If he timed it? His arrival was immaculate and looked good. The way he could arrive just when the first of the hulking demons walked out just worked, but he wanted to do it with panache.

  The tall elites looked like if someone stuck two people's worth of muscle together onto one frame and, then increased the amount of bone to compensate for that. They looked fat, as if they had never skipped a feast day. Each one moved like a sprinter, and none of their muscles looked like it was wasted.

  Elites also hit like a falling boulder.

  As the gate opened, Ludere stood in front of it, waiting.

  He didn't care that the crowd was booing him. It didn't matter what they thought. He was trying to save their lives.

  When the first demon popped out, the crowd, as it normally did, went into a cacophonous roar.

  "Here we go." He attacked the first elite demon.

  A cheer rose up.

  With the first demon stopped in place and unable to move, the ones behind it could not get out or past.

  The other side might have started but he pushed his will to try and stall them as much as he could. He could feel the demonic world as if it was a part of his world because of how close he was to the gate. He just needed to stall as long as he could.

  It felt like he was draining his stomach contents and all of his muscles just to push back on the elite. But it wasn't moving, and neither was he. That was all that he could barely do.

  With each step that the elite tried to make, he held it back. He wasn't keeping his foot off the ground, but it wasn't moving forward and he wasn't moving backwards. The drain on his Willpower was immense. He'd never before spent so much at such a fast pace. It was like the elite knew that he was trying to steal its time. But he couldn't pierce the demon with a spear. It was too fast for him, and he couldn't hold it in place. He could only hold it back.

  When his Willpower ran out, he got crushed.

  Over and over again, he pitted his Willpower against the elites. That was something they had that he didn't understand. Was it a skill? No, their highest skills seemed to be Athletics. On the fourth vision since he engaged with one of the elites, he finally pushed it backwards. It went to the doorway.

  He could see the elite's face, and it was surprised. For the first time, it took him seriously.

  It roared, charging him. His already dark eyes flashed purple as a wave of force pushed him back.

  "Oh, so you're serious, now? Well, damn."

  It felt like it was pushing against a well of Willpower that he couldn't even attempt to match. Knowing what he knew now, that demons not only had skills but they had some complementary skills to his, he could feel it. The flavor of Willpower was strong and smoky.

  He needed to remember that. It wanted him to die, and he made the argument that it wasn't happening. The fact that his magic tried to find an argument in all of the noise wasn't lost on him.

  *Will Magic 35 -> 40*

  That it had grown so fast in such an exchange? Ludere knew he was on the right track.

  The elite flared his Willpower and his argument died. He died with it.

  The next dozen times, he faced down the arguments from the elite with the full force of his own Will. Each time he could feel the elite spending Willpower from what had to be a nearly endless supply of it. He didn't like that feeling at all. He would happily do without it, especially in the long run.

  When he argued with Erebus, they had a playful banter.

  This was like trying to argue with a Septus. It wasn't happening.

  "I think we need to talk about how we argue."

  "You've been thinking about this, huh? Also what's happened to your muscles? One second you were yourself and the next?" Erebus couldn't help but stare.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  "You can see me. You see I've changed. Shit's going down."

  "Is it forward to ask you if I can feel your muscles? Because I'm at a loss. What the hell did you do? Was it one of those special balms?"

  Ludere shook his head. "You've got the wrong idea. I would never get one of those Buddha balms. They're just liquefied meat with perfume. Everyone knows that."

  "Hey, don't talk so loud. One of the Prefereti might hear you and then think that you're talking badly about their product."

  Prefereti were particular about who they did business with. Ludere didn't want to have to deal with one who thought that they'd been slighted by a lower-class citizen.

  He barely even wanted to see one outside of his work. Having an official position? It provided him with a lot of top cover from scrutiny that let him keep doing what he wanted to do.

  "All I know is that I need you to give me your best argument against something, so that I can make an argument against it. It's going to help me in this fight I have coming up."

  "Is this about your parents doing that thing? What was it, something related to getting farming land, or…?"

  Ludere held back a tear. He felt like he hadn't talked to his parents in forever. He might never get a chance to do it again. They weren't even that far away, he had just… Never considered it. He would spend the entire loop running there and back to see them for no time flat.

