For a few seconds, a shocked silence came over many of the thousands of people in the Arena. It was as if fear had momentarily clutched their hearts at seeing these creatures of the Blight so close. This fear only lasted for a moment, soon turning into anger, whipping the crowd into a fervor.

The Orcs were also filled with rage at their current predicament, they slammed their bodies against the metal bars trying to break free. They really were massive; their bulk and brawn would put even the largest fighter of the day to shame, the guards looking like mere children in comparison.

Their skin was a blackish grey, pointed ears and large tusks protruded from brutish faces. They looked outright nightmarish in appearance. The four guards that had pushed the cart into the Pit looked unhappy to be there.

If he had been unlucky enough to face these creatures during the caravan attack, then he would surely have perished. The Goblins would look like a joke when compared to these oversized brutes. He wondered how much bravery he could muster if he were to stand face to face with one of these creatures.

The anger in the crowd continued to build, almost dangerously so. He cast a quick glance at his companions, knowing that they had been affected disproportionally by the Blight. To his right, Hito just looked with fascination at the raging creatures. Bara looked somewhat frightened at her potential future opponents. The old man Hozil was clutching his knees, jaws clenched. The quiet girl that had slain the Abyssal Wolf was surprisingly yelling at the Orcs with many of the other spectators, making obscene gestures, which was a disturbing sight. She had to be calmed down by some of the others.

He worriedly looked back, sure that Arlo would be most affected of all, but the curly-haired man simply looked with a cold and calm gaze at the creatures in the cage. He wondered how the hell Arlo had managed to kill one of these things. And how the hell had they managed to capture these giant Orcs alive?

Some poor child a few sections away had started bawling uncontrollably, clearly, this was not the kind of surprise they had been hoping for.

Eugenius Swift tried to calm the people down, clearly somewhat worried by the out-of-control crowd.

“Fear not dear citizens, no harm will befall you. These creatures will be dealt with shortly. You will be presented with a combat demonstration from a few chosen fighters.”

Anara who was still standing in the Pit looked ready and unafraid. Two men, both wearing some metal-plated armor and wielding a pike and a Halberd joined her in the Arena Pit. Apparently, these were the forces that would be battling the Orcs.

With everyone in position, one of the guards pulled some mechanism that he assumed was supposed to free the Orcs before they quickly made their exit through the Tunnel gate, locking it behind them.

In their rage, it took the three Orcs a good minute to realize that simply ramming the cage door would not give them their freedom, but eventually one of them managed to pull up the latch in the right direction to shift the sturdy gate open. Not surprisingly they did not waste any time and immediately set off in a sprint towards the three warriors in the Pit, teeth bared in rage. Christopher might have imagined it, but he thought he could feel their heavy footsteps all the way in the stand.

The three human defenders all drew their weapons confidently. Luckily the Orcs were unarmed, but they tried to make up for it with their sheer ferocity. It was quite an intimidating sight, to see these giant orcs stampede across the sand. When the Orcs were only a few more steps from the three defenders, Arana spun her golden quarterstaff, blasting away all three Orcs with expertly directed gusts of wind. The Orcs fell down hard and seemed momentarily stunned. They got up quickly though, still with the same like-minded goal of ripping apart the much smaller humans.

The two men in heavy armor walked up to the front, weapons ready. The first Orc reached the defender with the Halberd and turned out to be no match. The Halberd sheered the Orc’s right arm clean off, sending spurts of blackish blood out of its arm. The man with the Pike used his weapon to spear the second Orc to the Ground with monstrous strength, clearly having enhanced his muscles with Soul Force. The Orc was still alive and struggled mightily against the Pike but to no avail. The much smaller man overpowering the broad 7 feet Orc was quite the sight.

The man with the Halberd had now also chopped off a leg of the already armless Orc. The monstrosity now angrily stumbled, slowly bleeding out. ‘Good Lord this is brutal’. Christopher almost felt sick watching this dismemberment. He was mostly alone since the crowd sounded ecstatic with the delivered punishment. Hatred understandably ran high in regards to the Blight. He hoped that some parents had the foresight to shade the eyes of their children to this horror.

The final Orc, slower than the first two, was now left for Anara. She swung her quarterstaff at the Orc, but to his surprise she did no use gusts of wind this time. Slices of water departed from the hollow end of the Golden staff, connecting with the Orc all over its body. For a few seconds the slashes seemed ineffective, that was until moments later the Orc started sliding apart, perfectly cleaved in multiple pieces, guts and innards spreading outwards. At this, he finally heard a barf from somewhere some distance to his left. He could certainly understand the feeling, his own stomach was also somewhat upset.

The other two Orcs were still left alive for another minute, their deaths were drawn out to inflict maximum suffering. When the last Orc finally stopped struggling in the Arena, the horn once again blared to life. The impassioned voice of Eugenius Swift once again reached their ears.

“My dear citizens. As you can see the training of our forces has not been in vain. The Blight might look fearsome and powerful, but they are nothing compared to our strongest fighters. I want you to remember and spread what you have seen here today. Throw your support behind our indomitable warriors in any way that you can. I hope many of you will train to one day join them. With your support, our victory over the Blight will be secured and our future made luminous!”

The entire stadium roared their approval, and Christopher joined them half-heartedly, his mind churning from the many things he had seen. It had indeed been a mighty display of power, but he did not think that a real battle would be anywhere near this simple. The Blight had many forces and Anara would not be able to carve up all of them.

With the closing words from the Earl, the event was now concluded. The next batch of fights would start only a week later, then the other half of the ladder would be jockeying for position and their monthly stipend. A lot of the spectators were already getting up to take their leave. Their group reflected on the fights for a little while longer.

“Did you see those water slashes from Anara, no wonder she is the number one fighter, surely that could finish anything?” Spoke Bara enthusiastically.

“I wonder when we are going to be taught any Soul techniques like that, who cares about Vital points with such a technique.” Another trainee commented.

“You keep dreaming, if it was that easy the Blight would have been obliterated a thousand years ago.”

They kept bickering like that for some time, discussing the fights and their own future training.

They joined the throng of people leaving the stadium, the crowd excitedly chattering about a wide range of topics. He saw that some guards were currently in the Pit, they had the unthankful job of cleaning up the Orcs that had been slain. Especially the Orc killed by Anara would be quite the pain, many pieces of flesh were spread in a small circle.

They stayed in the Plaza a little longer, he chatted happily with his fellow trainees, discussing what they had seen before they departed separately a few minutes later. Now he should focus on reaching the same strength as those strong warriors.