After Nero had chatted with Koal for a while, he returned to his tutoring session with Christina, who had warmed up to him a bit in the meantime, even though she still seemed strongly averse to math.
Nero was just explaining how exponents worked when she groaned, massaging her temples,
"Nero!" she grumbled loudly. Nero put down his pen and looked at her, frowning, "What is it?"
"Why do I have to learn this?"
Nero sighed heavily, releasing only a small part of his pent-up frustration, "Because your father asked me to teach it to you."
She pouted, "Yeah, I know that, but when on earth am I going to need this?"
Nero raised an eyebrow, "Well, for calculating your assets, for example."
She looked at him questioningly. He tapped his pen on the paper, "Imagine you have two credits to your name, but the next day you have four, and the day after that you have eight. Now you want to know how much you'll have in fourteen days if you double your assets every day. You could keep writing two times two times two times two..." He wrote all fourteen twos on the sheet, "But you don't want to have to write out that huge calculation every time you need to figure it out, so you just simplify it. You take the two and simply raise it to the power of fourteen."
She looked at the sheet of paper. "Sounds unnecessary," she muttered. Nero nodded slightly,
"I understand why you think that, but it can be incredibly helpful and save you a lot of time when you have to write large numbers." He leaned back. "Besides, it will be important later on for key formulas, but we'll get to that when you're ready."
Nero secretly hoped he wouldn't have to stay in this camp much longer before he had to teach her that.
Nero's eyes went blurry as his thoughts spun. As so often, his thoughts swirled around the Mager who had attacked him. In hindsight, he regretted not asking why they had attacked him. But at the time he thought—no, at the time he was convinced—that he was going to die. He hadn't cared anymore; it didn't matter.
His train of thought continued as he tried to analyze every word the mages had spoken that he had overheard.
Christina looked at Nero and saw the distant, cold gaze that seemed to be staring into nothingness. She already knew that look and knew that Nero was brooding over something. She would like to know what it was that this young man had to think about so intently.
"Are you thinking about Kiel?" she asked, taking a guess.
Nero's eyes immediately returned to reality. He looked at Christina and smiled warmly. "Yes, but it'll be okay for sure," he said, but inside he was cold. He did have some concerns about Kiel, but his fear of him was limited; after all, he was nothing more than a muscular madman with barely two brain cells to his name. Christina, however, looked at her teacher with concern. "But he's so strong, and you're so…" she hesitated, searching for the right words, "Weak and fragile." Nero raised an eyebrow, amused. "Thank you very much for those encouraging words, my lady," he said sarcastically, "But you're right. Physically, he's far superior to me. But you know what?" he asked.
She looked at him questioningly, "He's slow and dumb as a rock. I just have to use that to my advantage and I'll win!"
"Christina rolled her eyes, "I wish I could share your confidence."
Nero just shrugged and slowly sat up. After all, he had spoken the truth; he had always been, above all, a warrior of the mind, and he was confident he would find a way to outwit the madman. Still, it couldn't hurt to make a few preparations.
"Christina," he said, addressing the girl, "Can you show me where the closest arena is?"
Christina didn't seem surprised by the question. She nodded in agreement. "It's not far from here. If you'd like, I can take you there."
She gestured for him to follow her. So, after briefly saying goodbye to Koal, the two of them left the house. Christina hadn't lied, and after a five-minute walk, they arrived at a somewhat larger house, which they entered.
The mortals murmured quietly among themselves when they recognized Nero. It wasn't hard to recognize Nero, because the mortals here mostly had dark skin and were muscular from all the hard work, but Nero stood out like a black arrow. But those who didn't recognize him from stories remembered his name when he had to give it to a mortal at the entrance before they entered. This was to record who entered the arena, when, and where, to prevent theft of expensive weapons.
Of course, admission costs a bit extra, but Christina paid for both of them.
They entered; the arena was relatively empty, since not many mortals were willing to pay to enter outside of official fights.
The arena was larger than expected, but when he asked Christina about it, she told him that this was only the second-largest arena in the camp. The largest was in the center of the First District.
That's where the most important and exciting fights took place; Nero's fight would be held in a smaller arena in one of the other districts.
Since Nero was a new fighter, his match would take place further out, in the thirteenth district. This was already one of the more prestigious arenas, thanks to Kiel.
The arena where Nero and Christina were now was a large circular area with long rows of bleachers stretching around it, much like the Colosseum on his homeworld. Much smaller, of course.
"Where can I see the available weapons?"
Christina looked around with a shrug. "This is my first time here. My father doesn't want me to go to the fights, and otherwise I have no reason to come here."
Nero nodded and looked around. On the other side of the arena was a small passageway, which Nero walked toward. As expected, the passage led to a small room filled to the brim with weapons of all kinds. Long spears, short swords, massive clubs, and much more.
"Are all of these allowed?" he asked Christina.
Christina nodded. Nero noted, not surprisingly, that there were no ranged weapons, so he wouldn't be able to reenact the legendary story of David versus Goliath with a slingshot against a giant. What a shame, Nero thought to himself as he slowly ran his hand over the weapons. By far his best weapon is clearly the sword. He has the most practice with it; that's what he's trained in for the most part, though he also has experience with the spear, the dagger, and a few others. Clubs and war hammers are definitely out of the question, since they were definitely too heavy for him.
His eyes lit up. "How many weapons are we allowed to bring?" he asked Christina. She looked at him. "Just one," she told Nero, much to his disappointment, but he didn't let that get him down. He was sure to devise a plan that would work.
He took a sword from the wall and went out into the arena. It was a clumsy, bulky thing, that sword—by no means as finely crafted as the black sword he had wielded and used to fight Gerald—but it would have to suffice for practice. He stood on the sandy ground. He looked down. "Will the arena in the Thirteenth District also have a sandy floor?" he asked.
Christina, who had followed him and brought along a small short sword she was currently waving about, paused. She thought about it. "I think so. As far as I know, to avoid disparities, every arena is built the same way. Only the size may vary to accommodate more spectators."
Nero fell silent after that, and Christina returned to her game.
Nero raised the sword and took his stance, just as Shire had shown him. Then he struck. He repeated all the different moves he had learned from both Shire and the other Polykenas. Shire's fighting style had always been direct and full of power, while Xersies had taught him a more precise, cautious style.
In the Polykenas' dimension, there were only incredibly primitive weapons, mostly forged from the bones and skin of slain Polykenas, yet every Polykenas learned to use them. They had no other choice, having been born into a world of brutality. Besides that, the Polykenas had an enormous talent for any kind of combat; after all, that was their way of life.
Either you kill, or you are killed, and in the beginning, even someone like Xersies couldn't rely on his magic.
Christina stopped moving and watched Nero in amazement as he executed attack after attack with fluid movements. He moved as if holding a sword were the most natural thing in the world, as if it were nothing more than an extension of his body.
"How do you do that?" Christina asked curiously.
Nero stopped, panting heavily. He looked at the girl. "I can't tell you all my secrets, Christina. What would we have left to talk about then?"
Christina rolled her eyes and pouted, but said nothing more.
Nero was still panting; he'd only been practicing for 10 minutes and was already completely out of breath. His weakened and malnourished body was giving out. He thrust the sword into the sandy ground. He watched the golden sand slowly trickle into the hollow Nero had created with his sword. A slight smile formed on his lips as a plan took shape in his mind.
"All right," he said to Christina, who saw a dangerous look in his eyes, "Now I know how I'm going to defeat Kiel!"