"The warriors have been culled for the past two weeks. The dust of the weak who wanted to test their mettle against the strong was scattered away, and in their place we have gathered in front of you six gladiators that survived against all odds! That have shown to possess amazing combat prowess! Both strength and cunning that allowed them to triumph and rise above the others!"
The announcer was among them, calling them all out to rise from their knees, and Sakura could feel the adrenaline rising. Her chakra levels were not the best... but goddamn if the anticipation was not heating up her veins.
"Taril the Storm of the Sea! A seasoned pirate that wanted to take the arena by the storm!"
Sakura leaned just a little closer to whisper something. "He used 'storm' twice. He's not very creative, is he?"
She could hear Taril chuckle discreetly. He blinked, and opened his mouth briefly. "Repetition is not always artistic enough."
"Tara the Strong! The champion of the noble house of Kingsley, in High Rock! She comes to show us the prowess of her long lineage of Breton battle mages that has served in the king's army for centuries!
Before they became part of the Empire, of course."
Tara shifted a little, keeping a strong grip on her battle axe. The woman was not nervous, that was clear enough. But she was sure as hell uneasy to hear her even being mentioned in the same breath as her family.
Somewhere in the tribunes, Marcurio could instantly recognize that last name, and associate his Destruction theory professor with it. Maybe they were relatives; both being Bretons and all. But who knew how common Kingsley was as a surname.
"Karasu of Skyrim! The wanderer of the frozen tundra, the white crow perched on top of the Snow Tower, ready to pounce and strike!"
Sakura has risen and straightened her back, proud and tall - kind of -, and her eyes scanned the shadows. She instantly locked eyes with her brother. While Shisui could not openly call out for her, or wave, he gave her a discreet thumbs up, before turning to Padfoot. Marcurio was watching her, giving the young gladiator a small smirk. She would come back alive out of it... she could not afford to die.
Right next to her, was another Breton woman, that Sakura could not recognize at all, a heavily armored Redguard man, and an incredibly silent Argonian. They were six of them in total. All standing back to back, as the gates of the Arena rose up with a heavy, metallic groan.
"The main course has been served, dear spectators!" The man called out. "Can they face freshly caught dunerippers???!" The man has conveniently disappeared, to sit in a rather comfy and well exposed box, high up from the Arena. But nothing happened. The cage doors have been lifted up, and a deep silence has settled among the gladiators.
"Dunerippers?" The Breton woman close to Sakura's left has raised an eyebrow. It was the question that she was curious about too. Nothing happened. And she didn't know what to expect either. Nobody was moving. And the question was... why?
"Watch out!" A heavily armored man has tackled her to the ground, rolling off her, to shove the giant head of his ebony warhammer in the maw of a large, plated creature. Reddish brown chitin plates adorned its entire body, and the leg ends were equipped with long claws. On top of that... it spat fire.
Sakura got on her legs, and coated her arms with Armament Haki. She watched the Redguard man swing his hammer for a few seconds, forcing the pointy ends deeper in the soft cavity of the creature's mouth. With a screech, it let go of the hammer and shook its head.
"Thanks." Sakura caught her breath, as her red eyes started to analyze the creature's combat patterns.
"The belly is the weakest point in a duneripper. And it's best if you don't let it burrow itself back underground." The Redguard man did not waste any of their precious time with pleasantries. He wore a solemn look on his scarred face, as he venomously eyed the beast.
Sakura nodded, as she started to strategize. The rest of the combatants have already split in two other small teams; to each take down a duneripper. It was not part of the rules; it was more like an unspoken agreement between the participating parties.
Tara has unconsciously joined forces with the Argonian marauder, more or less reluctantly, while the pirate was avoiding capture as his fellow aide seemed to mutter strange incantations under her breath.
But there was no time to admire... or even assess the competition's skills. The man, whose name Sakura remembered to be Cyrus - it has just been announced, after all, pulled her aside.
"I have seen you throw some of those punches before. If you jump and manage to get it on its hind legs for long enough, I can strike it in the chest." Sakura looked at him long and hard, before nodding, letting Cyrus to step back and get a tighter grip on his hammer. She locked eyes with the beast, as they circled each other... until she had to side-step, as a blaze of scorching fire shot right past her in the last moment.
"They spit fire!?" It was a rhetorical question... sure. One which the Redguard warrior would have answered, if they had the time to spare. But they didn't. Sakura ran right towards the beast, dodging the plated maws and fire blasts, swinging her foot and slamming it upwards in the chin of the beast. The chakra-filled kick was enough to shot the beast up, giving Cyrus just enough time to charge in.
Dunerippers were vicious creatures, and while with their burly size you'd think they'd be slow and cumbersome... no. They were agile and fast enough to grasp you, especially if they had time to burrow themselves underground, tunnel right under your feet, and grasp you in their strong jaws. If tunneling was not an option... they could simply roast you alive. They were not to be toyed with.
