“MUUARGHHHHHHH!!” My eyes snapped open and I screamed out as a dreadfully painful searing sensation exploded on my forehead.

“HAHA! RISE AND SHINE SIR! RISE AND SHINE!” A shrill dickhead voice pierced my ears and I instinctively tried to throw a punch, only for his face to blur out of the way and for both of my arms to fly up sluggishly due to them being cuffed together.

The act threw me off balance from my kneeling position and I fell face first onto the dirt blood stinking floor.

“Haha oh man he swung at you Gilo!”

“Ohh no! I only got away by a hair's breadth! He’s so fast!”

“I bet he’s just as fast in the sack, speedy gonzalez, ariba ariba!”

“PAAAH-HAHAHAH!”

A round of laughs erupted at my display.

“Ugh. The fu–what is going on? Where am I..” I muffled into the dirt and managed to lift myself up.

My god, I feel like I weigh a tonne. I can barely lift myself.

“You’re in paradise my amigo! The land where gladiators and heroes are born! Where the food is divine, the violence is free and the chickos and dickos are eager, endless and up for the fucking all day everyday! Eyiyiyi!!” The Gilo guy sounded spanish or mexican, something I wasn’t going to ask as it would probably upset them.

“Aya, looks like Mint and her crew found a handsome guiri eh? Are you a virgin new boy? Are you as quick in bed as you are with your hands ey?" The first voice smacked his lips loudly and I clumsily got up and put my back to a wall. A wall of bars.

“The fuck? Who are you people and where am I? Some kind of prison?” I was looking around as I spoke and there were bars and cages, but most of them were empty. The area was dimly lit with a drum fire that cracked and spat out embers, but I could make out we were in a large space with only one doorway that I could see with no windows anywhere.

“Oi, listen up Fedro, your jokes are alright, but keep ya’ fuckin’ rapist hands to yer self yeah? We need every pair of boots we can get. Even if he sounds a bit soft, the bloke is clearly from a more civilised land than yours, so shut-it!” A man with a strong cockney accent growled from the other corner of our cage.

“Ey ey! You fucking English and your arrogance! Chill your tiny balls Tommy, we were just playing around eh! What’s your label, new boy?” Fedro flipped off the dark corner ‘Tommy’ was lurking; A snicker and a muttered ‘fucking poofter cavemen’ was all he got in response.

Fedro was bald, short and heavily tanned. He was very broad shouldered and had tattoos everywhere, wearing a dirty tank top and a pair of jeans with boots.

“Uhh, My name is Godu. Shit does my head hurt..what the fuck is this place..” I groaned.

“Like I said handsome, it’s paradise. Free food, free violence and free ass. I'm Fedro, but you can call me anytime. That mysterious piece of shit in the corner is Tommy. And that dopey fucker is Gilo." Fedro was extremely energetic, but in an intimidating criminal type of way.

Gilo just grinned like a serial killer and was tall, skinny with dark hair and a lean face. Tommy hadn't left his dark corner yet.

"Alright mate? Oxford or one of the shires right?" Tommy asked from his veil of dark.

"Yeah, wow that's spot on. But sorry, what's exactly happening here? I've got places I need to be." I was getting a bit pissed off with this shit talking.

"Yeah mate, don't we all..well, don't bother asking these mugs, they'll just chat shit. I'll give it to you straight. This is the colosseum and we're the fucking entertainment. Groups go out and have to fight those monsters hand to hand. Fucking joke is what it is." Tommy spat on the floor.

"But they say if you survive 100 fights, you get offered a choice of freedom with a reward or you can join the management…bullshit if you ask me, they are just dangling hope in front of stupid cunts to keep them from giving up." He grunted a laugh.

"What about if we got these cuffs off? Surely people could fight them? Or use a communication skill or what about a teleport?" I tried to keep things vague since I didn't know these weirdos, but I had a horrible sinking feeling..

