FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Blade Tail is honestly somewhat surprised at what he sees as he enters the gym that that dog was teaching. He didn't know what all he should have expected but he definitely thought it should be something a bit more fantastical or something. Or even like the training rooms they were using back on Earth. Instead, the gym looks almost far too benign to be from somewhere that isn't Earth. Heck, there aren't even any spell corridors in this gym, which is in itself somewhat of a surprise. It simply looks like what he'd expect if he went to any ordinary boxing gym on Earth. With the obvious exception being that none of the people in the gym are human. There are a few other things present, like there are a few different sizes of punching bags, probably to account for different body types. There are also a few training dummies for using weapons that look more than a little nicked up.

And then there are a few elementals running around. Mostly water elementals though he can see one fire elemental in the distance and even a wood golem. So that definitely feels more like what he'd expect, though he does notice that he cannot see any imps here. Though, for that matter, none of the imps really seemed all that interested in helping out in the training back home. Then he assumed it was they were just too busy. Now, he's not so sure. The dog notices him and begins to head in his direction.

"Welcome, welcome," the dog states. "So glad of you to make it."

"Well I didn't really have anything better to do for the time being and figured I'd see what your place looked like. Though I have to say, it's a bit."

"Underwhelming?" the dog asks. "Yeah, I know. We get that a lot from people just casually checking in. But this is what best suits our main clientele. You see, not everyone is able to be the pick of the litter. Not everyone is born with phenomenal magical capabilities. Most here probably would never be able to really cast anything above a grade D spell. And that's okay. Our government takes care of all its citizens, not just the ones that can create fireballs the size of a sun. But we still need to be able to defend ourselves from any would-be attacker, even without the aid of magic. And that's what this place is. A place for anyone, no matter how much or little magic they possess can practice and train their fighting techniques to the best of their ability even without magic. We even hold in house tournaments every now and then. No magic allowed. I won one such tournament where the reward was a ticket to go and try and fight you in front of everyone. To be a vindication of everything we strive for because you were sadly the only one we knew we could potentially fight on an even playing field."

"Well, I'm sorry that I ended up getting to the point where I simply got bored of fighting with magic and wanted some excitement in the missions that we were having."

"Oh," the dog quickly states, raising his arms in a defensive and somewhat supplicating manner. "I didn't mean it like that. I thoroughly enjoyed our fight immensely. But it doesn't change the fact that would have been the only chance we would have been able to get to be on broadcasted shows. As a volunteer I could have simply surrendered at any time and been perfectly safe. But against anyone else they'd just incapacitate us and move on. They aren't in it for the entertainment value of the missions, they just want to get things done as thoroughly and quickly as possible. In my opinion that's one of the reasons why your planet's Rose was so entertaining for people to watch. It was someone who didn't know what they were doing and just acting out of instinct. There are so many of the people who have been in your system for months that end up just resorting to doing everything as efficiently as possible to minimize any sort of complication. They are often methodical and precise. That's how they survived. You, on the other hand, just managed to get such a reputation that it wasn't really a threat. I doubt if I even did try to turn against you and use magic to try and win that fight you wouldn't have really felt that you were in all that much danger."

"Nah, my wards would have gone off if you were possessing of any ill intent. It's one of the neat spells I had learned. I had the entire block warded up. Anyone that approaches with a killing intent would trigger it and alert me of their location. You didn't trigger the alarms so there was no interest in your mind in trying to kill or otherwise permanently harm me. So yeah, even if you did throw magic I wasn't concerned for my life because if I should have been the wards would have gone off during your approach."

"So I assume that you've signed up to the arena?" the dog asks, leading him further into the gym.

"I have. Got a match set up for tomorrow. Though I have to say the week-long grace period is a bit of an annoyance all things considered. Do you know of anything that can be done to minimize that amount?"

"I mean, there is nothing strictly against you signing up for another match right after the first one. Depending on what the battle is, it can often be seen as offensive to your first opponent to immediately sign up for another."

"Yeah, I guess that can be seen as an insult, that they were so weak you just immediately went to another opponent. But there isn't a requirement on the fighters?"

"No. The law is to protect the fighters from anyone that didn't participate in the fights. It's so that if you went all out, you are protected from someone just attacking you or your family while you are in a much more vulnerable state. No one can attack you or challenge you for that grace period. That's against the law. However, if you didn't feel like you were in a vulnerable state there is nothing saying that you can't just waive the right to that protection early and request a new match. Once waived you cannot simply assume it again. It's waived until after the next fight. It actually is somewhat common if you think of it. There are a lot of opening matches where it's two fighters having an exhibition match, or a training match or some other low intensity match. This way they can settle a small debt, or do a video showcasing something or other or just make a bit of money warming up the crowd as they fill in."

"I guess that makes sense," the squirrel states. "So have you ever participated in the fights?"

"Sadly, no. It simply isn't worth my time to even bothering entering. Like I said, he people here aren't all that good at magic. I have slightly more than many here, but not really in any field that works well for the arena. And for those like us the fights really aren't all that viable of an option. There currently isn't a league designed for those who are on the bottom of the magical ladder."

"Well that's a shame. So I'm assuming some of the others here are the ones that are summoning all those elementals and the golem?"

