Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Getting hold of money in Essempii city is harder than you might thing. Until now he has gotten a lot of help from his friends, Sapnap and George, both who lived in wealthy and successful families. But there's only so much help Dreams pride can take and at this point he could as well be laying with his face flat down on the road in front of them both. He had to start earning money somewhere else.

Dream never managed to get a real job, no one wanted some random street urchin to work for them. Most people were probably scared he would start to steal or maybe even lower the company's name by just being in the presence of their store.

So he had to figure out other ways to get his earnings. Mostly he did random quests that people currently needed help with. It could be anything between gardening to hunting down some dangerous creature and bring its head to the quest giver, the latter was what he mostly chose to do since that earned him much more. Now though, there was no such job available and he desperately needed more money than a simple gardening job could give him so his only choice was to go with plan B. Duelling.

There where many different fighting arenas around the country but of course Essempii city had to own the greatest and biggest one. Most fighting arenas in smaller cities and villages were illegal, meaning that they were probably just filled to the brim with trafficked hybrids who fought against their own will. The Essempii's arena "the prostigous ring" was supposed to be fully legal, something no one believed as well as no one questioned. But it was really not that bad as far as Dream knew, most contestants fought completely on their own accord and not many fights ended in bad injuries or death. That was much better than many other arenas out there. Dream knew, he'd had many missions where his purpose was to defeat rising fighters in such arenas and had seen the suffering first hand. No matter how much it took against his morals there were not much he could do about the situation. He could sadly not take care of every abused fighter in the world when he could barely manage to take care of himself, so that would have to wait until he was better situated.

Anyhow, Dream was currently hanging out with two of his best friends and also his two only friends when he for the first time spoke his idea out loud.

"Absolutely not" was the only answer he got from George and Sapnap just looked dissaprovingly at him.

They usually hung out at a little clearing in the woods right outside the Essempii city or at one of their favorite bars when Dream had enough money for it. Right now it was safe to say he wouldn't be going to many bars for a while. His moneysack was a sad sight with two lone little coins inside. Enough to survive another day but not much more than that.

"Look, I need to get money somehow and if you don't have some amazing well-paid job laying around somewhere this is about my only option" Dream tried to reason with the two. It didn't really look to have gone home yet but Dream would not give up this. This might be his only chance.

"If you need money just ask, both I and George has more than enough", this time it was Sapnaps time to speak. Of course they would say that, because they were Dreams best friends and would probably give them their title as well if they were able to. But Dream had taken enough from them, it didn't matter if they had more to give. If Dream would ever be able to live with himself he had to be able to survive by himself for once.

"I can't take anymore than I already have, you know that. I'm done using you both as some salvation, I want to be able to provide for myself." Please the gods up above, could they just let him do this. No matter how much Dream appreciated his friends it did sometimes antagonize him how oblivious they were to any other lifestyle than the one of wealth. But he couldn't blame them, they grew up that way, how would they know?

"Fine"

Dream couldn't believe his ears, it was that easy?

"But I demand to come with and work as your executive, when I decide to pull you out or tell you to pass over any fight your going to obey, got it?" As a nobleman son with more power than they should have, George of course loved to be in control. Dream would like to imagine that its because he cares so much about him and not just the fact of being able to push him around how he likes. It's probably the latter though if he was going to be honest with himself.

"Your really letting him go through with this?" Sapnap didn't seem as keen on the idea, he had always been the softy. He had this really tough shell, but it wasn't very thick and with enough force cracked wide open to reveal that he's actually just a bleeding-heart.

"Yes, I believe Dream is of age enough to make his own decisions. We wouldn't be able to stop him if we wanted to. And he's mighty talented, he could easily win against some amateurs in that moronic ring."

Even if George sometimes did seem as just another mindless aristocrat he was in reality quite sharp-witted, he knew from the beginning Dream would get his will through. It didn't mean he couldn't make an attempt at changing his mind though, even if it failed miserably from the start.

"I highly appreciate it George, I hope you can understand why I have to do this"

"I don't, but I will let it play out anyways. Please don't make me regret this". Well, that was good enough for Dream, and even if George sounded worried he didn't look it. They all knew Dream would do fine in the ring. They had yet to find anyone even close to the skill Dream held with a sword. This would be easy money.

Or that's what they all thought at least. Turns out the life in the arena was more complicated and perplexing than any one of them could have imagined.

Chapter Text

The entrance of the prodigious ring, or the PR as it was often called, was everything it said it was. Prodigious. It was probably one of the most detailed and outstanding buildings in all of Essempii. This was the city's pride, no matter how sad that might sound.
Standing in the huge reception of the building, Dream finally realized what he's doing. Even though not a lot of people get hurt or die in this arena, he has heard many stories. Half of the rumours being passed around the city were actually just brutal and unexplainable events happening inside the ring. One rumour in particular wouldn't for the death of him leave his head. Apparently, there was one fighter in this arena that was exceptionally good. He would fight two, if not more, other fighters at the same time because otherwise, his fights would last too short, and everyone would bet on the same guy. So then, not profitable. He went under the name of the Blood God or sometimes simply the Blade since that was his preferred weapon. Some say he was born in the ring, a successful attempt at creating an indestructible, unbeatable weapon. Others say he came straight from the nether to tear down anyone coming in his path, simply because he thrived in seeing his victims in anguish. Apparently, this hybrid of some sort would not only kill his opponent but brutally slaughter every single one of them.
Dream would be lying if that didn't terrify him a little bit. Thankfully, he could choose his own fights and could purposefully avoid fighting this monster of a person. Not that George would ever let him fight THE Blood god anyway. Just the name would probably scare George off and abort this entire idea.

