Author's Notes: Hey everyone I hope that you liked the last chapter. As promised this will be the breakout.
Time passed slowly till the grand festival. Lord Bonesnake it seemed did not want to risk his prized gladiators again and so they were kept in their prison to wait for the Night of Bloody Ecstasy. It could not come soon enough for Karl, felt sick with guilt and shame whenever he thought about he had done. He could blame the influence of the drugs but that was only partially the truth was he had allowed it to happen. It did not help that Yuviel had dragged her mat over to his and wrapped herself around him every night.
As the time of the festival drew close the air seemed to grow tense with anticipation. One way or another Karl's time here was going to end and the tension he was feeling seemed to be effecting everyone. Wilfred tried to remain calm but was unable to stop fidgeting and increased the fervor of his nightly prayers, Sir Coty had taken to pacing about the place till it got on nearly everyone else's nerves. Agliar became even more withdrawn than before. While outwardly calm he seemed to gathering himself, saving his energy for what was to come. He still had not told the others what his plan was, merely telling them that he had everything in hand. Yuviel seemed eager for whatever was to come and that increased the furor of her nightly assaults on Karl. Only the Dwarf seemed to be unaffected by the rising tension and Karl was no longer sure that he had seen the dour individual smile at all.
The day of the festival finally arrived, even from their prison they could hear the sounds of wild celebration. At last the guards ordered them into the cart for the trip to the arena. Throughout the ride there they saw the signs of the celebrations. Most of these seemed to involve the torturing and killing of slaves and the streets ran red with their blood, making Karl and the other men scowl in revulsion Agliar looked on with contempt and distain while Yuviel seemed indifferent to it all and the Dwarf as always seemed too lost in his own misery.
At last they arrived at the arena and where brought to the room to prepare, from the sounds outside the games were already well under way. As before the table was covered with weapons, with a start Karl recognized some of them. There were his own swords on the table; looking closer at the other weapons as he gathered up his own he saw that they were of much better quality that what they had had before. Wilfred took up a fine war hammer with a head of a snarling wolf. Yuviel took up a spear that had several totems hanging from leather cords tied to the bottom of the blade. Sir Coty took up a long sword which was of much finer quality than Karl's he also took a shield. Agliar grabbed a pair leaf-bladed swords that looked light yet capable of slicing through steel. Karl's observations were interrupted by something taping on his leg. Looking around and down he saw that the Dwarf had come up to him, a rune encrusted axe in one hand and was tapping him on the leg.
"Yes?" Karl asked, wondering why the Dwarf had finally made contact with him. The Dwarf said nothing and held a stubby figure to his lips. He then grinned at Karl and opened his other hand, which he had closed into a fist. Inside it was a stiletto-like hairpin, Karl looked around but the guards had already left. The Dwarf motioned for Karl to kneel down in front of him, when Karl did so the Dwarf leaned forward and inserted the pin into the lock of Karl's collar. After a moment of twisting around the lock came unlocked. The Dwarf wordlessly walked among the others unlocking their collars, this act raised their spirits but at Agliar's urging they left them on as they entered the arena.
The crowd was larger than it had been for any of the other fights that Karl had been in and were far more boisterous, the sound they made was almost deafening. The sand of the arena was churned up everywhere that he could see and in many places were pools of blood which were too great for the sand to absorb. Bodies of men, orcs, beastmen and things that Karl did not recognize lay everywhere, along with discarded or broken weapons. Karl and the others paid these little mind, however, their gazes instead focusing on the ones responsible for the carnage.
They stood in the center of the slaughter, six elven women. At least Karl thought that they were elven, it was hard to tell. Though they wore little more than thigh boots they all had on masks of snarling beasts and demons that covered their entire faces, a look made even more sinister from all the blood spattered over them. Of greater significance was their weapons. Two of them had pairs of matched short swords, curved and serrated; the other four were armed with barded whips and bucklers. One, Karl thought she was the leader because of her more elaborate mask, looked at them for a moment and laughed a high cold laugh that stung like a blow from one of the whips and then she motioned at Karl and the others with one of her swords and then she and the others moved.
