The gate began rising, sunlight creeping beneath, along with the sounds of a baying crowd and general violence. Semari ducked, trying to see what was going on – there was a lot of movement, accompanied by screams and pleading. Fully armoured fighters were slowly working their way through people that had been captured in the riots, while above them a crowd shouted for their death. There must already have been something on, to get this crowd in. With proper weapons against fists, it wasn’t even a contest. In the centre of the arena was a large cage, contents concealed by metal plates inside the bars.

There was a shout from above them. ‘Get out there and give a good show! Or we shoot you from up here!’ Semari looked up, to see several guards readying crossbows.

‘Fine, we’re going, you cheating bastards.’ If they were going to die, they could at least do it on their own terms. ‘Come on Neitha, let’s go.’

She grabbed Neitha’s hand and pulled, dragging them outside. The numbers weren’t too bad, with a lot more thugs and rioters around than soldiers, but the equipment made all the difference. Even when several thugs tried to gang up on one soldier, they were disciplined enough to help each other out, and with actual weapons, they only needed a few strikes to take someone out. ‘Neitha, is there anything useful you can do?’ From the way she was shaking, that was a “no”. ‘Just try not to die. I don’t wanna get in trouble with Kethys. I think she likes you for some reason. I guess lying, cheating poisoners remind her of family? So, uh, dodge a lot, I guess.’

She had to shake herself loose, not wanting to have to drag Neitha around. So, blobby must be in the centre cage, and they’d probably be let loose at some point. First thing was to get some people on her side, having people to hide behind was useful. A soldier charged at her, this one with a spear, and another goddam shield. Couldn’t people fight fair? Shields were just cheating.

She tried to look weak and pathetic, although that wasn’t too far from the truth at the moment. As he thrust with the spear, she dodged and yanked, snatching it out of his hands. Before he could recover, she went on the offensive, the spearpoint bouncing off shield and armour. Several other soldiers noticed, and starting moving over. Dammit, guards should be fat, stupid and slow, having ones that could fight wasn’t fair! She stepped forward, managing to get between him and his shield, slamming her hand against his throat. As he sank backwards, she had enough space to shove the spear into his armpit – he might not be dead, but he was definitely out of the fight.

She ripped his helmet off and lobbed it at the attackers, slowing them for a moment, before running away. A group of thugs had managed to unify, although soldiers were forming up into a shieldwall, ready to break them. She charged, screaming curses, planting the butt of the spear in the ground and using it to vault over the shields, landing behind them. She couldn’t break through their armour, but shoved a foot into a knee joint, bringing one down, using the spear-point to stab his neck. Then she grabbed and threw another soldier, the shieldwall crumbing around her as she destroyed it.

This stiffened the spines of the other prisoners, who finally took the damn hint and charged. They were able to grab several weapons, the fight becoming more even. Although there were archers up above them, just in case, readying crossbows. Bloody competent guards! There was a loud clattering noise as the metal plates were retracted, revealing a large blob-thing, half-digested skeletons held within its mass. A tendril shot out towards a downed body, dragging it towards the central mass.

‘I hunger!’ To everyone else, it probably sounded like harsh screeches, but blobby was hungry. Arrows shot down, cutting into the rioters. Goddam cheating bastards! One of the strands of goop seethed and bubbled, starting to form itself into the shape of a person, picking up a weapon and fighting, attacking the soldiers.

A magical glyph flashed into life around the cage, before it sparked with lightning, electricity coursing through the blob. It flailed and spasmed, as someone up in a fancy box on the walls yelled orders, in the same underworld tongue. ‘Kill them!’

This was stupid, and was really, really going to hurt, but there didn’t seem much of a choice. Semari ran over to the cage, holding the metal. ‘Hey, blobby. Make them do something to zap you.’ It wailed in pain. ‘Stop being a wuss and blob up! I got this!’

It must have done something, as the glyph flashed again, lightning sparking through the cage. It coursed into Semari, hurting and searing her entire body, as she gripped the bars as tightly as she could. Her body felt like it was on fire, like it was about to explode, as she spun and kicked at a bar, the metal denting under the impact. She kicked again, as an arrow shattered against another bar, the metal starting to bend, then shatter under her attacks. With the metal broken, she reached up and grabbed it, yanking with all her weight, even as more lightning sparked into the cage. The jagged edge of the pole cut her fingers, the wound burning even more when the chill blobby mass rolled over her fingers, making the wounds sting.

