Chapter 591: A Gentle Rain
When Laz awoke, he saw the stones above him and out of the corner of his eye, caught the sight of the bars of the room he was in.
"Damn... I was hoping that was a dream," Laz said out loud to himself, only to hear a small gasp from next to him.
"Oh... You... You’re awake?"
"Yeah... Was I not suppose to wake up?" Laz asked with a chuckle as the girl smiled at him.
"I didn’t say that. I just... the ones who treated you. They said that almost every bone in your body broke. And that one of your ribs had punctured a lung. And your spine was cracked.. And..."
"Yeah. I get it. So how am I now?" Laz asked, feeling the parts of his body he could check out underneath the sheets he was laying in.
"I.. uh.. I don’t know. After the initial treatment, they said they would return to check on you, but that was a few days ago and no one has come since then," the pretty girl said with a frown.
"Ha. It’s fine. They probably wished I was dead. Or someone ordered them not to come. Probably better that way. Now you should probably clear those eyes of yours. Just because your name is Rain doesn’t mean you need to make tears, does it?"
"Ha ha. Very funny. This is the thanks I get for tending to you for the past few days? How nice of you. Perhaps I should have just let you sleep in a pile of your own piss and not bothered to clean you up, hmm?" Rain said, with a slightly condescending look that barely masked a smile.
"I’ll be honest. I figured I still had a good many years before I would need a woman to wipe my ass again... but who am I to complain?" Laz responded with a chuckle, one that Rain returned.
"I’m... I’m sorry. With your body being broken like that... I’m not sure what will happen to you. Or to me. I was only able to tend to you here while you were out of it since you won your match. But now... obviously you won’t be able to fight ever again so perhaps this will be the last time I get to see you..." Rain said, sounding a bit sad, which she was. She had expected the worse when she had been chosen the last time, but what she had gotten was sympathy and a warm bed to sleep in. Now though, the one who had given her that was going to be stuck in this bed until the day he was disposed of.
Just that thought alone was enough to make her break out into tears because she knew that there was nothing she could do to save him.
"Yeah. I guess that would kind of be a bad end to my time here," Laz said, removing the covers and turned to the side before he swung his legs down on to the floor.
Then, right before Rain’s absolutely astonished face, Laz stood up, letting the blanket fall to the floor that was still attached to him, allowing his naked body to take in the last bits of sunlight coming through the barred window.
"MMmmm. Feels good. Guess I had been down for too long," Laz said, turning to look at Rain who’s mouth hung wide open.
"What?" Laz asked, a confused look on his face.
"THAT’S... THIS??? HOW?" She finally got out after trying hard to express words for a good minute.
"Just because someone says I won’t survive doesn’t mean I will do as they say," Laz said with a laugh, stretching his tense body to help relieve the muscle pain he felt.
While he laughed it off, even he knew that since his body was in the shape it was in, there was no way he should be fine after a few days.
’Then again... It has been a long time since i got hurt so bad. I’m not really sure how strong my rate of recovery is now...’ Laz thought to himself as she still looked on shocked.
The things Laz didn’t realize since he hadn’t been awake was the immense amount of power he had drawn in from the beast when it died, thanks in no small part to EPIC Kat’s use his his flame powers to melt the entire things, including the shadow energy inside of it. It had been a while since he had absorbed any worth-while energy so even he forgot it was something that happened. But as the beast was at such a high level and the shadow energy within it was even higher, the resulted pure energy that flowed into him was immense, enough to cause the healing of his body. It also helped that this world he was in had an abundant amount of energy and beasts that had taken that energy for their own.
As for why it didn’t happen when he had slaughtered all of those beasts before in his death match, that was because the energy was all syphoned off by shield guarding the arena, a safety measure put into place so that the slaves who fought wouldn’t be able to absorb it themselves and get stronger. While none of them could ever match up to a god, the Emperor wasn’t about to take chances to avoid the unexpected.