They moved like quicksilver, one moment they had been nearly halfway across the arena from them and then they were on them. Having seen what they were capable of Karl had wanted them all to stick together and guard one another's backs but before he could say anything the elves were among them. Their attackers quickly drove them apart, at first Karl thought that the elves would use their speed to take them off one at a time, which did not happen. Instead the attackers seemed to be more interested in one-on-one fights.
Karl found himself fighting one of the ones with swords. He took a wild swing at her but she was already gone. Pain shot through him as her blades sliced along his side, he cursed she was as fast as a vampire! He turned towards her but she was already gone and again her blades sliced across. She skipped away laughing.
"Pitiful," she said, her voice beautiful despite its mockery and cruelty; "We were told that you would be a challenge worthy of our skill. I guess Lord Bonesnake was either lying or his judgment is slipping."
Her mockery stung for some reason and though Karl could not see her face he was certain that she was laughing at him. He was determined to wipe that smugness off of her face he lunged at her, feeding the wolf into his legs and arms. The sudden burst of speed took her off guard and she could not dodge in time. Instead she crossed her blades over her head to take the blow.
The force of the blow caused her to stagger back and for a moment Karl was certain that the blow would break through her defenses but she twisted her blades to the side and his sword went with it. He tried to jab her with his short sword but she ducked under it at the last second. He lashed out with his foot but she responded up jumping straight up. As she reached the apex of her jump she kicked out with her right leg and took Karl full in the face.
He fell back, his nose broken and several teeth knocked out. He lost his footing and fell on his back with a crash. With a wild shriek she lunged in to finish him off but he rolled out of the way. He planned to get her when her blades hit the ground. She saw what he had planned, however and reacted. Displaying a dexterity that no human could hope to match she threw her body into a reverse cartwheel and righted herself several feet away from him. As she righted herself she laughed again, this time in genuine pleasure.
"Well, perhaps Bonesnake wasn't wrong after all. Do me a favor mutant, live long enough to provide me with some amusement." With that she launched herself at Karl with renewed vigor. If anything her speed seemed to increase and no matter how hard Karl tried he could not get a hit in. It was not just her speed, it was her style. Or rather the lack of one, she did not seem to be employing any form or style that Karl could see, she just moved and struck at random. That should have worked in Karl's favor but it was not. Her attacks were simply too random for Karl to read or predict and if he hadn't been able to regenerate he was sure that he would have been dead by now.
Unfortunately for Karl while he could not read her movements she could read his. Even with his enhanced speed most of his blows hit nothing but empty air. It felt just like his fight with the vampire Isabella, unfortunately this opponent wasn't protecting anyone so he could not make her stay in one place. But perhaps he would not need her to… A desperate plan formed in his mind and he acted on it.
He swung his long sword at her again and again she dodged it; as he had hoped she attacked his outstretched arm. As the blades bit into his arm he cursed loudly and dropped his blade. He switched his short sword to his right hand and lunged at her. She jumped over the strike and rolled over his shoulder to land behind him. Before he could turn around she slashed the muscles and tendons in his right shoulder and upper arm. Instantly his arm went limp and the sword fell from his suddenly nerveless fingers.
He desperately back peddled away from her, pleading with his arm to regenerate faster. Still, if he played his cards right he might be able to use it to his advantage. As expected she gave chase, he did not know if it was out of a desire for a fair fight or simple sadism on her part but the elf seemed content to wait for him to regenerate. As he continued to back up he stepped on the arm of a dead beastman, deciding to use it to his advantage he acted as if he had lost his balance and fell, twisting so he landed facing away from her.
As he had hoped she seemed to have grown tired of the game so she moved in to finish him off. As she closed in his now-regenerated right arm shot to his collar and slipped it off. As it fell to the ground he turned towards her, his body already shifting into his wolven form. He swiped and snapped at her as they closed with one another. His blow only grazed her and she threw herself into a roll that took her between his legs, slashing at them as she went.
