Krasn was watching the scavenger suit up in the room. He and his fellow guards went to escort the two prisoners, a scavenger and a Seawing Krasn didn't particularly recognise, out into the preparation chamber, as they both were going to have a fight.
When they had arrived, they saw both creatures sleeping seemingly peacefully, which for some reason had him perplexed enough not to react immediately. The Seawing had woken as soon as he noticed the noise of the guards approaching and immediately tensed up, but the scavenger just kept sleeping like a dead rag. They had to try multiple times before he woke up in a jumping manner.
Did this scavenger have no survival instinct ? While yes, he was certainly weird, like, how the hell could he talk anyway ? His whole behaviour didn't make sense, even compared with other more usual scavengers. But to be fair, Krasn didn't meet a lot of scavengers. None, to be exact, until they caught this one of course. He had only seen them a few times in the arena where they would get completely crushed by one of the prisoners.
While it was a rather repetitive sight and had grown somewhat boring to him, he always enjoyed seeing scavengers getting helplessly chased. Seeing them panicking and running in all directions really proved how pathetic they were.
Scavengers were the reason the war had started, and the war was the reason his father had died, and some of his friends too. So he really didn't have much love for those pesky creatures. Which is why it infuriated him that he was now put in charge of dealing with scavengers for multiple days straight. If he had to think of it, he would argue this was the work of some higher entity tricking him for the entertainment of some invisible audience, but that was probably just Scarlet's doing after all.
Well, he did commit a mistake a few weeks ago, but nothing worth noting, if someone had to take on such an ungrateful task, it really should be Salmon, the other dragon in the room. This guy was nearly asleep half of the time, it was a miracle he even managed to become a guard.
Krasn sighed, he wasn't feeling it, and a break didn't seem to be showing up anytime soon, even the war had grown more violent those last months, so everyone was on edge. Except for the scavenger, of course.
The thing had been granted some gears to make the fight more 'fair', and also because Scarlet had insisted on it. She apparently wanted to give it a special treatment, since he was so peculiar.
Currently, the scavenger was going through all the stuff that was present in the room. There was pretty much everything that had been collected from them over the years, so it's not like you could lack of choice here. Yet, it was still taking its meticulous time to go through everything, making what resembled disappointed noises and annoyed glances at the dozens of scavenger claws.
Eventually, it chose a set of metallic scraps that were paired with some form of leather, and set it up over itself, covering parts of its limbs.
Krasn nearly called it nonsense, when he realized it might be used as some sort of armour.
Still useless against a dragon four times your size though.
The scavenger finally turned around and headed towards Krasn in its new outfit, empty-handed. It still had its bag on the back too, or Krasn was pretty sure it was, but he couldn't be sure, and wouldn't dare to verify, those things killed a queen after all.
"No weapons ? Is that really how your species sees itself scavenger ? Thinking you're good enough to take on a dragon with bare hands ?" Krasn snorted.
"Everything you've got here is shit, this pile of scrap wouldn't be sharp enough to cut through damn cheese, and I'm being kind with it. There's no way I fight with that."
"Well, take it to your own kind, we didn't make that."
"I'm certainly planning to." The scavenger said with an implying tone, the skin of its face also twisted in a way that raised the corners of its mouth, which made Krasn horribly uncomfortable.
"So how do you plan to win this, you don't even know who you are going to fight."
The little creature drew a sharp claw from behind his back, confirming to Krasn that it did carry a bag, he showed his teeth to the scavenger, prompting it to be careful of what it does with it.
"I have my own knife, it might be smaller, but at least it cuts."
The claw looked awfully more like a claw than the usual scavenger weapon, and while it seemed smaller in length, it very much looked thicker and tougher. It was also very reflective, for all he knew, it might act as a small mirror, this was definitely metal, and a well-polished one for that matter.
There was something up with this scavenger, and it unnerved Krasn even more, he was starting to question what he knew about the hateful species. He got sent back from his thoughts by the scavenger tucking away his blade, and hearing a snore on the right side of him.
He looked at Salmon with sharp eyes, the Skywing guard was leaning against its spear, eyes closed. He sighed in exasperation.
