"You"re still good when it comes to scaring people, little brat.", cursed Sifiso while redressing his cloth. He couldn"t help but look at Fell and noticed the noticeable changes the youth had gone through during his absence.His experienced eyes who had seen many fighters in Gladiator Heaven seemed to pierce through the veil surrounding Fell"s physique. Although he couldn"t see his meridians or dantian, if it was just his body"s structure and core strength, then, it was a simple exercise for the experienced Sifiso.
After a few seconds, he nodded and added. "Looks like you didn"t just play around, I can see that you"ve grown a lot. What demon caused you to come back to this rotten place?", he asked with a curious expression on his wrinkled face.
Fell couldn"t help but hesitate for a split second, and looked at the youth next to Sifiso then gazed back at the eccentric old man. Sifiso understood the hidden intent and turned toward the young man and asked him to leave.
"Give us some privacy Adam.", the youth nodded and got up from his chair. He bowed toward Sifiso and Fell in a short yet polite salute before departing from the reception.
"Now, tell me what"s going on.", asked Sifiso with a serious expression as he knew that Fell wouldn"t act like this if the matter was pressing.
Fell didn"t keep the secret for himself anymore as there was no one in the reception hall. He coughed and recollected his thought for a split second before opening his lips.
"New Casablanca is going to be attacked very soon. We"re not yet aware of the exact time, but it could very well happen in the next few hours. I have managed to rally the central district into one cohesive force to defend the wall of the city, but I"m afraid that we still lack soldiers."
"Oh!", exclaimed Sifiso with a round mouth.
"How many soldiers do the enemy have?". He asked while stroking his beard, showing that he wasn"t that affected by the news.
"Zero." The moment he heard the answer, Sifiso knew that something was wrong, but before he even had the time to ask, Fell continued.
"The city won"t be attacked by humanoids, or any other type of intelligent creatures but by waves of fierce beasts!"
Finally, an unusual reaction appeared on the eccentric old man"s face, and he thought deeply for a few seconds before exclaiming. "I can"t oblige anyone from Gladiator Heaven to fight. But…"
"What I can do is help you with preparing a meeting with them. You can explain the dangers at hand, and see if any volunteers want to fight by your sides. Although you didn"t fight for a long time, your name still reverberates with the might of thunder through those walls."
"Sifiso, you need to know that the beasts are not the only problem we have to face.", then Fell went on and explained the full extent of the information he received from the otherworldly guest.
When he finished, even the old eccentric couldn"t help but let his smoking pipe escape from his hand. His unbreakable calm, gone.
An acute noise spread as his wooden pipe hit the floor. Sifiso"s face didn"t show much expression, but his face had turned paler, and his eyes showed the horror he was feeling internally.
He sat silently for a long time and didn"t utter a single word. Fell didn"t say anything and stood still in front of the old man. He knew that learning the news that your city could disappear from the face of the planet, overnight, could leave anyone in an astonished state.
Thankfully, the old man wasn"t any weak-willed person, and after a minute or two pa.s.sed, he managed to recollect himself and got up from his chair in a single motion.
"Let"s go. I"ll regroup the fighter from every rank. Wait for me in the courtyard; it"ll probably take me five to ten minutes to move through every booth.", he added before leaving toward the dormitory of the fighters.
Fell watched the figure of the old advanced through the large reception. He couldn"t help but see that the man"s back was much more bent than before, and just this talk session seemed to have taken years for his life span. He couldn"t help but sigh and began walking through the coliseum.
As he walked, his hand advanced toward the crooked walls, and he felt the rough and coa.r.s.e surface of the construct through his fingertips. He couldn"t help but memory every speck of information his senses gathered here, as he knew it would be the last time he would come back to this place.
His step echoed in the silence of the coliseum, and before long, he found himself in the middle of a large courtyard. It was near the place where he enjoyed training and had been the place where he had developed "Moon Above" and "Sun Bellow" during an epiphany.
He couldn"t help but sit on the gra.s.s and closed his eyes before releasing his senses everywhere around him. Although he had only stayed here for a few weeks at most, Gladiator Heaven had been the place where he had made his debut.
He couldn"t help but feel at ease just from sitting on the dry patch of gra.s.s. He regulated his breathing but didn"t seek a deep meditative state.
It was the contrary, his mind opened, and he began absorbing as much information gathered by his senses. The random chirps of the few nocturnal birds, the sounds of leaves moving with the wind, the minute buzz from a fly"s wings.
It didn"t just stop there. His senses continued extending even further and even arrived at the dormitory where resided the numerous gladiators. His extended mind collected many diverse and also similar sounds, akin to a wide net enclosing the entirety of the coliseum in its grasp.
Time pa.s.sed quietly, and he turned those pieces of information into an image that solidified in his memory; One that would forever stay with him.