Edited by: KenChi死
Why, for gods sakedoes every estate, building, facility in this bloody place needs to appear right from behind the corner.
Honestly, you are walking through the dense forest, you are turning right, BAH! Out of nowhere – inn. Deep in the mountains, you are taking another valley, DUH! The gamble house! Now we were walking through wasteland in the middle of the savanna-like plain. There is nothing. Nowhere. To the lest – nothing, to the right – absolutely empty place! Nothingness in front on me and we came from nuthin’!
BUT! There is one big rock. In the fucking middle of empty field. Over 20 meters tall and 6 meters wide. GUESS WHAT IS BEHIND THE FUCKING ROCK!? Yes, a simple arena… actually more like a wooden fence, with some… gates-like opening? As I was told later, into those gates beast’s hunters were attaching cages with monsters. One cover of the gate was opened releasing beasts. Beasts that were hungry and angry, that jumped right on the one unfortunate person that they had in sight. The one in the arena.
Around the arena (fence) a small tent-town was… built? Erected?
* “Snacks! Pancakes! Chocolate cakes! Blood and tears of your enemies! Sweets! Only here!”
* “Wanna step into the arena? Better get good armor! Only now! Buy armor, gauntlets and boots, and you will get helmet free!
And there were some guyz, wearing clothes that screamed “I am selling illegal stuff!!!” looking here and there. One of them came to me
* “Psh, kid, wanna buy…” In that moment someone that could be named an arena guard also show interest and came closer “… a pancake?” the man finished after he saw guard “You know what… never mind. See ya later…”
* “You better be careful kid, if you would be found with the steroids that those guys are selling… You will be let in on the arena… but you won’t be let out… and even if you would win every single match… you won’t earn a shit. Of course your entry fee won’t be returned either… just sayin’… now excuse me…” and he left. Useful info is useful.
Me, Liz and Avi came to the tent that, apparently, was selecting who would be picked as another arena fighter. Avi was talking instead of me.
* “Ah, good morning madam. We are interested in letting this young man show his skills in the arena.”
The woman… Or THE WOOOOMANH! Looked at me from above… even as she was sitting. She was easily over 3.5 meters tall, had pall skin and single horn coming out of her head. Oni?
* “That weakling? Where does he have muscles? I would take him in, if he would be at least big enough to feed the beast… Don’t tell me that you want to set him up, and them bet ur’ candies that he would lose…”
* “Ah, pardon me my rudeness for I am will allow myself to interrupt you here, I vouch for his skills, strength and courage. And the truth is, that I want to bet my candies ON this, how you called him? Ah, weakling. If you don’t mind we can register him and my bet on him at the same time…”
The woman was annoyed. She didn’t want to let me in. Dunno why
* “I am sorry, but we currently have a fighter in the arena right now so you would have to wai…”
* “GWAHAAAAAAAHHH! STOP IT! STOP IT! IT WILL CHEW MY LEGS OFF! AH! THE PAIN! UNBEARABLE! I GIVE UP! GIVEEE UPPP!”
Could be heard from the direction of the fence.
* “…nevermind… looks like you can come in… You can leave every 5 waves… so 5th, 10th up to 15th. Then you can leave after defeating every wave. The fight ends at 20, and you will be dead at … 3rd… nah, 2nd. Are you still in?”
I just nodded. And threw my fee on the table in front of her.
* “And I would like to bet 75 candies that this gentleman would last… 7 waves…”
The woman nodded and took his share too, giving him proof of payment.
* “In front of your gate there will be an armory. You may take… pardon me, borrow, any kind of armor and weapon you like.”
* “What’s the catch?”
* “Those are extremely poor quantity. But it’s always better to carry bad weapon instead of no-weapon. No, go away and prepare to die.”
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We left the tent. After a few steps I moved my head to Avi and said.
* “You told me that I would last 10 waves with no problems.”
* “That’s right.”
* “So why did you bet only for 7?”
* “You see, I can always make another bet after each wave, and this is what I am going to do. But as least people would bet less money for you, the ratio of candies that you can earn will be bigger. If I would bet without blinking 10 waves, for each candy I gave I could earn lets say 1.3. But as I bet 7, it should be 1.4, or more. And that’s for now. After 1st wave I will make another bet. Fret not. First 5 waves are nothing to be scared of, if you are such a hardened in battle warrior like you!... where are you going?”
* “To the armory…”
* “… don’t you have your own weapon?”
* “I do, but it needs mana. For weaker enemies I would rather fight with another weapon, just to keep strength for harder battles.”
* “That’s probably a smart move! Well, I am about to move into the spectator’s section… May luck shines upon you… and saying which may it also shine upon me…”
And he walked away. Liz, that up until now was laying lazily on her back at the top of my head raised up, stretched her arms, yawned loudly, and once again dropped on me, this time on her belly, supporting her cheeks with hands.
* “Ki, Alice, show em’ who’s da boss! I will join prof. Dino in no time.”
* “Hm? You are not going to stay with me?”
* “Khe? Ya already miss me? That’s sw…”
* “I simply can’t wait to get rid of you.”
* “You are bluu-shin’”
* “How can you say that laying on top of my head?”
