“Ah. Look, it’s Baby Eater.”

“Oh, hey. You’re right. It’s Baby Eater.”

Two chatty slavers walk past my cage, stopping momentarily to throw a glance in my direction. Lunging at the bars, I jokingly gnash my teeth at them through the opening and they quickly scamper away.

After winning the first round of the tournament the other day, I was sent back into another cage where I had to spend the night. It’s a lot nicer and spacier than the one I was first put in when I arrived at the stadium.

Oh! There’s also a bunch of other slaves in here with me as well. None of them seem like the talkative type though. Whenever I shoot them a glance, they seem to shy away and hug the back wall on the other side of the cage for some reason.

Oh well.

“Guess I’ll go wander around.” Ripping the door off its hinges, I exit the cage and fit it back into place again behind me.

I’m supposed to have a match later today, but I’m bored of waiting so I’ll go and have a look around the stadium. From the sounds of it, there’s a match happening above us right now. Fwah! Maybe I can go watch it from the stands!

Skipping my way down the hallway and past all the other cages, I approach the two knights standing guard at the stairway, chatting away with one another.

“Hey, have you seen that massive woman in the cloak sneaking around lately? The one that Thea brought in?”

“Yeah, I saw her come up from the lower levels last night. Told me she was a ‘frail and sickly young child’ beneath her cloak, laughed at her own joke, and then went straight back down again. What the hell is up with—? Hm?”

They immediately stop their chattering when they see me approach.

“Wha—!? W-why is Baby Eater—?! Dammit, you hold her here, I’ll go get her trainer!”

“Screw that! I’m going with you! I don’t want to end up like Three-Tails!”

Running up the stairs ahead of me, they kindly let me through without any trouble.

The guards back in the Spire could’ve learnt a thing or two from these guys! If it had gone like this back then, I’m sure a lot less people would’ve died. Though, I’m sure it would’ve been a lot less fun too!

Making my way up the stairs unimpeded, I follow the sounds of cheering and excitement until...

“Fwah! The arena!”

Stepping out into the sunlight, I find myself gazing out across the entirety of the stadium and the thousands of people below. The swelling crowds packed across each level of the stadium are all focused on the arena at the very bottom, a violent and bloody spectacle taking place at its centre.

It seems this section I’m in isn’t open to the public for some reason. It’s pretty empty. Apart from myself, there’s nobody— Hm?

From the empty row of benches, I notice thin wisps of smoke occasionally trailing up from beneath one of the seats. There’s clearly somebody hiding down there.

Walking over to it, I poke my head beneath the bench and—

“Fwah!”

“Keh—?! Oh. It’s just some gorilla. Don’t scare me like that, idiot.”

From beneath the seat, the familiar pale face of a dead, pink-haired dwarf stares back at me, a cigarette hanging from between her lips.

“Mei-Mei! What’re you doing down there?” Ripping the bench from the floor, I push it to the side and help the tiny woman to her feet. “And I told you to stop with the gorilla stuff! Pick something cuter already, like a slow loris!”

“Well, I was trying to hide from the knights, but it seems they’ve left. I heard them shouting something about ‘finding Baby Eater’s trainer’ a little while ago, and then they all ran off somewhere.” Back on her feet, Mei-Mei dusts off her long white coat and straightens it back out again. “And what the hell is a slow loris anyway?! I refuse to believe such a ridiculous-sounding animal truly exists!”

The last time I saw Mei-Mei was back at Surstrom Lake when we all got washed away by the Spire collapsing into the water. For whatever reason, she’s here at the stadium now, hiding beneath benches. I figured she had ended up as a slave like me, but...

“Hm? Where’s your cute choker? Are you not a slave too?”

“Choker? Oh, you mean the collar. Yeah, I removed it. Or, more accurately, I removed myself from it. It was much easier to just take myself apart than the collar itself.”

“Fweh? You didn’t like being a slave?”

“No, I didn’t like being a slave! What kind of drooling moron would actually enjoy being a—! Keh. Right. Sometimes I forget who I’m talking to...”

I guess Mei-Mei wasn’t having as much as me after all...

“Hm? What’re you still doing here then? Where have you been this whole time? And...” I give the dwarf a little sniff. “Fweh! Why do you stink so much? You’re even worse than Mash!”