The thing was pushing itself forward; unable to dissolve the metal, but trying to use it’s mass to make the gap bigger. It had some kind of core, a darker blob inside itself, about the size of her own body. With the lightning coursing through her, the rest of the world seemed to be moving with treacle-slowness, as she slammed away at another bar, managing to wrench it aside, making the gap bigger. The creature surged forward, the cool, prickling substance of its body flowing over Semari and pushing her away, lightning arcing between it and Semari’s body.

Semari heard screams from up on the walls, a stream of darkness dashing towards the fancy box. It passed through the archers, death in its wake, bodies falling to the ground as it passed. Thank the gods, Kethys was here. Semari forced herself to rise, clothing smoking, her entire skin raw and sore. The audience was now fleeing in terror, away from the darkness, as the blob began to destroy the soldiers down here.

Something warm pulled at her, as Neitha grabbed her hand. ‘Come on, we need to get out of here! Somehow. Can you carry me up the walls?’

It took Semari a long moment to focus enough to form an answer. ‘No. Fuck me, lightning hurts. Gods. Can you carry me, please? Or do something for once? Is there, like, a ladder or anything? Where did those bastard soldiers come from?’ Neitha pointed at another entrance into the arena, all the way on the other side. ‘OK, let’s get over there. Hopefully Kethys won’t be too pissed at us.’

The goopy thing had managed to get its central blob out of the cage, and was now killing everything in its path, simply crushing and absorbing them. Several tendrils had formed into humanoid shapes, picking up weapons and joining the fight, joined by strands to the main blob. Another tendril flowed beneath their feet, suddenly turning sticky and hard, pushing them upwards.

They clambered off onto the parapet. The audience hadn’t been expecting anything that could fight back, so were too busy fleeing, while the streak of shadow dealt with anyone foolish enough to fight. Watching Kethys in action was always amazing, bodies in her wake as she dashed with magical speed between anyone dumb enough to fight back, occasional gleam of metal as a weapon emerged from her sphere of darkness. Although that she could see through the darkness herself made it a bit cheating, but she could always make her attacks go just where she needed them to, moving with sleekly murderous efficiency. She made her way towards the royal box or whatever it was, the guards all dead, knives sticking out of throats or eyes, others killed by stabs, Kethys skilled enough to target wherever armour wasn’t protecting.

When they got into the box, Kethys was just finishing off a wizard, throwing knives bouncing off a magical barrier, a sphere of fire getting swallowed by the darkness that enveloped Kethys. Then the wizard’s body was suddenly outlined in pale green fire, distracting him from his defensive magic. The darkness shot forward, flowing around his body, followed by a drawn out, gurgling noise.

Then the darkness faded, as Kethys leant over and slit his throat, just in case. She wasn’t even breathing hard, although the expression on her face didn’t bode well. ‘We’re getting out of here, now. Get moving!’

Despite her exhaustion and injuries, that tone didn’t allow for weakness. Semari grabbed some wine and fruit, trying to keep her strength up. Kethys took a moment to make sure she was fully wrapped and bandaged, all her skin covered despite the setting sun, as they headed out. Away from the arena, they were taken for civilians and ignored, managing to find somewhere to hide, Kethys tossing money at the tavern-keeper who let them into the barrel room, where it was dark enough for Kethys to unwrap safely, dropping the bandages from her face.

‘Well, that didn’t quite go according to plan, did it? Whatever you kids did worked, but it got a bit out of hand! You’re lucky I made it in time. Because you started such a big riot, all the guards were pulled from the castle, which made my job easy. So thanks for that, but how the hell did you do it? The mob were yelling about “the armripper”, would that be something either of you know about?’

The red eyes gleamed in the darkness as Kethys stared at them, waiting for an answer. Semari and Neitha glanced at each other, standing closer together for support before Semari answered. ‘Don’t know, must be a street thing. Maybe something else was going on at the same time? There’s a lot of built up anger.’ She swayed slightly, everything starting to hurt now she wasn’t in immediate danger. The crimson held her gaze, as Semari tried not to look away, before Kethys spoke.

‘It sure as hell wasn’t what I expected, but you did what you had to, I guess. And you haven’t killed each other, which is a bonus.’ She reached into a beltpouch, a soft ringing filling the small room, echoing between the beer barrels. ‘And I managed to get what I had to.’ The thing she pulled out was a handbell of crystal, glowing with a strange light, harsh and crystalline. The clapper was securely wrapped, woven silver embedded with tiny runestones. ‘We’re going back to the brothel, where we’re going to hide overnight, and then we’re getting the hell out of this goddam place, before it burns to the ground. Any questions?’ They both shook their heads. ‘Good. And try not to cause any more damn problems, OK?’