The Gladiators’ Plaza.

In the mid-section of the sky-hanging mothership Gannet there was a space larger than a football field, ordinarily used for competitive contests of every kind, or for the revelries the crew and passengers held to dispel the weariness of the journey. Hence the name: the Gladiators’ Plaza.

When Yue Yang and the others arrived, they found the Gladiators’ Plaza already packed with people. The dense crowd was crushed together so tightly there wasn’t a gap for water to trickle through. In number, they came to a full several tens of thousands.

More than thirty thousand border troops, along with over five thousand crewmen of the Gannet, taken prisoner by a band of Skyfall Bandits numbering fewer than ten thousand.

Apart from a small number of elite guards who had resisted, fought bitterly, and been captured — now bound and held under watch by the bandits — the greater part of the crew had submitted to the enemy as easily as sheep. They had put up no fierce fight at all, let alone dutifully repelled the invasion. The crewmen, without so much as a hair harmed, needed no guarding: each of them crouched on the floor of his own accord, hands clasped behind his head, waiting quietly for the bandits to dispose of them — more docile even than the merchants, who at least grumbled and cooperated only under duress.

“Dog thieves! If you’ve got any guts, face me in a gladiator’s duel — I’ll take ten of you at once!” In the middle of the plaza, a tall man bound head to foot in dozens of chains was roaring in fury. Had several dozen Skyfall Bandits not been hauling on him with their combined strength, he’d likely have torn free by brute force alone.

“Heh. A defeated man — what face have you left to bluster with?”

Yue Yang noticed a tall, gaunt man in black, with a great glide-wing cloak at his back, drifting down from the high ceiling of the hold.

What made this man especially arresting was a pair of exceedingly long, thin legs.

They didn’t feel like legs at all. More like razors. There was a terrible sense that they could sever a man’s throat with the greatest of ease. And that pair of sharply pointed leather shoes lent a strange, jarring impression of stabbing straight into the depths of a man’s heart — which, set against the legs, made him seem all the more hair-raisingly dangerous…

Besides those long legs, the black-cloaked man had gaunt, slender arms, unbelievably nimble. With a flourish of changes, his right hand produced a top hat, which he set upon his head. Then, pressing his left hand lightly to his chest, he feigned the bearing of a courteous gentleman and bowed to the tall man wrapped in chains: “Thunder Beast. With your strength — that of a near divine general — to serve on this Gannet as a fifth mate, a rank that doesn’t even crack the top ten, is truly a waste of you. Why not come over to our side and be a star bandit, free and unfettered? Wouldn’t that be better? If you’re willing to come, I, Raven, will absolutely not contest position with you. I’ll hand you the number-two seat outright and gladly take third myself. Apart from Boss Winged Tiger, you, Thunder Beast, would be the greatest among us. How’s that?”

“Dream on, you carrion-eating trash! If you’ve got the ability, then fight me straight! You star bandits are a pack of ruined nobodies — and you’ve the gall to recruit me? I am a near divine general with a great future ahead of me — a future imperial general, a marshal even; my prospects are beyond measure. How could I possibly turn traitor and join a pack of thieves? Ha! Don’t make me die laughing!”

The tall man in chains bellowed harshly and struggled with all his might. But chains had been driven through his body in several places — collarbone, ribs, spine, even femur — piercing skin and muscle to lock into the bones within, and dozens of burly star bandits hauled on those chains for all they were worth. Dozens of men pulling as one: there was no breaking free at all.

The black-cloaked man’s expression did not shift in the slightest as he listened. His thin lips even showed the faintest smile, as though he’d expected all of this. His high-bridged nose, meanwhile, gave off an unspoken air of solitary aloofness that warned all living things to keep away. His eyes, shadowed beneath the brim of his hat, betrayed no expression at all — yet anyone who looked at him could feel a keen, cutting edge pressing in close enough to brush the lashes.

“Drag him away. Torture him slowly. Whenever he agrees to join us, we’ll let him go. We have plenty of time.” The black-cloaked man waved a hand, then gave a further order: “Thunder Beast won’t surrender — so bring the next one! And the rest of you, no need to fret, no need to be afraid. We only want to find partners and do a bit of honest small business. Once I’ve finished up here, I’ll attend to all of you properly.”

“…” Hearing this, the merchants around the black-cloaked man all shivered — plainly they feared this young man to the marrow.

“Raven. If you couldn’t sway even Thunder Beast, do you imagine I, Blood Leopard, will surrender to you?” An elite corps commander, drenched in blood from the fighting, stepped forward proudly against the pull of dozens of men’s chains.

Though his flesh was flayed and curling, though his body was covered in wounds and bound in chains, his bearing was nothing like a prisoner’s. He looked rather more like a great general inspecting the line — spine of iron, standing firm as a mountain.

Hearing this, the black-cloaked man Raven burst into roaring laughter. For a long while it went on, and then the laughter cut off like a blade coming down: “Blood Leopard. You are indeed a man of loyalty and honor — everyone knows it. Forcing you to yield, making you surrender, would truly be difficult. But I hear you’re also a great filial son… In years past your father fell early in battle, and your mother raised you to manhood through no end of bitter toil. Is that rumor true, or is it not? On this return to the capital to make your report, you had a chance at promotion to the Imperial Guard Corps. A filial son such as yourself would naturally never leave his mother out on the frontier, eating sand in that poor and bitter place; you’d surely bring her along to the capital to enjoy her good fortune, so the old lady might live out her years in comfort… An old lady who could raise a son into a figure as outstanding as you — why, Raven would truly like to pay her his respects, and express the admiration in his heart!”

