"I am not your guest, dog," Huntsman said, looking down on Hecktricktsen, "I am your master."

"Want to have a fight about it," Hecktricktsen looked at the giant. Huntsman kept his silence, extending his arm instead. Hecktricktsen twitched his face in anger, throwing up the massive head to this man. Huntsman caught the head of the beast and bit it, ignoring the blood that was falling on his clothes, "Well…" The dog-faced man breathed to calm himself, looking at the wolfkins, "You ruined my serenity. Because of your intervention, a web of screams was halted. Time to enact recompence." He produced a sawblade from the inside of his apron.

"Hopefully you have insurance, because they don’t belong to you," A new voice said, and from the corridor to the left of Huntsman, approached the group of people. Five guards in pristine blue power armor of a private security agency from the Pearl City surrounded two stunningly beautiful women, one with long brown hair dressed in expensive furs and another in leather skin with short chestnut hair. Between the women walked a ghost of a person, a figure made of pure darkness. The arms of the figure rested on women’s shoulders, his smile showed white light inside his mouth, his hair and brows were made out of strands of light and his voice was that of a static noise. Optic camouflage. Annie heard that such things were used by some rich people who wanted to conceal their identity, "Greetings, Hecktricktsen. I would call you a mister or a good fellow, but alas, you are neither one nor the other. Just a sadist, thriving in the dark like a mushroom," The black shape looked at Huntsman, "Even feed on shit, I see. Hello, Huntsman. What is the rabble from the Resistance doing in these lands?"

"He was invited here by the cartel. Lady Blaguna is an honorable guest of these halls," Galfo said, coming from the opposite corridor. Yabor was trailing behind him with three young females, "I am more curious about what Respectable People are doing in our lands?"

"Yours? I don’t remember giving this turf to anyon…" The black shape raised a white brow.

"What does this mean?!" Hecktricktsen screamed, pointing at the women with his saw, "They are meant to scream and die!"

"Oh, they will scream and hear the screams," Yabor smiled proudly, "But with and because of passion and love and not of death and pain! Ah, thank fate for leading me to such cuties!" He pressed two hands together, looking with adoration at the women next to him.

"Slaves in my home are not for sale," Hecktricktsen hissed, stepping away from the wolfkins, allowing Annie to breathe a little, "You dare to steal from me!!!?"

"Scary!" Yabor and trembling women hid behind the back of Galfo, "No one can threaten my hotties! No one! Shoo him away, Galfo, shoo him away!"

Hecktricktsen growled, while the black shape and the women around him laughed. The dog-faced man started to walk toward the covering Yabor. Galfo rolled his eyes, raising his white arm above himself. He slammed the right hand on the floor, causing ice to spread toward the sadist. The guards jumped in front of the black shape, pushing him and his females back. Thick ice ran across Hecktricktsen’s body, covering him to the waist, freezing his arms in place.

"Now, now, settle down, Hecktricktsen. I haven’t finished sassing the…" Galfo’s face became tense when the dog-faced man crashed the ice around himself with ease, shaking it down.

"You want to die? You think your precious cartel is something to be afraid of?" Hecktricktsen asked, and Galfo stepped back, along with the women. It took Yabor a second to understand that he was alone in front of the rising hand of the sadist, and with a squeak, the brothel owner fell on his knees.

"Enough!" Hilda’s voice stopped the ensuring chaos. She came from the same corridor as Hecktricktsen previously did, her steel form covered with the remains of flesh. It seems that she literally tore her way through the dead body of the beast behind, "Hecktricktsen, stand down. I will give you three… No, nine slaves in exchange for these three." She added quickly, seeing how the dog-faced man frowned. The arena owner bowed to the dispassionate Huntsman, before addressing the black shape, "You were told to wait for me in the guest quarters. Who invited you here, Tolsten?"

"Why, we invited ourselves, of course." The black shape spread his arms, "You build an establishment on our lands, without showing us proper respect or even asking for our permission. Your hounds approached the farmlands of the south, where people pay us to protect them. We dealt with this problem…"

"What have you done with our people?" Galfo demanded, creating an ice shard between his fingers.

