This couldn't be happening. This had to be a nightmare. There was no way Reshef had just sent me out to an alien planet to be some sort of gladiator. I couldn't believe it. After everything that had happened I finally lost. Reshef won. I had to get back to Earth somehow. I couldn't let him win. But what could I do now? I was chained up with adamantium on a ship heading to who knows where. This was unlike any situation I'd ever been in before and I couldn't ask anyone for help. I had to think of some sort of plan. If only I could get loose, maybe I could redirect the ship. If only...

*Demstar IV* After what seemed like forever the ship landed. I only knew this because I heard a thud. I had given up trying to free myself a few hours ago and was now laying on the the floor the ship. I sat up as the door opened and a green alien in a horned helmet with some sort of clipboard walked into the ship.
"This is it? I thought he'd be bigger," the guard told another on the outside. He grabbed the end of the chain and pulled me up. He led me outside onto a mountain where a blizzard was taking place, it was freezing. His partner looked almost identical to himself.
"King Zelku says Reshef sold him and claims he that this mutant as they're called caused him a lot of problems. It must be dangerous," the other guard explained to the other.
"What the hell are they talking about?" I wondered as they led me off of the mountain and into a desert. This planet clearly had a unique climate. It didn't just slowly change from hot to cold in areas like it did on Earth. Here it had just went from bilzzard to dessert instantly. I wished I had on more than my costume and street clothes considering how inconsistent this weather was. I was expecting a hurricane at some point.
Soon we were in a meadow and could see a castle on the horizon. It looked medieval, like something out of Harry Potter. Then I started thinking, "What exactly am I being brought into? What's in there? And how was I supposed to get back to Earth from here?"
The next few minutes seemed like hours. The gigantic wooden doors to the castle slowly creeked open before the guards pulled me inside. The inside of the castle actually didn't smell bad. It smelt good, like a bakery of some sort. I was hoping that was gladiator food I was smelling. The guards led me down corridor after corridor until we got to a large spiral staircase, they led me up it.
Finally I was led into the king's quarters. He was sitting in a throne, waiting from the looks of it. "Is this the human?" he asked the guards. They nodded.
He walked over to me and started to inspect me. He didn't say anything, just grunts and nods and headshakes. "He'll do," he went on. "Aracnor, is it?" he asked me in English.
"Well I haven't used that name in a while. I don't like it too much either. Always seemed kind of lame if you ask me. Never was my choice," I smart talked my answer. It was probably a bad idea but I didn't think about it at the time.
"Now now Jason... that is your other name, isn't it?" he asked without waiting for answer. "Jason, I'm not your enemy here. Reshef simply saw you as a problem and instead of letting him kill you I bought you so you could come here and fight as a gladiator for the entertainment of my people. Now it isn't as bad as you think. You'll be well accomadated. If anything this is a reward. And you'll be inspiring the people of my world through your bravery and strength. It'll almost be like Earth, possibly better," Zelku explained to me.
"Right... so I'm just going to be a gladiator until I die? Is that it?" I asked.
"It's possible. But you never know, you may learn to love it," Zelku told me.
I was quiet. I didn't exactly know what I should say. I didn't think it was a good idea for me to tell him that I was planning on escaping somehow. I knew he wouldn't believe me but I didn't wanted to test it.
"Now, there will be two fights today at high sun," Zelku started. "The first you will watch, the second you will participate in. I'd like to see you in action. Afterwards you shall be escorted to your quarters and provided a meal, so long as your opponent doesn't kill you, not that it happens often. It very rare does actually."
The next ten minutes seemed to go by like a second for some reason. Zelku and his guards led me into the colloseum of the castle, it in the very back connected to the castle, technically they were two seperate buildings.I watched a green centaur battle against a cyborg. They didn't kill each other. I guess I could worry less about getting killed now. Next the guards unlocked my cuffs so I could enter my battle.
Considering my very limited options, I jumped into the arena. As I did so a large lizard that looked to be made of stone walked into the arena. He looked vicious and had armor covering his shoulders and chest.
"So you're the new guy?" he asked in raspy voice.
"Yeah. Guess that's what you'd call me," I replied. From the fight I saw before I knew I didn't need to worry. We just needed to knock each other around a little bit until one of us quit or got knocked out. Easy.
The ground opened up next to us and a shelf of weapons rose from it. There were spears, maces, axes, clubs, and swords. I reached for a club but the lizard knocked me out of the way and into the wall of the colloseum so he could grab the club I was going for. The shelf went back into the ground and closed again before I even had a chance to get up.
"Oh yeah... ladies first, my bad..." I muttered as I got up. He charged at me and swung the club at me, I jumped out of the way and onto the side of the wall. I jumped off of it and drop kicked him in the face.
He stumbled back but also managed to swing his club at me again and hit me. I was knocked against the wall again. I shot a load of web into his face, then a webline to yank the club out of his hands. I punched him in the face twice before I kicked him in the jaw. He recovered quickly and tried to grab me but I ducked out of the way and kicked his feet from beneath him and made him fall over.
I picked him up and smashed his head against the wall continuously until he was out cold. I tossed him into the center of the arena. The doors on the other end were opened as two guards came in to pick up my fallen foe. I walked past them and out of the arena. A guard was waiting for me, he led me to my "quarters".
I was shoved into a room with the centaur I saw before. The room itself wasn't horrible. It was clean and there were two beds and a tv(or at least it resembled one) against the wall. Not much else. There was a nightstand between the two beds. It kind of reminded me of a college dorm room of some sort. The guards closed the door behind me.
"Umm... hi?" I introduced myself.
"Greetings... I'm Orcos," the centaur rose from his bed to his full height(he must've been 7 feet tall, he was huge!) and extended his hand to me. I shook it.
"I'm Jason."
"What are you in for?" he asked.
"Umm... kind of a long story. This alien, Reshef, took over my planet. He didn't like me too much, let's put it that way," I explained vaguely.
"I see. I've heard of Reshef. I had no idea he took over planets. Only that he eliminates a species almost completely then takes the strongest of the remaining for his own," Orcos replied.
"What are you in for?" I asked.
"Well my species was in a cold war with the minotaurs. Then one day they finally attacked us when we were off guard. They sent me here when I failed to surrender to them, they weren't strong enough to actually kill me," Orcos looked at a desk between the two beds. He picked up a disc from it and clicked a button on it. "This is my family," he showed it to me. There was a female centaur, and a smaller male centaur. "They are dead now."
"I'm so sorry for you," I sympathized.
"It's fine... Galactus did it. He took my planet. It wasn't the minotaurs. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if it were them," Orcos told me.
I searched my pockets until I found a picture. I forgot I had it, it was Miu. I showed it to Orcos.
"Is this your mate?" he asked.
"Yeah, except I haven't talked to her in over a year. After Reshef took over I ran away to keep her safe. I saw her right before I got captured... I'm not sure if she saw me but I saw her and tried leaving but got caught by Reshef after I killed one of his goons," I explained.
"That's a shame. You must have cared deeply for her. I can hear it in your voice."
"Yeah... I do... I told her we'd be together soon but every day that just becomes more and more of a lie," I put the picture down on the desk and looked at the blank tv screen. I started to worry about her. I knew Reshef had no idea I cared about her but still, if my clone somehow found out then she could be in danger. I couldn't let her be killed.
I layed down on the bed and stared at the ceiling for a while. Finally the door re-opened. "Meal time," the guard told us.
"What?" I asked Orcos.
"Come on," he told me. I follwed him. The guards led us to a large mess hall. Orcos walked me over to another pair that we sat down with. One appeared to be male, I only say that because he must've been a robot of some sort since he had wires exposed on his arms.
The other was a femlae with purple skin and dark purple hair and green eyes. She reminded me of a fox a bit and was wearing a lot of jewelery(bracelets, necklaces, earrings, no rings).

