The first gladiator to unleash an attack was Cadarock, who took aim and fired his Mountain Eagles repeatedly at Caleo. Caleo utilized the gigantic slab of iron that he called a sword as a tall shield to easily deflect the bullets aimed at him.

“You’re gonna have to do better than that my friend!” Caleo shouted at his opponent. His eyes shifted away from Cadarock when he heard an arrow whistling through the air in his direction. The arrow was fast—faster than he anticipated—but was able to turn his head just in time that the arrow merely grazed his face. Thankfully, the arrow only left a trickle of blood running down the left side of his cheek.

Before Hyata could nock another arrow, Zeratron swung at him with his axe. Hyata was an agile adversary with a tight-fitting tunic; he managed to dodge the attack with ease. In seamless motion he tucked and rolled out of harm’s way, landed on one knee, and fired another arrow, this time at Zeratron.

Just like with Caleo, the stray arrow was perfectly aimed right at Zeratron’s head, but what Hyata didn’t expect was for Zeratron to snatch it out of mid-air with his gauntleted hand. An audible gasp of awe went throughout the crowd. Zeratron snapped the arrow in two like a twig and charged at Hyata with great speed.

Hyata was amazed by what he saw and wasn’t ready for the incoming attack. He quickly raised his metal bow up defensively to try and block the attack. The axe collided with the bow with such impact that a shower of sparks exploded and rained down on the two fighters. Hyata, possessing nowhere near the strength to absorb Zeratron’s powerful attack, was knocked to the ground with great force.

His bow slid away out of his reach. Zeratron raised his axe high, ready to bring it down on Hyata and eliminate him early. He brought his axe down, but just as Hyata was there, vulnerable to Zeratron’s wrath as the black axe came down on him, he vanished in a blur. All the axe met was the concrete surface of the fighting square and sundered a sizable crack within.

Zeratron looked around through his dragon-helm visor, trying to find Hyata, but a sudden, searing pain filled his left shoulder. He quickly turned his head to see what was wrong, and what he saw was an arrow lodged deeply into the side of his shoulder blade. The arrow had pierced through one of his armor’s only weak points. As he grimaced from the pain, he spotted Hyata a short distance away, standing unfazed with a smirk on his face.

Zeratron felt his anger rise when he saw the blood from his wound ooze down the sleek surface of his armor. He grabbed the arrow and ripped it out of his shoulder. His wound spurted fresh blood onto the ground, but he ignored the pain.

A visible dark aura rapidly emanated around Zeratron, his anger from being hurt by his opponent rising to the point where it became tangible. Hyata quickly nocked three arrows at once and launched a three-pronged volley. Zeratron swatted the arrows away with his axe like they were nothing. A slight look of intimidation crossed Hyata’s face, and he rapidly started to shoot arrows at Zeratron. The dark aura around Zeratron seemed to power him threefold as he charged at Hyata, swiping away every arrow he shot at him.

Before Hyata realized it, Zeratron was already within range to attack. He took a big, horizontal swing of his axe. Hyata leapt backwards to try and avoid being struck. His agility aided him immensely, but he was not able to fully escape the bite of the black axe as the edge of the blade lacerated his stomach. Hyata yelped out in pain, but managed to avoid serious injury. He looked at his wound and saw a huge gash sliced through the width of his leather tunic. He clenched at the wound; his hand became quickly soaked with his own blood.

“Yikes! Looks like Hyata got the bad end of that exchange folks. He needs your support right now if he wants to beat this dark, dangerous foe. Say it with me now. ‘Let’s go Hyata! Let’s go Hyata!’”

The announcer tried to get the home crowd behind their troubled gladiator. The arena quickly filled with chants supporting Hyata the Archer. Wounded, but far from defeated, he slowly drew another arrow from his quiver and continued his fight against Zeratron…

While their teammates were firmly locked in combat, Fenrick and Ziggy Ratt had yet to engage. They stared each other down, Fenrick looking rather relaxed with his hands in his pockets.

“You really do underestimate me, do you?” Ziggy Ratt asked.

“Give me a reason not to.” Fenrick called back.

