by Erin Johnson
I shook my head and backed up. Great, a fire-breathing dragon, easy peasy. But as I watched it, I spotted a scar over its left eye, which was white and cloudy. He’d been blinded. And a ring of scales was missed from the area around its neck where the chain rubbed, revealing red, scabbed skin below. I gulped. As much as I didn’t want to pity the fearsome creature that was about to try to eat me, I couldn’t help myself. Absentmindedly, I stroked my thumb over Sam’s smooth scales as he wrapped tighter around my wrist.
The next gate lifted and the announcer’s voice cut over the din of the crowd. “Next, we have the one-eyed spider Spineripper, trained by monsterman Kaito Endo and sponsored by moneylender Hinata Takahashi.” The crowd clapped and cheered as an enormous black spider, nearly as big as the dragon, scuttled out of the shadows. One large, eerily human blue eyeball blinked at us from the center of its round body. Its long legs hugged close around it, knees bent high above its trainer’s head. But this creature was just another victim. Great, bloody gashes crisscrossed its hairy black body, and one of its eight limbs trailed limply behind it, broken. Poor thing. I frowned at myself. Was I turning into Maple?
The third and final gate lifted. Out marched a four-limbed creature with a tree sprouting out of its back. Twisted, wooden branches formed its limbs, and a humanoid, noseless face looked out at us. Its branch-like ribs showed through the bark on its sides and black scorch marks marred its body all over, places where the creature had been burned. I gritted my teeth. What kind of sickos could torture animals? I shook my head. Apparently the same kind of sickos who could throw people into pits to be eaten alive by them.
“And lastly, we have the tree creature, Shish, led by Asahi Abe and sponsored by developer Yuuto Endo.” The crowd cheered again.
The trainers left their beasts, who remained stock still, at the entrance to the tunnels. The two men and woman shook hands with each other, and then moved to each other’s beasts.
I frowned. What were they doing?
The woman aimed her wand at the tree creature and light flashed from the end, again and again, though nothing appeared to be happening.
“They’re examining each other’s monsters.”
A familiar deep voice cut through the din and made me spin around. I shielded my eyes with one hand and peered up into the crowd. Ryuu Tanaka sat on a gold throne right at the edge of the ring, directly behind me. Two beautiful young women who could’ve been his granddaughter’s age sat beside him, stroking his arms.
“Why?” One batted her dark lashes.
The women leaned closer as Ryuu Tanaka explained. I rolled my eyes—I was sure he was just eating this up.
“They’re checking for hexes or illegal potions.”
One woman’s eyes widened. “Do people cheat?”
Ryuu Tanaka shrugged. “It’s happened before. But I run a clean monster fight.”
I scoffed. Clean, my barnacles. There was nothing clean about this whole disgusting business of torturing and murdering for sport.
One of the women pointed right at me. “Why do they put those people in there?”
Ryuu Tanaka caught me looking. My first instinct was to turn away, but I forced myself to stand still and meet his gaze, even though my legs trembled under me.
His lips curled back. “They’re there as bait, to get the monsters good and aggressive and ready for the kill before they turn on each other.”
Well, I might just throw up now.
“Monstermen and woman, do you approve of each other’s competitors?”
The announcer’s voice boomed and I spun around to watch the creatures again. The two men and woman returned to their own monsters and nodded their agreement.
“Excellent! Then the fight will commence as soon as you have taken your places.”
The trainers bowed to each other, then the crowd, and finally to… me? I frowned, then realized they’d bowed to Ryuu Tanaka, who sat directly behind me. They retreated back into the tunnels and the gates slammed shut behind them.
I inched closer to Captain Kenta, who stood doubled over with his hands on his knees. The man could barely stand. “What do we do?”
He looked up at me and shook his head.
“Come on, we have to at least try to fight back, right?”
He licked his dry, chapped lips. “I can barely stand, Imogen, much less fight off three monsters.”
I looked up at the three creatures in the ring with us. They all stared right at me and Kenta. Long lines of saliva dripped from the dragon’s jaws, and the spider’s pupil narrowed to a tiny pinprick.
