I slammed my blade against the shaft of the retiarius woman’s trident. She tried to twist away, but I forced my weight into my blade, making it a battle of strength.

Against the Saur-Lords, I was less-confident in that kind of fight. But most of the humans I’d met in the Savage Land were not as well-fed as I was. It’s something people don’t tend to think about. modern humans have a massive amount of access to protein, fat,and calories, so that when we worked out we could get to truly immense sizes. Despite what people think, most primitive people didn’t look like Hercules (Actually, where the hell was that guy? Did he exist in this version of Marvel? Thoughts for later assuming I survived).

Even this woman, despite her physical health, wasn’t Captain America. I actually trained with that guy.

She was finally forced back, dodging the slice I followed up with. She was pretty skilled. Must have been fighting a lot longer than I was. I tried to bring my sword up, but with one arm down, I wasn’t able to maneuver my sword as easily as I was used to, getting nothing but empty air with my slice.

“Damnit,” I mumbled to myself. Never had to adjust to using one arm for so long.

She twirled her trident around and stabbed it out. I side-stepped it and tried to get in her range to cut of a hand, only for her to kick out at me, keeping me back. We both lashed out with our weapons. The ‘clack-clack-clack’ sound of longsword and trident hitting each other filled the air between us. My heart beating in my chest like a drum. I wanted to kill this woman. Not because I hated her. But because she wanted to kill me. Most pure and horrifying reason in the world.

We stepped back and forth, growling and hissing, our weapons clattering against each other, sweat dripping along with blood, stinging my wounds. It was in the middle of that chaotic exchange that Gresh sliced his way out of the net. He was on his feet and rushing forward in an instant, a sound coming from his lips like a revving engine. The woman stepped back in a panic. I let Gresh get to her, the lizard man bringing his daggers forward to try and stab her as she blocked with her trident.

In that moment, when she was distracted by hundreds of pounds of scales and rage, I sliced her stomach open. The disgusting smell of blood exploded into the air as her intestines spilled out. She stared at me blankly. I looked away, running to the next fight.

That look on her face. Her, the Pterosaur. Seeing their faces. One human, the other a Saur-Lord. They’d been horrified. Hateful. Shocked and desperate. And then just… gone.

Then I pushed that down. We were all fighting. All killing. Later, I’d think about that. But right then, I was onto the next fight.

“Gresh, back up the others!” I shouted.

“Stop stealing Gresh’s kills!” he shouted back.

“Then go get some more!” I ran past him to head to Demi and Winggirl, who were still battling the Triceratops. One group of our people, four of them, had been killed off to the side. I couldn’t see around the big rock in the center of the arena, but I imagined those weren’t the only deaths.

The four I could see lying dead had been murdered by a Anklo-Lord with a greatsword and a Raptor-Lord with a spear, both rushing towards Demi and Winggirl from behind. On top of the rock platform, one of the Aerians tossed a spear at the Anklo-Lord, only to have it bounce off his armored hide.

With Gresh rushing around the boulder to find his own prey, Demi, Winggirl, and I were on our own. Two people, both down a limb, and stone person against three powerful and healthy Saur-Lords. We’d have to make our stand.

Demi was trying her (I still wasn’t sure if Demi had gender, but Demi’s voice was very feminine so my brain defaulted to female pronouns. Something to ask about when we were not fighting to death) best to take down the triceratops she was fighting, swinging her mace at the Saur-Lord with crushing blows. Still, strong as she was, she had none of Thor’s speed, who was the only person I knew was a true master of maces and hammers.

The Triceratops slipped around a swing that smashed the ground he’d been standing on, then swung his own axe at her. The metal scraped against stone, sending up a shower of sparks. A small line was carved into her face, adding to the dozens more she had. Demi released a sound like concrete being poured, and raised a fist to try and punch him, only for the Triceratops to side-step it. Damn it. He was fast as hell for such a big guy.

Winggirl, meanwhile, had turned her back to Demi to face the Anklyo and Raptor running for her. She raised her spear in her hand and stared in fear as the pair came towards her. I headed for her, trying to get myself there in time. As I came up, an idea came to me.

“Jump!” I shouted desperately. She spun to look at me with that pale blue face, not understanding. “Up, get behind them!”

Still uncomprehending. It was only when she was moment from getting hit by the Anklyo that her single wing spread out. The single wing beat the air as she jumped upwards.

