The Sounds of fighting and distant thunder echoed through the halls of the Colosseum, its massive marble structure stood in the center of a large city that ran across the face of a slanted mountain, at the peak of the mountain was a lavish castle.
The Colosseum had a wide open field around it and past the several floors visible above ground, it also had two lower levels hidden beneath the ground, the lowest level housed all the slaves who called it home. The entire lower level was simply support pillars with slaves wandering around its depths, dirt and sand only broken up by chunks of old rocks that used to decorate the arena of the colosseum lay scattered around, having been tossed into the depths when they broke during particularly harsh fights.
The lowest level had a total of four exits. All exits were covered by large metal gates and had several armed guards on the other side. Outside of the three times a day when they were fed, the slaves were left to wander among the pillars aimlessly, with the most interesting things that ever happened were when a man and woman went into an old blocked off drainage pipe to get their freak on.
Every few days a few guards would lug in some broken furniture or a few pillows and laugh as the slaves beat the shit out of one another in a desperate attempt to claim the item for themselves. If they felt like watching someone die they would go out, buy a single fresh clean blanket, and toss it in before the winter months started, that always turned into a blood bath.
The Capital was often ravaged by freezing winds and harsh snow in the winter months, and the slaves who were forced into a match barefoot with only the thin sacks they called clothes to act as warmth rarely survived, those who did usually dying of frostbite before the turn of the next day, so a blanket would mean life or death for some.
For all their strife the Slaves had but one rule, if you win something in a fight, it's yours, and if someone tries to take it before you die all the others will beat the thief down.
Even just having a single pillow to come home to was sometimes enough to give them the strength to live through their fights.
As one such fight started over a few musty couch cushions a young man watched his fellow captives fight. He looked androgynous from a distance but was indeed a man, he had a spark of life shining in his eyes, something that irritated the other inhabitants and caused them to avoid him, that and his race.
He had been tossed in the Colosseum before he could walk, he was one part-elf and one something else, he had the light fair skin of an elf, with dirty blond hair, his teeth were sharp and thanks to a racial ability he was able to force them to fall out and grow new ones within an hour allowing him to have the shiniest teeth among the slaves.
His nails were inky black and just as sharp as his teeth if not sharper, with a mismatched set of Green and Blue eyes, he looked like an elf but his teeth and nails gave away he was no full elf, and no parts human either.
The shine in his eye annoyed some of the adults. How could a man, nearly twenty years of age, have so much life in their eyes when they've never even seen the sky?
Those who didn't find it annoying looked at him with interest, as though they were awaiting the day the light in his eyes would die and were excited to see what would finally squash his spirit.
He couldn't help having a sparkle in his eye, it wasn't from childish overconfidence in himself, and it wasn't as though he was content with his life, simply put that sparkle was him reminiscing on his old life and appreciating every moment he had gotten to live it.
The man was a Reincarnation, he had lived a life before this one on a miserable blue marble, in a world without magic or monsters, and he had wasted that life. He had worked a dead-end job, lived a loveless life, barely scraping by on food and rent, and complained about how awful his life was without ever trying to do anything to improve it.
Then one rainy day he was struck dead by a truck while crossing the street. He had woken up in a dingy crib, a sleazy-looking man talking in a language he had never heard.
He now knew the man had been selling him to the Owner of the Colosseum, a Bearded man with three deep gashes running across his face. Soon after that, he had been handed off to a slave woman, and when she had died another took her place. Once he was able to walk and talk the woman stopped paying him much mind and focused on any new babies that arrived.
After that day no one had cared much to talk to him, he was the only sub-human in the Colosseum, and no one else had so much as a point to their ears.
until a few weeks ago when a young elf woman had been thrown into the slave pit. The young girl had taken to him immediately and followed him everywhere. As of yet he hadn't spoken a word to her but that didn't deter her in the slightest as she talked about her family, and how much she missed them.
"I wonder if that guy was my dad?" The thought had crossed his mind many times as he thought back to the sleazy man who had sold him into slavery as a baby, but he couldn't remember if he had looked anything like an elf or not, he had no idea what orcs even looked like so at the moment his one goal in life was meeting that man, and bashing his face in with a rock. The thought of achieving that goal helped keep a light in his eye.
He flashed a sinister smile, one that the elf girl seemed to find endearing for some reason, in his past life he had never been one to resort to violence, but over a decade of being told how gruesomely he would die in the Colosseum had, admittedly, scared him enough to push him to a more violent path.