“Are you ready for one of the most thrilling, savage shows in the world?” The announcer’s voice echoed around the pit and the crowd went wild.
“Come on, Kenta,” I growled. “We can’t just let them make a spectacle out of us. We have to fight back.”
He looked up at me and gritted his teeth. His nostrils flared with his breath and finally he gave a sharp nod. “You’re right.” He straightened up and I slid an arm around his shoulders to steady him.
Behind me, Ryuu Tanaka’s voice cut through the crowd. “Return their magic to them. We want this to be entertaining.” The crowd shouted and laughed and more fruit and trash flew through the air into the ring.
Ow. I pressed a hand to my neck. Something must’ve hit me. I patted at my throat, and instead of a piece of debris, I found a feathered dart in my neck. One stuck out of Sam’s scales and another from Kenta’s back, as well. A shimmering net spread over the top of the pit and suddenly my sense of magic returned. Those darts must’ve held the antidote.
I took a quick breath, pulled in magic from the frenetic, bloodthirsty energy of the crowd, and spun. I fired a summoning spell right at Ryuu Tanaka’s head to drag him down into this pit with us. But a flash of light glinted off the shimmering net and fizzled out with a small sizzle of black smoke. I frowned as Ryuu Tanaka sneered.
“It’s a shield.” Kenta glanced up. “Nothing’s getting in or out.”
“Great.” I let out a shaky breath and turned back to face the creatures. “What do we do?”
Kenta’s breath came in pants. “I’ve been a guard for years now, and I’m familiar with these monsters.” He gulped. “I’m not strong enough to do much, but you and your friend might be.”
Sam uncoiled from my wrist and in a whirl of magic spun back to human form. I wrapped my arms around him in a tight hug and he leaned his head on my shoulder. I grabbed his thin arms. “Be brave, Sam. We can do this.”
Tears welled in his milky eyes but he nodded.
The announcer’s voice boomed. “Trainers, are you ready?”
The crowd cheered and the trainers raised their wands from behind the grates.
Oh goddess, it was happening. I lifted my palms, as ready as I’d ever be.
“Trainers!” the announcer called out in his gleeful tone. “Release your beasts!”
27
The Showdown
Flashes of light flared in the darkness of the tunnels as the trainers cast their spells. The thick chain dropped from the dragon’s neck, the one-eyed spider stretched out its cramped legs, and the tree creature’s branches rattled and waved on its back, as though a wind blew through them.
Sam, Captain Kenta, and I retreated as the monsters shook their heads and tested their freedom by taking a few tentative steps toward us. I looked around at the arena. The walls that trapped us had to be at least twenty feet high and made of smooth-cut stone. There was no way I was scaling them, much less Kenta, as weakened as he was.
I looked over at Sam, and then back up at the cheering crowd around us. Men and women clapped their hands and joined in some chant they all apparently knew. The shimmering forcefield blurred their faces. If it weren’t for that, I’d have told Sam to shift into a snake and then I’d have tried to toss him out and see if he could find his way to safety out of the tunnels. I shook my head. It was no good, we were all trapped.
As I looked around, I took note of the torches bur
ning in their wall brackets. They were mounted high on the wall, but we could summon them with magic. I’d keep that in mind.
The dragon tossed its massive head, then threw it back and bellowed to the ceiling, sending up a stream of flame. The crowd gasped and applauded, while Sam shrank against my left side. The one-eyed spider pulled a pretty sweet move and climbed up the wall. It scuttled toward us, staying just below the forcefield. Meanwhile the tree creature bounded away from the dragon, the branches and vines on its back snaking and writhing.
I tensed my body, palms raised, and glanced at Kenta to my right. He pressed one hand to his stomach, his face a shade of pale green. Sweat beaded on his forehead despite the cold in the stone pit.
He swung his gaze to me, and despite the pallor of his face, his dark eyes burned with intensity. “I’m captain of the guard and I know these creatures well. I may not have much strength left, but you two do.”
My breath quickened as the spider scuttled closer and the tree creature appeared to notice us for the first time. The plants on its back grew absolutely still as it stared at us.
