not a thing you should say. And you didn’t tell me how or when you got here!”
“I mean, our Silent Blade did leave us the ability to shadowjump across planets and our Forever Shadow literally does lessons teaching kids how to shadowjump. I think most people struggle with it but it always came weirdly naturally to me. More than most folks anyway. I just remembered the convenient shadow I had in my private room, scared the fuck out of the cleaning staff in there and headed to the House Fighter Observatories to watch your match live. You did really well.”
That whole spiel threw Kass off. She wasn’t quite sure how to answer. “I… I did well?”
“You did!”
“But I nearly lost.”
“You still won though! You found an opening, turned the tables and beat that Vrekan to the ground!” Psiksi grinned. “You genuinely did really well, and I couldn’t be more proud of my replacement! And in all honesty? If you did lose? I wouldn’t care. We’re Skyans, we’re not a predator race or anything, we got real disadvantages when you take away our magic powers, like they did to you in that match.”
Kass settled down. “You’re absolutely right… Still, I want to get out of this armour.”
“May I accompany you? To the showers?”
“I already showered. Just left my casual stuff in the locker room because it was busy in the showers and I wanted to get out as fast as possible. Still, you can come along.”
Psiksi tutted as he took Kass’s hand and they started walking. “They still making us use the men’s showers, eh? I’m gonna be honest, piss doesn’t look so hot around here.”
Kass wasn’t sure how to answer. “I think the problem is that, well, Lord Phovos was a socialist with a hunt of capitalism to keep the lights on, and Lord Tromos is a capitalist, he just wants to make money. So he’s cutting what he thinks isn’t really needed. I mean, we still don’t have a Torr house fighter, which Lord Phovos was working on before she left, we got a Spast house fighter by pure chance because Levik wanted to follow in his brother’s footsteps, and we are down to single digits for every single other race apart from Ksithans and Temthans. But the Great Arenas are making more money so Lord Tromos thinks what he’s doing is right, even if there’s… more noticeable biases in matches these days.”
“And a lot more singles’ matches.”
“Yeah… Heck, Levik and I barely get to do duos matches any more…” Kass sighed. “I’m sorry we couldn’t get Xeno Dessaron Two off the ground.”
Psiksi smiled kindly. “It’s not your fault, Kass. It’s all Tromos’s fault. Also I’m kinda gonna lay a tiny bit of blame on Lord Phovos dying. She was supposed to be immortal, after all.”
“She thought that Tromos thought the same way she did.”
“Yeah…” Psiksi hesitated, then lowered his voice a bit. “Turns out Tromos was just sucking up to try and get some of that immortal feral pussy, unaware that Lord Phovos was… well, mentally, about 18 years old and also locked deep in the closet. But also, Tromos was supposed to share leadership with the Triumphant Champions… Except Retvik disappeared and Ct’Tack was put down after that awful black shit literally ate his lungs and stomach.”
Kass paused. “What?”
“Phovos’s will stated that the House Master and the Triumphant Champions would run the Great Arenas together after her passing.”
“Huh…” Kass thought got a second. “I’m surprised Phovos had a will. She was the Undying Fear, after all.”
“Well, I guess she was never 100% sure if she was truly immortal, so it made sense to have a will.”
“But also…” Kass thought some more. “You’re a Triumphant Champion.”
“Yeah but that happened after Phovos’s will was acted on…” Psiksi sighed. “I don’t think I have a legal leg to stand on.”
“Bet you’d do a better job though…” Kass muttered. “Even though Phovos was a Ksithan, her political beliefs were closer to Threanic ones than predator race beliefs. And you were always one of the people, the way House Master Tanok is. Tromos never was.”
Psiksi sighed. “Tell you what, you’re right. I’ll look into it. But in the mean time, I want to help you relax. You’ve had a rough day.”
Kass paused, then smiled. “Heh, I have. And I know exactly what I want from you…”