Chapter 30: Arena

Although she still had her doubts about the Children of Stephanos, she couldn’t deny that their plateau outpost was impressive. According to Iris, they had several Heroes and Demigods on staff in various positions, including an on-site Builder who worked independently, and one God overseeing the entire island. But she’d meet him later. Her first stop was a place to test out her new Divinity.

The arena was on the far side of the plateau, far away from the homes of the support staff. Each of the houses piled on top of one another housed a monster wrangler, or one of the combat instructors who trained those with and without Divinity how to defend the outpost and hunt down the Maw’s creations.

While most of the mountaintop was a dull red from the clay in the soil, the Arena was almost devoid of colors. It was a massive dome, with sturdy stone gray pillars and ringed roof, and a network of steel chains making up the walls and ceiling. It made it easy to peek in and be mostly safe from the creatures inside.

“This is incredible,” said Adriana as she pressed herself up against the chains and watched.

A match was underway, with an older man in his fifties fending off what looked like a ten foot long slug creature with the upper body of a deformed human. The dirt floor sizzled where its fluids had spread across, leaving the warrior all but pinned, with just a spear and leather armor to defend himself.

“This is an off day,” said Tobias as he came up beside her. Rather than watch the match, his eyes were locked on Adriana. She didn’t hate the attention.

“Yeah,” Iris chirped, taking the other side. “That’s just the monster keeper Markus, keeping spry. He’s fighting against Jeff the Slug for probably the fourth time this week.”

Adriana’s stomach twisted. “You mean you keep monsters alive, just to fight?”

“Of course.” Tobias raised a brow at her tone. “How else are we going to be able to practice safely? We keep some monsters of various strengths in here and keep them fed and healed up to fight us whenever we need it. You don’t feel bad for the monsters, do you?”

“Not the monsters,” said Adriana. In the arena, Jeff the Slug hissed hatefully at Markus and dove forward with surprising speed. He ran right into the raised spear and impaled himself. “That used to be a person.”

“A person who gave themselves over to the Maw,” Tobias countered.

“Doesn’t matter. They don’t deserve to suffer like this. It isn’t right.” Adriana set her jaw and turned her scowl to Tobias, daring him to disagree.

Iris spoke up. “Not all of the monsters were former Acolytes. We’ve got plenty who are just animals that got their ha -- paws and claws on some Bestia and warped over time. That’s fine, right?”

It wasn’t, and it was just one more mark against the entire place. Adriana took a deep breath and shrugged. “Not like I’m going to change how things work around here.”

Tobias nodded and brushed a strand of dark hair out of his eyes. “That’s how I like to look at it. It’s going to happen with me or without me. I might as well get something out of it. You still want to test your new ability out, don’t you?”

Damn him, but she did. Markus stood victorious over the fallen slug. Jeff breathed hard and let out a pained moan. Adriana didn’t feel any sympathy for a person who threw their identities away like that, but she did have pity for him. “Yeah, I’ll fight something, if I can.”

“Great!” Iris reached to tug on her arm, but thought better of it. “Follow me, and Markus will set you up.”

They went around the long way to the arena, where sturdy iron gates separated them from the action. A team of burly men lashed leather straps around Jeff and dragged the poor thing off to the pens, buried into the side of the mountain. Markus met them after toweling himself off. He had salt and pepper hair and a hawkish nose.

“Who’s your friend?” He asked, eyeing Adriana like she was something to be scraped off his boot.

“Adriana Belleros,” she said. “They told me this is the place to go if you want to fight something or test out a new ability.”

Markus addressed Tobias, “if she fucks anything up, I’m taking it out on you, you got it? Alright, girl. You can pick a monster to fight, if you can remember that you’re just trying to test yourself and get a good workout. Do not kill your opponent. Importing more monsters is expensive. Am I understood?”

Adriana’s lip curled of its own accord, but she nodded. “Got anything fast and hard to hit?”

Tobias chuckled. “She wants Penny, then.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Oh no,” said Iris. “Good luuuck.”

It took about fifteen minutes for the crew to clean up after Jeff and go get Penny. Whoever named these monsters had a terrible sense of humor, Adriana thought. If they had any warm feelings towards these creatures, they’d put them down instead of torturing them. It didn’t stop her from putting on the provided leather armor and taking a quiver of javelins. She waited in the center of the arena for her opponent.

Penny was a funny name for what was dragged out to fight her. She had a mostly humanoid body, but that body was black, leathery, and covered in thick but short fur everywhere but the stomach and breasts. Her arms were huge, and entire upper body oversized in comparison to the short legs with grasping feet beneath. The face was again almost human, but twisted into the visage of a murderous looking boar with nasty looking tusks.

“That’s the fast creature?” Adriana called out. “That bulky thing?”