"Nah mate. Those cuffs are only to get you in here. But once you're in, you're collared and then you're only allowed to use skills and wizard shit in the arena. The key for yours are over there where you woke up. Ain't nuffin' we can do except hope the slavers choke on each other's cocks." He made gagging noises and grimly chuckled.

I immediately scrambled over to where he said and found the key and took the cuffs off..but nothing changed. There was indeed a collar around my neck.

Shit..

Gilo and Fedro were snickering but we're playing some game in the dirt.

I turned to Tommy's dark corner.

"So what about if we used abilities in the arena? Why not try and take them out there?"

"Not a fat fucking chance either. There's something called a control domain that restricts your shit to 10 metres and also the stands are shielded so no escape. Like I said, they are untouchable."

I paused in desperate thought. There's always a weak spot.

"Wha..what about..well..shitting hell. How the fuck can we fight if we are crippled by these fucking collars?" I hissed, I could feel my blood boiling at this absurd stupidity.

A group of human survivors, facing down monsters and Eldritch horrors. Rewarded with literal Majik and powers far beyond any technology ever seen. And in their infinite FUCKING wisdom, they decide to bring back the goddamned gladiator games!? CUNTS!! ABSOLUTE CU-

"That's just it ain't it? But like I said, you can sti use skills and shit..so pick up a rock and hope you can do your leviosa crap, or your thousand cut finisher before the giant T-Rex monster with long arms gets you..and that ain't an exaggeration. I've seen it myself. This is my fifth group I'm sorry to say." He sniffed.

I was seething. These motherfuckers are going to get what's coming to them.

Mark my fucking words..

"Fuck. Shit..okay. I guess this is what it is for now. So what, do we team up or something? What's your strategy and who does what? Who's frontline and who is a drifter?" I decided to treat this as another day in the job and figure out how we can best work together.

Tommy stood up and moved forward, casting his face in the dark red of the drum fire.

He looked like someone who could hammer nails with their fists. A tough as shit, tall bloke, with a scar on his face and skull and a shaved head with stubble on his face. His eyes were silvery grey and his jaw was so square I wondered if he cracked open walnuts with his mouth for fun.

He was wrapped in bloody rags and was wearing loose pants and a loose top, clearly second hand rags he had been gifted.

"You talk like a fighter Godu. What's your weapon mate?" He grinned savagely.

"Weapons." I held my fists up and was dismayed to see my gauntlets were gone, but my boots were still on me. Those thieving cunts..

"Ha! We're gonna be best buds Godu. Best bloody buds. My guts are telling me and they ain't ever been wrong." He held out a hand.

Funny, another gut whisperer. Alright let's be buds then.

I clasped his hand and he gave a very firm squeeze and grinned.

"Sweet. Right. Here's what I know works and what don't…"

So it turned out that these three were four but lost their fourth the previous day. A woman who was a decent spear fighter but had been a sniper in the military. She got gored by a Skinraw.

But currently their scores were:

Tommy - 45 fights.

Gilo - 15.

Fedro - 12.

We were due to fight in the next hour, before it got too dark so he went over the basics of what to expect and what tactics seemed to work best.

Each team would consist of four members, no more, no less.

If anyone died during a fight, it was stopped and it wouldn't count as a win.

After 1 hour your slot was finished, but if you hadn't slayed your opponent, the fight would be stopped and wouldn't count as a win.

If you won a fight too quick, it would count as a win but you would be forced to fight another round.

Win 100 rounds and you would be free of you could stay and become one of the minions.

Speaking of the minions, it was best not to try and speak or antagonise them, else they would simply take you out and sell you as a living sex doll as punishment. They were surprisingly 'fair' apparently, you got food and water and you weren't beaten unless you looked in their direction.

This was how quick civilisation turned to shit. All this in 5+ months? Such little time for people to return to barbarism..Scum.