Blood Leopard’s expression changed at once, fury surging like fire into his chest. “Raven, you contemptible cur! If you dare touch a single hair of my mother’s head, I will kill every last one of you star bandits! Base, shameless wretch — you dare?”

Raven gave his streaming cloak a flick, ignoring the man’s furious roar entirely, and chuckled again and again: “Whatever do you mean? If I find the old lady in the crowd, I shall of course treat her with the utmost courtesy. How could I possibly harm her? Don’t worry. Don’t you worry at all! Men — take Lord Blood Leopard away to rest. Once I’ve found the old lady, we’ll have a lovely family reunion!”

The elite corps commander Blood Leopard ground his teeth in hatred, and though he cursed the whole way, there was nothing at all he could do; the burly star bandits hauled him bodily out of the plaza.

Watching this, Yue Yang couldn’t help developing a small measure of interest in these star bandits.

At the very least, this Raven — and that Winged Tiger from before — were rather interesting.

He simply couldn’t understand why men with strength like this would choose to be star bandits.

Yue Yang noticed something else, too: the Gladiators’ Plaza seemed to hold two hidden powers of Law within it. One was the “weakening” already familiar to him, which diminished the combat might of any living being’s power. The other was something entirely unfamiliar — an “amplification“!

This amplification had no effect on living things. But upon constructs, or upon non-living war-beasts, it seemed to grant an increase of several times over — even more than tenfold…

If two men were of equal strength and one piloted a construct-mecha while the other went bare-handed, the latter would very likely be utterly thrashed by the construct-piloting opponent. This Gladiators’ Plaza was rather like an extension of Human Valley’s power of Law — but here, the combat power of a living body itself was not forbidden, merely weakened a hundredfold. And Human Valley, though it forbade personal martial force, likewise had nothing like the “amplification” found here!

If one could place this Gladiators’ Plaza — or an environment like it — inside Human Valley, then fighting the evil god wouldn’t seem so hopeless after all.

Before Yue Yang could finish the thought, two more men were dragged out over there.

One tall, one short. One fat, one thin.

The tall, obese man’s face was full of terror, his mountain of a body trembling without cease; had dozens of burly star bandits not been hauling him along with all their strength, he could scarcely have moved his feet at all. The short, scrawny man, by contrast — dwarfish, almost — was composed beyond measure, his stride steady as a mountain, walking out nearly one deliberate footprint at a time. On his side, it wasn’t the star bandits dragging him; it was he who was dragging the star bandits!

“Welcome, both of you — the ship’s Third Captain and First Mate. The legendary ‘Meat Butcher,’ who can silence a crying child at the mention of his name, and the man hailed as the Southeast Empire’s most incorruptible, the ‘Ulna General.’ If you two don’t find me, Raven, too long-winded, I’d like to repeat my terms of surrender.” The black-cloaked man clapped his hands in welcome.

“Bah!” That was the short man’s answer — the Ulna General’s.

“I’ll surrender! Lord Raven, I’m willing to forsake the darkness and turn to the light, to support the righteous army’s cause!” That was the tall, fat Meat Butcher’s answer.

“The abilities of you two have always been at their most formidable when you work together. For just one of you to forsake the darkness would be rather a pity. My dear Meat Butcher, honored Third Captain of the Gannet — could you persuade your comrade and subordinate, the Ulna General? If he agrees to submit, then I can hand the entire Gannet over to your management. Do you see? The Gannet you’ve always longed to command, the sky-hanging mothership you’ve always wanted full authority over — it’s right here before you, and only one word from you stands in the way. Persuade the Ulna General, and she’s yours!” The black-cloaked Raven pressed his case with infinite temptation. Listening, Yue Yang suddenly felt this fellow wasn’t half bad — if he switched to diplomacy, he’d be a first-rate talent.

“Lord Raven, Ulna is far too stubborn; I can’t persuade him. Why not just let me surrender first!” The Meat Butcher, all quivering fat, begged piteously, his lips trembling.

“That won’t do. Perhaps you don’t know — I’m a perfectionist. If I can’t have the best, I’d sooner destroy it. Understand? If you alone surrender, then I’m sorry to say I’ll render all that fat of yours down into oil and give the brothers a rich supper besides!” The black-cloaked Raven blew a soft breath into the Meat Butcher’s ear.

“Come now, Ulna, just agree! The Gannet‘s been taken; we’re all in their hands now. You’ve seen the situation — refuse and it’s death. Just agree!” The Meat Butcher shuddered. He didn’t dare imagine the process by which the fat on his body might become somebody’s supper.

“Bah!” The short Ulna had only the one answer.

“If that’s how it is, then fine. Men — drag them away. Flay the fat off the fat one and render it for oil; smash the thin one’s bones and boil them for soup!” Raven’s tone was that of a head chef.

“Help—” And just as the Meat Butcher, terrified out of his wits, was blubbering and wailing for his mother and father, a burly black shadow suddenly flickered across the sky at tremendous speed and swooped down like a goshawk, dodging the interception of several star-bandit squad leaders and plunging into the crowd in an instant. He seized someone at random — the utterly luckless Guoguo — and held him up as a human shield; and from the sleeve of his other hand a keen blade shot out into his grip, which he leveled at Yue Yang, standing beside Guoguo, as he roared: “Stop! Release them at once, or I’ll butcher them both!”

Guoguo’s soul very nearly fled his body. He shrieked: “No, no — I’m not a star bandit! I’m not a star bandit! I’m an innocent passenger!”

Yue Yang, by contrast, remained rather composed. He took one small step forward, moved the keen blade — which had been pointed vaguely at his throat from a distance — right up against the artery of his own neck, and then offered his critique: “That’s how you take a hostage. Not professional at all!”

(End of Chapter 1140)