Emperors War

Without paying attention to his surroundings and following his normal routine Aker picked up his pair of knives that he had sitting in the corner of his cell and prepared to run through his sets. Over the last couple of weeks, he had managed to move on from being able to do two combinations to now being able to do three combinations which had him pretty excited as it opened up a significant number of possibilities in battle.

According to his conversations with Vance he should be getting very close to being able to move on from fighting Kulga which was both exhilarating and scary. Since the first day that Aker was abandoned in The Pit, he had been having a daily battle with Kulga. It was hard to believe that from the first day where he barely survived against the weakest of the weakest predators to his last battle where he fought off forty Kulga it had only been 2 1/2 weeks.

In the last battle he had fought, Aker allowed ten Kulga to completely surround him while fighting them head on. He had taken quit a few cuts and bruises but overall it was an incredible fight. Recently they had expanded the area around the Arena to house more people who could watch the fights. He had heard from Vance that it was in antic.i.p.ation of his first battle against a true magic beast.

According to Vance there were already people who had seen Akers fights that were traveling back so they could witness his upcoming battle. They had torn down some of the housing around The Pit to make room and increased the overall seating from 100,000 to 300,000. In fact, Aker thought he would be fighting against a magical beast sooner but Vance told him they were publicizing his fight and were intentionally holding off to allow people to make it to The Pit.

The advertising for Aker"s fight against the magical beast began three days ago and it had generated a lot of excitement especially with those who have seen Aker fight before.

Aker had been keeping a close eye on his total points towards his next level up and he was now only 20 points away so if everything goes as planned, he should level up in his next battle against the Kulga. Turns out that he was still slowly getting points with each battle and it didn"t seem to matter whether he killed or beat into submission as the points total didn"t change. While Akers fighting skills had improved drastically over the last two weeks his overall strength as evaluated by level and skill points hadn"t changed. As Aker surmised, he continued to receive roughly the same amount of points each time he defeated a Kulga.

Aker had heard from Vance that 50 Kulga would be the equivalent of one magic beast, well of the lowest ranked magic beast. Either way it was a significant increase from what he had been fighting this whole time. Since in the last fight he fought forty Kulga he was antic.i.p.ating in his next fight for them to just go ahead and up it to forty-five.

As Aker was practicing his sets and thinking over his upcoming battles, he heard a giggle from outside his cell. Aker who had been in The Pit for over two weeks had not heard a giggle once so the sound immediately woke him from his thoughts.

Stopping his training and looking just outside his cell was standing a pony tailed girl, she appeared to be slightly older than Aker. With long black hair that was put up in a pony tail and wearing an outfit similar to Akers, a combat robe. Akers combat robe was a darker grey due to the environment he was living in. For Aker who slept on a dirt floor, albeit he did have the warmth and comfort of his beast blood stain, fought in a dirt arena, slammed his hammer down in the forge and played in the earth all day, grey was the perfect color. His beat up and worn grey robe was the only clothing he had at the moment but it was pretty durable and because of the grey color it tended to hide his living conditions. Over the last few weeks Aker had really taken to the color and functionality.

On the other side of the cell the little girl with bright eyes and a cheery face was wearing a bright blue robe. Even though Aker didn"t know anything about fabric or tailoring he could easily tell that the robe she wore was of high quality and done by an expert seamstress.

Aker who watched as the girl stood their staring at him giggling couldn"t help but ask "Why are you laughing?"

"Big Brother Benefactor I couldn"t help but laugh. I had been standing here this whole time and you didn"t notice so I started making faces at you and you still didn"t notice. For someone who in battle notices so much for you to miss me standing right in front of you, I thought it was funny."

The girl who was full of joy and life had been standing there waiting for Aker to acknowledge her. Since he wasn"t paying attention to her, she decided to make funny faces at him thinking that certainly would catch his attention. Seeing his determined face and his practice the girl couldn"t help but laugh. For someone to be so focused but still incapable of seeing what was right in front of their face, is that really focused or is it really unfocused?

"Big Brother? Benefactor? I"m certain we haven"t met before, why would you call me big brother? I don"t remember doing anything that would make me your benefactor. Why are you here?"

Aker who had been focused on his practice didn"t notice how she got here. Isn"t it strange to let her in here? First of all, why would someone let her in here and second of all why would she want to visit with a prisoner?

"Big Brother Benefactor dad told me that you"re the one who saved me. I was sick and the doctors said I wasn"t going to get to live but then dad said that a miracle happened and you protected me. He told me that you"re my Big Brother Benefactor."

Seeing the shear happiness as the girl spoke about getting to live, the miracle that was Aker and her Dad, Aker couldn"t help but grin to himself. He never thought about how his actions could be impacting any one in a positive way, and only considered how much pain and misery he could bring to those who had bet against him, to those who locked him up.

Somehow hearing that this girl was saved because of him brought Aker a lot of joy and pride. In the last couple of weeks Aker was beginning to discover moments of satisfaction and even at times something that transcended satisfaction, at times he even felt slightly fulfilled as he studied in the kitchen, the medic station, practiced his fighting, and even when doing blacksmithing.

"No need to call me Big Brother Benefactor, you can just call me Aker." For the first time since Aker has been in this dark and dreadful Pit, he was able to catch a glimpse of sunshine. The refreshing innocence that she brought with her enabled Aker to remember that there was more than the b.l.o.o.d.y, death filled, dullness that is The Pit.

