"Take a good long look, all of you!" Razor yelled over the rest of the pack. "Isn't she a beauty? I'm thinking it's almost a waste to sacrifice her to summon a boss as low tier as Vanara. Anyone who sends us, let's see... how about a Silver or higher tribute? Yeah! Anyone who sends us a Silver or higher tier tribute will spare the life of our little Snow White here!"

Adrenaline thrummed through my chest as I slipped down to the top floor of the auditorium, barely making a sound. A grunt sounded from the darkness ahead, and I froze. As my eyes adjusted, I spotted the man who'd made the noise: a lone Hell Pig who’d had been set up as a spotter behind the cages. His cruddy hide armor and crude iron spear told me he was a junior member of the gang. He was peering over the railing. The noises he was making and the pumping motion of his arm were unmistakable.

"Gross, gross, fuckin' gross..." I padded forward, low to the ground. When I moved slowly, claws held off the floor, my steps were as silent as a panther's. It was disturbingly natural to assume the right posture, the right speed, and the right angle to kill. The target was oblivious, still choking the python when I lunged in, caught his head in my jaws, and crushed down.

My fangs went through bone and flesh with almost no effort at all. He didn't even have time to cry out. The body spun from the neck, which snapped with a muffled 'crunch' and then sagged in my jaws, twitching and hot. The second I realized that, I dropped him and backed away, breathing hard through all six vents in my muzzle. My mouth was full of a sweet metallic taste... a taste my predator's body yearned for, even as I scrabbled back and gagged as quietly as possible.

[Stealth Gladiator Kill. You gain 50 EXP.]

Fuck. Motherfucker. I really was a goddamn killing machine.

"Whaaaat?! Not a single tribute!? Not even a measly little crumb for our next contestant on 'who's blood is that anyway'?" Razor let out a shrill, insane laugh. "Too bad, kid! Time to die!"

I concentrated on the dead Pig, and thought 'Inventory'. Sure enough, a holographic window opened, revealing everything he'd been carrying. He had a surprising amount of stuff. Some crude [Musket Bullets] - strange, given he wasn't carrying a gun - a whole bunch of berries, [Flax Thread x 300], [Hide x 130], twine, rope and a few other survival basics. He was wearing [Poorly Tanned Buckskins] and carried a [Bog Iron Spear]. I switched out the three hundred pounds of sticks and bracken in my Inventory into his, took all his stuff, then looked over the railing.

The Pigs were crowded over the girl. She was still struggling. That was good - I just hoped she could hang onto her sanity. I tested the strength of the stone before leaping up, and then experimentally reached down and flexed my claws into the mossy wall. They sunk into the rotten mortar like pitons, anchoring me securely. Instinct told me to unfurl my tentacles and use them to assist my descent. The four prehensile limbs were strong enough to easily bear my entire weight, so I clambered down the wall like Doctor Octopus, as stealthy while vertical as I was while horizontal.

Neither the other monsters or the cowering humans in the cages seemed to notice me, either riveted to the scene on the altar or buried in their own little worlds. Any sound I made was drowned out by the howling of the Pigs. The two guards were watching the scene ahead, confident that their spotter was still alive and keeping an eye on their backs.

They didn't see what hit them. The tentacles lanced forward like harpoons, punching through the backs of their boiled leather armor and out the front of their chests. I hauled them around either side of the cage, whisking them off their feet and dragging them back into the shadows. Two quick bites, and they were done.

[Stealth Gladiator Kill. You gain 100 Exp. You are Level 8.]

[You have 1 Ability Points.]

[You have 5 new Subscribers.]

[You have gained a Patron: Cold_Fox. You have earned a Silver Milestone Pack!]

[Cold_Fox has sent you a Bronze Patron Tribute!]

Great. My first stalker.

The pair of corpses collapsed as I drew the tentacles out of them with a wet sound, then raided their inventories. These guys had [Primitive Shortbows] and [Iron Cutlasses], as well as more ammunition - all different kinds - food, iron tools, and lots of other crafting materials and trinkets. Most importantly, they had the keys to the Runtina’s cage.

Now, the moment of truth. I could do almost everything a human player could do, other than crafting. But could I use keys?

