"GET 'EM AL!"
Subaru yelled out from the dugout while watching Aldebaran fight a group of Mabeast inside the fighting pit. He watched the one armed man in awe as he skillfully dodged each attack from the pack of ulgrams as if he knew where they would be before they even attacked. After the last few months living in the arena he had seen that in comparison to others Al's swordplay was rather basic. Although that did not take away from the spectacle of a one armed man cutting through a pack of demon dogs like butter.
Subaru cringed slightly watching Al behead one of the ulgrams that tried to pounce on him, although the crowd around him and the two other children in the bottom of the dugout all hollered loudly.
By the end of the fight Al stood huffing in exhaustion among a pile of dead ulgram dogs with only a few scratches littering his remaining arm. The crowd all yelled out and gave him applause as he raised his sword in the air, Subaru included.
"Subaru, go clean and sharpen my sword!"
Al yelled out as he tossed his now sheathed blade to Subaru and climbed into the dugout. Subaru caught it, and promptly fell on his ass causing a handful of the other gladiator's to chuckle. Al himself leapt up to the small metal barrier separating the dugout from the pit and grabbed it one his one hand, hoisting himself over it.
"Come on up little guy"
Subaru looked up to see one of the other apprentices, a freakishly tall boy named Jael. Jael was only fourteen years old but was almost six feet tall, almost as muscular as Al, and had long jet black hair that almost touched the back of his knee. In contrast to his appearance his voice was still quite childish. The taller teen stood above Subaru with his hand stretched out towards him, which Subaru quickly grabbed and let himself be pulled up and onto his feet while he struggled to hold Al's sword with one arm.
"Thank's Jael, can't talk though, Al needs his sword fixed up."
Jael just gave him a nod and a slap on the back as Subaru darted off down the stairs built into the dugout and down the hall. It took him a while to memorize the layout of the arena, but after the last few months he had been able to at least figure out where his room, and the makeshift blacksmith was.
After a few minutes he burst into a very hot stone room, in the corner was a furnace that was currently being operated by a short man with lots and lots of white hair all over him. He just grunted as Subaru rushed towards a spot on the other side of the room. The Blacksmith scared Subaru, he was short and grumpy and mumbled everything he said, but if you tried to ask him to clarify what he was saying he would just yell at you.
Subaru sat down and slowly unsheathed Al's curved sword, it was covered in blood and Subaru briefly cursed Al in his mind as he realized that the sheath was also full of various viscera. Tossing the leatherbound sheath away from him before he could fill it with his own vomit.
He hated it when Al did that, more often than not it meant that the sword itself needed to be tossed out as there was hardly any way to clean the inside of a sheath without dismantling it and then restitching it together, and Subaru didn't know how to do that. With a sight he pulled a wash rag out of a bucket full of water and began wiping the sword off into another empty bucket.
He continued this for a few minutes until all the blood and viscera were cleared off. After that he dried off the sword the best he could, taking care not to cut himself on the blade… again.
He darted off to another part of the room taking a seat at the grindstone. Al had told him that a sword became dull after only five kills, after cutting through fat, muscle and bone, and Al had just killed off a pack of seven or so ulgrams. Needless to say Subaru could see the various dents and divots along the edge of the blade as he pushed it against the grindstone.
He immediately wished that welding goggles had been invented already as sparks flew off the curved blade.
'Actually, do they even have sunglasses here? I would have thought not but I think Al mentioned something about sinks a while back. Wait, was he talking about sinks back on Earth or was he talking about there being sinks here? I should ask him when all the fighting is done tonight. Actually how do they make sunglasses and welding goggles? How do they tint the glass? I bet if I can figure that out me and Al could make a fortune selling them to people like Old Man Blacksmi-'
"Ouch"
Subaru was brought out of his thoughts by a sharp burning sensation on the tips of his fingers. He pulled the sword and his hand back and pulled his foot off the pedal. Looking at the tips of his fingers he could see that the skin had been flayed from the tips of his fingers. The hot air touching the unprotected flesh burnt even more than his muscles did when he finished working out with Al. He felt tears coming to his eyes, but was startled out of his worries when the old blacksmith yanked the sword out of his hand.
