EGBERI

Chapter Eight - Pits For Gold

The pits were brutal, within it's huge walls there were rooms for each packs. There was only one way in or out. It had canteens where cooked meals were bought with gold.
One gold coin were given to each member of a winning pack, worth meal ticket for 3 days. The fights were challenges made by one pack and the other accepting the challenge. Razan would have to fight in reality because they were just 4 and the twin brothers were spirituals.

To challenge a champion you'll need 6 winning streaks.
Battles were fought on both spiritual and physical planes. To win, a pack must successfully tie up the members of the other pack after beating them to subduction. Failure to yield to subduction could lead to death.

They lost their first challenge to Migan pack as they were outnumbered. They starved while fighting the next with Razan riving the bodies of the twin stylishly to avoid drawing attention as to what he was doing. They won their first fight. It went on for 2 months before they finally had a good understand amongst themselves after so many battles.

Their streak starts with the Kobal pack. Feared for their near giant structured deaf fighter. A fierce and difficult battle as he was finally subdued by Dunes whip, giving them advantage over the bodies of their helpless spirituals fighting the twin in the spirit plane.

Moving on to accept a challenge from The Rasins, known for their skilled spirit fighters. More difficult than the Kobal pack but their advantage of Razan's stylish revival kept fueling the twin to beating the spirituals on their team.

Next the Ogia Brothers, fierce fighters that used hypnotizing tunes, fortunately for them, the tunes had no effect on Razan and he pretended to be hypnotized only to knock out his opponents trying to tie him up as well as the unconscious body of the tuner.

They were almost knocked out by the Azimen pack, they were really skilled fighters but being a demi-god had advantages of zero pain from beatings of a mere mortals. With time Razan overpowered them.

Next a challenge from Shagams, a pack of dangerous women, very eager for bloodshed as many packs have died from their attacks. They were rumored to have a member that is possessed by a demon but it was just a story made to put fear on their opponents. The battle lasted for hours and they won with their revival advantage.

Soon they became the crowds favourites with one more battle for them to challenge Zimo The Destroyers, the reigning champs who were one defence away from gaining their freedom. They defeated their next opponents the Akefii pack, in a battle that almost killed Dune as she refused to yield. The twin worked it out from the spirit plane and aided their victory.

Their names were made into songs by the crowd and it exposed fear in the politics of the pits. An assassin possessed by a demon was sent to eliminate them at dusk the day before their big match. The fought back, Razan entered the spirit plane, he and the twin fought the demon and broke his possessing link leaving the body for Dune to knock down.

Before the battle, the food sellers were bribed to poison one of the twin with a sleeping drug to give them a disadvantage in the spirit plane.

The arena was overcrowded to say, with a very tense atmosphere of nearly equal supporters of both packs. So much at stake on the gamble tables. No one had a certainty of who would be victorious except the politicians hoping on their advantage of a sleeping spiritual.

The Zimo's were a pack of 5 with 3 spirituals and 2 deaf fighters, they were very skilled fighters, known for their fast knock outs. Dune was knocked out within the first 10 minutes of the fight leaving Razan exposed to very mature rounds of beatings from the Zimo's. Soon Travis was out of the spirit plane as his body fell asleep.

Rex was outnumbered and knocked out of the plane.
Razan could not be subdued as no amount of beating made him unconscious or bleed. With the rest of his pack tied up he endured until they started getting tired, at the advantage he attacked and knocked them out. The whole arena chanted "Razan"  while he untied his pack and tied his opponents. Victorious they emerged becoming champions.

It took them one year and 4 months to become champions and they spent 6 months defending 5 matches from other challenging packs. Soon they gained their freedom and gained noble status paid with bags of gold.

News of their exploits and tales of their victories spread the entire continent and even the king hosted them once for his cabinet and close friends to have glimpses of what they looked like. After the kings banquet, they went back to the town where they fought at the arena and bought a mansion housing all of them.

Tarja and everyone in their clan also heard of their fame, she had not seen him for years. She sent messengers to search for him and when they found him to let him know she is to visit.

When the messengers informed him, he sent a message telling them of his return home. His clan were excited in anticipation of his arrival. Their leaders were more than proud to have a champion in their town, something they could boast with.

Dune was also expecting.