Fortunately she failed to hit anything important and Karl was able to turn to face her before she could stab him in the back. He had expected the change to affect her and it did, just not in the way that he expected it to. She laughed, not a cruel laugh nor a wild laugh, it was a happy laugh, and it had an almost child-like quality to it. Like a girl being asked to dance for the first time.
"Wonderful!" She said in a voice filled with ecstasy; "The others will be so jealous that I got to fight a genuine monster while they are stuck with such mundane opponents!"
Karl lunged again. Again she dodged but this time he landed a blow, his claws creating lines of blood across her stomach. She got some distance between them and placed her finger in the blood and brought it to her mouth to lick it. She then leveled her gaze on him.
"Mutant, you are the first one to cut me in more than a hundred years. That earns you a special reward. When I kill you I think I will have a new mask made and I will use your skull for it."
This time she was the one to lunge at him. He swung at her with both arms but she ducked under them slashed across his chest and stomach. He snarled in frustration, this wasn't working! No matter what he did she was just too fast for him and her random movements meant that he could not anticipate her movements while she could read his like a book. He was much stronger than she was and if he could just find a way to lock with her it would be over in seconds, if he could just get his hands on her!
They continued to dance around each other, he managing to get a few hits on her but none with much power due to her maneuvers. She continued to slice away at him. The wounds regenerated but he was still losing blood and if things did not change soon he would weaken enough for her to finish him off. Fortunately, strength could be employed in more than one way. She came at him yet again, aiming for his chest.
Rather than making futile effort to swipe at her he threw himself to the side. Stooping down he grasped one of the horns of the beastman that he had pretended to trip over earlier. She had already changed course to come at him again. Rising, he turned to face her, swinging the corpse like a club. It had been more than six feet tall in life and the startled elf could not get out of the way in time and the blow knocked her to the ground. Karl had let go as soon as he felt the impact and shot towards her. She was already jumping up but it was too late, launched himself into a flying tackle which took her to the ground. Pinning her arms down with his own and shot his head down and tore her throat with a single savage bite.
Rising to his feet he looked around to see how the others were faring, having been too busy with his own opponent to do so earlier. He was surprised to see that they were all still alive, though it was clear that they were having as hard a time as he had had, harder in fact it seemed. While they were all still standing and fighting without his strength and regenerative abilities they were near their limits with the exception of Agliar.
The Shadow Warrior and his Dark Elf opponent, the one Karl believed to be the leader, seemed evenly matched. His blades were longer giving him more reach but her shorter ones were better suited for the up close fighting that was going on. In speed and agility they were so close that Karl could not tell if one held the edge over the other, indeed Karl could not tell them apart, they were moving so fast.
The others were not so fortunate. Yuviel was managing to use her spear to keep her opponent at a distance but as the elf wielded a whip this seemed to suit her just fine. Yuviel's own attacks were deflected by the elf's buckler and the Norscan woman bled from several wounds but still she gave her wild laugh, it was actually rather difficult to tell which of them was enjoying the fight more.
Sir Coty fought with grim determination and his situation was almost the reverse of Yuviel's. On the plus side he also had a shield and was proving very adept at using it and so was not as badly wounded as she was, though blood still seeped from several wounds. Unfortunately for him his sword had far less reach than his opponent's whip and he could not hope to match her speed and close with her and unless he did a lethal blow would eventually get through.
But it was Wilfred and the Dwarf who were getting the worst of it. Neither of them had shields and their weapons lacked the length of Yuvie's spear. Neither did they have Agliar's speed. They were however, with the exception of Karl, the toughest of the gladiators. Though both bore wounds as grievous as those Karl had endured neither seemed overly affected by them. Indeed, the Dwarf seemed almost invigorated by them.
