Ravens of Eternity

The moment Miko said the word ‘profit’, it was as though every Drogar in the room became mesmerized.

Alevos in particular was in deep thought for a few moments. But he was the first to break the silence.

“I’ll join the investment group,” he said. “My blades definitely have to be represented. Justicars?”

“Well,” mused Severas. “I’ll have to notify Retholis with this change of events, but I’m sure that I can put in something. If anything, to validate her participation from a legal standpoint.”

“I don’t know,” said Doreth. “I’m too poor. That said though, I saw the report with my own eyes. If I had the capital, I’d invest.”

“Beyond that,” said Eva, “what other choice do you have? It’s not like you’re gonna get another shot at this in the near future or something. You want a human, you got one. Right in front of you.”

Szereth sighed in resignation. He would have much preferred a beastly mountain of a male in the ring. But the others were supremely confident in her capabilities that he had no choice but to capitulate.

.....

“Very well,” he said. “This investment group is formed as of right now, pending official paperwork of course. What’s our first order of business?”

“How ’bout a name?” asked Eva. “The merc company Raijin and I formed is called Conspiracy of Ravens. Where we’re from, a raven’s a large black bird that’s ridiculously smart, opportunistic, and tricky. They do whatever it takes to survive, and it kinda represents our modus operandi to a T.”

All of them mulled over Eva’s words for a few moments before Doreth chipped in her thoughts.

“Let’s add a little Drogar flair to your Ravens,” she said. “We’ve got a similar bird – Ventrii Stalkers. They’re these hunter/fishers that’re smaller and less aggressive than Avicii Raptors, but definitely smarter and way more agile.”

“Oh, good pick,” added Severas. “Most birds on the planet are in constant conflict with each other. The war colleges study them to help refine battlefield strategies. They keep their eyes most on the Ventrii because, well, they’re dominating the skies.”

“For example,” said Doreth, “they fly in coordinated wings and perform surgical strikes on enemy nests. Usually against the young or unhatched. This prevents their enemies from repopulating effectively. And in comparison, their nest defense is legendary. Their coordinated attacks easily fend off predators much larger than Avicii.”

“So these birds win against all others through tactics and strategy?” asked Miko. “This sounds like a perfect synergy to me.”

“Very much so,” said Alevos, “rather poetic. Let’s give the Ventrii a more aggressive, Drogar edge, shall we? How about Ventrohii? Perhaps Ventrathii?”

The tone he made when pronouncing the words did give the word more sharpness. The others chewed on it and played with the tones, but none were completely sold on it.

“How about,” said Severas, “Ra’ventrii?”

“Oh brilliant!” said Alevos. “That plays incredibly well with the harmonics.”

Eva nodded in approval.

“That sounds good to me as well,” she said.

All the others gave their approval easily as Alevos continued to hum the word and played with the edges of its notes.

“How about we discuss compensation next,” said Miko. “As we all know, Freya is placing her body directly as an investment. We should perhaps weigh how much of the collective earnings belongs to her.”

“Fair enough,” said Szereth. “So what does Freya want out of all this?”

Everyone turned to Eva, who up until this point didn’t know what she wanted out of all this.

“Honestly,” she said. “I only went into this because I wanted an authentic Drogar beltknife. I mean, I wanna get stuff for Raijin, too.”

“Think of me as Freya’s manager,” added Miko.

“Blades,” said Alevos, “I’ll provide those to you, no questions asked. If you want one per combatant, you got it. Just know it might take a little time for me to actually make ’em.”

“I don’t think we need to go that far,” replied Eva. “Maybe just a practical, hard-use one for the arena? Oh, and maybe one for later, too. Like, a super nice one.”

“I can offer you one of my armors,” said Szereth. “You’ve gotta have a proper suit if you’re going into the arena. I’ll even make it custom.”

Alevos looked over at Szereth with wide eyes.

“Whoa, you’re gonna pick up a hammer again?”

With a brow furrowed, Szereth responded with annoyance in his tone.

“You think I’ve gone soft, haven’t you? Of course I can still use a forge!”

“Well,” said Eva, “that does sound goo-”

Before she could finish her sentence, Miko interrupted her curtly. She puffed herself up slightly, which the Drogar barely noticed, and crossed her arms in defiance.

“Hold it! As your manager I cannot allow that to be your only compensation. Since these two are investors, that equipment should be part of their investment, not your reward.”

Szereth was taken aback, but did his best not to appear shocked. But he most certainly started looking at Miko under a different light. He had easily underestimated her due to her size, but clearly, she was sharper than she looked.

Then he laughed.

“True enough,” he said. “How about this? She gets to keep 100% of the fight’s pot, although that’s rather standard. Additionally, we can offer a percentage of the total bet winnings. And you’ve got something you want as well, don’t you?”