"Yours? They are ours now," The shade replied, smiling in the face of the ice man, "A peasant like you probably won’t understand, but everyone has their uses, if they behave. Your boys and girls made a wise choice and are now up to a better start. Where was I? Ah, yes," Tolsten turned back to face Hilda, continuing his speech, "…but decided to give you another chance, for when business is in the air, feelings are put aside. If a mountain comes not to a person, then a person comes to a mountain. Yet, upon arriving here, what do I see? Decadency, drugs, and beyond-the-morbid stuff. It's revolting. I thought to come and offer you a hand of friendship and some advice since you clearly are so shy to come to me personally. Alas, upon seeing what you have wrought, Respectable People care not for your future anymore. Trash like you is beneath us. You will stop selling weapons to the Resistance. If they want to buy something, they can do so directly from us." He glanced at Huntsman, but the cannibal was busy eating, "You will keep your hounds away from our territory. Do this and you may live as you see fit. Disobey and be removed like trash. "

"You come to my lands. Is it wise to threaten me?" Hilda asked in a calm voice.

"Pavel? Can you take them?" The black shape asked one of his guardians.

"Galfo? Easy enough, sir," One of the guards responded, the only one armed with only a pistol. Galfo ignored him, turning around and dragging Yabor after himself, "Hecktricktsen and Huntsman however are out of my league. They are within the one percent."

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"I am literally just here to chill and remind Hilda about her place. Leave me out of you squabble," Huntsman looked down at the blue-clad guards.

"Girls?" Tolsten asked again, addressing the women with him and resting his arms on their shoulders.

"Sorry, honey, way above our league." The woman in leather replied.

"You seem at a loss, Tolsten." Hilda said, and Hecktricktsen moved forward, causing guards to close ranks around their master.

"Rather we are at an impasse," The black shape replied, pointing up, "As we speak, the S-Missile is directed at this shit of a place. If something happens to me…" He smiled.

Annie felt her blood freeze. Pearl was not a part of the Universal Treaty, the treaty between three major powers that blocks the use of weapons of mass destruction. S-Missiles, also known as spatial missiles, were weapons of the old world, upon hitting the target, they created a bubble thirty kilometers wide and big, sucking everything within into a localized wormhole. The other end of this wormhole lay directly in the outer layer of the Sun. Such weapons were banned even in the Old World, yet Pearl possessed one such missile and refused to give it up. Due to the fact that control over teleportation technology was lost along with the Old World, S-Missiles could no longer be made.

"You are bluffing. The consequences of such action…" Hilda took a step back.

"There are ways to keep you alive and suffer for near eternity," Hecktricktsen calmly added, "Would you like me to take out your every organ and hang it in front of your head for you to see? As long as blood moves on and as long as blood vessels are maintained, a person can live even in such a state. Do you know what person feels during this?"

"Something morbid, undoubtedly, I am sure. Feel free to demonstrate the process on yourself," Tolsten looked at the dog faced man as if he was some curiosity, before turning to Hilda, "I consider myself an old and frail person. As such, I care little about things that will happen when I am no longer around. Try me and lose everything. Or give up your deal with Resistance to us."

"Let us speak then. Remove this trash…" Hilda pointed at the wolfkins.

"You would be wise to reconsider," Tolsten stopped her, "I met Ultis, a handsome lass by the way, Slavery aside, a pocket mercenary group can come in handy. These two are her property, thus I would like to see them returned to my potential future employee."

"Fine," Hilda hissed angrily, "Bring in the slave collars!"

The last thing that Annie felt before losing her conscience was the heavy boot of Hilda slamming on her head.

