A cold but soft hand touched his arm. He woke from his Soul World with a start. As his mind truly connected back with his body, he felt as though someone had thrown him into a cold lake. The ground was damp and cold. Wearing only boxer shorts didn’t help. He felt significantly worse than when he got here. Looking down at his grumbling stomach he attempted to swallow but no moisture came to his mouth.
“It's time young man, the fight is about to begin! Good luck,” The old man said firmly.
He placed the uncomfortable cold and hunger into the back of his mind. He had always had this ability to view his own body as a stranger’s instead of his own. This removed his mind from the pain, letting him focus on more important things.
Turning to thank the old man, he felt as though something was different with him compared to before. When their eyes met Alex rocked back slightly thrown off guard. Two blue eyes met his, eyes so blue he swore they were glowing within the cage. Long lost was the blank stare of an old man on his deathbed.
The old man's voice while still soft-spoken was now firm and full of determination. What looked back at him now was no longer a half-dead man, but the confident stare of a man who had lived a long life. He exited his musing. If he wanted to survive, he needed to follow that same train of thought for himself. He would need a willingness to succeed no matter the odds.
“Thank you for the warning, and good luck to you too,” Alex said.
Sitting up straighter and ignoring the putrid smell he took in a deep breath. Smacking his dry lips he continued trying to swallow and blink moisture into his eyes. He connected with the token and the status was pulled up. He still had a few minutes to prepare himself for the fight.
As his breathing continued, his bodily functions began coming back. Slowly, moisture filled his mouth and eyes. He was dehydrated, yes, but it hadn’t even been a full day yet. He rubbed away the crust on his eyes and slightly stretched his neck. His stomach growled again and began protesting harder.
Having gone a full day without eating several times in his life, he knew he would be completely fine. On a good note, his body was slowly warming up. He wondered how he had stayed in his Soul World even as his body had so many ailments. But realized in his Soul World the disconnection from his body had allowed him to easily ignore the pain.
He would need to keep that in mind. If he had another chance to enter that world; he couldn’t overdo it and harm his body. After all, ten hours had passed without him realizing. Having only felt like an hour or two had passed.
For now, no matter how cold, thirsty, or hungry he was, he simply didn’t care, and the Colosseum certainly didn’t either. All that mattered was surviving his next fight. He began imagining the different scenes he had seen in the Soul World. This time, as he imagined, he felt the connection between his body and mind. Adrenaline began pumping through him, as he stared into those snake’s eyes. A killer ready to strike at any time flooded his body with fear, no excitement. One day, he hoped to come face to face with one and see who survived.
He realized his thoughts were getting a little imaginary; he didn't even know if he was going to survive the next fight. Let alone against a snake that took down a buffalo 1,000 times bigger than him. The excitement from his thoughts still warmed his body as he continued his slow breathing his limbs loosened.
As the time ticked down, he could say now with certainty he wasn’t feeling fear. He had thought it was fear, but the feeling was pure unadulterated excitement. His lips curled up into a half smile.
He knew he was slightly insane. He may be going off to his death right now. Yet, wasn’t that exciting? Wasn’t that so much better than the mundane life he had lived up to this point? He would rather feel something than nothing, like most of his life. If he truly died, would it matter? Everyone would die. Death was inevitable. Death was the way of the world. If the snake didn’t kill the buffalo something else would. The buffalo killed, destroying countless trees and habitats with each step that it took.
Even if he was fine with death, he would fight his hardest to make sure he was the snake, not the buffalo. This idea thrilled him; he didn't know what would happen next, he just wanted to win. This was nothing like the sports in high school that were just games, this was life or death.
As the time was only seconds he had to wonder, would people come and get them? As he had the thought, a white flash appeared in his eyes blinding him. Then, he stood in a giant arena, eyes wide at the display of power. One second, he had been in the cages the next he had appeared here. His stomach lurched at the disorientation, but he held it in. His eyes were firm as he prepared looking around and taking everything in as his stomach settled.
He was in a massive Colosseum, truly just like the Roman Colosseum, only on an impossible scale. He was within the arena of the Colosseum. First, he made sure there were no immediate threats. Before taking in the shocking view of the stands.
The stands went as far as the eye could see. Going up and out endlessly. Did they house millions or even billions of spectators? They went on forever moving higher and further away than he could see. The same cheering and pounding he had heard in the cages was now far more intense in the arena.
In the cages, he had dirt between him and the crowd. Now he was in the middle of the noise making it go from annoying to disorienting. Alex could hear the excitement for bloodshed in their cheers. The number of people here, ready to watch, should have chilled his heart. Instead, his excited heart only beat faster.
While he could see the stands from his position in the center of the giant arena this did not allow him to see much. From here he could see the numerous human-shaped beings sitting, standing, and cheering in the arena but could not make out their features. Scanning the stands quickly, his focus came back to the arena.
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Scoping out his surroundings once more, he looked down at the hard ground beneath his feet. The sand was not like beach sand but more like a dried-up river bed, only without the cracks. The sand was red and hard yet still gave slightly. He attempted to slide his foot and found that it sank in without sliding. Yet the sand was not so soft you would feel your movements hindered by it. He lunged forward and there was no sliding and no loss of movement. Strange.
The arena consisted solely of sand multiple football fields wide in every direction. The sides of the arena were dozens of yards high and flat. Making it impossible for him to escape out of the arena. He didn’t see any entrances or trap doors.
