Sera grinned brightly, showing her teeth. “Well, well. A gentleman. You could teach my brother a thing or two.” She glanced at me, then back to him. “I’m Sera...Sera Cadence. Charmed to meet you.”
I folded my arms at her own theatrics. She winked at me.
She was enjoying this.
With introductions complete, Derek spoke to the gentlemen at the ticket counter, and then escorted us inside.
The clientele were generally well-dressed: top hats, canes, and a few ladies and gentlemen in more obscure fashion. I even noted a few wearing eye masks, similar to the one Keras had worn. That brought him back into my mind.
Had he survived that confrontation with Katashi? Mother’s letter seemed to indicate that he had. I had mixed feelings about that, since I had a pretty poor opinion of the visages, but I knew they generally seemed to work for humanity’s benefit.
There was a good chance that Keras was truly a dangerous criminal, especially if he served the Tyrant in Gold. I’d grown up with stories about how the Tyrant had conquered continent after continent, enslaving millions for his empire. I didn’t know how much of that was true, though, and Keras’ heretical claims about the Tyrant seemed to be at the core of what had started this whole mess. I’d need to do some research on the Tyrant’s children eventually, but it wasn’t a high priority at the moment.
In the meantime, I found myself sitting in a plush chair in high box over what looked like a vast stage. There were dozens of boxes like our own, as well as multiple levels of general seating in more traditional bleachers. Near the stage itself, I also spied an orchestra pit, with a full orchestra setting up their instruments.
Maybe this was an opera house. It was set up very similarly to an opera or theater, with the key exception that the main floor area was significantly larger than any opera stage I’d seen, and there wasn’t any seating down at the stage level. All the seats were overlooking the area where the battle would be taking place.
After a minute or so of searching, I was able to pick out the runes at the edge of the stage that marked the bounds of a barrier field. It was very subtle; the soft glow of the runes blended in with the ambient light cast by lanterns hanging nearby.
This is actually a lot like the way the council room was set up, but this actually looks safer for observers. Maybe the city council should get rid of whoever designed their building and hire a theater architect.
There was only room for two seats in our particular box, so Sera sat while Derek stood and pointed down into the theater area.
“That’s where Sera and I will be fighting once it’s time to begin. I had a few other options, but I feel privileged to have found you, Miss Cadence. I’ve worked with a Summoner before, but never one as striking as yourself.”
From the way Sera’s lips tightened, I could tell she was already starting to regret this.
To Derek’s credit, most people our age probably would have appreciated his complements.
Sera, unfortunately, was more like me than I usually was willing to admit.
Since she had gotten herself into this to make me feel better, I felt a little obligation to ease her suffering. I turned to Derek. “What does she need to know about this? What sort of monsters will she be facing in there?”
Derek leaned back against the balcony, looking precariously close to falling onto the stage. “Typical tower stuff, mostly from the first few floors. I suppose you two haven’t done much of that yet, have you? No matter. You’ll get a chance to watch a couple rounds before we get in there. The important thing to know is the general structure.”
He raised a single hand, and then put a finger from his other hand in between his thumb and his pointer finger. “The stage will be sectioned off before we start. We’ll be in a section here. My other fingers represent walls. There will be monsters in each section.”
Derek lowered his pointer finger. “As soon as the match starts, they’ll lower the first wall, and we’ll have to fight the first set of monsters. After about a minute...” He lowered his middle finger. “They’ll lower the next wall, and another set will attack, regardless of whether or not we’ve dealt with the first set. This happens until the whole stage is revealed.” He closed his hand. “Then...”
He raised two fingers again. “The last monster will be much stronger than the rest. If we survive that, we’ll move to the opposite side of the stage, and the walls will reset. We get a brief reprieve while Summoners call down more monsters in between each of the wall segments. Once they’re done, the process starts over. Stronger monsters each time.”
Sera nodded. “How long do people typically last?”
“People? Most teams tend to get stopped by the large monster at the end of the first set. Me? My partner and I usually clear two full sets, at which point the Summoners are typically out of mana, and we’ll win for the evening by default.”
I really wanted to ask how much of that was due to his partner. I couldn’t think of a political way to phrase it, though.
Sera solved that problem. “How far do you expect us to make it?”
Derek’s eyes narrowed, and he folded his hands in front of him, looking at Sera with a serious expression. “I wouldn’t risk asking a first-year student to come in here with me if I didn’t think I could take care of this. If for any reason it looks like I’m going to let a monster through that could hurt you, though, step out of the ring. You’ll be out of the fight after that, but you can avoid being hurt that way.”
I frowned. “How do these things usually end, aside from exhausting the Summoners or the contestants leaving the ring?”
“Oh, usually the matches end when the contestants are too badly injured to stand.” Derek chucked. “But you’ve got me here. What are the chances of that?”
***
After that little statement, I took off my shield sigil and demi-gauntlet and handed them to Sera.