Zane, although half-ear paying attention to the announcer, he remembers what he was saying. In summary, he said that there are more than 10,000 slaves in the arena. Trying to be mysterious, the announcer did not say what will come out from the holes.
However, the most crucial thing for the slaves to do was to "Survive!"
That is when the beat started.
"Boom," "Boom," "Boom," "Boom," "Boom," "Boom,"
Suddenly, the announcer signals something to a man in a black hood located at the platform meant for the nobility.
Suddenly, a large hexagram suddenly was formed in the sky. Bright lights started combining turning it 150 ft foot long flaming dragon.
When Zane saw this majestic performance, Zane couldn't help but be shocked. His whole body started shaking not only for fear but excitement.
When the whole arena saw the majestic flaming dragon appearing in the sky, they couldn't help but sucked an air. Many instinctively crouched to the grown and some frozen with fear.
"Do not be afraid! This is part of our grand opening. "
"Please pay respect to our highly esteemed Ascendant Ezio, the Flame Fiend of South"
Suddenly, when those who knew the name heard it they immediately kneeled on the ground in fear.
The flaming dragon started moving, circling the arena going high and low dancing to the beat of the drums.
After circling a couple of times, it headed to the center stage of the arena, suddenly, the flaming dragon started dissipating like motes of fireflies.
The crowds roared! Like the others, this was the first time Zane had seen true magic with such brilliance and majesty. His heart can't help but to beat so fast accompanying the roaring fast beating drums.
In the future, he will always remember this perfect moment when his heart and mind decided to pursue magic.
Then, three words from the announcer brought hell to the slaves in the arena.
"Open the Gates"
One after the other, almost thousands of the smaller holes started to opening up. What came out? A Canis type of animal with red eyes, sharp fangs, four limbs, and a tail. This type of animal is quite bigger than the average house dog but much smaller than a wolf.
Zane immediately used his eyes for identification.
Blood Jackal
Level 2
Strength:1.7
Agility: 2.4
Perception: 1.1
Constitution:1.6
'They are almost twice stronger and more agile than an average man. Just one bite from this beast will surely be fatal,' Zane thought.
'The problem is the number of beasts. Being surrounded by two or three will surely send you to the afterlife.'
When the bars opened about a thousand plus drooling Jackals came out. Chaos almost immediately broke out among the slaves.
One of the announcers explained to the audience, "These Jackals are not an ordinary type of animal that you can find. They were bread to eat any type of meat. Their sense of smell is the scary part, they can smell blood from a mile away."
"They can easily hunt down smaller prays for food. However, do not take this beast lightly. When it comes to desperation, they band together and attack even large beasts."
"Oh, also their most favorite meat is human flesh. They were also left hungered for a couple of days just for this event."
Soon enough, the Blood Jackals who were frightful at first realized that they were handed food to eat. The front of the pack couldn't wait any longer and ran towards the closest it could find.
Those slaves closest to the wall were the first victims, the sharp fangs easily tore an arm and leg. Many started running away, but it was too late, the Blood Jackals were too fast.
"HELP!"
"RUN!"
"Please save me!"
Hundreds of screams immediately filled the arena. One of the Blood Jackals jumped high and directly bit someone's head. The slave tried to struggle but then, a sound of crunch followed afterward. The more the Bloody Jackals taste the blood, the more they get excited, leaving them becoming more agile and stronger.
Zane immediately started to back away, their group of slaves that he was part of was not in the center but on the western side of the arena and quite close to the walls. He can see that almost 50 plus Blood Jackals are running towards their group.
"Run to the center and form a group!" One of the slaves shouted, his name is Ben. He was one of the guards stationed in his old village until they were captured.
Zane followed the group, with his agility at 1.7 almost as twice of an average human, he was able to outrun most of the slaves.
A chubby redhead man, previously a convict, was running away from two Blood Jackals, he knew that it was only a matter of time before they caught up to him and tear him apart.