The best tactic, apparently, was to have someone grab the monsters attention and keep them busy, whilst the other three would either single one out and dogpile it, or if it was just a single target, surround the beast and use abilities that stunned or disoriented it, whilst everyone took pot shots in sequence at its high value areas.

So kiting and-

*CLANG-BANG-BANG-CLANG*

One of the guards

"Ey, ey. Boys and girls. It's time for our fight. Anyone want a quick kiss for good luck?" Gilo leered and clawed suggestively at his crotch.

"Fuck off Gilo. Just stick to the usual. Fedro will be the runner, us three will be beaters." The cage was unlocked and the guard slid open the rattling gate, letting us file out one by one.

I moved forward to exit but Tommy stopped me and spoke in a low voice.

"Godu, a word of advice. No matter what, don't play the hero aight? You reek of someone who would jump in to save a complete stranger. But here nobody is worth shit. So just stick to the plan but don't stick your neck out for anyone else right? They sure as shit ain't gonna give you the same courtesy." He clasped my shoulder and walked past me.

"Uh. Alright man." I didn't know what else to say, what happened to being best buds!

We were led down a very dark tunnel then up a spiral stone staircase and, as we got to the top, the sounds of a small crowd burst to life, cheering and jeering, striking anxiety into my heart.

That sounds like a fuckton of people..This is seriously messed up.

My heart was pounding as we stopped at a large, out-of-place door. The heck? It looked like it was 3D printed, just like some of the weapons and gear birthed from EXP or Majik.

A klaxon blared out, making me jump out of my skin, and the crowd groaned disapprovingly in response, but shockingly a booming voice filled the air, sounding like a boxing commentator said a few unknown words before the crowd erupted in jeers and cheers.

Tommy spoke behind his shoulder in a hushed voice.

“We’ve been introduced as the meat beaters..cunts. Remember what I said Godu, wait for my signal before jumping in.”

I didn’t respond, my nerves were unravelling as I came to terms with the situation I was in.

‘Push it down. Focus on the present. Play as if you don’t care if you live or die.’

Graves' words swam around in my head so I grit my teeth and forced a smile, lying to myself that I was looking forward to the violence, lying to myself that I had nothing to lose, lying to myself that this would be fun.

And it started to actually work.

Yeah. Hurry up and open the fucking doors, let’s get this party started.

Fedro was looking around at the walls and floor nervously and he briefly glanced at me, double taking as he saw the look on my face.

“The..fuck. Oh sweet lord. I think the newboy has lost his marbles mang.” He whispered to Gilo.

“Eyyy? We’ll see his marbles shortly, eh guys? Sweet shiny round marbles.” He licked his lips.

They both snickered.

“You two, shu-” Tommy started but the door started to open, in the most complicated pattern I’d ever seen a door open.

The middle fell away and then the rest started to fold like origami, in squares and rectangles, but I was pushed forward before I could observe further.

“Grr. Keep you hands to yourself fuck-” I had started to growl, but a swift powerful boot to my back sent me flying several metres.

I sprawled onto my face onto dirt that had a thin layer of sand dusted on top. And as I grumbled my disapproval, I got up at the sounds of the crowd laughing and jeering.

Looking around the circle pit arena, it was lit up brightly with strange flaming torches that lined the edge and inside the arena itself were tall thick pillars with flames on top.

Something was casting spotlights from way high up above our heads and for a moment it utterly confused me, throwing me off balance and letting the ice cold fear run rampant through my veins..but then I returned to Graves mantra and regained the veil of ignorance that nothing mattered.

Who gives a shit if they have flood lights? Who gives a shit if there are thousands of them in the stands? Who gives an absolute shit if this whole place looks like it is a mixture of 3D printing Majik and ancient stone?

A mechanical clanking sound followed by a roar erupted from the opposite side of the arena.

Who gave a shit that Tommy was screaming at me to get back, as a massive bonafide T-Rex with long arms was released from its pen and was heading straight for me.