* “IMAGINATION! Nah, I can’t stay with you. There can be only one person in the arena. Plus, from the spectator’s section I will have a better view of you being torn apart. Okish, Good luck, die hard!” She yelled while flying away
I looked at her for a couple of seconds, then walked into the tent was taking the role of armory. The tent that was… 4 square meters big.
And there was EVERYTHING here. 4 square meters? Maybe from outside. Linked dimensions? Dunno, but from the inside… it was like a grand barrack! With stands filled with armors, walls covered in all weapons in all sized, divided be sections.
“IMP size” “Goblin size” “Fairy size” “Human size” “Orc size”… this one was weird. Mrogul was about 2 meters tall… yet those armors were about 0.5 meter bigger… Is Mrogul some kind of midget among orcs… I read a book about devils spawns (demons, orcs and so on)… those were supposed to be tribal beings… very deeply connected to their society… will have to ask him later… “Ogre/Oni size”, “Troll size…”
short, medium, great, bastards – Swords … , war axes, battle axes, one edged double edged, hammers, mattocks, spears (with maaaany, blades), glaives… But, just as WOMANH said… worn out, rusty, with wooden parts partly rotten… what a shame.
I took off the rack a Wushu-spear. I have no idea how to “Wushu” my abilities are not that advanced… buuuut… Ok, I took it cuz’ it was not that damaged and… it’s badass? Don’t mind me and my childish nature… COME ON! Don’t tell me that you wouldn’t do the same!
I came out of the tent, the WOMANH! was walking in my direction with irritated expression.
* “You certainly took your time. On to the arena n…” she looked at weapon I chose.
There was only “Tsh” and she pointed with her head at the gate. I moved there while balancing the weapon in my hand. After a long time of not being used, and because of it being partly damaged, the point of balance had changed. It was closer to the blade by an inch or two.
The floor of the arena was covered in sand. I stood there playing with my spear.
* “Another challenger is…” I heard annoyed voice of the WOMANH though some kind of megaphone. But it won’t last long “…W…what are you doing here?! How did you get here… What are you doing, her sto… I SAID STAPH, mWH”
* “Mic test! ONE-TWO,ONE-TWO…” Guess who was now speaking. If you bet, that certain pixie, you are right
* “Ugh, Nothing? Ok, I can warm up while waiting… do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-si-do! So-so-so-so-fa-mi-re-do!!! Dra-dre-dri-dro-dru-mra-mre-mri-mro… what day a mean we are on air… Fuck… I mean… HELLOO FOLKS! Welcome to the 736th arena wave fighting!”
* “I thought it was like the… 15th?” someone from the audience said. Pretty quietly, in my opinion
* “SHUT UP AND DON’T TALK BACK! As I said… Welcome to the 1054th arena wave fighting! In the red corner, never ending waves of beasts and monsters, terror, despair, and death! In the blue corner… Alice… the red corner unbeaten champions, that did not let anyone claims its title, merciless, heartless, restless, blood lusting avatars of chaos! The blue corner… Alice… The red corner…”
* “Just stop it already and start the battle!”
* “Yeah! Just let em’ start!”
* “Annoying meanines… ok… REALEASE THE KRAKEN!”
* “… we don’t have a kraken…”
* “Not saying that it would be overkill…”
* “GUUH! GET IN THE MOOD FOR FUCK SAKE! WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO SAY? REALESE THE BUNNIES?!”
* “Bw..bwahahaha…”
* “SEE? OKAY! REALESE THE… psth… what can we realese?”
* “… Depends what hunters brings… today we are serving mostly kobolds…”
* “REALESE THE KOBOLDS!... that was weak…”
The gates were opened and from the cage ten beasts were released.
How to describe Kobolds? Unwanted kid of goblin and lizard? Yup, small as goblin, bipedal, humanoid posture, but covered in scales , with small tail that hanged afew centimeters over the ground. Somewhat intelligent, since they were carrying primitive weapons... well, in this case pickaxes… Yet in their eyes… madness. Pure, untainted aggression. ThemMost savage and primitive desire to hunt and kill.
Kobold WorkerLevel4Hp[38/40]Sp[48/60]Skills:Nigh Vision [passive] [Level 4]
Mining [passive] [Level 9]
Cooperation [passive] [Level 2]
Primitive object construction [passive] [Level 3]
Pickaxe Usage [passive/active] [Level 7]
Poison resistance [passive] [low] [level 4]
Not completely monsters, yet definitely not intelligent creatures.
Savage, primitive, yet able to cooperate within their small society.
Workers are the lowest cast, yet are not to be underestimated.
Ok, doesn’t really look like a great challenge… repeating the goblin village? I am stronger now. Much stronger. Well, it’s the first wave… Let’s dance
Dum-dum-dum. The end for today. 5.5 pages. Not much, I know. But one: I feel terrible today, yet wanted to write ANYTHING. While writing I was like: ok, let’s finish this arc today., then: ok, let’s finish fight today and next chappy will be epilogue of arc, and then: ok, let’s finish the first wave.
And at the very end: Fuck this. Ain’t going to sweat that much for comments under last chappy (I am not writing that I feel unloved and unwanted… but I feel unloved and unwanted. Remember when I made triple release within a day cuz’ I told that I felt happy and throw a quote :”it is important to keep ur author happy?” making conclusion I am leaving to you.)
Still love you Garro.