“It’s free for all!” A man jumped in place out of excitement, his eyes almost coming out as he tried to take a closer look at the slaves down below. The twisted side of human excitement showed itself through the crowd. “Blood! Shed! Blood! Shed!” The crowd shouted and stomped their feet. The excitement was growing in the stands with each passing second.
All the slaves moved to one side of the pit, and they watched the gates. Some of them felt hopeless, simply waiting for their deaths. “Are they going to fight some beast? Maybe a monster?” The man in a suit surrounded by bodyguards talked to his defenders like they were his only friends. The men stood around the young man in suits, looking around for any danger that might come his way.
“A monster indeed…” The closest to the young man guard whispered once he saw a man with long black hair and a beard enter the arena with pants and a longsword only. It was listed as a fight, but everyone knew it was the same thing as an execution.
Before the fight began, Godan looked where Navia sat, taking a close look at her eyes, telling her to look closely. One of the slaves began breathing rapidly, his heart quickly pumped his blood as if it was about to explode, overloaded with work given by the anxious brain. His eyes were blurry and lost in thought. Surprising everyone, he dashed forward with an axe in one hand, swinging it toward Godan’s head.
One second, he had a weapon in hand; the next second, his hand with an axe was missing, and he had a hard time breathing. Looking down, he saw blood flying out of his arm as the hand was cut off, and Godan had his hand clutched around his throat. When he realized what had happened, he wanted to scream but was unable as his vocal cords got slowly crushed by Godan’s heavy grip, coughing out lots of blood. Godan then threw his lifeless body down on the ground, his blood staining the sand red.
Navia gritted her teeth at the sight of senseless killing, but she did observe one thing. “Now I see how he turned his longsword so quickly. His forearm has the most refined muscles in his body, letting him move a heavy weapon however he wants…”
Godan walked slowly, deciding who his next victim would be. The slaves exchanged looks, not knowing what to do. If they should attack at the same time or just wait. A man with two kitchen knives seemed like the only one ready for Godan’s attack. Watching his feet closely and acting accordingly, following the rhythm set by the champion.
“That’s more like it.” Whispered Godan with a grin on his face, bloodlust clearly visible on his face. He dashed forward, and his longsword went right through the skull of a man who seemed most scared of them all. Bits of the skull and brain were coming through the other side of the head. His death would be the swiftest of them all.
As if cutting grass, Godan moved forward and slashed off the limbs of the next two slaves that stood there frozen like rocks at the sight of death. With his back turned against the remaining five, one man gathered courage and lifted his pickaxe. He screamed with all his might as he brought the tool down at Godan. Once he opened his eyes, he saw the pickaxe stuck in the ground. As he tried to stand back up, he noticed that his arms were still holding the pickaxe while his body was away. Before he could fully realize his arms were cut off from his elbows, his head was sliced off, leaving only his lower jaw. The top of his head slowly slid off the standing corpse.
“Screaming doesn’t help with surprise attacks…” Godan said with disappointment, as if he were a sword instructor giving a lesson. He raised his brow and brought his sword down to block a knife that would stab him in the abdomen. The only man who was prepared to fight saw an opportunity and took it. “That’s more like it!” Godan shouted as he spun around and kicked the man. Even with his guard up and ready for the hit, the slave flew away and hit the giant iron bars of the arena. To his luck, the man was quick to fall unconscious.
“Is anyone else here worthy of living for the next fight?” Asked Godan with his beastly eyes as he pointed his longsword at the rest of the slaves. Seeing as each of them flinched just at his sight, he let out a disappointed grunt. “No one…” He sighed and unexpectedly dashed forward. His weapon moved in an arc from down below, leaving a deep wound in a tall man’s torso. He fell to the ground but didn’t die instantly, slowly dying in agony. Bleeding out as death slowly placed its cold hands on his soul.
Before the remaining two slaves could react to the death of their comrade, Godan was kneeling right in front of them. Their bodies slowly slid down to the ground as their legs, up to the knees, stood still. The two of them screamed in pain as Godan took his time to stand up and stab them in the back to finish his work.
