Vanagloria woke up on a bench.
Fluffy white cotton was coming out of the tears in the rough red fabric.
The grimy dirt ceiling was tall, a half broken chandelier hanging off it.
Noise was all around her. Metal clashing against metal, scales scraping across concrete ground, hisses hissing at hissing and a muffed crowd mumbling through a wall.
The whole room smelled metallic, like she had stuffed her face in a bag of coins. The air was dusty, making every breath just that much harder.
Vanagloria's head was still throbbing in pain, making it just that much harder to sit up.
Looking around she saw naga's everywhere, rushing around and hissing at each other. Racks of weapons were everywhere, armor hanging off the walls, unorganized.
Right ahead of her was a giant field of sand surrounded by the stand walls. The seats themselves were mostly empty, half filled with the lizard people.
She was in the middle of a small colosseum.
'HIIIIISSSSSSS'
All of the Naga's stopped slithering around at the hiss.
Vanagloria looked up to the hiss and saw the blue naga in the stands. There were only 4 different floors to the seats, but only him and his translator were sitting on the top row.
Salazar was in a cage, next to another dragon cage. A baby crocodile was crawling around in the other. It had pure yellow snake-like eyes and extremely dark green skin. It looked a lot like the naga's themselves.
Once Salazar saw Vanagloria looking up at her, she started whimpering and clawing at the cages in the wall towards her. The claw at the end of her yellow wing was barely sticking in between the cage.
It made Vanaglora want to just snatch her up and run away. She had nowhere to run, there was no exit in sight. Vanagloria was very sure they were underground right now. She didn't even feel mad anymore, she just felt helpless and trapped.
'HISS'
Sporadically, all of the naga's on the sand field scrambled into the stands with a scary amount of speed.
They all stopped to put their watchful eyes all on Vanagloria.
There must've been a hundred of them in this little colosseum, all of them looking down at her. She was the only living thing down in the sand
'HISS'
Although this time none of them moved, continuing to stare at her like she was supposed to entertain them.
"Well?! Aren't you two going to fight?!" The translator said. The colosseum was so small he didn't even have to yell that loud for Vanagloria to hear him.
"Two of us? Fight?" She thought, looking around the colosseum for anyone else.
Then her eyes caught a bench not too far behind her.
There was another girl, groggily leaning up and pushing her black hair out of her face.
She was looking over at Vanagloria, confused.
"Wait what?! We have to fight?!" Vanagloria shouted back up to the translator.
"Yes! To the death! For your dragons!"
"Oh no…" Vanagloria looked back over at the girl.
"That crocodile must be hers… How often does this happen?"
The girl then got up and cautiously walked over to Vanagloria with a hand out, like she was a wild animal.
"Hey, I don't want to fight you."
"Y-Yeah, yeah, me neither. I'm not… I'm not trying to hurt you." Normally Vanagloria didn't like talking to strangers but obviously this was an exception.
"Do you have any idea how we can escape this place? Because I've been a prisoner in this town for a few days and I never saw any place like this." The girl said.
"Wait, how long have you been here?" Vanagloria asked.
"A few days. I come out in the Draconic rainforest all the time to escape from life, but this time I decided to explore here. But I got captured cause I brought in a crocodile."
"Oh yeah, you like dragons too?"
"I like dragons a lot. I don't think a crocodile is a dragon though…"
'HISSSSS'
A wave of hisses followed after the chieftains, clearly annoyed.
"Oh right, escaping." Vanagloria had completely shot up from her seat.
"Yeah, do you know anything?" The girl was sterner this time, looking up at the booth with their dragons in it.
"I think we're underground right now. We could like, blow up the roof or something, get out that way maybe. Wait, what is your element?" Vanagloria's mind was racing with ideas.
"I have rock."
"Oh shit… do you think you could raise the floor or something? I'll blow up the roof."
"Wait, what is your…"
'HIIIIISSSSS'
A big bright green naga hopped down into the arena, hissing at them. He was decked out with a spear, helmet and a chestplate.
He looked extremely mad, like he would snap at any moment.
Which gave Vanaglora an idea…
"Do you wanna fight our way out?"
The girl looked shocked at the idea, but she couldn't take her eyes off the naga. She had taken out a makeshift dagger of hers in defense, gripping it tight.
"I don't know… there is a lot of them. I don't even know if I could take one out by myself."
Vanagloria still didn't really know the extent of her powers. She had taken out a small dragon not even a day ago, so it was safe to say that was probably harder than taking a naga 1 on 1. But Vanagloria had never really been in a fight with a hundred of anything, much less naga's.