"Damn it boy, I'll finish this. You goto the Doctor and let this be a lesson next time you try spacing out while working at any of the stations around here." The old man's voice was deep and reminded Subaru of gravel and dirt roads.
Subaru quickly nodded while cradling his fingers, hoping off the seat at the grindstone and running out of the room.
Subaru supposed he should be lucky that they had a doctor at the arena, Al had told him that most of the arena's weren't so lucky to have someone who could heal wounds. He had to dodge a couple of guards and one or two wandering gladiators. Eventually he came across a room marked with a familiar set of symbols on it. Al had been trying to teach him to read, but he wasn't that great of a teacher as far as academics go.
He almost just rushed into the room in hopes of getting his fingers healed immediately, but based on past experiences he knew that might not have been the best option. He knocked on the door with his good hand, immediately moving it back to cradle his injured a painstaking half minute the door opened and revealed a tall pale woman with dark blue hair about as long as Jael's. Her equally blue eyes peered down at Subaru from almost a foot above.
"Oh… Subaru… You look to be… injured… Come on in…" She sounded both tired and sad yet still somehow maintained an almost monotone tone of voice. Nat had bags under her eyes so dark that they almost looked sunken into her head, she turned around and waved Subaru in who very very slowly rushed into the room behind her.
She motioned for him to take a seat in a nearby chair, and Subaru briefly distracted himself with the fact that the makeshift infirmary resembled the same room his doctor would have him wait in during regular checkups. The memory made him sad, luckily the strange feeling of his skin regrowing and stitching itself back together brought him out of his stupor. He looked down at his hand while Nat held one glowing blue hand over while she healed it. It reminded him of when he used to have scrapes bandaged and cleaned by his mom. After a few moments she moved her hand and nodded to Subaru who hopped out of his chair.
"Okay now… Subaru… try not to… come here… too often…"
She waved Suabru out who waved back to her as he ran out of the room.
"Okay Nat, I'll do my best!"
And with that he was racing back to the blacksmith's room. The halls weren't occupied much while the fights were going on meaning that Subaru only needed to spin around a couple guards, Al said it was good practice even if it did make said guards kind of angry.
After a few moments he arrived at the blacksmith's room, recognizing the series of symbols carved into a metal plate on the door. He stopped before it and took a deep breath, calming and preparing himself before he entered the blacksmiths room. A large hand landed on his shoulder causing him to jump almost as high as if he was using mana enhancements (Another term that Al had taught him)
He turned around to see Jael towering above him.
'Everyone towers above me, it's getting kind of annoying'
"Relax Soobs, it's just me"
"Christ Jael, what are you doing down here?" Subaru replied after taking a moment to let his heart rate get back to normal.
"Christ? And Al said you were taking too long so I ran down here to make sure you didn't accidentally cut your arm off with his sword."
Subaru cringed, he already knew he was running behind after he practically flayed his fingers, but hearing someone say it out loud almost hurt more.
"Yeah, I hurt myself on the grindstone and had to run off to Nat to get it fixed. The old man said he would take care of it though."
Subaru pushed the door to the blacksmith open to continue the conversation inside. The Old Blacksmith scared him, but he was able to bear it if he was with someone like Al or Jael.
The sword was resting against the wall in what Subaru could tell was a new sheath next to the door. Subaru looked over where he had discarded the old sheath and found it missing, he swiped up the sword and squeaked out a thanks to the blacksmith, receiving a grunt in reply. He darted out of the room and back up the stairs much to Jaels amusement.
He had to force himself not to cover his ears as he stumbled back up into the arena, last time he did that he got laughed at and mocked for not being able to handle "a little noise", personally he thought that all the gladiators here must be nearly deaf. He asked Al to tell the other gladiators to stop once and he just got laughed at, with Al telling him that if he wants to be a gladiator then he'll need to get used to name calling and the like.
He rushed over to the dugout and handed the heavy sword to Al who lifted it with his one arm and placed it back onto his belt with one arm like it weighed nothing.
"Hey bro, you had me worried for a moment"
Al ruffled Subaru's hair after re-adjusting the sword on his belt.
"Sorry… bro" Subaru was trying to adopt Al's way of speaking, but it was surprisingly difficult to find out when to add "bro" to a sentence.