"This is Liarea and Threever," Orcos introduced me to the female and cyborg respectively. Then he turned to them and said, "This is Jason."

"Your fight was impressive earlier but your style was predictible," Threever told me.

"Thanks... I think," I replied.

"Don't mind Threever. Everyone is predictible to him," Liarea said.

"Well that's a relief;" I said as I sat down and took a look at my food. It didn't look very appealing but at the same time it didn't smell that bad.

"I believe King Zelku's chefs know how to chemically alter the food to fit the needs of any species. It's completely safe," Orcos assured me noticing my aprehension about eating it. I took a bite and as Orcos said it was fine. It had a strange taste though. It was like I took a bite of fruit, meat, and bread all at once. I guess that's what 'needs of any species' meant. I took a sip of my drink. Water. I wondered if they'd give me any extra if I asked, it was the only thing that tasted normal to me.

"How long have you guys been here?" I asked.

"8 years," Orcos answered.

"3 years," Liarea followed.

"1 year," Threever finished.

"Has anyone ever tried to escape?" I continued.

"Yes, but they've all failed," Orcos said.

"Do you have a plan?" Threever inquired.

"No... not yet, but I'm gonna get back to Earth as soon as I can so if you guys wanna help we can get out together," I explaine my idea. The three of them nodded in agreeance.

The next year came and went leaving the 4 of us nowhere closer to escaping. Everything was the same every day. Wake up. Eat. Train. Fight. Eat. Back to Quarters. Sleep. Repeat. The only thing that ever changed was my opponent for the day. Orcos, Threever, and Liarea were all extremely skilled. I always had trouble with Liarea, I could never beat her.

