Two massive metal doors the size of a two story building slowly begin to open.
A beam of light brighter than the brightest of torches slowly floods in and illuminates the entire corridor.
While Kane's eyes adjust to the sudden sunlight, a massive roar erupts out in his surroundings.
"YEEAAAAHHHHHHH!"
"KILL!!"
"DEATH TO THE CAPTIVES!"
"DISGUSTING HALF BREEDS!"
"DIE YOU MONGRELS!"
"LOWLY SLAVES! FIGHT FOR YOUR LIVES!"
Mass cheering and jeering could be heard from all around.
The overwhelming noise coming from the crowd makes Kane freeze. The memory of his first title fight flashed through his head and overlapped with his surroundings.
"Is this a live match?"
A strange but familiar feeling floods over Kane.
His tensed nerves and his stiff body slowly begin to relax; as though this feeling had been ingrained deep into his very bones.
The jeering from the crowd seemed to calm him down.
"This is nostalgic. The last time I stood in a ring was my title fight."
With his eye's closed, Kane takes in the smell of his surroundings.
Lingering in the air is the smell of excitement, the smell of battle and the smell of victory.
His eyes gradually open and he looks at the scene before him.
"We're in a Colosseum?"
Stunned, Kane takes another look at his surroundings.
In front of him is an open dirt space. Littered all over the dirt floor are broken blades, crushed chariots and rusted armours. Kane even saw human teeth littered over the ground below his feet.
As he scans around himself, he noticed that the Colosseum is constructed in a round and circular shape.
The audience surrounding them in the stands are in numbers easily in the thousands.
"Hell is in Rome?"
As Kane was trying to figure out his situation, loud banging of drums could be heard and the cheering gets louder and louder as the tempo of the drums increase.
"Boom.. Boom.. Boom, Boom, Boom.... BOOM"
A final drum beat sounds and the entire audience, as though rehearsed a million times, fall into an eerie silence.
In the massive Colosseum holding thousands of excited guests, not a single sound could be heard.
Breaking the silence, on the other side of the Colosseum, another gigantic door slowly creeps open.
"Clank.. Clink..."
When the doors are fully open, out stroll three massive Barbarians.
The two Barbarians on either side were at least 4 metres tall.
But the man standing dead in the centre was even bigger.
Towering over the others this Barbarian was at least 6 metres tall. Just one of his arms is the size of a full grown man.
"ROAAAAAR!"
The massive Barbarians let out an enraged battle cry. And right on cue, the crowds erupt into cheering and applause, which rip through the Colosseum like a tidal wave.
Calming himself down, Kane stares at these beasts standing a few hundred metres away from him.
"Does everyone in hell eat steroids from birth? How the hell do these guys grow so big?"
Knowing he couldn't get any answers, Kane decided to wait.
"Usually in matches like this, even if this is hell, an announcer or an MC should appear to explain the rules right?"
But before he could even finish his thought, one of the prisoners he came with dashes insanely quickly right through the middle of the Colosseum and straight towards the Barbarians.
The man with the tattoos covering his body sprinted at the beasts with blood lust in his eyes.
As he gains speed, he picks up broken weapons littered all over the ground and starts throwing them like projectiles.
The crowd explodes again in excitement. They didn't expect the match to start so quickly.
The flying broken metal pieces flew through the sky and arrived just an inch away from the largest Barbarians nose.
The Barbarian smirks and, like a blur, his figure seems to phase in and out of existence and the blades flew straight through him.
The tattooed man howls in anger.
"ALARIC MAGNUS YOU TRAITOR! I WILL KILL YOU TO AVENGE THE PEOPLE OF MY TRIBE! LET OUR BARBARIAN GOD CHARLEMAGNE BEAR WITNESS! I WILL HAVE YOUR HEAD ALARIC!"
Like a lightening bolt hitting the ground, Kane's head rumbles with shock.
"What did he say? Vengeance? This guy met his arch nemesis here in hell? Is he lucky or unfortunate?"
Still keeping a close eye out on the fight that has just begun, Kane quickly scans the surrounding crowd.
"Is that a dog person? Holy shit, and is that a man-sized cockroach?"
Looking closely at the densely packed crowd, Kane spotted Beast men and other Humanoid species that he'd never seen before.
"Beast men? Bug people? These things can be found here in hell? Man this place is weird."
If Kane was surprised before, what happened next in the arena made Kane's jaw literally hit the ground.
Kane watched on as the tattooed man's tattoos start glowing a yellowish light.
All of a sudden, from his 1.7 metre tall stature, his body grew to just under 4 metres.
The Tattooed man looked like he had turned into the Hulk.
As the distance shortens between the tattooed man and his nemesis Alaric, a sly grin appears on the Barbarian Alaric's face.
