The corridor that Teta walked through was tight and dim, probably to keep the prisoners from escaping. Teta touched along the walls while he walked to the red moonlight that came in from the end of the passageway. He couldn't help but be aware of how rigid and hard the walls were, though he found it quite logical. Why go through all the trouble of keeping prisoners when they could just bust through your fortifications in the bat of an eye?
He stood in the doorway, his position directly adjacent to the opponent he would be facing. Not one to dally, he strolled into the center stage, his senses assailed by the sheer number of monsters that were watching him up in the cavea, shielded by high bulwarks. The colosseum was anything but silent as the crowds resounded with a cacophony of noises that lodged themselves into his ears. Tempted to rip off his single horn and stab the loud group of assorted monsters, he brought his attention to the monster that left the opposite corridor.
The monster was no colossus, being only a slight bit taller than Teta was. Although it didn't look that threatening to the imp, the mana that percolated the air around the monsters was an entirely different story. As he had no mana of his own, he was a lot more sensitive to mana in the environment. It's what he utilized for his spells and mana casting after all, the imp was a borrower that did both.
Teta went back to paying attention to his opponent's looks, checking to see if the monster before him had anything that might be a bit dangerous. The monster had a hunched back but limber looking limbs, the appendages were so long that they looked as if they could wrap around a thick tree. With one arm. The creature's legs were disproportionately short, however, the creature's haunches barely reaching half a foot, while their actual feet were circular pegs. Their skin was green with purple spots while goat horns adorned the side of the male's head, resulting in an uncanny creature Teta had never seen before. His physique didn't even look feasible, much less life-threatening. Still, those arms looked like they could get some mileage...
Teta flew up into the air, floating directly over his opponent. Before he could get ready to launch a preemptive attack, the blaring voice of an announcer lodged itself into his ears. Frowning a bit, the imp turned to try and find where the voice came from, but saw no monster other than him and his opponent in the arena. He shrugged a bit before actually listening to what the announcer had to say.
"Debut match of the impish punk, Teta! His opponent is the notorious spinning top, Hoppy! Let's all enjoy the bloodshed!! Here! At! The! Blood Band Arena!!" The voice kicked off a series of even louder cheers and whistles. Feeling annoyed at the suddenly increased noise, Teta swore to himself that would find out whoever that announcer was before shoving their hands down their throat. 'See if they talk so loud then, heh.'
A swiftly approaching hand with sharp looking pointed fingers was carried by an elongated arm, aiming directly for Teta's wings. A bit surprised that the so called Hoppy wasn't spinning or hopping, he grumbled under his breath before quickly facing the approaching arm. A red haze marred by black spots akin to smoke materialized around Teta, before gathering in his right hand. When the outstretched palm and the pointed fingers met, Teta grinned playfully.
"Boom." The black and red gas exploded onto Hoppy's hand, blowing it far away and leaving the weird creature with chunks for a right hand. The now stumpy arm seemed to sizzle and crackle as Hoppy retracted his appendage into his body. He bore no pained expression or look of awe on his face as he did this, his expression closely resembling a dead fish.
Deep green fumes were pushed out from the area Hoppy's arm had submerged itself. The vapor spread out into the area with a rancid smell, making Teta feel nauseated. The imp grabbed his nose with his left hand, fiercely flapping his wings in an attempt to dispel the stench. It wasn't very effective, unfortunately, and Teta felt the nerves around his wings numb as he fell towards the ground. Fixing it so he would land feet first, he folded his scaly wings against his back. Seemed like flying wouldn't be available for this battle.
Hoppy's dead expression suddenly morphed into a wide smile that ripped his face in half, the upper part of his head feebly swaying back and forth on a small lump of flesh. The smell of decaying corpses and rotten garbage intensified, and Teta was tempted to cut off his nose entirely. Sooner than he could react to the suddenly changed movements of his opponent, the weird creature retracted his left leg and started speedily gyrating, quickly reaching speeds akin to a lone car on an empty freeway.
Hoppy spun towards Teta, who had a grimace on his face despite feeling quite confident in his odds. He stretched out both of his arms in what seemed like a welcoming gesture you would use to greet family as the spinning top monster drew ever nearer. Before Teta could get smacked in the face by the monster's remaining gangly arm, the imp had grabbed onto the stinky appendage with a steel grip.
As Teta dug his claws into Hoppy's spindly arm, his eyes shone with a bright red as he swung his feet directly into his enemy's odd peg leg. His lower appendages fixed themselves into his opponents flesh before a crimson veil gathered around his soles. Glowering at the monster before him, his lips were fixed into a ferocious snarl.
"Boom," the resulting explosion pushed Teta's feet away, his legs soon standing firm and steady on level ground. Teta's body revolved even faster than Hoppy had before, as his arms lobbed the freakish monster with punitive force. As Hoppy flew through the air, Teta pointed his index finger as a crimson billet shaped mana settled on top of it. "Bang," the bullet shot through the air, impaling itself the upper half of Hoppy's disjointed head.
"Blast." The reddened mana chased Hoppy's form before burrowing deep into his body. Three seconds later, a chain of explosions blew the contorted form apart as red smoke emanated from the creature's evaporating body. Before the audience could even blink, Teta took off and ran for the corridor and heaved in the less stinky air. The passageway still smelled like stale blood and thick sweat, but it was a much more pleasant sensation compared to *whatever* Hoppy reeked of.
Teta took a long drag of the sordid atmosphere and shambled back into his cell, the empty set of manacles on the wall darting towards and cuffing one of his hands again.
"So how was it?" Alban's slightly eager voice hurriedly entered into Teta's ears before he could settle down.
"Boss, it stinks." His expression was pained to the point where Alban thought the imp was crying for a second. Alban decided to leave Teta alone in his thoughts, silently looking forward the time where he would be called up to fight as well.