Chapter 17: An Awkward Hostage
How long did time go by? It was very hard for Troy to tell. The next thing he knew, he felt his legs moving forward. He also felt strong arms grab him by the arm. He was being escorted by two strong goblins.
"He's finally awake." He heard one of the goblins say.
"Good!" replied the other goblin back.
Troy tried to shrug them off, but they were too strong for him, he tried several times, but he failed. Each time the goblins snickered as Troy attempted to escape. All around Troy was just a long dim lighted corridor. He could already infer that he was still in Goblin Stadium. There were empty jail cells all over the place from left to right of him.
"What is this place?" Troy questioned, not particular amused by what he saw.
"This is the Goblin Stadium J Block." One of the goblins snickered. Troy scowled at him.
The air was very cold, and there were flies all over the place. The goblins ignored it and escorted Troy some more. They walked a few more steps before Troy could finally see a giant jail cell in front of him, and he couldn't believe his eyes.
"You can't be serious!" he stammered.
There were about four teenagers hostages in there. Probably between ages 14 to 18. The thing that made Troy stammer was that they were ALL girls! Troy and the two goblins stepped outside the jail cell door.
"Get in." one of the goblins sneered.
Troy stood where he was.
"You must be making a mistake! Am I really assigned to this jail cell?!" asked Troy with disbelief.
"Yes! Now get in already!" the other goblin said rudely, and nudged him in the back with the bottom of his spear.
"Hey! Why don't you stop being so hard on him?" exclaimed one of the girls furiously.
Troy still stood where he was, angry at himself, and the goblins.
"Get in you puny hind-legged dog!" one of the goblins shouted, and then kicked Troy in the back inside the cell.
"Waugghh!" Troy shouted as he fell down and face-planted and skidded across the floor a few feet.
"Haw he! Enjoy your stay!" said the other goblin and laughed. Then the two goblins left them.
All four of the girls ran to Troy and were basically checking to see if he was okay. Troy lay on the floor, rubbing the back of his head.
"Are you okay?" said one of the girls.
"Y-Yeah." Troy stuttered.
"I'm afraid you are gonna have to be with us for a while!" another of the girls said. For some reason to Troy, that sounded more of an unpleasant tone. Troy got up and breathed out furiously for a few seconds.
"So… I think we should introduce ourselves." The last of the girls answered.
"Oh yeah!" one of the girls answered back. She looked about 16 with brown hair and blue eyes. "My name is Rae."
"Nice to meet you Rae." Troy said in a neutral tone.
"That's Tala." Rae pointed to another of the girls. Tala looked about 14, with black hair and hazel eyes. She looked like a teen from Sweden or Finland, if you viewed it from an earthling perspective.
"That's Jayle." Said Rae again. Jayle had pink hair and green eyes. Her hair was also twisted up into a ponytail, and she had probably medium light skin.
"And finally," said Rae. She looked suspiciously at the last of the girls. "That's Gota."
Gota was that girl that said that unpleasant toned sentence at Troy, and Troy was sort of not amused. Gota had red curly hair, but it was long, medium toned skin, black eyes, and her hands looked like she had thrown about a thousand punches.
"Nice to meet you all everyone." Troy said quietly.
"Yeah. And your name?" Tala questioned him.
"My name is Troy!" Troy said with pride. At least his self-esteem didn't go down that much.
"Troy huh?" That sounds weird…" Gota quietly said.
Troy ignored her. "So how long have all you girls been here?"
All the girls stared and Troy and looked away sadly.
"We've been here for eleven months." Rae said miserably.
"But it's been like forever!" Jayle said, frustrated.
"Why would those goblins do such a thing to girls like you?" Troy said angrily. To this, three of the girls nearly blushed.
"We are also adventurers like you too Troy." Rae explained.
"Technically I wouldn't be that of an Adventurer. After all, it is my first time." Troy thought to himself.
"And we were just trying to find out the secrets of Goblin Stadium!" Jayle added.
"What secrets? What do you mean?" Troy stuttered. He was very full of questions.
"This stadium is not just an ordinary arena. We could already see that with goblins. That's why we journeyed here to find out." Tala explained.
"Yeah…" Gota's voice trailed off.