****

When Annie opened her eyes, she saw a white ceiling. Light was hitting her in the eyes, the tight slave collar was across her neck. She was lying on a hospital bed. Lifting her head from the pillow, she heard moans and whines around her. This was her first time seeing the arena’s hospital. In this vast hall, she saw countless people, mostly fighters from the arena, though some patients were labeled as Halls of Pleasure employees. Slaves from the Halls of Pleasure lacked collars around their necks, but the majority of them, male and female, had empty eyes and trembled from drug overdoses. The medical personnel were busy bringing them back to some functionality and also removed scars from their bodies, ensuring that sex slaves looked perfect. The usual fighters fared even worse. Many of them had lost limbs. A few had their faces torn away. The most ruined fighters were marked for organ harvesting or to be given to Hecktricktsen, the crowd’s favorites had their lost limbs and organs replaced with crude cybernetics and were scheduled for the anger-inducing devices to be installed into the back of their heads. Only a few patients were meant for full recovery, mostly guards. This was not a place of healing. Merely another place to produce useless, maddening monsters and allow the crowd to enjoy themselves by seeing how these monsters will tear each other apart. Doctors here worked as butchers, uncaring enough to rarely use painkillers on the slaves. Judging by the enormous size of the place, there were almost a thousand slaves here. The sheer scope of the arena was mind-boggling. How could an independent nation like Pearl tolerate such vile thing on their lands? Annie wondered.

Annie felt the surge of electricity hit her the moment she tried to stop workers taking away a fresh party of "meat" for Hecktricktsen. She realized the futility of her efforts when she noticed the large form of Hilda gesturing at her to come close. Hilda was without her helmet, she looked dispassionately at the approaching wolfkin. She was towering over a hospital bed with a woman on it. A breathing tube was going into her mouth, wound on the belly was healing badly due to the lack of care from the doctors. The eyes of the woman widened in fear upon seeing Annie. The wolfkin recognized the patient, this was the fighter she spared during the battle against Hekanta.

"I do not appreciate your attempt to escape." Hilda stated unequivocally.

"That’s too bad. I thought you would like a little hunt." Annie smugly smiled in her face.

"Too tedious for my taste," The arena owner replied, inhaling air loudly, "Your desire to keep your paws clean had not gone unnoticed. But as my guards can testify, your killing talents are impressive."

"Charmed. Want to test them on yourself?" Annie beckoned her with a claw and felt a surge of electricity hit her once more.

"Hardly. I would rather offer you a chance."

"Chance?"

"Look around you," Hilda spread her arms, prompting Annie to look around at the sufferings, smell the rot, pus, and blood in the air, and hear the screams of mutilated people, "Do you see? Killing you will be a kindness."

"Pray, enlighten me as to why."

"If you stay as a slave, you will one day miss a hit that mutilate you. And your owner will then sell you. And you will end up as a toy for Hecktricktsen to make a movie from," Hilda raised a finger, "There is, however, a way out. Work for me," Hilda looked at the silent face of Annie, "Don’t be surprised. Hekanta once stood before me like you. I offered her a choice. Go against Palatine with her crew in the vain hope of gaining liberty or to work for me and live. She made the bad choice but survived and now knows her place. Learn from the mistakes of others. Join me and I may even give Ultis to you. Imagine being locked in a room with her for an hour. Think of all the things that you can do to her for her betrayal."

"And the catch is?" Annie asked, scratching her ear. A glint of annoyance flickered in Hilda’s eyes.

"A simple token of trust is needed. A life for a life." Hilda nodded at the woman on the bed.

Annie looked into the frightened eyes of the woman. She was strapped to a bed, unable to move. Annie reached with her fingers for the breathing tube, playing with it, while the woman desperately tried to utter something. It would be easy to just crumple this thing and let her suffocate. Surely, being close to Hilda will allow Annie to carry out her mission even better.

Am I really such a cheap monster?

She felt steel fingers on her shoulders and Hilda’s body behind her: "There is only one way out of the nightmare that you are in right now. Come, bind yourself with blo…" Annie hit back with her head, feeling Hilda’s nose with the back of her head. A surge came as punishment and the body of the wolfkin trembled.

"Get off from me. Your stench is annoying." Annie hissed through clenched teeth.

She expected a far stronger surge of electricity, but no additional punishment came. Turning around, Annie saw calm Hilda, small trickle of blood was coming from her left nostril. Several guards appeared behind the arena owner, and Hilda raised her hand, stopping them.

"You are as foolish as your friend. There is no point in wasting anger on a dead person. Get yourself ready, Palatine is waiting," Hilda looked down at the women on the bed, "Send her as a meat for a new film."