The massive steel gates slid into the sides, allowing the wolfkins to step into the lit arena. Their slave collars were taken away for a match, leaving them able to go all out.
This place was built in the form of a dome, a steel cage surrounding the arena rose tall to the sturdy looking ceiling. Armed guards were posted right behind the steel bars, which ensured that no fighter would be able to escape from this place. The ceiling was seemingly made of a single piece of stone and was littered with countless lights, keeping the floor of the arena in a bright circle of light. Shadows covered the space behind the metal bars, yet the eyes of Annie could make out the countless balconies with people on them. Most of them looked bored, sipping wine that was brought to them by the half-naked servants or talking with each other. On the north of the arena was a massive silver balcony, protected by the energy shield. The edge of the balcony was coming through the gap in the iron bars, allowing the massive figure of Hilda to look down.
"Dear guests!" Hilda shouted, burrowing Annie and Virginia with her eyes. The figure clad in power armor lifted her giant arms, sending bright lightning between her palms. The wolf hags stepped onto the main arena, and all light was gone, except for two bright cones of light that were focused on the figures of each wolf hag. Through the darkness, Annie saw the round holes in the floor of the arena, her nose caught the smell of piss and dried up blood, "This appetizer might look a bit meek to you, yet I ask thee not to avert thy eyes, my dear friends. From the Ravaged Lands we have Annie, hero of the Iterna," Annie felt anger at these words and clenched her fists, "And Virginia, the mad beast of the lands!" Virginia loudly laughed at these words, spreading her arms wide for nonexistent applause from the audience. People looked at them with bored eyes, and Annie knew what they were waiting for. They have come here to see people dying. And they could care less who was going to die.
Annie saw Ultis in one of the balconies, the mercenary leader was the only one who paid half attention to the events in the arena. Roll was standing near her, looking at a wolfkin sitting on her knees before the massive seat. This wolfkin lacked any fur on her body, she looked down while trembling in shame. A simple loincloth served her as clothes. Ultis dropped off her cloak into the paws of the wolfkin and jumped onto the seat, chatting with someone over the terminal, while the furless wolfkin hurried to put the cloak away and prepare drinks for Ultis. Upon noticing the look of Annie, the mercenary leader smirked and the wolf hag showed her middle finger.
"Let the blood flow." Hilda said, and the lights above her balcony went dark, shrouding the arena master from the view of the guests. The woman turned around, leaving a massive throne made of bone and steel from which she was looking down on the arena.
Red lights flashed across the walls of the arena, lifting the floor with a dim light. Virginia put one ear to the floor, listening to something below the arena. Annie herself heard the sounds of someone running, the sounds resembled the steps of the oversized rodents. The wolf hag spread her shoulders, looking for any sort of weapons in the arena. She found none, not her shardgun, not even her knives, not even a simple pipe. Upon finding no weapon, she started clenching and unclenching her paws finger by finger, ensuring that ambush, beatings, and time in the holding cell did not dull her reflexes. Her claws slid from her fingers and Annie felt herself content, looking down as Virginia touched her leg and tapped several times in a rhythm:
They are circling around the arena’s floor, closing up to the surface with each minute.
Annie jerked her leg away from Virginia’s grasp, coming further into the arena, feeling the stone ground beneath her. Closing her eyes, she allowed her hearing to take over. Round and round, someone is running below the ground, like a pack of predators, waiting for a blind spot to jump in and take a bite, leaving the victim bleeding. Cuts on Annie’s body have already closed, leaving behind dried up skin. Her body could feel the cold air of the arena. And her ears caught the sound of several metal hatches opening in unison.
A smile appeared on her face as the wolf hag heard the tapping sounds behind her. When they came to a halt, she ducked low, hitting with her leg behind herself, her eyes still closed. The wolf hag felt how the claws of her leg pierced the flesh and muscle, spearing some creature behind her. She crashed her leg down, slamming the body of her attacker into the ground and felt her claws pierce the bones of the foe. Opening her eyes, Annie saw the dog-like form lying beneath her leg, her claws pierced the chest area of the creature and reached all the way to the spine. The being had a small head and elongated long jaws that bit the surface of the arena and crushed the stone in the death throes. The milky white eye with a green dot inside it looked at Annie in pain, and the wolf hag mercifully put the creature out of its misery with a single strike of a claw to its temple. Each leg of the creature ended with a bone-like hoof, a sharp tail with a stinger was coming from the back of the creature.