"Are you kidding me... SALMON"
The dragon jumped on its feet. "Aaaaah ! yes sir !"
"I don't know what the hell you are doing to be so sleepy, but that doesn't matter when you're on duty. Do your job." Krasn said with a sharp tone. "Especially when we're near to our majesty's hatching day, and that queen Burn is coming, I swear I'm not getting in trouble because of you, hear me ?"
"yes sir, sorry sir !"
"And stop calling me sir."
"Alright sir."
He heard a small laugh coming from the scavenger and turned his head to it. "I think it's time now, we've waited enough." He stared at Salmon. "We're going."
Suddenly, the scavenger didn't look so confident anymore, but it still followed along.
The group of three left the room and headed towards the arena. Doing so, they passed in front of another room where he had just enough time to notice the others that had taken the Seawing.
They marched for what seemed like minutes, eventually, they arrived in front of a closed portcullis, inside a dirty room where blood seemed to have merged with the colours of the wall. Krasn looked at the scavenger, expecting a reaction, but when this one looked around, nothing more to it came.
Odd, once again.
Salmon walked at a small opening and called for a dragon behind, informing them of the arrival of one of the 'contestants'. After a few seconds of delay, the rusted portcullis slowly opened in a screech and immobilized itself in a clang.
"You walk to the other side of the arena, your opponent is coming soon." Krasn told the scavenger.
This one only nodded slightly, took a moment to breathe, and slowly made its way into the arena. Under the shooting and booing of hundreds of dragons. Once the scavenger seemed far enough, Krasn asked for the closure of the entrance to the arena and went off duty.
He took the path to the stands of the arena, walking up a steep staircase. Soon enough, exited into the open, where he was met by Victoria, seemed like she was off duty too.
"Oh hey Krasn, took you long enough, I almost thought you wouldn't come."
"Ah ! There's no way I miss the sight of a scavenger getting wrecked." He walked to her side and took a sit. The arena really was filled to the top this day, there were so many Mudwings and Skywings mixed together you couldn't differentiate the red from the brown. If it wasn't for gruesome reasons, seeing so many dragons in the same place would have been a beautiful sight.
But when all of them were ecstatically acting like a horde screaming for blood, it looked a whole lot different, it was a rather repulsive sight actually, at least for him.
"Only one scavenger ? Does Scarlet really think it's going to last even a minute ? Or does she have some weird plan for this fight again ?" Victoria asked.
"I'm pretty sure she thinks this one is special, and I can attest that too. But I'm far from believing it could hold its ground more than any other one."
"I see... What's special about it though ?"
"It can talk."
The female Skywing went agape for a few seconds, then took back her composure.
"H- how ??? And what is it doing here then ??? Wouldn't she want to interrogate it ?"
"She did, and it pretty much spoke back to her, and somehow managed to question the stability of her reign. Pretty sure it's also the one that instigated the scavenger's escape the other day." He looked back at the arena, seeing that a Sandwing had entered from where he was standing before, accompanied by three guards watching him closely. He was also close enough to Scarlet's balcony that he could see the expressions of the queen, and her ally next to her, Burn, which was frowning in a startled expression, probably what were going inside of Scarlet's crazy head again.
"Krasn !" He shot back from his thoughts when an elbow struck him on the side.
"You can't just drop such a dragonflame of a load and ignore it completely right after ! Do you expect me to take that like it was normal !"
"Well, I mean, yeah it's weird, but it probably just was enchanted by some animus magic thing to talk."
"Do you not realize what you're saying !" Victoria screamed with an excited tone, nearly jumping on her talons. "This could change everything ! And if it's true, what about the animus, would they be back ???"
Krasn frowned. "This would be worrying, to say the least."
"Probably yeah." She responded in a lower tone, noticing a few dragons next to them giving her slightly annoyed glances.
From his point of view, Krasn could see the two queens exchanging words, and he was confident Scarlet was doing a "trust me, this will be fun" face. While Burn just looked annoyed, like every time he saw her.
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His attention drew back to the arena, as he noticed the three Skywing guards leaving the Sandwing and freeing his tail. The prisoner started to balance his tail and give dark glances towards the scavenger that was standing talons away from him. At the same time, the queen's brother, Vermillion, walked forward, grabbing the attention of the stadium, which slowly quieted.