"Yeah, a few of our workers are able to make them provided we give them the raw materials. All are made on the spot brand new. We haven't gone through the route you have of just maintaining one specific one all the time. Didn't even think it was at all possible to be honest. Though most of the people here probably wouldn't have the magical power to maintain it for more than a day or two. But having so many elementals around, weak as they are really helps keep our costs low. Because of their inability to use magic all that well, the jobs that they are able to perform for their livelihoods aren't very well paying. And every little bit helps. These little guys help quite a bit. Not quite as good as a healing specialist, but then someone specializing in healing probably wouldn't need to be here. They could afford to train someone far better."

"I don't know. I mean, I fully understand that someone who can heal wounds pretty well should be able to make a lot more money, but that might not correspond to combat capability. I mean, most do try and learn at least some healing spells to aid in recovery. But healing itself isn't that useful in a fight. Like not even Rose relied exclusively on healing magic. You need to be able to fight and if they don't have any other element, then learning how to fight in an arena that doesn't require people to use magic."

"That's nice of you to say, but the fact is I still know the reality of this place. And we're fine with that. We are the bottom rung of society and we will always be the bottom rung of society. Doesn't mean we can't come here and do things we enjoy. Anyway, let me introduce you to some of the others here."

Blade Tail allows himself to be lead, though in his mind his thoughts were half elsewhere. The fact that he doesn't have to stick only to the one-week grace period is definitely nice and something he will take full advantage of. But at the same time he's still somewhat conflicted about what he's seeing in this fighting gym. He'd still love to learn new fighting moves and techniques and improve his ability to fight, with or without the aid of magic. But at the same time he does have to agree that for the most part anyone who can afford to do better probably would. There really wouldn't be much here for the squirrel except for fighters willing to fight without magic. And if he were to only fight against those who cannot use magic then he might eventually become rusty against individuals who can, and that could be extremely dangerous. Theoretically he could eventually even go about making his own gym where he can teach people to fight both with and without magic, even potentially teaching people how to fight against magic without using it, but the people here likely wouldn't be able to afford it. When he was beaten fairly by the dog he had thought it a nice fact that they wouldn't even need magic to be successful here. And yet, it never occurred to him that in a society where effectively might makes right, those that can fight well without magic probably has to fight well without magic, which would put them well below anyone that can.

But, ultimately, this wasn't his fight to wage. Blade Tail never considered himself at all to be any sort of hero. He'd hang out time to time. It'd be nice to have a few friends that don't expect much of anything, might even donate a small amount of his winnings if he gets big enough, but it's not his job to try and fix this society. He's nowhere close to strong enough to have any chance of being to pull something like that off. He's only in it for his own survival and entertainment. He has a gift and was able to make it through his entire year when so few others could. But surviving through a year-long gauntlet is one thing and do anything more permanent for these people is not in his power. But he can still enjoy his time here. Unfortunately, it's clear that the vast majority of the rest of his students aren't all that good. They are competent, sure, but nothing at all that would even really give him any challenge. And once he has had his fun with a few fights against his students and a bit of a teaching thing where he tried to explain how he fought, which he was never really good at anyway, said his goodbyes and made his way back towards the apartment complex that he was staying.

His first night in a new world. Definitely something to really let sink in. He doesn't even know how their schedules align with Earths. If the day is longer or shorter than Earth's. The day seemed about the same but the length of the day changes all the time on Earth anyway. But his match isn't until sundown anyway so as long as he doesn't sleep through the entire day he should be fine. It'll be a nice change of pace, an interest to see where things end up going with is life. He half wonders if he gets successful enough would they ask him to fight exhibition matches against the people from Earth.

"Eh, Probably," he says out loud as he considers the notion. They care most about what would make the most money and such a fight probably would be a good thing to call out to.

But that'll have to wait for another day. Today's journey is done and he makes it back to his apartment and finds that the ward doesn't really react to him this time. Curious he stares at the location it should have triggered as he considers the two most likely outcomes. Either because he already has a room the wards will simply ignore him, or he's returned past normal operating hours and there's no one to respond anymore anyway. He heads up to his room and opens the door, finding that all of his things have been already put away. So there's no need for him to worry about that. Jarvis, however, is currently nowhere to be seen, so that means the golem has likely gone dormant already. Blade Tail would have wanted to give his golem a bit of a snack before bed but doesn't see the benefit of summoning it just to feed it and send it back to sleep. If it gets hungry during the night, he can just feed it then. For now, he wants to get a good night's sleep and then get ready for his match the following day. Blade Tail switches into clothes better suited to sleeping and not getting his bed dirty with random dust and whatnot and then plops onto the bed. Not as soft as the one on Earth but it'll do. And sleep had never been difficult for the squirrel, as a bit of a necessity. Not that there really was much to keep him awake anyway. But as he is about to fall asleep a thought crosses his mind and he's reluctantly forced to agree to that one precaution. With a sigh he gets back out of his bed and goes o where he kept his spell paper. Since they don't really detonate or expire after each mission he'd just spend time collecting the ones that survived. Which is thankful as it means he doesn't need to make a new one. So he just grabs one of the wards to check for killing intent and just slaps it onto the door and then goes back to sleep. There is supposed to be no fighting in this apartment building, but a tiny bit extra security that doesn't cost him anything couldn't hurt.