Label: Ranolith (Elite)

MAGN: 60.309

HP: 6000/6000

Notes: It's a big modern dinosaur, but the good news is that it does have a weak spot! The bad news is, it's the eyes and there are six of them.

Not..fucking..me…right?

I stood there in a complete daze as words appeared in my black thought space.

Slaver band disabled.

Control Domain rules applied.

The following restrictions are in place.

Attributes remain reduced by 99%.

All abilities are now enabled with max range enforced to 10 metres.

Current Status:

HP 690/690 (1262)

MJK 690/690 (1475)

EP 2%

DS 2%

Sword 1

Shield 1

Feather 1

Glyph 1

“FUCKING MOVE YOU TWAT!!” Tommy bellowed as he grabbed me and hurled me out of the way as the house sized monster stomped impossibly fast towards us.

The floor thundered with each step and as I flew through the air, I watched it move its head towards me in slow motion before skidding and continuing its pursuit.

“GODDAMIT GODU! YOU’RE THE FUCKING RUNNER! SO RUN! DANCE! SHOW IT YOUR TITS OR SOMETHING! JUST DON’T LET IT CATCH YOU!” Tommy’s voice registered but it was distant, my mind was foggy.

Everything started to spin and my body was wracked with horrible pain yet slowly, a warm feeling was spreading through my bones and my muscles started to move as the sensation travelled up to my head.

The fog lifted, allowing me to snap out of it, and I deployed my shields in config:exo just in time for me to roll away the impact and correct myself onto my feet. As soon as they had deployed, I felt noticeably faster and stronger, but still my movements were extremely sluggish and far slower than what I was used to.

I cursed loudly and took off, phase dashing forward as the deafening thuds and a loud snap of jaws popped my eardrums and set my ears ringing as the T-rex came within metres of chomping down on me. The act of phase dashing nearly knocked me unconscious and I screamed in defiance as I forced myself to keep going.

The T-Rex released such an almighty roar, it created a powerful blast of air which nearly toppled me over, but I scrambled on my hands and feet, my shields noticeably guiding my actions, which helped me maintain my footing as I continued to run forward.

Daring a glance back, I saw Tommy was slamming his fists into the ground and ripping up shards of rock that he would throw at the legs of the giant lizard, with Fedro hurling small golf balls of flames and plasma that splashed almost harmlessly on its hardened scales.

The T-rex had a split lower jaw that opened out like a blooming flower, and it had six pairs of eyes that neatly ran down its snout.

Tommy really wasn’t fucking kidding!

I pumped my legs as I was losing my lead, already feeling exhaustion kicking in, I cursed some more, and then cursed some more on top, just in case my curses weren’t being heard.

Gilo ran past me holding a glinting razor thin thread and he laughed as I looked at him with confusion.

“The pussy dicks set the REX on your first fight? What did you do, new boy? Fuck their sons or daughters or something!! Bwahahah!” His voice trailed off as he rushed on, still spooling out that glinting thread.

As I returned to the entrance, Fedro was waving like a madman and as I got closer he also laughed.

“Great job gonzalez! You’re still alive! Two more circuits and Gilo’s mesh will be complete. I hope you are good at flying or on your hands and kneeeees! CAW! CAW!!” He made a circle in the air with his finger before seemingly pulling a white liquid out of his mouth and shaping it into a ball.

INSANE! THEY’RE FUCK-..CALM, Calm. This doesn’t matter, come on! It’s just a game. Doesn’t matter if you win. JUST A GAME!

Behind me, the T-Rex roared in anger as the heat of a small explosion reached my back.

“Shitty..game!..ha..hahaha..AHAHHH!”

Scraping the bottom of the barrel my legs were aching and my lungs and heart felt like they were on fire. I managed to do the next two laps and even though I was confused as to why the monstrosity was so adamant to stay on me, I didn’t have time to contemplate or come up with theories, all I could do was keep running. And as I came back round, Tommy was waiting, pointing frantically at the middle.

