I wasn't much of a fan of crowds, especially for a boxer. I mean, I don't have it as bad as some people, but it is honestly impossible to go out into the ring laughing and showing off like some people do.

“Just like I am back in the ring, Arnold. Just like that.” I told myself, standing in front of the large wood doors that were my entrance to the arena. I was nervous. I was about to perform my first ever match in a sport that is entirely new for me in front of a huge audience. That kind of stuff is pretty damn stressful. I mean, I am confident in The Pack and I think I have trained enough that I have a good idea what I am doing, but that doesn't help much until I know for sure what is going to happen. This is literally a whole new world for me.

“Let's welcome our next contestants! Arnold Turtleback, and Vein Savage!”

Ok… let's go.

I walked out of the prep room quickly, through the doors as they opened up, letting me into the field. The lights started blinding me for a second, as the room was pretty dark compared to the arena, but soon I could hear the loud shouts from the audience. I couldn't see them for some reason, as the seats were shadowy and dark from the arena floor. I guess it is to take the contestants' minds off of the audience. It did help a little though as I walked out a little farther into the arena.

I smiled as I walked out, calming myself down a bit as I looked across the field towards my opponent. Vein Savage was a great name… and I am sure that he will grow into it. My opponent was an older teen boy, dark hair, black robes, going for the dark edgy look I think. He is a bit young for that look to completely work however, at least in my eyes.

I gave him a nod as I noticed he was looking me over too, which he didn't reciprocate.

“Before we begin, let's go over our rules for this fight!” I hear shouted out, causing me to focus up on the voice once more. “This is a one on one fight! All contestants are limited to one summon for this fight, and you will be disqualified if you or another summon participate in the battle in any way!”

‘So… exactly the same as the last one?’ I thought to myself, a bit amused.

“Contestants! Summon your chosen fighter!” He called out next, causing me to focus temporarily inside my soul space.

“Alpha, come on out buddy. It's time to fight.” I said out loud, causing Alpha to howl in excitement as he leaped from my chest and onto the ground, padding in front of me and staring down our opponent. His blue flame seemed to flare around his body as he stared the teen across the field down with his piercing glowing eyes, and he stood his ground firmly in front of my body.

Then a four legend form emerged from my opponent's chest, and he summoned… Is that a two headed cat? It looked like a cross between a ginger cat and a leopard, but definitely a bit smaller than a leopard, about the size of a normal wolf though not Alpha sized. But apart from that… Its body almost looked two times thicker than normal, and it had another cat head coming from its body alongside its first head.

“Huh.” Was all that I could say to that sight. I guess the blue fire around Alpha kept me pretty aware that this world had some weird stuff.

‘Right, combat analisis…’ I thought, leaning forwards to take a good look at my opponent's summon. Leopards are amish predators, I am pretty sure that cats are too, so that puts them at a disadvantage in a straight fight. Cats pounce on their prey, to get to a vital spot like the neck and bite it until they die. So, I'm good at jumping and pushing off the ground, like pouncing.

But on the other hand, Alpha is an endurance predator because he… mostly is a wolf. The two hunting styles don't match up pretty well. The two headed cat will need to try and pounce and grapple on the bigger wolf and get to its neck, while the bigger wolf probably just needs to avoid the first pounce and take advantage after that, acting as the opportunist.

I communicated this to Alpha as I came to my conclusion with the inexplicable bond that Alpha had to my soul, and I could feel his understanding through the bond. I smiled to myself as I felt that. “Smart boy.” I commented with a grin as I looked down the field at the two figures across the arena.

Now I was feeling alright. Adrenaline flowing in, The Packs collective emotions showing their support for Alpha. I was ready for this.

“Now let's get the match started in a count of ten!” The announcer called out, his voice full of the excitement from announcers that I was used to and making my grin stand a little wider. “Ten! Nine! Eight! Seven! Six! Five! Four!” He started counting down slowly, and both me and my opponent's summons started tensing up, ready to go as me and Vein backed away to the wall a little to stay away from the fight.

Alpha gave a predatory howl as the announcer continued. “Three! Two!” He counted down, and I could feel my breathing quicken with the stress and adrenaline that my body was going through.

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“ONE!” The announcer yelled out, and suddenly both summons started moving at once.

The two headed cat bolted towards Alpha across the field, quickly gaining ground as Alpha started moving down the field as well but he was clearly saving his energy unlike the cat.

Seconds later, they were almost on each other at about a third of the field away from me. The cat was still heading on strong, but Alpha seemed to slow and head into a more grounded stance which was a bit surprising to see. If wolves had martial art classes, this would be a great execution of a defensive and potentially evasive stance. There was intelligence in his movements that I hadn't seen often in the wild.