Weak shouts accompanied the kill, and Annie smiled. Her smile changed to a leer upon understanding that cheers were meant for Virginia, who held two creatures on her paws, lifting them up in the air. The wolf hag reached for the hearts of the creatures, smashing them up inside the ribcage and dropping dead bodies to her feet. Her arms were soaked with blood all the way to her elbows.
Annie turned to the left, seeing two more creatures climbing out of the hatch in the ground. She allowed her body to become loose, feeling how her own body was slumping under the weight of her own muscles. The flow of time slowed before her eyes, allowing her to track the movements of the foes. And then she leaped forward, using all the muscles in her legs to propel herself forward faster than a bullet. The flash step, a technique that the teacher tried to teach her. This was the first time that Annie tried to use it in combat. She moved at a speed that was too fast even for her eyes. Her claws struck, aiming for the necks of her foes. Her bulk struck them aside and she felt the touch of… something on her claws. Upon stopping and turning back, Annie cursed ever so slightly. Her claws bisected the chests of the creatures, leaving their insides behind their small bodies on the stone floor. She missed her intended targets by a wide margin. The creatures gasped for air, trying to breathe in with ruined lungs. The crowd applauded this spectacle, shooting approvingly at Annie.
Now you are cheering me on. Annie thought smugly. Her smugness left her body upon seeing how one of the creatures spit out blood, giving out faint whining sounds as it suffocated. The monster that I will become… Is not this cheap. The wolf hag decided, ending the sufferings of the creatures beneath her feet, feeling the remains of their tiny brains beneath her fingers. The cheers changed into angry shouts, the people were annoyed that Annie stopped the sufferings of her foes. She ignored them, turning to face another batch of creatures coming from the underground, advancing on the wolf hags like a living river made of countless bodies.
Annie stopped trying to be flashy and instead focused on butchering. Her claws pierced skulls, while her legs carried her just out of reach of the creature’s jaws. The blood of the creatures splashed at her, soaking her fur with water as more and more beasts tried to bite her, only to find themselves dead at the end of her claws. Annie felt how her back connected to the back of Virginia and saw several torn apart cadavers left in front of her rival. Virginia worked just as well with her claws as she did with her fangs, where Annie used her kicks to keep the creatures at bay, Virginia was catching the foes' limbs with her jaws, biting away whole chunks and leaving ruined bodies. Where Annie weaved a net of carefully planned strikes and slashes in front of her, Virginia was a force of nature, wiping out everything before her. In the end, both methods brought fruit.
A lonely creature jumped away from the pair in fear after seeing countless dead bodies of its kin. The creature had a small mane made of pale fur, and now the creature desperately tried to puff itself up, to look threatening, while whining in fear. Virginia lowered herself on all fours and let out a loud roar, causing the being to drop on its belly and pretend to be dead. The crowd cheered on Virginia to end the creature. Annie took a moment to look at the people on the balconies, while Virginia was heading to the beast, cracking the ribs of the deceased beings with each move. The floor in the center of the arena was littered with hundreds of dead hounds.
Ultis was smiling broadly, sipping from a glass and throwing glances at the terminal in her paw. She pressed something, and Roll raised a brow, hearing a noise on his terminal. He looked at something and smiled as well, nodding in thanks to Ultis, while the furless wolfkin was busy filling up the glass of Ultis. Hilda put her head on her fist covered by the steel, looking at the scene of carnage with a bored expression on her face. Annie saw a blonde woman in a white lab coat on one of the balconies. She was flanked by two hulking brutes, bones were coming out of their flesh and served as armor for the creatures. Their eyes were tiny, these brutes looked down as mindless as if they were robots. Near the woman stood an androgynous figure, looking like a piece of art coming from a painting. Both male and female features were on the gorgeous face of the figure, and a halo of white hair fell from its shoulders. It was dressed in a tight tracksuit of black and white, the three-fingered arms of the creature ended up with thin claws. This creature had three arms, two arms were on the right side of the lithe body and one on the left. In the claws, the creature held a pen and a copybook. The blonde woman fixed the glasses on her nose with her fingers and said something, looking at the dead hounds. The being nodded and wrote something in the copybook.
