The building they arrived at wasn’t anything special, no huge arenas or any open spaces, simply an ancient stone building slightly bigger and more worn down than the others. It had a single door at the front and two windows on both sides of the building, perfect for escaping if the situation calls for it. A minute or so from here is a building with the stairs going back to the upper-city, though it might be quite difficult for Orou to get up the stairs quickly.
The two of them entered an abandoned building nearby and started observing the surroundings. It didn’t take long before he saw a steady stream of beastmen walk into the building, some with beasts such as wolves, tigers and lions by their sides. The atmosphere was quite jovial, the beastmen were calling the fighting in the arena a “spectacle” and saying that they’re looking forward to it, it seemed like this wasn’t the first time any of them had visited this building and the arena in general.
Half an hour later arrived Tris with several papers, she handed them over to Grizz who accepted them with pleasure. He waved to Orou and said: “It’s more exciting inside,” before he started walking out of their hiding spot and directly into the building. Orou followed him by his side and with a careful gaze examined their potential escape routes. The inside of the building wasn’t anything special, it seemed like once it might have been a house of sorts, but it clearly wasn’t being used for that purpose.
It was relatively empty on the inside with another set of stairs travelling a bit down. Slithering behind Grizz, Orou slowly went down the stairs and it didn’t take long before the underground area opened up into a massive space, one that could probably accommodate a few thousand people, but before they could proceed, they were halted. Two beastmen clad in heavy armor stood beside them and Grizz, as if he had done this before countless times, slipped a pouch of crystals to the beastmen. They double checked the amount and one of the grunted and motioned for them to go in, to which Grizz simply smiled and walked forwards.
Examining this underground location, Orou wasn’t sure how they managed to build this. There was a colosseum in the middle of it, the stone stained with both old and new blood. Beastmen had already taken their seats, excitedly chatting with each other about who would win and which beast seemed the fiercest out of the bunch so far.
The underground area made the entire place have a bit of an echo, so even though there weren’t a lot of people here currently, the place was filled with noise. Orou observed that beastmen of higher and lower class mingled with each other, seemingly without prejudice. Beastmen were walking around the seating area, pouring each other dream-wine and feeding sweet fruits and nectar to each other, fully enjoying themselves even before the main event started. There were two beasts desperately fighting between each other, two wolves from the same family as Orou was informed. A sort of appetizer for what was about to come.
Orou followed Grizz over to a separate place where the beastmen who were bringing competitors with them. A finely dressed bat-like beastman was carefully examining various papers given to him and the beast they had brought in. Several beastmen had to dejectedly leave because of something said by the bat beastmen, but none of them tried anything funny in his presence.
“A giant serpent from the Forest of Shadows huh, he does look like the sort and the papers check out. I’m looking forward to seeing him in action, he looks like one of the finer specimens that I’ve seen today at least.” The bat beastmen carefully pondered over each word and he spoke slowly, but Orou had never seen Grizz as serious and prepared as he was for the mission. He was currently nodding along and making small talk with the bat, smiling and behaving like it was his greatest honor to be speaking with him. Although the bat beastman was satisfied with his behaviour, the line behind them had started growing and finally, he waved them off.
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Grizz let out a sigh and proceeded to walk into the area designated to hold beasts. It was fairly spacious and each beastman and his beast had an area to himself, but there was a fierce air about the room. Both the beasts and the beastmen were staring angrily at each other and Orou’s arrival attracted no shortage of angry glances. Several more snakes started hissing at his arrival, growls and howls were on the verge of being let out, which would turn this place into an arena of its own. Thankfully, the owners calmed down their beasts in time before it turned into a bloodbath.
One thing Orou was wondering about was about the beastmen’s behaviours. Most of the beasts here were going to get wounded and possibly die, but none of the beastmen were concerned. Each one of them looked confident in their beast’s abilities, encouraging the beast they were with.
After several more minutes of sitting around, the bat-like beastman came into the room and all of the sudden, all the chatter from earlier stopped. He coughed twice and said: “I’m sure all of you know this but each of the beasts will have its own area until it is let out of it. We have no qualms about killing any beast that will cause chaos before going up to the arena as this is the biggest arena we’ve held yet. That being said, please guide the beasts to their respective cells and return to your seats.”
Grizz went along with Orou through another door and into the right passageway which seemed to loop all the way around the arena until they reached a side of the wall simply littered with cells. Orou wasn’t even sure if he could fit into the place he was designated and he had bad memories of being locked up, but he believed that he would be let out once his turn came. Surprisingly, the beasts put up with being locked into various cells and being separated from their owners, behaving much calmer now than before.
While the rest of the beastmen walked from where they came from, Orou saw Grizz slip away into another area behind another door. He gave Orou one last look before slipping into the shadows, most likely off to accomplish his task. Minutes passed and Orou continued observing the beasts around him. He had encountered some of the beasts locked up here in the forest, he saw wolves that had attacked him during nights and he even saw a tri-beast that he recently defeated, but there was no shortage of beasts that he had never seen before. Lynx’s, hyenas and giant scorpions were the least surprising things he saw, strange beasts with several appendages and weird skin color were all over the place. He examined one and then the other, but there were so many beasts here, and this was only one half of them.
After what seemed like an hour or two Orou heard the loud cheer of beastmen and a booming voice that Orou could hear from his location. “Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the biggest arena we’ve held yet. More than a hundred beasts have been gathered all for your enjoyment, and the winner of this arena will win an undiluted blood-crystal worth a small fortune on its own. Now, without further ado, let the arena begin!”
Thunderous applause followed the announcement and he saw the beastmen from earlier holding a piece of paper in their hands. The boisterous voice announced the two beasts that were going to fight in the first round and the beastmen unlocked the cell of the first beast fighting, that is, a giant hyena. The beast didn’t resist the beastmen who had their spears raised up and walked into the colosseum itself. More cheers accompanied the beasts as they started fighting and from what Orou could hear, the fight was quite intense. After a few minutes, Orou saw the hyena’s corpse being carried in and away, its body having several scratch marks and a bite mark on its throat.
“A beast that had been tamed from the Alorian Jungle, one of the rarest and most prestigious beasts from the lion family capable of advanced magic, the Barghat lion!
“A beast that has been tamed from the Forest of Shadows, a serpent more than fifteen meters in length capable of fast and deadly strikes.”
After numerous corpses and injured beasts, it was finally Orou’s turn. The beastmen opened his cell and with spears raised, accompanied him towards the entrance of the colosseum. Keeping in mind what Grizz said, Orou proudly went out, seeking to draw as many gazes as possible.