"I got hurt using the grindstone and needed to visit Nat"
Al hummed in response as he looked out on the current fight in the arena, Subaru turned his head to look at it as well.
There were no gladiators fighting this time around. Instead one of the giant Ulgrams (Which Subaru had promptly renamed to Bossgram) was fighting a Warpig. The Warpig was the strongest Mabeast in the arena according to Al, no one had managed to kill it and everyone who fought against it died. The Bossgram was getting destroyed, nothing it seemed to do actually managed to hurt the Warpig. The Bossgram tried to swipe a paw at the Warpig only to have its leg caught in the beast's mouth.
Even though Subaru turned his head away he still managed to somehow hear the disgusting sound of the leg being torn off by the Warpig. The howl of pain was drowned out by the cheering of the crowd, Subaru felt sick to his stomach.
"You know bro, you can't just look away every time something gross happens you know? You can't really be a gladiator if you can't even look at the fights from the sidelines."
"I know…"
Subaru muttered, although he still found it hard to look, especially since he knew what he was going to see. The first time he saw a Gladiator die to the Warpig he threw up and wasn't able to sleep for weeks after. Sometimes at night he still had nightmares of himself being forced to fight the Warpig.
"Think about it like training, you need to get used to the violence, and you can take this opportunity to analyze the fight itself."
Subaru nodded and slowly brought his head around to look at the ongoing battle, or what remained of it anyway.
He hadn't noticed when he looked away but the ulgram itself didn't last long after it lost its leg. The warpig was digging into the remains of the ulgram like his dog used to eat out of his dog bowl, the sound of it echoed through the arena, it seemed that the crowd didn't feel like cheering for the mess down there today.
'Oh great, now I'm sad and disgusted'
Subaru could physically feel the bile rising in his throat, he nearly spewed it all over the benches in front of him. His eyes burned with tears while he forced himself to watch the Warpig eat through all the fat, bones and flesh of the Ulgram. He forced himself to swallow his vomit and wipe his eyes clear and try to think happy thoughts.
'Is it cannibalizing it if they are two different types of Mabeasts?'
Not that the thought was really important, but Subaru appreciated the distraction.
When putting the Warpig up they didn't even bother doing their usual routine of poking at it with big sticks until it backed up into one of the cages in the walls, instead they let it eat as it pleased and dropped a bunch of bait in one of the bigger cages. It took fifteen minutes to finish eating and drag itself back to its cage.
After that the fights were over, the crowds all left the arena, most of the crowd was made of off duty guards, Subaru had decided that anyone watching the fights who wasn't a guard must be some sort of crazy… but he also watched the fights and wanted to be a gladiator so he wasn't quite sure where that placed him.
Subaru and Al didn't talk much on the way back to their room, not that they weren't talkative or didn't enjoy each other's company, but the fights were always exhausting. Luckily there would be no fighting tomorrow or the day after, gladiators needed a resting period and some training time. Al in fact wouldn't be fighting for a few days after that even, any Gladiators who had apprentices were given a few extra days off so that they could properly train their students.
Subaru theorized that this was only allowed because there weren't a lot of kids actually willing to goto the Gladiator Islands and train to be a gladiator, and that there was about a 10:1 ratio of gladiators to apprentices.
"'Night Al."
"Night bro"
Al didn't even bother to take off his clothes, he just set his sword up against the wall and hopped onto the bench/bed, Subaru still didn't know how he could possibly be comfortable there. Subaru himself had a small patch of animal skins and hay on the floor for him to sleep in, he had the option of sleeping with the other two Gladiator Apprentices, but Subaru felt more comfortable in the same room as Al.
Before Subaru went to sleep he pulled his fathers oversized tracksuit out of his backpack, he basically couldn't sleep without it. It made him feel safe, almost as if his father was there holding him in his sleep. Subaru thought about his parents who he left behind, when he first arrived all the excitement and adrenaline of appearing in a new world made it hard to process the consequences of being isekai'd were. Now four months later he had finally understood that he had lost his entire family and friends and chance of a normal life in the blink of an eye. Subaru closed his eyes and totally didn't cry himself to sleep in the corner of Al's room.
"Al… it's too heavy."