But there was a girl they had taken prisoner right next to her. Her crocodile was locked up right now, so was Salazar.
If they were gonna live, Vanagloria was gonna have to save them.
"Alright then. Just stay behind me, I'll take care of this." Vanagloria put an arm out and started to approach the angry naga.
'HISS'
A few of his buddies hopped down as Vanagloria got closer. All of them were pointing their spears at them.
The whole crowd was hissing in glee.
It was too late to turn back.
A fight was about to start.
"P-Put the spears down." Vanagloria tried to say as sternly as possible. They might not speak the same language but maybe her tone of voice could convey something.
'HISSS'
They started poking their spears out at her, stopping her from getting any closer.
"Okay calm dow… AHHH!"
It felt like a needle had been shoved deep into her stomach as the rocky tip of a spear lodged in the side of her stomach.
'HIIIIISSSS-"
'BOOOOOOOOOM'
The naga's head exploded with electricity inside its helmet, green blood and flesh splattering its teammates.
Everything went completely silent as thunder echoed throughout the arena.
The lightning coming out of her hand started to spread up arm, traveling to her head and torso.
Every naga in the arena had perked up.
They were all cautiously picking up their spears, swords and bow.
There was no eye in the arena not looking at her.
She didn't want to kill anything, but right now,
This was survival of the fittest.
She extended out her electric arms, challenging the whole arena.
'HISSSS-'
'BOOOOOM'
Sounds of thunder alongside metal clanking filled up the arena.
'BOOOOOM'
Her attacks felt impulsive but natural.
'BOOOOOM'
It felt like her instincts were taking over.
'BOOOOOM'
No thinking.
'BOOOOOM'
Naga's spilled onto the field, trying to surround Vanagloria and the girl.
Despite the amount Vanagloria was taking out, they still kept coming.
They were like one big hive mind.
And they were coming faster than Vanagloria could stop them.
'BOOOOOOOOOM'
Vanagloria put all her energy into one giant wave of lightning towards a group of naga's. They started spazzing out and fell over as it hit them. Smoke trails coming off them as they laid down, unconscious.
It didn't stop the rest of them coming at her.
The gap was closing every second.
'DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM'
The dirt ceiling shook the whole arena.
Chunks of rubble fell down into the crowd, squashing a few naga's.
They stopped running at her and looked up at the roof, half of them still alive.
"Was that you?" The girl asked from right behind her.
"No." Vanagloria said, the noise in the arena fading slowly into silence.
She had created a stormy cloud from her element, pushing against the roof. But this definitely couldn't have made an earthquake that big.
'DOOOOOOOOOOOOM'
The ground above them rumbled again, more debris falling down.
"Hey, I know this is a bad time, but you're that girl from champions day right?" The girl asked.
"Yes, Vanagloria. That'sme." Vanagloria said proudly.
"That's so awesome. You looked so cool on TV. I can't believe I'm meeting you right now."
"Aw thanks." Vanagloria felt genuinely flattered.
"Wait, what's your name?"
"Oh yeah, my name is…"
'DOOOOOOOOOOOOM'
The entire ceiling gave out.
The dirt ground cracked and cumbled, crashing down right above Vanagloria.
'BOOOOOM'
Vanagloria bolted over to the colosseum seats on instinct, barely escaping her death.
Her heart was racing.
She had never been in a near death experience like that before.
"I could've actually died." She thought, looking at her unscathed arms.
"Wait…"
A sharp pain hit her heart in realization.
She looked down at the pile of green blood and rubble that now was the colosseum floor. A few small houses had also fallen down, adding to the weight of the impact.
But where Vanagloria once stood…
Was one giant boulder…
And a giant red blood splat underneath it…
"No…"
Vanagloria didn't save her.
She didn't even get her name.
"This can't be happening."
Vanagloria could barely comprehend what was happening.
"I let somebody die. I let somebody die. I actually let somebody die."
She was clutching her dusty hair in stress.
What scared Vanagloria most was that she wasn't getting emotional for the girl.
The only thing she felt was the weight being put on her conscious.
She didn't feel like crying.
"Is that normal?"
"Heroes are supposed to cry after somebody dies right?"
"Am I crazy?"
"Am I a psychopath?"
Vanagloria had never had something like this happen.
She hadn't even experienced a major death in her life.
She never had a family, and none of her friends had died before.
'bang'
A rock fell down into the pile, bonking on a bloody piece of armor.
A giant shadow came into the sunlight casting down into the colosseum cave.
Vanagloria looked up in horror as she realized what had caused this to happen.
Peaking through the opening…
Was the head of a massive grey wyvern…
Salazar's father.