“I don’t like it Mark. I don’t like it at all.”

“The pay’s good,” I responded to my co-worker. “I need that.”

We were in an alleyway; he leaned against the wall whilst I shadow boxed. The walls around us were old, which wasn’t that rare in the city, and slanted outwards. They stretched up five meters. With enough qi it was possible to jump that high, but I didn’t have much.

There was only a couple of minutes left on our break. We worked at a restaurant with a backdoor not to far away, both of us working as waiters. I wanted to join a sect and devote myself to fighting, but the cost was much higher than I could afford.

“Too good. Think about it, nobody’s heard of these guys before,” he said. “I mean listen to the name they gave out. Gore King.”

“Couldn’t care less what the name is. The pay’s good.”

“The fight is in a shady location, Mark. I mean the sewers, really?”

“All fights are in shady locations, Tave. Nothing new.”

“They won’t give any details about the fight. You don’t know if it’ll be many against many, one against one, one against many, a tournament style fight. You’ve got no idea. It’s high risk with decent reward. I’m certainly not joining.”

“It’ll be fine.”

“Mark, don’t kid yourself. People have been killed at much better events. They don’t care about you, especially since you’re so…”

“Weak?” I filled in what he was going to say. It wasn’t a surprise to me. I’d been labeled weak ever since I’d been born. I’m short, and my body clings to fat unnaturally well, unlike muscle, which it won’t hold onto at all.

“Yeah… No offense dude. I’m just telling you to look out after yourself.”

***

The sewers were simply the top of a much older structure. Apparently it stretched down multiple hundreds of meters beneath the ground. I was told to descend three levels before finding some sort of entrance.

As I wandered around, I noticed two things, that the place smelled like shit, and that the rats were abnormally large. Fortunately they kept their distance, although, some of them were too cocky for their own good. They were going to end up getting hurt that way.

I came early in case I couldn’t find the locale. That had been a good precaution to take because I couldn’t seem to find the entrance. As I was searching I spotted another person. It was a girl. She had kind eyes, and a rather soft appearance. Didn’t look like the fighting type, but looks could be deceiving. It wasn’t good to underestimate her because of it.

“Hey,” he said, having waved at her. “Are you also here for the fight?”

“Yeah. I’m having trouble finding the locale though. Do you know where it’s at.”

“Sadly I’m in the same spot you’re in.”

After enough time walking around the tunnel’s we finally spotted something looking akin to a door. What was more promising was the guard standing outside of it. The man glanced at me. I stopped right in my place, my instincts screaming at me to fear this person. Strength practically emanate of him. His aura was thick, and he seemed way too strong to be guarding such a small event. I thought about turning away and walking away at that point but I’d already come so far.

His gaze reverted back into staring at nothing. That was the last movement he made. As we passed him, he was like a statue. The air thickened around him, making it difficult to breathe. That meant he must at least have reached the domain stage, putting him at the very least two stages above me.

The entrance was a large hole the shape of a long door touching the ceiling. It was connected to a tunnel that lead further downwards. The sewer’s walls shifted from black, filthy and covered in moss and other small plants to being sharp, clean and out of orange brick. The place looked recently built.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

We walked through the tunnel in silence. There was a large door, not merely a hole but two stone doors swung open. Inside, there were six others waiting for us. I measured all of them up, and I thought I had a good chance against all of them. None of them looked too powerful, certainly not as powerful as the guard outside. My intuitions were telling me that this was going to be an all out brawl, a last man standing type of thing.

I inspected the space around us. The ceiling was flat, and roughly three meters away. Enough space to jump without having to worry about my head slamming against the top. The space had an octagonal shape, eight sides, each having a small door of its own. They weren’t as large as the main entrance though.

The silence was suddenly broken by quick, rhythmic steps. Somebody was running towards us. They came from the entrance, where my gaze quickly fell, and I wondered if this was another contestant, but that thought was quickly knocked to the side as I saw him.

The man was tall, almost unnaturally so standing at nearly three meters, and he was thin. It was as if somebody had stretched him out; his face was an oval shape. He wore a three piece suit, a top hat, that almost touched the ceiling, and held a cane in his right hand. He smiled like a wolf, and his playful eyes fell on all of us.

“Welcome!” He energetically burst out, his smile growing wider. “It amuses me so much that all of you were able to make it. I’d hoped for more participants, but I’d feared for less. It made me quite tense you see. It was not a very good time for me but fortunately it has passed.”

“Enough of that though.” He spoke with a passion and rapidly, spitting out the next word just as he was finishing the previous one. “You’ll all be paid after the fight. Until then, your goal is very simple. Survive!”

With that he turned around and walked out of the room. The two stone doors quickly the instant he left, and I had a feeling that they wouldn’t open up despite how hard I attacked them. I was stuck here until I finished the fight.

But what was exactly the challenge? He’d said survive, but against what? He hadn’t given us any directive to fight each other. The tension in the room still rose, everybody eyeing each other with caution, but something told me that wasn’t the threat. My attention fell on the other doors.

After a moment, two doors slowly slid open with a creaking noise, rising upwards. They were the doors to the left and to the right of the main entrance. I turned around, watching them, and wondering what would come out. As the doors disappeared into the ceiling, the sound snapped to a silence. My gaze fell on the creatures beyond.

At first I mistook them for humans, but as they stepped into the room that notion disappeared. Their skin was pale-white, black veins running like cracks all of over them. They were thin, and tall, nearly two meters. They had metal blades instead of arms. Their eyes were regular, but dead, as if I was looking at a corpse.

They staggered forward.

“What the fuck,” I heard somebody say behind me. Taking a couple of steps backwards I glanced at the man. He was fat and looked to be in his thirties. He’d brought a club with him to the fight. “Those aren’t humans.”

“You don’t say,” somebody quipped, but the atmosphere was not in a laughing matter. The creatures that moved towards us with a lack of balance felt dangerous. My body grew tense, brimming with energy.

I’d heard of monsters, but I’d never seen one before. As far as I knew, they were highly dangerous and not to be taken lightly, but that much was evident. Fortunately, the creature’s ahead of us, didn’t look particularly strong.

Suddenly, the creatures screeched and with a burst of speed they approached. Their long limbs allowed them to move quickly. The man with the club stepped forward, raising his weapon and aiming to smash it down.

The creature to the right, creature 1 , leaped threw itself at the man. The club smashed into its head, caving it inward. Black blood oozed out, as well as some brain matter, but that didn’t stop it. It thrusted its arms into him as he screamed.

But I couldn’t pay that too much attention, as creature 2 was approaching me. I knew that I’d have more fights before this event was over. I couldn’t afford to trade blow against blow, especially not when it wielded those blades. Killing it wouldn’t be the trick here. I needed to disable it.

The creature jabbed at me, but I stepped backwards.

“Surround him,” I shouted at the rest of the people. “We need to work together if we’re going to survive this.”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” a voice from behind me said. The man charged at the creature. It swung its arm at him, from left to right, but the man gripped the blade, stopping it halfway. He pulled at it, making the creature fall towards him, before delivering a sharp kick to its chest, caving its bones in.

His attention must have been on the other blade, because as the creature fell towards him, it thrust forward, opening its mouth and taking a bite out of his neck. It ripped the flesh out. The man began dry heaving, having a tough time breathing.

“Damn it,” I cursed beneath my breath. We couldn’t afford to take losses like this. This was only the first fight out of many to come.