That is no man.

Their opponent didn’t rush out to meet them or make some sort of dramatic entrance to earn the love of the crowd. No, all that greeted them from the dark tunnel ahead was a guttural chuffing sound as their opponent got closer and closer to the arena. Every single set of eyes was watching that gate with a keen focus, just waiting to finally get a glimpse of the beast. And it did not keep them waiting.

The first part of it to emerge out of the shadows was a paw covered in a small layer of fur with five sharp claws puncturing into the ground. A second paw soon joined it and with the paws visible, the head followed. The beast had a reddish-brown appearance, a long snout, black nose and two keen eyes, all of which were encompassed by a thick shaggy mane of fur.

It was clearly not daunted by the crowd watching it as a moment later, the remainder of its muscular four-legged body emerged from the shadows and with it a small tail wrapped within some kind of metallic slave collar.

Once its entrance had been made and the threats seemingly assessed, the beast finally opened its mouth and revealed the powerful teeth held within.

The fuck is that, not a chance I’m fighting it without a weapon.

With shouts and murmurs of terror erupting from the assembled slaves, Attis rushed to join the largest group. He would not be the first to fight it, nor in the first fifty if he had a choice in it.

It could kill a man with ease, those claws, those teeth, we need a hunter or beast tamer class to kill it. Maybe if it gets worn down enough before it gets to me.

Attis was keen not to fight the creature but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to watch it carefully, not only so he could keep as far away as possible but also to try and find some kind of weakness and learn how it killed.

Something he didn’t have to wait long to witness as within moments of the arena erupting in chaos, the beast charged. With speed surprising for its size, it rushed towards the right of the arena, leapt claws ready at a man desperately attempting to clamber out before ripping apart his back and layering the sand with his blood.

If any of the assembled men had yet to gain a true fear of the beast, the horrific sound of the man’s screams was definitely enough to give them one.

Those screams could soon be ones of their own making, with not even the cheers of the crowd being enough to drown them out, those pained cries were only silenced when the man finally began to choke on the blood pooling around him.

Fucking hell.

With the first man slain, the rest were quick to group together, with seemingly every slave assembled in one huddle, Attis included. Soon enough they were all closely huddled towards one side, pushing against each other in a desperate attempt to put others between them and the encroaching beast.

“Fuck this and fuck the empire!” In a show of surprising bravery or terrified delusion, one of the men charged forward, fists raised. Attis doubted if the small man truly believed he could beat such a beast, but he admired the attempt even as the creature pounced forward and sunk its teeth into his neck, ending his life in a small spray of blood.

A good death compared to the alternative.

“You? Your next!”

It was the same man he had made eye contact with earlier; he had taken a fixed position near the front of the group and was dragging another man out of the huddle. The man was putting up a good fight but was simply too outmatched by the other man’s strength. After only a small back and forth, the smaller man was thrown out in front, landing upon the sand with a small thud.

He clearly understood what was happening and quickly attempted to run back to the group. Not that his retreat was met with anything but pushing arms and the pointed blade of the stronger man

“Go!”

“Please, not me, not alone.”

The man’s begging went utterly ignored by the man and whilst Attis noted some outrage from those still safe within the group, he didn’t see any actually dare to voice their opposition.

“Go, I won’t ask again.”

The chosen man still seemed torn between his choices and after a second or two of pacing and nervous looks, he finally made a decision and ended up impaled upon the end of a blade for it.

His body was disregarded without a care and a new man was dragged out to face the beast which had yet fully approach the larger group. Just like the dead man, the pleas of his next victim went ignored as well. But instead, of meeting the blade, he plucked up his courage and turned to face his foe.

He has to know what will happen, is he sacrificing them to wear it down, or to avoid facing it himself?

With every eye in the arena watching him, the long-haired man took a few slow shaky steps towards the monster, until finally he reached the halfway point between the group and his enemy.

The entire arena had gone silent with anticipation and just as Attis had expected the man’s courage broke and he ran toward the edge of the arena. His feet pounded upon the sand with a panicked speed that got him to the arena’s gate a moment before the beast caught him. His body was slammed into its metal with a sickening crunch as yet another life was claimed by the arena.

Another life stolen and one that too was applauded by the crowd of the arena.

Surely, they can’t be entertained by this, men simply being fed to a monster. The savages probably applaud any blood.

Both Attis’ hatred of the situation and fear of it had to be disregarded for now as yet more men were chosen to challenge the clawed menace. Five were hauled up from the crowd this time, all thrown to the sand and edged forward by the huddled group. Even outnumbering the beast, Attis didn’t like their chances, that was until the second sword was thrown towards them.

