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She knew this so, so well.
The roar of the crowd. The smug face of the stronger fighter, assured in their victory, but internally tired and angry. The way Big Mama announced the match and the way the fighters sized up their opponent. The silence while the crowd waited for the first strike. She was used to this.
She just wasn’t used to being in the arena herself.
She could tell that her opponent was chosen for the male audience. Men seemed to love watching other men hurt women and girls. Sure, not all of them, but enough to be cautious. If she was any more naive, she would think that her “mother” would give her a battle she could win, but she wasn’t naive. If she won she won. If she lost her mother would train another assistant. She was replaceable. She knew this.
The crowd’s roaring calmed down as Big Mama came to the stage, tapping her cloaking brooch and becoming human. It was a display of power, She knew. A display of wealth. She was flaunting it.
Big Mama owned them, and she loved to show it.
She steeled herself as Big Mama waited for the commotion to quiet. It did almost immediately. She knew that there were many important people in the crowd, even if she had to look ahead, staring at her opponent dead in the eyes. It was required. A tactic to intimidate the fighters. The longer they looked, the more doubt they had.
He was a tall wolf yokai. “Rahzar”, they called him. Rahzar was buff and strong, a cloth around his waist and above his black baggy pants. He wielded a ginormous ax, and was above six feet, nearing seven. He was a seasoned fighter.
She, meanwhile, was a twelve year old with tekko-kagi. She had a shell, sure, but her size and weapon put her at a major disadvantage.
Big Mama cleared her throat. “Hello, my lovelies!” Exclaimed. “Today’s match is very special. It is between the seasoned fighter Rahzar,” The crowd went crazy. “and the twelve year old girl, Shadowflame!” Her real name wouldn’t be used in the Nexus, and her eye markings and her life destiny to either follow Big Mama or die gave her the name. “Let the battle begin!”
A voice lilted in her ear as Big Mama got off the stage, unheard by anyone else besides her because of the loud music playing to introduce them. It came from the simple chain choker necklace. It did not look fancy and definitely not enchanted, but it was. “Fail this, Frida, and he’ll kill you. Remember that when you fight.” Frida gulped invisibly underneath her purple and black battle outfit, covering everything except for her head. She would fail, though.
When the music was over, it took two seconds before Rahzar ran at Frida. She dodged his ax, moving aside. But he kept coming. Her tekko-kagi blocked his ax for two seconds before starting to bend. She twisted herself out of the way and it fell. Rahzar growled and Frida felt like she was dying simply out of fear. She used her agility over his. If he won this, he would officially have enough battles to be titled the champion, a position that was currently empty after the other champion took his own life. Frida was shaking as she moved back.
The stadium was roaring with laughter now, and the noise made her want to curl up and cry. The commentator was describing it, but she couldn’t hear it right, and it just added to the garble. She felt herself shutting down. She should just give herself up!
Except.
The cloth around his waist hung low. Not enough to trip him, but that was because it was tied thrice. If she could cut it loose…
She moved aside from another one of his hits. Every part of her screamed to run, but she had to enact her plan first, or else he would kill her from behind with no difficulty. On her next dodge, she rolled over and cut the cloth’s second and third knots. He growled again.
And then? She ran. She ran and he was close behind her. Despite her size, she had surprising amounts of speed and strength, as well as agility and some other random things. Her mother said it was because she was a Kappa, but she didn’t know enough Kappa to confirm or deny. All this aside, Frida was still twelve.
She heard some of the guards around the lower ring, positioned to kill anyone who crosses the line to try and escape the arena.
“Yeah, run little girl!”
“Ha, so pathetic, what was Big Mama thinking?”
“Pity she’s gonna die. If she wasn’t I’d see if I could buy her off for the night.”
“Only damage she did was to his clothes! And she was aiming too. Makes sense though, girls love their outfits.”
“Must’ve thought that that was the most devastating thing to do.”
Distracted, she lagged at the same time as her plan came into place. Rahzar tripped as he caught up to her. His ax fell and hit her shell as he fell after it, cutting her deep. She saw white, but the pain was bearable enough for her to turn around while he was down and stab him through the head with her tekko-kagi. She removed her metal claws from his head, eyes wide at her first kill.
There was a stunned silence.
“Victory goes to:Shadowflame! The last one standing! Though, from the looks of it, she won’t be standing much longer.” As Frida heard this, she felt the ground slipping from underneath her, and she fell to the ground. It hurt. So, so, so bad. Her tears mixed in with her blood on the dirt floor and every jostle made it hurt more. The burning feeling intensified and she rolled over to throw up on the ground. Every convulsion and cough sent shocks of pain through her.
Nexus warriors didn’t get intense medical care unless they were incredibly popular.
Frida was not popular.
The last thing she noticed was that her vomit was red. Blood.
And the world faded to black.
Somehow, for some reason, Frida was not dead.
She knew she wasn’t dead because everything hurt. She was on her stomach, she realized as she came into consciousness, but why? She didn’t remember. She lay still for a few minutes, trying to recall why everything was burning almost unbearably, but the memories only came to her after she moved. Pain shot through her and she let out a cry.
Right.
Rahzar’s ax.
Through her shell.
Fun.
“Oh, you're awake.” A woman’s voice said. It somehow sounded apathetic and pitiful. “I’ll wait a few minutes and then tell Mama that you're ready.” Ready? She wasn’t ready!
“Can you give me something for the pain?” She gritted out, and it hurt to move any part of her.
“We only give that to the best fighters, and while you were impressive, you haven’t had enough fights to qualify you.” Right. Torture.
Frida hated her mother.
As promised, she only had a few minutes before Mama came in, smiling at her in what seemed to be a genuine way. This woman had raised her, and was more a mother to her than to anyone else who used that title. Frida had thought Big Mama saw it that way too.
“Oh, my little turtley-boo.” She said, and Frida was glad she had a medical reason not to turn her head. She didn’t want to see her right now. “I am truly sorry I put you in that itty-bitty predicament.” No, she wasn’t. “But I have a solution for you, Frida. Think of it as a peace offering.”
“Why did you give me medical attention?” Frida asked. Big Mama laughed.
“Because I want you to be my official assistant. My heir. My daughter.” Frida could hear her smile slipping. Big Mama put herself in Frida’s line of sight, gently scratching her bald head. “I am so, so sorry for that, little turtley-boo.” Frida wanted to flinch away, but she just stared. “You will not have to fight in the ring again if you don’t want to, though I might send you on missions. You are quite cunning, little bug.”
“But why?” Frida asked. “You didn’t care about me before.”
“Oh but I did! I did not realize how much until you almost died. And you remind me so much of someone I loved long ago.” Her eyes fixed above Frida with a faraway look on her face. She sighed when Frida averted her eyes after she tried to meet them again. “It is normal for daughters to get angry at their mothers, and this is normal as well. You have to understand, Frida, this is the way it goes.” Mother. Daughter. Frida shoved down the joy she felt. “I promise you, little turtley-boo, this is normal. You won’t get more love from anyone else. I am the only one who will give that to you too, my sweet.” She was, wasn’t she? Big Mama had been more present in her childhood, and Frida wondered if it could be that way again. She nodded, biting back the pain that shot through her. “You! Over there! Get this baby some pain medication!”
She loved her mother.