There was a reason why they were considered pests, and why some smaller desert villages were plagued by Dunerippers. The roads were unsafe, the supplies were scarce, and the funds were too dry to hire more competent guards and defenders. It was a thing that Cyrus knew all too well.
"It seems that our duo over here has taken a more physical approach! More hands-on than you'd expect, am I right?" The announcer commented, booming his voice, as the crowd cheered.
"Sometimes all it takes you is a little less brain, and a little more brawn!"
The wards that the Breton mage has set up to chain the creature down, were slowly starting to give in to the strength of the duneripper.
That was when Sakura started to feel a numbing pain in her kicking foot. The hit barely made a dent in the creature's plated chitin... and that's when she realized that... well she was truly not 100% healed. And just how strenuous everything was. But the best thing she could was to take a small red pill from her pouch, and lift the edge of her mask up just slightly, to slip the red candy in her mouth and start chewing. It was bitter as hell... but goddamn if she did not feel a refreshing wave of calmness wash over her body. Maybe... just maybe... she would have the strength to go on.
Cyrus hit the beast in the chest, in rapid succession, and its chin collapsed on the ground, as he took a step back.
"Imagine the irony! If the beast would have defeated our dear Cyrus right after its death!"
But no. It was not over. The duneripper, as shaky as it was... it burrowed right underneath their feet, leaving behind a wake of dust. It was laying in wait.
"Oh no..." Cyrus narrowed his eyes, trying to feel the earth shake beneath his feet. It was far harder to do so if the ground was not sandy enough... like how he was used to. "Watch your back... this might get ugly. If the beast drags you down, it's over."
Marcurio did not notice the small piece of wood that was gripped in his hand. Upon closer inspection, he would know it belonged to the armrest he was holding on. Shisui, as worried as him, was the first to notice it. Truthfully... it was clear as daylight what was going on. And so did Alessio, the kid that was too clever and sneaky for his own good. But the mage paid no mind to his surroundings... all he could do was pray under his breath, that either of the Divines would watch over the backs of the Champions - yes, the Champions. They were all colleagues as of now? Right?
Sakura took a deep breath. "Front..." The Duneripper was nowhere to be seen. "Left and right..." Everything was quiet. "Back..." the beast was still waiting. "Bellow!" A chakra-filled fist slammed through the ground bellow her feet, this time piercing the already-dented and damaged chitin plate on the head. The crater in the arena, accompanied with the screech of the last beast, announced the end of the first round.
Cyrus, seeing the leg bend under the woman's weight, instantly grabbed her arm, in a rough grip, to sustain her just enough to regain her balance. He could also not miss the slight silver of blood that peeked behind her ivory mask, prompting her to chew on another pill. Luckily, the fresh batch was quite numerous, and hopefully, she would not run out soon.
"What a spectacular display!" The announcer boomed. "And with that, our last duneripper has been sent back to the dunes!"
Dunes. Dunerippers. It made Sakura snort.
And truthfully, the audience was already used to getting craters in the Arena, most notably being the monster of an Argonian that had to be excavated by the clean-up team; a week or so earlier. One of the many victims of Sakura's fists. They were all used to it, all but the Emperor; and Titus Mede II couldn't say he has ever seen that kind of power display before. Neither him, neither his agents, and neither did most of the Thalmor agents, that took time out of their busy schedules, to watch the match.
"And now, the Emperor will choose a champion to return to dungeon!"
It did not take long for the Breton mage to be escorted out; not without a scene. And if Marcurio would eventually be kind to relay some information to her about the incident, and judging by her robes, he'd wager that the Empire did not want to unconditionally give political power to the College of Whispers. Who were they? That was not so important, as of now.
And then, it hit Sakura. It was just another culling session. Another culling session to get them exhausted, but on the potential of equal-footing, as the last fight would be decisive, and perhaps quicker, if you took their exhaustion into account.
But it would soon be over.
...
A/N: Hey! So this is the end of the chapter. If you don't feel like reading this extra long note, feel free to wait for the next chapter (or go to it once it gets published). If you do decide to stay here and read... then sit down because it's long. I just want to address some things, regarding the story especially.
The author's note before this chapter was removed to not mess up the story immersion and continuity.
1. This story will never be discontinued. No matter how long it takes for me to post chapters. You see, I'm a role player, and I thoroughly enjoy The Elder Scrolls lore. This story has served me more than once as a pilot for some plot concepts. When I get to role play them with people, I have already sorted out what works and what not, and in-role-play. It will go smoother.
