Clara had never wanted to break someone's neck as much as she did right now.

The prison where the kids were being held probably wasn't much worse than the average orphanage. A barracks style layout with privacy curtains. And the food might actually be better. She had no idea how the dragon was getting ingredients for the stews that were served.

But every single one of the kids had scars. And not just on the outside. When Rosalina and Raiel had started healing people, some of the ones who had been here longer straight up asked if they were allowed to get help. One holding Raiel off at knife point until that damn dragon had given them permission to get basic treatment. Clara wondered how many had died of infection before they'd shown up.

Right now they were in an outdoor cell while the kids got a lecture from 'Valorous' about the need for strong leadership and how might was the only true form of power. The bastard sure seemed to like the sound of his voice. He'd said some nonsense about 'the weakness of compromise,' four times now.

"So what's the dragon in your head think about this one?" Clara murmured to Rosalina.

A spark lept between the woman's horn crown. "He thinks the requirements for becoming a true dragon are apparently too low. Something about tearing open reality and putting in some basic intelligence limits. I'd settle for ripping off his head, grinding him up, and serving him as sausages to these kids."

"A pity demons won't work on those goals," Raiel muttered. "It would make them more useful."

"A pity," Clara echoed. She turned back as the dragon finished its monologue. Without the sun it was hard to guess how long it had taken but she estimated over an hour.

Valorous raised a wing. "Now you will once again prove your worth. But rejoice. This will be your last day of testing before the final trial." That didn't sound promising to Clara.

"Tomorrow we shall have the grand tourney. You will duel until the strongest is crowned. But today we shall weed out the unworthy. There is no point in wasting time." The dragon raised a wing, and a door on the inside of the arena rose. "First, you must survive."

Cackling carried across the field as a group of skeletons burst out of the passage. Some of the kids screamed and moved back, while others dashed to the weapon racks. Clara grabbed ahold of the flimsy chain barrier, but two spite demon spears pointed at her belly forced her to simply watch.

Another passel of demons were keeping the more frightened kids from backing away. Fortunately the skeleton rush had been checked. A young woman with a mace and shield had thrown herself into the fray, crushing everything within reach. Meanwhile a young man had grabbed a bundle of spears and was converting the newer kids into something resembling a formation.

Which was a good thing because the skeletons were followed by zombies, then armored undead of some sort. Anyone standing alone would need to be very skilled or they'd be dragged under.

And some of the people on the field were very skilled. The young woman was surrounded by a barricade of dead skeletons, and several others had carved little exclusion zones to the side. Most however seemed willing to accept the commands of the young man who formed the spear wall and were either holding their ground or dashing in and out of the safe area, hacking down monsters.

A scream rang out as one of the girls in the wall got stabbed by a spear in return. Metal snapped as Clara's fists balled up, but the young man was there sword flashing to rescue the day. The wounded were taken behind the line, while the ranks reorganized.

Several other cries of pain made Clara flinch, but it seemed the young men and woman knew enough to keep injuries from becoming deaths. She was a little worried such acts would get the dragon seething, but Valorous stayed silent.

Another scream turned her attention to the side. One of the men who'd been fighting solo had taken a deep cut to the leg. A skeletal knight was standing over him, one remaining arm raised to finish the job. Clara felt herself moving forward, steel pressing against her.

A crack of lightning caused her to step back instead. As her eyes cleared she saw no sign of the bolt, but the skeleton and the boy were both reeling.

The young man recovered first, slashing the legs out from under the skeletal knight. As the thing tried to rise he swung again removing the head.

A growl filled the arena, and Clara felt the dragon's gaze fall on them. "Justify yourself," Valorous commanded. The demons giggled and started muttering about impalements and hooks.

Rosalina stared back defiantly. "The lightning didn't hit either one. Both sides were affected equally. One just reacted better to changing circumstances."

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There was a long pause, then the black dragon snorted. "Acceptable." The spite demons outside cursed as their 'fun' was taken away.

Looking back it seemed the battle was over. First aid was being given, while the more determined undead were being permanently snuffed out.

Valorous rose from his perch. "The tourney is tomorrow. You may receive healing to properly show your worth." The massive dragon walked down the large opening to what was likely his lair. Only after the dragon was safely away did the demons open the gate so that Rosalina and Raiel could tend to the injured.

Something worth considering. Apparently the dragon feared their abilities still. She'd have to figure out what it was worried about. Or if it was just paranoid.