Subaru let out a deep huff as he dug the point of the sword into the sand below him. The area he was in now was outside of the arena, a roofless walled area that was strategically placed so that no one could view the spot without going out of their way to walk around the entire arena.
Subaru himself was shirtless, wearing a pair of pants and sandals similar to Al's style of dress. He was also holding Al's one handed sword with both hands, it was too big for him to use it with one hand yet. Al was somewhat proud of the progress Subaru had made in such a short time, the boy was starting to get himself a set of abs, he was sure that Subaru would be just as strong as he is, if not more so in a few more years.
"If it wasn't that heavy then it wouldn't kill anything bro, come on give me a couple more swings."
Subaru huffed again and pulled the sword out of the sand, holding it unsteadily with both hands. He let out a "Hah" as he swung, hitting the cloth and straw dummy in the side, then head, and then side again before running out of stamina. He could barely hold the sword in his hands while he stood there and took several deep breaths.
"We need to work on your cardio bro, go ahead and give me a few laps around the training yard alright?"
"Yes sir!" Subaru yelled as he dropped the sword in the sand and took off running
"Hey, I told you to call me Bro or something, don't call me sir!" Al called out as he retrieved his sword from the sand, wiping the gains off on his pants before sliding it back into it's new leather sheath. He had gotten an earful from the old blacksmith when he saw him again, he really needed to clean his sword off on his pants or something before he gave it to Subaru, the boy was far too accident prone to willingly give him his unsheathed sword without supervision.
He turned around and walked back towards his seat on a set of stone steps leading out of the training area. He ran a hand across the top of his helmet while he watched Subaru do his laps.
'He's not getting anywhere with the sword, even though I started to show some basic skill with it at this time, but he still swings the damn thing like he's fighting with a baseball bat. Three years seems like a lot, but I don't think I can actually teach him to use a sword properly in that time… hell I still only get by half the time thanks to my dirty trick.'
Al wiped the sweat off the back of his neck under his helmet, he also pushed a few hairs that were sticking out back under the metal oven on his skull.
"Subaru! Come here!"
The twelve year old boy changed course in his running and aimed straight for Al stopping at the steps and leaning on his knees, taking deep breaths and probably somewhat confused as to why Al decided to stop his laps..
"Sorry for interrupting you like that, but I think that it's about time that we worked on Mana Enhancements."
Subaru's eyes lit up and Al was pretty sure it was taking everything within the kid not to start squealing like a schoolgirl.
"I finally get to learn how to jump around like some sort of super hero or punch really hard like Jael or even-"
"Bro, chill"
Al interrupted while holding one hand out towards Subaru to help calm the boy down.
"Don't get your hopes up, most likely starting out you will be pretty weak, maybe only adding a couple of inches to your jumps and moving barely any faster, and you still have to figure out how to regulate the magic throughout your body."
Subaru tilted his head in confusion causing Al to sigh and continue explaining, pointing towards the center of his chest with his index finger.
"Your magic comes from your Gate I think? Anyway it's like a muscle, you're going to have to practice with it to be able to use it effectively. Right now if you tried to do it you would probably blow through all of your mana in one go and wipe yourself out before you took two steps."
Subaru looked dejected at his own feet crossing his arms and kicking a small pile of sand.
"Well then, how do I learn to not do that then? I want to do like Ayaan does and be able to jump twenty feet in any direction and move crazy fast!"
Al sighed, the sound enhanced by the echo of his helmet.
"Well we need to practice with you pushing magic throughout your body… but that isn't exactly safe to do right now. I am not super proficient with magic in that form and I wouldn't be able to actually guide you through that process, hell I couldn't even tell you what your magical affinity is."
"Well is there anyone else here who could do… all that?"
Subaru asked while scratching his cheek, looking like he was trying to and failing to understand a lot of the words that Al just said.
'If I knew how to read I would be able to get a dictionary and maybe I would understand like half of what Al was saying here.'
"No, I don't think that there is… but there would definitely be people who would have a better understanding of these things and could help guide you in these sorts of things in one of the other arena's"
"Other… arena's?
Al worried that if Subaru tilted his head any further that his neck might snap so he figured it would be best if he started giving answers he was actually knowledgeable about. He wiped some more sweat off the back of his neck and raised three fingers towards Subaru on his good hand.