Kenta gasped in a breath and continued, though his voice came out strained. “The tree creature—it’s afraid of fire.”
Sam whimpered as the thing advanced on us, stalking forward like a lion tracking its prey. I racked my brain. Did I know a fire spell? If only Iggy were here. Maybe we could get the dragon to turn on the tree thing? My breath came in pants. I glanced around and remembered the torches on the wall. We could use them. Then I spotted the spider. It was more than halfway toward us, creeping forward with those spindly black legs.
I jerked my chin at it. “What about the spider?”
Kenta, nearly doubled over, darted his eyes toward it as it advanced on him from the right. “It doesn’t have great vision and it has a soft underbelly. If we can distract it, maybe one of us can come up from below and strike.”
I pressed my lips tight together. That would work if the thing came down from the wall. And even if it did, then one of us had to crawl underneath a giant spider and burn it with a torch—while still under it.
The dragon roared again, and the hairs on my neck and arms stood on end. It thrashed its head and paced the edge of the arena, coming toward us from the left. “What about it?” I jerked my chin toward the scaled creature.
Kenta braced his pale hands against his thighs. “You have to hit it between its scales. Normally that’s just between its toes, but the chain’s rubbed its neck raw and exposed skin there.”
My stomach twisted as the dragon passed a torch and it lit up the bloody, scabbed extent of the damage from the chain. The crowd grew louder and my forehead and underarms grew wet with a cold sweat. The creatures closed in on us.
Kenta grunted and stiffly stood tall. I had to admire his determination. He must’ve been starved and dehydrated from days of confinement. I gulped as I took in the advancing tree creature and the scorch marks on its bark. How much more had these animals endured? I bit my lip. But it was us or them, right? Now was not the time to feel pity.
Captain Kenta gritted his teeth. “All right. I say we split up. It’s Sam, right? You go for the dragon, can you do that? Just get its attention. Imogen, you and I will lure the tree creature toward the dragon, and we’ll get them to turn on each other.”
“Uh-huh,” I answered absentmindedly. I could barely focus. The chanting and cheering from the crowd pounded into my brain, fear set my nerves on edge as I looked from one enormous monster to the next, and as I steeled myself to kill them or be killed, I couldn’t help noticing the protruding ribs, bloody gashes, and blistered burns. I definitely felt like murdering someone. It was just Ryuu Tanaka and all the sickos who found this entertaining, not the creatures.
“Then we’ll take on the spider. We’ll need to lure it off the wall if it doesn’t come down on its own. I’ll pretend to be injured, which won’t be hard.” Kenta gave a humorless chuckle.
My eyes darted from creature to creature. “Uh-huh.”
“I usually use a wand, but think I can still manage to focus some magic, though it’ll be limited. How about you two?”
I think Sam answered but I didn’t hear it. The tree creature had stopped again a mere fifteen feet away. It lowered its head and stared right at me with its weirdly human face, the leaves of its branches quivering. My heart pounded in my chest and I could actually hear my heartbeat in my head.
My hands trembled as I lifted my palms. The spider crept, slowly but steadily, looming just over Kenta’s shoulder. Its broken leg dangled down the side of the wall. The dragon roared and scraped its scabbed neck against the side of the arena. It stood near enough to torch Sam and me with its fire.
The sound of my own heartbeat and the panting of my breaths drowned out the raucous crowd. They could probably sense the creatures were about to strike and it drove the spectators to a frenzy. They stood, screaming and pounding the half wall that bordered the pit, but it sounded muffled to me, as though I were underwater.
“Imogen?”
I looked over, blinking. Kenta frowned at me. “I said, are you ready?”
I nodded, but turned away to face the crouched tree monster. Ready for what? What was the plan again? Were we really going to kill these beasts?
“One. Two.” Kenta counted, though his voice sounded faraway.
I made a decision. I just hoped it worked. I held my breath and closed my eyes.
“Three!”
