I awoke once again within my cell. The smooth gray walls. The simple washbasin. The small toilet nestled in the corner. The bed of straw scratching against my back. MY cell. Small beams of sunlight shine into the cell. I stand and wash my face. The morning air spilling in from the outside world. I can hear the sound of voices as citizens walk past on the street above.

Sometimes I’m lucky and a kind soul decides to drop their leftovers into the cell from above. But most of the time, no such luxury presents itself. The beams of light from above shine on the mark to signal 0700 and suddenly I hear the sound of somebody opening the grate above. The jailor has arrived with my meal. A small loaf of bread the size of my fist is dropped onto the floor. I grab the morsel and nod my thanks. “Hey You”. I look up. “Message from the master”. I nod in response. “You have three fights today”. I nod once again. “That is all.” I nod a final time and the jailor closes the grate. I finish my meal and proceed to prepare myself for today’s rigours. I do some simple stretches, then I sit on my bed and wait for the beam of light to reach the 0800 mark on the floor.

The grate opens and a rope is lowered into the cell. I hoist myself up and I am then brought to another cell. This cell is different. The walls are stained a faint red. There is no washbasin, no toilet, and no bed. On the opposite wall is a door. On the floor is a fresh crimson pool of blood. The air in here reeks. The stench of waste and blood mix together.

I am thrown a blade. The blade is long and straight, a sharpened point and an edge on both sides. The handle of the blade is oddly long, with room enough to place three hands. I place it within my hands and swing it through the empty air. [Today’s blade is a good blade]. The blood in my veins starts to accelerate. The wind whispers past overhead. A dull roar can be heard from above. The sound of thousands of citizens waiting. The sound of bloodlust, as the masses await with bated breath, for the contest to begin. The door opens slowly. Rising into the air. Light floods the cell and I take a moment to allow my eyes to adjust. Dust rises into the air as the settled air seeps out of the cell. I go with the dust and step into the arena.

Immediately the crowd goes wild. The crazed screams of the masses echoing off the sides of the arena. My first ‘challenger’ today is an slave woman. The woman is armed with a blade and a shield. The blade is long and curved, pointed at the tip and edged on the outer side of the curve. The shield is circular and covers up most of the woman’s arm. The woman’s eyes seem to harden as she takes up a stance. “Don’t resent me” she says “I have a goal to reach”. I nod my head as acknowledgement and take up my own stance. The roar of the crowd subsides as the citizens proceed to take bets on the winner of the match. The shield will be tricky to deal with and she seems to know how to handle a blade. The crowd becomes silent and I wait for the starting horn.

The horn blasts a deep long note and the fight begins. The woman and I begin to circle each other slowly. I keep myself from attacking as I have no clues as to how skilled this woman may be. She then suddenly faces me and charges, shield first. I start with a low sweeping blow on her shieldless side. She stops, and turns to face the blow absorbing the force of the blow on her shield causing her to stumble a bit. I follow up with a kick on her torso which she receives the full brunt of causing her to fall backward and slide away from my reach. [Too hard huh?] I think to myself as she hastily backs away from engagement range. She charges once again and I retaliate with the same combination of movements. She once again backs away. Now she comes slowly, placing the shield between herself and me. This time I decide to try a feint. I start to move my blade as if I was going to do another swipe from the side. Immediately she turns the shield to block my attack. I then quickly switch the direction of my blade and answer with an overhead cut. The shies away and swings her blade in an attempt to take my head off of my shoulders. I duck the blow and her blade tastes empty air. With her overly hasty attack she leaves her entire side open. I then thrust my blade aiming for the space between her ribs. With a crunch and a spurt of blood I realise that I have just crushed one of her ribs. [Shoot, missed] I think to myself as she reels away in pain. I follow up with another overheat cut and I know I have won when my blade cleaves into her skull. The life leaves her eyes and her body slides to the floor as blood flows steadily from what used to be the head of the woman. A wall of sound erupts from the gathered crowd in the arena.

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I place my blade on the dusty ground and walk out of the arena where I am escorted back to my cell. I climb down into the soothing cool of my cell and proceed to clean myself of the bits and pieces of the my enemy. Once I am finished I take a seat.

I step into the waiting area once again and this time I am handed a spear. The spear seems to be very low quality with a rough stone tip held onto a cheap shaft of wood that seems to invite the possibilities of splinters. I sigh as the gate rises and I step once more into the now blistering hot arena with more cheers resounding across the ring. My opponent this time seems to be a mercenary with a great deal of experience. He holds a large two handed axe in his hands. The blade glistens with a murderous glow and a few splotches of blood can be seen adorning the blade as he raises it above his head in anticipation.

The horn blows once more to signal the start of the fight. The man immediately charges forth, coming towards me with killing intent inscribed there with certainty. I know I can’t take the blow head on so I take advantage of my greater reach and probe his reactions with a simple thrust towards his center of gravity. To counter my blow, he shifts his weight slightly and easily deflects my strike to the side as he enters into the effective range for his axe to begin working. With a grunt he heaves a heavy sideways blow towards my neck. I take a step back and let the blow fly past my face at dangerous speeds. I then thrust my spear into his exposed back and instantly pierce his heart. At the same time my spear shatters from the force of the earlier block that he performed and the thrust that I just delivered.

[It seems that somebody wants me dead] I think to myself as I walk out of the arena that was stunned into silence by the quick finish of the fight. Luckily this time I did not get much gore onto myself as I sit once more in my cell and wait for the third and final fight for this day.

I once again arrive in the waiting cell and this time I am tossed down a pair of simple daggers. The blades are as long as my forearm and they seem to be slightly leaf shaped with the edges eventually tapering to an uncannily sharp tip. [A very nice weapon] I think to myself as the gate in front of me rises. This time seems a bit different as I step into the arena because all I hear is an eerie silence as the crowd looks upon me with pity in their eyes. I frown and notice that there is no challenger on the other side of the arena. Suddenly I can hear a low growl coming from in front of me and I focus my eyes and in the darkness beyond the opposite gate I see a pair of feral eyes focus on my body. A shiver runs down my spine as the yellow eyes with vertical slit pupils seem to peer into my very soul. With a drawn out creak the gate slowly rises and something steps out into the light to reveal a beast. The beast seems a little malnourished but that did not take away from the majesty of the beast. The feral eyes are placed on a head similar to a snakes but with an elongated snout. The head connects to a long serpentine body with four claw tipped limbs rippling with muscle, and most terrifyingly on it’s back grew a pair of folded leathery wings. In front of me, stepping into the arena, was a dragon.