With word out, that a new city could be found in the enchanted forest offering large amounts of gold to any one strong enough to defeat the monsters in Libast's towering arena, hundreds of men and women quickly set out to accept the demon lord's invitation. Lord Jack had to prepare one last piece to the puzzle to ensure that his plan would lessen the do-gooder's forces.
"Gar! Come. As you know, we've discussed the plan many times, and from this point the final step is about to begin." Jack's tone was solemn, and his face hardened as he considered what was about to transpire.
How he despised to be weak and left vulnerable! He smoothed his expression and coolly said, "I've been accumulating magic for the past several weeks to use this spell. I'll be very weak after, so I'll be relying on you a bit more." And with that, Jack turned, closed his eyes and raised his palms.
An ominous red and black aura started swirling around Jack. Suddenly, a dark portal opened up before them. Just on the other side, a large shadowy figure looked to be moving towards them, growing larger with every step! As the creature of the underworld began walking through the portal, the figure started to come into focus, it was a giant minotaur! Just as it cleared the portal, the portal disappeared, and the creature dropped suddenly to the floor. With his palms still raised, Jack turned his attention to the giant minotaur collapsed on the tower floor. The red and black aura started flowing from the demon king into the giant beast. This lasted only a few moments before the minotaur started getting bigger, and when it regained consciousness, the beast of the underworld let out a yell unlike any other they had ever heard before. Satisfied, Jack smirked and said, "welcome, war general Vince", before abruptly falling to the floor and losing consciousness from exhaustion.
As Gar looked up from his four-foot frame to the eight-foot giant, he noticed something strange in the beast's eyes.
"Excuse me, um... sir Mr. Vince, shall I get you acquainted with the workings of the great city Libast?" Gar said. He was undoubtedly pleased that it was he, of all the others, who bore the honor to be doing such important work for his master.
"…Sir!… Mr.! … I will have you know that I am a beautiful lady!" Vince said indignantly. She raised her chin ever so slightly and looking down at him, continued in disgust, "I will have you know I'm proud of my shredded feminine body you ghastly creature! What are you anyway? A snail that crawled out of its shell you wrinkled old man!"
"Old… man…!! I'm a goblin still in his prime!" Gar shouted back hastily. Jack began to wake up from the commotion of the shouting match.
"Guys, what's the problem?" Jack asked as he steadied himself to his feet.
"He's the problem!"
"She's the Problem!"
They both shouted at the same time.
"Also, why is my name Vince? I'm clearly a beautiful lady, thus, I am deserving of a name like one." She was still vexed that the little snail had mistaken her feminine prowess.
"Oops, how could I not notice while my consciousness was leaving me, my bad." Jack said as he continued to smooth his clothes. Looking up, he continued, "So, I guess your new name shall be Violet then."
"EEEEE!!!" she squealed with delight. "I love it!!" Violet said screaming as she ran out of the tower toward the caverns below.
"Master, I didn't know demon lords could create monsters" Gar said turning from the scene toward Jack.
"Eh, well they can't really. I just made a life-like body with magic and then grabbed any dark, easy to control, soul that I could find in the underworld. So, she's not really a minotaur, but she, nor anyone else, will be able to tell that." Jack nonchalantly explained before returning matters to business. "Now, go tend to her and get her battle ready! Our guests will be here soon."
"Yes master!" Gar said as he quickly scurried from the tower room.
The following day, there were crowds of men teeming outside the obsidian tower. The noise from all the chatter could be heard for miles through the forest. Nearly a thousand men had showed up to claim their stake in the gold. As they all waited for directions of when to enter the newly goblin-made coliseum, a figure rose at the top of the tower. The noise died down as they noticed him.
Jack started to speak, "Brave men from across this glorious country, as you prepare for battle to stake your claim of gold, please know, that this is life or death! Every monster here is wearing a slave collar and will not harm you until you enter a fight, but they have been instructed to attempt to kill you without mercy once you do so." There was an uneasiness among the crowd of men.
"How do we know you really have all this gold you claim to have?" a man called up to him.
Suddenly, a massive image appeared before the crowd showing mine-cart after mine-cart of gold being taken away. Jack, from atop the tower, pointed at the man who had spoken and shot a thin, dark beam from his finger and pierced the man's heart.
As the man fell to the ground Jack said, "Now, if there will be no more interruptions, you may all form lines and sign up at the gate to the caverns."
The crowd of people started flowing in the direction of the cavern gate. At this point, every man wanted to get the first chance to fight. More and more fighters started filling up the caverns, all of them in awe of the spacious lobby rooms provided for them as they prepared for their battle. Each of the fighters waiting for their chance in the arena were able to watch the current fight through the magic image in their rooms.
The first to begin battle was a party of three men from the closest major city, two were fighters and one a marksman. The first round consisted of a horde of goblins. When fighting, goblins often choose a "smash first, think later" approach, but with Gar watching from the side lines giving them commands, they were not as easy to fight. Nobody had fought goblins in hundreds of years as they were thought to be extinct.