  When this vision—when these loops ended, he promised himself that he would go see them, first thing.

  "I'm going to be honest with you. I haven't even thought about that in forever. But their claim was denied, and they're fighting it, but it takes forever. The government said that they could have a plot of land too far away from here."

  "Ah, but with those muscles, thanks to the Buddha balm, you should make short work of any government inspector, right? Just let them… Well, I don't know how many Senators prefer men like you, but that might be a way."

  Ludere didn't want to respond to such accusations. He was probably happy not having to deal with the Senator in any personal capacity. No Ludo wanted to deal with any of them in a romantic capacity. Those were very one-sided affairs.

  Not that anyone would appreciate his advances well, with him knowing enough about people. Through enough loops, he might be able to gather enough information to actually have dirt on a sitting Senator. That might be worth it, after this all ended.

  "Look. While I'm here, I need to figure out whose skills I can borrow. Do you know anyone with skills that they're bragging about?"

  Erebus began writing. "If you could get someone with—hmmm… You told me you had a skill that could swap out skills, but you've only gotten magic skills and Spear Proficiency?"

  "Don't tell me I'm wasting my time." Ludere grabbed the spear from under the bench.

  With the skill over fifty he could wield it as well as any legionnaire—probably better. One of the houses would try and recuit him, and until the last few loops, he wouldn't have been able to say no. The bigger houses had resources to offer to him that, until recently, he wouldn't have dreamed of.

  "When did you pick that up—wait, don't tell me. You think that I'm going to get rid of one of the houses, but you don't know which one. You want to put in some sort of recommendation so you can get a finder's fee. You sly dog, you."

  Erebus shrugged. "If I can't bet on that, then I can't really win. I would appreciate it if you'd allow me the chance. You keep this up, we're solving money problems, because if you quit, it's going to be more difficult. Hey, stop that."

  Ludere stopped juggling rocks. Erebus's money problems were not his. The chances that he did continue to work for the arena after this all ended? It was unlikely, at best.

  "I don't need to be some Senator's rental boy. I do want access to their libraries."

  He wouldn't need their money, but he might want their resources. Ludere definitely didn't want their love.

  "Very well. But we could secure my future! How about just like an afternoon of pretending?"

  That sounded lovely. He would love to just have an afternoon just sitting around reading or going through things.

  He would give anything for the end-of-day reconciliation of funds to be his biggest stressor. The way things are going, it would never be that way anymore, but he could hope.

  The idea of just pretending to be a rental boy to get a Senator's favor did not sit well at all, but if that was what he had to do to get the information he needed, he would pretend to love them. He would tend to care, and then he would get the information needed and get the heck out of there.

  "Look I don't know anything about this but do you know who's anyone who's done this? Because if I have to sneak into someone's house to get more information, then I'll do it. But I don't really want to do it that way if I don't have to. If there's any other way…"

  "You know what they're looking for. They're looking for arm candy. You, right now, look like a really beefy piece of arm candy. So lean into that."

  "Is that all you see when you look at me? Arm candy? I should have you know I have a smart, analytical brain, and I can count Dinarii in my sleep—"

  "The arm candy is getting too loud. Perhaps it needs a drinky drink?"

  "I'm not going to get drunk just to be some Prefereti's plaything to get access to their library."

  Erebus pursed his lips.

  "Perhaps you're not as committed to this as you should be."

  Ludere stared for a long time. This was the kind of thing that he had no experience with, and he did not expect to ever have an experience with. He didn't want to do it. He wasn't going to do it, and he realized that he could do it without doing it. Why couldn't he just sneak into their houses and steal their libraries?

  "You're probably thinking to yourself. Why can't I just go into their house and steal from them? And that would be well-locked houses. Or soul-signed entry gates that will stop you. You have to get their confidence, and nothing will get their confidence faster than money, or… Well, take a look at yourself."

  "I look good. Rek! Fiddlesoup."

  It wasn't going to be in this loop, but if he wanted to learn state secrets? He would probably need to figure out what Erebus had gone on about.

  It felt like he was walking into a terrible trap, but it was something that he could do of his own choosing.