Just as Karl moved to aid them the Dwarf made his move. His opponent lashed out at him again with her whip and rather than trying to block it or doge it the Dwarf, showing a speed that he had not hitherto shown, reached out and caught the blade at the end of it. Blood flew from his hand and two fingers fell to the ground but the Dwarf hung on and pulled. This caught his opponent off guard and she stumbled and fell forward. Dropping the whip the Dwarf took his weapon in both hands and buried it in her skull.
Karl did not know if Wilfred had seen it but he adopted a similar strategy, though rather than using his hand the old priest caught the whip on haft of his hammer and pulled. She was either more experienced than her companion or had seen what had happened to her, either way as soon as he started to pull she let go, which made him stumble backwards. While he steadied himself and got the whip off of his hammer she ran to one of the bodies, a dead human, and snatched up a spear that lay nearby.
While she still had greater reach than Wilfred it was not as great and he clearly had more experience at fighting spear-wielding opponents. Moreover, the spear was not as well suited to the wild and random style they seemed to favor. She jumped and twirled around him, thrusting at him from all angles but he managed to batter most of them away. So caught up in her fight with him was the elf that she did not see or hear the Dwarf come up behind her. With a single vicious blow he took both her legs off at the knees. As she fell Wilfred lashed out with his hammer and crushed her skull.
A cry caught Karl's attention, causing him to turn towards it. Sir Coty was down, it appeared his opponent had gotten her whip around his leg and tripped him up. He struggled to get to his feet but the whip was still around his leg and she kept jerking him back to the ground as she advanced to deliver the killing blow with the sharpened edge of her shield. Determined to help him Karl shot towards them. This one did hear him coming dove to the side, forcing her to let go of her whip.
Karl was in his wolven form, however, and far faster and more agile than his human form. He dropped to all fours and then sprang at her too fast for her to doge. In desperation she swung her shield at him, it sliced across his chest but he barely felt it. He seized her upper arms and brought his clawed feet up to rip open her belly. They crashed in a bloody heap, he took her head in both hands and jerked to the side till her neck snapped.
Rising to his feet he looked to see how the remaining two combatants were doing. He looked just in time to see Yuvie hurl her spear at her opponent. The move was so unexpected that her opponent instinctively brought her shield up to block rather than trying to get out of the way. The spear struck the shield and bounced off. That had only been meant as a distraction however, Yuvie was right behind the missile and plowed into her opponent and she was clearly the stronger of the two. They wrestled on the ground for a moment, their movements being obscured by the dust their movements stirred up, then they were still. A moment later Yuvie rose, threw back her head and howled in triumph, blood dribbling from her mouth.
That left only Agliar and his opponent. They continued their deadly dance, seemingly oblivious to all that had gone on around them. Then, so suddenly it took a moment for it to register with Karl, it was over. Agliar swung at her with the sword in his right hand as she had before she blocked it with the one in her left hand. Instead of attacking with his other sword he stepped around her left side till he was behind her, he then drove his left sword into her back. As she stiffened he pulled his blade free and swung both of his blades across her neck beheading her.
For a moment everything was quiet, then the crowd found its voice. He did not understand the words but to Karl it seemed most were enraged at their victories. Karl did not know if that was due to racial pride or that most had bet on their opponents. Then another sound caught his ears.
It was hard to hear over the sound of the crowd at first but it grew in volume and gradually the crowd fell silent as they too heard it. It was coming from the city but it was not the wild sounds of revelry that they had heard as they came to the arena. It was different but no less familiar to Karl and the others, the sound of battle. Karl did not know who was fighting whom but someone definitely was. Agliar signaled the others and they all turned to look at him. On his face was a smile as cold and cruel as the Northern Wastes.
"It has begun."
Author's Notes: Well I hope you liked this one. I decided to make this a two parter, hope you all do not mind. Will try to write the next one soon, any idea who is fighting? One thing do you think that the fight scenes need improvement? Please let me know if you do. Till next time please pray for the Americans held abroad the pastor Sieed was beaten by his guards and now is in hospital, the girl with brain cancer, all those sick and all who need it and may Jesus bless you all.