Ziggy Ratt didn’t respond with words, but rather with the same spell he used when they first met. Just like what happened in the courtyard at Hardires High, thick vines erupted out of the surface of the fighting square. They lashed out at Fenrick but he easily dodged them just like the previous time.

“Are you a one-trick druid? If that’s all you got then you should put your plants away and go back to filming your shitty TV show,” Fenrick gave a smug grin to Ziggy Ratt.

Ziggy gave a look of agitation as the one he admired dissed him so openly. The vines went back into the cracks they came from and Ziggy stretched out his open palms. He emphatically yelled out the name of his next spell.

“Giant insects!”

In an instant, Ziggy was surrounded by a small army of gargantuan arthropods that appeared out of thin air. All of them were at least 3 times as big as Ziggy himself. Centipedes, wasps, spiders, and a scorpion with a stinger the size of a spear were ready to follow his orders. Fenrick looked amused as he witnessed the insects spring into existence.

“Now that’s a lot better. But I really hope you don’t expect a few bugs to defeat me,” Fenrick said.

“Get’em!” Ziggy commanded his insects.

The insect army buzzed, crawled and slithered towards Fenrick. The other members of the Hardires team were taken aback by the strange creatures, but once they knew they were only focused on Fenrick, they turned their focus back to the ones they were fighting. Fenrick waited until the wasps came closing in, then made a giant leap to meet them in the air. He had concocted a plan to defeat them without his hands ever leaving his pockets.

However, as Fenrick leapt up to dodge a wasp’s attack, something pulled him back down. Alerted, he looked down and saw that one of Ziggy’s vines had reemerged from the cracks and wrapped itself around his ankle. By then, the wasps had moved in, stingers ready to strike. Fenrick was able to narrowly dodge the stinger of the first wasp—but wasn’t so lucky with the second. The vine that had a hold of him whipped itself so Fenrick was flung upside down. The second wasp’s stinger dug into Fenrick’s side and he cried out in agony. Despite the successful attack, he managed to kick the wasp back, release his ankle from the vine’s grasp, and land back down to the ground.

Instead of staying on the offensive, the rest of the insects surrounded Fenrick. Ziggy was mounted on one of the centipedes. “A deal’s a deal.” He said, looking down at Fenrick from his myriapod steed. Perhaps now you will finally take this fight seriously. Come on now. Don’t hold back any longer—show me the true power of Animal Lord!”

Fenrick stared intently as he clutched his wounded side. His face still winced from the burning of the giant wasp sting.

“If that’s what you really want, that’s exactly what you’re gonna get. Just remember that you asked for this, you little douchebag!”

As he said this, Fenrick was already undergoing a strange metamorphosis. His blue eyes filled with a feral yellow. His limbs shifted violently, his body lurched, and his skin started to grow golden hair all over at a miraculous pace. His entire body began to expand and stretch to over twice his original length. His uniform completely tore away into torn fabric upon the ground, unable to hold his enormous new frame. Fenrick’s face grew outwards into a snout that bared razor-sharp fangs; a sweep of horns the size of swords sprouted from his head, and throngs of tanned brown hair grew around his neck into a proud mane. Long limbs with thick claws scratched away at the fighting square surface. With teeth like daggers, he let out a deep, menacing roar that echoed throughout the arena.

“Astonishing! We don’t see this very often, and it’s such a sight to behold. Fenrick has just transformed into the Animal Lord! He is the only druid alive in the Eastlands that has mastered this form, and he’s gonna need it if he wants to defeat our Ziggy’s Giant Insects!”

As he saw what was happening, Ziggy grinned, he finally had the match he was waiting for. Once the transformation before him was complete, he commanded his insects to charge in an all-out attack. All besides the centipede Ziggy was mounted on rushed at the shape-shifting beast.

Animal Lord responded by rushing on all fours at lightning-quick speed at an unmounted centipede. He grabbed the oversized insect and heaved it high over his head with legs skittering helplessly. He tossed it at two other centipedes, the one he threw crashed down onto their backs and pinned them down. He then leapt up into the air—high into the air—so high that the crowd gasped in awe at the flying human-beast hybrid. He clutched his clawed hands together and crashed down an axe-handle blow onto one of the spiders, incapacitating the arachnid.