For just a moment, it was beautiful. Anklyo and Raptor stared up at her, coming to a brief stop in their shock. Her face, when she took off like that. She must have been stronger and lighter than she looked, because she really lifted off. Then reality hit. She spun ungainly through the air as she reached the apex of her jump. I could see the horror, sadness, and panic in her expression.

“LAND!” I shouted as loud as I could, coming in on the Raptor with a swing. He stopped gaping at the sight of Winggirl to raise his spear to block me. I smashed my longsword against the shaft of his spear, metal on metal sparking for just an instant. “Land and fight!”

I don’t know if she heard me. All I know is that, in the middle of her fall, she stopped trying to fly and pulled her wing in. With the luck that only comes in the best of moments, she managed to land behind our opponents, spinning to face them frantically.

Then the Raptor and I started trying to kill each other while the Anklyo spun to face Winggirl.

I swung, parried, blocked, kicked, dodged a claw headed for my stomach before taking a slice to chest from the spear. I stabbed the Raptor in the shoulder for a shallow wound, twisted to parry his spear thrust aside, then stepped into his guard to shoulder rush him, throwing him back.

Far behind my opponent, behind where Winggirl was trying to stave off the Anklyosaur, I could see some of my people fighting off some Saur-Lords. The Allosaur was on her own, battling a two saur-lords.

I kicked out at the Raptor, my foot sinking into his stomach, then shouted up to the Aerians still on the rock. “Help her!” I pointed at the Allosaur.

The Aerians were in bad shape. The elderly couple were dead, spears thrown into them, and the kid was crying as he huddled in a ball. But the two left over leaped off the rock to fly over the Allosaur, supporting her with thrown spears before flying down to pick them up and throw them again.

Behind me, Demi caught the triceratops’ axe by the blade. With a sound like brick shattering, she roared, squeezing hard. The blade crunched and bent until it was crumpled steel in her hands.

The Raptor I was fighting rolled to his feet. Winggirl was retreating, and the sounds of the dying and wounded melded with the sound of a cheering crowd.

I grit my teeth, clenched the blood-soaked grip of my sword, and rushed forward.

------

Stend/Slaving Asshole

Stend watched calmly from the stands, eyes panning across the battlefield. All around him, Saur-Lords, humans, lizardmen and people of other species cheered and shouted at the bloodshed below. This little fight was supposed to be nothing but an exhibition. A brief battle to exercise the warriors.

Instead, one of the strongest warriors of the arena had died in the opening moments.

Since then, the crowd started cheering louder and louder, losing themselves to the excitement of the arena.

As the Outsider dueled with Erend, a Raptor Saur-Lord, Stend felt two people walk up to join him, walking up along to his right. He looked over at them.

“I see you’ve once again decided against wearing your traditional robes, Lord Stend,” the smaller of the men said with a slow smile. He was an orange-scaled Pterosaur-Lord, built larger than the others in the crowd. He wore a white toga across his body and a single sword on his left hip.

Stend ignored the comment on clothing. Ever since reading about the fashions of the ancient Greco-Romans, he’d decided against wearing the ‘traditional robes’. More proof of his theories that the Saur-Lord society was nothing but a copy of already outdated ones. Instead, he turned and bowed.

“My lords. I had not expected you until the main event.”

The larger man didn’t respond. He simply stared down at the arena with his arms crossed. He was a full head taller than almost every other being in the coliseum, even the Brontosaurus-Lords. His scales were a muted yellow that bunched and twisted atop layers of muscles like steel. His frill was high and spiked, his paired horns stacked one atop the other and his eyes were sunken into his skull. His eyes were the color of fire.

“Well, we weren’t planning on it,” the Pterosaur said, looking up at the larger man. “Lord Styro and myself were attracted by the calls of the stadium. Rather interesting to hear that for a simple exhibition.”

“To say the least, Lord Pter,” Stend told the orange Saur-Lord. “It was supposed to be a simple exercise. But the slaves I have recently captured had more fight in them than I expected.”

Lord Styro turned to look at Stend. For a moment, Stend stared back. Those eyes, like a blazing flame, seemed to burn with more ferocity than normal. Then Styro looked up. Stend did so as well.

High above, he circled. The Lord of all Saur-Lords. Their king, floating on the winds, watching them.

“End the fight,” Lord Styro said. “The useless ones are already dead. Your slaves are strong. They will fight another day,” Styro looked down at the arena. “Who led them?”

