Chapter 7 - Pathways

"Did you see that?!" Petra wailed as the three Blue-Ranked Contestants left the arena. "I mean, talk about a great team, right?"

"It really was something," Titus replied still partly awestruck. "But... you don't seem surprised by any of that. That was the most amazing thing I think I’ve ever seen!"

"Surprised? Why would I be surprised?" Petra replied. “This is the Arena!”

"Because we just watched two people cast spells. Like for real," Titus replied. "And you're acting like that's the most normal thing in the world. I know that’s something I hadn’t been expecting in any of this!"

"Well... that's because it is. Surely you know there are Spellcasters in the arena?" Petra asked, frowning.

"I thought it was a joke!" Titus replied loudly. "I've heard people talking about fireballs and stuff like that, but I thought they were being metaphorical. You know, like if someone darted across the sands in less than a second. That's... that's something that could actually happen then... right?" Titus spoke quickly and softly, not wanting anyone else to overhear the conversation in which he admitted to knowing absolutely nothing about the Arena and the goings on of the place.

Petra smiled and nodded at him. "You have so much to learn….”

"And that makes two of you," Titus recognised Henderson's voice before he even saw the boy. Henderson looked very pleased with himself and inserted himself between Titus and Petra, snaking an arm around each of them like he was about to show them the world. Titus hadn't realised how large the boy actually was the last time they'd bumped into each other, but now he felt swamped by Henderson’s presence.

"Don't think you can just get away with what you did and what you said earlier," Henderson said. "Because I want you both to know that once those armbands are off your arms, you'd better watch your back. Because there are more than a few people around here who think you'd be better off not being around, do you understand? I mean I must admit that I’ve been somewhat vocal in support of that particular outcome…"

"We live under the Arena, you great tit," Petra said, rolling her eyes and removing Henderson's arm from her shoulders. "We're always six feet under. More in fact!"

Titus stifled a laugh, but he could see that Henderson was already turning bright red again. He was quite amazed at how quick this girl was, and how she didn’t seem intimidated in the slightest by the large argumentative boy.

"Now you listen here," Henderson’s voice was rising again. "If you don't shut your mouth and quit it with these snarky comebacks..."

"What, you'll pop like a big red balloon?" Petra asked, not fazed one little bit.

Titus nudged her, feeling like he should do something to seem less helpless, especially if anyone else happened to be watching. "Come on Petra, you don't need to leave him red-faced, just say you're sorry."

"That's it!" Henderson shouted, finally unable to keep his temper in. He raised an arm ready to strike out at Petra, when Titus saw a hand firmly grasp his bicep as if from nowhere.

"You're not about to hit either of these Contestants, are you, Mr Valeri?" Titus recognised the voice and turned to see Miss Kane, and although Henderson looked like a strong, strapping lad, the Instructor seemed to have no issues with holding him back and keeping him under control.

Henderson turned to face her, still red in the face.

"Because that wouldn't do now, would it?" Miss Kane asked. “Because we have enough enemies around here to deal with, without raising a hand to our fellow Contestants. And as Grandmaster, it is my duty to ensure your safety here - all of your safety until you step out into those sands, she gestured towards the field of battle where the group had just watched the fight between the three Contestants and the Deadlands Boar.

Henderson made eye contact with the Grandmaster for just a moment, and then the blood drained from his face and his rigid body turned limp. He slumped out of Miss Kane's grasp, and she smiled.

"Now, why don't you all get yourselves back to the classroom and finish up your lesson with Mr Sinclair? It won't be long until lunchtime, and I'm willing to bet you're going to be hungry after a long morning of learning about the world, and about the things you never even imagined existed."

Henderson looked far less angry at the Grandmaster’s words, nodded once and slipped away, followed by Miss Kane who smiled at Titus and Petra again before she too disappeared.

"Come on then, we can walk and talk," Petra said. "So you really thought magic wasn't real? How'd you think they did it?"

"Nope," he said. "And how who did what?"

"How the Contestants fought the monsters, or how the Hunters caught them."

"Never really thought about it too much. I grew up in the outskirts of the city and we didn't really come to the centre very often. When we did, we steered well clear of the Arena because my father said he didn't want me to have my head filled with ‘that kind of thing’. Or so he said anyway."

"Didn't want to fill your head... and yet you ended up here anyway? That sounds like a pretty crappy way to become a Contestant if you ask me," Petra said.

"Yep, turns out my evil stepmother put a spell on him or something. They couldn't wait to get me out of the bakery and as far away from them as possible."

"Bakery?" Petra asked. "No wait, that doesn't matter. So you really don't know anything about the Arena?"

Titus shook his head. "I've overheard customers talking about it. They always spoke about how great the fight was or how big or scary the monster was, but that was about it. Sometimes they’d say things that I guess were spells, but I thought they were being more metaphorical than literal I guess. Out there on the outskirts there was more to worry about than what was happening in the Arena."

"Wow do I have a lot to teach you," Petra said with a grin. "Firstly, I need to tell you about the Hunters."

"I know about them," Titus said. "They kill the monsters outside the city limits. Before the Hunters, the monsters would wreak havoc and kill people as they saw fit, right? But the Hunters go out and keep them from killing us all."

