THE ARENA

We heard the noise before we arrived. It was a visceral thing. Haunting and loud vibrations rumbled into the tunnels. The crowds cheered, jeered and screamed, all vying for their voices to be heard above the rest. A stadium, I told myself, just a stadium. A football game or rugby match with a raucous crowd. Nothing to be afraid of.

Of course it didn’t help in the least. My stomach was in knots. I don’t know what frightened me more, the crowds of alien beings longing to see blood spilled or the prospect of death a few yards away.

I had to actively calm my breathing and quell the butterflies flopping around my gut. This wasn’t like war, or a pending military operation. In this instance I wasn’t surrounded by righteousness or like-minded comrades. Instead, I had a bunch of rookies with a day’s worth of training on their side. If ever there was a time to pray, it was now.

I thought of Avihs and his reassurance earlier. That brief touch of power had left me calm and certain I was on the right path.

Unfortunately its effect had worn off and listening to this mad cacophony of wild beings baying for blood left me edgy. Some part of me, my wilder side just wanted the fight to be on. To be in charge of my fate again in some small way. That power to exercise life or death decisions would give me the grounding I needed. At least that’s what I hoped.

The doors opened and the noise trebled. Each one of us paled, but the stoic guards ushered us out the doors and along the walls to a scaffolding. It had several platforms with various warriors.

I looked within the arena to see the remnants of several corpses being ripped to shreds by huge feline creatures. I shouldn’t say felines because one immediately thinks of furry cuddly cats. These were anything but cuddly. Each the size of a pony or donkey, they had serpentine tails, long slender legs with enlarged paws at the end.

The paws had sharp claws which they were putting to good use, swiping at the corpses to open up access to the viscera, where the choicest bits could be reached with their huge salivating jaws. The animals appeared emaciated unnaturally, but I assumed they had just been starved. Probably a similar animal in the wild would be sturdier and more filled out.

These beasts were slender though, more like Cheetahs in body shape, but bulkier in front with the head and shoulders of Hyenas and the paws and claws of lions made them seem quite intimidating.

Not being one with a taste for offal, I couldn’t help feeling disgusted. Some of the animals nearest us looked up from their meal. One even threw a menacing growl in our direction, but like all wild animals, they decided to eat the meal they had, rather than bother with getting more. I was grateful for that and immediately started thinking how we would face these animals with our spears and bucklers. There were a lot of them, at least twenty that I could see.

The victims, all dead, except for one guy who had managed to crawl to the water's edge of that inner moat. It was there the beasts had caught him. They were devouring him from the crotch and he was baying even louder than the crowd, his pitiful arms grasping tenuously at the water as if he could gain purchase and pull himself away.. He would be dead eventually, but not yet, as the two creatures vied for the choicest bits within him.

If I had been nervous before, the fear was now like a living entity, swirling inside me and making my legs like jelly. In all my years of battles, covert operations and the like, I had never been prepared for something like this. I felt completely out of my depth. It was a crushing weight on my shoulders, or more like something trying to claw its way out of my throat. I felt queasy as the enormity of my situation pressed itself upon me. When Rashid began to sob, I snapped out of my fear and managed to get control again. Barely.

I forced my fear away with an act of will and tried not to think about it. I had these Scalar men to get through this fight and I would do everything I could to make that happen.

“Rashid!” I snapped, his head jerked up. The wide eyes brimming with wetness, the whites of all three of his eyes extremely apparent. There was a dolefulness about him, a boyish sullenness. I sensed that whatever effect this place had on me, It would probably be going double for him. For all of them.

We had reached the scaffolding and the Dwarves indicated we should ascend to a slender platform against the wall. Just big enough for the six of us. It wasn’t very high, but high enough to be off the arena floor, maybe three meters up. “You go first.” I continued to engage Rashid as a distraction to help him contain his fear. Admittedly it helped me too by giving orders. “Then you Anil, and you Selvin. I will go after that and the rest of you will follow me.”

Wide-eyed and nervous, they all complied. Anil didn’t even have time to glare at me. This was going to be a nightmare.

From atop the platform, I didn’t feel any safer looking at those beasts devouring the poor souls who had been sentenced to their fate. The crowd were getting restless though as the animals took their time. The guy who had been wailing like a kettle on the boil had subsided to a bare whimper amidst the raucous noises from the audience. His hands splashing with feeble grasps the only indication that he was still clinging desperately to life. We watched as the life left him and his body acceded to the brutality of the moment.