Once all of them were dead, he pointed his longsword toward the unconscious man, and with a light smile, he announced, “He is worthy of living for the next fight!” The people above began to cheer at his announcement while a few of them hit their stone seats in disappointment, betting their money for a total slaughter. Which was stopped by Godan’s interest in one of the slaves.
“Merciless as ever.” Whispered the man who was surrounded by his bodyguards. “You think you could defend me if he attacks?” He asked as he turned toward his closest guard.
“Defend? Maybe buy some time… No one from this dump is able to stand above Godan The Bloodied…” The guard answered, a bit ashamedly. Looking at the champion down below in the pit, he seemed like an ant watching a giant.
Godan left the pit with a “worthy” salve on his shoulder. Once he left, two slaves moved the cages with three black panthers, the fur on their mouths stained red. They let them out into the arena to let them eat the corpses.
The champion gently placed his victim right beside Navia, making sure the man wouldn’t fall and hit his head. “That’s how you put a show to those bastards above. Gore. That’s why they came here. Your first fight will be against those three carnivores in the pit. Good luck.” He said as he casually leaned his back against the wall to rest after the slaughter he had done.
Navia sat there, and without turning her head, she looked at Godan. Trying to understand him, why does he do it. How does his mind work? The man said nothing as she looked at him; his eyes were set on the arena, waiting for the upcoming fight.
“Maybe I can escape through the hole above the pit?” Navia thought as she stood up, and with tightened fists, she approached the doors to the pit. “Fine! I’ll do it!” She shouted to Godan, not even facing him.
“Show me what you can do. Lioness.” Whispered Godan with a smirk on his face once he was certain that Navia wasn’t paying attention to him.
A slave opened the doors for Navia, and she entered the pit. First, she looked above toward the hole, measuring the height from where she stands to the crowd above. She couldn’t simply jump forty feet, and even climbing the walls would be impossible with how the pit was built. It wasn’t a straight wall made of bricks. It was a smooth stone with a sloped transition between the watching hole and the arena, which was a bit bigger.
“Shit.” Navia cursed silently as she realized her plan of escape wouldn’t be an easy one. The noise attracted the eating panthers; they turned toward Navia and hissed loudly, making Navia quickly turn her gaze down.
The three panthers stopped eating and moved a bit lower to the ground. Each step was cautious, and their eyes were set on a new prey. Those animals had their ribs visible against their skin, starved before any fight to ensure they would attack anyone inside the pit. To them, Navia was another source of food.
The black panther, to her left, was the first to make a move as it quickly dashed forward with dribble falling out of its mouth. It raised its claws to tear the woman’s arms, and its fangs ready to sink into her throat.
As it was in the air, Navia threw an uppercut into its empty stomach; the hand went deep, and the panther bent against the pressed fist. Once it hit the ground, the other two panthers stopped moving forward, looking at their companion with a broken spine like a stick. The spine pierced the skin on the back. That was the moment when the feline survival instinct kicked in. The fur on their back rose out of fear as they understood that they weren’t the hunters. In front of Navia, they were simple prey.
The two panthers ran to the other side of the arena, trying to squeeze through the small gaps between the steel bars or scratching the doors, begging for someone to open them.
Navia didn’t pay much attention to them, her eyes were looking up for the way to escape. “I’ll have to find another route of escape…”
The crowd couldn’t believe what they saw. It wasn’t a usual struggle against the beasts or a simple slaughter. Many of them witnessed it once already, the champion of the pit. That short show was enough to make the crowd rumble. The voices rose, and screams echoed through the pit. They were glad to see someone as powerful as Godan.
Godan entered the ring and clapped his hands. Once the people saw him, they all went silent. They all shared the same thought: “Did he get so impressed that he wants to fight her right now?”
“You all saw that?! Even the panthers are nothing in front of the Lioness!” Godan shouted toward the crowd above, hyping up the people for her next fights. His hungry eyes peeked at her for a second. “Not yet. She has the potential to grow stronger. Now it won’t be as much fun as I would hope for.” He thought as he imagined the fight where he finally faced someone almost equal to him. “If you want to see her fight! Come back tomorrow!”
Like on a signal, the whole crowd left the stands in chatter, and all the slaves down below got moving. Getting panthers caged, taking out the partially eaten corpses, and walking back to their cells.