It had been a while since Retvik had visited the Certification Chamber, a fancy building where contracts and things were signed. The chamber was designed to be luxurious since most of its visitors were there for political purposes, ironing out the terms and conditions for arena battles to settle disputes rather than going to war. And today, even though Retvik had been a gladiator for three decades now, he was finally here to represent someone other than the Great Arena itself.
Waiting outside was Kaiga Kromallaxos, the General of the 798th Legion. They normally dealt with gladiators sponsored by the Rethan government, as well as the official Dessaron teams Retha Squad One, Retha Squad Two, Retha Squad Three and Retha Squad Four. Kaiga’s colourings were rather dark, essentially black on black, and they brightened themselves up with orange armour that matched their eyes. Retvik though was a house fighter so he rarely spoke to Kaiga and didn’t really know them as well as he should.
“Ah, hello, Retvik!” Kaiga waved as Retvik approached. “How are you today? Oh, I never congratulated you on your promotion.”
“Not a problem, I do not really show it off. In answer to your question though, I am excited and nervous, admittedly!” Retvik did his best to be cheerful as they both entered the building.
“Oh? How comes?”
“I am representing both the 1000th Legion and the Rethavok as a whole. There is quite a lot of pressure on me to perform. That and I never particularly liked doing promotional materials.”
Kaiga shrugged. “Fair enough. Do you mind if I do the talking?”
“Not at all, General.”
“Wonderful.”
As they headed inside, Retvik and Kaiga made their way to the Room of Rules, where several beings were already waiting for them. They weren’t late, but the Raptor was always way too early for pretty much everything. By Lord Phovos’s side were four witnesses: Asiri Shimmerheart, a Temthan political peacekeeper; Hatu Pebbletosser, a representative of the Vast Sands, the Lanex’s external affairs group; Kelmahmiir, a rather small, silver-scaled Thraki who represented the local Thrakian territories and occasionally assisted with external politices; and Kayess-Ksi, a beautiful Ξ-Class Skyavok who normally worked as a gladiator, but was stepping in today since Ksiksi, the Skyan normally in charge of these sorts of things, was ill.
“Good morning!” Phovos smiled as Retvik and Kaiga both approached, then bowed. “Have you already gone over your side of the terms of this gladiator battle?”
Retvik shrugged. “I am admittedly just really happy to be doing this.”
“I have everything sorted out, do not fret.”
“Alright…” Phovos grunted. “We may be waiting a while. Torr work on their own schedules. Got any questions while we wait?”
Kayess-Ksi raised her hand. “I do, Kyr Phovos… well, it’s actually for Captain Retvik but still”.
Retvik smiled. He still wasn’t used to being called ‘captain’ though. “What is it, Kayess-Ksi?”
“Uh… piss… can I get Psiksi’s phone number off you? I’m, uh, collecting contact details for Skyan house fighters.”
“Kayess-Ksi, that is inappropriate!” Phovos hissed.
“It is fine! I am surprised you do not already have it!” Retvik snorted in amusement. He pulled out his communicator, quickly looked up Psiksi’s details, then handed his communicator to Kayess-Ksi. Kayess-Ksi smiled nervously, quickly wrote down the information then curtsied.
“Thank you!”
“No worries…” Retvik quickly turned around, to greet the two Torr who had entered. One of which he recognized.
“Hang on, what the fuck is that gender-fluid Lamebearer prick doing here?”
Telumeus Perfectus was a very unique-looking Torr. While most Torr had dull metal plates on their snouts, black scales and smaller gem-like scales embedded in their shoulders, Telumeus had a genetic quirk where his scales were all gold. On top of that, he was a genetically modified soldier with a robotic eye, who, after getting bored of working in a private military force, started work as a gladiator. His mastery of the mech suits most gladiator Torr used had earned him an impressive win rate, to the point that Telumeus had won multiple tournaments and was considered a Torrian Champion, one of, if not the best, Torr gladiator alive.
Retvik wasn’t insulted at all. “I am representing the Rethans in this annoyingly political match.”
The other Torr, who was wearing a white shirt and red tie, tutted. “We demanded the fight be between a Torrian Champion and a 1000th Legion soldier! This is wrong!”
Phovos crossed her arms and snarled. “Retvik IS a 1000th Legion soldier! He’s a damn Captain of the Legion of Rethan Heroes! You demanded a match at short notice, so the Rethans picked the closest 1000th Legion soldier they had.”
Telumeus stared at the Raptor, then turned to his boss and tutted. “Boss, Hextrarius, it ain’t a problem. I’ll still fight the Lamebearer.”
“I should point out, the last person who called me Lamebearer was a Thraki who challenged me, and I beat them in 45 seconds!” Retvik smiled, all his nervousness fading away. He had fought Telumeus twice and beaten the uptight Torr both times. “But I am happy to fight you.”
“Fine. But I want one extra condition!” Telumeus demanded. “I want an extreme rules match. Anything goes once the match has started, outside of actually killing your opponent. I want to use anything I want, and I expect you to do the same.”
Retvik thought for a moment, then went back to smiling. “Are you sure about that?”
“Yes.”
“You do realize that, being a Rethavok, I naturally just… am physically superior to you Torr? I am literally half a meter taller than you and have organic armour that can stop low caliber bullets, after all.”
Telumeus was undeterred. “Doesn’t matter. You can’t do the shit that stupid shapeshifting cunt on your Dessaron team can do. I ain’t scared. I’ll fight you and I’ll kick your ass.”
“Well, aright then. I accept this additional term.”
Kaiga glanced at Retvik. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, of course!” Retvik beamed. “I have nothing to fear.”
“You will when I’m done with you!” Telumeus growled. “Let’s sign this damn contract, so I can go back to tweaking my mech.”
The two Torr stomped towards the table where Phovos was standing. She pointed towards the silver-trimmed sheet of paper, which had fives lines at the bottom. Phovos had already signed her name on the last line, and she instructed both Telumeus and Hextrarius to sign on the top two lines. Kaiga and Retvik signed on the last two lines. Once everything was sorted, Hatu brought over a portable scanner and made a copy for everyone present, while Asiri took some pictures.
Satisfied, Retvik held out his hand for Telumeus to shake. Telumeus eyed Retvik, hesitated, then shook it.
“May the best of us win!” Retvik proclaimed.
“So me, then?”
“We will see.”
Telumeus smiled back, then backed off, and left the room, dragging his handler with him. While pretty much everyone was happy, Kaiga seemed rather annoyed.
“Retvik, you just…”
“I know what I am doing!” Retvik went back to smiling. “They want extreme rules? Anything goes? They have no idea what they are getting into.”
“How… how comes?” Kaiga asked.
Retvik glanced at Phovos, then turned back to Kaiga, his smile growing even more. “Extreme rules means I do not need to have my Received Damage Multiplier. Telumeus has no idea what he is getting into…”