A thundering snort escapes Alaric's nose.
"Even if the God Charlemagne were here in person, he could not stop me. What does a dirty half breed like you think you can do to me? Go pray to your God in hell!"
The Tattooed man picks up an almost intact mace he found along the way and swings it with all his might as he approaches Alaric.
Time seemed to stop and the crowd stopped breathing.
Even Kane felt like his heart had stopped beating in that moment.
Alaric, still with the sly grin plastered across his face, stamps hard on the ground and his body shoots out like a missile.
A split second later a huge explosion sounded in the Colosseum like a bomb had gone off.
The tattooed man flew back out faster than he went in. The momentum was horrifying.
He flew right back to where Kane and the other prisoners were standing.
He smashed straight into four unlucky prisoners who were too slow in getting out of the way. They flew right back into the closed metal doors behind them.
"Splat"
Like throwing a water balloon against the wall.. the four unlucky prisoners exploded into a pile of mush.
The tattooed man's body was mostly intact, but a fist print the size of his whole chest was clearly printed across his body.
With his chest completely caved in, the glow on his tattoos begins to fade.
The tattooed man's body slowly shrinks back to his normal size.
With the look of anger and fear still in eyes, this tattooed man was deader than dead.
"What the hell was that? Did he just Hulk out and get killed?"
Kane shakes his head in disbelief.
The crowd explodes again in a frenzied cheer. The roaring and cheering was deafening.
"This is seriously insane! Is that even humanly possible?"
Not only was Kane terrified of the massive Barbarian standing on the other side of the Colosseum, he was also terrified of the thoughts running through his head.
When he saw the giant get killed in the cell by the hooded monster, the giant definitely died. Everyone in the prison was obviously scared of the sight and they didn't want get involved.
The others that were killed later, never showed up again either.
All of sudden Kane froze like a deer caught in the headlights.
"Wait, these guys that died are definitely dead. We're in hell right? Can we even die again?"
His mind was running a mile per second, trying to process what he'd just seen.
As Kane was stuck in his own world trying to deny what he'd seeing front of him, a piercing and high pitched male voice awakens him up from his stupor.
"Dear nobles and distinguished guests, pure bloods and savages, peasants and slaves! Today we have a spectacular show lined up for you all!"
The crowd roars in excitement.
"Our champions from the team bracket, The Barbarian Kings will take on the 40... er 35 newly captured half breeds. Each of these disgusting half breeds are powerful and have unique talents like the lowlifes you just saw get killed by the Barbarian leader Alaric Magnus!"
The announcer was really professional. He followed along the flow of the audience members and was able rouse their interests with just a few words.
"To you dirty half breeds, FIGHT! Fight for your lives. If you're able to survive 10 fights in the Turius Pit, you will be made a free man!"
Massive cheers and boos could be heard all around the Colosseum.
"My fellow Antorians, I have the utmost privilege and honour to introduce the beast king most loved by the gods! A king blessed by the heavens! A king with no equal! The Greatest King of the Antorian Empire! His highness Lucinius Arcus Antorius!!"
"Boom, boom, boom..."
A regal and majestic looking Elephant beast walks slowly onto the podium.
With Each step he took, the Colosseum trembled.
Standing at the top of the podium, a 6 metre tall Elephant stood on two legs.
A glistening gold and black armour wraps around him.
On the left and right hand side of his armour are two images of massive white mammoths roaring at the heavens.
On his back, a pitch black war hammer the size of a small truck.
This was the king of the Antorian Empire, his majesty Lucinius Arcus Antorius.
He raises his arms slowly and the whole Colosseum quietens down.
"Glory to Antoria!!"
As if pumped up on crack, the whole audience shouts back at the top of their lungs.
"GLORY TO ANTORIA!"
Lucinius waves his hand over the crowd again to quieten them down.
"My people, I prepared the best of best for your very own entertainment today. Are you Satisfied?"
Maddening cheers echo over the entire Colosseum. They kept chanting the same thing over and over again.
"GLORY TO THE KING! GLORY TO THE KING! GLORY TO THE KING!"
Lucinius nods and is satisfied by his peoples response.
He then moves his attention to the slaves.
"Slaves, the Antorian kingdom will give you half breeds a chance at survival. If you can kill the Barbarian Kings and bring down Alaric Magnus. You will be spared. You will be better fed. You will be better equipped for future battles. This hope, I grant onto you all. But if you cannot grasp this lifeline, only death awaits you."
Shaking, Kane can't believe what his brain is telling him.
"Death? So I'm not in hell? If I'm not in hell.. just where the fuck am I?"
A resounding cheer echoes again throughout the Colosseum.
"In the name of Elephas Primas, the God that protects the great Kingdom of Antoria, I Lucinius Arcus Antorius declare! Let the death match BEGIN!"