The three of them walked up to the receptionist. It was a middle-aged woman, probably in her forties or so. She had long, thin black hair put up into a slick ponytail in the middle of her head. Her face was crudely painted with makeup in a desperate attempt at looking younger.
When they reached the desk, she only eyed them shortly before looking back down on some papers in front of her.
"Uhm, hello? Is this where you check in to fight?" For some reason, this woman managed to make Dream extremely nervous. It was like she held his life in her hands, and any wrong word Dream might say would lead to her simply crushing it right in front of him with no remorse, and everything would be over.
"It is." No follow-up questions, not even a glance up at them.
"So, could I please schedule a fight?" Dream really tried to keep his calm and not make a fool of himself in front of the lady, but her lack of response made him a bit infuriated. Why work as a receptionist if you didn't want to talk to people?
"That you can do." Finally, she seemed to give them some kind of attention.
"Do all three of you want to fight? Togheter or individually?"
"No, just me. They are going to be my executives if that's alright?" Dream answered quickly, finally some response from the sour lady.
"We could make that happen." The woman reached out a paper to George behind him as well as another paper to Sapnap. From what dream could see, the paper to George was filled with different names, times, and some numbers. That was most likely the different times for fights as well as what the payment for winning said fight was.
"Just write your ringname by the fight you want to participate in. Your two executives can write their information on this paper here together with your actual name. The paper with the different fights you can partake in only shows the upcoming week, but we have a few fights planned for the entire month, so if you're searching for a later date, I can get those papers ready for you as well."
"This will be fine for now," he quickly responded to the lady.
That's when he realized that right, he would need a ringname. No one in the arena has their birth name since a lot of the defeated might try and get a hold of you outside of the ring. Having your name on display for the entire city to see makes that job much easier. It's a question of safety, really.
"What should my ringname be?" He asked his two friends. Dream was never famous for his creativity, and that showed right now. He had no idea what to call himself.
"Dont fret, I have the perfect nickname in mind." That was both worrying and relieving.
"So, let's take a look. Tomorrow at twelve, you can fight against the hammer, what a peculiar name, and get 45 coins for it. That's a good deal, no?" Sapnap had snatched the paper from George to look through all the options himself.
"The hammer? That's really stupid. But 45 coins is good for one fight. Let me see the other options." The moment he looked at the paper, he noticed one reoccurring name. They seemed to have more fights than any other person, and every single one of them had a crazy high price. Winning one of those fights and Dream wouldn't have to work another day for at least a year or so. And that's only winning one simple fight. The only problem was that it wasn't just a simple fight as  the name of the fighter just so happened to be Zagreus. For those who didn't know, that's the name the Blood God chose to go by inside the ring. That name seemed to be written at least 3 to 4 times a day. How he could manage to get to every fight and win was beyond Dream.  That many fights a day without break is bound to exhaust not just the body but the mind of a normal human. That happening during a fight of life or death is something extremely dangerous, no matter how strong you normally are. But The Blood God were no normal human, and Dream didn't know enough about hybrids to know if they worked the same, so maybe it wasn't a problem after all.
Before Dream managed to say anything, George snapped the paper back.
"Dont even think about it. The award might be high, but that guy slaughters his opponents. I'm not sending you out to your own death." Well, maybe that's for the best, Dream was certainly strong, but was he enough to be able to win against the Blood God? He didn't know if he wanted to find out.
"The hammer guy it is then," He simply said as an answer.
"Please, write up your name on the paper." The lady seemed to have lost her patience with them and only wanted them to leave at this point. She held a resentful expression while looking over them three.
"I have more people to service after you" funny she said that while the entire reception was completely empty, only one other group of people stood over by a board with the upcoming fights, probably not planning on checking in but only watching or maybe betting on someone.
George quickly wrote up the nickname he had come up with and handed the paper back to the lady. She only gave a cold smile lasting at most a second before returning to the papers on her desk.
"What name did you choose?" Sapnap seemed more curious about Dreams new ringname than Dream himself were. Not that he wasn't curious. This was what everyone would call him inside the arena from now on after all.
"Ephialtes!" He said with a suspenseful voice while gesturing with his hands dramatically.
"Ephialtes? What does that even mean?"
"It basically means nightmare, thought it be amusing since you're called Dream. I think it's also someone from some greek mythology. He was some giant or troll or something, but im not too sure." George seemed way too pleased with that name, but Dream would give it to him. It was a good name. Better than anything he himself would come up with for sure.
"That's actually quite ingenious,"
"Thank you," He answered with a dramatic deep bow.