World Conquest Online

"Get your feet moving Leonidas!" Dom shouted loudly from the side of the race, having made a slight bet with Crassus that Leonidas would win. Selected Citizens were now racing each other on a lap of the outside of the Inner Wall. A Track had been created that looped around all of the key areas in Riverside, with members of Riverside, regardless of their occupation, watching with excitement from different areas.

"Hurry up Maron, get past him!" Crassus shouted at a second Spartan that was shoulder to shoulder with Leonidas as they passed the Ninth Legion Warriors Hall and began their run towards the River where the finish line was.

"You’ve got this Paul!" Someone else shouted, Dom turned and saw it was Duncan, a Warrior he had defeated in his tutorial mission who had joined Riverside as an early Civilian Spawner alongside Paul, one of his allies from the Tutorial. Dom looked and saw that Paul was coming around a corner in a group of other runners who were further back near the Stables, which had a mixture of Warriors and healthy Civilians running in it.

At the front of the race were a handful of Spartans, who were currently outperforming the others in the running by a fair amount, with a couple of Slingers and Hoplite trying to keep up with them. Dom was impressed by the speed that they could maintain as they ran, but he knew from experience that the race wasn’t open until the end.

"Who do you think will win?" Dom heard Meritamen ask Subutai who was stood beside them watching quietly. Around them more people screamed and cheered on the different runners, who came from different areas of the larger Riverside population. Meritamen had organised it so that different population areas of Riverside were mixed together.

"Just wait a few more seconds and you will see." Subutai replied coyly with a knowing look.

As they passed the Warriors Halls and entered the final stretch, Leonidas and Maron shoulder each other as they ran, ignoring the other Spartans and Warriors that slowly fell away, however amongst the others the two Balearic Slingers that were in the group kept up with them. The Slingers were slightly behind them at first, before drawing level with them. There was a look between the two Slingers before they quickly began to sprint and ran past the surprised faces of Leonidas and Maron.

"Is that Centurion Balius’s son?" Meritamen asked Subutai, impressed as he outran the other slinger and neared the finish line.

"He is." Subutai replied with a smile as he passed the finish line, leaving the Spartans and other warriors behind. Another Slinger came second, followed by Leonidas, the Spartan Maron and another two Spartans.

"Do I still win the bet?" Dom asked Crassus as Leonidas had finished before Maron.

"Definitely not, we bet on first place, not third." Crassus laughed, patting Dom on the back. More people now crossed the line and the crowd continued to cheer them all on as they ran past. At the finish line stood Lucius, with Chanda and the other Ashoka Concubines, who gave the winners a drink to quench their first.

"Congratulations to our Winners!" Lucius exclaimed loudly so those around could hear. He then handed a package to those that finished in the Top Three, that included some Gold, as well as giving the winner an Olive Leaf Winners Wreath, which was placed on the proud looking Balearic Slingers head.

...

"I think this is a bit unfair." Crassus commented as they watched the next competition, this time it was weight lifting and some heavy stones had been quarried from the mountain and brought on carts to Riverside for this competition. Wang Shu had his son’s chip away at the stones and make them in to a ball shape so that they would be easier and fairer to lift.

"They are part of Riverside so they should be able to get involved." Subutai argued back, having bet on one of the new arrivals, Actumerus, to win this particular round.

"Just because he is the tallest, doesn’t mean he’s the strongest." Dom countered, having bet on one of Lars the Lumberjack’s sons.

"I have high hopes for Wang Shu’s son." Meritamen commented, cheering on the Builder that had helped make the sphere’s, his belly not as large as his fathers, but being used to balance the large spherical stones that he lifted.

"I have my money on that Celtic Mercenary!" Tomyris argued from beside her, having seen them fight bravely in battle. She had visited Cunomoltus earlier in the day and he had told her that this Celtic Warrior was the strongest of his Mercenaries.

There were currently only ten people left in the competition, having had a few rounds earlier with only the winners from each round making it to the final.

"Come on, you’ve got this!" Crassus yelled, which was followed by many of the Civilians that had also bet on this, the Gambling Hall having been extremely busy today.

Soon only the heaviest two stones were left, with only Lars’s son and Actumerus left, Actumerus seemed to have the better grip as he lifted the stone, however Lars’s son rolled the stone up his body rather than lifting it directly and placed it on the podium it needed to be on first. Actumerus placed his on slightly after, but laughed loudly and hugged the lumberjack enthusiastically in celebration.

Dom turned and saw the proud look on Lars’s face, but it he could also see the proud look on a lot of Civilians faces that one of them had won and not a Warrior. It seemed that the games were doing what he expected.

Lucius announced the winner and passed on prizes to the winners as he had done earlier. Soon after a couple more competitions took place, with some Horse Racing, Swimming across the River and some wrestling. There were a variety of Winners, all from different parts of Riverside and the first Sports Competition of Riverside was almost over.

When the final game ended, there was a small earthquake like shake, coming from the west of Riverside in the mainly empty space as the Forest had been cut down more and more towards the former Gluttonous Chief’s Village. Most of the Civilians continued as normal, used to the strange happenings as buildings were spawned, but Dom knew that the Arena had arrived.

Dom decided to head towards it whilst Lucius had informed the Citizens that the games had ended and it was now time to celebrate with food and music. The Inner Wall Gates were opened and the Market was fully stocked with food and drinks, with Citizens heading in different direction to enjoy themselves. Lucius had explained that there would be more entertainment in the evening in the West, but it was a surprise and they should all head there when the next alarm was sounded.

...

