The dire wolves and the sabre-toothed tigers are next. They begin to walk slowly along the sides of the arena, trying to take measure of their opponents, and moving to surround them.
The last ones to come out of the den are the griffins. They are creatures that have the bodies, tails and legs of lions, while their heads, wings, and talons are those of eagles. Like the harpies and the gargoyles before them, the first thing that the griffins do is to soar to the air, in order to get a better view of their targets.
Damn it! I knew I should have killed them in the underground caves, where they couldn’t use their wings to fly away. This is definitely not going to be an easy fight for Kate, even if I did tell her all these monsters’ weaknesses.
The sabre-toothed tigers and the dire wolves are the first to attack. When Kate’s teammates see the beasts charge towards them, some of them start screaming and running away as fast as they can, while others charge right back at the creatures, in a desperate attempt to intimidate them.
Kate is the only one who seems calm and collected, as her instincts take over again, just like in the ogre shaman’s illusion, and she begins to move between one creature and another, slitting one’s throat and then switching to the next target, without any wasted movements.
Even so, the enemies on the ground are by far the weakest of the group. The real threats are the gargoyles and the griffins. With the gargoyles’ strength and the griffins’ size, I can see very few ways in which Kate would be able to win a fight against them, especially while they’ve got the air advantage.
The griffins are now beginning to descend towards the gladiators, and they quickly make their first victim. One of the more frail looking gladiators in Kate’s group gets grabbed in a griffin’s claws, and the beast starts to peck at the man’s chest with its beak, while he is still alive. Hearing the man’s cries for help, and his terrible screams, the other men abandon all pretense of courage, and they run away as fast as they can, in all directions. One of the other griffins comes down, and it tries to attack Kate.
Knowing the creature’s behavior and attack patterns, Kate manages to step out of the way, and to slash at one of the creature’s claws with her dagger, but she doesn’t get to hurt the beast much before it flies back up, preparing itself for another dive.
“Things aren’t looking very good for Kate,” Leila writes to me. “In the worst case scenario, she might even be forced to use her ice magic. You know what that means, right?”
“Yeah,” I say. “The punishment for using magic in the arena is death. In order to get out of here alive after that, she’d have to fight every single guard in the place, and to make this entire kingdom into her enemy.”
“And what would you do if that happened?” Leila writes, looking at me with a very serious expression on her face. “Would you join her, and make the kingdom into your enemy as well? Would you be willing to forsake the Magium tournament and your ambitions, in order to take her side on the battlefield?”
I open my mouth to answer Leila, but the words get stuck in my throat.
Would I be able to do it? Would I be able to give up this tournament, knowing full well that it may be the only way to fulfill my lifelong dream?
“I don’t… I’m not…” I try to say, but I still don’t manage to give her an answer.
While I was busy trying to formulate a coherent sentence, Kate was getting chased by one of the griffins all the way to the wall that is next to our division’s gate, and then she got backed against said wall, with no place to escape.
“Time is running out, Barry…” Leila writes, with the same serious expression on her face. “What are you going to choose?”
This is it. It’s over. It’s all over.
There’s no way I could just abandon Kate like this. Not after all we’ve been through together. I suppose it’s finally time to say goodbye to this tournament. It was fun while it lasted. Maybe I will find another way to become a mage. Someday…
“Get ready,” I tell Leila. “As soon as Kate casts her first spell, I’m going to need you to cut these iron bars for me. I’ll be joining her in the arena soon enough.”
“I was hoping you’d say that,” Leila writes, with a relieved smile on her face. “Do not worry. When it will come down to it, you will not go there alone. Even if your other friends don’t join you, I am prepared to take Kate’s side, no matter the cost.”
The griffin is now descending towards Kate, slowly, while still maintaining a bit of altitude, and it is preparing to go for the finishing move. Kate appears to have lost her dagger, and there are no weapons in sight. I can already feel the air around us getting chillier.
Just as Leila was preparing her daggers, one of the iron gates suddenly gets blown out of its hinges, and it drops to the ground, with a loud clang. Within seconds, Hadrik comes out of the gate, and he makes a dash towards the griffin attacking Kate, making a very high jump, and landing on the beast’s back. The griffin doesn’t appear to be too happy about what’s happening, and it attempts to throw Hadrik off its back by doing sudden, violent movements, and by flapping its wings continuously.
“Hah!” Hadrik says, while he maintains his balance by holding onto the griffin’s mane with one of his hands. “I always wanted to ride one of these!”
He then uses his other hand to wave towards the crowd, and he shouts as loud as he can:
“Did you miss me?”
The crowd explodes in an outburst of shouts and cheers, as the griffin keeps trying to shake Hadrik off its back with all its might. Seeing that the beast is not planning to settle down anytime soon, Hadrik grabs its head with both hands, and he snaps its neck with one quick movement of his arms.
“Down we go!” Hadrik says, as the griffin falls to the ground, along with him.
He then jumps off the creature, and he heads towards Kate.
