∼ Day 24 ∼

In the silence only broken by the creaking of the wagon and the rubble of rocks and stones being shifted beneath, as well as the occasional snort from the stowlers, I peered around as my headache had finally begun to clear up.

While the pain was still there, it had reduced to a low hum, like a migraine. And now, to my immense pleasure, it didn't practically incapacitate my mind anymore and I could now focus on other things than the hellscape that was my mind. There was also relief in knowing that these phantom pains hadn't become permanent, which a small part of my mind had started fear when they hadn't originally abated before now.

With my regained ability to properly process what I was seeing, I quickly noticed that we had just reached the very inner heart of the city as we also entered the colosseum's indomitable shadow that had begun casting darkness across most of the city.

All around there were innumerable orcs and hobgoblins of all sizes, swarming the large open area that was surrounding the bed of the colosseum. From where I was in the wagon, I could spot various different monsters and also some that definitely were of different or rare strains of the greenskin species amongst the crowds.

My breath suddenly caught though as my aura's presence was shattered by one much more overwhelming than my own. From a neighboring street to ours, emerged a giant carriage that was drawn by an absolutely hulking beast.

It was an enormous creature that reminded me very much of the exact same beasts that were currently pulling our wagon. It was a giant buffalo-looking creature with some extra pairs of legs, just like the stowlers.

But this creature was significantly larger, much more muscular, and instead for three, had four pairs of legs. Pulling up the status of the hulking creature, I'm slightly horrified by what I saw.

-Appraisal!-

Profile: Stowlern

Information Attributes

Traits. Titles. and Skills -Name- "???" STR ??? Skills ??? -Race- Stowlern VIT ??? Traits ??? -Sex- Female AGI ??? Titles ??? -Rank- D DEX ??? Resistances

-Level- 45/50 INT ??? Health 1811/1811 CHR ??? Physical Resistance ??? Stamina 1520/1520 WILL ??? Magical Resistance ??? Mana 0/0 MAG ??? Mental Resistance ???

Fucking christ this beast...

But it would seem that my speculations were correct. This must be the evolved form of the stowlers. But to think that they could become such powerful behemoths was insane. -I mean, look at it. It was more than five times larger than its predecessor.

How the hell did they even manage to get one, and not mention tame it as a beast of burden?

The other thing eye-catching about the carriage was its entourage. Walking by its side were two giant and muscular figures. While they both weren't nearly as menacing as Morgath was, they were undoubtedly both ogres like he was.

-Appraisal!-

Appraisal - Gnork

Information Attributes

Traits. Titles. and Skills -Name- "Gnork" STR 70 Skills ??? -Race- Ogre VIT 58 Traits ??? -Sex- Male AGI 22 Titles ??? -Rank- E+ DEX ??? Resistances

-Level- 4/50 INT ??? Health 565/565 CHR ??? Physical Resistance ??? Stamina 255/301 WILL ??? Magical Resistance ??? Mana 0/0 MAG ??? Mental Resistance ??? Appraisal - Glork

Information Attributes

Traits. Titles. and Skills -Name- "Glork" STR 71 Skills ??? -Race- Ogre VIT 55 Traits ??? -Sex- Male AGI 16 Titles ??? -Rank- E+ DEX ??? Resistances

-Level- 2/50 INT ??? Health 542/542 CHR ??? Physical Resistance ??? Stamina 248/295 WILL ??? Magical Resistance ??? Mana 0/0 MAG ??? Mental Resistance ???

While they both were pretty much the same level as Morgath, it was obvious that Morgath was multiple times stronger. I didn't know what the Mistress has done to him, but she had definitely altered his body in some shape or another.

But to still have this beast, and these two ogres escorting you, the person in that carriage was definitely someone of very high status, even for this city. I couldn't peer inside the carriage, but the presence hidden within was more than enough to tell me that, while they weren't all too strong, they held a dangerous air like a baby lion before becoming an adult.

I wasn't the only one who was apprehensive of this entourage, as all the greenskins around apparently recognized who it was and they all gave the escort a wide berth.

Much farther away, I could also hear and feel the disturbances in the crowd as other wagons approached the colosseum with more or less terrifying company. I couldn't exactly see or use Appraisal from this much of a distance, but it would seem that some figures of authority were gathering at the colosseum today.

This "Mauling" event definitely was no small thing, and I needed to get more information about it...

Noticing the flow of endless greenskins roaring and cheering, all flooding into the various entrances of the colosseum, I wondered just how many could this behemoth of a structure could hold?

I was pulled from my pondering thoughts when we suddenly broke off from the streams of greenskins and began moving towards another entrance that seemed much more heavily guarded and a lot less used than the other entrances. But it wasn't hard to guess that this was an entrance for personnel or the like, and seeing as I wasn't a spectator today, this was where I was going.