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Virginia stopped walking on all fours, raising her head over the covering hound. Virginia's snout closed on the creature’s neck, biting slightly, and the hound whined in fear, still looking at the towering wolfkin, while the crowd cheered for Virginia to go for the kill. The wolf hag let go of the neck and picked up the creature beneath her arm, smiling at the crowd and showing them the middle finger of the free paw. This riled up even a few calm faces, the people screamed and shouted the words "weakling" and "coward" at the wolf hag. The woman in glasses lifted a silver terminal, looking down at the creature in Virginia’s arm. Before her sleek finger could press the button, she received a call. The blonde answered the call, looking briefly at Ultis and finally nodding, putting away her terminal.
"You think of humiliating us?" Annie spread her arms wide, addressing the crowd, "You bore us instead! You put us against the dregs! Where is the fun in that?! Is this the extent of your imagination?" The screams of the crowd were slowly turning into the storm of hate.
"Your bitterness is sweet to us," Virginia smirked, rubbing her head against the scaled skin of the hound, "And your pet is now my pet."
"The only ones who are being humiliated here are you lot! You are the ones who are wasting our talents and…"
Annie saw how the guards started taking aim at them and stopped talking, mockingly sending a kiss to the cold-eyed Hilda. Turning away, the wolf hags left for the doors that were leading away from the arena, Virginia still carried the scared hound underneath her arm. Meanwhile, some people in the crowd called for their blood. Annie reveled in their hate, extending her paw for a cordial fist bump with Virginia.
"You were great, Virginia." Annie said.
"Right back at you, Annie." Virginia smiled, gently touching Annie's fist with her own.
Personal problems are put aside during the mission after all.
"Amusing." Annie and Virginia turned around, hearing the voice of the three-armed creature. Somehow, its melodic and honeyed voice sliced through the screams, reaching all the way to the ears of the wolf hags. It was looking at them, smiling with the perfect row of teeth.
****
"Not that wasn’t half bad," Ultis said, sitting on the chair in the holding cell. With one paw, she petted the hound that Virginia took, while another of her paws lay on the terminal, ready to send a shockwave through the collars, "No, no, do stay over there," The mercenary leader frowned at a sign of movement from the wolf hags, "Your stench insults my nostrils as it is."
Virginia and Annie stood in the holding cell that was rented by Ultis for a temporary period. Ron was away "performing his duties", as Ultis explained. One of the mercenaries was using a water tube to send a stream of water into the wolf hags, washing away the blood of the hounds from them while Roll and the others aimed rifles at Annie and Virginia.
"What, no friendly hug, Ultis?" Annie asked mockingly, receiving a stream of water in her mouth as a reward.
"No, I don’t think I want it. I am a bit annoyed about having to spend credits on a pet," She looked down at the hound. The beast tried its best to look like a statue, "But considering that you lot have won the cost of this place," Ultis moved her arm away from the hound, showing them around the holding cell. Some lifting weights and chains were dropped in the corner of the room. Three simple slabs were hanging from the walls, meant to be used as beds, "And then some pocket change on top of it for me, my mood is calm. Lady Ulrica do come in, please, let our friends see you." The mercenary leader snapped her fingers and the furless wolfkin stepped out of the shadows.
Annie finally remembered where she saw her. Even now, despite trembling from the cold and humiliation, there was a stubborn hint of dignity in these crimson eyes, she tried to keep her arms evenly at her sides in order not to show how much she was bothered by the fact that she was lacking her fur. Ulrica Voidrunner resembled a normie now more than ever, with her pink skin and a body that bore barely a scar on it. A slave collar was around her lean neck and a medical kit was in her left paw.
"Little lady Ulrica was sold to Hilda by some raiders because she didn't know how to fight and refused to please others, like dear Ron is doing right now," Ultis smirked, pointing to the wolfkin nearby, "A very bad thing happened to the last person who tried to forcibly mount her. You see, our cousin here has quite sharp fangs and claws. For her disobedience, Hilda was about to give her to mister Hecktricktsen, but the mere thought of owning an ice boy, or rather an ice girl in this case, was so funny and tempting to me that I bought her from Hilda. Say hello to our friends, please, lady." A trickle of blood appeared in the corner of Ultis’ mouth, and Ulrica hurried to wipe it out, before bowing to the wolf hags. Ultis’s body trembled and she looked worried for a brief second when the smaller wolfkin approached her, before a wide smug smile once more appeared on the snout of the mercenary leader.