“Are you alright, milady?” Hadrik says, with a bow.
“Hadrik, what are you doing here?” Kate says, shocked. “You’re not allowed to help me! They’ll ban you from the tournament!”
“No, they won’t,” Hadrik says. “There was never any such rule. Didn’t you pay attention to the announcements at the beginning?”
He then lowers his voice, so that the announcer and the spectators can’t hear him.
“And besides,” Hadrik says. “You were planning to use your ice magic just now, weren’t you?”
“I…” Kate starts to say, but she hesitates to continue.
“No need to worry about it!” Hadrik says, as he pats her on the side of her arm. “All I wanted was to make sure that this magnificent arena event can continue to run its course until the very end!”
He then walks away from her, and he looks towards the monsters, trying to decide which one to attack first.
“Attention, participant Hadrik!” the announcer says, loudly. “You will leave the fighting area immediately or you will face the consequences, do you understand?”
“And by these consequences,” Hadrik says. “do you mean to say that I’ll be invited to join a bonus round at the end of the event?”
“Well…” the announcer says. “Technically, yes. But you still can’t interfere with the fights of other participants!”
“Why not?” Hadrik asks. “Is that one of the standard arena rules?”
“Well, no, but—”
“Then I don’t see the problem!” Hadrik says.
“The problem is that you are ruining the show!” the announcer blurts out, all of a sudden.
“Oh, am I?” Hadrik says, with a grin.
He then turns towards the audience, and he raises his arms.
“What do you all think?” Hadrik shouts at the crowd. “Am I ruining the show?”
“Nooooo!” the spectators shout, in unison.
“Do you want me to stay?” Hadrik asks them.
In answer to Hadrik’s question, the crowd cheers louder than ever before.
“Well, I guess that’s settled, then!” Hadrik says, to
the announcer, and then he rushes towards a griffin that’s flying at a lower altitude.
He jumps on the creature’s back, just like he did with the previous one, and he holds onto its mane firmly, making sure to not get thrown down. The griffin tries to shake him off, just like the one before, but this time, the beast stops moving after a while, looking almost as if it were accepting Hadrik as its new master.
“I see you’re smarter than the other one!” Hadrik says. “Alright then, let’s see how well you cooperate. First, we’ll go over there. If we’re really doing this, then I’m going to need a weapon with long reach, before anything else.”
To everyone’s shock, the griffin obediently follows Hadrik’s order, and it leads him all the way to the side of the arena, so that he can take a halberd off the wall. He then pulls on the griffin’s mane, in order to show it the direction that he wants to go in, and the creature flies him all the way to one of the gargoyles, up in the sky. Hadrik cuts the head off the gargoyle’s shoulders in one single movement of his halberd, and then he orders the griffin to move on to the next target. In the next few minutes, the dwarf travels from one monster to another, on the back of his trusty griffin, and he kills all of them in quick succession, without so much as breaking a sweat.
As the two of them finally descend to the ground, Hadrik sees that Kate had also taken care of the sabre-toothed tigers and the dire wolves on the ground in the meantime. This leaves Hadrik’s griffin as the last remaining monster on the battlefield. As the crowds keep cheering, Hadrik lands on the ground, dismounts his griffin, and then he raises his arms in the air, to silence the crowd.
“All of the other beasts are dead,” Hadrik says, to the announcer. “This last one has already surrendered itself to me. I request permission to spare its life, as a token of gratitude for its services! What say you?”
“Preposterous!” the announcer shouts. “Do you seriously expect—”
“Permission granted,” we hear the arena owner’s voice, as he makes his way on top of the elevated platform that the announcer is standing on. “If that is your wish, then we will take this griffin back to its cell, we will feed it, and then we will release it back into the wild. There will likely never be an event like this again in my lifetime, so there would be no reason to keep this beast shackled any longer.”
“Much obliged!” Hadrik says.
“I hope,” the arena owner says, “that you will continue to provide us with the same level of quality entertainment in the fourth round as in the previous two fights.”
“I will do my best!” Hadrik says.
“Oh,” the owner says. “And I will be expecting the same from you, Miss Kate, since you will also be joining your friend in the extra round as an undesirable. Given that his transgression of the rules was done specifically to save your life, I trust that there will be no objections?”
“No…” Kate says. “I have no objections.”
“Very well!” the owner says. “Now, if you all don’t mind, I would appreciate it if you cleared the fighting area as soon as possible. The next division’s fight is about to start.”
As the owner turns to leave, Kate and the others also head towards their respective division areas, while the warriors of the sixth division are preparing to enter the battlefield.
The next few battles weren’t really anything special. A few gladiators died here and there, but most of them survived, and the number of creatures that were being thrown at them in each fight became gradually smaller, as the arena’s stocks of regular creatures began to slowly deplete as well.
As I keep watching the fights, I’m starting to get a feeling of relief, because most, if not all of the warriors that we’ve seen since Kate’s battle are nowhere near strong enough to deal with monsters such as manticores or desert marauders. This means that defeating them should be a piece of cake. Maybe this arena wasn’t so scary after all!