For now she turned her focus on the people in front of her. Rosalina was helping the worst injured but one of the kids further away was busy self administering a tourniquet to their leg. Clara figured that was a sign they needed more help.

Getting closer she could see the wound was a nasty cut on the back of the thigh. It missed the artery but it'd torn up a good amount of muscle. If she'd taken that kinda hit she'd probably been cursing, not desperately tying off the area. Still there was no way the girl was walking over to Rosalina, and with the limited healing the priestess had, blood loss could be a problem.

So Clara bent down and picked the girl right off the ground. "Here let me get you to our healers." She said as she walked over to where Rosalina was working.

The kid stiffened, but after a moment she finally whispered "Thank you."

"No worries," Clara said. "What's your name?"

"Julia," the girl replied.

Raiel walked over to meet them. "Here, I can stop the bleeding. Rosalina will handle the tissue damage." The angel placed her hands on the wound. Dark red blood turned gold then disintegrated into light as the deep cut slowly sealed.

"Thanks." Clara took that as a sign to remove the tourniquet so the limb didn't get blood starved. The girl winced, but nodded thanks as well. Raiel smiled then ran to help the next person.

Clara let Julia slip down from her arms to stand on her good leg. A quick look over the field showed everyone had gotten the help they needed immediately. Now Rosalina just needed to clean up the deeper wounds.

"Julia!" Clara looked towards the voice to see the boy who'd gathered up the spear wall walking towards them. "Why didn't you stay with the rest of us?"

Julia sighed. "I'm not going to get better hiding in the wall with the other weaklings, Trevor. And I'm not just going to take a quick out in the next tournament."

The boy looked conflicted at the answer but didn't respond. Clara figured now was a good time to pull out some answers. "Next tournament? That dragon bastard do this often?"

"More now," Julia said.

Trevor nodded. "When there weren't a lot of us he usually only did a tourney every now and then. When he thought we were 'slacking.' Now he's been pushing us more." Clara noticed the way his eyes darkened and took that as a good sign. This was the kind of person they'd want when the breakout came.

"Good work taking command," she said. "Surprised that dragon let you do that. And that you considered it. Pretty smart moves."

He looked embarrassed. "Yeah I, uh, joined a delver team with a fake ID. Got caught and sent here. Suppose that makes me lucky? I learned some basic tactics and strategies from my old group and I try to use them to help the others."

"Valorous thinks leadership training is useful, so he lets Trevor do that," Julia added. "But he pushes those that accept Trevor's orders harder because he thinks they're weak."

Trevor flinched but didn't back down. "Yeah well he's full of shit. Humans need teamwork. Especially since we don't have merges. Our group might have the 'weakest' members, but we don't get killed as often by bad luck or random chance." He motioned towards the wound. "The only reason you're going to be able to fight in the tournament at all is because we have healers now."

"Yeah...." Julia's eyes flickered to the woman who'd run into the fight first, before looking down to the ground.

Clara had the idea there was a lot of stuff she was missing here, but unfortunately she had a lot to do and not much time to do it. "You figure out why he hasn't gotten you all some merges yet? Seems like someone as power obsessed would be interested in that. Shouldn't be hard for a dragon to grab some good fodder too."

Both the kids shook their heads. "He kills anyone who gets a merge," Julia said.

"Thought it was because the only way to get a merge was by killing one of his demon guards, but he had us training against goblins to injure and not kill at one point. So that can't be it," Trevor added.

"I thought it was rather obvious." Clara looked over to see Rosalina walking towards them, shaking her arms to get the kinks out. "Though I suppose it's a stupid dragon idea, rather than a stupid human idea, so maybe it's a little too dumb for you."

Clara blinked. "You know what the bastard's doing? I figured it was some kinda invasion or something, but unmerged kids aren't good for that."

"That's probably the second part of the plan. But that's far less important than the primary bit." Rosalina sighed. "There's only one passable reason to have a bunch of unmerged kids fighting each other. Especially for an idiot like Valorous here. And that's to find the 'strongest' and merge with them."

"Oh." Clara shook her head slowly. "You're right, that is so stupid I'd never think about it. You're saying this whole plan is to find someone to kill him?"

"Find someone 'worthy' of killing him," Rosalina replied. "And someone who he'll be bothering for the rest of their life as an annoying voice in their head."

As the two kids sat there gaping, Clara sighed. "Well. Finally figured out why you'd want to give someone a 'fate worse than death.'"

She hoped Alissa and the others were getting ready to unleash some awesome plan to get them all out. Because she had a feeling the 'final tournament' was going to end poorly.