"Welcome! Welcome Sentients, one and all, to the greatest show in the universe! Today begins the Rookie Challenge: The Little Jungle! Jek, how long has this arena been in circulation?" A loud voice echoed through a bright and festive stadium.
"Tade, this arena has been around for a little over a standard galactic year now, and seen about 10,000 contestants! We send in about 100 gladiators in at a time, all here to struggle for advantage in the COSMIC ARENA!" Jek's voice heavily emphasized the namesake of the program he was commentating for, with energy and a deep bass rumbling out from his three of his six throats.
"This is Tade and Jek, and we'll be giving the commentary on the action today. We're just about to send in the gladiators now! Jek, who should we be looking out for this time?"
"Well, I definitely have my eye on Harvin Loquama. His unique ability to handle various high concentrations of energy is something that could take him to the top of the arena, for sure! Even as the concentration of energy drops, he still has some level of control, and can divert it to protect himself! How the heck can you beat that? He's just untouchable, and that pretty face!" Jek was definitely talented at commentating, and his ability to switch between his throats to use different voices and pitches was quite entertaining. He started off with a normal calm analytic voice, but switched to a young fangirl's voice by the end of it.
"I think Jurl the Bruiser might scoff at that! That's a matchup I'm eagerly waiting for, but we'll have to wait for Harvin to rise up from the Rookie League to the Prizefighter League. Harvin can hurl energy at Jurl, but Jurl is famous for being able to take a beating! Can Jurl close the distance? Can Harvin grind him down instead? You just can't get bored of this bloodsport!" Tade was extremely knowledgeable. His cybernetic enhanced memory allowed him to remember every detail and profile of the tens of thousands of participants in the Cosmic Arena. Able to comment on just about everyone, he himself was a spectacle that drew viewers in! It was especially challenging since there was such a high fatality rate in this sport, which meant there was always a flood of newcomers to know about.
"Indeed you can't, Tade! Other than Harvin, there's also Karr and Ferul. Karr is definitely one of the more gifted psionics, and she's likely to do well in the Rookie league, where psionic resistance is pretty rare! She's already shown in her first round she doesn't make the same mistakes your average psionic makes. She ended up utterly dominating that round, controlling the strongest and wiping out the rest! Everyone but her ended up dying in a round that normally has a 40% death rate! We'll see if she can repeat that performance today!" Jek himself was no slouch when it came to knowledge. In a universe that had populations in the quadrillions, the competition to be a Cosmic Arena commentator was fierce!
Tade continued the conversation without missing a beat, "Now, Ferul might be at a disadvantage this round. This humid jungle doesn't burn as easily as the last round! This will be Karr, Ferul and Harvin's first time meeting too, and Ferul probably doesn't match up well vs. Harvin!" Tade and Jek had commentated together for so long, there was a pleasant melody to their conversation.
"That's right! There's only one way for Ferul to win is to get into close range with Harvin, and see who can maintain control of the fire! Even after the difficult challenge of closing the distance, we don't know who would be king of the flames! Who do you think is going to top the leaderboard this time, Tade?"
"Actually, I have my money on a sleeper, Jek! This gladiator didn't get great results in his last round, but he's got great potential! He came out strong and swinging, but was eventually suppressed by Karr's psionic abilities. Impressively, he survived the whole way through the round, and has now upgraded himself for some better psionic resistance!" Tade turned to Jek, using his body language to slightly signal to his partner to continue the next segment.
"You've got to be talking about Haret! The shadow of death! An assassin so good, we often lose track of him, only to see him suddenly appear to deliver a killing blow! I have to agree, Tade, this Jungle round should be great for his abilities! He's tough to track down, and will get a lot of opportunities on this island where everyone is pretty spread out!" Jek didn't miss a beat. He felt like their chemistry was particularly on point today! It must be the shared excitement for the game, because this round had a ton of talent! Something amazing was going to happen today!
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Jack ran around, frantically searching for a supply chest. He wasn't sure what they looked like, but figured they would be fairly visible. But wait... How could he know if it had been opened before? If it was just out there in the open, wouldn't someone try to trap it?
He couldn't NOT get a chest though. His best chance was to find a chest and get a weapon before anyone else. The longer it took, the more likely someone else might have gotten to it first. He was moving quickly, but he was still trying to be quiet as much as he could. Noise would attract predators, or worse, other gladiators. Predators could maybe be distracted or disinterested, but gladiators wouldn't let him go.
After ten minutes without finding anything, he started to calm down. He stopped to take a rest, leaning against a tree in a nook between giant roots that dwarfed him, and finally had a moment to consider the situation...
Everyone else was probably stronger, faster, and more experienced than him. In this environment, where was the best place to be? He looked up, and realized everyone was probably moving along the treetops or the tree branches. There were fewer predators to watch out for, you'd be able to move faster and more stealthily, and jump down in an emergency. Is that where most of the supply chests were?