For several years now he had spent most of his time punching rocks, all the other slaves were far too defeated to do anything like training as they mourned their lost lives, loved ones, and their freedom.
When he had been young he had watched other children try to escape, and watched as they were lashed with a whip for it, the lashing lasting until the guards were confident they had destroyed what little spirit they had, luckily no new children had come by for quite a few years and he took comfort that at least child slavery seemed to have fallen out of style.
"Do you have a family?" his new friend drew him back from his thoughts and he looked away from the adults fighting over the cushions to her, her name was Suzie, no last name given. She was a stacked young lady and he was sure most of the men where already trying to scheme a way to get her to join them in the drainpipe, he frankly would have liked to do the same but instead of trying to be seductive to the hot elf woman who obviously wanted his attention he simply shook his head, he wasn't about to get attached to someone when either of them could be dead tomorrow, he had officially reached the minimum age required of the Colosseum to enter a fight. If he signed up for one he would receive a reward, usually extra rations or a dingy-ass weapon to use in the next fight.
However, he could still be forced into a fight, at random or specify if he caught the eye of a challenger. If he won the challenger's fight his reward would be getting thrown back into the lowest level. If he lost there was a good chance of death or of the challenger taking his contract and keeping him as his slave, and since he was an elf he had no doubts he or Suzie would be the next ones taken to the arena.
"Do you wanna play a game," Suzie asked him sweetly, leaning forward a little, the pitiful sack she had one hid nothing about her anatomy and he in turn shook his head, doing his best not to fall to primitive urges that would leave him heartbroken when they ended up being separated. As much as he wanted to, he was not the kind of person that could get with a woman once and just get over it the next day.
"Oh, ok," She looked around dejectedly before looking back at him "I know, maybe you can tell me your name now?" He just shook his head, frankly, he wouldn't have cared not to but at the moment, he didn't have a name, he had just been called the baby, and then kid, and later on kid had dissolved into you. He could probably have made one up, but his naming skills were zero, and despite his best efforts he couldn't remember his old one from his previous life.
"Please," She begged him, she simply sighed and shook his head before looking at him with a pouty face. "Do you not like me?" Before he could try and think how he could answer that without talking to her the sound of metal scratching against bricks hit his ear.
He immediately jumped to his feet and without hesitation grabbed Suzie's hand. she yelped out in shock as he forced her to her feet and led her away as two guards opened the gates. The fighting adults scattered, leaving the cushions for later as a large man with a copper medallion on his chest walked into the lowest level.
A challenger had appeared, and he was looking for an opponent. The medallion on his chest marked him as the lowest-ranked adventurer, and they only ever showed up to the Colosseum to gain some attention and get some work with the noble crowd who frequented the capital city that housed the Colosseum.
And the best way to advertise to them was to prove you're a ruthless bastard who held no hesitation in harming non-human races, in fact he'd get extra points if he made it as inhumanly painful as he could.
As both the unnamed Man and Suzie were the only sub-humans, picking one of the two would was the obvious option, increasing his chance of being allowed to challenge again for a lower price than what he had probably paid this time if the crowd liked him.
If the nameless man was like all the others who had been raised in the depths of this hell hole, he would have shoved Suzie into the challenger's line of sight and rushed away.
That line of thinking was just another reason why he kept away from them, try as he might, even if it meant his odds of survival increased, he could never just throw someone to the wolves and run, he'd rather dive at the wolves and let her run in his place. although he wouldn't go out of his way to do that before trying to get them both away from the situation first.
Even as he ran he knew the others would sell the two of them out the second they thought he was looking at them, they had done so before but everytime someone had tried to pick the nameless man they had been denied due to such a high value item like an elf being a high value target they wanted to see die at just the right age for just the right price. But now there were two elves, meaning at least one of the two of them were easily disposable while the other could be saved for a higher paying client.
He and Suzie made it to one of the furthest columns in the Lowest Level from where the challenger had entered and he pulled her behind it.
When she tried to ask him what was going on he put his hand to her mouth and spoke for the first time in what might have been years, if not his entire life.
"Quite," his voice was dry and strained for the lack of use and it hurt slightly to use it. The fact that he had spoken was all the convincing Suzie needed for her to do as she was asked.