“The Outsider,” Stend said without hesitation. His guards had told him of the Outsider’s attempts to rally the slaves. Stend approved. Seeing them fight together, prove they could defeat a stronger foe, only made the Outsider and the slaves more valuable. He’d still need to be punished. But that was fine.

Styro waved to a man standing near a bell. The man nodded, raising a hammer before slamming it into the bell.

------

Mahmoud Schahed/Dial

The Raptor took a slash to the face, blood spray hitting my face. Demi finally got a hold of the Triceratops, raising him into the air. Winggirl screamed when the Anklyo swung his tail, the mace-like end of it almost taking her head off.

Raptor reached out to attack me. Winggirl screamed again. I felt something in me snap.

Nat had taught me more than once that holding back in the wrong moment could lead someone to get hurt. That lesson never screamed louder than right then.

A loud ringing sound came from somewhere. I ignored it. Instead, I watched the Raptor’s spear come once more for my heart. Then I twisted down. The blade of the spear sliced open my face, a white-hot line of pain screaming at me as metal opened skin like a zipper. I ignored it, stepped forward and stabbing. My sword entered the Raptors shoulder, exiting out the other side, before I tackled him. Using my sword like a handle, I lifted him up and ran, muscles screaming, legs burning, until we hit the Anklyosaur from behind, bringing him down.

Then, the sound of footsteps filled the arena. I ignored them, rising up to-

Something hit me from the side. A person. I was tackled to the ground and held there by someone, while a blade was held to my throat. I stilled at the feel of the cold steel, looking around frantically.

Guards. All wearing the same black armor, pouring into the arena. They separated the fighters, bringing the battle to a halt. Gresh, who had been stabbing one person that he had tackled to the rock pillar, snarled when he was forced to stop, but rose to his feet. Demi dropped the corpse of the Triceratops, who’s head had been beaten in. One of the Aerian’s rose to his feet, clutching his abdomen.

“Well done, warriors!” the guard pinning me down lifted me to my feet roughly, allowing me to look up at Stend. “You have earned your right to survive!” he grinned down at me. “Yes! This was a magnificent battle, truly worthy entertainment! Thank you all! As a reward, you may all witness the next bout!”

Stend made sure his eyes met mine. “Till the next time, warriors!”

The guards began shoving and pushing us inside as the crowd cheered. I counted up the survivors as we walked. Well, hobbled.

There had been twenty-seven people on my side. Twenty on the other. Out of forty-seven people… only twenty-four had survived. Twenty-three people, dead, just like that. We’d lost ten people, and the enemy had lost thirteen. Numbers had given us an advantage.

But it still felt like we lost. Or at least, neither side had won.

Asymmetrical warfare is like that. Win-Loss-Draw. It’s all relative. For us, survival was the only way to win. No. In fact, no longer being enslaved, free to leave the stadium, go back home, have our captors imprisoned. That was total victory for me. For Stend and the Saur-Lords, having us fight on their behalf willingly, even eagerly, giving them a good show and staying useful. That was total victory for them.

In this case, we had to take what we could. We had survived, despite losing a lot of people, getting injured, and still being enslaved to possibly do this crap again. And they were entertained, despite losing slaves and having one of the last surviving ones more than ready to kick their asses the second I had a chance. Still, that was the nature of things.

Asymmetrical warfare. Where nobody wins, just loses less than the other guy.

I kept that to myself.

------

We were shoved into a room together. Both groups of people. There was a tense moment as we shared a look. The warriors whose friends I’d killed glared at us. The Raptor I’d stabbed in the shoulder glared at me, growling. I smiled a bit. Gresh barked out something that made the guards tense. German guy, who had survived the fight, looked exhausted but yelled something as well, to which one of the humans on the other team yelled back.

Then more slaves poured in. Carrying two things more sacred at that moment than any temple. Food and medicine.

We calmed down, waiting patiently as we were treated. With some chairs nearby and a big metal grating that showed the arena outside, we had a nice view of the next fight.

It took some time for them to clear the bodies out. I watched, trying to hold back from flinching, as the bodies of my allies and those I had murdered were pulled out. Once done, the cleaners left the arena as fast as possible, with terrified looks on their faces.

I watched through the grate as a young man started to treat me. I was roughed up. I had two large cuts on my face, a big hole in my shoulder, and bruised everywhere. Plus, all the combat hadn’t done anything good for my previous wounds anyways. He put paste into the cuts and tried his best to work with me. I wasn’t a good patient. I was watching the arena.

