My bruised tailbone tempted a Repair, but I decided it best to save the energy. I'd left my blood supply in the wagon, after all. Should've filled my waterskin with blood.
Above me, I could see the opening from which I'd fallen. The torches in the market still flickered against its walls, but not its floor. The floor was completely missing. Along its entire stretch, the thing had hinged open like one giant trapdoor and I'd fallen into… What is this place?
A vast cavern of darkness. The shuffling movements and hushed mutterings of the other market-goers surrounded me. The stone floor was smooth and level, but it bore a chill unlike the warm tunnels I'd come through.
"Hello, esteemed guests!" a familiar voice rang out. "Welcome to our semi-centennial Tournament of Flames!"
Far off, a uniform applause erupted from the darkness. Much closer was the continued mutterings of the others who'd fallen with me. Occasionally, I could make out a faint sobbing from somewhere in the distance. Forced to enter a tournament. It's like some cheap Sartoshkan street show.
"Three groups! Their numbers will dwindle until finally, one esteemed competitor from each group remains standing! These three finalists will battle for the devout honor of sacrificing themselves to the Goddess Alta!"
Million Eyes, why's it always one-god bastards stirring trouble?
"Recite your prayers! Cast your ballots! And most importantly, enjoy the slaughter!" His final words were accompanied by a massive source of heat blazing into existence. A wild flame towered in the center of the now lit arena. I stood with about twenty others, men, women, and children, atop a circular disc. Beyond the disc was a steep drop. On the other side of the giant flame, there were two similarly sized discs. They stood precariously on thin pillars that stretched deep into nothingness.
"Pay close attention to our entertainment for tonight! If you blink, you might just miss it." The man's final smug tone clarified his identity. It was the pudgy man who'd brought me here. You'd think Keeper would warn me about stuff like this.
A chunky thud sounded from above, and then, three blocks crashed into the center of each platform. Horrified screeching sounded out from behind me. I quickly turned to see a woman, staring dead into the eyes of a severed head, its trail of blood leading back to the block in the middle of the disc jutted out at an awkward angle. Underneath it, the leaking blood of—Gods, that smells good.
An explosion shook the floor, knocking several bystanders off their feet. The lid of the block flew into the air, and six daggered claws arose from the inside. The top-heavy shape of a Mauler appeared from within. Its blood-red tongue, dripping from its mouth. Oh, wonderful.
I blinked, and the Mauler hurled itself from its perch. Claws tore through five people like they weren't even there. The Nightmare ripped across the disc, sending bloody threads flying in every direction like a cat untangling a ball of yarn. My tongue itched. No. No no no.
The marvelous shower of fresh human blood spilled around me. I flexed both my heavy arms, now topped with claws, and burst into a four-legged sprint. The sharp points on my black palms lunged for the Nightmare. It noticed me at the last moment and blocked with its forearms; my claws dug deep into them. It reeled backwards, and I pulled to tear the beast's limbs apart, but before I could, its legs crackled and shot it straight into the air, dragging me along with it.
We sailed into the cold, dead air, and I pulled even harder. The creature cried a terrible shriek and its giant arms thrashed. Finally, my claws wrenched free, tearing its arms wide open. Dark blood sprayed into the air, and the creature and I tumbled to the ground.
My talons dug into the Nightmare's chest and spun in the air, shoving its body in front of me to break my fall. The memory of falling with a box followed by an audible crack rang out in my head. This isn't going to work. Think, think.
But before I could come up with anything, we slammed into the disc. The creature burst into ash under me and my arms collapsed into themselves, bending unnaturally until: snap. The disc wobbled on its singular pillar, then settled flat. Mind-numbing pain forced a Repair. I didn't even have time to consider the consequences.
Then, I was whole again, arms facing the right direction. I was also exhausted. Not only exhausted, hungry. Starving. Deathly starving. And surrounded by the overbearing reek of human blood.
The audience erupted into a terrified mess of noise. I looked to the other two platforms, partly to distract myself, partly to witness delighted Maulers feasting away on blood I could not taste. Instead, one of the platforms held no Nightmare, only a handful of figures that leaned over the edge of the disc, and a handful that stood nearer the middle. Once I looked more closely, I could see there were no dead bodies, only piles of ash behind the group at the ledge.
On the other disc, however, was something I'd never seen before. A human-shaped creature limped along, following a woman. It looked to be saying something, talking to her. Its arms gestured in the air, as if pleading. Then, the woman turned and jumped, straight into the depths. Suddenly, the figure went misshapen. Its head grew, and its arms twirled into streamers that encircled it, then they merged back together and it took a new shape, that of a different human.
The thing continued its torment until a group of ten or so worked up the courage and lunged at it together. The creature flailed in protest and half of them fell to the ground, likely dead. The rest eventually wrestled it under their weight. They wailed against the thing until it finally puffed into a cloud of ash.
When my attention came back to my surroundings, I half hoped the bodies would have mysteriously disappeared. Dragged off by tournament staff or simply vanished through means I could not yet hope to understand. But that had not happened. All the bodies lay untouched, festering in the smoldering heat of the towering central flame.
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My head grew numb. My tongue itched. Stop, I can't eat them. I can't even taste their blood. Some ungodly lust awaits me. Keeper told me not to. It's a terrible idea… But they do smell of fresh honey-dipped nuts. They smell of salted cheese and roasted pork. They smell of spices from home. Stop. Stop. Stop. Why must they smell of home? Not just home, either. Home before my parents were…
The loud voice of the announcer echoed throughout the chasm. "Stage two will commence shortly! Remember to cast your ballots anew! There are quite a few promising contestants for your esteemed pleasures!"
