I awoke to foreign sensations and lay very still while I tried to translate my surroundings into meaning. The room was dark, but being undead I didn’t actually need my eyes to perceive my surroundings anyway if zombies were anything to go on. That entire line of thought was mainly a distraction from the one really confusing aspect of my current reality. Bia’Keres was cuddled around my body like it was her favorite stuffed animal.

My first instinct was to freeze, and I was still doing that because I hadn’t come up with a second instinct. Given our interactions in the past, I could only assume that if I woke her she would be by turns furious and embarrassed. Depending on what emotional state she was in when she decided this was a good idea she might very well kill me during her furious turn. So I held very still and tried to delay the inevitable. That worked fine until my mind began to wander and my body started to realize that it was being embraced by a beautiful woman. A very beautiful woman, lying in my bed with her body wrapped around mine… bleeding on me. Alright, thank goodness for battle damage to cool my rising ardor.

My mind wandered to all the times she had saved my life in the last several days. I literally owed her my life several times over, and that wasn’t even counting the fact that she fed me and clothed me and stood by me like a solid pillar of strength. I felt bad that I hadn’t told her everything I knew, but if she really understood, there’s no way she’d stick around, right? I moved my free arm to hug her and kissed the top of her head. This was nice. I might as well enjoy it while it lasts.

The door suddenly slammed open and both me and Bia launched ourselves to our feet. Bia swiped her hand across the edge of the bed and seemed surprised that she came back empty handed. I materialized a bright green aura of energy like a gauntlet around my fist and prepared to punch the intruder into oblivion.

“We have a match,” Myrkai yelled, before the door was even finished bouncing off the wall. “Holy Bastet!” he exclaimed when saw my glowing fist. He awkwardly fell backwards and crab walked away from me.

“What do you mean we have a match?” I asked. I dismissed the energy from my hand and stepped out into the hallway. This conveniently distanced me from Bia who seemed to be wrestling with her confusion.

“We have a match at noon,” Myrkai responded. He carefully stood up without his usual grace.

“Are you all right?” I asked.

“I’m f-fine,” Myrkai answered with the barest hint of a slur. A whiff of his breath reached me and it carried the acrid tang of cheap alcohol.

“Myrkai, are you drunk?” I asked.

Myrkai studied the wall without meeting my eyes and remained silent, not that I needed anymore an answer than that.

I frowned. “We’ll discuss that later,” I informed him. “What time is it now?”

“About the eleventh hour of the day,” Myrkai answered. “We don’t have much time.”

“Of course not,” I scowled. “I’m surprised they didn’t schedule us for dawn.”

“By tradition, there are no major fights before noon,” Bia supplied.

I massaged my temples while I thought. “Bia, are you well enough to supply healing? Both you and I are still wounded.”

“Y-yes,” Bia answered uncertainly. “I’ll need Myrkai’s help and it will take several minutes at least.”

“Then we had better get started.”

The three of us squeezed into the tiny arena quarters and shut the door. Myrkai helpfully filled and lit a small lantern in the room with a burning splinter supplied for that purpose. It was the first time I has seen the glow of firelight in here, since Bia routinely supplied her magical light.

“Both of you sit next to me and take my hands,” Bia ordered. We complied, of course. Over the next several minutes, energy pulsed through me many times and I felt my wounds lessen and the gash across Bia’s chest noticeably reduced until it resembled a thin scratch. Myrkai’s bumps and bruises seemed to be reduced as well and the wound in my chest stopped hurting seriously.

I felt the energy healing me stop and Bia seemed to take a moment to center herself. “That’s all I can do for now. The rest should recover soon enough on its own,” Bia’keres informed us.

“Good, then it’s time for us to get out of here,” I said.

“But, aren’t we going to fight?” Bia asked.

“Bia’keres,” I said carefully, “we barely won the last battle with the loss of your staff. Now, due to my folly, we are weaker than we started and the next battle will no doubt be worse. They could even summoned more than one Crystarix to challenge us and we have no reliable means of winning. I think I’ve gained everything I can from the Arena for now.”