"Hello, fellow Skywings, friendly Mudwings, and allied Sandwings !" He shouted in a theatrical manner, the last voices shushed.
"Today, as you may know, is a rather special day, and, in celebration of our majesty's hatching day, multiple fights have been scheduled for your entertainment." He paused, letting the audience register the information, Krasn managed to catch a few excited looks around him.
"The first fight for today, as you should have noticed, is quite an unusual one, as we have put in the arena two very different opponents." Krasn looked over in the arena, the scavenger was continuously balancing itself from one leg to another, and the Sandwing was growing more and more impatient.
"On one side, we have this, erm, peculiar, scavenger, which shows unexpected capabilities. From what I've been told, it is said that it has the ability to talk ! Could you imagine that ?" Multiple incredulous voices rose in the stands. "You can guess how interesting that sounded until it started using its ability to cause disturbance inside our serene palace." A wave of booing came from the audience.
Krasn raised an eyebrow at this and noticed Burn rolling her eyes. His eyes stopped over the Rainwing next to his queen, contemplating her colours. For a moment he thought her eyes moved, strafing in his general direction.
Vermillion leaned slightly forward, turning his head to the Scavenger. "So, scavenger, since you can understand us, would you happen to have any sort of name, or shall we pick one for you ?" He asked in a passive-aggressive tone.
The scavenger looked at him, and for a moment, both stared at each other in an awkward moment of silence, Krasn heard whispers in the audience, and most seemed disappointed, seeing that the small creature did not react as expected.
"Ashley. You can call me Ashley." he faintly heard from the size of the arena where was standing the scavengers.
For a moment, no one said anything, he even heard the flaps of a bird's wing echoing through the stadium. Then the audience exploded.
He looked at Victoria, her eyes had grown completely wide, dumbfounded by what just occurred, and all around him, dragons were excitedly raising questions. Vermilion and 'Ashley' continued to look at each other, until Scarlet prompted her brother to continue on.
"ALRIGHT." He said strong enough for the whole audience to shush in just a few seconds, now, everyone seemed deeply interested in what was going to happen, but Krasn wasn't so hopeful.
"On the other side, we present to the ones that do not already know him : Coyote !" This time, the whole audience went on to loudly cheer for the older-looking dragon.
"For your information, Coyote is our prisoner with the highest amount of wins in the arena, and also the oldest fighter we have in our list, for the ones that are alive at least. This juggernaut of a dragon is known to have been part of Oasis' own close guard, and to inflict draining wounds on his opponents, leaving them no chance in a slow and deteriorating state. There are no doubts his hatred for scavengers is unmatched, and that an interesting fight, even though looking slightly unfair, is going to unfold in front of our very eyes."
The audience laughed, Coyote had shown extreme talent in the art of fight, and it was a miracle Scarlet managed to catch him, even though Krasn would swear on his life it had to come at a cost. The Sandwing had many scars, from small scratches to wide wounds along his back, the membrane of his wings was ripped off in many places, and his battered face lacked a few teeth. And yet, he looked fierce as he always was, ready to be more aggressive than you could ever see. But what was really astonishing about him was that Scarlet never killed him, in the way that after all those victories, he still hadn't faced her champion, even though it was now years since he had been captured.
He wouldn't fight very often, but over time, it ended up being a lot. He was kept in a separate place from the other prisoners, it was believed he had a sort of special treatment, and that he came to a deal with Scarlet for his survival. Because, added that he was a great fighter, he knew how to please her, always matching the 'entertainment' she hoped to have in the arena, meaning he was also a survivor, a skill that he probably learned while serving the old Sandwing queen.
Speaking of her, he saw Burn snort with despisement when her name got mentioned.
Vermilion finally finished his speech, this guy really needed to shorten his introductions. "For this fight : we present to you : Ashley, from the scavengers !" The crowd booed once more. "And Coyote, from the Sandwings !" The crowd cheered again. "Shall fate decide for the winner, let the fight begin !" Vermilion backed away as the crowd cheered with even more excitement, leaving the arena empty, except for the two opponents.
