67 The Colosseum

After docking their ship at the port of Parch Island, the group of 4 proceeded to walk through the towns as they took in their surroundings. Especially Sabo, who had never once left Dawn Island.

As they turned down a certain street they heard the roars of a crowd. Curious, they all headed towards the source. Upon arriving they were surprised to see the gates of what appeared to be a colosseum. Above the entrance the words "Golden Warrior Colosseum" were written in big and bold lettering.

On each side was a giant bronze statue of a fearsome sword wielding gladiator. The group walked up to the kiosk located just outside the colosseum, which was being manned by an ordinary looking middle aged man in a grey suit.

"Good day, will you be spectating or participating today?"

Ori and Roman both had an excited glint in their eyes as they prepared to answer, but Shaya beat them to the punch.

"We're just spectating today."

As she said that she gave the 2 a look as if to say "don't even think about creating troubled" before turning back to the ticket seller.

The ticket seller looked slightly disappointed but nodded with the smile.

After paying for their tickets the group continued inside making their way towards their seats.

When they entered the stands they were all a little caught off guard by what they saw. From the outside, the arena didn't look like it could sit much more than 1000 people but when they arrived they saw a crowd of at least 10,000 spectators and the ring was a square ring that spanned 100 meters in each direction.

Sabo whose life experience consisted of his time on Dawn Island, followed by his journey here was amazed by the picture.

"Woah this is awesome!"

Even Roman and Shaya were taken back by the sights. The only person who didn't seem to be too fussed by it all was Ori.

[The atmosphere is like a lot like a sports match from my previous life.]

Just as Ori was starting to reminisce about his old world the sound of the roaring crowd brought him back to reality.

As looked down at the arena he saw a large muscular humanoid creature calmly walking out. He had the face of a tiger which was covered in silver fur, with patterned black stripes and had piercing blue eyes that caught the attention of anyone who had never seen them before. His face seemed to be the only part of his body that was furry, as although the rest of his body was silver with black stripes, there was no fur, it was all ordinary skin. On his neck was three vertical slits that appeared to be fish gills. He had almost human like hands but each of his fingers were webbed together like that of a fish and at the tip of each finger was beast like claws, that although weren't overly long were still as sharp as knives.

He was completely topless showing off his tank like muscular upper body. And was wearing a pair of loose fitted orange bottoms tucked into a pair of long white socks that came up to his knees and held up by a pair of black shaolin leg wraps and on his feet were a pair of black martial arts slippers.

Just as Ori and the others was studying the beast like man, the voice of the commentator rang out in the arena.

"The moment you have all been waiting for has arrived. Everyone's favourite mixed blood challenger is here once more, to continue his challenge in pursuit of the golden warrior belt. He's half fishman and half mink. The man with the body of a humanoid white tiger with the gills of a fish. The colosseum's star challenger… Silk, the mink of the sea!"

Shaya who had her head in a booklet she'd received from the kiosk explained.

"It seems that the aim of the challenger is to win 100 battles in a maximum of 10 days. Each day they have to fight a minimum of 10 fights back to back before stopping. If they wish, the challenger can continue to fight after their 10th battle of the day, but should they start their 11th, they can't stop again till they win their 20th, and the same rules apply if they choose to start their 21st battle.

After winning 20 battles, the warrior becomes a bronze level challengers. After 50 battles, the challenger becomes a silver and after winning the 100th battle the challenger earns the golden warrior belt, but the belt isn't the thing that draws challengers in, it's the two prizes that come with it.

One is a cash money prize of £100,000,000 and the other is the title of island lord. You can only pick one or the other though. The hardest part about winning the golden warrior belt is that the 100th battle is against the current Island Lord."

Ori was only partly paying attention as he was still looking at the beast like man in the ring with an interested look in his eye.

[Half mink tribe and half fishman… Interesting mix!]

He turned to Shaya and asked.

"Does it say how many fights that challenger has won so far?"

Shaya nodded as she replied.

"He's just about to begin his 81st fight."

"Ooh… Impressive!"

As Shaya was about to say something else the commentator cut her off.

"And his opponent. A former fan favourite as someone who made it to the peak of bronze fighters, with 49 wins. 1 win away from his silver belt. The famous west blue bounty hunter… Daz "The Killer" Bones!"

As the crowd went crazy for the match up, Ori couldn't help but look at the new opponent in surprise.

Silk's opponent was a dark skinned man with a clean shaven head but his most striking feature was his upward slanting unibrow.

He was dressed in a sleeveless dark coat with golden edges and white design printed on the front. The jacket hung free over loose fitted beige bottoms held up by a white sash around his waist. His bottoms were tucked into some bandages that were wrapped around his calves and partly round his black martial arts slippers.

Ori looked at the man as the corner of his lips crept up.

[The future right hand of crocodile… This should be good!]