Reflections on the Warpath - [An Isekai Progression Fantasy]

Remember my real goal.

Not theirs, not ours. Mine.

Jay repeated the adapted mantra to himself as he journeyed towards the Pits. Fixation on a group goal had burned him and Akira during Advancement, he wouldn't be making the same mistake again. Lyra still hadn't reached out to him since the tournament, and Jay wouldn't consider speaking to her until he received an apology, at the very least.

He wasn't joining this fight to help Limitless Ascent, he was joining to grow stronger. If aiding the alliance helped him with that then that's what he'd do.

Of course, Jay couldn't simply disregard the alliance and its members. Samira and her network of knowledge was Jay's best shot at finding Julian. He had to stay on her good side if he wanted the search to continue. More importantly, he had to impress her.

Nepotism helped, but Jay truly believed that Samira wanted him because he was a capable gladiator who could help uplift Limitless Ascent. If he was of no use to her, then why spend any time searching for Jules?

Cyrus stood between the Pits' entrance holding the gates ajar with his foot. A short, wiry man with mouse-brown hair stood beside Cyrus and chuckled as the gladiator let a pair of E graders in free of charge.

"Jay, you're finally here!" shouted Cyrus after his colleague pointed in Jay's direction. "Come in, we're almost ready to leave."

Jay jogged over to Cyrus and passed through the gate. The other gladiator introduced himself as Jack, and the trio walked towards the manor house that resided in the Pits.

"Feeling nervous?" asked Cyrus.

Jay shook his head.

"It's non-lethal, right? Can't be worse than what happened during Advancement."

"Well, the opposing alliance could capture you, imprison you, starve you and then torture you for information about our strategies all while keeping you within an inch from death so that you can't return to the coliseum… but then again you had a pretty rough time during your two minutes with that dagger so maybe you'll be fine!"

Delightful…

But Jay knew what he was in for, Cyrus' banter wouldn't scare him off less than an hour before the fight started.

Three iron bangles clinked against each other on Jack's wrist as he held his hand up to the oak doors. Another link materialised, connecting him to the door as he began to pull it towards him. Jack exerted himself, but didn't struggle to pull the doors open. He wrenched open a foot-wide gap before deftly slipping through it.

Once Jack was inside. The doors parted for Cyrus and Jay. They entered the hall, walking over to one of the stained glass windows while a small crowd gathered across the entrance hall.

"…And now we fight. United as one alliance, for this battle will fuel all our individual ascents."

A handful of cheers broke across the few dozen gladiators watching Samira give a speech from atop a ceremonial lectern.

Jay saw even the silent gladiators nod in approval at her words.

"We don't know how or where we're fighting, but what's war without a little risk? And when you prepare to risk everything, always bet on yourself. I'm betting on you, Limitless Ascent. I believe we can win this fight, all we need now is to enter the coliseum and prove it."

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The cheers thickened as Samira stepped down and into the crowd. The gladiators bunched into small groups and conversed as Jay awkwardly watched them, standing beside Cyrus as Ping floated behind him.

After a few minutes, Samira exited the manor and the crowd followed her.

It was a far cry from the last time he'd exited an alliance's base; a burning gaze didn't assault him like during his escape from the Flaming Tomb. Instead the gladiators all laughed as they walked. The groups they travelled in constantly churning and changing.

Jay heard the pre-fight banter yet didn't listen to it. The gladiators' blasé indifference impressed Jay, the people surrounding him were seasoned fighters that stared the Second Chance Coliseum down with a laugh and a smile.

But Jay wasn't a part of them. He couldn't get swept into their vortex behind those smiles and laughs.

He was here for him.

Since he wasn't too keen on ingratiating himself within Limitless Ascent, Jay's journey to the coliseum was mostly uneventful. A few members kindly introduced themselves to Jay; he matched their smiles and greetings but largely kept to himself.

Ping remained by Jay's side for the entire walk and he spent most of the time observing the members of the alliance he knew.

Samira led the way, occasionally talking to Ilia the sun blade, a tall, golden-haired gladiator that walked by her side. Ilia was Limitless Ascent's only C grader and thus had an important role in the alliance's fight preparation. While Samira's face emitted a constant neutrality, Ilia's was locked in a permanent frown.

Behind the leading duo walked Yagao, constantly peppered by Cyrus' jokes from beside him. They walked in step with Jack and two other gladiators Jay didn't recognise.

There was a small crowd waiting for the alliance when they reached the pavilion. A half-dozen reporters held memory crystals and bombarded Samira with questions about the fight. She stopped answering after the first two and the reporters split up to cover the entire procession.

Jay even heard a few questions directed at him but he kept his head down and walked past them.

No arbiter greeted Limitless Ascent as they walked over to Gladiator's gate. Jay followed the alliance with little fanfare as they walked though the gladiator's legs.

His first B grade fight was about to begin.

The alliance grew quiet once inside the coliseum, the colossal structure engulfing them in shadows. Beneath the veil of black silence, Jay almost forgot he was walking alongside fifty-five other gladiators.

He almost forgot he was walking at all.

A soothing numbness washed Jay's legs in warmth and he no longer felt the ground push back at his feet with each step. He still swung his feet, and Jay felt a strange sense of motion as he floated inside the void.

Soon, even that vanished. Jay simply existed in his dreamlike dark trance, waiting for the fight to begin.

Snap.

Jay couldn't tell how long he'd been waiting for, but he knew the wait was over.

His eyes readjusted to reality. A glowing crystal emanating orange-gold light that pulsated as Jay slowly roused from his stupor. The crystal wasn't cut or polished, and had been embedded into a rough stone wall. As he twisted his neck towards the rest of his surroundings, Jay realised he was in an cramped underground chamber. One stuffed with slightly more people than it was supposed to handle.

But even though the carved stone room was full, there couldn't have been more than a dozen people inside.

Where did all the gladiators go?

"Welcome to the Whispertide Archipelago," said Samira. She stood behind a war-table with a map plastered to its surface, it showed a cluster of hundreds of islands Jay didn't recognise and had red and blue tiles strewn across it. Ilia remained beside her, slightly crouching beneath the underground war room's knobbly ceiling.

Behind them stood four wrinkled old men, their weather-beaten skin as tanned as their thinning hair was white. They all wore poncho-like cloaks with the colours faded and almost lost from age. Each one looked at Jay and the three gladiators beside him with a different mixture of fear, hope, and tiredness on their faces.

Jay saw Jack, the gladiator who he'd entered the Pits with, but there were two other gladiators sharing the room with them. He recognised them from the walk to the coliseum but didn't know their names.

Samira placed another blue tile next to one of the central islands and everyone in the room looked towards her.

"This is our arena for the next month. As you know, we have some catching up to do. Jack, Corinne, Marko, Jay, you four comprise Team Kestrel, one of our scouting and flash assault units.

"Your first mission is to find out just what our enemies have been up to for the past week."