“Don’t be overconfident,” Markus returned. “She’s more than she looks. If you need us to bail you out, just scream.” He laughed at the dirty look sent his way.

“You got this, Adriana!” Iris shouted from the safer side of the chains.

“Yeah! But if you die, can I have your Divinity?”

Adriana put them out of her mind and retrieved a javelin. Penny struggled against her handlers as they dragged her out. She didn’t want to be there, and fought to keep away from her new opponent. Finally, the men physically threw her to the ground and closed the gate behind her. Penny squealed in distress.

The entire thing bothered Adriana, but she focused on her newly enhanced eyesight. Every motion Penny did seemed to echo. First came the hollow impression, the knowledge of what was about to come based on her movement. And then, over the course of a second or two, the real world caught up to her. Like most sensory improvements, it was incredibly distracting at first, and it would take time to get used to it.

“Hey, Penny!” Adriana shouted. “C’mon, let’s do this. Show me how fast you are.”

The pig-woman turned to face Adriana. She snorted her disdain and irritation, and appraised the human for the first time. Mostly, she noticed the javelin and growled.

“Oh, you don’t like this?” Adriana said, feigning a throw.

Penny burst into motion, leaping straight into the air. She moved along the chains hand over massive hand. The sense of where she would be was so fast it was like trying to track a particularly chaotic fly. She didn’t approach Adriana at first, but swung around the ceiling wildly.

Adriana hurled the first javelin where the before-image was. Penny didn’t dodge but instead hung by one arm and caught the javelin before it could sink into her black stomach. A second later the javelin came back at her.

It was fascinating, seeing and feeling almost like the missile was there a good second and a half before it would’ve hit her. Sidestepping the returned javelin like it was nothing, Adriana got another out and ran forward.

Penny went nuts and went the other way, circling away from her foe. A long, slow breath to steady herself and the opportunity came. There was a lingering second where Penny had swung from one chain and hung in the air. Just waiting, unable to move.

Adriana threw the next one as hard as she could. More than just seeing clearly, her aim was better, more naturally aligned. The javelin entered Penny’s back, just above her curly black tail. She squealed in pain and fell to the ground with a heavy thud.

“Good job!” Iris called out. She and Tobias weren’t the only ones watching. At least a dozen people watched the action, screaming and cheering.

“You got her,” Tobias cheered. “Just take her out.”

Yeah, she got her, but it was sad, seeing the pig-woman pick herself up and look over at Adriana with that familiar mixture of fear and anger. How long had she been stuck there, chained up when not in use? Adriana bit her lip and pulled out one more javelin. Penny moved even faster, this time coming at her on all fours on the ground.

By reflex more than anything, Adriana gathered her strength and launched herself into the air over the rampaging monster. As fast as Penny was, on the ground she couldn’t turn as easily. The javelin went into her left shoulder blade. Her squeal was drowned out by whistles and screams from her audience.

Penny crashed into the web of chains and slumped to the ground. She breathed in and out hard, but the two pointy sticks embedded in her back must’ve made it hard to move. When she limped away, it was knuckle-walking away as fast as she could.

Adriana took a deep breath. This would be the time to call it, end it now before it got worse. Or…

“I’m almost done,” she shouted. “Just want to test out my signature ability.”

The crowd fell to a hush, and she felt Tobias and Iris watching her intently. So far, no one really knew what she could do, and this would reveal it. But not all the way. Smiling, she called Smoldersap to her hands and let it cook.

“Is that black fire?” Tobias muttered. “Interesting.”

They didn’t matter. Penny was the only thing that mattered, and she managed to find a reserve of speed and power. She scaled the wall and ceiling, slower this time. Every movement seemed exaggerated, like the pig-woman was showing off her range in motion, but Adriana realized it was just her senses at work. Was this like how Synto saw the world?

The thought disgusted her, but she buried it deep. Power was power, and they were nothing alike. Adriana exhaled and flung the smoldersap at the perfect moment. It caught Penny in the face and neck. She dropped again, howling and squealing in pain.

“Get in there!” Markus barked. “Quickly, put it out!”

Most of the creatures she’d used her Smoldersap on were beasts who panicked at being burned slowly. Most of the time, it was a distraction while she set up another attack. This time, she had aimed with intent, and found the most effective target.

Penny’s muffled howls faded by the time the crew got to her. One dumped a bucket of water over her, but the hot tar burned stubbornly over her mouth and nose. A few last minute twitches and she stilled. Bestia emerged from her chest while she continued to burn.

Adriana felt the eyes of the entire arena on her. It wasn’t a kind way of killing anything, but at least Penny wouldn’t go on suffering every time someone needed to let off some steam. In death, she could be free.

Markus marched up to her and grabbed her by the front of the tunic. “What the hell was that?”

She smiled. “Oops.”