Mei-Mei might be dead, but she usually doesn’t smell quite so... dead. Maybe her body’s finally decided to start rotting away.

“Keh-heh-heh...” she cackles mischievously. “I’ve been working on something fun. I’ll show you when it’s finished.”

“Fwah! I can’t wait!”

That didn’t really answer any of my questions, but I like the sound of it. Fun things are fun, after all!

“Anyway,” Mei-Mei continues. “To cut a long story short, I’ve been hiding out here in the stadium. Right now, I’m gathering information on the fights to help you win the tournament. I was going to find you later on, but I guess you beat me to it.”

“Fwah~! You’re here because you want to cheer me on in the arena? That’s—!”

“No, idiot! I need you to win our freedom! We’re technically still convicts, right? We could escape from here, but we’d be at constant risk of being pursued by the law once they figure out we’re escapees from the Spire. I’m sure you wouldn’t mind constantly being on the run, but I don’t want to deal with that! Our best bet is to win the tournament and have the Queen pardon us herself. Once you make it to the finals, convince your greasy idiot of a trainer to take me in as well. That way, we can win this thing and finally be free. For good.”

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

Turning back to overlook the arena, she pauses for a moment and pulls a sour face, as if suddenly remembering something unpleasant. “Oh, and Bran too, I suppose,” she adds. “Or you can just leave him here. I don’t care either way. It’s up to you.”

Ah, so Mei-Mei doesn’t really care about the tournament itself, but the prize that was promised to the winner. The potential prize of being set free by Queen Kokoro herself. To each their own, I guess! I just want to fight!

“Down there. Look.” Flicking the butt of her smoke down into the crowds below, she gestures down into the arena. At the centre, two trainers are standing apart from one another, shouting commands at the two slaves locked in combat between them.

“Your next match will be a series of regular one-on-one fights,” she continues. “Each trainer has a team of three slaves and can only send out one at a time. The trainer whose slaves knock out all three of the opposing slaves is the winner.”

“Three one-on-one fights in a row? Easy!”

“Maybe...” she responds, a hint of uncertainty in her voice as she continues to watch the arena below. As she trails off, I follow her gaze into the arena and watch the fight too. I can immediately tell just how one-sided it is.

The slaves themselves look fairly equal in strength, but the difference in their technique is worlds apart. One slave in particular seems to be intercepting all of the opponent's moves, hitting them with a series of well-placed strikes and counters, before completely knocking them out. A new slave gets sent out by the opponent, but is quickly dispatched in the same fashion.

“Oh! He’s pretty good!” I comment, admiring the fighting prowess of the slave now mopping up his third and final opponent with ease.

“It’s not him,” Mei-Mei replies. “It’s his trainer.”

“His trainer...?”

Ah, I can see it now. All of the slave’s moves and counters are completely orchestrated by the trainer. The trainer shouts commands at him, and he simply follows along, nothing more than a puppet beneath his trainer’s masterful direction.

“The Elitest Four.”

“... Fweh? The what?”

“They’re the four strongest slave trainers out there,” Mei-Mei explains. “They’re pretty much the favourites to win this tournament. Unlike the rich folk who just buy strong slaves to use, the Elitist Four believe that real trainers are the ones who actually capture and train the slaves themselves. That’s one of them in the arena now. Cinn-Thea, the Champion of Sin.”

“Fweh? Cinn-Thea? Why does that sound...?”

“And just like that, Cinn-Thea takes the match!” The booming voice of the announcer calls out from the loudspeaker, echoing across the arena. “She made it look so easy too! It’s clear to see why she’s such a fan-favourite!”

The crowd cheers as the winning trainer stands alone in the centre of the arena, soaking in their victory. Dressed in tight black leather, her long blonde hair sways gently at her back as her sharp eyes scan the stands above.

Fwah! Wait, that’s—!

“Cinn-Thea! Or should we call you Mistress Cinnamon? How are you feeling about the tournament so far?”

It’s Cinnamon! I was wondering where she went after Queen Kokoro and her knights showed up at the camp, but I guess she just ended up here in the stadium all the same.