“Ladies and gentlemen!” Stend stood out in the stands on a pedestal, his hands wide. “What a show! A simple exhibition match turned into a true test between warriors on equal ground!”

Equal ground my ass. I’d failed those who ended up lying on the ground of that arena, but things hadn’t been anywhere near ‘equal’.

“But now, we have our main event!” Stend pointed at one of the bigger doors on the side of the arena. “Three great beasts of our great land, brought to you to battle to the death against the Red Devil!”

Slowly, one of the gates opened. Behind me, one of the guys who had pushed us along spoke to another guard.

“Red? The damned thing is orange.”

Wait, what the fuck? I spun to look at the speaker, startled.

“Stend wanted to call it red,” the other Saur-Lord said with a shrug. “Whatever. Still a damned monster.”

Orange? Wait, so who-

The slowly rising gate exploded outward, the being behind it tearing it out of the wall with horrific ease. It leaped into the arena and glared around with glowing yellow eyes. I stared at it, my jaw dropping in shock.

Horns. That was the first thing that popped into my head. It had long curling horns on either side of its head and one on the back of its- no, his neck, with a purple membrane stretching down to it’s back.

“I…” my right eye twitched, all my aches and pains fading to the back of my mind in favor of the beast in front of me.

His body was stacked with muscles bunching up under dark orange scales that came on the edge of being red. A pair of small wings extended from the base of his tail.

“That’s…” I clenched my left fist, trying to understand what was happening.

His lower legs were armored in some kind of bird-like carapace, the long slashing nails a deep purple.

“That’s not Devil Dinosaur…” I said weakly.

Hauzer. Hauzer from Red Earth, his mouth wrapped in a giant muzzle that kept his lips together. He couldn’t roar. But his eyes flickered with power as he raised his head to look around. The earth rumbled under his steps, as though rather than his weight causing it, the Earth Dragon was trying to control his own element. He jumped into the air, reaching the height of the iron cage surrounding the arena, and landed on the center of the large rock platform, looking around angrily.

So. My escape plan hadn’t changed. But it had gotten a lot more interesting to say the least.

Stend looked down at me. I tried to school my features, but I don’t know if he caught the shock and awe on my face or not.

Before I could say or do anything, Stend waved a hand. One of the other gates rose up, three shadows prowling inside before the began to exit. “Our current champion of beasts will battle three Allosaurs! Ferocious beasts, strong and hungry, left without food for a full week! Let us see how he fares against them, shall we!”

Compared to Hauzer’s explosive entrance, the three Allosaurs entered with almost a grace to them. They had a soft coating across their bodies that gave them a striping of brown patterns through their almost inky-black feathers. They looked pissed off as they prowled into the arena. And, unlike Hauzer, their mouths had no muzzles, allowing them to roar as they stepped forward.

Then they saw Hauzer, freezing. Their nostrils twitched. Hauzer glared down at them from his perch.

One week. That’s how long Stend said they’d been without food. That could drive anyone mad. And you could see it in their eyes. Madness and hunger.

They roared. Hauzer crouched. I was standing at the grate with my left hand wrapped around the bars so tight my knuckles had gone white, my eyes straining to take in every detail.

The Allosaurs charged Hauzer with blistering speed, covering the ground between them and sending sand flying about in arcs. Hauzer waited until the lead one got close to the rock. Then he jumped up into the air.

No animal that big should ever be able to jump like that. But Hauzer did it, soaring over the three allosaurs like a more traditional dragon, heading for the one in the back. As he did so, the horn on top of his head moved, coming down to point over his head like a spear. He hit the allosaur in back like Mjolnir, the earth shaking once more under his weight. The allosaur screamed. Hauzer wrapped his talons around the dinosaurs neck and stabbed downward, once, twice, three times, blood spraying into the air as the horn on his head split flesh.

The other two allosaurs spun to face him, one rushing him from behind. With incredible agility, Hauzer released his first victim and turned to face the dinosaur trying to kill him. When the allosaur lashed out with it’s teeth to try and bite Hauzer in the throat. Hauzer stepped back just before his throat could be bitten and turned in place, his tail snapping like a whip as he twirled at high speed on one foot. Orange tail hit black feathers with a mean slapping sound, teeth flying out of the allosaurus’ mouth as they shattered. The allosaur staggered back while Hauzer came back around to face him. The Earth Dragon raised one leg and kicked out, the long purple talons on his feet cutting through the air. The allosaur tried to retreat, but got hit by the deadly kick to it’s chest. Hauzer spun around the other way, tail whipping once more to hit the allosaurus and send it flying back into the rock platform, where it lay unmoving.

