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Boredom was a plague that Abolish seemed to be catching more and more of these days.
He had never been good at being bored, but that hadn't mattered before. There had always been some new challenge to overcome, someone ahead of him in the ranks. Even when he was stuck in his cell, he could be planning out how he was going to defeat his next big opponent.
Now, however, Abolish sat on top of every pedestal. The occasional, cocky challenger stopped by, but even they got repetitive after a while. As he kept winning, eventually the adrenaline from winning a match didn't hit the same.
Eventually, Abolish had learned how to identify someone's fighting style mere moments after they stepped onto the sand, and once you knew how someone was going to fight, well, the challenge disappeared. Abolish would attack and move in ways he knew directly countered the other person, and the fight would be his. A fight without challenge was a boring one. He found himself zoning out, coming back to himself with a dead opponent at his feet and the crowd cheering.
He'd be led back to his room, upgraded from the cell he'd inhabited so many years ago. Now that he was a champion — now that he had proven he wouldn't run — they allowed him the luxury of a room with a bed and without being shackled to a wall.
Which would lead him back to his boredom problem, lounging in his room with nothing to do.
Abolish, even as the greatest champion seen in generations, wasn't allowed to leave the arena walls. That meant he couldn't cure his boredom by seeking out other people. The few friends he did have were lucky enough to own themselves, being able to come and go as they wished. Without a big tournament happening right now, none of them were in town to visit Abolish.
Abolish often tried to cure his boredom with more fights, unofficial matches with dull swords that he could play with. His new favorite game was tying his dominant hand behind his back and doing practice matches that way. However, the training sands were being used for training newbies today. Abolish's handlers wouldn't be happy if he interrupted their session.
There were some shelves with scrolls in his room, but they were mostly for decoration instead of giving Abolish anything fun to do. After all, nobody had taken the time to teach the savage gladiator how to read.
Abolish found himself staring at the mirror a lot when he was bored. He would take his time as he traced over all his scars, remembering the tales they told.
His oldest, most faded scars adorned his wrists and cheeks. They were from when he was first brought in, muzzled and chained like the beast he was. The ones on his cheeks were lighter, caused by the metal keeping his jaws shut digging into his face. His wrists, on the contrary, had bigger scars from where Abolish had twisted and pulled against his restraints.
The next scars Abolish gave his attention to were the ones he had earned from fights. A long scar along his arm from a sword he didn't manage to dodge in time. A large patch on his back from an archer getting a lucky shot. Three lines marking his side where a lion had struck him with its claws.
Covering his back were more scars, these ones too precise to be from fights. They were crisscrossed lines, varying in thickness and severity. Abolish wasn't able to get a full view of the tapestry covering his back, but he didn't need to be able to see it to remember the origin of the marks. Mistakes and disobedience were not tolerated by his handlers, and Abolish had never been somebody who learned his lesson the first time around.
Abolish muttered the stories out loud to himself, both for the feeble entertainment they gave and to make sure he didn't forget anything. The arena had a terrible way of ripping away your sense of time until all your memories were a blur and you forgot that you were anything more than an animal fighting for scraps. Abolish refused to let that happen to him, so he tracked time and kept his sanity with the only thing his handlers couldn't take from him: his own flesh and bones.
Sometimes, if Abolish was feeling particularly brave, he'd run his fingers along the many scars that littered his throat. He didn't dare utter the story behind those out loud for fear of someone listening in. They wouldn't take kindly to being reminded of the time that their greatest champion had tried to rip out his own throat with his bare hands to escape the arena.
Abolish should not have been bored anymore.
He had not been dead long enough to tire of the walk alongside the river. He found joy in being able to see a river for the first time in years, even if it was not normal water.
Of course, just like the last time Abolish had almost grasped happiness, the gods ripped it away. This time, though, instead of soldiers invading his home, he found himself standing somewhere cold, his eyes covered by some sort of blindfold.
Abolish heard voices speaking in strange tongues he could not understand. He could pick out multiple speakers, but nothing else. Then, there were suddenly hands lifting his chin up and brushing hair away from his face like he was being inspected. He leaned away from the touch, or at least, he tried to, but he found himself frozen in place.
A voice finally speaking in a language Abolish could understand whispered in his ears, introducing themself as his patron and explaining a tournament he would be participating in along with the reward he'd earn upon victory.
A loud crack of thunder jolted Abolish out of his thoughts. The champion of Zeus must have been throwing his powers around again. Abolish had also been experimenting with the new magic he'd been gifted(? Cursed with?), but he was smart enough to not show his hand too early.
The experiences Abolish had gone through between dying and setting up a shelter in this strange land with eleven other contestants were a novelty. He had never gone on such an adventure before. It should have been the cure for the boredom that had been plaguing Abolish for months before his death.
And yet, Abolish found himself idle enough to be drawn to his reflection again. Not in a mirror this time, but instead in a nearby, crystal clear river. Abolish crouched down on the rocky shore, watching the stars behind him dance in the water.
It took him a moment to prepare himself before he forced his gaze to his face. His patron had not changed too much of his physical appearance, but it was enough to unsettle Abolish. His eyes were a strange amber, almost appearing to glow when they reflected in the water just right. His pupils were slits like a cat and had a strange, red tint to them. His teeth were also sharper, pearly white canines that looked capable of tearing into flesh.
Abolish found himself wondering if his patron had molded him into the perfect beast to send into an arena much like a talented smith might make a specialized weapon. With who his patron was, it wasn't impossible that the god had seen Abolish as just another project — one more weapon to mold.
Abolish had been keeping track of the changes made to his body. His night vision had definitely improved which Abolish supposed could be a result of his new eyes. His teeth certainly gave him the look of something inhuman and dangerous. It was also an interesting discovery to learn that the scalding rock in the caves would not burn him like they did to everyone else.
And all of that was ignoring the magic bubbling under his skin like magma ready to spew out of a volcano. Even though he'd been experimenting with it, Abolish did not think he was ready to see the foreign power as a part of himself.
Abolish sighed and pulled himself away from the river. Memorizing the look and feel of his newly revived body shouldn't be a priority — it couldn't be. He needed to focus on gathering supplies for his tools and observing the other competitors. Watching the champions of Nyx and Artemis fight had been a good step in Abolish's quest of gathering information. He couldn't afford to be caught off guard by another champion's powers. He had survived the arena by learning patterns in people's abilities and countering them; he needed to be able to do the same here.
Once he won, Abolish could put this behind him. He'd have his wish, everyone who knew him to be a champion would be dead, and he'd have the world at his fingertips.
One thing was for certain: Abolish wasn't going to lose the competition, no matter how dirty he had to play to end up on top.