"There are three big gladiator arenas on Ginuhive Island. The Sword Arena which has only physical weapon fights with the bare minimum magics allowed and where we are currently. The Spirit Arena which is on the other side of the island that has magic only fighting, and finally the Spirit Knight Arena which has a mix of the two."
Subaru nodded along as he absorbed this new information.
"No one here is well versed enough in magic to help out with that kind of training… well maybe Ayaan but he is kind of a dick so we shouldn't expect him to just sit down and help you if you aren't his apprentice."
Subaru did not appreciate Ayaan being called out like that, and Al could tell by the way he scrunched up his face when he called him a dick. It was true though, Ayaan, like most gladiators, was very full of himself and had the skill to back up all his attitude. Al was surprised that he was willing to take anyone on as an apprentice, but he actually picked up some red head girl Subaru's age, he hadn't had the chance to talk to her and he didn't really want to. He could only imagine what kind of little monster she had to be for Ayaan to take her under his wing.
"Either way Subaru, I think that we should transfer over to the Arena of the Spirit Knight. I can get us sent over there by the end of the week and we can get to work on setting you up with Mana Enhancement training. We might even be able to speed up some of your other training if you show enough innate talent with it."
That seemed to prevent Subaru from throwing up the same stink that he did any time Al dared shit on his favorite gladiator. Of course Subaru would always cheer on Al in the arena, but in comparison to how he was when it was Ayaan out there fighting, his cheers for Al seemed half hearted.
"So like exercise then, I just gotta exercise my… Gate or whatever and then I can do magic?"
Al hummed and nodded to show that Subaru got it right, he was tempted to grant him a thumbs up but decided against it.
"Al, uh… bro… Do you know how to do magic?"
Al nearly snorted under his helmet and stood up, he could see where this was heading.
"C-can you do some right now?"
Al nodded and brought one of his legs behind him and grabbed it with his one arm, stretching it out while balancing on one foot, and then repeating it with his other leg.
"For sure bro, I don't think anyone is watching us anyway. Just stand back a bit."
Subaru bounced on his feet in excitement and he hopped over to where Al had been sitting earlier. Al himself took a couple steps forward away from Subaru, luckily the training area was empty save the two of them since most gladiators were back at arena, Jael and Ayaan's apprentice were probably practicing sparring or maybe even practicing against some smaller Mabeasts since they were a little further ahead of Subaru.
Al raised one foot in front of him while at the same time he concentrated on his mana, projecting it into the earth in front of him.
"Dona!"
With a shout he sent off his spell and slammed his foot into the sand in front of him, immediately after the sand in front of him rose from the ground and turned into a large sandstone wall. He could hear Subaru clapping behind him and whistling. Feeling somewhat smug, Al decided to show off a bit, raising his one hand and pointing his open palm at the wall of sandstone before him.
"El Doa!"
With that shout the sand under him coalesced into a large teardrop shaped rock and rocketed towards the wall, shattering the center of it and leaving a large V shape implanted into the magicked wall.
"Woah Al! That was awesome!"
Al smiled smugly under his helmet… or as smugly as he could with the state of his face.
'I think I had the same reaction when I first saw magic… which is kind of embarrassing since I was like twenty'
"Subaru, come up here next to me"
Subaru leapt from his spot on the stairs and landed in the sand next to Al looking like someone just offered him a million bucks or a car or whatever kids back on earth liked these days.
"Now I want you to focus on your Gate and channel your mana."
Subaru's smile never faltered but his eyes did squint a bit as he stared at Al.
"Uh… bro, how do I do that?"
Al thought about it for a moment, really he hadn't ever needed to think about it. The person who taught him magic explained it pretty well but that was several years and a million loops ago and he hadn't needed to put much thought into it for a long time.
"Just sort of… imagine it inside you. Like a door with your mana on one side and you on the other."
Subaru nodded his head and closed his eyes as he let his imagination take over.
"Now just open the door slightly, raise your foot and stomp it while yelling 'Dona!' "
Subaru followed Al's directions as he spoke them, imagining himself standing before a door with himself on one side and whatever Mana looked like on the other side. Slowly he opened the door on his side in an attempt to let a little of that Mana leak through, simultaneously he raised his foot and prepared to yell out the spell.
