About 6 days have passed since the tournament, and after taking a day off to find a new apartment to live in, I've continued to hunt monsters for more cash. At this point even taking the downpayment into consideration I have over 4,000 credits in my account.

I'm saving for the coming International auction which happens at the end of every month, and just so happens to be right before the next coming monster break, which is the best time to increase my team's strength by even a little bit.

Coming back to money, I decided to accept the colosseum invitation and am lined up for the 3rd match of the day against a well-known and frequent fighter in the colosseum. My opponent's name is Dave Crenshaw and he is known for his two tier 3 summons, a centaur wielding a sword and a kobold with a club similar to Jareth's old one.

He is an established fighter within the lower ranks of the arena, he has an even win/loss record currently. I'm expecting a challenging but winnable match, which is set to be a two summon battle.

The match-makers of the colosseum decided that since I had two known summons it would be best to showcase them in today's match, which works fine with me since Brutus and Jareth often work together in battle. This is a bit uncommon for gladiator matches, but not unheard of, most matches are fought 1 V 1.

I'm currently sitting in the 1st of 2 waiting areas with the other participants of today's matches, I notice with mild surprise that there is an equal mix of each gender in the room. It seems that just like in the actual world, the only thing that matters here is strength.

Eventually, the first two matches are finished and it becomes my time to fight. I'm already dressed out in my hunting clothes and walk out of the tunnel on one side of the stadium and settle at the end of the large circular arena.

While I wait for Dave to do the same, I bring out both Jareth and Brutus and have them show off a little for the crowd. The more people bet, the more money I make as I get a 2% commission of all bets placed on me during my match, and exciting the crowd will only make them bet more.

2% may not seem like much, but considering the stadium can easily contain over 750,000 people, the number of bets made on a single match is astronomical. The commission ensures that summoners do their best rather than throw their matches, and the stronger one is the more likely people are to bet on you.

Dave comes out a few moments later on the other side of the arena and brings both of his summons out.

The centaur is a muscly half-man, half-horse. The human part has curly brown hair and a wicked three-foot sword in both hands, the horse portion has a black mane and brown hair just like on its' head.

The kobold is a mangy looking dog-like humanoid with a short wooden club held in one hand, it doesn't warrant much attention and it's obvious this isn't the main summon of Dave's. When our eyes meet we nod in respect to each other before the announcer begins to speak.

Everyone in the stadium can hear a voice saying, "Welcome once again to the colosseum, we are in for the 3rd match of the day between Dave and his centaur and kobold and our recent newcomer Thomas who placed 2nd in the Rising Stars Tournament with his ferocious hobgoblin and grim. Now look towards the arena as the ref begins the battle, remember only through forfeit, unconsciousness, or death will the match end."

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As soon as the ref shouts for us to start the match, Brutus separates from Jareth and heads towards the kobold at a fast pace not allowing much time for the kobold to think. His ebony canine form barrels towards the pint-sized summon, while Jareth stands his ground as the centaur charges towards him with its' arms raised to strike down with the large sword in its' hands.

Jareth meets the oncoming weapon with an upward stroke of his own heavy weapon and a large ringing noise is made at the moment of impact. Jareth is forced back a few feet from the attack full of momentum, but after that, he remains even with the centaur as they vie for supremacy with each of their weapons unleashing devastating blows should they hit.

They appear to be equal in skill and strength, as no attacks have gotten through yet and neither seem to be wearing down. The centaur has a height advantage standing at 7ft, but Jareth's long limbs and uncanny strength negate the advantage.

Brutus has begun to make some headway with the kobold as he continues to fake it out and wait for a hole in its' defense before tearing into it. All the kobold can do is ward the grim off with its' club, but this doesn't last for long as Brutus charges in and rips the club out of the kobold's grip.

With its' only weapon taken away, the kobold begins to back away while facing Brutus, but its' retreat doesn't last for long as he is knocked to the ground with teeth around its' neck. Dave unsummons the kobold before anything serious happens to it, and suddenly it's only the centaur and my summons left on the field.

There seems to be an equal amount of cheering and booing going on after the kobold is taken from the field, I assume the ones booing are those who bet on Dave. The match doesn't take much longer to finish as Brutus sneaks around from behind the centaur and hobbles one of its' hind legs.

With the centaur's attention on the sudden pain, its' guard is lowered and Jareth is able to knock away the sword loosely gripped in its' hands. With its' weapon taken away, there is no way the centaur can take on both summons and I have Jareth refrain from striking a finishing blow much to his annoyance.

I had already sent a message to Brutus to only take hold of the leg and bite down on it rather than ripping it apart, there's no need for me to do any extra damage to my fellow competitor, it would reflect poorly on me and make my future opponents more likely to try and injure or kill my summons.

Dave calls out his defeat and the crowd roars in approval at the exciting match. After seeing how it went, I imagine that the centaur would have at least held its' own if not won against Jareth, but with two summons fighting against it, there was no chance for it to display its' strength.

While Jareth may have tied or lost to it, Brutus probably would have won due to being faster than the summon and having more abilities to fool it and land a serious blow. With the match being announced in my favor, I recall both my summons after letting them gloat in their victory for a short while before going to shake Dave's hand in recognition of the great fight he put up.

He seems to hold no ill will and even has a smile on his face at the blood-pumping battle that just occurred. He says to me as we shake hands, "Thanks for not killing my summons even though you easily could have and would have been allowed to." I shake my head and reply, "It's nothing to thank I have nothing against you and I only won this easily due to it being a double summon battle, had it been a regular match it would have been much tougher and maybe even ended in my defeat." We stop shaking at this point and head back to our respective tunnels to rest and then collect our match money.

When I get to the betting booth to collect my earnings I get a smile and congratulations from the bookie before he has me scan my watch under the scanner to transfer the money over to my account. I thank the man and make my way out of the colosseum while checking my account.

I notice that it went from 4,107 credits that I had painstakingly earned to 6,607 credits, with a message attached to the transaction. You collected 2,000 from bets on your battle, here's an extra 500 for winning your first colosseum match, let us know when you're ready to fight again.

I smiled at the large number in my account and knew that I could now afford more at the upcoming auction, the things I could buy at the auction may just save my life during the upcoming monster break, so every credit counted.