Obviously though, magic will have to wait. I have more pressing matters to attend to. Well, not really, as I’m just sitting here and waiting for my turn to fight. All the fights go by, and my name hasn’t been called. “Red boy, Kriss is your name I believe? Well, no matter, you are defaulted to the next round, because I neglected to reserve another slave for this time slot. Congratulations, beast” Ivan announces.

“T-thanks…” I mutter. That’s pretty nice I guess, and we finally get down to a nice number for a tournament. Eight remain. We are once again allowed to repick our weapons, but no one takes that offer. It’s a smart choice, seeing as we’ve all already established our fighting style. “Alright, first fight of the quarter finals… we have Tobias Saunders against Javid Meyers.” Tobias picks up his knife and walks into the arena, followed closely by a person I assume to be Javid.

“What kind of beast-kin are you?” Tobi asks, “Otter.” There are almost no defining features on him, setting aside the short ears on his head. “Ready? Begin!” Toby begins to camoflauge, but Javid is already on him, relentlessly beating at Tobi’s hasty defense with his weapon of choice, a chain he had kept hidden in his pockets. It was clever, albeit a bit hasty. If Tobi got his camouflage active, there’d be no hope of victory.

Unfortunately, Tobi had already disappeared. Javid glanced around before raising his hands in surrender. “My, what a battle. Too bad it only lasted a bit, I’d have loved to see your expressions twist with pain some more.” Ivan’s remarks fell once again on our ears. It seems like he’s getting more and more vulgar and sadistic as time goes on. I once again worry for our future.

“...Boo” whispers Tobi as he once again shimmers back into his full scaly glory. “Ah,” Javid replies. Likely just humoring the lizard-man, which I find rather amusing. I make a note to find the ottery dude at some point after the tournament.

Tobi climbs the stairs and once again plops into his seat. “I’m uncomfortable with all of this,” he mutters, while staring down at the knife in his hands. “I feel like everyone is way too aggressive. I mean, we were classmates, schoolmates. I knew - know - Nayomi and I stabbed her in the kidney!” He’s clearly disturbed, and for good reason. Why are we so bloodthirsty?

In fact, I’d be willing to bet the vast majority of the kids fighting here today at the whims of Ivan, our Sadistic Evil-Gandalf owner, have never even been in a fight before. And even among those that had, they were never with weapons, and certainly never with their life on the line. How do they even know how to move their bodies properly, or how to use their weapons for that matter? There’s no way there isn’t something going on here, but there’s no time to think about it now. I have to watch Vena beat someone up with a big ol’ hammer.

And beat someone up she did. Although her insane smile had faded during Tobi’s (relatively) minor meltdown, it began flaring up again as the fight wore on. Slowly, her opponent (I’m hesitant to use the word “enemy”, as a divide among the slaves is something Ivan is likely hoping for) becomes more and more tired.

I guess I should have mentioned, but they’re some form of ape-kin, although I can’t tell what kind at a glance. It’s not like I’d be able to tell upon a closer inspection though. I’m not exactly an expert on all things ”ape”. They wield a rapier, which is being used quite effectively, which one might not have expected, considering the rather clumsy stigma that you would think would relate to an ape.

Vena, on the other hand, only seems to get more and more invigorated as her tiny wounds begin to accumulate. Using my vast powers of intellect, and my incredible deduction abilities, I conclude that this is from her berserker job. It would seem that it functions much in the same way as it would in games back home.

Home. If we ever do get back, and her relatively new tendencies (she always did like a little fight every now and then) were discovered - not to mention the ears and tail - people would instantly know something was amiss. As time goes on, it seems like home gets further and further out of grasp. I would leave off with the customary “‘fuck‘” as Vena concludes her fight with a swift punch to the face, but I don’t think I have the strength in me. I’m hungry.