"Okay. I just arrived here to grab something that was apparently very dear to a friend of one of my friend's for someone," Troy said, and then patted his chainmail pockets. To his alarm, they weren't there! "WHAT?!" he said.
"Goblins take their stuff and possessions very seriously. They don't let even the smallest thing escape from their hands!" Jayle explained some more.
"Wow," Troy said anger in his eyes. He could also no longer feel the smoke bombs also. "You gotta be kidding me!"
"*Sigh* so what are you going to do? You look like you know what to do!" Rae exclaimed.
"Well, this room doesn't really have much to offer." Troy sighed.
Around the giant jail cell room, there was the prison bars, some bed bunks at the right end corner of the room, and a sink and what looked like to be a purple toilet next to it on the left corner of the room.
"Let me check out something…" Troy said, figuring out something.
Troy walked over to the bed bunks, with the three teenagers watching him. There were two double decker bunk beds, and only three of the beds have pillows. The bunk beds were very old; some of its parts and skin was peeling off.
"Don't tell me your just gonna take a nap!" Gota said very rudely to Troy.
"Shush Gota! I think Troy might find a way to get us out of here!"
"There's no way you can get out of here, heh!" said a very familiar voice to Troy.
Troy, Rae, Jayle, Tala, and Gota turned around. The large man with the yellow mustache was standing outside their jail cell, smirking at them.
"What do you want with us?!" Troy said angrily to him.
"Oh, nothing much!" the large man said. "Other than to introduce myself to you!"
"And what would that be?" Troy said.
"My name is Amondongodrosky, but you can call me Amondo!"
"Well then, nice to meet you Amondo!" Troy said, with a low steady voice.
"And I take your name is Troy I presume?" sneered Amondo.
"Yeah." Troy said.
"Of course! I knew your name would be that!" exclaimed Amondo.
"Okay…" Troy said, not happy.
"Well then, I'll see you at 3:00." Amondo laughed, and then walked away from the cell.
"AUG!" Troy shouted with anger, as he clenched the bars with fury.
"Calm down Troy! You know those bars are way too formidable!" Rae sighed.
"I guess you're right." Troy sighed back, as he pushed himself away from the bars. He walked over to the bed bunks and observed them carefully.
"So now what?!" questioned Tala.
"Wait a second. Maybe we can…" Troy said, and then turned to the sink. "We can somehow dislodge the pipes of the sink!"
"So you're an adventurer AND plumber? I highly doubt it!" Gota laughed.
Troy ignored her. The sink had some very dirty looking pipes below it and they looked like they could burst any moment.
"Maybe we could rupture these valves and maybe flood the entire Jail Block!" Troy said, enthusiastic with his new idea.
"That's stupid!" retorted Gota. "That's never gonna work!"
"Shush! I think I you're right Troy!" Jayle said.
"Well… but then again." Troy said with dismay. "That sink doesn't look big enough to cause some serious flooding."
"Uh, of course!" Gota exclaimed. Troy was sort of ticked off by that.
"There is nothing much else I can find here." Troy sighed. He knew the toilet could stand no chance. They didn't have any plumbing tools to clog it up. Jayle and Rae sighed.
"So what do you think we should do now?" Rae asked.
"Maybe we don't need to do these things alone!" Troy realized. Troy then felt a little smirk on his mouth. "We'll just let the goblins do the work for us!"
"Actually, that was kind of my idea." Tala sighed.
"Did it work?" Troy questioned her.
"Unfortunately, no," Tala began. "We tried making the goblins destroy the bars for us by shouting at them to provoke them, but it nearly backfired.."
"AND I NEARLY GOT SHOT IN THE HAND BY A SPEAR!" Gota shouted.
"Calm down Gota!" said Rae furiously.
"Whatever." Gota said, more quietly.
Troy groaned.
"Then how do you explain we get out of here?!" he said nearly raging.
"Take it easy!" said Tala.
"Yeah, I mean. Beats me, we've tried everything there is!" Jayle groaned.
"AUG!" Troy said exasperatedly.
All of a sudden, Troy could hear some more footsteps coming again.
"Great! Just great!" Troy sputtered sarcastically.
