Chapter 2
Castle Gangrene
Castle Gangrene was built on a mountain that oversaw the entire city of Xerx by Lord Xerxes Bismarck the First over two thousand years ago. He started life as a peasant but gradually rose in power due to his cunning nature and exceptional skills in war as well as his magical prowess which aided humans in successfully carving out their own kingdom. As a reward for his service, he was given the city and he and his descendants were charged to rule over it as well as act as the first line of defense between the kingdom of humans -which later became known as Aeternum- and the droves of beastmen which occupied the lands south of their kingdom.
Due to the city being on the outskirts of Aeternum, the city of Xerx and the smaller villages on its outskirt were always the target of various raids and skirmishes which led to the inhabitants of the city and villages to become hardened and rid themselves of several morals and ideals which allowed them to easily adapt to the conditions they found themselves in and thrive.
It's in this very castle that we find wreathed in shadows, James Bismarck; the last surviving heir of Tobias Bismarck sitting on a throne and kneeling before him on one knee, was the cloaked figure that had attacked Karito in the forest. It stayed in the kneeling position with its hooded head facing the ground in a display of submission until Bismarck's voice came from the shadows; "I assume you have completed the task?" he questioned.
"Not quite my lord" the figure responded with a raspy voice, "My daggers impaled his chest and he fell, but I was unable to find his body" the figure answered, its head still down not daring to look up.
Silence reigned in the room for a while before the shadows around Bismarck grew larger and stretched towards the figure wrapping around it, twisting around it before lifting it into the air while a tentacle of shadows hovered in the air next to the figures head waiting for a command. As the figure struggled against the shadows, Bismarck spoke up; "If he escaped, then why did you come back?" he asked as the shadows wrapped around the figure, slowly choking it and crushing the bones in its body.
"I got him in the chest my lord, and I watched him fall. Even if he escaped, he should have bled out from the knives and he was still weak from the torture my lord. I believe he had help and they couldn't have gotten far" the figure gasped out as the shadows kept it suspended in the air trying to make his lord see reason, "I just need more time". Bismarck kept silent for a while, giving the figure a small ray of hope as it thought its words had gotten through to Bismarck before the shadow tentacle that was hovering wrapped itself around the figures neck and began to tighten around the figures neck slowly tightening itself until it left the figure gasping for air.
"I find your half assed work disgusting, but none the less you have served your purpose. Goodbye."
That was the last thing the figure heard before the tentacle around its neck tightened and the sound of something snapping filed the hall as the figure stopped moving. The shadows around the body slowly fell to the ground forming a pool of darkness which swallowed the dead body. As the body slowly sank into the shadows, Bismarck pondered his next move before an idea surfaced in his head.
"Beli-Ola, I have need of you." His voice rang through the seemingly empty hall before a figure dropped down from the rafters and landed on the ground cracking it with his weight. He straightened himself and knelt down on one knee before Bismarck.
"My lord. Beli-Ola answers your summons" Beli-Ola told him while keeping his head down in a show of submission and part fear as the body was still sinking into the pool of shadows.
"Beli-Ola, do you still have the assassin's scent?"
"Yes my lord."
"Good. Find him, and bring me his head"
"As you wish, my lord." With that, Beli-Ola stood up and walked out of the room leaving Bismarck alone with his shadows and the still sinking body.
The Fighters Pit
In the city of Xerx, there were various forms of entertainment; most violence related with lots of blood spilling involved, but none was for famous than The Fighters Pit. It originally started out as a form of execution in which two criminals would fight to the death for the amusement of the public, the winner would gain the right to live until the next fight, and if they ran out of criminals then they would then execute the survivor. Gradually, people started placing bets on the winner of each match, and soon the pits grew larger and more organized until it changed from a pubic form of execution to a public form of entertainment and execution, eventually becoming something that brought honor to those that participated. Nowadays most of the fighters were volunteers who had come seeking fame, glory, money, those that had a death wish and some where here to satisfy their craving for blood.
The fighters were mostly composed of criminals and volunteers, but the occasional slave and civilian could be found among their ranks due to being sold to pay off debt or looking for a way to make money to feed themselves and their families.
In a cell
Glass woke up to the roar of the crowd above her cell, covered in blood and feeling like her head had been trampled on by horses -which wasn't that far off- and sore all over. She got up slowly using the wall to support herself as she tried to gain her bearings before looking around her cell; it was small barely enough room for her to move around, dark and damp, and the smell of blood, sweat, excretion and vomit was more than enough to choke her. She tried to block the smell by covering her nose with her shirt, but the combined stench combined with her sensitive nose and splitting headache drove her to puking in a corner.
"What happened? Where am I?" she wondered as she wiped her mouth and straightened herself using the wall before letting her eyes adjust to the darkness before heading towards what appeared to be a door. Making her way to the door, she was about to kick it, but ethereal chains connecting her arms, legs and neck to the wall, preventing her from reaching it. Straining against the chains, she took another step forward, only for the chains to yank her back and slam her into the wall, knocking the wind out of her.
Taking a deep breath, she sat in a cross-legged pose and tried to remember how she got into her current situation;
"Last thing I remember is my caravan being ambushed. We fought back and then someone got me." She thinks to herself as she tries to remember more, but the effort only makes her head hurt and she eventually gives up trying. She stays silent and soon dozes off as she recovers from her injuries.
Several hours later, she is woken up by the movement of her cell and the sounds of cheering above her. Opening her eyes, she is assaulted by the light and squints her eyes, trying to get them adjusted to the light and her eyes to the roar of the crowd. The crowds cheering slowly died off as a stout bald man dressed in leather armor stepped into the ring and raised his hands to gather their attention and soon, all were silent. The man put his hands down, cleared his throat, and with a loud voice addressed the crowd;
"Ladies and gentlemen, today I have a special treat for you. Our generous patron James Bismarck has delivered us a very special gift, an accomplice to the despicable creatures responsible for the disappearances of our fellow citizens."
