When Solomon reached the ball of light and indicated that he wanted to fight the boss, it vanished just as the light had done on the floor above. The stone plinth rumbled as it sank into the floor, and a staircase dug itself into the rock in front of him. Having seen it before was some comfort, but he was still far from inured to the workings of the system.

Also, the prospect of fighting a dungeon boss was a little more intimidating than the idea of simply exploring another floor. He was committed now, though. No sense in hesitating.

As soon as the stairway had settled into place, he made his way down. Striding through the threshold of the doorway below triggered the nauseating teleportation that was becoming familiar, though not comfortable.

When the world snapped back into focus around him, Solomon found himself standing on the floor of an arena. The floor beneath him was loosely packed dirt, while he was surrounded by stone walls that were over twice his height. The arena was in the shape of a hexagon roughly the size of a baseball diamond. The teleportation had deposited Solomon close to the center of the arena floor.

The only features that broke up the dirt of the arena floor were pillars set two or three strides away from each of the corners of the hexagon. It seemed the system wanted to allow for a little bit of strategy in its death matches.

Beyond the walls at the arena's edge was terraced seating. There was room for a big crowd, but the stands were empty. The silence was oppressive.

Was this another side effect of Solomon being alone in his zone? He couldn't help but wonder if boss fights were ordinarily meant to be spectator events. The idea of participating in a reborn era of blood sports, fighting for his life in front of a cheering crowd, was a little disturbing. On the other hand, standing all by himself in a giant stadium was itself pretty creepy.

Solomon was jarred from his thoughts when an announcement appeared in the center of his vision.

BOSS FIGHT!

SOLOMON GRAGG

versus

BOSS HOGG

The system had restored Solomon's HP and MP to full. It wasn't a lot, numerically, but he was happy to be topped up. It made him wonder a little bit, if this Boss Hogg was getting some kind of boost. Maybe it was just a method to stop people from wearing down the boss with a series of challenges.

His mind was taken off his HP and MP when he saw another dialog box tucked under the first.

Wagers: D$0 - D$0

"The system comes with gambling built in?"

For a planetwide catastrophe, it stood to reason that it couldn't be all bad. Solomon waited patiently for the screen to go away, until it occurred to him that he was already betting his life on the outcome.

"I've got a thousand dungeon bucks, right? Put it all on me."

The system message updated to show that the wagers were now D$1000 to D$0. A moment later a new message appeared in front of him.

Your account balance is now D$0. Should SOLOMON GRAGG win in the upcoming fight, you will receive D$950!

Solomon stared at the dialog box for a moment. Something didn't seem quite right. It finally clicked after he reread the message.

"It's pari-mutuel betting? You could warn a guy!"

He'd been to enough horse races in his time to know the basics of how the system worked. Everybody's wager was put in a big pool, the house took its cut, and then the people who bet on the winner split the pot according to the size of their bet. In this case, his was the only wager, so he stood to win the whole pot back... not a very exciting prospect when the pot was his wager less the system's rake.

"Come on, I take it back."

Try as he might, Solomon couldn't find a button that would give him a refund. It appeared he had just been taught a D$50 lesson in reading the fine print. He was still looking for a way to get his money back when the dialog boxes all simultaneously disappeared.

A large segment of the wall Solomon was facing began to rumble and lower into the ground. Solomon tightened his grip on his spear. As irritated as he was about being cheated out of his money, at least it had served to distract him from the coming fight. The butterflies that had gone away were back, though, as an angry squeal echoed through the stadium.

He'd had a pretty good idea what was coming as soon as he'd seen the boss's name. The squeal had all but confirmed it. Even so, he wasn't fully prepared for the visual impact as Boss Hogg came charging into view.

It was a wild boar, but on a completely different scale than the boars that Solomon had fought in the first floor. Those had been about the height of his waist. Even so, they had been mean and strong. They would have been a real danger if they hadn't been so stupidly aggressive, and if Solomon hadn't set himself up with the right gear to fight them off. Boss Hogg towered over him. It was hard to say exactly as the boss came charging down a hallway towards the arena floor, but he looked to be about half again Solomon's height.

The rest of Boss Hogg was built to the same scale. He was as wide as four of Solomon, easily. His tusks were longer than the length of Solomon's arm. Even the bristles standing up on his back looked nearly as long as the spear in Solomon's hand. The boss was slobbering in excitement as he ran. Solomon couldn't help but note that even the drool escaping his mouth was on such a scale that it would present a hazard he'd have to avoid.

The arena floor trembled under Solomon's feet as the boss drew nearer. The instant Boss Hogg crossed the threshold into the arena, the clear sound of a bell rang out, echoing in the empty stadium.

The fight had begun.