38 Coliseum Round, Fight

Chiron's Chosen arranged themselves in a diamond with Micu in the back. They were standing as confidently as they could but the sheer number of people watching them had caused them all to become a little nervous. As they tried to focus on the door ahead of them the stadium announcer's voice echoed again through the Coliseum. "Let's get ready to rumbleeeeeeeeee!"

The door opposite them lowered and a snarling beast stared back at them ferociously. It was easily triple the size of Jayce and had thick green fur covering its body. Two curved horns protruded from its head and rows of teeth snapped against the chains holding it back. Its back legs were shorter than the front two limbs and it walked like a guerilla. Long claws extended from its hands and it pounded its knuckles into the ground angrily.

Ralnas whispered under his breath, "This is the first level? I hate to see what comes next..." He steeled his nerves as the chains on the beast snapped off one by one. Micu quickly shouted, "Everyone spread out!" The four team members quickly dashed away from each other and prepared for the beast to be released. The crowd began chanting, "Five! Four! Three! Two! ONE!" and the gate that kept this monster from entering the Coliseum dissolved with a flash. It barreled towards Ralnas as he was the closest one to it.

Ralnas' eyes widened and he knew there was no way he was going to be able to block any head-on attacks from this thing. He darted to his left trying to draw it further into the arena. The beast continued its furious charge towards him. Ralnas finally felt that he had lured it into the open far enough and then stopped and prepared to dodge whatever attack may be coming. A huge green fist descended towards him just as he turned and he quickly rolled to the side. The ground beside him shook and he struggled to keep his balance. The beast howled in rage and lifted the same arm to bring it down again.

As it did so a flurry of arrows peppered its armpit area. Four had managed to pierce its fur and they stood jaggedly out of its flesh. The beast howled again, this time in rage and pain. It brought its fist down but it was slowed due to the pain throbbing in its arm and Ralnas was able to completely dodge it once again. The beast twisted its body to face where the arrows had come from and charged at Micu. Ralnas quickly dove in and tried to stab any part of its body. He managed to bring his sword down right through the closest hind leg of the green monster. It had taken only a few steps towards Micu when it felt another searing wave of pain in its leg. Looking down it saw that the same one it had tried to crush earlier was much closer to it now.

As its head was turned towards Ralnas Micu started notching arrows and aiming for the eyes of the creature. Jayce and Jenira approached from the back and waited for it to completely commit to attacking Ralnas before springing their trap. The beast roared as arrows bounced off its horns and reached out a thick hand to grasp Ralnas. Ralnas tried to quickly jump backward but the creature had already wrapped its thick fingers around his body. As it brought his immobilized body towards its mouth Jayce leaped on to its back and began scaling its fur.

Jenira quickly began slicing into whatever exposed tendons and arteries that she could spot on the back legs. Any area that appeared to have blood flowing through it she attacked like a deranged surgeon with a scalpel. The beast was meters from consuming Ralnas when an arcing greatsword swung down on the thumb preventing Ralnas from escape. The thumb fell from the hand smoothly and Ralnas was able to wriggle out of the creatures grasp as it stared at its crippled hand. Roaring with bloodlust it frantically tried to kill the little creature that had climbed up its back.

As it tried to change position one of its back legs suddenly gave out and the creature hobbled and fell. Jayce quickly sprinted up its prone body. Leaping up he thrust his sword down with all of his might into the eye socket of the monster. From the large green beast a pitiful yelp of pain and then it stopped moving. The thick green body of the creature slowly dissolved into particles and floated away into the Coliseum air.

Thunderous applause rocked the building and thousands of sounds mixed together to create a cacophony of sounds that deafened the ear of everyone in the Coliseum. Ralnas was already waving to the crowd before the creature had fully dissolved and Jayce smirked. Jenira jogged over to him and helped him resheath the greatsword. "It looked a lot tougher than it turned out to be." She said happily. Jayce nodded as Micu strolled over to them. "It was the first battle. This is just to make sure you don't get killed in the later rounds." Micu nodded along with Jayce's assessment of the round. He watched Ralnas soak in the attention of the crowd and laughed to himself, "Should we call him over?" Jenira shook her head, "Nah we can pick out the bonus prize. Let him enjoy it a little longer."

The announcer's voice notified the crowd that there would be a five-minute break before the next round started. As he finished three treasure chests appeared on the battlefield. Jenira Jayce and Micu walked over to them and each examined a chest. Jayce looked over the description on the chest, "Mine will give one of us shoes that allow limited flight. Yours?" Jenira replied, "Mine is a staff, I don't think it's useful." She shrugged and then turned to Micu. "It looks like this one will give me a quiver that shoots fire arrows." He reread the chest again before nodding, "yeah as far as I can tell it'll give me ten fire arrows per round to use." The three huddled together to discuss while Ralnas continued to take full advantage of the crowd's attention.

...

C-4 grinned at Nitro. "You can't change your bet after we've watched them fight!" He cracked his scaly fingers and laughed heartily. Nitro frowned, "Boss I didn't realize they would wax the first battle so quickly! I thought you said that they weren't that good!" At this confession, C-4 laughed even more heartily. "I just told you that so you wouldn't freak out when you gave them the tour of the base! This group of humans is priority number one for every elite team there is!" Nitro frowned more deeply, "why didn't you tell me this before we placed the bet of how long they would last..." The rest of team Nuke all burst out into laughter and they patted Nitro on the back with mocking condolences. C-4 just smiled and then pointed to the pile of money that the four of them had placed their bets on earlier. Nitro grumbled and returned to his seat to watch the second round.