The crowd began to hiss and boo while some started throwing rotten fruits at her, yet she couldn't dodge due to the chain keeping her in place. The man let the bombardment continue for a while before raising his hands to calm the crowd before speaking again,
"I understand your anger ladies and gentlemen and she will pay for her crimes; true she played a part in the disappearances but we are not without mercy. She has been sentenced to three years into the pit starting today!!!" with this announcement, some of the members of the crowd began to roar and cheer, while the majority continued to boo and hiss as they continued to pelt her with rotten fruits as a second cell emerged from the ground.
"Worry not ladies and gentlemen, we realize that this is too generous for her, so she has been sentenced to a speed run" the man said with an evil glint in his eyes and excitement in his voice as he watched the crowd cheer and watched Glass's face pale in fear. A speed run was the worst fate anyone could possibly face; unlike a normal event where the fighter would face an opponent or group of opponents once a week or twice a week, the fighter that was subjected to a speed run would face an opponent or several opponents daily, each fight would push him/her to the limit and then even further, breaking their body and spirit before they die.
"Presenting her first opponent, a beastman from the lands in the south" the other cell door opened and the entire stadium heard a bellow of rage emanate from the cell which drove them all to silence out of fear clearing his throat and swallowing back the fear he felt, the man continued, "He is responsible for several raids on villages on the outskirts of our great empire and also responsible for the loss of countless lives in the past five years and has been sentenced to ten years of the pit." The crowd roared in rage as majority of them knew who it was and remembered the raids and the loved ones that they lost to him and his crew.
The conductor began to slowly leave the arena and spoke his last words to the two of them "Remember, this is a battle to the death. Taurus, do not disappoint" he said, sending a glance to the now identified Taurus and with that, he left the ring and the ethereal chains that were binding the two of them to their cells disappeared.
The crowd watched as Glass cautiously emerged from her cell and scanned the arena, her eyes darting around the pace looking for anything to either facilitate her escape or aid her in combat against the beastman. There was a rack of weapons close to the edge of the battle ring where her opponents' cell was, "Not going after that" she mutters to herself and began to think of ways to beat her opponent.
Whatever she was thinking was thrown out of the window when a loud roar rang throughout the arena and the sound of her opponent's cell shattering soon followed. Looking over at his direction, she saw that his cell had been reduced to rubble and there was a large figure surrounded in the dust. Raising a hand, the figure swiped it in the air, generating a large gust of wind which not only cleared the dust, but also sent Glass flying, and smashed her into her cell. Slowly getting up, she spat out a mouthful of blood on the floor, her mind racing as she tried to figure out what just happened.
"What was that? Magic? Physical strength?" she thought to herself as she steadied herself and got out of the cell, her injuries already healing as her magic got to work. Hoping that the increased distance between them will put her out of the range of whatever he did, but it was no use as she was about to experience firsthand. Watching Taurus run towards her, she prepared to retreat again, only for her eyes to widen in shock as Taurus leapt into the air to heights that should be impossible for anyone.
As he reached the highest point of his leap, Taurus performed a series of three rapid punches directed at her from the air which generated three bursts of air which rushed towards Glass with tremendous force behind them.
Planting her feet firmly into the ground and channeling magic into her arms, she and everyone else in the stadium watched everything from her elbow down morph into a fusion of insect and humanoid appendage with enlarged beetle shells growing from them which Glass used to shield herself from the incoming wind blasts. As the blasts hit her makeshift shields, Glass buckled under the force behind each blow and her shields cracked and slowly fell to pieces and her feet sunk into the ground, but she stood her ground. Through one of the holes in her shield, she looked up to the sky only to see Taurus descending on her location with his fist cocked back and ready to punch through her already weak defenses.
As Taurus descended with his fist cocked back, Glass tried to move out of the way to avoid the blow, but she couldn't get her feet free in time and had to resort to holding her damaged shields above her head, channeling more into her hands in order to repair the shields, bracing herself as his descending fist collided with her, resulting in a shockwave spreading through the entire arena and the force behind the blow destroying the floor around Glass, breaking through the shield, the fist stopping mere inches from her face.
Opening her eyes, she saw the fist only a few inches away from her face and her face paled as she realized how close she was from death. With her mind racing, she tried to come up with a way to escape her situation when something hit her. Takn a deep breath and bracing herself, she channeled more magic into her arms just in time as Taurus's second fist crashed into her shield, stopping several inches from her face.
Getting ready to execute her plan, she grit her teeth as her shields grew around his arms holding them in place. With magic coursing through her hands, the skin from her shoulders down to her elbows grew scales and took a reptilian hue as she pulled back, slowly separating her arms from her insectoid appendage.
Sensing something wrong from behind the makeshift shield, Taurus struggled to free his arms, but to his surprise it was much stronger than he anticipated. Keeping calm, he opened his palms from behind the shields, releasing a gale of wind from each palm blasting Glass, sending her armless body crashing into the walls of the arena before sliding to the floor.
Groaning in pain, Glass struggled to get up from the floor as Taurus let out a bellow of rage as he strained against the chitinous shields which served as handcuffs. In a display of strength, he shattered his restraints and released a barrage of compressed wind blades which cut up the floor around him and kicked up clouds of dust which obstructed him from the view of everyone.
Taking this time to get herself together, Glass channeled a large amount of magic into her arms, gritting her teeth as reptilian arms burst forth from her stumps. Flexing her new appendages, Glass braced herself and waited for the dust to settle.