Dom soon arrived at the new Building, he had only taken Meritamen and two Guards with him, Gregorios and Trojan. He was impressed to see a large semi circular stone structure, that’s outer wall was as high as the Inner Wall of Riverside. It was placed a good distance from the Inner Wall, with only the Mausoleum to the North of it and the Shipyards and Titanaconda Beast Hall to the south.

It had a glamourous engraved entrance, that you could walk through to enter. The entrance had stone Pillar’s with engravings of animals and Warriors. Whilst at the sides of the entrance were different layered stairs that could take you to the higher seating above.

Hatshepsut was waiting for him under the entrance, beside her Chen Lu and Chen Ping, two of his Forbidden Guard, who were mounted on Sabre Tooth Tigers. Both guards had huge smiles on their faces, having missed some of the earlier Celebrations as part of their task today to help Hatshepsut.

"It’s a beautiful building." Hatshepsut stated, "I think you will be pleased, come in and I’ll show you."

"Show Stats." Dom asked, as he headed through the entrance with his small group.

[Amphitheatre of Riverside

Amphitheatre Grade - S

Amphitheatre Level - 1

Amphitheatre Size - Five Thousand

Amphitheatre’s have been used throughout antiquity for a variety of performances, from Theatre productions to Gladiator fights.]

Dom walked through the Entrance and arrived at a central stage area that was slightly raised. He walked up a few steps and stood on it, before turning around and admiring the huge seating area behind him. There was a sharp incline of tiers of stone seating that surrounded the stage in a semi circle. Behind the stage were several small stone buildings, which Dom expected were for the performers to prepare themselves in.

"It’s much bigger than I was expecting." Dom replied, having expected something much smaller for a level one building.

"It’s exactly what we need." Meritamen countered, clearly impressed by the space.

"I think so as well." Hatshepsut agreed, "The Chen Brothers have inspected the building and I am comfortable that we can do our planned entertainment here this evening.

"Amazing!" Dom stated, excited for the evening entertainment.

...

The evening soon arrived, with many merry members of Riverside heading in to the new Amphitheatre, with amazed looks on their faces. The Market stalls had done their job well, having given out many free meals and drinks, whilst everyone celebrated and shared stories of their own histories with each other. A lot of Peruda’s drinks had been used and she had explained that she would need time to brew more as well as bring in additional staff to help reach the larger numbers that were needed. Hatshepsut and Meritamen had both argued with Dom and Lucius that they should do what Peruda had proposed, and that drinks were as good as gold as currency in some places.

The Amphitheatre had quickly filled up, with the key members of Riverside with dedicated seats on the lower rungs that were closer to the stage. Meritamen and her planning team had made extensive effort to make sure that everyone that wanted to attend, could attend. She had intentionally made sure that the Heroes were sat on the front row, with Centurions and Elite Villagers behind them, those with families had them sat with them.

Dom hadn’t expected to see Hua Tou here tonight, as he had such a long list of patients, but was relieved to see that he was, with his wife, daughter and even Phoebe. What shocked him even more was that Cunomoltus was there, heavily bandaged and still pale. Cunomoltus was supported by two of his Celtic Mercenaries that sat beside him to his left, his arm was now non-existent, but that didn’t seem to stop him from enjoying himself. He had a broad smile on his face, as to his right was sat the new arrival Chariovalda who was joking with him.

Sat further down were the Bandage Twins, with all of the injured Heroes now also now being sat around on the lower level. Guo Sheng and Huang Xin were both still bandaged, but were sat together, with Liu Fang, Qin Ming and Hua Rong. The five of them had become a close group in the small time since their arrival, which made Dom smile as they had fought against each other at the recruitment mission. The Bandits that had come with them were sat further back, mixed in with the different Citizens of Riverside, no longer Bandits but Warriors of Riverside.

The part that made Dom the most surprised however, was the Qiao Family. Similar to the Xun Family that was sat together with Xun You, Xun Yu and Xun Yan. The Qiao Family were sat together, with the new arrivals of Xiao Qiao and Qiao Guolao sat on one side, and Da Qiao on the other, beside her was a bandaged man. Sun Ce’s wounds had been superficial to his back, his under armour taking most of the damage and the actual cuts being shallow. The major wound had been on his cheek, which if hadn’t been dealt with effectively could have been deadly, however Riverside had the best Ancient Doctor in Hua Tou, and Phoebe who was exceptional in her own right. Sun Ce was clearly not comfortable as he sat, but he was loyally sat next to his Wife that seemed to not want to let him leave her sight.

Dom intended to speak with Sun Ce in the morning, but Hua Tou had recommended that Sun Ce refrain from overly using his mouth other than eating a liquid like medical meal that he had made. He had explained that had Sun Ce arrived much later or the Arrow had been removed in a different way, the wound would have been much larger and his chances of death were high. Instead Hua Tou and Phoebe had been able to remove the arrow neatly and stitched Sun Ce up. They had also used some nearby grown herbs to create a salve that helped heal the wound and reduce the chances of infection, a similar one that had been used on the other Heroes, Cunomoltus and many wounded Warriors.

The entertainment soon began, with Gu Kaizhi opening proceedings by playing an upbeat song on his Zither, with Chanda and the other Ashoka Concubines dancing elegantly to it. They danced with ribbons and the whole crowd was almost silent as they watched.

"They are beautiful when they dance." Dom heard Artemisia say to Tomyris quietly as they sat together a couple of seats to his right.

"They really are." Tomyris agreed in a whisper, "I bet they would be excellent warriors if they were given a chance."

"Or Assassins." Artemisia whispered seriously.

"I wouldn’t get any expectations." Meritamen quietly said from beside Artemisia, "We have been playing match maker and some of them will be getting married soon."

"Who are the lucky men?" Artemisia laughed quietly.