There was a fighting pit in the basement.
There was at least another level below us and something told me that there were more than just one. The casino was in both the upper city and the actual Dwarf city. This way it could cater to the most amount of beings who were eager to be parted with their money.
The pit itself wasn’t that impressive. It was in the middle of the level and looked like a thirty foot square space. The walls were a dull white, probably from being stained from the beings who’d fought inside for however long this place had been being used. They only went up to about my waist though, with the rest of it being thick wire that stretched up to the ceiling, providing a mesh between the fighters and spectators.
The spectators were flooding in from above and below. With the number of people that were gathering around the cage, I had no doubt that the Goblins were going to make a lot of money. I was also hoping that with all the eyes, word would quickly spread of how foolish it would be to try to bring me in.
I stripped off my shirt and threw it to the Goblin that had led us down here. The crowd cheered as I walked into the ring. There were plenty of cat-calls mixed in with the eager screams.
Someone threw a sword into the cage. It clanged as it rattled across the floor. While I hadn’t been planning on using a weapon, the hosts seemed to have a different opinion.
There was a mix of boos and cheers as the Kaledzar strutted into the cage brandishing a chain. The assassin was also topless, exposing his smooth upper body. I’d been expecting it to be hairy, but instead his skin resembled something tough like a rhino. While skin was all I needed to touch, I could see how he could think that his tougher hide might provide himself with a layer of armor. Even if that was the case, I’d grown up wrestling with a Camadt. I seriously doubted his hide was tougher than my brother’s, and I’d gotten in trouble plenty of times for leaving marks on him when we tussled.
I pointed the sword at my adversary. “Call off the bounty and I’ll let you get carried out of here.”
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“You think you’re going to be the one walking out?” The rodent-faced man laughed. “They’re going to have to shovel the pieces of you out of here once I’m done.” His eyes had an evil twinkle in them.
“Hey!” I looked over to my right at the Goblin organizer. “This doesn’t feel fair… Maybe you should bring him his bodyguard so it won’t be over in a few seconds.”
The Goblin’s yellow jaw dropped as he gaped at my request. I doubted they’d do that, simply because the bets had been for a fight between myself and the Naledzar. If they stacked the odds against me and I lost, then everyone who bet on me would claim that they had been cheated. There was also the matter of the locked door that they’d just shut, but my comment hadn’t been a ploy to get another person thrown in here.
“YOU INSOLENT..!” The baritone scream of my opponent told me that I’d been successful.
I grabbed the chain that whistled through the distance between us with my left hand and let the excess length wrap itself around my arm. I was already moving faster towards the other man than he was pulling on the chain. In just a few steps, I was within striking distance.
The hide on his left arm was thick enough that I only drew a thin black line across it. I’d wondered what color Naledzar bled. The different colors of blood that different species had always fascinated me. Uziah, our Cyclops gunner, had once told me that the ones with black blood tasted like excrement, though he’d used more colorful words. My father had a rule about not eating sentients, but Cyclops were known for eating anything with a pulse that wasn’t considered a friend. And they’d even eat their friends once they were dead. While I wasn’t eager to confirm Uziah’s claim, it didn’t make me smirk when I thought about refuse pumping through the other man’s veins.
The Naledzar dropped the chain and spun on his left heel, trying to jab me with the stinger that had jutted out of his elbow. I skipped back a few steps as the stinger softened, slashing like a whip. It wasn’t my first time fighting one of their kind and I was fully aware that the stingers could become pliable. I also knew that the Naledzar could control the stingers as well as they could the muscular tail that tried to hit me.
Unlike a rat, the Naledzar had a thicker tail, almost like they were part reptile. It wasn’t as agile as a monkey’s tail, though I knew from experience that it would feel like getting punched if I let it hit me.
I didn’t have any plans on letting that happen. The Naledzar still hadn’t realized that the fight was over the moment he’d stepped into the cage. The crowd was screaming for a show and they were going to get to see something they probably would never see again, but I wasn’t going to drag the fight out much longer.
It was time to end it.