CHAPTER TWO: DRACOLOTH
Dust wafted across the coliseum as the castanic took her slow pace towards the middle of the field. Inwards, she was calm… Outwards…
Well, not as calm, mostly because the crowd was throwing tomatoes at her. It was a spiteful act; the masses jeering and booing her as the rain of rotten red food pelted from above. For now, she endured. Her rage and anger building, but being channeled away and stored for another time.
Before she even reached half field, however, the massive gates on the opposite side of the arena clanked open. Instantly, the crowd roared in approval and the pelting food ceased.
"Drake-Drake-Drake!"
"Drake-Drake-Drake!"
The crowd roared from around the castanic. Already, they were calling for what they believed was the inevitable.
Gradually, the castanic's legs slowed in pace before coming to a stop, a good ways towards the center of the arena. Her eyes flicked from one side to the other, observing the crowd around her for hints of the coming battle….
But the hint was unneeded. Slowly, gradually, the cheers of the audience died down until the sound gave way to a drumming noise, the masses stamping their feet on the floor as though creating a dramatic buildup for the coming beast. Until finally-
-RAARRRRGHHHH!-
A horrendously violent sounding screech sounded from within the darkness of the gates. From within, the castanic caught a glimpse of movement…. A shift… A writhing mass… Until finally the dracoloth burst forth into the blinding brightness of the sun. Instantly, the crowd roared with approval, the massive beast rearing up on its hind legs and letting out a bloodcurdling cry. Fear was the natural response to such a display, the massive half dragon's appearance akin to that of a demon or something that came from the nether realm. Its horns were stained with blood, its fangs razor sharp and bared viciously as the creature searched for its prey.
At last, it's hellish eyes settled upon the woman standing in the distance. Her form clad in the armor which signified only one thing.
Food.
Letting forth another shriek, the dracoloth raked its clawed talons through the sandy coliseum floor; a menacing display of raw strength and brutality as its muscles flexed and curled beneath its thick and scaly skin….
And yet through it all, the castanic only let out a small breath. In that breath, there was but a small voice that whispered into the wind.
"You poor thing…"
While the masses and almost everyone else saw a savage beast that was ready to devour and destroy whatever stood before it, the castanic saw a creature whose will had been forced into subjugation. Scars littered the dracoloth's body, its wings were clipped to handicap its ability to fly. It wasn't some sort of beast that was wild and untamed.
It was a slave.
As the beast reared its head and let forth another bone chilling roar, the castanic only let drew a slow and even breath. Her senses heightened, one of the castanic's hands drifted free of the sword's hilt. To her armor, her slender fingers slipped to, undoing the buckles and knots that held the item in place. Her movements were swift and deft, something that no untrained individual could ever do.
-RAARRRRGHHHH!-
The dracoloth shrieked again, this time lowering its horns and leering into the eyes of the castanic.
At last, the inevitable came.
In a thundering leap, the half dragon surged forwards with the speed and savagery unlike any other. Spittle flew from its open jaws as it bared its fangs in preparation to sink into the flesh of its prey…
And yet, with a single swift tug, the castanic set her own movements into action. Slipping out of the cumbersome chestpiece that offered her no protection, the woman flung her armor piece like a projectile, sending the ornamental armor flying towards the dracoloth.
The beast, however, reacted quickly; it's jaws snapping open and chomping down on the armor, piercing the item like it were nothing but paper beneath its mighty jaws.
From around the stadium, the crowd lit up with roars and shouts, their collective bloodlust eager to be sated. For what they believed, the castanic had only made herself more vulnerable.
In truth? The battle was only beginning.
Free of the heavy chest piece's weight, the castanic kicked off her lightly secured boots, further lightening her load before doing perhaps the last thing anyone could have expected her to do.
She charged head long straight towards the salivating dracoloth.
What seemed like a foolhardy rush straight into the maw of death was in fact the most calculated move almost anyone in the entire arena had seen.
Just as the arena lit up with a cheer for what they expected to be an impaled castanic, skewered by the horns of the dracoloth, the white haired woman dropped and ducked into a graceful slide at the last possible second. Above her, the dracoloth's jaws snapped shut, clamping down on nothing but thin air in the space that the castanic had occupied just moments before.
Beneath the dracoloth's body, the castanic slid, cleanly gliding between the creature's legs before flinging herself into a roll off to the side. Once again, the move was calculated to an unmatched degree, as the dracoloth's barbed tail came smashing down into the sandy ground where the castanic would have been had her direction not changed so suddenly.