Amondo and two guard spear goblins finally appeared right outside their jail cell.
"Well, well, well! Looks like you're sure having a good time! How about we make an even better time!" Amondo laughed.
"Oh yeah?! And what would that be!?" yelled Troy.
"I will show you. Right this way…" Amondo gestured one of the goblin guards to open the jail cell door and let Troy out. When Troy was out, Amondo gestured next to follow him.
"And please! Do not be foolish enough to play any games with me or my goblin friends!" Amondo said to Troy, even though Amondo was still walking forward. Troy hesitated. Troy finally followed Amondo, and he could already see two goblin spear goblins behind him, all pointing their vicious sharp spears at his back.
"So Amondo. Uh… why are you here?" Troy decided to start a conversation with him.
"Well now, why do you ask?" Amondo inquired.
"Uh…" Troy's voice trailed off. He had no reason.
"Let's just say the gold payment for working as a lead Goblin Security guard is just swell!" Amondo laughed.
Troy and Amondo now turned a few corners, and walked again in a few seconds of silent. Troy observed Amondo's height, and couldn't resist the urge of another question.
"Amondo, how tall are you?" Troy asked him. Amondo laughed.
"Yes. A great many people have asked me that question. My answer to them and for you is 6"3.
"Wow." Troy said with astonishment.
Amondo finally led Troy up a short corridor with a staircase at the end. Troy gulped as he walked up it. It then led Troy up to see a small observation platform in the arena. He could already see more goblins spectating in the bleachers. However, there were no kings in their towers. A few goblins were cleaning any elixir puddles out in the arena with mops, but that was probably about it.
"What's this all about Amondo?!" Troy demanded him.
"You'll find out, all in a good time!" Amondo chuckled.
There was a wooden railing over the front of the observation deck. Amondo led Troy over to it, and Troy could clearly see some small windowless frames with some goblins with headsets over their heads and operating some electronic dashboards.
"Well?" Troy said.
"You'll see now!" Amondo shouted, and then raised a hand. One of the headset goblins nodded and gave a thumbs-up and jabbed down a button. At once a large screeching sound boomed through the entire stadium. Then a boxing ring appeared in the middle of the river, like it's been raised up from the ground.
"Huh?!" Troy said, confused and what he was looking at.
"Thank you again everyone for attending the Goblin Amusement Games!" Amondo shouted. For some reason, everyone in the entire stadium could hear that.
"I know you want to get right to the action, so why don't we get to it?! Also, we have a new guest that is here to bring us extra entertainment today!" Amondo announced, and laughed at Troy. Troy was already angered by that, and could feel his fists clenching. "But first, let's see another of these wonderful prisoners get attacked by the glorious and destructive Pummel!"
"What is the Pummel anyways?" asked Troy.
"The Pummel is a super powerful fighting goblin. He is super buff, and will pretty much practically obliterate anything he touches!" Amondo snickered.
"Hmph!" Troy sulked.
All of a sudden, a prisoner that just came from the red king tower's side end of the arena walked out from some iron bar gates. There were two spear goblin guards pointing their spears at him, motioning him to move forward.
"I can't believe it!" Troy exclaimed.
The prisoner looked like a fourteen year old teenage boy wearing a green looking jumpsuit. He had brown hair, with black eyes. He looked nervous.
"Are all your prisoners teenagers?!" Troy demanded Amondo.
"Normally, yes!" Amondo said enthusiastically.
Troy was disgusted by that. The teenager walked forward hesitated outside the boxing ring. Then on the other side of the stadium, the Pummel appeared, occasionally waving at the goblin fans out there. The stadium exploded with cheer and applause. The pummel looked about six foot, with surfer's hair style, and green hair. He was extremely buff and athletic looking, just as Amondo said, and the Pummel also had an 8 pack.
"HE HE HAH!" he roared with such rage.
The Pummel and the teenager quickly climbed over the rings. Amondo chuckled.
"FIGHT!" Amondo shouted.
"Wow, not even the greeting of the fight!" Troy said, not amused.
The teenager gulped. Pummel laughed and landed a giant hook punch to the face. The teenager nearly stumbled backwards. Pummel then landed a jumping front instep kick to the teenager's face, blinding him for a few seconds even more. The teenager staggered backwards and fell down.