Stopping before a large gate blocking the entrance, the orc guards accompanying the coachman all jumped off. It didn't take long before the wagon got moving again though, as they only needed to show some verification and documents which were all in form of old-looking scrolls.

Moving in, I was immediately surprised by the interior. We were driving through a wide and slightly dark tunnel, but painting the walls were all kinds of drawings and texts that I apparently couldn't decipher. These texts weren't in Rathian but some different and much more ancient-looking language.

Other than the texts were the drawings but they were mostly of various interesting creatures being either hunted by greenskins or greenskins being hunted by them. I could easily distinguish that the one who made the drawings weren't the same that made the texts as they widely differed from each other. That made me realize that this city might actually not be greenskin made.

After seeing how the city was made and structured, I instinctively thought that it had been made by greenskins. But with this, I was not so sure anymore. The city was either originally made by some more ancient greenskin civilization, or this city has been in the hands of greenskins for so long that you can barely tell the difference.

The drawings suddenly stopped as the wagon drew into an open room that in my guess was stretching all the way around the base of the colosseum since I couldn't see the room's end as the colosseum bent.

In this open area, I could hear various voices discussing and talking in the Rathian language, their voices echoing off the wall from all directions. In front of us, there were many orcs and hobs looking at our approaching wagon, obviously personnel waiting for us.

Offloading us all, the many orc guards and hobgoblin attendees quickly got us walking in file through various tunnels that led only god-knows-where. Before we knew it, most of the fodder had been shoved into a slightly cramped and rectangular room.

The only light that lit up everything was the torchlight bleeding into the room as the door was open. From the roars and jeering that I could hear flowing into the room, I noticed a blocked-off corridor, with metal bars, at the end of the room. There was no doubt that this corridor led directly out into the heart of the colosseum itself.

As I was the last filing into the room, I could only see that much from peering at the entrance. But I was stopped by a rough and large hand grabbing onto my shoulder before I could follow inside with the other fodder monsters.

"Stop." - ???

Turning around, it was one of the orc guards that had ridden along with the coachman. Although most of the pain and irritation from the headache had already disappeared, I was still currently a bomb with a rather short fuse, so I had to restrain myself from biting off the offending hand of the orc guard.

Before I could say anything, he pulled forth a key from his belt and stuck it into one of the keyholes in my shackles. Sweet relief flowed through my body as I finally regained the use of my hands, also accompanied by the realization that I didn't have to go through this "Mauling" thing without the use of my hands.

A click and a loud thump of metal hitting the ground later, I got shoved into the room as the padded and metal-framed door shut closed. Feeling my sore wrists, I looked around to take stock of the situation.

To my surprise, there was still some soft light the bled into the room, just enough for the others to see, although I could manage with even complete darkness due to my superior dark-vision.

Looking around, I spotted various weapons and tools scattered around on racks and shelves that populated the room. With me being the last to enter, everybody else had already started picking up the various weapons to get a closer look.

It would appear we weren't going into this empty-handed at least... Damn, I would've really have loved to be able to create my own weapon here. But seeing as Blood Shaping needs mana, that's currently unavailable.

Silently cursing the bitch who blocked my core, I also began inspecting the weapons to see if any was worth picking up. After looking through all of the weapons, even those who had already been chosen by others as they didn't object to my commands due to their fear and respect towards me, I found nothing I liked.

Currently, my claws were much sharper than these shoddy and rusty weapons. There was no doubt that their quality was something intentional as decent metal weapons definitely weren't in sort order in this city. Practically any hob or orc carried at least one weapon or two, and at a decent quality too. Well- definitely better than these at least...

But it wouldn't hurt to just pick something up just in case. I could always simply throw it away if I couldn't find a use for it.

So without any further ado, I picked up a shoddy halberd seeing as the other options were pretty much only maces and gladii. Although there were also a few wooden shields, they were practically broken already.

With preparations done, I went around seeing if I could glean some information about what the hell the Mauling exactly was. Unfortunately, everybody here who'd been captured was from outside the city so had little to no information. It was only a few that actually even knew of the existence of this city before being brought here.

But there was one particular orc who was on the older side on the years, he mentioned that he had heard a rumor about a certain ritual or trial called the Mauling. But the only thing he knew about it was that the Mauling was synonymous with Death.

While we all couldn't rely on such information, it didn't trigger any panic or dismay in the hearts of the orcs. While I couldn't speak for the saurians and the beastkin, the orcs were battle-hardened warriors who all shared the same lust for blood and gore.

They might've been captured, enslaved, and then sentenced to almost a certain death. But if they were going to be participating in trials of combat, they couldn't help but feel their blood boil in anticipation.

Sitting with my halberd and my back propped against the rough sandstone wall of the room, I began preparing myself mentally for the things I will have to do to survive in this blasted city of gladiator loving Zug-Zugs.