“Don’t get too relaxed,” Leila writes, as she sees the expression on my face, while we watch the final battle of the round. “We still have no idea how we’re going to defeat the troll, and to be frank, I think he’s going to be much more dangerous than the monsters we’ve fought so far.”
“Yes, but you are forgetting something!” I tell Leila. “We are the fourth division. This means that the troll will have to go through Hadrik and Daren before he reaches us. Regeneration or no, I honestly couldn’t even imagine Hadrik losing a duel against him, after the way he’s fought in this first round. The way I see it, they may as well be crowning us victors of this arena event right now, because there really isn’t much of a point in dragging this any long—”
“Attention, all gladiators!” the announcer says in a very loud voice, all of a sudden.
While I was talking with Leila, it seems that the final battle had already ended, and the warriors were now returning to their division area.
“There has been a slight change in our fight schedule for the second round!” the announcer continues. “Unlike the first round, where the divisions have been fighting in the order of their division numbers, in this second round there will be one exception to the rule. By special request of our esteemed arena owner, mister Venard, the first division to fight Velgos in the second round will be none other than division number four! Gladiators of the fourth division, please make sure that you are ready! The fight will begin in the next few minutes.”
“Humans!” we hear the voice of Velgos the troll, shouting from the other end of the arena, as soon as the announcer stops talking. “Your time is up! There is nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. All that awaits you is death. Blame your fate for having been unlucky enough to cross paths with Velgos the mercenary!”
The crowds are going wild again, just like they did after Hadrik’s first fight, and they’re chanting the troll’s name loudly over and over.
“Velgos! Velgos! Velgos!” they all keep chanting, as the troll waves to the crowd and makes intimidating gestures towards us, every once in a while.
“Huh,” I tell Leila. “Well… damn.”
Chapter 5
“Stillwater!” Bruce shouts. “Hey, stillwater, are you listening?”
I suddenly realize that I’ve been so lost in my own thoughts for the past minute, that I’ve been completely neglecting my surroundings. Wilhelm seems to have already returned to our room while I was spacing out, and judging by Bruce’s tone of voice, I can only assume that he asked me a question, but I cannot for the life of me remember what it was.
“Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention,” I tell him. “Could you repeat that?”
“I was talking about Wilhelm,” Bruce says. “We can’t let him roam free throughout the arena after what he did last round. Who knows who he’ll try to kill next? I say we tie him up, and leave him here. It’s safer that way.”
“He already tried and failed to assassinate me once,” I say. “He’s not foolish enough to try that again. I say we let him fight with us. We’ll need all the help we can get against that troll.”
“If you’re worried about me backstabbing you,” Wilhelm says, “then I’ll make sure to always be in your line of sight during the battle, so you can keep your eyes on me without much effort. Would that be enough to put your worries to rest?”
“I suppose…” Bruce says. “As long as I can easily see where you are at all times, you’re not much of a threat.”
“Very well,” Wilhelm says. “Fighting on the front lines is not exactly ideal for me, but I’d rather do this than be forced to fight alone. I only hope that you won’t take advantage of this situation to use me as a decoy.”
Damn it! Now I’ve lost my train of thought. What was I thinking about, before I got interrupted? I’m sure it had something to do with the troll.
As I take another look towards the fighting area and see the troll still waving at the crowds, my previous thoughts suddenly come back to me.
“Hey, Leila,” I say. “Is it just me or is the troll wearing different armor this time around?”
“Yes,” Leila writes. “It’s still anti-magic armor, but now he also has shoulder pads. He probably switched armors in order to make it harder for us to cut his head off again.”
“Correct me if I’m wrong,” I say, “but isn’t this specific model of armor he’s wearing vulnerable to regular fire?”
“The armor he is wearing does not protect him against regular fire at all,” Leila writes. “Only against magical fire.”
“That’s what I thought,” I say, and then I head towards the door leading to the corridors outside our room.
As I prepare to open the door, I turn towards Leila, to give her one final message before I go.
“Leila, could you do me a favor?” I tell her. “I need you to take one of the torches that are lighting the halls and to bring it with you in the arena when the round begins. Make sure that you don’t let the troll see it, when you approach him. When we’re both in the fighting area, I’ll give you a signal, and then you can throw the torch at him. Got it?”
“Yes, but where are you going?” Leila writes. “What are you planning to do?”
“You’ll find out soon enough,” I say, and then I walk out the door.
I make sure that the guards are nowhere in sight, and I start heading directly towards Hadrik’s division area. If memory serves, his room should be very close to ours. I make my way down the hallway as fast as I can, and I try to figure out which one of the doors leads to the dwarf’s room. When I hear Hadrik’s laughter coming from behind one of the doors, I realize that I’ve reached my destination, and I knock on the door three times, calling out to him, to let him know who it is.
“Hadrik, are you in there?” I say.
“Yeah, yeah, give me a sec!” Hadrik says, and he opens the door for me a few seconds later.
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