The sword was picked up by one of the men who even with a weapon didn’t like his chances against the large armed man enough to try his luck.

“I’ve never seen such an animal before.”

“You think it’s some kind of monster.”

“Can it even be slain?”

“If it was truly unkillable, they would not have sent it to test us.”

The group's muttering was audible to all present, seemingly carried by the arena.

“If only I had my fucking skills, we might have a chance.”

“Unless you can magic them back, shut up and move to its side, attack from every angle.”

It was a decent strategy, and one Attis couldn’t criticise but just like all those assembled, he was keen to see how it turned out. Well, he would have been if the beast had let them carry it out, the second it realised they were attempting to enter its blind spot, it charged forward, catching one of the men’s skulls within its jaws and splattering his brains upon the floor.

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A grotesque kill that caused both cheers from the crowd and retches from those facing a similar fate.

“Rush the fucker!” The armed man shouted as he and the other three survivors raced towards the monster. The first fell to a swipe of its claws that opened up his belly, the second to a bite of its jaw that ripped apart his neck and the third to its weight crushing down upon his throat. In a blink of an eye, only one man remained, a man who could now barely find the strength to keep the weapon raised even as the beast pounced upon him and savaged his flesh.

“You lot, forward, get the sword and honour their sacrifice.”

Attis truly doubted that the man cared anything about honour or sacrifice, and it seemed he wasn’t the only one who doubted his words. Yet that didn’t stop the chosen five from being pushed forward and sent towards their likely death.

The beast until now had seemingly been content to keep back and wait for dinner to approach but now something had changed. The beast was pacing towards them, its eyes constantly switching between each assembled man.

Seems they want a better show.

The burning orange glow emitted from the metal chain around its tail told Attis everything he needed to know about what was happening. Whether the rest of the imprisoned noticed or were simply reacting to the charge, Attis wasn’t sure, either way, they were beginning to panic and shuffle around.

Every man was pushing another, desperately attempting to put themselves out of the beasts’ line of sight. With this constant pushing and shuffling, the group split down the middle, their numbers seemingly equally split in half, except for one unfortunate man, who had found himself torn by indecision and later face-to-face with the approaching killer.

The unfortunate man didn’t even attempt to run, he simply collapsed against the arena’s walls, let out a few tears and accepted the vicious mauling to come.

Not even Attis could watch what was to come, he didn’t have to, with everything he had seen, he could imagine the sight of his blood being sprayed against the arena’s brown walls easily enough.

It was surely a grim sight, and one Attis was keen to avoid witnessing, not only to avoid seeing more death but also because he had another goal in mind. The beast was distracted, and the fallen sword was free for the taking. Attis moved to run for the weapon but before he could take more than one rushed step, a hand gripped upon his shoulder.

One Attis didn’t immediately swat away or find himself forced to fight for the chance at a weapon.

It was the grizzled man he had met before; he was dead still and silent except for the slow gentle swaying of his head.

Why shouldn’t I go for the blade?

The answer to Attis' unspoken question came far sooner than he expected as within a second of another slave reaching the sword, he was crushed by a stampede of men all with the same goal. None of them seemed to care about the broken body of the man they were crushing underfoot.

Eventually, a victor emerged amidst the pile of bodies, one who didn’t hesitate in raising his weapon to fend off the rest. He gave the blade a few test swings and half-hearted thrust towards the other slaves until he was confident none would try to steal it from him.

The commotion was all over in a matter of seconds, not that it felt like that to Attis, every second in this hell seemed like a lifetime, one made worse as the creature was once again forced to abandon its meal and turn towards them.

Just its gaze was enough to scatter the men in each and every direction, surely allowing the beast to consume them all one by one.

Something had to be done, someone needed to take charge and lead them all as one. They needed to group together and fight as one and to do so they would need a leader.

Attis would be that man if solely to save himself from the slaughter, but just as he centred himself between the men and readied himself to shout. Another voice ruled over his.

“We all need to do this, every one of us. We all should attack, maybe one of us can get through.” The voice was not one Attis recognised, neither was the man it belonged to, the small squirrely looking man had remained completely unnoticed by Attis until now. But with his words given, that changed, every man in the arena had heard his words and every one of them was taking head.

“Yeah, all together.”

“All we need is one good hit.”

“Together!”

“Let’s show these fuckers who we are!”