He was feeling a strong sense of unfairness right now. He wasn't given time to learn the rules of this game, he couldn't learn it on his own without learning to read Common first, and they had put him into a round with only gladiators that had a few rounds under their belt, except for him! He pushed away those thoughts for now. They weren't going to help him survive.
He heard some movement nearby and he felt like his heart stopped. The rustle of some leaves gave him a guess that whatever it was, it was not too far from him. Jack had nothing right now, not even a sharp rock, the only option he could come up with was to hide. He clambered up the side of the tree, gripping the tree bark like handholds in a cliff, until he got on top of one these giant roots. If he was seen, he could at least get to the other side of the root and start running. Or maybe he could run along the top of this root, since it was a clearer path than the jungle floor.
On the top of the root, there were large mushrooms growing and the root itself was slick with moss. Sections of it had dirt though, like the soil in the canopy layer of a rain forest. It probably was not a good idea to try running on top of the root... But the mushrooms at least provided some kind of cover Jack could hide in as well. When he looked back to where he was, he saw a black ant-like creature sniffing around, but it was also not like any ant he had ever seen. It had a thick coat of fur, was bigger than him as far as he could tell from his position, and had 6 antennae, not two. It was also frothing from its mandibles, and seemed MUCH more aggressive than an ant.
This was one of the insects that Dersk had talked about, but the only thing Jack could remember was
the ant-thing had a limited range of motion around its head, and couldn't look up very well. Everything in this forest was pretty much designed to kill contestants, so Jack knew he couldn't hesitate here. Either he ran or fought, but he didn't like either odds.
Jack surveyed his surroundings, taking stock of what was around him. There were some large seeds, about the size of a cantaloupe. When he lifted it, it was surprisingly had quite a bit of heft to it. He could use this. A plan started to form in his mind, and he decided to go with it. He had nothing else, and he needed to win over bigger challenges than this. He didn't have much time anyway. The ant-thing was starting to get closer, following his trail to where he began to climb the root earlier.
He found a knot of wood that protruded from under him. It wasn't that uncommon, surprisingly. This root had a lot of stone and petrified wood, and the root itself wasn't perfectly smooth with all the different growths on it. It was still slippery with all the moss on it though. Jack took off his shirt, and used the knot to rip it open. He put a seed in it, and twisted the shirt up. It became a make-shift flail, that he hoped would do the job. After he rubbed himself with some moss and dirt, he moved to the edge of the root to lay in ambush. He hoped that a combination of being upwind, the element of surprise and a bit of luck would see him to the next day.
The ant-thing had clearly gotten a strong hold of his scent at this point. It started to climb the root enthusiastically, ignoring the crevices that Jack had used as handholds. The claws on its legs served as picks that helped the creature move at a solid pace up the bark. It even seemed to be getting excited as it was nearing the top, getting a stronger scent of its prey.
Jack relied on his intuition, sense of hearing and plain luck. He made a wild swing when he thought the ant-creature was just about to crest over the edge, and missed just barely! Luckily, he had surprised the thing as it seemed to have lost its balance temporarily, and had a slow reaction. Jack was able to pull back his flail and reset for a second strike! The ant-creature, having suddenly stopped its momentum, had dug its claws deep into the bark of the tree, and now in this tense moment found it was difficult to dislodge them!
Jack swung again! Missing the ant-creature's head, but getting a solid hit on its body. It buckled slightly and gave out a loud cry. With the way the ant-creature's body was, it wasn't really to defend itself, as its legs were far back from its head. It could only lunge forward to strike at Jack as a counter-attack after absorbing the hit!
Jack had the high ground, and was easily able to pull back from the ant-creature's bite! The fight was starting to fall into a rhythm, and with this next strike he struck directly onto the ant's eye! It had taken a few tries, but he finally firmly took the advantage! His foe began to flee, allowing Jack to strike at it over and over again. His blows weren't that effective against the creature, but it was scared and didn't notice. Jack landed a lucky blow against a joint and the ant-creature lost its grip! It fell to the ground with a hard thud.
Jack breathed heavily as he looked at the ant-creature's body. It seemed like it wasn't moving, so there was a decent chance it was dead. As Jack calmed down, he reflected on the past moments. The fight had been a struggle, no doubt. He had all the advantages over the ant-creature in the battle, having decided the location, getting the jump on it, and preparing a tool to attack it from a favorable distance. Yet it had still been hard. No one had ever told him a simple fight like this would be so hard to win. He adapted his expectations, but at the same time felt proud over this experience! Adrenaline coursing through him, he finally felt he had some control over his fate at this moment!
A moment later, Jack heard something from above and he barely dodged the shot from a plasma rifle that was meant to take his life.