"Greetings, everyone." Ulrika said in a calm voice, briefly throwing a look at Annie.
"Don’t worry, lady Ulrica," Annie smiled, trying to sound calm, "Remember what I told you the last time we met? This time I won’t even need to go this far. By the end of this, we will all be fine."
"I somehow doubt it, slave. I will be fine, sure. Can’t say the same about you, we do have a score to settle," Ultis smiled, pressing a button on the terminal and sending a light shock through the body of Annie. The mercenary leader widely smiled, seeing how Annie twitched, "Yeah, it feels good, isn’t it? You should be grateful for my mercy, my "owners" treated me way more harshly for five years. Maybe you too can tear it off and not die during the electric show that will be happening during the attempt? Although I doubt it, these models look far stronger than the one that I wore back in the days."
"How could you do this with your own people?" Ulrica asked, clenching her fists. Ultis threw a worrying look at her before waving her paw dismissively and smiling arrogantly.
"Cause I can, lady," Ultis stood up, commanding one of the mercenaries to lead the pet away, "Thanks for the new doggy, Virginia. As a token of thanks, Ulrica will leave a med kit for both of you. Treat yourself, your second fight comes soon. Feel free to use the training gear and don’t try to escape. I would cry if something happened to you. Lady Ulrica, follow after me please, I need to take a leak." Ultis threw one side of her cloak over her shoulder, storming out of the room, accompanied by her mercenaries.
Annie and Virginia were left alone in the holding cell. Part of the floor was still wet, yet the temperature was quite pleasurable. The first thing they tried was to pry the entrance door open. Yet the moment Annie laid a claw on the door, her collar sent a discharge of electricity alongside her body, strong enough that it caused her to fall to the ground. Virginia fell right after her, growling from anger. It took minutes for Annie to collect herself and stand up, frowning and ashamed of wetting herself. The wolf hags rummaged through the med kit next, helping each other to clean up the few still open cuts on their bodies and stitching the edges of the wounds together. Upon finishing, Annie moved to start a series of training movements, balancing on the toe of her left leg while performing a series of punches in the air before herself. Virginia, meanwhile, used a titanium chain to tie up several lifting weights. She slid one edge of the chain between her teeth, using the muscles of her lower jaw and neck to lift three hundred kilograms of the lifting weights in the air. Annie looked with worry at how muscles, looking like ropes made of steel, popped across Virginia’s neck.
"You will end up causing degradation of your bones, Virginia," Annie jumped in the air, landing on and holding her entire body on a little toe this time, "Seriously, keep doing that and first your muscles will be torn, then your bones will shift their position, and you will end up as a disgusting looking freak, if you survive at all."
Virginia ignored Annie’s warning, continuing to torture her upper neck and jaw with gruesome exercise. Her paws found other lifting weights, and the wolf hag began to juggle them. Annie looked at this with genuine worry, her teacher often stopped his students before they could hurt themselves. This right here looks like it will genuinely fuck up the body of Virginia. Annie wanted to win against Virginia, sure, but she didn’t want to kill Virginia or to maim her irrevocably. Mostly because the stupid idiot had to be alive to accept the superiority of Annie.
"Listen, I can show you how to train properly." Annie offered, and Virginia just rolled her eyes, continuing her routine. She jumped in the air once more, landing on a single pinky and practicing her kicks for a while. The worst of all for Annie was that she could not understand the reason behind this exercise. What exactly does her rival plan to improve with this insanity of a training routine? Lifting weights barely did anything for the wolfkins, teacher showed them that they had to train their stamina, sense of balance, and harden their skin. Annie herself saw the fruits of such training, she knew that it was a proper way.
Annie’s words fell on the deaf ear, and the wolf hag spent several hours performing the standard training routine, perfecting her kicks and punches against the imaginary opponent, while Virginia tortured herself with strange and unusual training.