“GO TO THE MIDDLE! JUMP OR SLIDE WHERE GILO IS! DON’T TOUCH THE WEBS!” He roared at me, spittle flying out of his mouth, eyes wide and primal, but the bastard was still grinning.

I didn’t answer, instead, simply pushing my legs to keep going one step further, it’s just a game, it’s just a game, and up ahead was Gilo, beckoning me with a massive manic grin on his face.

“HERE BOY! COME ON! THERE’S A GOOD BOY! ARF! ARF!” He was slapping his Iegs and I couldn’t tell if he was taunting me or the monster.

My mouth was slack open as I drooled with exertion, my body was threatening to collapse and I was unable to think or feel anything except to keep moving my legs. It was pure torture and I wasn’t even sure if it was my will or the shields forcing my legs to keep going.

But we reached Gilo and he screamed at me to sink or swim.

With a strained grunt, I surge jumped and managed to clear a measly 2 metres, which was just enough and still pretty impressive, but what wasn’t impressive was one of the threads catching my foot and flipping me forward.

“AGH-Oofff-”

Barely catching myself with shade glide, which sputtered out after barely a second, I flew headfirst over the weave of threads and into the ground.

Tumbling head over heels, the crowd roared with joy and I could distinctly hear people cackling with laughter.

As I rolled like a sack of spuds, their noise made my blood boil. The fact that these faceless bastards would do all this, that they would revel in others misfortune, purely for entertainment?

What have I done to deserve this?

The lizard bellowed as it ran through the wires and got tangled up-

What did I do wrong?

The sounds of wires twanging indicated it had snapped a few, then the footsteps suddenly stopped-

No. They are the ones who are wrong. I wish I could look at them-

Gulping in a big helping of air, I rolled over and grit my teeth at the beast casting me in its shadow.

-so I can memorise their faces, find them, and rip their stupid laughing throats out.

Time came to a crawl as I saw the rex hurtling through the air toward me, covered in a thousand cuts. It must have tried jumping just like me, clever, and as it loomed over me like an asteroid about to commit a one man extinction event, I reached slowly out towards its huge open jaws, strands of saliva pooling off, creating disgusting slimy strings.

I’m coming for all of you shitbags.

Needing the few scraps of energy to execute my next few moves, my shields disengaged and I glanced a couple of metres to the side and placed an anchor. The timing was preternaturally impeccable, Slipfolding just as its snout snapped down onto my arm.

Two things happened in that instant.

Firstly, my arm was briefly yet completely severed, as I successfully Slipfolded half of the monster's face with me. Which played out as me collapsing, briefly screaming for a few moments, then as the pain receded, panting out small deranged laughs as the large chunk I took with me fell apart and my arm reconnected itself to my shoulder in a flurry of shimmering mist.

Secondly, as this was occurring, the Rex slammed its half missing snout into the ground with a colossal thud, the force of which ejected brain matter out of the hole I had just made.

The whole thing sounded like someone cracked open a coconut before throwing a bucket of porridge down a hallway.

The crowd gasped, leaving only murmurs and talking but I just lay on the ground clutching my rejoined arm. Panting and muttering to myself.

Another piece of my mind, broken.

Tommy had sprinted over to me and he skidded on his knees as he came over.

"Holy pissin-bollocks! What did you do mate? Did you just one tap the Rex's fucking face off? Haha you legend! COME ON YOU MISERABLE FUCKS! ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?” He spread his arms out towards the crowd and roared at them.

“Fucking mugs, they wouldn't know a good show, even if it came up and twisted their nipples.."

Control Domain policy in effect. EXP claim denied.

Control Domain has taken authority.

What..does that mean? Am I not even allowed to have my hard earned reward for this..Insanity?

Instead of coming to me, I stared in utter dismay as the huge swirl of EXP flew away like a spectre, disappearing into the pillars dotted around the arena.

This was hell. Pure and simple.