He nearly burst into tears of joy as he could physically feel the mana flowing through his body and focusing on… his foot?
He didn't have the time to stop and consider what was about to happen, although he did feel somewhat worried, as if some sort of sixth sense was warning him of impending danger.
"DONA!"
He shouted and brought his foot down into the sand. A sharp pain shot up his leg, and it did not leave right away. His eyes shot open and he cut off all flow of mana in his body instinctually, he looked down at the foot he had used to stomp the dirt. There was no obvious damage, but he felt as though every bone in his leg was vibrating.
"AL! I THINK I JUST BROKE MY LEG!"
Al spun his head to look at Subaru and pointed his visor towards the boy's leg.
"Nope, definitely not bro. If you broke your leg you would be crying a lot more."
He looked out in front of him, his theory that Subaru would have the same affinity of magic as his own seemed to be wrong. That was a pain, he hoped Subaru didn't end up with some wicked rare affinity.
Turning his head back to Subaru he noticed that the boy had raised his leg off the ground and then immediately hissed and put it back on the ground just to follow it with another hiss of pain.
'Oh shit, that's not good… I hope he didn't just like break a toe or something… Maybe since he was trying to cast a spell that he had no affinity with he just ended up doing mana enhancement? If so then he shouldn't have hurt himself at all, his body would have been strengthened to the same amount of damage he put out so that it wouldn't hurt him.'
He was shaken out of his thoughts when he noticed Subaru whispering curses which he probably shouldn't know yet. Subaru turned his head to look at Al with tears building up in his eyes.
"Al, I really think that I broke something."
His voice was somewhat winey, it was very obvious that he was trying his hardest not to burst out into tears on the spot.
'Good job kid'
"Alright bro, let's take you to go see Nat then."
He scooped the boy up with one arm and began marching towards the arena itself at a steady pace so as not to aggravate whatever wound Subaru managed to get himself.
"Subaru… I thought I told you… to be more careful…"
Nat spoke in her slow, soft, melancholic voice while she held two blue glowing hands over his leg. Apparently he had managed to fracture several parts of his foot by accidentally enhancing his strength with Mana.
"Sorry Nat, this one is kind of on me. I just sort of assumed that he would have the same magical affinity as me."
Nat slowly turned her head around to look at Al who was rubbing the back of his neck under his helmet sheepishly. Her bloodshot tired blue eyes locked onto the visor of his helmet for a moment and the two stared at each other while she healed Subaru's leg.
"And pray tell… why did you think… that the two of you… would have the same affinity?"
Subaru glanced at Al and he thought Al glanced at him at the same time.
"We uhh… Look the same."
Nat snorted at that and brought her attention back to Subaru's leg.
"I truly… feel sorry for you Subaru… your master seems to be… an idiot."
Subaru giggled and Al seethed in the corner of the room. After a few more quiet minutes Nat stopped her healing and Subaru bent his leg and swirled his ankle to test if it still hurt.
"Woah Nat, thanks for that."
She simply nodded with a tight smile on her face.
"Before you go Subaru… would you feel okay… with me checking… your magical affinity?"
Both Subaru and Al looked surprised at this.
"You can check for someone's affinity?"
Nat nodded her head and folded her hands in her laps while she sat in her chair.
"It is… within my… capabilities."
Subaru nodded his head so many times and so fast that Al thought it might fly off his shoulders.
Nat stood up out of her chair and towered over Subaru, reminding the gladiator wannabe that she was crazy tall in comparison to a lot of the women in Japan. She placed a hand on Subaru's head and hummed lightly to herself. Her hand glowed a light blue and she closed her eyes, Subaru froze for a moment as he realized he had no idea what an affinity was. He just sort of assumed from context clues that it would mean whether or not he could use Earth, Water, Fire or Air magic.
Nat looked surprised after a moment and drew her hand back from Subaru's head and towards herself.
"Oh my Subaru… it seems that you… have the very rare… Shadow Magic Affinity"
Subaru's face lit up "Awesome! I didn't even know that was an option!"
Al's face darkened even more under his helmet "Shit"
The medic and Subaru both looked at Al, it being obvious that he accidentally swore out loud.
