Hallek
Hallek paced nervously around the room, clenching and unclenching the grip of his sword. He didn't know what he'd be fighting, but they usually didn't tell him. And even when they did there was a little surprise waiting. Like an assassin with a poisoned blow dart, there'd been three of those. Or twice as many dinosaurs to fight as they'd told him. But this time he knew, no matter what else was going on, that Shylldra and Lekarik were supposed to be getting married today. Might already have been.
He wasn't sure what he'd do when he walked out there. Every instinct, human and dinosaur, wanted to tear Lekarik limb from limb. It was possible he'd try. Given that Lekarik was at least as powerful as he was and surrounded by guards, it was almost certain he would fail. It was not a pleasant prospect. Not to mention whatever he was in the arena with...
The door opened. Hallek steeled himself for...whatever. For the monster in the emperor's box, and whatever monster he was about to face in the arena.
“...the champion of Justice,” H'viss's voice boomed over the crowd, “Hallek!”
The crowd clapped and cheered as Hallek stepped out into the sunlight, coming face to face with a bunch of ragged men in ragged clothes. He'd seen people like them before. He'd been one of them. This was a spectacle.
Hallek was almost impressed. Everyone knew the people in the spectacles were, more and more lately, innocents who had irritated the emperor. Lekarik wasn't trying to kill him this time. He was trying to kill his reputation. To make hum just another arena killer.
Well too bad, Hallek wasn't going to play. He turned to the emperor's box. Lekarik and Shylldra were having some kind of argument, but they were too high up for him to hear. He could guess though. He felt movement behind him and turned to see one of the prisoners charging at him. His weapon was wood with an infused pommel, and the man ran like he hadn't eaten in days. Hallek sighed and roared at the prisoners. The one charging him bolted the opposite direction. The rest all scattered and ran.
Except one.
“Norak?” Hallek said incredulously, walking across the arena to meet him.
“Hallek!” The big barbarian laughed, clasping Hallek's arm. “What a way to meet again.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I was sent by the tribes to avoid a war. Your emperor took an instant dislike to me, and here we are.”
The crowd was getting restless now. They didn't like the spectacles as much anymore to begin with, and this one wasn't going as planned anywhere. There were disquieted murmurings.
“The warrior of justice is reminded,” H'viss called over the crowd, “that he is here to bring justice on behalf of the gods, and should raise his blade.”
“Here we are,” Hallek agreed, ignoring H'viss and the archers who were moving to place around the arena. “Come on, let's get you out of here. I know you want to get back to the tribes.”
“Is it that easy?” Norak asked, walking with Hallek.
“I mean you'll have to get out of the building by yourself,” Hallek said. “And I'd appreciate it if you'd help the other prisoners out too. But see these big doors? They're too strong for me to break down, they're designed to keep in big powerful dinosaurs. See that little door? It's designed to keep in big powerful humans.”
“Because those big powerful dinosaurs are, of course, too big to use it,” Norak grinned.
“Right. But I'm me.” Hallek punched the door in the arena wall to splinters. The archers fired. Hallek let out a barking shout and the infusions in the arrowheads panicked, sending the arrows careening around the arena.
The crowd cheered. This was a lot more like what they'd come to see.
Shylldra
She'd had an itch in her dagger all day. It was infused bone and not a weapon she was bonded too, but it pricked and tingled all the same as she waited for an opportunity. As she watched opportunities pass by. As she called herself a coward, and wondered why she couldn't do it. Why she couldn't stab Lekarik in the throat and be done with it.
And when Hallek stepped out, and she pictured him killing Lekarik, she felt like a coward again. Because it was one thing to claim pacifism, it was another to thing to do it and then have your friends do all the killing for you. And this spectacle was such a petty, awful thing. Just like when he killed her mother. She wondered if he'd known who Norak was. Probably not.
It didn't matter. Someone had to stop him. She reached into her dress for the dagger Dyryl had given her and gripped the handle.
She had to do it. She had to.
“That bastard!” Lekarik snarled. “That total bastard! He can't do that! I'll kill him!”
The neck or the kidneys. That's what Illeth had said were the best places to stab someone you had to kill quickly. With his body strengthened by whatever strange infusion had given him power over the ax those might be the only way to kill him. Shylldra pulled the dagger from her dress, gripped it tight, and lunged for Lekarik's back.
“That BASTARD!” Lekarik roared, green energy flaring around him. The dagger in Shylldra's hands slithered from her grip and slipped away, the blade slicing deep into her fingers. She couldn't hold back a scream as the sharp blade bit into her. Lekarik whirled, saw her bloody hand and the dagger, and laughed.
“And now you too?” Lekarik chuckled. “Oh that's adorable. Come over here.” He grabbed her wrist and dragged her to the balcony. Up close she could see all the dagger-teeth that filled his mouth. His breath smelled like honey and rotted meat. “Let's have a kiss for your boyfriend down there, huh? A reward for finding the guts to actually try and do something.”