The two where pressed against the column, the blood rush of fear echoing through the Unnamed one's head. He was scrawny, even if he was trying to get into fighting shape he just didn't have the means to pull it off with such few meals, and even if he could bulk up he would probably just get cut down by a sword in his first fight.
As though sensing he was winding himself up into a panic Suzie suddenly grabbed him and made him look her in the eye, she began breathing weirdly and she motioned for him to do the same. It helped, even if only a little.
Before he could even try to thank her, one of the other slaves ran past at high speed, his stretched-out hand missed the unnamed child, but snagged on to of Suzie's long silvery Pigtails, she called out in pain as the hand sharply pulled on her with enough force to pull her off her feet and fall to the ground.
On cue he heard a plethora of voices, young and old, telling the challenger an elf was right over that way.
He wanted to hate them, but they were only desperately trying to cover their asses, a challenger fight was perhaps the worst way to leave the arena, they would always aim to draw out the fight in a slow and torturous parade of self-indulgence.
He tried to grab her so they could try and run, but she let out a sharp yelp as a second hand grabbed her by her other pigtailed and pulled her harshly out from her hiding spot, a few hairs snapping as she was picked up by her hair and looked at.
"Oh yeah," The man licked his lips in a manner most disgusting as he turned back to the door he had come from "I can have some fun with this hot piece of-" He yelped and dropped Suzie as the unname man jumped onto his back and bite the man's ear, his sharp nails cutting into the fabric of the mans shirt.
He shook the nameless man off and turned irritably only to smile as Suzie tried to get back up, seemingly as vengeance for the bite he turned and punched Suzie square in the stomach. She hit the floor like a sack of rocks and could only watch as the man walked over to the unnamed man and smashed his foot into his chest, pinning him to the ground.
"Oh look at the spark in this one's eye," He jeered with glee "Oh I'm gonna have fun breaking you," without another word he grabbed one of the unnamed man's legs and dragged him away. Suzie tried to get to her feet and fell back down, having never been hit before she was unable to shake off the pain and could only watch helplessly as her friend was carried off in her stead.
As it was unlikely he would ever see her again he simply gave her a salute, he had made his choice and it had been to jump at the wolf so his friend could escape even if only for a few more days, he would at least meet this second death without regret, he had done his best, and she would at least remember his face, if only vaguely.
The man stood before a set of large doors, the guard surrounding him making sure he had no chance to make a run for it, not that he would get very far in a country with a murderous hatred for in-humans.
The plain bronze collar that had been around his neck for as long as he could remember had been replaced with a much heavier Silver one along with a pair of wrist cuffs that made his arms feel like lead.
This was just an insult to injury, he had never been taught a single spell in his life, and he was so malnourished he was unlikely to stand much of a change against a man who killed monsters for a living outside of his sneak attack from earlier, so this heavy anti-magic gear had, quite-literally, only been put on him to mock him in his final moments.
He walked heavily to the doors as the guards pointed spears at him, an attendant opened them with a rope just out of view and he walked out and was blinded by his first ever time in sunlight.
In the lowest level of the Colosseum, the only source of light was a few glowing rocks on the ceiling. Of course, it never bothered him as he was born with some sort of night vision.
Once his vision was properly accustomed to the light he looked around at the massive crowd of people, all calling out insults towards him. Across the field the challenger was motioning to the crowd, some cheering him on, mostly calling for different painful-sounding things to be done to the elf.
"What a nice day," He said to no one in particular as he looked up, an invisible dome like barrier kept the rain away as sunlight shone through the weak rain storm, the sound of distant thunder indicating the worst of the storm had already passed "At least I won't die in the rain again," he stood his ground as the doors closed behind him and he took in what would likely be his final resting place.
The Fighting arena was large, two sets of ten men could easily have single battles all at once without getting in each other's way. The man and the child looked at one another, the glint in the man's eye was disgusting, the child meanwhile was overcome with shock when he tried to lift his arms, and realized that the heavy cuffs weren't actually hindering his movement nearly as bad as they had only a few moments ago.
When they had first been strapped on they felt like a load of bricks on each arm with an extra load strapped to his neck. But the longer they were on him the less he felt hindered by them, Almost like his body was forcing itself to become stronger to deal with the sudden weight.
In this world, things such as skills exist but ironically he didn't have the skills necessary to look at his or others' skills, and since there was no magical disembodied voice to tell him when or if he got a new skill or resistance, weather because it just didn't exist or because the collar blocked it was a mystery, he had no way of knowing why the cuffs felt lighter.