You can refrain from being completely tainted when you are only partially exposed to the darkness, but when you are submerged, with every breath you become a little more contaminated. While Aker had been laughing and smiling with his teachers it didn"t change the dark path he is on. His every thought revolved around revenge, around making others miserable, around making them pay. He was fighting to conquer; he was fighting to survive, so those that oppressed and beat him down would grit their teeth and curse his name.

Someday he would stroll into their life with weapon in hand and cut them down as he watches the lights go out in their eyes. Every day as he swung his knife, swung his hammer he envisioned having the man who brought him here under it. He imaged the fear and pleading of their soul as he laid waste to their existence.

"Ok....mmmmmhhhhhhhh...How about Big Brother Aker? Big Brother Aker" the little girl called it out twice in a row listening to the sound of it as it rolled off of her tongue. "...I like it let"s go with that. And you, you can call me Little Kara. What do you think? Go ahead and try it."

"No.no.no.no, you don"t have to add the Big Brother, you can just call me Aker. And just looking at you it looks like your older than me."

A frown...that"s first thing Aker observed after the words left his mouth.

"This girl is not so good at hiding her emotions" Aker couldn"t help but notice that when she was happy her face conveyed her cheerfulness and warmed up the world. Reciprocally when she was upset her scowl would cause one to shrink back. It would make one wonder if the world would accuse "How could you make a rainbow colorless!"

As Aker felt the look of daggers bearing down on him, he took a step back. He had faced a crowd of tens of thousands without fear, without hesitation and here this girl with only a frown and scowl had caused him to rea.s.sess his strength. Was he powerful? Was he a conqueror? Yes, but not right now. Right now, he was...

"Little Kara you should just call me Big Brother Aker; I think that"s best."

As Aker spoke the words the color was returned to the world as Kara smiled big and bright at hearing Aker tell her to call him Big Brother Aker and better yet as he called her "Little Kara."

"So, what are we doing today Big Brother Aker? I saw you practicing just now, do you do that every morning? How long do you practice? After that what"s next? Can we go play outside in the foyer? I"m hungry can we get breakfast? We should get you some new clothes, do you want some new clothes?"

Kara began rattling off question after question towards Aker. Aker who was listening to the questions was dumbfounded. "What do you mean what are we doing today? Who has time to go play? There is no such thing as breakfast here, we are lucky we get to eat at all sometimes? How long do we practice? We only practice unless were fighting in the arena. What"s wrong with my clothes, don"t they work just fine?"

Aker couldn"t help rebuke everything Kara said in his mind but he didn"t dare say it out loud and risk another devastating brush with turning the lights out on the world.

"Um...I don"t think you are allowed to be with me while I do my training. I have to head over to the medic station once my Master gets here. I"m studying with Teacher Life & Death and he is very particular about who is allowed in the medic station. You should probably just go home; this isn"t a place that you can just visit."

He did it. He had told her that she shouldn"t hang around with him while he does his training. It wasn"t that he didn"t want her around it was just that he already had a full plate and he didn"t have time to go and play like normal kids.

The livid look in Kara"s eyes was on full display for Aker as he looked at her. It was obvious to a blind man that Kara was indignant. "Little Kara!" Kara fired back at Aker hands on her hips as she stared him down.

"What? What are you talking about?" A confused Aker responded back not understanding the reason for her indignant behavior. Didn"t he just say he was too busy to play? Why was she being so unreasonable.

"I"m not you, I"m Little Kara!" Clearly more frustrated that Aker didn"t understand why she was upset she was now close to being a kettle pot that had been over the fire for too long.

"Little Kara? Wait from what I said earlier the only thing you took away from it was that I used "you" instead of "Little Kara"? Didn"t you hear that I have to go train and don"t have time to play?"

... silence and eyes of reproach was the only answer to Aker"s statements and questions.

Raising the white flag and with a heavy sigh Aker finally caved and responded "Little Kara I have to train and you won"t be allowed to follow along so it"s best if you go home."

With a smile the flag changed with the wind bewildering Aker as Kara responded back "So I can"t go with you because you have training and I"m not allowed right?"

Hearing that she finally understood, Aker let out a breath "Yes, that"s right, unfortunately you can"t train with me. My schedule is full every day training with my Master and teachers so I won"t have time. It"s a shame but I can"t get out of it." Aker played the part of the victim as if though it was everyone else"s fault but his own. If only they would allow this Kara to go around with him but alas it was not to be.

"So, if your Master and Teachers were to agree then it would be OK?" A hint of a conniving smile on Kara"s face as she posed the question.

Without hesitation Aker responded back " That"s right but there is no way they would allow such a thing so you should probably just head home now. Thank you for coming by it really has made me happy to hear that you were saved because of me." Aker really was happy to hear that she was saved because of him. He didn"t know the details but that didn"t really matter to him, he was just exciting knowing that it was due to him.

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"Good news Big Brother Aker, your Master and Teachers have already given me permission to train with you from now on, isn"t that exciting news!"

Without showing the sour look he had internally, Aker could only think that his Master and teachers were getting even with him "I shouldn"t have been so troublesome with Master and Teachers" Aker mumbled under his breath. Thankfully Kara didn"t hear otherwise Aker would be kowtowing at this point.