...

Jayce held up a hand for silence before looking at Micu. "If they're all as big as that thing then being able to fly and hit it makes the most sense. What if we pick your arrows and the next thing they throw at us is a lava monster?" Jenira gave him a confused look, "there's such thing as lava monsters?" Jayce shrugged, "how am I supposed to know? I've never seen that green thing before either." Micu contemplated with a hand on his chin. Finally, he nodded, "We take the shoes. But Jenira should wear them." Jayce made an approving gesture and stepped away from the chest. Jenira quickly walked over to it and opened the chest.

This prompted another round of cheers from the crowd. The four actually fighting didn't know it but those that cheered did so because they had just won money. Like most sports on Earth, many people didn't only enjoy watching the games take place but wanted to invest in the result. Dozens of betting companies had sprung up to feed this universal addiction. Now there were bets on everything from how many rounds a team would survive to which weapon each competitor would use. So those that were cheering did so because they had bet that the team would take the flying shoes.

Jenira strapped on the funny looking shoes and grinned at the two boys watching her. She jumped up and the wings on the shoes pushed her further up until she could easily kick Jayce in the head. She floated for as long as she could before the shoes gave out and she landed back on the sandy ground. Micu nodded to her, "flight for 15 seconds. Not bad." The announcer's voice then sprang back to life. "The second round will be starting in 30 seconds. Please return to your seats now!"

The four teens returned to their diamond formation from before. Ralnas glanced at Jenira's shoes and grinned. "You guys picked without me? I'm hurt." Jayce laughed and called out ahead of him, "Sorry your adoring fans might not have gotten to see every single pose you could think of if we did that." Ralnas rolled his arms in mock annoyance and returned his focus to the door before them.

Once again the crowd counted down the door opening. Behind the gate lay a dozen skeleton dogs. They were covered in dark blue flames and their empty eye sockets had yellow orbs socketed within them. Each dog had various spikes extending from parts of its body but it was obvious the most dangerous parts were the claws and teeth of each. Jayce sighed, "Any ideas Micy?" Micu was watching the gate lower with a stressed look on his face. He was struggling to figure out how to attack them when he wasn't sure their speed or how to kill already dead dogs.

Ralnas then spoke up. "Whoever kills the most dogs gets to pick the treasure next round!" He then twirled his short sword in his hand and dashed towards the dogs. The gate finally lowered completely and a dozen dogs burst through rapidly. Jenira sighed and then chased after her brother. Jayce had a wild look in his eyes as he closed the gap between the dogs and himself. As he ran forwards arrows whistled overheard and bounced off the dog's bones. He heard Micu groan and unsheath the small hand ax he had grabbed in case something like this occurred. All four of them charged towards the dogs with weapons raised.

A shout of glee escaped Ralnas lips and he thrust the short through the head of a dog and completely shattered it. The body dissolved and he whooped in triumph just as another two dogs jumped into his shield and knocked him to the ground. Jenira slid gracefully under his outstretched shield and sliced both of the dogs heads off. They both instantly shattered and dissolved. Ralnas muttered thanks and quickly stood up.

Jayce swung wildly at the dogs. He felt an energy burning in his chest but assumed it was a simple muscle cramp and paid it no mind. Each swing of his greatsword pushed the three dogs facing him further back and he was hoping to pin them against the wall to finish them off. Micu had by this time managed to swing to Jayce's left and started trying to help him corral the dogs. The two quickly coordinated simply off physical cues and had the three dogs pinned into a wall where they wiped them out without taking a single blow in return.

They had already killed half of the dogs and the AI of the remaining six dogs quickly adjusted them to form a pack. The six dogs were now surrounding Ralnas and Jenira who were back to back trying to avoid getting pulled apart. Jayce and Micu noticed the dangerous state their friends were in and dashed over to assist. The six dogs had become so focused on the two before them that they had neglected to account for the remaining two and their encirclement was shattered with a mighty swing. As each dog was demolished beneath his blade the burning sensation on his chest grew stronger. Jayce grit his teeth and continued to work with Micu to clear the three dogs closest to them.

With their encirclement crushed the three dogs tried to at least take one of the humans down with them and lunged at Jenira. Ralnas thrust his arm with the shield in front of her and took the brunt of the two lunging dogs before the third managed to knock him off his feet. The dogs shifted targets and moved to attack Ralnas as Jenira threw a knife through one's eye socket and slashed another dog's front legs off. The remaining dog leaped with all of its might to bite Ralnas right through the face when a small hand ax swung down and cleaved its face in two.

Jenira casually picked up her thrown dagger and then plunged it into the crippled dogs head before turning it sharply. With a satisfying crack, the dogs head crumbled. Jayce and Micu heaved Ralnas back to his feet. "So who killed the most?" a panting Ralnas asked. Jayce looked to Micu and shrugged. Micu started counting on his fingers before laughing. "I have no idea." Jayce was smiling but the pain on his chest continued to bother him. It was no simple cramp, he was sure of that. He waited for the treasure chests to arrive so he could quickly check without alarming his friends.

The announcer's voice returned once again. "There will be another five-minute break between rounds. Round three will be a drastic increase in difficulty! You won't want to miss it!"