I'm..never getting out. They have complete control. I have no freedom. They're going to not let me leave. I'm never ever going to see Marri and..Lone. Ever again..

My mind started coming apart at the seams.

“Come on mate, you gotta get up. We’re halfway, there’s more fighting to be done.”

Are you KIDD..wait why..should I care?

This is just a game isn't it!

Ha yes! It's just a game! I enjoy this. It’s just a game. Keep them coming. It’s fun. Ha. Yes. This is fun!

IT IS JUST A GAME!

In a strange experience, I blinked and suddenly, it was like I wasn’t in my body anymore. It was as if I was sitting down in my own personal theatre watching from a ghostly third person seat.

I ate my imaginary popcorn as my body stood up; Tommy was staring at me.

“Uhh. You alright mate? You still wiv’ us?”

My body stared back with blank eyes and returned an empty smile.

“Yes. This is fine.” My body said.

The horn blared out and the announcer said something unrecognisable, which prompted the murmuring crowd to erupt into cheers and roars.

I boo’d and hissed at the screen, flipping them all off, but my actual body didn’t move.

“Well. Alright then.” He sniffed and looked over at Fedro and Gilo, who were doing something near a couple of the pillars.

“They just announced the swarms next. Which is not ideal but it could be fucking worse..always could be fucking worse. But all we need to do yeah, is fucking hurry to the pillars, bottleneck the little cunts, then give the audience a pretty little curtsy. Alright?” He grinned, showing not a single shred of fear.

“Yes.” My body responded and walked off, leaving Tommy behind who muttered something full of curses.

I ate my popcorn with a grin on my face, watching this silly movie with the silly characters and the silly crowd.

Bet they become mates and one of them dies. Probably the Tommy bloke. He says ‘don’t look out for anyone, yet he’ll jump in and push the main bloke out the way, saving him but mortally wounding himself. Always happens, such a cliche..

As my body and Tommy arrived with the others, the one called Gilo had finished his preparations and had made a sharp looking chain link fence on their right side, between the two large pillars, with the left being the edge of the arena. The space behind and in front was still free and it looked to be a 4 or 5 metre wide gap, and finally the whole length of the fence and pillars gave them about 12 metres of protection against side attacks.

As long as the attackers don’t try and climb over that is!

"Right, any second now.. Listen, the aim of this is to fuck-up a few at the front and then they'll just start scrapping over the meat. They're starved and-" Tommy was interrupted as there was another loud signal, accompanied by new sounds of screeching and the noise of hundreds of little chitinous legs tapping on concrete grew steadily louder and louder.

In front of us at the edge, a pair of huge 3D printed Majik gates collapsed on themselves, revealing a sea filled with shiny red and black crawlers spilled out.

Oh shit haha! We’ve seen these before!

My body calmly deployed the shields into config:ribbon, but the construct stuttered and shrank back in, failing to manifest.

ALERT. Insufficient resources.

Uh-oh! What are you going to do now eh?

With a slight frown, my body attempted config:prime but was met with the same failure message.

ALERT. Insufficient resources.

My body aborted attempting any more as the sea of nightmares flowed closer, the other participants were shouting obscenities and laughing, but they were muffled and incoherent. The movie homed in on the first row and red hues popped up on several crawlers a dozen metres away.

Eugh! They are horrid! Look at the female faces with greasy black hair! Completely contrasts with the four chitinous legs attached to the swollen red torso sack. All those gross black plates of chitin as well. Disgusting!

Their humanoid heads were in various states of transformation as well, some had a split down the middle of the skull that opened and closed like a vertical jaw, and some had small mandibles growing out of the cheeks.

My body tested throwing a surge punch and it worked but drained half of its available EP, but it was successful, with a film of azure and black plasma swirling up to the end of its fist and then dissipating in the air.

Oooo. So two hits with that and wop-wop-wwwaaaah.