“The tournament?” Another voice comes over the loudspeaker, different to the announcer’s. It’s Cinnamon’s voice. Despite still standing on the field, her voice is being picked up and carried across the arena by the ingenuity of dwarven magic. “I couldn’t care less about the tournament.”

“O-oh? Is that so...?” the announcer’s voice calls back at her response. “What brings you to the Krumbledome then? Why compete in the first place?”

With a flick of her hair, Cinnamon turns her back on the battlefield. “There was a woman I cared about deeply, and in the end, she broke my heart...” As Cinnamon makes her way off the field and back through one of the exit tunnels at the edge of the arena, her voice echoes out one last time over the loudspeaker. “... Now I’m going to break her.”

Oh? So Cinnamon’s only here for some kind of revenge or something? I don’t know who she’s planning on ‘breaking’ in the arena, but I like Cinnamon, so I hope it all goes well for her and we can hang out and have fun together again after the tournament’s over!

“Aside from her...” Mei-Mei speaks up again from my side. “The other members of the Elitist Four you’ll have to watch out for are Glam the Style Master, and Keytone the Analyst. I know you think you can handle anything that gets thrown at you, but you shouldn’t underestimate the arena. There’s more ways to win a fight than with brute strength alone. I’m sure even a gorilla like you has her weaknesses...”

Hmm... I mean, I am pretty confident that I can beat up anybody and anything that gets set in front of me in the arena. But Mei-Mei’s smart, and I trust her insight. If she’s telling me to be careful, I should probably be careful. It’s true that I don’t know the arena like these other guys do. I just like punching things. And if I ever find myself in a position where I can’t punch things for some reason...

“Alright, I’ll keep that in mind! Thanks!” I give Mei-Mei a big thumbs up. “I’ll bring it up with Mash later and— Hm? Wait, there’s four of them, right? Who’s the last one?”

“Oh. You don’t need to worry about the fourth one. He’s no longer an issue.”

“Fweh? Why not? Who is he?”

“The fourth member of the Elitist Four is the Hero of the Stampede—Thradish Three-Tails.”

“... Oh.”

“Yeah...”

A sudden crashing noise from behind us cuts our awkward silence short. Arriving from the stairway, a short, plumpy man collapses across one of the empty benches, panting heavily as sweat cascades down his body.

“S-so many... stairs...”

“Fwah! Mash! What’re you doing up here?”

It’s Mash.

Taking a minute to catch his breath, Mash eventually stands up and waddles over to me with the familiar expression of somebody ready to complain about something for some reason.

“What are you doing up here?!” he complains. “We can’t be up here! This section is only for the Queen’s knights and... Huh? Where are all the knights anyway?”

“Looking for you, apparently,” Mei-Mei chimes in from beside me. “We’ve got a rabid baby eater on the loose, and they’ve gone to search for its owner.”

“Wha—? A-all of them? I’m going to be in so much trouble...” After mopping up the sweat cascading down his greasy face in anxiousness, Mash gives a quizzical nod to the dead dwarf by my side. “... Who’s this? Someone you know?”

“This is Mei-Mei,” I say. “My future wife.”

“Your—?! Ah, n-nice to meet you.” Mash gives her a low bow. “I-I’ll do my best to keep her out of harm’s way in the arena...”

“I’m not—! Ah, whatever. I don’t care.” Mei-Mei breathes a defeated sigh, before shooing us along with her hands. “You guys have a match coming up, right? You should probably get going now.”

“Ah! That’s right!” Mash exclaims, a little panicked. “We’re up soon! We need to go!” Grabbing me by the arm, Mash rushes the two of us back down the stairs, leaving Mei-Mei behind.

“Ah, I’ll come join you again after the fight," Mei-Mei calls back to me, lighting up another smoke before ducking beneath one of the benches again. "... There’s something I’m a little suspicious of first...”

“Mm! See you then!” Giving her a wave goodbye, I wriggle out of Mash’s greasy grip and charge down the stairs ahead of him, excited for my upcoming match. “So! Who’re we up against?”

“Another fan-favourite...” Mash pants, struggling to plod down the stairs behind me. “This fight might be difficult...”

“Fwah! Sounds fun! Who is it?”

“Glam Boystar,” he replies. “The Style Master.”