“Raijin’s a gadgets and code kinda girl,” said Eva.

“Ah, I see. How about full access to my lab, hm?” said Szereth. “I dismantle and study all of my competitors’ armors in there. I think that should sate you, yes?”

“Armors similar to what your guards wear?” asked Miko.

“Not quite as sophisticated, but yes.”

“That is acceptable.”

Szereth turned to Eva after having appeased Miko. With her defenses opened slightly, he had a better chance of scoring a better deal.

“And you? After having heard all that, what percentage do you feel is fair?”

Eva considered her position in the negotiations. She had zero experience in contracts like these before, and she had no idea what athlete contracts were like. Hell, she didn’t even know what the Drogar currency even was.

But she figured she was the only combative human on the planet that could even do what Szereth was talking about, which made her more or less irreplaceable.

“30 percent,” she said as resolutely as she could.

She felt 30 was a high enough number to negotiate, but not so high as to sound absurd. She nodded decisively to punctuate her position.

“Done,” said Szereth.

“Wait, what? Aren’t you gonna negotiate... Oh, damn! I should’ve asked for more, shouldn’t I?”

Szereth only grinned in response.

“Live and learn,” he said. “Drogar duelists often ask for half – the lethality of it all prompts for a larger cut. Investors often have a stable of duelists in their books.”

“Argh! I’m the worst negotiator,” cried Eva. “Wait! Games! I can still argue for how many games I’m committed to that percentage, right?”

“You’re improving your negotiation skills already,” replied Szereth.

“What is the average amount of duels that most Drogar enter into?” asked Miko.

“Six usually,” answered Doreth. “Top seeds usually get into a dozen or so duels before they retire though.”

“Alright then,” said Eva. “I’ll do three at 30%, renegotiable afterwards. Um. But a guaranteed minimum of six duels all told. How’s that?”

“Four at 30%,” said Alevos. “Not including qualification duels. And you can stop at four if you want. Six fights can get dangerous – that’s when the herd starts to thin out, and the roughest duelists emerge. The risk of death is higher, and we really ought to prevent that. We’re here to profit from gambling, not reach the top ten.”

The others quickly agreed, and Eva had no choice but to capitulate.

“Four it is,” she said. “How do these duels even work? Do I just show up one cycle and beat up everyone I see?”

“Nothing like that at all,” said Doreth. “It’s kinda like a system of challenges. You gotta challenge someone, and if you win, it allows someone to challenge you. If you win that, you have the right to challenge anyone else. Only condition is that anyone you challenge has to seed above you.”

“Seed?” asked Eva.

She had a tough time picturing it all. She was never much of a sports person to begin with, and had little understanding of how most of them worked. As a spectator, she found them to be incredibly boring.

But now that she was an actual participant, she found herself superbly excited.

“There’s seven tiers,” answered Doreth, “each of which contains duelists ranked with a seed. So a Tier Seven, Seed Fifteen duelist is ranked higher than a Tier Seven, Seed Twenty duelist. A Tier Six, Seed One Hundred duelist is ranked higher than both of them.”

“I think I get it,” said Eva. “So who’s the very top seed?”

“Ah, Tier One, Seed One,” said Doreth. “She’s a Drogar that’s been Reborn Anew.”

The tone in her voice was reverential.

Miko perked up when she heard the term Reborn Anew. She had a funny feeling about it. It almost sounded like some Drogar respawned, just like she did.

“What does that mean?” she asked. “Reborn Anew?”

“Ancestral Drogar,” replied Severas. “They’re from another time altogether. But have come to us in this galaxy, in this time. They’re stronger, faster, smarter than any other Drogar around. We think of them as our forebears.”

Eva and Miko’s eyes went wide at the revelation. It sounded like the Drogar had their own refugee players! They immediately needed to know the truth of it. The implications were just too astounding – it meant that there was potentially other alien life in their old universe, too!

“I wanna fight that one!” Eva blurted out.

“Absolutely not!” said Szereth. “The First Seed is an absurd killing machine. She decapitated one of the other top ranked Drogar in a single strike! You’d need decades of training to get to that level of skill, and worse, you’d never get to that point of strength, so you’d always be at a disadvantage.”

“Jeez, alright. How about you let me fight one of the weaker ones though? I can probably take those, right?”

Szereth exhaled deeply. It was one thing if she could take down a normal Drogar through guile, but another thing to take down any of the Reborn. They were insurmountable.

“Reborn Anew are not to be messed with,” he said resolutely. “More and more have been entering the Pit in order to make their way to the top, and they’re all but unstoppable. Regular Drogar can’t stand up to them, and neither could you.

.....

“None of us are gonna waste our investment in a clearly lopsided fight. So I suggest you get that notion out of your head right this instant!”