Same with OCs. I mean I have my own OC I use, that has kind of inherited Sakura's pink hair, but she's way more balanced than Sakura in-story xD Honestly now, I got the Naruto Overhaul mod for Skyrim. The techniques added as spells are insane. So I have to constantly work to make fighting scenes longer, to make the enemies not die instantly... mercy has kind of also became Sakura's secondary trait. If she did not hesitate to end a life during her life as a ninja, or a pirate... she certainly second-guesses it now.
2. And speaking of OCs. Regarding this chapter... I have bitten more than I can chew. Because I have planned to flesh out the five gladiators. And as I write or chat with my friends, I do get some ideas... but that's why it's taking me so long. I get concepts, I get to writing. I exhaust a few ideas I have, then I hit major blocks and I'm almost unable to write anything else for a while. I write a few lines, I get extremely stressed by external factors. However... I have made some progress tho.
So far, I have a few OCs that may have appeared, that are planned to appear, or at least co-exist with the small universe I have built over here. Here are the concepts I have for the gladiators, but I have also written some of the professors.
- Tara the Strong is his younger sister, used to harbor jealousy because of all the attention she never had before her brother was exiled, then started resenting her father for showing it to her while he couldn't care less what will happen to Theodore, kind of went to Cyrodiil to reconcile with her brother, but joined the tournament to earn her own fortune. I more or less created the Kingsleys like how... imagine the Charlottes from One Piece, or Van Graffs from Fallout New Vegas. Overly ambitious families, but instead of having a matriarch, they have a patriarch that may have had children with select women, to pass down certain traits to their children. Dunno.
- Taril is one pirate Dunmer lad, kind of laid back. His background is kinda vague, but hinted that he may be part of a Dunmer noble house, but in his own words that doesn't really matter. Even if he had formal arcane training, obviously. He's the kind of guy that ventured past Tamriel and came back with awesome stories, but nobody believes him, because while they're good to listen to, they sound too outlandish to be believed.
Now, the last three people are only concepts.
- The Redguard guy. For a name, I thought of Cyrus al-Ben-Arai. Basically, Cyrus is the protagonist of Elder Scrolls: Redguard. I'm going to go over a mile and say his mother wanted to give her child a cool name, and may have read about Cyrus's adventures in Stros M'Kai. Ben Arai is a small desert village in the Grey Cowl of Nocturnal Mod, that's supposed to be mostly Imperial, in an extremely remote location, descendants from Corvus Umbranox - the Grey Fox before the Champion of Cyrodiil.
Well I have taken a different path to the Cowl anyways, so I will keep Ben Arai as a small desert village in the Alik'r, perhaps quite insignifiant, and used to be plagued by Dunerippers. Maybe Cyrus in his youth has picked up arms with the rest of the villagers, and have hunted them down. Cyrus the Ripper Hunter or Ripper Slayer... or Cyrus the Ripper sounds kinda good as an epithet. I can see him as a kind guy, with a strong sense of community, and protecting the weak from their oppressors, but his bloodlust may sometimes get in the way of serving fair justice.
I kept that not-canon village name as a tribute because I loved the DLC-sized mod. I recommend it. It's basically Thief simulator, and dunerippers are reskinned chauruses that are bigger and breath fire... but whatever.
- The Breton lady might be a powerful mage, and now I'm debating if she would be The Synod or College of Whispers affiliated. Winning the tournament and getting a favor from the Emperor might give her College strong political influence - which is pretty much their goal anyways.
- And one Argonian marauder. Still thinking of a backstory, ideas are welcomed. Look, the races and genders of these people were completely randomized. See? I want them to be 3-dimensional characters, and that stops me from writing, because not everything is fully resolved in my head. fml.
3. Bruh, college has been kicking my ass. The story has been on going for years... and 1 and a half years of college are done already. Exam stress, classes, projects... they're all kicking me. Plus my mental health and heavy anxiety. So I often have no mood to do shit. Even when I'm finally free, and I just sit down and absently scroll reddit. So I have no excuse that I was overly busy but... yeah.
4. One day I will take the story, and rewrite it completely. I'm fully aware it has continuity issues, grammatical mistakes - I tried fixing it with Grammarly, and shit like that. But updating chapters here is a nightmare. Formatting gets thrown off, sometimes it gets published with a lot of raw html text and I have to fix it, I have to republish and reorder chapters... it sucks okay? So I'm trying to improve with every chapter, and at one point I will take everything down and rewrite it. Considering I won't have author blocks anymore, I will be able to write and publish better chapters quality-wise. On top of that, it will be up in one place, without you guys having to wait for the next chapters.
If you have any kind of ideas, I'm here to listen and see how they can be implemented.
I have some concepts in the writing process. All you have to know is that the main quest might start immediately once Sakura gets to Skyrim. It's the best setting lmao. Either way.
Thanks for reading down over here. I appreciate your support, and it gives me motivation to write. I hope you're all staying safe and sound. Hopefully I will see you soon, if I'm still alive.