A horn blared, drowning out everything and then doors around the arena slammed open and Dwarves rushed in, spears and shields held ready as they chased the reluctant animals from whatever remained of their victims. Sharp yelps, hissing and howls ensued as the starving animals were chased from their kills. It seemed that they were familiar with the drill and most turned to pad away into the recesses of another doorway.

A few dwarves trailed at the rear of the formation, they bent down to retrieve the corpses, dragging the remains along with them.

As the Dwarves herded the wild cat creatures out of the arena, one particularly obstreperous cat decided it wasn’t giving up its meal so easily. The quick work of the dwarves showed just how potent a formation was against beasts. It died with a surprised yowl as spears pierced it from every angle.

I pointed that out to my comrades, and in answer Anil lent out from the platform and spewed a projectile stream of his lunch to the sand below. A harsh grunt from one of the Dwarves still lingering there made Anil gesture down obsequiously in apology.

This caused other warriors on platforms higher up to call out and jeer at us. We were definitely considered the rookies and they were letting us know we were well and truly fucked.

The pause in proceedings as the Dwarves cleared out the arena allowed me to look around. On the scaffolding above us, I saw both Master and Sebastina on the highest tier closest to the top of the wall. They were obviously in a place of prominence and if the height above the floor represented rank, they were the highest of us slaves.

Below them on another row, stood several hobgoblins and one lone Lizardman. He was eyeing us speculatively and I gave him a small wave. I hoped that he was Schlizer, but I admit I was completely ignorant on how he really looked. When he returned the gesture, I took it that he was indeed the person I had met through my cell wall. He was a lot larger than I had imagined, with a short stumpy tail sticking out of his chainmail, it was brushing against the wall behind him. It appeared that it had been severed at some point in the distant past and hence why it was stumpy. His body and robust legs were encased in plated mail and grieves and upon his back he carried a long sheathed sword. Just the last third of the weapon was in the sheath, such that he could draw it quickly and easily without having to extend his arms the full length of the blade. Which was understandable since his arms were pretty short. His long forked tongue extended slowly, carefully, then wiggled around as if tasting the very air before retracting and I had to pull my eyes away in case he found my scrutiny rude.

I wanted to laugh. Give him a shell on his back, a bandolier and the NinjaTurtles would have a new sidekick. Except, well, naturally they could kick-ass way better than Schlizer could. Aah, my mind was off on a tangent again. Focus Petros, Focus!

Further along and around the arena, there were several other scaffolds on the walls below each noble house, equally adorned with various races and warriors. There were not so many on the lowest tier, so at a quick count I guessed fifty noobs in total, including us six.

There had been barely twenty fugitives executed, and probably double that number of beasts that had slaughtered them. I really hoped we wouldn’t be facing the same ratio of creatures to fighters, but only time would tell. I was finally reconciling myself to what I had to do to survive.

I could not see behind me above the wall, where no doubt Artoo and his retinue reclined, but judging by what I could see across the arena in the other sections where various Lords and Ladies of the Gnomish persuasion sat in full regalia. All high up and safe in the stadium seating. Their servants served refreshments and fanned them with giant fronds.

The crowds stretched out between the box seating were not so fortunate to have an awning, nor slaves to serve them, but it didn’t stop them from making this a day out. Dressed to the nines, the audience were packed in tight and chanting merrily. It was a day for families as kids and mothers alike all enjoyed the festivities. In some areas competitive chants began to echo through the volcano crater and reminded me of times back in school, where different houses or fraternities would sing their own chants to entice their respective competitors at athletic meetings. The dichotomy of such normal behaviour with the potential death below made my heart ache for some form of humanity, or better yet, sanity. God! how I missed my human teammates.

Admonishing myself at my maudlin ramblings, I turned to the teammates I did have, and gave them all an encouraging nod. I rapped my chest to signify heart, strength and courage, but when I saw the light of fervor in Rashid's eyes. I realized he was probably thinking of my Mark of Avihs. Thinking that the pat on my chest was a sign that Avihs was with us. Well, whatever works. I needed these guys to keep their minds on the job and if divine inspiration would keep our focus, then who was I to argue?

It was a short while later when the dwarves below whistled and then beckoned us down. I still had no real idea what we would be facing and with a quick look towards Sebastina and Master, I clambered down. It didn’t help that they both looked worried. I smiled encouragingly whereupon Master simply scowled and Sebastina nodded her hideously scarred head.

It was our turn to do or die.