No more energy…shame there isn’t some way to generate EP whilst figh-

The fastest sprinters were just a few metres away, six of them at the front, with the rest flooding in mindlessly from behind.

They look hungry!

Label: Crawler

MAGN: 30.900

HP: 285/300

Notes: Nobody ever asks if I’M okay...I just want something to eat. Can I eat some of you?

My body crouched and lowered its head.

Huh. Was half expecting to run awa-wait a second..

In my personal theatre I thought about a particular skill and looked at its history. It was kinda strange, I already knew the details, but it felt theatrical and thrilling to see it displayed.

[V Null Surge ]

(I Shoulder rush - A naturally obtained ability birthed from necessity. Removes air resistance and converges kinetic energy into a focal point.)

(II Shoulder rush - Improve energy impact and speed. Static position use enabled.

(III Shoulder rush - Stun on every hit, refund 99% cost)

(IV Null Surge - Null Surge - Evolves skill into Null Surge. Inherits Shoulder rush and upgrades. Allows you to drag targets when in use and you gain 5% surge of SWRD and SHLD for 5 seconds.)

(V Null Surge - Null Surge can now integrate with other skills granting varying effects.)

Range: 5M charge.

Cost: 10MP, 1%(10)EP per charge

Surge Cost: 10MP, 1%(10)EP per use. 50% reduction on sprinting costs whilst active.

Oh.

My body rushed forward and a blue haze started to form.

This should be fun!

*Smack* “SCREEEEE”

Quick maths interlude! We’ve got 2% available total EP and each use of charge/rush costs 1% but refunds 99% on a hit...so 10 / 100 * 1 = 0.1.

Roughly 200 shoulder-charge hits if we manage to land every attack dang and that’s not even taking into account the regen!

*Smack* *Smack* *SMACK* “RAAAAAAAAAGH!”

“FUN! THIS IS SO MUCH FUN!”

..Shit I’ve really lost it haven’t I.

My body was darting from crawler to crawler on the front line, an absolute brawler toppling them left and right. The others were screaming obscenities and laughing as they followed, emitting various squelching and crunching noises as they followed and jointly worked together to put down.

You hit [Crawler] with [V Null Surge (Shoulder Charge)] for 2 damage and inflicted stun for 8 seconds. Resources returned.

Entity Tommy hit [Crawler] with [Rock Shovel ‘n’ Spade] for Raw Lethal damage and has killed [Crawler].

Entity Fedro hit [Crawler] with [Firestick] for 50 damage.

Entity Gilo hit [Crawler] with [Spiders touch] for 5 + 50/s Decay damage.

It seemed like they would release the creatures in waves, waiting until we cleared enough before releasing more.

The brawl continued like this until after what felt like hours, a buzzer sounded out and the doors closed, but it didn’t matter, not to my body.

Oh well. The show MUST GO ON!

My body continued smashing into the crawlers, even when they were inexplicably retreating and heading back to the door.

“ENOUGH! MATE! STOP! COME BACK!” Tommy yelled out behind me.

NO! WE CAN’T STOP! HA-HA!

Heavy footsteps thudded down on the dirt, surrounding my body. Figures in armour and leather moved into view shouting at me, trying to block my path, but my body didn’t care, it slammed into the immovable bastards repeatedly until someone delivered an incredibly powerful kick, causing my personal theatre to shake. I winced as I felt the pain through the screen.

OUCHHHHH! Glad I’m not THAT guy-UGH-That has got to-URKKK-

I coughed up blood at the same time my body did.

“ACK-URKKK”

Tommy appeared and grabbed my arm, putting a hand up to the approaching group, attempting to diffuse the situation.

“EASY THERE LADS! EASY! ALRIGHT? He's just a newbie! Just a scared newbie that's all!”

He said something that sounded vaguely Italian and I heard a few snarls and a couple of snickers.

“I’ll take him back! He’s a good fighter right? He can fight again tomorrow, don’t you worry yeah?” He glared at me with a serious look and talked low. “You better apologise son, else they’re going to kill ya.”