As he stretched, Laz suddenly realized that not only was he naked, which he didn’t care about, but that Rain was still in the room with him.
"Ah... Oh. Uh sorry about that," He said, turning to look at the girl who’s brown colored skin now held a deep shade of red as well.
"That’s.. it’s uh... it’s fine."
"It might be fine for you, but in the presence of this Empress, one would expect at least a show of decorum," came a commanding voice from outside the metal bars of the cage.
"Well... If it’s for the Empress, I would be hard pressed to decline," Laz said in a slightly mocking tone, before sliding on some leather pants that had been placed on a table along with a fresh shirt.
’Guess this means I’ve upgraded from the toga? Or was it really a potato sack? Ah well, either way, i hope my balls won’t get itchy in this thing...’ Laz couldn’t help but think to himself as he fastened them into place.
Guards unlocked the cage and opened the door, allowing a woman of immense mature beautify to walk inside. Her hair was dark, but with a red tint to it that reflected the suns rays. Her eyes were a gentle hazel color while her bright, red lips seemed to add a splash of danger to the beautiful face. Her gown was an almost see thru green that hugged tightly to her slim waist, ample butt and proud, firm bosom.
Rain quickly dropped to the ground, but Laz, remembering what he had been told, simply lowered his head for a salute, since, as Arena slaves, they only bowed to the Emperor himself.
’Wonder what kind of trouble I would get in for not doing so,’ Laz thought, knowing his pride would never let him do such a thing.
"Your disrespect shows no bounds, you lowly servant!" Hera said with a fierce gaze, trained directly at the toned and rippling muscles on Laz’s still bare chest and torso. While he wasn’t going to bow, he wouldn’t speak either since he knew that doing that would just get him into more trouble as once again, he wasn’t allowed to.
’At least that doesn’t go against my bloodline,’ Laz then thought.
"Leave us and take the girl with you back to her cell... wait. Since she did her duty of nursing this one back to health, she may live in a private quarters until such time as he tires of her. Go!" Hera ordered, although the guards hesitated.
"WHAT IS IT?" She asked, her voice almost making the men drop to their knees right there.
"My Empress. I... dare not disobey a command from you. However... the Emperor is the only one who is able to make decisions for the Arena. Please forgive me, my Empress!" The lead guard said while dropping to one knee along with the others.
"If that man dares to say anything about this, feel free to come and tell him to find me and perhaps I shall have a few words with him about his little collection of female servants he enjoys keeping in our home? How does that sound?"
"As my Empress orders," the man said, knowing that he would never repeat such words to the Emperor himself as it would mean a death sentence. As such, he knew this was a threat and that he would do well to keep his mouth shut about any of this.
As the men all left with Rain in tow, Laz was left standing there as the Empress glared at him. He didn’t know what she wanted, but he could feel how powerful she was. Even then, he wasn’t exactly afraid as he knew his master was still stronger than this woman in front of him.
Not that it mattered since she wasn’t here, but there was still something to be said about having a strong backer in times such as these.
’Not that I would expect her to get me out of this either, even if she did know,’ Laz couldn’t help but thinking, despite having saved his ass the last time.
The continued this staring contest, Hera looking at him, Laz looking at a spot on the wall. Something about this didn’t feel right, but he couldn’t say what exactly.
After a good minute of this stalemate, Hera moved in close, so close that her ample chest was right against his as she reached up and laid her hands on his cheeks, bring his eyes to lock with hers.
’What?’
Laz the felt a rush of power was over him as his eyes blazed, the golden hue bright in the dimming light as his hair turned white, his skin became the color of ash and the tattoos appeared upon his body. The normally hidden black tree under the blood red moon also became visible on his chest as tears filled the woman’s eyes.
"You... really are.... one of them.... but... how.... no. No Matter.... Thank you. Thank you!" The proud and powerful god level Empress was tearing up worst than Rain had done as she brought Laz’s head down to her own and kissed him on the lips.
"WWWWWHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTT??????????????"