I was getting more and more worried about Earth and what Reshef was doing to it. For all I knew he blew it up. I hated thinking about it every single day. I needed to think of a plan to get back to Earth but I had no ideas and neither did the others.

One day King Zelku called all of the gladiators to the arena but it wasn't for a fight. It was for some sort of announcement. "Gladiators, I've summoned you for an announcement regarding today's battles," he started. "There shall only be 5 fights, but these fights in order to win one combatant must die. That means you must kill your opponent at all costs. Hold nothing back."

Everyone was silent. I knew just about everyone here had killed someone before but this came as a shock. The whole time I was here I hadn't seen anyone die in battle. I wasn't ready to kill someone, at least not for no reason. It seemed like everyone else felt the same way, especially his daughter, Princess Luxzaria.

The only bright side to this was that there only going to be 5 fights, that meant only 10 out of the 100 or so gladiators would be fighting today. The odds of me having to kill someone were slim. Unfortunately for me luck wasn't on my side. I was picked for the last fight. Even worse it was against Liarea. She was my friend and I hadn't been able to defeat her yet.

"What are we going to do?" I asked Liarea as we watched the first fight.

"I'm not sure. I don't want to die but I do not wish to kill you either. You're a good ally," Liarea replied. The meathead I first fought had just torn a wing off of a guy who liked a zoo threw up on him. He had an assortment of wings, claws, tails, fangs, scales, feathers, etc. "I shall not hold back though, I suggest you do the same. I wish you luck."

DAMMIT! She was going to go all out on me. "Are you serious? What about the plan?" I demanded. Franken-zoo was now clawing at Meathead's face from the air and managed to blind him.

"The plan? The one we've been 'working on' for the past year. No offense Jason but it's not happening," she responded coldly. Meathead flailed blindly trying to hit Franken-zoo who was too high up for him to even reach. He was done for but he was too stupid to realize it as he paniced.

The next thirty seconds went by in slow motion. Franken-zoo flew down and swiftly slashed at Meathead's neck while avoiding his flails. Meathead was losing blood fast, it didn't take long for him to collapse and finally die. I stared at his lifeless corpse knowing that pretty soon either Liaria or myself would be just like him.

The next 3 fights all ended with the same result. By the time Liaria and I entered the battlefield the ground was soaked in blood. I took a lightweight sword and Liaria took a spear. I looked at her and waited for her to make a move.

Everyone waited silently anticipating our fight. Finally Liaria swung at me. I jumped back. She came at me again and again forcing me closer and closer to the wall until finally my back was pressed to it. I backflipped, kicking her jaw in the process and stuck to the wall 8 feet above the ground. I kicked off and swung my sword at Liaria but she had already sidestepped me and was going for a stab at where I landed. I pushed off of the ground with my free hand and moved forward out of the way of her stab.

"Come on Jason, stop running and fight me already," Liaria taunted me.

"If that's what you want," I replied as I landed and blocked lunge with my sword and shot a blast of webbing into her eyes with my free hand. She wasn't entirely thrown off by this and was able to knock me to the ground still. I shot a webline at her foot and yanked her feet out from under her. I grabbed her by the feet and threw her against the wall as she ripped the webbing off of her eyes.

I took my sword and stabbed her in the shoulder, knowing that blow wouldn't kill her. Liaria screamed in pain then slammed her head back and hit me in jaw. I stumbled back and was hit by kick to the neck. I fell to the ground and dropped my sword. Liaria grabbed it as I struggled to my feet and jumped at me. I managed to avoid getting hit in the chest but she still managed to slice my arm.

She came at me again but this time I was ready so backflipped out of the way. She followed and I rolled out of the way, grabbing her spear from the ground in the process. I used it to block her next attack at me then kicked her in the stomach. I stabbed her in the lower abs and she stabbed me right next to my heart. Too close for comfort. I had to beat her now. I had no idea how much longer I could fight like this or how long this would take to heal.

I let go of my spear and punched her in the face as hard as I could. Liaria flew across the stadium. As she got to attack me I was already getting ready to counter her. We met in the middle of the arena where I ducked under a punch she threw at me and countered it with a swift kick to the side. I shot a webline at her and yanked her back at me then punched her in the jaw.

Liaria groaned, "You finally let loose... good job."

"What are you talking about?" I asked her as I put her down. She collapsed to the ground.

"I knew you wouldn't give it your all against me unless I got you mad at me... it worked... now you can find a way out of here and save your home..." she looked up at me.

"I'm not killing you. You're my friend," I told Liaria.

The crowd became silent, waiting for me to do something. Finally King Zelku stood and told me, "Kill her."

"No. I beat her. I don't have to kill her and you know it," I replied as I turned around and walked away. The audience started cheering for me.

When I got out of the arena I was grabbed by two guards, as expected. I wondered what would happen next as they dragged me off.