Without a word, she followed Godan back to her cell. She observed her surroundings for a possible route of escape, trying to figure out the layout of the dungeon. The odd thing to watch was the slaves closing the doors to their own cells. “Now that I think about it… Godan doesn’t have any keys, and he is the one responsible for moving the fighters. Are they so scared of him that there is no need to lock the doors?” Navia thought as she also searched for any signs of keys on Godan.
Navia sat across the doors to her cell that weren’t even closed, trying to understand what might be the reason. It seemed like they didn’t even care if someone escaped. The man in the other cell was continuing his training exercise, getting stronger to raise his chance of survival.
“Does your door also not have a lock?” Asked Navia as she finally lowered her guard and agitated aura. Turning a dark cell into her safe space as she only needs to watch the entrance.
The man stopped his exercise and sat down with his back to Navia. “That’s right. You finally noticed? There are no locks to keep us in cells.” The man proved his point by slightly opening his doors and then closing them.
“Then why doesn’t anyone try to escape? Is Godan so terrifying they would rather not even attempt?” Asked Navia as she crossed her legs, placed her right elbow on them, and supported her head against her open hand.
“Some do. He would only kill if he is not in the mood…” The man scratched his neck as shivers ran down his spine as he remembered the last person who had met that fate.
“So, what’s stopping you from escaping? If no one here is stronger than Godan, then why not risk their lives trying to escape rather than fighting him to the death in the pit? I don’t understand…” Navia let out her frustration of not finding the answer she sought. To her, it seemed simple.
The man finally turned around with a bit of a saddened expression. “Because there is no way of escaping. Like in the name. We are in the pit. A hole underground with no way to leave. Even the arena is designed in a way so no one would climb out… It’s impossible.”
“There are no tunnels leading out of here?” Asked confused Navia as logistical questions rose in her mind. The cruelty of this pit seemed even worse than earlier. Not only do the slaves have to fight, but they aren’t able to leave this place in any way.
“The only connection to the outer world is the hole in the pit.” Answered the man, feeling a bit depressed as he thought a bit more about his situation.
“There must be some kind of secret tunnel… After all, I met Godan at the auction. There must be some kind of secret exit.” Navia thought that she had found a way to escape, but it was shattered with the man’s chuckle. Like a stone thrown at the mirror, one crack made the whole thing shatter.
“No secret tunnels. They have a lift above the arena. He can only leave when the Strada chooses so.” The man slowly laid down on his back as if he was looking at the lift taking him out of this pit.
Navia straightened her back and closed her eyes. “So I just have to wait for that opportunity.” She whispered, her breath getting steady and shallow. Silencing all her emotions, she focused on her mind. Once she opened her eyes, she found herself sitting somewhere in a sea of fog.
“No time to waste.” Her voice echoed through the whole world of fog as she began walking forward. Looking down, she could barely see her own feet. She looked all around for even a shadow of a gate that may be hidden somewhere near her.
Her feet bumped into something, and as she looked down, she saw a crude black door with bloodstains on it. Bearly a tip of it was visible as the rest of the object was buried in the ground.
She kneeled down to inspect them. “I never seen gate like this… Nor heard anyone mentioning anything like that… It’s not normal.” Navia placed her hand on the doors, and as if slightly flexing her fingers, she understood what gate that was. “So you give me the power to make knives out of my blood… It’s my first gate unlocked by an instinct…” Navia stood up and looked around for signs of any gates near her. “Is that why it rose from the ground? The door can barely open while in the ground. Making knives is only a small part of what you hide behind…”
Once she was sure nothing was near her, she kneeled down and, with her own hands, started to dig out the door. The soil was dry and hard, it was almost like slowly scraping stone. “It’ll take some time… You’ll beter be worth dirting my hands like that!” Navia said as she huffed while digging out the door.
While her body was busy digging, her mind was free to think. “This place seems different… Last time, it looked like a morning mist glade with living grass. Now… It's barren land. Dry and out of life. This resurrection brought me back to life, my body. Except for my soul deep within…”
“I wonder how Emma is doing… I wonder… How Taizen is doing…” Whispered Navia, a tear falling down her cheek both in her mind and the real body. She had to once again accept that she would not see her husband for a long time because she wasn’t planning to die yet.
Navia’s concentration was broken by a creaking of an opening door. Opening her eyes, her vision slowly adjusted to the dim light and the person standing in the doorway.
“Rise and shine, little cub.” Godan noticed a tear on Navia’s face and quickly added. “Place to rough for a princases?”
“You wouldn’t understand.” She answered bitterly, her voice a bit crispy as she wasn’t ready to speak yet after meditating and crying. She stood up and walked past Godan, hitting him on the shoulder as he stood in the doorway.
Godan simply chuckled. “A cub can bite.” he said with amusement as he followed behind. Not many people were near the arena, only a few that Godan gathered for the next fights. He opened the doors for Navia and gestured for her to enter.
When the people above saw who was entering the arena, they were quick to get excited. A fighter held in high regard by Godan was quick to become one of the crowds' favorites.
By the doors on the other side of the arena entered a tall obese man with a lot of fat as well as muscles hidden behind them. The man only wore grey pants with his croutch barely visible, hidden by his belly. The man had tanned skin and a bald head except for one black horn that stretched from his forehead like a dark scythe.
Half of the crowd excitedly shouted, “Grizzly! Grizzly!”
“First, three panthers, and now ‘Grizzly’? That’s a tough start…” The man in the crowd looked down at a betting paper. “I’ll safely bet on Grizzly. After all, he fought Godan two times and still lives. That’s something. And she is only a woman. She won’t be able to win against him.” The man blubered as he put a bet of forty silver coins on Grizzly. Not seeing her previous fight made the man think less of Navia.
The old man with long grey hair and a grey beard appeared behind the man in his brown coat. He took a look at the paper and laughed. The confused man quickly moved away, surprised by the elder. “I’ll match you and bet forty on the girl.” The man laughed as he wrote the bet on his paper.
“You think she has a chance of winning?” The man asked, a bit surprised and uncomfortable by the old man’s presence.
“You’d be stupid to think otherwise…” The old man answered with a threatening look that made the man beside him shiver with coldness. Even after that “threat,” the elder sat right beside the young man.
The massive fighter took an axe that was slightly covered by a bloodied sand with a crimson imprint of someone’s hand. He observed Navia and waited for her. “Pick up your weapon, woman.”
“Why?” She asked as if she didn’t care about the fight at all.
“You think you can stop my ax with bare hands?” The man grunted as he placed the heavy ax on his shoulder, looking down at Navia as he took a step closer to her. His heavy steps lifting bits of sand.
“You think you can land a hit with those chubby hands?” Navia answered with a smirk that infuriated the man in front of her.