And yet, the fight was far from done. Before the creature could whip its head around, the castanic sprang out of her roll and back to her feet; the woman stumbling slightly as blood trickled down the side of her hip and leg, the coarse sand scoring and chafing her skin during her seemingly reckless slide. But regardless of the pain, the castanic pushed her body forward, using her momentum to her advantage to rush directly towards one of the arena walls.
From around her, the arena which had 'oohed' in surprise with her movements immediately broke out in laughter. But once again, what they observed to be a pointless attempt to free from the inevitable was in fact another calculated move.
Turning her head back to keep the dracoloth in the corner of her eye, the castanic perfectly paced her sprint towards the wall, keeping her speed at an even rate to time her actions to absolute perfection. By the time the beast turned and let loose another blood curdling roar, the castanic had almost reached the stadium wall.
Perfect.
With less than twenty meters between her and the wall, the dracoloth once again charged head long towards the castanic. But the castanic's pace didn't stop. Still, the distance between woman and beast dwindled as the dracoloth rushed towards its prey. The dracoloth's speed only grew ever faster as its momentum increased.
Thirty meters…
Twenty…
Ten…
At last, the castanic sprang into action. Without slowing her pace, the woman flung her sword like a counter weight, using the blade's mass to her advantage as she catapulted herself into the air, the sword acting almost like a vault for a massive jump. Up to the wall, the castanic flew, her feet planting against the stadium's rough walls before the woman kicked herself upwards even further. The movement was so sudden, the elevation so quick; performed with a grace and speed that even a seasoned fighter couldn't match.
And if a seasoned fighter couldn't match it, what chance did a creature as unintelligent as a dracoloth have against such a tactic?
With the castanic suddenly surging upwards with a vertical acceleration so swift and sudden, the dracoloth attempted to raise it's had while it charged towards the castanic.
Futile.
A dracoloth stood tall before most creatures, its head and neck had long since evolved into a position that allowed it to tower above and stare down upon its prey.
Simply put…
It couldn't look up.
Unable to stop its own momentum, the creature could do little before its own head and horns smashed into the stadium wall with a tremendous crunch. The strength of the impact alone creating a massive bang while sending a shockwave into the stadium walls.
Perhaps to a normal creature or a human being, the strength of such blunt trauma to the skull would have likely been enough to cause brain damage. To a dracoloth, however, the impact was only enough to temporarily stun the beast.
Unfortunately, such a moment of vulnerability was all that was needed.
Turning midair in her jump, the castanic brought the massive blade in her hands into a tremendous arc. Upwards… and finally, downwards.
Using her weight and gravity to her advantage, the woman bared her teeth and let out a savage warlike cry of her own before swinging the blade with as much force as she could muster. The blade may have been dulled, but its weight and lethality when swung with such speed was just enough.
With a sickening crunch that turned into a squelch, the castanic's great sword sank into the vulnerable neck of the dracoloth. Blood exploded from the wound as the blade severed deep into the creature's flesh.
What the castanic was aiming for was a complete guillotine…
Unfortunately, she couldn't quite get it. Because the blade she had been given lacked a razor's edge, the weapon instead got lodged deep in the creature's neck. The force of her own downward momentum caused the castanic's own weapon to be wrenched from her grip; the woman flopping to the floor as her sudden disarmament caused her to loose balance.
Such a flaw would have meant certain death….
Except this time, the dracoloth remained frozen in place.
Attempting a desperate recovery, the castanic rolled to her feet before immediately setting her eyes on her supposed to be executioner.
It didn't move.
Or at least the body didn't.
Furious, panicked eyes tracked all of the castanic's movements as she rolled to her feet, yet the dracoloth remained frozen in place. Life clearly filled the creature's eyes, and yet it was frozen as though it couldn't move…
Indeed, the creature couldn't…
At last, the realization of what had occurred finally dawned upon the castanic. The dracoloth was still alive, yes…
But its spinal cord had been severed.
Nothing the creature demanded its body to do was reaching those powerful muscles that composed its terrifying form.
If what the humans had done to capture the beast and place it in such a coliseum had been cruel, what the castanic had done was ten times worse.
She had killed the beast, and allowed the creature to understand its own death.
Already, when the castanic gaze upwards into those usually fearsome eyes, the woman could see the creature's pupils dilate with terror.
Numbly, the white haired woman shut her eyes and looked away before she wrenched her own eyes open and nimbly clambered up the dracoloth's body until she stood before the weapon lodged in the creature's neck.
"… Forgive me…." She whispered to the creature as she knelt down and placed her hands on the hilt of the blade.
"Forgive me…" She repeated, and finally wrenched the item free of the creature's neck.
Death was swift from that point on, the strength and power within the dracoloth's body vanishing in an instant as its life vanished. To the floor, the corpse crashed, leaving nothing but the lone, blood covered castanic, standing in cruel victory.