Uffff. What-Urk..phoo! What’s our hero going to do now? Will he Swallow his prid-

“S-sorry.”

The words spilled out of my mouth and after a single blink, I was back in my body on my hands and knees, staring at my own pool of bile and blood in the dirt.

My mind felt as bruised as my body, and I felt fundamentally disturbed at a level I'd never experienced. Like I'd just woken up from a night of being paralectic drunk, and then remembering I'd accidentally murdered someone and poorly hid the body at the exact moment the police were outside hammering to come in.

Everything hurts..my mind..my stomach..ughhhh. What the hell just happened to me. My mind's not...my mind..

I looked up at Tommy and he just raised his eyebrows and motioned to where we entered, so, accepting his help and keeping my head down, I trundled back to the exit with him, clutching my painful stomach.

The crowd had escalated to fever pitch and it even sounded like people were smashing bottles or something, but I couldn't figure out why, nor did I care much to be frank. I just wanted to lie down and rest; My mind and body both needed time to repair and process this.

The other two joined us and as we passed the threshold, the doors reassembled behind us, reducing the sounds of the arena significantly.

Text flashed up once the final segment of the door had clicked its final piece into place.

Control Domain rules removed.

Slaver band enabled.

And with that, I was back to being completely severed off from all my abilities.

In short order we made it back to the prison pit, where our cages waited for us. There were whispers coming from every corner as we entered our cage and some sacks were thrown after us before the gate was clanked shut.

Immediately, I went to the furthest corner in the cage and curled up on the floor, gently clutching my knees, trying to emulate the feeling that somebody was holding me tight.

The utter lack of freedom had made me snap. The realisation that there was no trick or way out of this was too much. I closed my eyes, a few tears making their way out silently.

After a few minutes of silence the others started to pipe up.

"Hey uhh, Godu right? Fuck me man..how did..Listen, I don't know how you did that to the freakin' Rex but serious props to you ey. You're a real freakin' legend man. Real respect." Gilo sounded weird.

"Yeah new guy, shit! You one tapped its face off and I was like, 'Shit! Gilo must have got lucky with his threads.. ain't no-way new boy could do that..' but THEN, you dropped all those red bellies down one by one! They couldn’t move after you hit them!...how? Who the fuck are you? How did you do that with all these motherfucking bitch-ass controls on you?" Fedro finished with a half laugh.

I kept my head low and shivered, staying silent.

“Hm. Alright fellas. How about we let the man rest first yeah? It’s his first day and he’s not even had a chance to settle in before being thrown to the fucking lions. Let’s eat and then in the morning we can pick the poor cunts brains, alright?” Tommy seemed to be the de-facto leader of the group and I was minutely grateful for his somewhat surprising sympathy.

I watched him with a half open eye pick up a sack and bring it over, pulling out a shitty blanket and holding it out towards me.

“T-thanks.” I croaked out as I took it and pulled it tightly over me. I didn’t realise that I was actually getting seriously cold but the filthy thing felt warm, even if it stank of piss.

“No worries lad. Something you’ll notice is how you start to feel the cold and hot again now that your balls are set back to 1..something to do with endurance or some shit..anyway, you’ll need to eat too. Here, it’s raw fruit and veg, organically grown using Majik by their fucking druids or something..but still, edible and fixes all the broken bones and cuts. Mostly.” He passed me an apple and a couple of carrots.

I simply nodded and mechanically ate in silence.

The crunching was deafening in my ears as I finished my food. As I lay on the cold ground, clutching onto my blanket, the murmurs and crackling of the strange fires created a harsh, solemn ambiance that reminded me of how I used to feel like an abandoned child.

It was a feeling I hadn't felt for a very, very long time.

I started to drift off to an uncomfortable sleep, wishing for things to turn out okay, but having difficulty truly believing it.

….

..

.