Bia’Keres gaze seemed lost for a moment, but she bowed her head submissively. “Yes, My Lord.”

I knew enough to realize this wasn’t the last I would be hearing about this. Myrkai on the other hand, looked far more uncomfortable than I had expected. “Is there something wrong, Myrkai?” I inquired again.

“Uh, maybe, my Lord. I…uhm…” he trailed off. I raised a questioning eyebrow. “We’ll see, my Lord. It may be nothing.”

“Very well. We’d better get going, then. I want to be gone before they declare us forfeit or by the terms of the contract, they can strip us of our possessions, as well.”

We walked swiftly through the corridors of the arena to a small side door that exited directly onto the plaza and found a wall of people. The plaza surrounding the arena seemed to be packed in every direction. Many of them instantly recognized us.

“Ker’Haros! Ker’Haros can I have an autograph! Bia’Keres will you marry me!”

The murmur of the crowd only grew as we quickly retreated back inside the arena. There was no way we could make it through that crowd in a timely manner, assuming they didn’t tear us apart when they learned we were escaping. I had often heard of the fickleness of the mob. I didn’t want to experience it first hand.

“It seems we have two choices,” I said. My companions simply gazed at me expectantly. “We can choose to fight and find out what sort of new monstrosity they have to throw at us,” Bia’Keres remained impassive, but Myrkai didn’t look happy at the prospect, “or we can simply wait in our arena quarters until they come to strip us of all our equipment and toss us out of the city or even throw us in jail.”

“I wouldn’t trust them to be lenient,” Myrkai cautioned. “Especially since your power is something they’ll want to understand before they let you loose.”

“My Lord,” Bia’Keres replied, “It is not acceptable for your sword to fall into the hands of another.”

I glanced at both of them and nodded. “Then we have a match to fight.”

Moment’s later, we stepped into the arena anteroom number III. An arena attendant was waiting for us.

“Good, you’ve arrived,” the attendant said. “Several fights are scheduled ahead of yours, so it will be a little while before your match starts.”

I just nodded and sat down on the bench. I set my sword on my lap and examined it. I hadn’t given it more than a cursory glance since I got it, I realized. The hard polished scabbard still gleamed blackly and I unsheathed the blade a few inches. A nearly liquid surface with a green sheen stared back at me. I could feel the weight of old death on the blade, but for the first time, I truly studied those sentiments. I looked deep into the reflection and it seemed to grow. It filled my vision and the room began to fade away. The roar of the arena sounded distant and quiet as I listened intently for the sound of the perfect strike cutting through the air to sever the life of the enemy.

“Your match is about to begin,” the attendant stated. His sudden statement jarred me from my meditation.

I nodded and wordlessly stood as the arena gate slid open and I lead the way out onto the arena floor. The thirty foot stone walls capped with a dome of amber force felt more restricting than ever before. The heavy door of the anteroom slid shut behind us with finality. We walked out from the shadow of the wall and as the crowd saw us their roar was a physical force that rattled me. I stopped and stared out into the stadium seating to see every seat filled. Tens of thousands of voices cheered us on and despite the benches of the stadium, nearly every spectator was on their feet screaming. Even the box seating for the noble and wealthy were filled to the brim, although they merely watched.

“Ker’haros, Bia’Keres, and Myrkai have made it to their fourth arena match, further than any contestant in the last year! Today, they will face one of the mightiest creatures Lord Hauser keeps. The Juggernaut of Destruction! The Regenerating Rager! The gargantuan troll, Grimhaus!”

In a departure from all the other matches we’d entered, a massive door under the noble’s boxes split and began to open wide. Each leaf of the giant stone double doors was almost 30’ tall, higher than the slightly lower walls around the majority of the arena, but the box seating was placed higher. I had a sudden inspiration. Those doors opened in the direction of the death energy I was seeking and all my wandering about the arena had never gotten me close.

“Follow me,” I yelled. I started sprinting across the arena towards the still widening doors. Even if this creature was massive, he wasn’t as massive as that slab of stone nearly a meter thick, more than a dozen feet wide, and 30’ tall.