"Nearly, but not quite," Petra said. "The monsters outside the City, they've been there a long, long time. So they get bigger, stronger. The Hunters do kill some to keep the numbers down, but most they bring back to the city through underground tunnels. Right to beneath our feet actually. Then the Contestants fight them in the Arena as training to eventually become effective Hunters. I just didn't know about The God of Balance part until today, but I guess you know about that now too.”

Titus scratched his chin. "No, that can't be it. Seems like they could just send the army out and kill all the monsters, why catch them and bring them back here? And what if they escaped?"

"Because without them, the next Hunters could never be trained properly, are you listening? And I never really thought about them escaping. But I bet they've got an impossibly large dungeon underground somewhere that's covered in spells to keep everything in place. That makes sense, doesn’t it?"

There was something not quite adding up for Titus, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Like the whole arrangement seemed clumsy somehow. He hoped that an Instructor, or perhaps Miss Kane would explain it to them all a little better at some point.

The pair spoke more as they walked back to the classroom, where they were greeted by the rest of the Contestants with white armbands as well as Mr Sinclair, who'd somehow beaten everybody back.

"Good, I see you've all made it safely back from your first taste of what is to come when you finally have your blue armbands. What did you think?" He asked.

The Contestants erupted into loud proclamations of how amazing the fight had been, how strong the boy named Benjamin was, and how the fireballs had really made the difference in the fight. Titus didn't hear anyone mention Sophia and her blinding spell, though and the longer it went on the louder the Contestants got, struggling to speak over one another.

"Thr is all well and good, but what did you learn?" Mr Sinclair finally asked.

The room fell silent.

"Anyone at all?"

"We learned that if you don't have a good warrior on your team, the fights will last twice as long as they should," Henderson announced, folding his arms across his chest.

Mr Sinclair's mustache twitched, betraying his grin.

"Well sometimes that may be the case, Henderson. But I was looking for something a little more specific to what we saw back there and not what we didn't see."

Titus raised his hand. "They had to work together to win," he said. "If any of them were alone against that monster, they wouldn't have survived the fight."

"Ah!" Mr Sinclair announced and clicked his fingers. "An astute observation, my friend. And we all saw how effective a strategy it was when the Defender held the beast's attention, and the offensive Spellcaster caused it damage, no?"

"And... the other girl," Titus said. "She cast a spell that saved Benjamin's life too."

"Yes!" Mr Sinclair announced with a flourish of his arms. "This is exactly what I wanted you all to see out there. Every Class, every pathway has its own advantages and disadvantages. It will be up to you to determine how best these can synergise with each other, because it could very well be the difference between life and death in the Arena."

Titus was pleased he'd managed to see something that the others hadn't, but when he let his attention turn away from Mr Sinclair, he saw Henderson staring daggers at him. The rage that the Grandmaster had tamped down on had clearly returned, though now it looked like there was something a little more calculated to it.

"Now your pathways are to be your own to determine," Mr Sinclair said. "I am to teach you the basics of how they operate, to show you the doorways that stand before you. It will ultimately be up to each of you to choose a door and walk through."

He left a dramatic pause before continuing.

"Now let us talk about the first pathway that we've seen on display today. That of the Defender. And before any of you ask, for Arena Contestants, we have encountered and nurtured only four pathways in all the years the Arena has been active, and those are that of the Defender, Warrior, Rogue, and Spellcaster."

"Seems like the Defender had an easy job, just holding up his massive shield," Henderson said under his breath. Mr Sinclair didn't hear him.

"The Defender Class is for an individual with just one role in mind: It is their job to keep the enemy occupied while the damage dealers in the party reduce their opponent's HP. This can be achieved in a number of ways, and what we saw today was the perfect execution of the 'Root in Place' ability available to some of those within the class. This ability allowed Benjamin to stand toe to toe with the Deadlands Boar long enough for the Spellcaster to do her work. Effective, no?"

The Contestants murmured in agreement.

"And then we also saw another ability that the Defender used. Can anyone tell me what that was?"

A moment of silence followed, but eventually, a large, muscular boy whose name Titus could see was Jordan spoke up. He was almost as big as Henderson but lacked the angry glare.

"He used a taunt," he said. "When the Boar was about to attack the Spellcasters and it made it attack him instead."

Mr Sinclair was beside himself with glee. "Yes! That is exactly right! And with the level difference between the Boar and those Spellcasters, they wouldn't have lasted very long at all."

Titus hadn't realised that the taunt was actually an ability or spell, but it made a lot of sense. It seemed like he had so much more to learn than he could've ever imagined.

"But it gets even more complicated the more you analyse," Mr Sinclair said, and Titus felt his heart sink. There was no way he was going to be able to remember all of this.

"Because what you saw out there was the most basic of Defenders. A brute with high constitution and a shield and as the Class develops, not least of all our friend Benjamin will have to make some important choices. Will he follow along his path and become a fully-fledged shield-bearer, or will he become someone who injects fear into their enemies as a true Incapacitator? The choice will be up to him alone, and I have no doubt that all of you will have to make similar choices in your time to come. So it is best to begin your preparations now, and know that once you choose a path, you may not be able to turn back and try another."