There was a high-pitched sound of terror from the altar: a thin garbling cry that caused images of that rage-soaked kitchen, broken teeth, the angry slash of a woman chopping her left hand into the palm of her right.

My heart thumped I focused on the cage locks. As I did, the stag reared his head as much as the cage allowed for, ears flicking with curiosity. He stared at me with eyes like hot coals, smoldering with barely-suppressed anticipation as I pulled the key out of my Inventory: or tried to.

[Error: You cannot use this item.]

Fuck.

"Hey! Who the hell's Brute is that?!" It was Rooster, Clive’s lieutenant, leaning around the altar to peer across the room at me.

My pulse skipped a beat. In desperation, I latched onto the padlock with my teeth and bore all of the primal strength in my jaws down on the crude metal. As a human, the idea of biting through a lock was absurd. As Noodles the Reaper Nemesis, it was absurdly easy. The iron broke apart in my mouth with a resounding CRACK, startling the onlookers not too wrapped up in whatever was going on at the altar.

Rooster’s eyes flew open. "What the- HEY! GUYS! THE-THE-THE FUCKING MURDER-DEER JUST-"

I bounded forward, seized the stag’s collar between my teeth, and chomped down a second time. The metal sharply heated, then shattered in my mouth. The blast cost me 233 HP and sent me reeling back, even as the stag clambered to his feet. He put his head down, glaring at the panicking mass of Hell Pigs, and pawed the floor of his cage.

“Don’t worry, boys! Focus on Vanara! We got this!” Clive shouted. “BLAZE! Get over here, you big toothy bastard!”

The huge red sabertooth tore around from the other side of the altar, bellowing as he charged straight at me and Mr. Runtiya. The stag’s eyes constricted into brilliant points of light, and then he burst into pure white flames that roared around him like whips, slashing the iron cages and slagging them into so much liquid metal. The sabertooth was driven back, but he had fire of his own. As the stag thundered toward the crowd of Hell Pigs, the big cat’s paws became incandescent, boiling with scarlet fire.

I flanked and charged into the melee from the side, shrugging off the blow of a machete against my hard skin and trampling a different man down with my claws. The albino woman was where I'd last seen her: chained to the altar, nude and bloody. She was straining her bonds to their limit, trying to shake them as men fought and screamed and died around her. And on her. Her face contorted in a soundless cry of horror as I slapped the head off the startled Razor and sent him tottering back toward the altar. He spun on his feet and fell over the girl's body like a ragdoll.

[The sacrifices have been made! The Daeva has heard your summons!]

[Vanara will spawn in 10, 9, 8...]

The altar flared with a sickly green light, and an unholy stench filled the air. I launched up to the mossy stone and grabbed the nearest chain in my jaws. My teeth creaked and cracked as the chains pulled apart like slow taffy, heating as the metal strained, then snapped.

The girl beat on my chest with her free fist as I reached over her with all four tentacles, seized the chain on the other side, and ripped the links apart. As I did, a ring of energy blasted out of the altar, bathing us in swamp-green energy. I shrugged it off and gave her ankle cuffs the same treatment. When she was free, she tried to roll over and bolt. Before she could, I seized her in my jaws and ran for the edge of the circle of crackling energy forming around us.

“No! Let go!” The girl shouted aloud, banging her fist on my snout. She could voice. That was good.

There was a deafening bang, the sound of a rifle going off, and a bullet took me in the shoulder. It shaved off a chunk of health and sent sticky blue-black blood gushing out of my flesh. The pain barely registered. My eyes were on the door as I charged my way to the edge of the circle, smashing people away from me left and right. As soon as we broke free of the melee, I started running.

A deep roar ripped through the hall of the temple, bouncing off the walls and drowning out the bellows of the monsters still brawling there. But now we were out of that mess, it was none of my business. The Hell Pigs wanted a boss fight? Well, they got one.

"GET IT! GET THAT BRUTE!" The panicked voice of Clive cut through the racket as the roar faded. "Rooster, you need to get that fucking Brute! The one with the girl! Before the fucking boss arena-"

[Vanara the Devourer rises once more!]

[All exits to the arena are sealed!]