Taking in every detail he found there to be nothing. No rocks, plants, or sand mounds, just flat sandy ground. Seeing all was safe, he took a second to close his eyes and take a deep breath. He focused than opened his eyes again, ready to fight. The disorientation from being instantly transported was gone.
The teleportation was intimidating but not what he should be focused on. The Soul World had been a shock too, but it had felt so right and close to him that it was not as disorienting. The two were different yet the same amount of supernatural. If one surprised him, the other should just as much.
A massive wall appeared beside him. Weapons hung on the wall stretching from one side of the arena to the next. Directly in front of him were daggers of all kinds. Studying the wall his eyes quickly settled on two pitch-black crystalline daggers. Alex’s body paused as he stared at the two daggers. He may have never been an artistic person but in this moment these two daggers struck him with a thought.
He had heard that a high-tier sculptor does not create anything. They envision the inherent form stuck within the raw material and chip away to unveil what has always been there. The meaning of this finally connected with Alex when he laid eyes on the two daggers. They had the meticulous detail of a skilled craftsman and the essence of the obsidian they were wrought from.
He felt as though these daggers weren’t made but born, their sharpness able to pierce through anything they wished as they pierced his soul now. He somehow felt two elements within the daggers that he had always felt connected to, dark and death. The dark and death elements spread throughout every crystalline edge like a shadow. How he knew that was what the two elements were, he didn't know, there was simply a feeling.
There was a third feeling within the daggers, a sharp and piercing feeling. This must be the spear element. He reached out and picked up the two daggers. Now certain they were made of obsidian. Next to the obsidian daggers were all kinds of other daggers, some which may have been better than the obsidian ones. Yet he felt drawn to this pair, he reached his hand up placing his index finger so softly on the point of one of the daggers that it didn’t even make an indent on his finger. Yet he quickly drew his hand back as a single drop of blood dripped off his finger and onto the weapon disappearing.
He smiled at the pair of sharp daggers, impossibly sharp. He had held knives before but he had never barely touched one and had the point cut him. This was good, in the future he wanted to make these daggers a part of himself. He wanted to use the daggers like a snake used its fangs, connection was the first step to that goal and he felt connected to this pair of daggers.
Holding the daggers he swung them about. Then put himself into position lunging out just like he had imagined within his Soul World. The results, he was happy with, he felt like he had done this before even though he technically hadn’t. He continued practicing and within a moment what he imagined in the Soul World overlapped with his physical body.
While not perfectly as good as he could hope for in such a short amount of time. Feeling something on his waist, he looked down. A belt had appeared, with two sheaths for his daggers. The feeling of surreality returned, but he simply placed the daggers in their respective sheaths, the fit was snug yet somehow felt wrong. As though not having them in his hands was a misdeed to them and himself.
The wall of weapons disappeared from sight after he chose. His body was clearly on one side of the arena positioning himself to the other, he waited. Thinking of the snake in his Soul World he firmed up his stance, low and prepared to strike. His eyes swept back and forth. He opened his senses in every direction to make sure he wasn’t tricked. He no longer looked like a young man, but a serpent prepared to strike and devour its prey.
While logically an opponent would appear directly in front of him, this may also be a misdirection. He wouldn’t let an assumption be the death of him. Waiting for an enemy, his heart rate spiked. His breath stayed calm and even. His mind was patient, his body was ready to strike.
Alex’s fear of being tricked never materialized, but soon a figure did appear only 50 feet away from him. Just as he had appeared in the arena, the figure did the same. There was no trap door, no entrance, it simply appeared before him, staring with malice.
His eyes narrowed at the figure. He had technically seen the being before, not in person, but online. Only it was completely different from what he had seen on the internet.
What appeared before him was a red fox. Alex had never seen a red fox like this. The fox was similar in size to an ordinary fox. Standing on all fours, he estimated it was below his waist in height. The features on the other hand were not similar to a red fox. The fox had round ears and large eyes with a large fluffy tail that waved behind it. The fox was cute, like a stuffed animal. Vibrant red fur covered its entire body, but what drew him in was the fox’s irises.
The irises were purple with a mystic air to them. The deeper he stared, the more he realized those eyes were not filled with malice but kindness. They were so beautiful and shimmered, like crystals or amethyst. His body slowly relaxed as he stood from his combat position.
No longer was he the vision of a serpent prepared to strike. No, he was a kid going to see the neighbor's cute new puppy. He wasn’t excited for the fight but to see a new friend. He couldn’t kill the sweet creature, that would bring such sadness to his heart. He wouldn’t be able to take the pain. Those beautiful eyes slowly sucked him in.
Without hesitating, he pulled a dagger from its sheath and stabbed the dagger into his leg. Not too deep, but enough to elicit pain. The pain was strong enough to knock him out of the trance-like state he had unknowingly entered.
With his mind clear a shocking scene occurred, the fox that was standing 50 feet in front of him was no longer there. An illusory shadow of itself sat there while its true figure was currently charging at him with abandon.
Luckily, the fox had only sprinted a few meters from its position before he caught on. Alex’s lip curled, trying to trap him with feelings of belonging, happiness, and sadness? Sorry, he hadn’t felt those in years, why would he now? Even if the fox had forced him to feel that way he would have still killed the fox in front of him. He had stabbed himself to break free from the illusion, not the emotions.
He still felt excitement for his fight but now a little anger simmered within him. These emotions he had felt before albeit much subtler. Usually, he simply felt numb to his surroundings. He unsheathed his other dagger and charged the fox. It would pay for trying to control him.