Sanguine Paradise

Chapter 80: [Day 45] – “Candidacy”

Day 45

Even though I had my reservations about the child drow, over the last few weeks of interacting with the kid, I've grown very fond of him. A unique trait of his was that he was a mute. I couldn't be exactly sure as to why, but my inclinations told me it had something to do with whatever the Mistress had done to him.

But even though we couldn't exactly communicate verbally, I did hold somewhat one-sided conversations with him, where he simply nodded or shook his head for yes or no questions.

In fact, I actually acquired quite a bit of information from him, although he wouldn't exactly disclose too much about the Mistress, as whenever I broached the more touchy and important questions about the Mistress he would get noticeably nervous and afraid.

But I found out that the reason why the Mistress had a drow as a servant with some lengthy bound questioning. It was actually because she had found him no long ago, orphaned with his parents killed. He didn't remember what had killed them, or when and where exactly she had found him, and I could only inwardly frown as I had my own speculations about just who killed his parents.

I wasn't exactly sure what the reason had been for the Mistress choosing Mika as a test subject, but I had my guesses when I thought back to what Mia had said about her own magic. The Drow were inherently geared towards dark magic, and while I knew for a fact that Mia's Dark Magic wasn't the same as the Mistress' own magic, of which I believed to be something along the lines of Shadow Magic, but they might still have some kind of connection to each other or another.

So it wouldn't be far-fetched to believe that the Mistress had hopes of nurturing this Shadow Core within Mika's body, most likely for later harvest, fitting the bill about him being a living incubator.

I was pulled from my thoughts as Mika, who was carrying a large and heavy-looking plate filled with food, shyly approached my sitting form. He was always like this, even though we had known each other for multiple weeks now, he still acted shy around me, almost as if it was in his nature. Generally, he seemed like an abnormally innocent child despite the obvious hardships he had gone through.

Going through the routinely acts of eating my breakfast while conversing with Mika, the morning quickly went by. Actually, the big plate of food which Mika had brought was too much for me to eat by myself, but I had specifically ordered him to bring this much. This was due to the kid's insatiable appetite, betraying the visage of his gaunt form, but he most definitely didn't mind carrying the extra load if it meant more food for himself.

I originally began sharing some of my food with him, as I saw how he practically drooled whenever he observed me eating, but he was still shy about the subject, and I had to practically force-feed him before he would even dare to touch the food. He was quite a weird kid, but I couldn't help but grow fond of him, especially now that I didn't have a particular Drowess to tease, and he filled those shoes nicely.

Once done, I had ordered him to get some midnightroot to last me through the day. It would be out of my system by tomorrow's fight, so I didn't worry about it having an effect on my combat prowess. Actually, the root's effects had already worn off by now, but the reason why I hadn't already been lunging for Mika's life was something I myself couldn't really explain.

For some reason or another, he was the only living being that didn't provoke my insatiable bloodthirst when untamed by the root's effects. I had tried to figure out why over the last few weeks, but nothing I learned seemed to be the cause, so I simply chalked it down to being another one of Mika's peculiarities.

***

The next day came quickly, and the assembly of an orc-guard entourage outside my cell sounded out. Actually, it was like this throughout the whole complex of buildings, as they were preparing the fighters for another day of battles and blood. Going through the ingrained motions of being secured and escorted, I soon found myself in a familiar corridor leading out into the fighting grounds of the colosseum currently soaked in the twin suns' midday splendor.

This was the last day of the life and death tournament, and these final fights would decide the champion candidates, so it wasn't surprising that the sea of greenskins lining the spectator stands were roaring at a fever pitch.

"Let them loose!" - Merkaan

As the colosseum's gremlin announcer, Merkaan, screeched out his last sentence after a lengthy introduction of both fighters, the metal bars barring my passage out into the fighting grounds, lifted. Emerging from the corridor, the twin suns glare hampered my sight for only a moment before I laid my eyes upon the overly massive figure of an ogre, trying to squeeze itself through the opposing corridor, which proved to almost be too small of his overly cumbersome size.

The guesses of who my opponent for today was going to be, of which I had voiced to the boisterous Meala, had just gotten confirmed.

I was fighting Rangore...

-Appraisal!-

[Appraisal: Rangore]

Name: "Rangore"

Race: Ogre

Sex: Male

Rank: D-

Level: 16/50

Health: 955/955

Stamina: 338/344

Mana: 0/0

[Attributes]

STR - 72

VIT - 95

AGI - 20

DEX - 12

INT - 7

CHR - ???

WILL - ???

MAG - ???

[Trait, Titles, and Skills].

Skills - ???

Traits - ???

Titles - ???

[Resistances]

Phy. Resistance - 10

Mag. Resistance - 6

Men. Resistance - ???

Rangore was a behemoth, even for an ogre, easily eclipsing more than five meters in height. Compared to Morgath, Rangore's size was more composed of fat than muscles, leaving him with an enormous potbelly and flesh hanging in long folds of stretched skin. Whereas Morgath was a horrifying sight of overwhelming strength and a lethal intensity, Rangore left you nauseated and worried that he simply might just sit on you and flattened you to a pancake.

But I already knew not to underestimate him as once he had even accidentally demolished his own sleeping cell, custom made for his enormous figure, in a fit while he was asleep. The sheer force in the tremors the shocked the ground and buildings close to him caused me to gawk in muted surprise.

He packed a punch, no doubt about it.

Still, knowing this didn't dissuade me even in the slightest though and I moved towards him with an unhesitant gait. A major weakness of Rangore was his stupidity. He wasn't the smartest ogre, to say the least, and his lackluster speed didn't compliment his strength very much. Besides me having an advantage as a speed-oriented fighter, I didn't give pause due to me barely being able to restrain myself any longer.

The midnightroot had long worn off, and ever since laying eyes on Rangore the dormant bloodthirst within me had ignited like a radiant flame blazing into life. For each step I took towards his immense form, the more self-control I lost.

"Bwahahahaha - Little insect man, I turn you into bug paste!" - Rangore

Saying this, he suddenly charged with uncanny momentum betraying his absurd size, opting to close the distance himself. But it was also at this time that I lost any sense of restraint. A wicked smile that stretched across my marred face coupled with eyes that screamed for blood appeared on my face just moments before my diminutive form practically disappeared, flashing towards the giant with insane speed; only one thought suffusing my mind.

Kill.