But as soon as his voice faded, all that sounded in my head were the cries of… Please, stop. I will not be reminded. I will not.
I inhaled to calm my mind, but the scent… and only a vicious frenzy stirred inside. Really, why must you avoid drinking this blood? They're already dead. The taste will serve to distract, it will transport you away. It will fulfill you. It will heal you. Yes, it will cure this hunger of yours. So, why do you wait? Taste the blood of man.
I fell to my knees, to my hands and knees. You're doing this, aren't you? Tasting human blood. Yes, that sounds nice.
I crawled to a pool of deep red liquid that filled a long crack in the ground. I leaned in close and savored the scent once more before I shoved my head against the floor and drank. Like an animal finally stumbling across the watering hole, I lost sense of my surroundings. I could only focus on my meal. In that moment, however long it may have lasted, I was alive.
When I returned to my senses, my claws were gone, and a lanky man in a red robe stood before me. He was surrounded only by the remains of dry string and bones. He stared at me with pity in his eyes, shifting nervously. It was the man from the carriage, the one who didn't speak. I suppose this is stage two. You know, I'd have imagined myself more upset about this human blood thing. Perhaps it wasn't such a big deal after all.
The man stretched his arms out by his sides, and his robes slipped away. They fell to the floor, revealing a second set of arms that slid out from his pants. Then, all twenty of his fingers cracked into contorted shapes. They pushed and stretched at the physicality of his hands, until the bones and string that surrounded him leapt into the air.
The bones formed into the shapes of humans, held together by the once-human string. Then, the skeletons burst into dance. They shifted and twisted to the rhythm of the lanky man's shifting, twisting fingers, and they clattered and clacked against one another, to the tune of a foreign folk song.
I watched the performance, stunned, as the audience began to chant in time with the hollow ringing of bones slapping together. And then, building towards what might normally be a repeat of the chorus, where the tavern drinkers join in with the lyrics, the skeletons all pounced towards me. With the blunt force of a thousand hammers, the bones crashed into me, and in turn, I crashed to the floor. They continuously hammered away, strings wrapping around my body and even further restricting my movement.
One word frantically repeated in my head: Escape. A tingling warmth flowed through me, and my body lost its sense of reality. Time ceased. I felt one with the bones and the string as they rattled senselessly against the ill-defined borders of my being. And I stood, slipping past the tangle of threads. I glided towards the one who dared challenge me, then came back to reality. Fully formed, taking in the returned feeling of passing time.
"Who are you?" I asked.
The lanky man only jerked all twenty of his fingers back, ignoring my question. Completely ignoring. A passionate anger ignited within me, and before the mess of bones and string could reach me, I had one final thought. Consume.
I snatched the man into my massive jaws, and an energy surged through me. It reached the tips of my fingers and lingered in an unfamiliar way. It made my body feel lighter, my head clearer, and the world around me more malleable. That tasted… different. Not a Nightmare. Not a human, either.
I spun to the pile of remains behind me, and focused on moving them, as the lanky man had. They shook, rattling against the floor, but did not leap into the air. I tried again and only rattled the bones. Whatever.
The audience's cheers began to fade, and I brought my attention to the other two arenas.
In the center of one, a man with flowing blue-accented robes, cradling a long blade that stretched twice as far as a sword ought to, sat alone atop a pool of water. No, it only looked like water. All around him, glittering white dust lit by the blazing bonfire flowed like a mirage.
The other disc was deep in battle. Three men and one child remained alive. The child scurried from one end of the platform to the other with a giant in red robes chasing him. It was a hulking thing, each of its legs larger than the child it chased.
Two of the three men hurtled rocks at it, whereas the third, and biggest, only stood watching. To say the man was wearing rags would paint the wrong image, it looked more as if someone had tied patches of cloth to him. Behind spots where the cloth did not cover, the faint glint of metal chain links shimmered through.
The giant in red chased the child long enough to stumble in front of the large man. The man in chain stomped into action. His open palm, larger than a Mauler's splayed claws, grasped the red-robed figure by the neck. I shuddered at the memory of the innkeeper's hand around my throat, waiting for the red robes to break free. Instead, the man closed his palm into a fist and the thing's head shot off like a crossbow's bolt. It bounced off the grappler's chest and connected with another of the men, sending him tumbling off the side of the disc. Then, the large man stomped heavy enough to rattle the platform and knock the child and the other man off balance. He quickly swept them both off the edge. The child's desperate pleas echoed into the silent cavern. What. The. Fuck?
"Without further delay!" The pudgy announcer perked up to cover the lingering echo of the dead child's screaming. "We commence the third and final round! Place your ballots to win the blessing of the Goddess Alta!"
And then, the platform I stood on started rumbling. The ground beneath my feet slowly fell away from me, tipping towards the central blaze of light. The other two discs toppled in turn, and the three platforms collided together with the central bonfire. The stone discs crunched in the center and formed a small mountain to hug the fire. The three massive platforms had merged into one final arena.
"BEGIN THE FINAL RITUAL COMBAT OF THE TOURNAMENT OF FLAMES!"
Before I could even blink, a large canvas sack soared into my vision and swept me up whole. Confused, I stretched against the fabric and struggled to Escape. But there were no cracks to slip through. Consume. But there was nothing to eat.
And then, the taunting words of a relaxed man penetrated through the canvas. "Have you never met a Mauler trap before? It is my pleasure to have introduced you."