So he found a way to outrun the Blood Jackals, he grabbed someone's arm and pushed him to the ground. The man was surprised about this sudden force, he tumbles down the floor. Before knowing what happened, two Bloody Jackal tore through his throat and leg.
"Spread out!" Ben shouted! "Run for your lives and regroup in the center!"
Zane doesn't have any experience with any battles or strategies. Even the thought of killing a small lizard is too cruel in his eyes.
Back on earth, trying to kill an animal is illegal and can get you behind bars. Reality hit him again, the rules on earth don't apply here where it is the survival of the fittest.
One advantage Zane did not notice was that his work as an ER nurse made him more calmer than others. Blood, violence, and other gruesome acts that make people puke were just but a walk in the park to him.
The slaves started to spread out and ran to the center arena. However, the arena was quite big and it would take about 10 minutes at full sprint to arrive at the center.
Zane was unlucky, he was being followed by a Blood Jackal. He knew that it was too risky to fight the Blood Jackal alone. He started to sprint closer to another slave, a tall bulky man, named Goz.
"Hey!" Zane shouted.
"Get away from me boy!"
"Help me kill this Jackal!"
"No! If you don't want me to smash you to death, you better get far away from me!"
"You can try, but if I die, it will be you next who will get eaten! Besides, I can just outrun you"
"You son of a."
About two meters away, the Blood Jackal was behind him. "Hurry! Decide now!"
"Aaargh!" the man stopped running and went to clash with the Blood Jackal. "I will block it for a while then you go behind it and kill it"
The Blood Jackal found a new target, seeing this man was ready to deliver himself as food, it ran full speed and jumped in the air with the hope to bite a chunk on his neck.
Goz knew what the Jackal was about to do. He prepared his large hammer to attack, however, the speed of the Blood Jackal was just way too fast, so he had no choice but to block his face.
When the Blood Jackal hit the axe head first, it felt a bit dizzy and wobbled on the ground.
Zane took advantage of the situation and diagonally swung his sword to cut the head off but the Blood Jackal was able to dodge the full swing. However, although it was able to avoid the full swing, the tip of the sword made a huge gash on its face.
The Blood Jackal's face was bleeding profusely. It was angered by the action of Zane so it rushed to him at full speed. It was about to leap to Zane, but a hammer suddenly smashed into its back. With the momentum of the hammer, the bleeding Jackal was thrown a couple of meters away from Zane.
Before the Blood Jackal wanted to get up, Zane swiftly hacked into its neck the second time.
*Poof*
Its head rolled on the ground.
Zane looked at his sword and exclaimed at its sharpness. Meanwhile, Goz started to walk towards him. Before Zane was able to give his thanks, he was punched him on the face.
"Don't you dare do that again!" Goz resumed running towards the center again
"Geez!" Spitting the blood from his mouth. Looking at the Blood Jackal's dead body, he used his identification skill
Blood Jackal
Vital Signs: Dead
Meat: Poisonous, non-edible. Can be used as fertilizer...
Teeth: Can be used as a weapon with an attack of 0.7. Can be consumed once grinned and boiled, and it increases the 0.1 strength of the consumer (1,000 gm needed). Maximum stats increase 1.
Zane was surprised about the teeth' description. There is no point to use it as a weapon but once grinned, it can increase his stats.
Unfortunately, although he has a storage space, he doesn't want to expose himself. So he just kept it in his mind. He knew that greed will just lead him to death.
The last thing he checked was the experience. On his status, he saw in the logs, it showed:
"+5 experience from killing a Blood Jackal"
Now looking at his bar, 5/10. Zane was ecstatic. Killing one more Blood Jackal will level him up. Another thing is that, on his skill menu, he saw that there were two icons that showed up.
Cleave: (Untrained 1/10)
Swordsmanship: (Untrained 1/10)
With this thought in mind, his eyes shined.
Gritting his teeth, "I WILL SURVIVE THIS!"