The fight had officially started, this scavenger was busted.
At least that was what he thought, he looked at his friend, Victoria was now watching with deep interest, especially for the scavenger, like a surprisingly high amount of other dragons.
The scavenger drew the weapon he had shown Krasn earlier, the blade reflecting the sun on the sand. It bent its knees and took a defensive position.
Coyote couldn't wait any longer, and as his whole body tensed through the speech, he let go of his visible muscles and rushed for the scavenger at high speed.
In a matter of seconds, the dragon was already on its prey, which barely had time to react. He slashed a first time, but it dashed backwards and dodged the attack. Coyote continued forward and recklessly slashed more and more, but the scavenger kept dodging.
There was no doubt the Sandwing was not giving his best at the moment, he couldn't risk killing it too soon anyway. Then, he struck 'Ashley' with his whole talon, which launched him rolling towards the middle of the arena. Drips of red splattered the ground when he stood back up in a staggering manner.
Surprisingly, the scavenger managed to keep the weapon in its hands, and it charged towards Coyote who was slowly facing him.
The scavenger screamed as he ran towards the beast, swiftly, Coyote threw a hand forward to pierce the scavenger, but this time, this one ducked under it in a roll, got back on its feet, and struck the dragon with its claw. The audience let out a surprised gasp.
The scavenger quickly stepped away as the dragon swung his tail at him, when he faced him, he had already taken a distance far enough of his reach. The position of Coyote allowed Krasn to look at the wound from afar, it was a clean cut, and deep enough to let a good amount of bleeding sip through, but not enough to stop a dragon.
Coyote growled at the scavenger and lunged forward, throwing his talons at him, in response, Ashley swung his blade, aiming for the arms. The scavenger's weightless weapon allowed him for quick movement, which prompted Coyote to be more cautious with his attacks.
Both kept themselves somewhat at a distance by swinging, nearly avoiding hits.
The scavenger managed to hit one of Coyote's talons but also got struck in the forearm by his opponent. He lost his balance and nearly fell, while one metal scrap flew over in the arena, he grunted in pain.
The crowd of an audience cried with excitement, and Krasn noticed Scarlet's eyes glowing in a way that rarely happened during the fights. No doubt she found this performance thrilling.
Coyote struck the scavenger with the side of his tail and launched him towards one of the walls of the arena, it slid heavily on the ground and rolled over itself, losing its weapon. Krasn noticed it still had its bag, but it seemed much emptier.
Coyote rushed to Ashley and tried to crush him, but his talon only met the ground, letting out a loud stump.
The scavenger had rolled on its side, barely avoiding the blow, and got pushed again by Coyote's tail, losing his balance again, but managing to keep itself on its two awkward legs this time.
Ashley ran for his weapon, and literally jumped over an attempt at cutting his legs, the audience gasped once again. Krasn realized that he had gotten himself a lot more interested in the fight, much like everyone around him, the atmosphere, even within the stands, had tensed more than what you could have imagined from such an 'uneven' fight. He saw dragons starting to bet on how the fight would come to an end.
The scavenger was panting, looking wet from where he stood up, and Coyote was breathing slightly more heavily than before, both were staring at each other.
Profiting from the distance, Coyote straightened himself, and his tail started shaking like the one of a snake, he inhaled deeply. The scavenger realized at the same time as Krasn what was happening, as it widened its eyes and threw itself on the side at the moment the Sandwing let out fire escape from his mouth.
The scavenger didn't wait and kept running around Coyote who was following him with his fire, leaving a path of melted sand on the ground.
Ashley closed the distance between him and the dragon, but instead of attacking as soon as he got in reach, sent sand inside of the Sandwing's eyes. This one, blinded, stopped releasing his fire, and pushed with his back legs upward, giving him much more size, and looking awfully big, probably matching Burn, if he didn't already do.
It proved to be a mistake.
Ashley exploited the opening, and despite the talons of his opponent recklessly grabbing the air in search of him, managed to get a straight blow into Coyote's side with his metal claw. A hit deep enough that he had to force his way out of it by pulling the blade out, which splattered blood all around.