"Skills don't count as magic so I guess these cuffs wouldn't block them out, did I just get a skill to help deal with the weight? Or did the cuffs just become attuned to my level of magic and strength and magically become lighter?" Since he was wearing 'anti' magic cuffs he felt the latter option was unlikely. "Maybe it's a racial trait?" His ruminations on why his weighted burdens had lessened were interrupted when a sword slashed at him lazily, ripping his shirt but masterfully avoiding any cuts.
"Up here brat," his opponent said, having cleared the distance and swung to get his attention "Don't worry I won't kill you in one hit, I get more points the more times I hit you while you're still moving," He swung again, and the unnamed child moved out of the way as fast as he could, "There we go, run little rat run,"
The man laughed, the crowd jeered, and the man ran, thankful for the weight reduction, it had reduced so much now that he was somehow running faster than he had been capable of before having strapped them on.
That increase in speed was a moot point however as he was still very much trapped in the arena with a man who wanted to kill him slowly.
"Don't worry about your little friend," The man called out, "I got permission from the boss of the place, he'll make sure to give your mutilated corpse to her, along with telling her I'll be coming back for her next week, think I might even keep her, I always wanted a concubine, and I hear them elves live a long time so I could probably pass her down to my son like a family heirloom or something," the unnamed child felt nothing short of disgust at how jovial the man's tone was.
"Please, oh sadistic god or demon who sent me to this world, if nothing else, let me at least kill this one guy," He made his wish but was confident he was far too small and frail for such a thing, not to mention the man had a sword and leather armor versus his bare hands and a burlap sack that was already falling apart before the cut.
Knowing he would die he intended to make this fight last as long as he physically could and threw a rock at the man from afar, he was shocked when he actually managed to hit the man who was easily thirteen or fourteen yards away from him.
"Cute," The man snickered as he increased his speed, the intent in his eyes was obvious, he was about to make his first attack with full intentions of hitting his quarry.
The man wanted to run but was shown just how outpaced he was instantly, having only been able to outrun the man because he was being toyed with.
A steel-toed shoe slammed into his leg to keep him from moving out of the way as the sword slashed at his face. The force of the slash alone sent him sprawling to the side, the crowd cheered for blood, but the cheers began dying.
There was no blood. The elf put a hand to his face as he sat up, he felt completely fine, his leg wasn't even sore, and while he couldn't see it his face didn't even have so much as a light marking to show that a sword had run across it, but the men's steel toed shoe looked slightly dented, and his sword had a chip in it.
Both of them stared at one another dumbfounded. A murmur ran through the crowd, in danger of losing them the man screamed and ran at the elf he swung his sword into his body with all his might.
A horrible sound filled the air, not that of a body being run though, it was more akin to scrapping metal against a rock.
The sword was decimated beyond repair, the child had been thrown off balance and only just managed to stay to his feet, his burlap sack was destroyed down the middle, but the exposed skin beneath was perfectly fine.
As the man stared dumbfounded at his crumbling sword while the elf turned to a rock, the arena was filled with hard pack dirt, rocks of varying size, and old rusty shards of broken weapons and armor pieces coated the outer ring like a deadly barrier keeping the combatants from trying to climb out.
In the lower layer of the Colosseum, the unnamed child had punched rocks to train his punches, they had shattered with ease and he assumed they had simply been some piss-poor rocks from the looks of them.
The rock in front of him, however, sat proudly in the upper left-hand part of the arena that the challenger had caught him in, since such a large rock would never survive here if it could crumble beneath the might of the meager, he decided to try punching it instead.
A crunch hit his ears, but he didn't feel any pain, he looked at his hand and found it fine, but the crunching sound continued and upon looking to where he had hit it he found the rock easily twice his size crumbled around where his fist had stuck it.
He looked at the rock, he looked at his hand, he looked back to the rock, back to his hand, once more at the rock, over to the challenger, back at his hand.
He smiled, and as he did so his face twisted up in what could only be called a sadistic grin, the challenger took a step back as the elf looked up slowly from his fist, he placed the flat of his hand against the rock, and scraped against it, the rock peeled under his fingernails with a sound that grated on the ears.
"You can't hurt my friend if you're dead," He noted in just as jovial a tone as he could muster with his poorly cared-for voice, doing his best to match the man's tone when he had made his plans for Suzie.