"Looks like we got a Mr. Topple kind here!" Pummel mocked the teen.
The teenager coughed, and then ran towards Pummel, attempting to thrust punch him. Pummel simply ducked down and carried the teenager over him!
"Noooo!" Troy shouted.
The Pummel threw the teen over him once, then twice, and then threw him a third time, and then walked forward casually, letting the teenager smash himself down on the ground. The Pummel then waved to the crowd.
"What's the use of this puny opponent?!" The Pummel roared. "I need a harder one!"
And with that being said, the whole stadium exploded with cheering.
"A HARD-ER OPPONENT, A HARD-ER OPPONENT!" the whole stadium chanted with cheer.
"And I think I got just what you're looking for Pummel!" Amondo shouted.
"Wait…" Troy realized.
Amondo then grabbed Troy and motioned him to walk back down the stairs. Troy had no choice but to do so, and then Amondo led him out a few small corridors and hallways until Troy could see the stadium gate in front of him for the red side.
"So this is the fun you're talking about huh?" Troy slowly said.
"Of course!" Amondo laughed, and then pointing Troy to move towards the boxing ring. Troy gulped, and could feel beads of sweat moving down his forehead.
"Do I have a choice?" Troy's voice came out shaking.
"Not really, move along now lad!" Amondo said in a harder tone. Troy slowly walked through the gates which brought the whole stadium in mocking cheer.
"What's this again? Another puny teen?"
"This got to be ridiculous."
"You got that right!"
"He doesn't even look all that intimidating!"
"I guess this one at least looks decent!"
"BWAHAHAH!"
Troy could hear more than just these six taunts being thrown at him. There were two goblins carrying away the brown haired teenager on a stretcher, away from the boxing ring. Inside the boxing ring, The Pummel snickered and beckoned Troy. Troy's legs were feeling like jelly rolls as he was just a few feet away from the boxing ring. When he climbed onto the boxing ring, he could feel his heart pounding super hard.
"Don't be scared, heh!" Pummel snickered at Troy.
As soon as Troy got onto the boxing ring, he could hear Amondo's voice again.
"In the red side of the ring, it's Troy!" Amondo shouted. That brought boos and taunts from the crowd.
"At least he doesn't know my last name, and at least we got a proper decent fighting greeting here!" Troy muttered.
"And on the blue side of the ring as always, it's THE PUMMEL!" Amondo shouted.
That brought the entire stadium to a round of applause and cheering. Troy then could already just picture a change in audience in his mind.
"*Sigh* I know if my friends in the tropics and north were here, I know they'd cheer me on!" Troy thought.
"Oh yes, and Troy! My goblin friends brought your three cell mates with you!" Amondo cackled.
"WHAT?!" Troy shouted in disbelief.
When Troy turned around, he could see Amondo, Rae, Tala, Jayle, and Gota all standing a few centimeters from the railing of the same observation platform Troy was standing a few minutes ago.
"Well now! Shall we get on with some more fighting entertainment?!" Amondo screamed to the entire stadium.
"YES!" They all shouted.
"FIGHT!" Amondo shouted again.
"Oh man!" Troy quavered. His voice was shaking and he didn't like the sound of that.
The Pummel smiled, and then walked forward towards Troy casually. "Maybe I should play more defense this time!" Troy thought again.
The Pummel tried to land a twisting kick on Troy, and Troy quickly ducked and scampered a few feet away. The Pummel chuckled and then started throwing a flurry of punches at Troy's torso, face, and neck. Troy quickly dodged those all very quickly, which seemed astonishing to him. However, Troy was just too astonished that he didn't see Pummel and the Pummel landed a swift Palm strike to the face!
"No! That's just got to hurt!" exclaimed Jayle with alarm.
"OOF!" Troy shouted as he stumbled back and could feel the boxing rings pushing up against his back.
"Aha!" Troy snickered.
The Pummel laughed for a split second and then ran towards Troy. Troy pressed his back against the boxing rings even further and shot out towards Pummel, like a slingshot. "YAAAAHHHHHHH!" Troy shouted, getting ready for a jump followed by a kick.