As the match began, most of the goblins ran head-first armed with their clubs while dodging the envoy of arrows hurling their way by the marksman. Some of the goblins stayed behind and crept in the darkness to get a flank. It could be seen that one of the fighters was dueling, wielding axes, and was easily holding his own. He was overpowering the goblins, slicing them open with his very sharp axes. The other fighter was barely holding his own. If it wasn't for the volley of arrows helping to protect him, he'd have died the minute it started. This maintained for a few moments before the goblins creeping behind in the shadows reached the bowman unnoticed. In one foul sweep, the goblins jumped up and started whaling on him relentlessly with their clubs. With no bow support, the other fighter was quickly overwhelmed, leaving just one. One of the goblins grabbed the sword the fallen fighter was using, and all of the other goblins charged the man at once. Overpowered, the man got stabbed by the sword, spewing blood, he turned and swiped the goblins head clean off. The man eventually took out every goblin but one before falling to the floor to his death. Right as the man fell, cheers rang out from the tower and throughout the caverns below.
Thus, began the arena games, monster vs human. It was a modern way to do the same thing that has happened for centuries. As Gar was in charge of overseeing the arena fights, Jack wasted no time scanning all the participants to find potentially strong candidates. There were thousands of men, and yet no one was worth even a second glance in the demon king's eyes. After two weeks had gone by, hundreds of men had been slaughtered with just as many goblins having perished. Rarely do the parties ever reach past the first round, and those that do, end up being ogre food. But especially, no one had made it to Violet, who has been training vigorously in the caverns during these weeks.
Then one day, a bright light shone from the edge of the enchanted forest. As the light flashed through the obsidian tower it awoke Jack.
He glanced outside and said squinting, "what the hell is going on!? Gar! Get up here!" Gar came running from the depths of the caverns up to the dark tower.
"Yes, master?!" Gar said breathing heavily.
"What do you suppose that is?" Jack asked.
"Well master, there is only one logical conclusion." Gar said still out of breath. "What's that?" Jack replied.
"THE SUN IS FALLING FROM THE SKY!!!" Gar shouted running back to the caverns.
"No help as usual..." Jack said nodding his head.
Jack pulled out a telescope that he got off a dead man from the arena. After getting a closer look, he realized it was not the sun at all, but an army donning shiny armor and led by what appeared to be an elf. The army reached the edge of the forest just outside the demon lord's domain. From there, the elf, accompanied by two knights, rode towards the tower by horse. Intrigued by this new arrival, Jack was going to greet them himself. Leaping from the top of the tower and flying toward the ground, he landed in his typical pose, arms crossed and grinning at his new guest as they arrived.
"Greetings, friends. What may we offer such shiny guest?" Jack said.
"We're here to test your arena that we've heard all about" the elf said while giving Jack a cold hard stare down.
"Well, okay then! Just sign up at the cavern gate and we shall get you going! I'll be watching, best of luck to you." Jack said, still grinning.
The three-manned party completed the entry forms and headed down to the caverns. Jack, nearby, watched their every move very closely as he got an ominous feeling from them.
In the arena opening gate everything was the same as it always was, cheering from the crowd, the roaring from goblins ready to fight, but something was different. The party of three were extremely calm. As the announcer shouted for the battle to begin, the goblins did their typical pincer attack on the small party who were standing in the middle of the giant arena. Then, the elf did something strange. He sat down and whispered some words. The two knights with him nodded at him, and in the blink of an eye, the goblins were on the ground, defeated. Gar, in total shock, was trembling. Jack was grinning very widely from his viewing room, cheerfully clapping from the exciting turn of events.
Up next were the orcs and ogre, but the same thing happened. The elf sat, whispered some words, and the two men ran to chop down the orcs. But the armored orcs didn't fall as easily as the goblins did, in fact, they were keeping up with the men. The ogre, though massive, was very quick on his feet and wielded a small blade. Quick to assist the ogre, the orcs took the men out from behind.
"Well, here's a surprise." the elf said, grinning as he stood to his feet.
Within the blink of an eye, the orcs were cut up, spewing blood, and falling to the floor. Shocked, the ogre lifted his blade up and flew at the elf as fast as he could swinging his blade. He missed but was unrelenting as he chased the elf while swinging his weapon aimlessly.
The elf dodged the attack quickly and said, "Okay, I've had enough."
At this, the elf, using the back side of his blade, hit the nape of the neck of the ogre, knocking him out.
"This is unprecedented territory ladies and gentlemen, goblins and ghouls!" came the voice of the announcer, "We're down to the final round!"
The thunderous applause that accompanied this announcement filled the arena and the roar of the excitement reached to the edges of the enchanted forest.
Waiting in the center of the arena, the elf noticed an approaching dark energy. Looking down the tunnel, he saw two red eyes peering into his soul from the darkness. As the beast started getting closer, the earth was trembling from each step it took. After a loud inhale, the beast leaped from the shadows into the light. There stood violet with a giant hammer. She was now twice the size she was when she ran down from the tower. She ran around the arena shouting and cheering.
"Yay! It's finally my turn! Yippie!" she yelled flamboyantly.
Unamused, the elf darted at her with intent to kill. In an instant, Violet got serious and parried the blow with her hammer.
"I wasn't done soaking it in!" Violet snarled as a sonic boom flew through the caverns from their blow.