We were scarcely passed the midway point of the massive arena floor as Grimhaus emerged. Even from this distance I could see how phenomenally ugly the creature was. It stood more than twenty feet tall with a stoop shouldered slouch and an uneven gait as it shambled a few feet into the arena. We rapidly approach as it blinked platter sized yellowish eyes of muddy green. It’s nose alone was the size of a full grown man with a wart the size of my head, and odd growths, moles, warts, and puckered scars dotted and crisscrossed its body in such a profusion that there didn’t seem to be an inch of smooth skin on the monstrosity. It’s frame was extremely lean and its arms stretch all the way to the ground, dragging as it took a step. The skin was a mottled greenish gray with large splotches of discoloration. As it caught sight of us, the huge mouth turned up in a grin that stretched more than halfway around its face and its lips peeled back to reveal a pair of yellowed and filthy tusks protruding from its mouth, one of which was broken off jaggedly.

The giant doors had only opened out to perpendicular and now slowed and started to reverse direction. We only had a few seconds for my desperate plan to work.

“Myrkai, grab its attention and lure it toward the leftmost door. Bia, fly passed him and get to the edge of the arena. Buy me a few seconds and get him into position.”

My companions nodded, still obedient to my commands in the heat of battle. I sprinted for all I was worth and picked up another increase of speed as I gave up breathing for a few moments. As I reached the door, I channeled powered into my feet and released an elemental blast. As I hoped, the effect launched me into the air in support of my jump. Unfortunately, I wasn’t any good at this and it spun me around sideways in a corkscrew before I smashed painfully into the edge of the door. Before I fell, I stabbed my sword into the stone. I was relieved as it penetrated a solid six inches and I used the leverage to right myself.

Below me, I could see Myrkai dodging blows from Grimhaus. The creature was deceptively fast and fought in a crouch that put its mouth within striking range of the ground. Bia’Keres stood to the back and seemed to be concentrating. I could only assume she was helping in some way.

I used the sword to lift myself the last several feet to the edge of the door, which continued to slowly swing shut. I looked down and everything was in position. I couldn’t be heard over the crowd noise, so I had to forego warning Myrkai. I could only hope he would be fast enough.

I sprinted along the top of the door and looked down to see three massive hinges sedately turning. I took one deep breath, grasped my sword in both hands, and jumped down swinging. The sword cut cleanly through the first three foot tall hinge, slicing through the narrowest portion I could strike. The impact nearly suspended my fall until it broke through. The second hinge went the same way and my sword came out glowing with heat. The last hinge began to twist as the full weight of the door fell on it and I hit it crookedly. It threw me to the ground without cutting through, but it didn’t seem to matter. As I watched, the massive door fell with deceptive speed.

I couldn’t see behind the door from my position, but the crowd grew quiet as the massive weight of stone crashed down with a concussive blast that left Bia tumbling away. The weight completely smashed the troll. One of his arms protruded from the side of the stone slab while copious amounts of pressure squeezed troll blood sprayed out in the direction of the doors collapse. For a moment, I couldn’t see Myrkai, then I spotted him drenched in greenish ichor, staggering away from the edge of the door. He’d made it, if only barely.

I was suddenly rocked forward as the crowd attained new levels of volume. I felt like my ears were going to crumble and dust down to the ground, it was so loud. I glanced toward the arena exit, but instead of peacefully opening to let us out, it divulged a squad of soldiers and more were coming out of the other entrances.

I sprinted forward and caught up to Myrkai, still trying to get the trollblood out of his mouth, nose, and eyes. I handed him a rag and grabbed his shoulder to hurry him along. Bia’Keres was just picking herself off the ground. She also had some troll blood on her back, but was otherwise clean.

“It’s time for us to go, Bia,” I said as I hustled Myrkai along.

“Go where, my Lord,” Bia asked. “These are the beast cages.”

“We’ll just have to find a way out of it,” I answered. The soldiers were streaming into the arena at a full sprint now, trying to overtake us. Myrkai finally got the blood out of his eyes and started moving under his own power and Bia trailed behind. Together, we dived into the dimly lit beast pens under the arena.