The wasps came buzzing back around him, and he swiped at them with his claws. Behind him, the scorpion lashed out its stinger and stung him square in the back. Animal Lord roared in a pain-filled rage. Before the scorpion could retract its stinger, Animal Lord grabbed it and used the stinging tail to swing the scorpion around in the air. The body of the scorpion made contact with one of the wasps and knocked it out of the air. He then spun the scorpion around and around in a dizzying circle and then released its tail. The scorpion went sailing into the air…right towards a section of spectators in the stands! The crowd screamed in panic as they scrambled away from the spot where the scorpion was headed. The scorpion crashed into the emptied stands, leaving a small crater where seats used to be…

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While the battle of the druids raged on the other side of the arena, Urk and Arcanus were locked in a fierce magical duel. Urk launched a barrage of rippling purple arcane beams, but Arcanus was able to easily deflect them with a hastily conjured forcefield. The beams exploded upon impact with the forcefield and Arcanus remained unscathed. The Hardires’ mage summoned a huge fireball and hurled it at Urk. The troll wasn’t quick enough to react and the fireball hit it square in the stomach. It sent it flying backwards and it crashed onto the hard surface of the fighting square. The front of its amber robes was burned beyond repair.

Arcanus, obviously pleased with his work, casually made his way towards his downed opponent. His levitating staff followed closely behind him.

“You are not in my league, troll,” Arcanus said spitefully as he raised his arms to the sky. Giant whirlwinds of flame began materializing in the air, spinning and merging until it became a fireball the size of a meteor. A cocky grin spread across Arcanus’ face. “You should have never even thought of stepping into the arena with me. Say goodbye, novice sorcerer!”

Urk, still on the ground, looked up in shock at the massive ball of flame. Out of desperation, it cast the only spell it could think of in order to save itself from total elimination.

“Seduction!”

A light red mist sprinkled down on top of Arcanus’ head. In an instant, his face completely changed. The expression he wore went from cocky and confident to utterly confused. He dropped his arms and the large fireball above his head slowly dissipated until it completely vanished in a poof. The floating staff suddenly dropped to the ground. Still dumbfounded, he stood there as if in a trance.

“Whoa… A second ago I wanted to destroy you. Now, I wanna fuck you!” Arcanus jumped on top of the troll and they started rolling around on the ground; Arcanus’ hands groped all over the troll’s lanky body. “C’mon, let’s take our robes off and make sweet inter-species love in front of all these people!”

The crowd, horrified and confused at what they were seeing, started to voice their displeasure at the sudden shift of the mage battle.

“Shut the hell up you bigots!” Arcanus yelled at the disapproving audience, “I thought we lived in a progressive society, but nooo apparently it’s too much to watch a man and a troll make passionate love on live television. What a bunch of backwards hillbillies you all are!”

With Arcanus distracted with the crowd, Urk was able to push him off and run away from the wildly amorous mage. Arcanus was in immediate pursuit.

“GET BACK HERE YOU UGLY SEXY BITCH!” He yelled as he wildly chased after the troll mage.

“Yahp yahp you want it come git it bad boy!” Urk taunted as it ran and laughed all around the fighting square.

Even though he was locked in a fight of his own, Hyata spotted the commotion and saw his teammate run past him with Arcanus in tow. After letting loose another arrow towards Zeratron to impede his charge, he waited for Arcanus to get near.

“I want it! I want that bony wart-covered ass!” Arcanus cried in lustful ecstasy. When he was in range, Hyata swung his metallic bow like a baseball bat and hit Arcanus square in his head. The mage fell to the ground, knocked silly and unable to get back up.

“Arcanus has been eliminated, I repeat, Arcanus has been eliminated! Gungannon now has the advantage!” The PA announcer yelled as the crowd went crazy with excitement.

“Holy shit! We lost Archie!” Caleo cried out while trying to fend off his gun-wielding foe, “Zeratron, time to execute plan b!” He ordered, hoping that his teammate was within earshot.

