Chapter 231 - Time [6] (2/2)

”What's so damned funny?” Torthal asked.

For the first few days, Gan and Ju Feng fought in the undercard.

Gan's initial fight against Krackis was actually the longest of their matches. It was immediately followed by Feng's first fight.

Like Gan's, it was against a leviathan.

Unlike Gan's, it ended with one punch.

Ju Feng walked out onto the arena floor to gasps of disgust, as three of those lesions had grown on his face, marring Feng's irritatingly attractive visage.

The leviathan who faced Ju Feng was less verbose than Krackis—he would almost had to have been—and focused entirely on staring at Feng.

But as soon as Jago told them to start fighting, Ju Feng threw a right punch to the leviathan's head, which whirled from the impact so fast it broke the leviathan's neck, and he fell to the floor in an instant.

The real problem, though, was that the lesions wouldn't go away.

They showed up everywhere, red and hideous, like giant bumps on his skin.

Calbit and Jago brought in healers, but none of them were able to do any good. But he wasn't sick otherwise, Ju Fengst covered in lesions, so they kept fighting.

And they kept winning.

After a week, the guards came to bring everyone up for the undercard fight—but they didn't open the cubicle doors for number four.

Gan ran up to the door, peering through the barred window. ”What's going on?”

”Who cares?” Ju Feng was behind him, sitting on his bunk, staring ahead into the air. Feng's listlessness in the cubicle was almost as worrying as his fierceness in the arena.

”Hang tight,” the guard said. ”You're the main event tonight.”

With a sigh, Gan said, ”Great.” He turned to Feng. ”Maybe now we can start talking about escape plans?”

Still staring ahead blankly, Ju Feng said, ”I'm working on one.”

Gan blinked. ”Excuse me?”

”I said I'm working on one.”

”Were you going to share this with me?”

”I haven't finished it yet. I didn't want to talk to you about it until I was sure it would work.”

”Are you sure it'll work now?”

Ju Feng finally looked at Gan with bloodshot eyes. ”Honestly? Not really. I think it'll fail. That's why I didn't mention it.”

”So why'd you mention it now?”

”Ju Fengst making conversation,” Ju Feng said with a shrug.

Gan sat down next to him on the bunk. ”Something's wrong, Feng.”

”Really? What was your first clue, the garbage on my skin?”

”This goes back to the Great Road, Feng,” Gan said intently. ”You took down that anakore singlehandedly. What happened out there?”

”Nothing happened. I went to take a piss, I came back, I killed an anakore. And then I came here and am getting lesions on my skin. You now know everything I know.”

Gan snarled. ”There's got to be more to it than that.”

”Brilliant observation.” Ju Feng threw up his hands. ”Calbit and Jago have had a dozen healers in here, and they don't know anything.”

”Yeah.” Gan leaned against the wall. ”So we keep fighting?”

”Until I come up with a good plan. Or you do, but let's face it, that's pretty unlikely.”

That prompted a chuckle from Gan. ”Well, that was nice.”

”What?”

”Verbal abuse of me—you almost sound like your old self …”

The pair of them sat alone for a while after that, until the guards came to bring them up the spiral staircase.

They were alone in the waiting area. Stepping forward toward the rusty metal gate, Gan looked out at what he could see of the crowd, which was primarily those in the front rows opposite where the holding area was. It was only about five percent of the full crowd in his line of sight, and since it was expensive front-row seats, they were the most fanatical and devoted fans of the arena.