A chorus of support rose up for the men and with it, every one of them was going to face the beast. One by one, man by man, they crept closer to the beast, some moved with a steadfast calmness whilst others had to force their fearful body to move. But whether they were willing or not, every man moved towards the beast, it was that or face the armed swordsman who even now was more than willing to kill any who did not move.

“Rush the fucker!”

With as much ferocity as he could muster, Attis shouted his words above the noise of the crowd and charged forward. His actions were enough to spur the rest into action and soon enough, they were all shouting and sprinting towards the monster.

And with them all untied in this action, Attis slowed his steps ever so slightly, he was going to help slay the beast, but he was not going to be the first to meet its claws.

That honour went to a large, bearded man who even without a weapon, barrelled his entire weight into the beast, the blow would have wiped out any lesser man, but the beast simply took the blow and returned it with one of its own. The beast leapt forward, knocking the man to the ground, it had the perfect chance to finish him, if not for the actions of another who leapt on its side as if trying to force its body to the ground.

Several others quickly joined the man, forming a pile of bodies over the beast. On a man, their combined weight, forceful punch and underside kicks would have brought them to his knees and yet the creature was not so easily fazed not even as more and more people joined in.

No normal animal or monster would be so calm, the collar is definitely changing it, maybe even making it stronger.

There was not enough room left for Attis to join in, he was forced to remain in the circular ring that had formed around the attack, and he would remain there until one of the swordmen finally stepped up and ended this show.

They would need to find that courage soon as the longer the huddle went on, the more human blood began to flow and seep into the sand below. Its claws were reaping a terrible tow on the legs and stomachs of those piled onto it. A handful of men were attempting to get beneath the monster and hold its legs in place, but they simply lacked the strength to do so or thick enough skin to withstand its claws.

The pile of dead men was only growing and any men that rushed to take its place would soon be forced to stand upon the fallen to reach the beast.

“Come on, kill the thing.”

It was a desperate pained shout from a man uncomfortably close to its open gnawing jaws, but his words did finally force the armed men into action. They both rushed forward with their swords glittering in the bright sunlight. The reflection was enough to blind and startle just enough of the huddled men that the creature finally had the opportunity it needed. It forced itself forward, through the men, forcing them to either get trampled beneath or be dragged along its side.

Attis was quick to move himself out of the way and join the same man who had prevented his crushing death earlier. He was just to the side of the creature, with his feet placed firm into the ground, ready to run at a moment’s notice.

“We need to end this, while we still have fodder to throw at it. They’ll break soon and then no man will dare charge at it again. Get that dropped sword and that teen over there.”

Attis did as ordered even if it had been a rather shaky experienced dashing for the sword still within the beast's gaze.

“Right lad, soon it’ll have enough space to charge, we're going to kill it before then. We two will distract it and once we do, rush in and stab it through the eyes, you understand?”

Attis didn’t exactly have a better plan and so simply went along with his words whilst trying to look confident for the teen who looked about ready to run for it.

“Now before shakes the men off its back.”

With the command given, Attis handed the blade to the teen and pressed it firmly into his hands, once done, he copied the other man's actions before taking a position at the opposite side of the creature.

“Go on lad. Do you want to survive this or not?”

The teen seemingly had just enough courage to do as commandeered and stood shaking in front of the beast, his sword aimed directly at its piercing eyes.

“Go.”

Attis’ feet rushed from their braced position whilst his hands grabbed as much sand as they could. Far too quickly for Attis’ liking he and the man ended up on either side of the beast's growling jaws, in a somewhat panicked throw, Attis lobbed as much of the sand into its eyes as he could manage, sending it into a ferocious pained rage.

The animal was vulnerable but far from defenceless, it thrashed around wildly as it fought to shake the sand out of its eyes. It was then the blade finally pierced straight through the creature's skull, ending its life but not before its claws ripped clean across the teen's stomach.

Sending his intestines sprawling onto the sand below. The pain he felt showed clearly in his eyes with no trace of the victorious relief every other man was feeling. He had killed the beast, saved them from being mauled one by one and all he received for it was a merciful death as the sword was pulled out of the beast and into his neck.

Attis probably should have been celebrating, mourning or honouring the fallen but instead, only one thought dominated his mind.

This hell is only the beginning.

With that Attis let himself collapse onto the ground, not only to rest but to hopefully calm his ragged breathing and pounding heart.

Well, that was until a familiar and missed voice echoed from within his mind.

---Class Acquired Slave---

[Title Acquired- Slave Level 1]

(Ailment Acquired- Restricted Learning)

---Class Acquired Gladiator---

[Title Acquired- Gladiator Level 1]