The last allosaur stared at Hauzer. Hauzer stared back. For a moment, I could see what the smaller dinosaur was thinking about, the wish to run. But he was trapped. And from the look of excitement on Stend’s face high above, he wasn’t getting an out.

Left with no option, the allosaurus roared and charged Hauzer. The dragon couldn’t roar in response, but he charged forward as well, the horn on the top of his head lowering down once more.

Both dinosaurs met. I stumbled, almost thrown to the ground by the force of their impact, keeping my eyes on the fight.

Hauzer, as the dinosaur and dragon wrestled, got under the other behemoth and lifted the allosaurus off the ground. He tossed him into the wall of the arena, the wall shaking with the impact. Then he hit him with the force of a train, his horns slicing into the dinosaur with ease before the rest of his body followed, the wall behind the allosaurus cratering behind it as it was killed.

The crowd roared. The allosaurus died. And Hauzer, removing his horns from the dead dinosaur, looked around. Red Devil. With blood spilled across his face, dripping down his horns, he looked it. Then he saw someone. Another Saur-Lord, this one standing next to Stend. A big yellow one that towered beside his peers, a ceratopsian like a Triceratops. Hauzer’s eyes blazed. He raised his head and tensed his muscles. You didn’t have to be a genius to tell that he was ready to kill, and his target was big yellow.

“Guards!” Stend roared, panic in his voice for the first time.

Hauzer leaped for the yellow guy. He hit the cage hard, falling back to the ground. Still enraged, he twisted to his feet like some mix of T-Rex and gymnast, just back to grab the cage. I could hear a low enraged hissing sound as he clung to the side of the iron cage, bashing his head into it. The cage squealed, and the spectators began to run as Hauzer tried to rip his way through the cage.

“GUARDS!” Stend shouted.

The yellow guy didn’t move. He stood there, wrapped in his toga, hands clenched behind his back and cocked his head to the side, staring at Hauzer.

Hauzer would have been roaring if it hadn’t been for the muzzle around his jaws. As I watched, the muzzle began to rip, one of the straps coming undone. But Hauzer was too pissed to just wait for the muzzle to come apart. Instead, he tried to force himself through the cage. Metal squealed as his talons bent at them, his arms pulling the bars apart.

“SHOOT HIM!” Stend shouted at the Saur-Lord guards that surrounded arena ran up to the cage, metal bending and cracking as Hauzer tried to force himself through. “SHOOOOT HIM!”

The guards raised something to their mouths. Blowpipes. That explained what had knocked me out before, when I had been in the jungle. As I continued to watch, they fired, little darts piercing Hauzer’s skin while others fell to the ground or missed.

Hauzer snarled, finally able to make the sound. With a sound like nails on chalkboard, the cage bent enough for his head to pass through. He snarled again, pressing through. But he was slowing down. I don’t know what was in those darts, but apparently it was fast-acting and thirty or so were starting to affect the big guy. His eyes were drifting closed. The top horn on his head was sinking back to lay flat on his head. He reached his head out for the yellow guy.

The yellow guy, once Hauzer had come close enough, stepped forward. Then, he cocked his fist back and unleashed a haymaker into Hauzer. The punch was worthy of any of my superhuman friends or forms, launching Hauzer back. He fell back into the arena and hit the ground with earth-shaking force for the last time. The guards kept shooting him even as he tried to struggle to his feet. The big dinosaur gave the yellow Saur-Lord a hate-filled glare. His muzzle loosened, beginning to come undone. I saw something between his jaws, beginning to flicker to life.

Then his eyes closed, and Hauzer slowly limped to the ground. More darts hit him for a minute or so. But the big guy was done. Yellow Saur-Lord smirked and turned away.

“...Fuck,” Gresh said next to me. At some point, we’d all stood at the grating, watching our fellow prisoner fight. I nodded slowly, then looked for Stend. He looked back at me. Then he turned and walked off.

Then, the Omnitrix blinked. I looked down at it, tense.

For just a moment, green flashed, blinking three times. Then it went back to white. I subtly tried to hide it from the guards, but Demi and Gresh, who stood on either side of me, noticed. Bringing the Omnitrix to rub against the wall, I twisted the dial, tried to press it, have it do something. Still nothing.

Okay, it was okay. The Omnitrix was coming back. And when it did.

I was going to carpet bomb this entire place to the ground.