Suddenly, as though the realization that he was strong was all he had needed, his finger nails looked sharper, his teeth seemed longer, and the whites of his eyes started turning yellow, his Green eye turned Scarlet red as his Blue eye became blood red, his rage now freely bubbling forth.
The elf himself didn't notice the difference, the man before him didn't know what was happening to it, but the crowd was in a tizzy as many residents recognized it.
A chanced racial skill, a type of skill that could rarely be granted at birth by a select few races, this skill could only belong to Dragons, Trolls, Ogers, and Orcs.
Berserker rage level 1: when the user's rage towards a specific individual hits the required threshold, skill automatically activates. enter a state of increased physical attack, speed, agility, and rage until the target has been killed. Can only be activated when directed at no more than one living target, can only be activated once a day, can only deactivate upon the death of the target, or when rage hits zero.
Unlock condition: Become enraged during at least one battle.
The elf silently fell to his hands and feet as his basic instincts took over, the man took a step back, the sadistic smile never left the elf's face, suddenly he shot off like a bullet in a straight line towards the challenger.
The man hurriedly jumped to one side as the elf flew past, slamming through the rusty bits of battles long forgotten and hitting the wall. His nails dug into the wall having grown to such a thickness that they now covered the ends of his fingers and jutted out like jagged claws, he swiftly found his target and shot off again toward him.
The man who had been so confident in his ability to murder a malnourished creature from a race notable for their magic in a situation without magic at play, surprisingly, wasn't all that light on his feet, his dodge had thrown his entire body off balance, and he only just barely managed to avoid falling face down into the dirt, when the eld latched onto his opponents arm and ground him sprawling across the ground.
Accidentally or on purpose, it was the very same arm the man had hit Suzie with.
Now attacking instead of desperately trying to get his only friend out of harm's way, he latched onto the arm with his claw-like nails and then sank his teeth into it, tearing through flesh and fabric indiscriminately.
The crowd screamed, not in fear or disgust, but in delight, as blood was finally spilled. As the crowd was full of nobles they cared not who died on either side, both sides in every fight were disposable lesser class creatures only there to entertain them, who cares if the slave dies or the commoner dies, all that matters is one or maybe both of them got mained and or die in a spectacular fashion fit for their viewing pleasure.
The man screamed in agony, and the child felt a tinge of remorse for maybe half a second, but the memory of what the man had been planning to do to both him and Suzie just because he could slashed through that remorse just as effectively as he was slashing into the man's leg.
He felt something hard and sticky in his teeth and the worst crunching sound as of yet hit his ear as he began chewing through the man's arm. Just as the bone was properly exposed to the air, pain that was unlike any other shot through the elf.
His collar and cuffs had just let out an electric charge and began pulsing into him and the man he was latched onto. The sudden jolt of electricity caused him to lose consciousness for a second, and that second was all that was needed for his rage to plummet to zero.
He lost his berserker state and fell to the ground in a daze, the man was loaded onto a stretcher while a few guards grabbed the elf by the legs and dragged him back into the Colosseum, he heard an announcer voice call something out but ended up losing consciousness before he could make out a single word of it.
Unbeknownst to him, the elf had just become the first slave in over seven years to win a challenge fight, and in doing so an announcement was made using magic, anyone near the Colosseum, or inside of it could hear the voice.
In the lowest level Suzie had been sobbing in a corner, a few men had tried to make a move on her, but she had ignored their flat words and in the end they had left her by the pillar crying as they went on to find less emotional woman more likely to put out in the hope they might have one final chance to bear a child of their own free will.
Her sobbing wasn't so loud that she couldn't hear the decree echoing through the Colosseum.
"Attention, Attention, Exciting news, for the first time in recent history, a challenger has lost to a resident of the Colosseum, come far and wide, and be the first to see the new King of The Colosseum! They may be a disgusting elf, but they have more than enough power to take out an adventure with ease. Are you up to the task of dethroning this monster? Come on down and sign up for a fight today!"
Suzie was already on her feet and running, the gate was opening, and the new King of the Colosseum was tossed in, he was covered in blood but didn't seem to have any visible wounds, before anyone else could touch him she put her hand under his head and pulled him into a sitting position.
He looked at her in a daze, and after a moment spoke to her for the second time.
"I don't have a name, and I don't hate you, in fact I think you're the only person I like," he informed her curtly, she just laughed through her stream of tears and pulled him into a hug.