War God for Hire- Gladiator by David Burke (books under 200 pages .TXT) 📕

coming, and the arena games are essentially over except for some training and exhibition matches. The established gladiators will be resting up for the beginning of the new season. Some of them are free men, and some will be slaves but put up in much better accommodations here.

“You and the other new recruits will be housed in a barrack setting and kept under guard until they decide if you will make a run for it. Some will be chained. Because of the strength you showed, they have gone to the trouble of expensive magical restraints.”

Kyle swore he could almost see the air quotes around the word ‘recruits’ as she answered him.

“So what about later?” Kyle asked.

Hilde’s response came back, “What do you mean?”

“Dammit,” Kyle thought at her. “I thought we agreed we were going to be a team here.”

“Fine, fine. You have to understand. Krig wasn’t much of a conversationalist, and he didn’t even pay attention to me as arm candy. So maybe some of my resentment at being ignored for over ninety years is coming out. That, and being stuck in the void makes me temperamental,” Hilde said.

“Well, I’m not Krig, and the more you help me, the sooner you can get out of there,” Kyle shot back at her.

“Yeah, maybe. We’ll see. Anyway, hopefully your recall that I told you there are three hundred and fifty days in a year on Verden, and that each week is ten days long with the first day being set aside as a holy day,” Hilde began.

Kyle wanted to nod to show he was listening but caught himself at the last second.

“The year is also divided into eight months, named after the gods. All the months except for Bedrag and Begaer are forty-four days. Those two are only forty-three.”

Kyle cut in to confirm, “Those are deceit and lust, right?”

“Yes, your brother and sister. They were Krig’s two least favorite siblings. He found both of them to be less than honest, although trickery is a part of war, so he understood that part of Bedrag, at least. It was his sister who annoyed him the most. She thought that fighting was wasteful and, worse, she is an incorrigible reprobate who even tried to seduce her own brothers,” Hilde said.

“Shit, man, his family was truly messed up. I guess I can understand him being a bit of an ass. But I’m not him. Even if I am some kind of war god in training, I am gonna make it my own,” Kyle replied.

A moment of silence followed before she continued her lecture. “Typically, here in Thena, the seasons are fairly well split, although the northern part of the empire is much colder and the south much warmer, but from your memories of Earth, that is fairly common. Lige and Dod are typically what you would consider winter months, followed by Jordan and Himmel as spring. Then Krig and Begaer are the summer months. Hav and Bedrag finish the year as autumn.

“It isn’t always exactly like that, but the gods keep the seasons fairly stable, or at least they did until all the carnage that you… errr… that Krig wreaked. We are ten days into Lige and, while it’s getting colder at night, there hasn’t been any true winter yet.”

“Okay, not that this isn’t important, but what does it have to do with the arena or whether we should stay here or not?” Kyle asked.

“Just trying to explain the calendar so you will know that there are different seasons to the arena games. Wait a minute though. You just said we,” Hilde said.

“Yeah, what of it?”

“Krig would never have thought like that. It would have only ever been I or me with him.”

“I figure you are stuck in my head for now, so the decisions I make affect you too. Besides, no one ever said that Kyle Hudson wasn’t a good teammate,” he responded.

“Maybe there is hope here. Anyway, this is the off season for the arena. It is the time that those who own gladiators get them extra training or look to acquire new fighters. When spring comes, the preliminaries will begin and for six weeks, they have open matches where anyone can participate.

“After that, the Konkurranse will begin, or as it is generally called, the Kon. This is ten weeks of scheduled matches between teams. Just as in the preliminaries, the fights are meant to be non-lethal, but for the Kon, it will only be professionals. Currently, there are twelve teams that are officially recognized,” Hilde continued.

This had Kyle excited. He understood talk about teams and match ups. “So, is it all one-on-one matches?”

“No, each professional team consists of five fighters. The only way to remove a fighter after the season begins is if they die or are crippled. The weekly matches include singles, duos, and team events.”

“And you say these are non-lethal?” Kyle asked. He felt the excitement growing in him. Fighting had given him such a rush earlier, and the idea of getting to compete again appealed to him. Maybe Hilde was right. If he could learn the skills that he needed here, then it might be better to stay.

“Yes, at that stage. At the end of the ten weeks, they have a short break followed by the fall harvest festival. It is celebrated by three days of beast matches. Depending on the type of monster, fighters will be matched against them in varying numbers. Those matches are lethal. The fighters are generally given an advantage, but there are still deaths and occasionally wounds that the healers can’t fix, although those are rare,” Hilde said.

“I guess I can deal with that,” Kyle nodded.

“Then on the final day of the harvest festival, there will be the grand melee. Six of the teams will fight against six of the other teams. The division of those teams is decided by a vote from all the citizens, or at least those who are interested in the games, albeit that is