This time, Coyote roared in pain, and as soon as he got back onto his feet, struck high-velocity blows at Ashley with his tail, getting more and more aggressive with each swing, forcing the scavenger to back away.
He got closer and closer, and his tail finally struck the scavenger, the barb directly on his torso, a loud "CLANG" made itself heard all over the arena, echoing into Krasn's ears. Coyote reached his tail back, the end of it stuck inside of an iron plate.
With a smooth movement, he threw the plate towards Ashley, this one raised his arm in front of his head to protect it, and the plate struck both his forearms. A crack could be heard, and it was his turn to scream with pain, as he agitated his left arm. Coyote tried to reach for Ashley but got forced back when this one swung his knife in front of his snout.
Both fighters took some distance, The Sandwing tried breathing fire again, but couldn't reach the scavenger, too far away.
Krasn managed to get a look at the scavenger from closer as he was nearly under his platform. It was panting and loudly breathing, its skin had turned red, and it was... dripping water ? What ?
Ashley's suit had been severely damaged, half of his armour had been stripped by the blows, and his silky clothing was showing signs of burnt. You could already see bruises all over him, and a few bleeding cuts, but most importantly, his left arm didn't seem right, as it looked like it had been bent the wrong way. Most other dragons around him were peaking to try and get a closer look.
"Whatever you might say, you wouldn't wish to be in such a precarious situation." Victoria mumbled. Krasn looked at her, seeing sad eyes.
"hmpf, he's holding his ground well though." He grumbled in response.
He didn't wait for an answer, the fight was speeding up again, and both gladiators were charging at each other. When they reached, both swung at each other, Ashley raised his only available arm, and Coyote threw his tail at him once more, having seemingly decided that this was the best strategy.
Ashley had anticipated it, and in a tall arc movement, his blade came in contact with the fast-moving Sandwing tail.
And it sliced right through it.
With an unfathomable amount of chance, the knife managed to find itself between two bones of the tail, as its momentum showed to be enough for the weapon to cut on its entire width. The now detached part of the tail went flying straight into the audience, the barb nearly striking a dragon. Incredulous shouts made themselves hear echoing throughout the whole stadium, even some movement could be seen towards the royal balcony.
But as one lost his tail, the other lost his knife, which went flying in the same direction and fell meters away in loud metallic sounds.
Coyote furiously roared, and the whole arena trembled, he jumped onto Ashley and didn't miss this time. He punched right at the scavenger's face with closed talons and followed by sending him onto the ground multiple times.
Ashley's bag fell from his back and dropped on the side, and he was pinned to the ground, trapped under heavy talons. He started panicking, and his breath became more erratic.
The dragon was towering above him, digging his glance into the scavenger's eyes.
In the light, Coyote's glance looked pitch black like an endless void, devoided of any emotion, except hate. In the stadium, everyone had stopped talking, there wasn't even a single noise, as if time itself had stopped.
"You don't know for how long I've been hoping to find one of you that seemed strong enough to be a queenslayer." Coyote's sharp voice echoed. "This is the moment where you pay for your actions and the ones of your species you filthy vermin."
He raised his talon, ready to hit the scavenger with a finishing blow. And at the moment he was ready to strike, a singular high-pitched clap of thunder made itself hear.
The noise took the whole audience by surprise, and many dragons jumped, Krasn included. The thunder echoed through the whole mountains, but its origin seemed to come from just a few dragons away.
He tried searching the sky, but it was bluer than it ever could be, not even one cloud in sight.
Confused, he looked back at the arena, to just find a scene even more confusing : Coyote was holding his neck and moving in all directions, he tried talking, but only blood came from his mouth. It also started to drip through his talon holding his neck, and slowly, a whole pool of red viscous liquid formed under him, as he slowly lost his balance, and fell into panic, eyes going in all directions.
Eventually, Coyote couldn't hold it anymore, and he fell down, exposing his wound, a nasty-looking hole of shattered flesh, where you could see the inside of the dragon's throat.
Coyote's body was shaken violently by spasms as his limbs tensed for a second, and finally, his head dropped in the puddle of redness that had grown at his loss. The Sandwing had become completely motionless, and his eyes were staring into nothingness.
Coyote had died.
And Krasn had no idea of how that happened.