"What's wrong Al? Is Shadow Affinity really bad or something?"
Subaru now sounded a little scared.
'Don't tell me I got some sort of evil devil worship magic'
"My affinity is Earth which is fairly common. If you had something like Air or Fire or Water even it would be fine, but Shadow is the rarest affinity there is… which is to say that no one I know has that affinity."
'Oh that sucks but also thank god'
Subaru sighed and laid down on the padded bed. The trade off of having a really cool and rare magical affinity, there was potentially no one on the island to teach it to him. He can't exactly just leave the island and learn it from someone else.
"While the affinity is rare and a teacher… may be hard to find… spirits often innately know… spells that correspond to their… affinity."
Subaru sat up and tilted his head again, he had been wondering why Al didn't try to teach him magic stuff earlier, but with how complicated it seemed to be he started to understand his teacher's hesitance to approach the subject.
"Okay, so what are spirits?"
Al spoke up here, seemingly in a hurry and with no interest to listen to Nat sigh her way through any more explanations.
"Spirits are little balls of magic that float around, if you have a high enough spirit affinity you can contract one. It's a nice dream but spirit affinity high enough to contract a spirit is pretty rare as well."
The trio sat in silence for a moment, just listening to the sound of Nat breathing as if she just ran a marathon even though she was just sitting on a stool next to Subaru.
"Well how do we test my spirit affinity?"
Subaru noticed that Al's casual stance seemed to go a little rigid as he leaned up against the door frame. Nat also straightened up a little, furrowing her brow as she looked off in the distance.
"The only place on the island that even allows you to use spirits is the Arena of the Spirit…"
Subaru couldn't see Al's face but he could tell he was frowning by how he spoke. Nat herself gave Subaru an apologetic look. Subaru was getting increasingly annoyed by the vague statements.
"Okay, come on, just tell me what the big deal is."
Al scratched the back of his neck under his helmet as he began to respond.
"Well, the Arena of the Spirits doesn't hold any Mabeasts"
Subaru scratched his head and furrowed his brows in confusion.
"But if there are no Mabeasts then how do they… oh."
"Yeah bro, if we go there we can look at your spirit affinity, and we might even find someone else with a shadow magic affinity to help you out… but all the fights are person on person, gonna be a lot of bodies there."
The room got quiet again. Subaru had to admit that the idea of going to a place where the fighting was exclusively man on man was kind of scary. He knew there were fights like that here, Al even participated in them, but Subaru never watched any of them.
"Well… I think we need to go there anyway right? So we just need to bite the bullet and move on."
Subaru was somewhat aware of his failings in his training to be a gladiator, even if Al was wearing a helmet he could sort of feel the disappointment radiating off the man when he practiced with his sword.
"That is a strange saying but… if you wish to practice magic… it could be your only option."
Al nodded along in the corner, he brought up a hand to wipe at the back of his neck but stopped himself.
"Alright then bro, i'll put us up for transfer to the Arena of the Spirit sometime next week. Just make sure all your things are packed until then alright?"
Subaru nodded and looked down as he swayed his feet back and forth, just sort of spacing out while Al and Nat talked to each other about some adult stuff that Subaru didn't really care about.
As Al's apprentice he would not only have to watch Al fight and care for Al's weapons and armor which really only entailed his sword and helmet, while they had been staying at the Sword Arena he had only watched fights where Al had fought against Mabeasts. He had only cleaned Al's gear when he had fought Mabeasts as well, Al took care of it when it came to the cleaning of his equipment after fighting another gladiator.
But he knew that he would have to face the facts at some point, as a gladiator he would need to kill at some point, the thought itself made him sick to his stomach.
'But it's not like I can do anything else. Sure I can just leave… and explore Vollachia all by myself, a place which Al says is notoriously dangerous and that even the children are so used to death that kids my age have no problem with killing someone else.'
Subaru sighed to himself. He wasn't going to lie, the luster of becoming a gladiator had worn off pretty quickly, but he really didn't have any other choices. By watching the gladiators fight in the arena, and having Al constantly remind him he knew that he was significantly weaker than most people in this world. He only had one life after all and he didn't want to waste it.