She didn't know what she would have done. Beat her fists against his chest like a rape victim in a bad play? Knee him in the groin? She'd liked to think the second one. But before her brain could even process the moment it passed, thankfully without a mouthful of Lekarik. In fact it was broken by a shout from the arena below.
“COWARD!” Hallek shouted, pointing his sword up at the emperor's box. He put the power of the Fang in his voice so it would echo around the arena. Lekarik turned away from Shylldra to glare down from the balcony.
“What was that, criminal?” Lekarik sneered, filling his own voice with the power of a Fang.
“Sorry I'll try to make it clearer,” Hallek said. “I forgot who I was talking to. I declare you, The Emperor Lekarik nyth Gargarand iil Tyrannosaurus the 4th a sniveling gutless coward. Who was sent the past three weeks trying to kill me by forcing me to face an enemy I couldn't beat, and when that didn't work by using assassins, and now attempting to force me to kill a friend for his own amusement. All because you're too terrified of me to face me yourself, even holding Milkaamek's ax. Assuming that really is the ax, and not some cheap copy you got at a costume shop when the thought of carrying the real one around made you wet yourself.”
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“I have no fear of the ax!” Lekarik snarled.
“Oh I'm sorry,” Hallek bowed. “Then it must have been your first chance to actually touch a woman that made you so nervous this morning.”
Where did he learn to talk like that? Shylldra almost giggled. Because it was so silly. She got what he was doing. He was trying to get a shot at Lekarik. Making him angry wasn't even a bad way to do it. But that cheesy dialogue! She couldn't knock it too much though. It was working! The crowd was lapping it up! And Lekarik looked about ready to burst.
“Are you challenging me to a duel?” Lekarik
“I'm saying a coward wouldn't come down here and fight me himself.”
Lekarik looked back at Shylldra with a thoughtful look twisting his scaled brows.
“What do you think, my lovely bride?” he asked. “Should I go down there and teach this pathetic yapping rebel a lesson?”
“I think if you go down there you're going to die,” Shylldra snapped. And then she had to resist the urge to ruin the effect by slapping her hands over her mouth. She hadn't meant to say that! He had just used that irritating condescending voice and it had slipped out!
“Really?” Lekarik snarled. “Is that what you think? Well fine then! Watch me cut off your lover's head and place it on a pike over the palace walls!”
The crowd gasped. It was likely Lekarik hadn't meant to still be using the Fang voice when he shouted at her. The rumors that the new champion of the arena and the emperor's betrothed were lovers had swarmed the city like flies, though twice as welcome and ten times as pervasive. But the have the emperor confirm it in public, at the top of his lungs!
Lekarik threw off his wedding cloak so he wore only his pants, shoes, and jewelry. The emperor slung the ax over his shoulder and jumped down to the arena floor. As he fell Shylldra couldn't help but think that whatever else was going on, these were as promised the most exciting games in the arena in centuries.
Hallek
Sweet gods, where the hell did I get that dialogue?
Hallek only had a few moments to berate himself for his purple prose because Lekarik was coming. And Lekarik was fast.
The emperor hit the arena floor running. Hallek barely had time to bring his sword up to block. The weapons clashed together and energy sparked from the, green and orange, jittery lightning that leaped from their weapons to ground itself in the sand and stone. Thoughts of bad theater and shame were tossed aside to focus on the enemy in front of him. They would clash weapons, energy would spark, they would both leap back and prepare for the next clash.
Later, someone sat down to try and tried to work it out. He estimated the audience saw one move in ten. One moment the fighters would be clashing, blade to blade and sparkling light, a blur broken by intermittent flashes when attack and guard clashed and held. Then in a blink both men would be on opposite sides of the arena. Then a blur towards each other, and it all began again.
Hallek could see everything, but the fight felt just as fast. It was the first time he'd fought another Fang warrior. Intellectually he'd been prepared to finally battle someone just as fast and strong as he was. In the fight itself it felt like he was trying to stuff a hurricane in a box. Lekarik fought in a flury of one and two handed blows with the blade and handle of the ax. He had more options, he was more refined. He and Hallek had both gotten combat training since they were children, but Lekarik's had been with some of the greatest warriors in the world.
But Hallek had the talent. And even if it was mostly with weaker dinosaurs, he'd been in combat a lot more than Lekarik had. And besides all of that behind Hallek's eyes, against any obstacle he ran into, was a little boy curled around a precious scrap of food, defying the claws. Finally, finally, he landed a blow. A scratch across Lekarik's cheek. It wasn't much of a hit, but it made the emperor stumble. Hallek punched him in the gut and sent him flying into the opposite wall. Stone shattered, and the crowd went mad. Then Lekarik stumbled to his feet and the crowd started screaming.