Without hesitation, Zeratron placed his gauntleted hand on the surface of the fighting square. A large dark circle began to form under him and a horrifying guttural sound could be heard. Suddenly, a giant crescent horn slowly rose from the circle. Attached to it, a twenty-foot-tall skeletal demon crawled out of the dark portal. Zeratron latched onto the horn and stood perched on its head. He ordered the demon to join in the fight. Urk shot a fireball right at the demon’s face, but it proved ineffective. Hyata unloaded arrows from his magical quiver, but they harmlessly bounced off the demon’s bony frame. Urk and Hyata looked at each other, unsure of what to do. The skeletal demon swung his arms around, trying to hit them with his hardened fists. All Urk and Hyata could do was avoid getting hit…

When he finally ran out of ammo, Cadarock threw down his empty Mountain Eagles.

“Aww, no more bullets for your pea shooters? Does this mean you’re going to actually face me like a man already?” Caleo taunted his opponent.

Without a word, Cadarock unsheathed the sword from his back. It was big, not quite as big as Caleo’s, but big enough to be able to go toe-to-toe with the Hardires captain in a duel of blades.

“I was starting to think that thing was just for show. Let’s see if you can actually use it.”

“Spit!” Cadarock shouted in a deep voice from behind his mask. With that word, the sword he wielded suddenly became engulfed in a fierce flame. The sword raged with such a fiery fury that it even made Caleo take a half-step back. The crowd went wild as they witnessed the flaming sword of their team captain spring to life.

“We all know Cadarock means business when he brings Fire Spitter into the fight. Caleo and his big sword are in for it now!”

Without hesitation from either side, the two captains charged at each other and engaged in a flurry of rapid sword strikes. With each swing, the swords clanged against each other with neither of the two backing down. The flurry of constant strikes lasted for quite a while. The packed crowd were mesmerized by the spectacle of the flames of Cadarock’s sword as they danced with Caleo’s Berserkir Blade. The two were evenly matched—equally powerful—or so it seemed.

Amongst the blade dance, there was one strike where Caleo swung his sword with greater force than Cadarock anticipated. Cadarock instinctively tried to parry the strike and, with utter shock to everyone witnessing the fight, his sword flew out of his hands.

“Oh no…” Was all the PA announcer could say to the crowd.

The flames of Fire Spitter extinguished as it slid across the arena floor. Without his sword, Cadarock was completely defenseless against the Hardires captain and fell to his knees in despair. Caleo smirked at the sight, knowing that with their captain defeated, Gungannon’s morale would crumble…

As Caleo looked to have his fight all but won, the battle between Animal Lord and Ziggy’s insects looked to be heading the same way. Animal Lord laid waste to every giant arthropod Ziggy threw at him, and soon there was only Ziggy and the centipede he was perched on that remained. Animal Lord leapt onto the centipede’s head to finally be within striking distance of Ziggy. He swiped at Ziggy with his clawed hand and sent his opponent flying off the centipede and crashing onto the hard concrete of the fighting square. Ziggy lied unmoving as Animal Lord hopped off the centipede.

“Run for it Cenny, save yourself!” Ziggy uttered through the pain.

Animal Lord turned to the insect and bared his deep fangs; the centipede slithered away in fright, escaping through the tunnel. The beast that was formerly Fenrick Freygar prowled up to Ziggy, much like a predator stalks its wounded prey when it’s about to go in for the kill.

Ziggy struggled up to his feet. Four long claw marks ripped into the front of his jacket. He glanced around at the arena and saw his captain down on his knees, helpless before Caleo. His other teammates were busy desperately defending themselves against some demonic abomination. A look of despair settled deep into his eyes as the massive beast crept ever closer.

“I swore to myself… That I would beat you no matter what,” Ziggy said in between huge, gasping breaths. “And I will! At any and all cost!”

Ziggy outstretched his arms, the look in his eyes turned into an intense, resolved focus.

“EARTHQUAKE!!!”

It began with a light rumble, then the entire arena started shaking uncontrollably. People in the crowd quickly lost their equilibrium and fell over themselves, some even falling high off the balconies in the upper deck. Everyone in the arena started to panic, trying to run for the exits but falling down as the earth shook violently. The fighters themselves also lost their balance, Caleo swayed side-to-side and tried to use his pillar-like sword to not fall over. Zeratron’s demon started to stumble around, with Zeratron wrapping his arm around the demon’s horn to not fall off.