But the cat did not notice or did not care about Alphas tactics and kept bolting ahead, then as soon as it was in range it used all its speed from its sprint and leaped up giving a pounce to try and reach Alpha.

Then Alpha, having clearly expected the atack, moved to the side and spun his head to keep the big cat in his sight. The cat tried to spin itself in mid air, extending its paws to try and grab hold of the body of the wolf. But Alpha was just out of reach and it fell lightly on the ground and almost falling over itself but recovering quickly, turning its heads to face Alpha with a hiss, but it didn't move quickly enough.

Alpha howled as he lunged at the temporarily off guard cat and he bit at the closest cat's neck, taking it in its mouth as his teeth ravaged and took hold just below the cat's second head. The cat started to fight back almost instantly, thrashing and pushing away from Alphas muzzle with its claws as he threw the smaller cat around, not letting himself lose his edge in the attack. But finally, with one particularly nasty push and scratch of the cat's claws, and a hard yank from Alpha in response, the cat came away from Alpha. Though not entirely.

Alpha had bit through the cat's neck, and it tore off leaving the cat's second head dissolved in the light of a summons death, but the rest of its body seemed to stay. It wasn't dead yet, though if the glowing ooze that was dripping from the cat's missing neck was any indicator this was probably close to the end of the previously two headed cat.

Alpha had not come off entirely uninjured, though the large feline hadn't managed to do anything more serious than a few cuts across Alpha's head and front legs, which were quickly healing with Alpha's application of healing flame. The big cat retreated from Alpha as he healed his cuts, and in a few seconds there was nothing left except a few patches of fur that seemed shorter than the rest.

I watched carefully as Alpha stood straight, still in his defencive stance as he watched the small leopard back away carefully, hissing as it did with a look of fear and apprehension.

“Ok, you put it on edge Alpha and it is probably bleeding out.” I said carefully to Alpha, sharing my thoughts with our link. “They lost the first confrontation, they only have two choices. One: they can attempt to go into the defensive. And two: they can attempt to catch you off guard with an unexpected atack to try and end this quickly. I believe that they will attempt the second.” I explain, though I think I am being a bit redundant as I get the sense that Alpha instinctively knew this as well.

“That leaves us with two options. We can either atack now and catch it off guard as it is about to pounce, or we can go into the defensive game and wait for them to bleed themselves out.” I tell him, but I stop before I continue my thoughts as Alpha sent me a feeling of his own through the bond.

Atack now.

Then Alpha started charging at the cat, going from his previous defensive and stationary stance to a full sprint in a second as he pounded towards the cat.

“Alpha!” I called out as Alpha charged the cat, which instantly dropped down into a pouncing posture as Alpha grew near. I had not expected Alpha to charge like that, and I was honestly about to tell him not to, but he did it anyway. Alpha… you had better have made the right call…

Alpha did not answer me and was fully concentrated on its approach, getting just in range for the cat to pounce, and the mini leopard leaped into the air towards the spot that Alpha would have been, only for Alpha to come to a halt and make it land just short. I had no idea how Alpha had managed to stop himself so suddenly, as I couldn't really see exactly what was going on from where I was, but one thing was clear. That cat just landed right in Alphas paws. Literally.

Alpha moved his head down in the split second where the cat was still processing what had happened, and grabbed its other remaining neck in his mouth and bit down hard, all of its curved teeth sinking inside the cats warm neck with a growl and ripping away with a tight grip, causing the cat to dissolve into Spirit Ki and return to the summoner across the field once more.

‘How did I…’ I thought in shock as I realized that there was no way for me to know the details that I knew, and thinking back hard. “I can share my summon’s senses through the bond! That's good to know…” I whispered to myself as I realized what had happened.

Alpha turned back to me with his wolfish grin plain from even here. “Great job buddy. You made the right call, you clever boy.” I said to my summon from across the field and as he heard those words, he let himself dissolve and return to my soul space once more.

“And our winner is Arnold! Let's hear it for the victor!!!” I heard the voice of the announcer shouting out, and for the first time since I entered into the arena the shroud of darkness and quiet that had been covering the audience from the contestants was lifted, and I heard the roar of the crowd as they shouted their cheers and boos. I grinned, and raised my arms above my head and gave a bow to the people around me.

The kid across the field, Vein Savage, seemed to wither under the crowd's shouts. He scowled at me from the other end of the field. I gave him a cherry but respectful nod of my head in return, telling him GG’s without words as the announcer called for us to leave the arena.

He stormed off with anger on his face as I walked carefully back out of the arena, my body relaxing as I did, releasing a pressure that I didn't even feel until it was gone.