The impact with the wall had split Lekarik's face open, an ugly gash that opened his forehead down his face and split his lips in half. Huge gashes had been cut across his chest, stomach, and shoulders to reveal bleeding, twitching muscle. But now that muscle crackled with green energy, and instead of twitching and pulsing like a normal gash it writhed like snakes. Lekarik turned as if he wasn't wounded, the gashes on his body sealing themselves shut with rows of green scales. His face was completely changed, noseless with a mouth now too wide to be human. His hair fell away, replaced by scales and then by a frill of red and white feathers that sprouted like weeds across his scalp. Lekarik's eyes glowed green, and the row of horn like scales across his brow grew into massive, jutting spikes.
“That hurt,” Lekarik snarled, stomping towards Hallek.
The ax, Hallek thought, astonished at how calm the voice in his head was. Whatever he did to get control of the ax has gone mad. Completely out of control. Did I trigger it? Did wounding him cause this? Or was this always going to happen?
Lekarik was still changing. The scales had stopped growing at his head and shoulders, and now his body began to knit itself together with rotten looking green flesh. His muscles slithered and grew until his skin looked too tight. His bones cracked as they grew faster and larger than he had ever meant to, and his new size and bulk cracked the golden bracelets off Lekarik's wrists and sent them tumbling to the arena floor.
Hallek cursed himself for letting the emperor's transformation stun him. Whatever was happening, whatever monstrosity Lekarik was becoming, Hallek needed to kill him before he finished. He rushed the emperor and brought his blade down in an arc that cut open the emperor's chest from collar to gut, skin spilling open to reveal more writhing muscle. The emperor roared and pushed Hallek away. As he got to his feet he saw Lekarik take the ax and place it in the wound, letting the slithering muscle and groping flesh close over it.
A few horrible pops and cracks later, Lekarik had finished becoming a monster.
The thing Lekarik had become was ten feet tall, head bald and almost mannequin like. No ears or nose just a hideous gash of a mouth filled with fangs. His eyes glowed green beneath a row of spiked scales as long as an open hand, and the frill of feathers running down his head twitched with a will of its own almost like a cats tail. Below the neck he was still mostly human, just sickly green and oversized. His muscles had the swollen look of a wrestler's, thick veins visible throbbing under the skin. His hands and feet had grown long, wicked claws. And in the middle of his rippling, overmuscled chest was the clear outline of Milkaamek's ax.
“Sweet gods,” Hallek gasped. “What did you do?”
The crowd had stopped screaming now. Most of them were waiting to wake up. Lekarik scanned the arena and could have grinned, but with his mouth set in that hideous razor-filled corpse rictus it was hard to tell.
“I've gotten stronger again,” Lekarik snarled, in a voice like boulders being crushed. “Well? Why aren't you happy? Why aren't you cheering for me? I am your emperor!”
The crowd flinched back from his roaring voice and his glowing, inhuman glare.
“Oh of course,” Lekarik snarled. “You want something. You always wantsomething, don't you? You want a parade or an army or you want me to make decisions all these annoying little decisions it's not enough that I rule for you, not enough that I stand for this empire's power you want me to run things! And then you scheme and you laugh at me behind me back, and when I hunt you down and scour the rebels out from among you complain and moan and you always want something! Well fine! I'll give you blood!”
Hallek didn't even see Lekarik move. One moment the emperor was standing there, roaring at the crowd. The next he was in Hallek's face, claws already slashing lines of fire down his chest. Hallek had time to yell before Lekarik followed his slash with a kick to the gut, sending Hallek tumbling along the arena floor. He tried to get up but the Emperor's scaled foot stamped down on his back, grinding him into the dirt. Sand burned as it dug into the fresh slashes on his chest.
“Is that what you wanted?” Lekarik bellowed to the crowd. “Are you all finally happy?”
The crowd had gone from slavering beast to very confused animal. Some sections were cheering, but compared to the earth shattering bellows the beast was capable they felt like weak, perfunctory things. Some people were staring in shocked horror. Others were whispering, the collective susurrus loud enough to from a backdrop of white noise to the gasps and cheers and screams.
Hallek was trying to think of a way to survive.
His sword had fallen but in a blatant and quite possibly illegal contravention of all dramatic laws and regulations was still within easy reach of his hand. All the angles to hit Lekarik were terrible but a move like he was scratching his back put the point of the sword into Lekarik's thigh. The emperor flinched, giving Hallek a chance to roll away and get to his feet.
“Gods damned rebel!” Lekarik roared. “Peasant!”
Hallek shrugged. What could he say? He was in fact both of those things. He tried to slash Lekarik but the emperor backhanded him in the face. It was a move mean to humilate more than damage, but it sent Hallek reeling. “How dare you strike your emperor!” Hallek stumbled backwards, barely able to keep standing, and the emperor's foot slammed into his chest again, sending him flying straight into the imperial box.
“Hallek!” Shylldra just had time to scream, before his body struck the box and shattered the stone. The floor cracked and fell away beneath her, and they both fell to the arena floor in a heap of rubble.