Under the demon’s feet, a huge crack went through the fighting square floor and it started to split apart into a huge abyss. Both the skeletal demon and Zeratron couldn’t escape and fell into the massive fissure.

Unfortunately for Ziggy’s teammates, the shaking earth and growing fissure meant that Hyata and Urk couldn’t escape the fissure as well. They—along with Arcanus’ unconscious body—fell into the fissure with Zeratron and his demon.

“Ziggy, what the fuck? You’re taking us out too you idiot!” Hyata cried out just before he fell deep into the darkness.

Another fissure quickly opened up, this one right beneath Animal Lord. The mighty beast was unprepared for the attack and fell into the fissure with a loud roar. A huge smile of relief went across Ziggy’s face as he watched Animal Lord disappear into the earth. He blew a sigh of relief, knowing that he had defeated one of the greatest druids alive.

Just as quick as it came however, Ziggy’s smile vanished when he saw one huge, clawed hand come back up to the surface. Animal Lord was able to catch himself and somehow claw his way back up from certain defeat. Ziggy couldn’t believe what he saw. He shook his head uncontrollably, incredulous to the fact that Animal Lord had survived his most powerful attack.

“No…No…NOOO!!!” Ziggy screamed at the top of his lungs. He charged at Animal Lord, all the fear and trepidation and uncertainty leaving him. He tackled the substantially larger beast-human hybrid with an inhuman amount of force for someone his size and they both fell into the fissure, swallowed up by the dark abyss below…

The ground ceased to shake, the rumbles of the earthquake subsided, and all became ominously quiet. The only ones remaining in the fight were Caleo and Cadarock. They were both disoriented by the effects of Ziggy’s spell. They slowly looked around at the devastation that surrounded them.

“I’m…I’m not sure what to say folks…” The PA announcer said in a rather solemn voice. A few cries were heard throughout the venue of people who were injured in the earthquake. Half of the crowd had escaped the arena to get to safety, but through it all there were still die-hard fans that wanted to see the fight to its conclusion.

Cadarock was the first to gain his bearings, and suddenly broke into a sprint towards his sword that remained on the ground a short distance away. Caleo chased after him, but stopped when he realized that he couldn’t catch him in time. He decided to take a great risk and threw his Berserkir Blade at Cadarock. The massive hunk of iron spun like a giant helicopter blade. Cadarock grabbed his sword and turned around just in time to see the huge blade whirling towards him. He ducked low and the blade sailed right above his head.

Now the roles were reversed; Caleo was weaponless while Cadarock had his sword firmly grasped, yelling “Spit!” and reigniting the flames of Fire Spitter.

Caleo didn’t back down, and Cadarock didn’t hesitate…

He made one final charge at Caleo, ready to strike him down. He nearly hit his mark as Caleo dodged the blade but wasn’t able to avoid the heat. The flames of Fire Spitter singed the skin of Caleo’s exposed face. He winced in pain but didn’t falter. Cadarock swung his sword a second time, aiming for the head. The blade narrowly missed for the second time, but the flames blazing around it burned Caleo yet again, searing his face all the more.

Cadarock wound up for a third strike—but Caleo did something no one expected—and got in close to deliver a jumping armored knee right into the masked face of Cadarock. The Gungannon captain stumbled backwards and Caleo went on the offensive, delivering a flurry of lightning-fast palm strikes. Each powerful blow left a small indentation in the tactical vest. Cadarock’s grip on his sword loosened, and the weapon fell out of his hand. When Caleo heard the heavy clang of the fallen sword, he went for the knockout. He jumped up in the air and executed his bone-crunching roundhouse kick—powerful enough to knock out an ogre—to the side of Cadarock’s head. The impact was so great that Cadarock’s body did a full sideways flip before crashing down onto the arena floor like a ragdoll. It was clear to anyone watching that Cadarock was clearly incapacitated and unable to continue.

Caleo was the only fighter left standing, the burn marks served as badges of honor from the battle in which he was the sole survivor…

“Well folks. The winner of the match: The New Heroes of Hardires… or what’s left of them…”