I opened my eyes, sucked in a huge breath of air, and magically pulled from the monsters with all my might. Their energy rushed into me, a flood of power, wild and inhuman. It knocked me backwards and I fell hard, banging the back of my head against the stone floor. I lay flat, the breath knocked out of me, black spots dancing before my eyes. I blinked to clear my blurry vision, and Sam’s and Kenta’s faces suddenly hovered over me.
“Imogen. Are you all right?” Sam knelt closer and took my hand.
My limbs shook violently and my teeth chattered. I finally managed to suck in a gasping breath, my chest heaving up off the hard ground.
“D-did. I-it. W-w-work?” My teeth clattered together and I shivered uncontrollably. It was too much energy all at once.
Kenta sat heavily down beside me and grinned. “Yeah. It worked. I don’t know how, but you took them all down.”
I shuddered, and my head jerked to the side. I pressed my eyes shut tight, struggling to get control of my body. “Th-they’re n-not de-dead. I di-didn’t w-want t-t-to hurt th-them.”
Sam squeezed my shaking hand tight and smiled, tears in his eyes. “I didn’t either. The poor thingssss.”
Despite the throbbing in the back of my head and the frenetic energy that ricocheted through my body, I felt warm with pride. I’d managed to both save us and not hurt the monsters. But something seemed odd.
I blinked, and with Sam’s and Kenta’s help, propped myself up on my elbows. I looked around. The three monsters lay sprawled on the ground, unmoving except for the rise and fall of their breathing. Then it hit me—the silence.
I looked up through the glimmering forcefield. The spectators sat or stood, as still as the unconscious monsters, their mouths agape. I turned my head, though it sent a burning pain through my neck, and looked behind me at Ryuu Tanaka. His eyes blazed with steely anger. Ha! Bonus—I’d totally ruined the “show.” Suck it, Tanaka.
I grinned, though my teeth still chattered, and it seemed to break the spell. The crowd erupted with “boos,” and groups of men fought over money, with punches thrown. Ryuu Tanaka stood, his lips curled back in a snarl. “How?” he bellowed.
I grinned wider and Kenta lifted a thick brow. “I’m wondering the same thing, you know?”
I shrugged. I knew I looked smug, but didn’t really care at the moment. “Guess you guys have never met a swallow.”
As the crowd raged around us and the gates lifted for the trainers to collect their defeated monsters, Sam and Kenta grabbed my arms and helped me to my feet. My legs trembl
ed under me and I couldn’t stand on my own, but I beamed. “I had a real Indiana Jones moment back there, huh?”
Sam blinked at me, puzzled, and Kenta frowned.
“You kn-know.” My teeth chattered, still. “You were laying out this whole plan, l-like the guy with the s-sword in the marketplace, and I was just like, bam!” I made little gun hands. “You know, with the p-pistol?”
They shook their heads.
“Like I’ll j-just pull from the monsters, like Indie with his gun and—”
Kenta patted my shoulder. “You should save your strength.” He whispered behind my back to Sam. “I think she’s delirious.”
Sam giggled.
I gasped and looked from one to the other. “W-well, if this is w-what I g-get for sav-saving you, then I—”
The announcer’s voice interrupted me. “What a stunning upset, no one saw that coming! The bait takes down the monsters? It’s an event to go down in history, and you were here to witness it, folks.”
The crowd booed back.
“But don’t worry, our gracious host Ryuu Tanaka has more in store for you next as he unleashes the vilest, most vicious creatures in his stables!”
My stomach twisted and my legs buckled under me. Sam and Kenta dipped to help bring me back upright. Another fight? With even more terrifying monsters? I gulped. “Uh-oh, Dr. Jones.”
Kenta looked Sam up and down. “I didn’t know you were a doctor.”
28
Cat Fight
For several minutes, the ring remained empty aside from Sam, Kenta, and me. The angry, disappointed crowd milled about above. Sam and Kenta still supported me, an arm under each of mine.
I blew out a breath and set my jaw. “Okay, I’m feeling better.” I looked at Sam on my left, and Kenta on my right. “When they bring out the next monsters, I think I’ll be able to pull from at least one or two.” I turned to my right. “Kenta, maybe you can give us the lowdown on the monsters’ weaknesses and you guys can work some magic, too?”