Underground Beast Battles

Click!

The cage door move up by an inch, paused, then continued to slowly rise. Zhan hadn't realised it from across the arena, but now that he was up close, it was actually quite a large cage. The cage door extended up for over 6 feet before coming to a halt.

Zhan narrowed his eyes and took up his guard, waiting for the creature to emerge…

Whoosh!

'Fast!' He thought, then quickly stepped forwards and swept up with the spear.

Swoosh!

'Really fast!' He was startled by its speed. It was so fast that the audience didn't see the beast's appearance until it landed ten feet away from Zhan and stopped.

"A frog?" Multiple people muttered simultaneously. However, this was one hell of a frog!

It was as tall as Zhan's chest and even wider than it was tall. Its underbelly was a strangely pure white colour, but it turned grey as the frog breathed in and inflated its chest outwards, then returned to that plain white colour as it breathed out.

The remainder of the frog was a camo-green colour.

As he stared at this strange beast, Zhan realised that it really was camouflage, the colour was changing continuously between different shades of green. It seemed to only possess the ability to change between different shades off green though, which wasn't very useful in this place.

Even the frog's eyes were green! However, its eyes were a deep dark green, with a bright red dot in the centre. This dot was like a blazing fire, it would create fear in the hearts of all who saw it.

As members of the syndicate watched this frog just standing there, some of them who had helped to capture and subdue it shivered.

This frog killed a member of their team, whilst that dot in its eyes haunted their dreams for the past two nights. Capturing this frog was no easy feat, they ended up tranquillising it and using a metal wire net, which it still nearly broke out from.

Whoosh!

The frog moved again. Its body blurred and shot towards Zhan like a speeding bullet. He felt as if a giant boulder was rushing towards him and knew that it would be fatal if he was struck. He hastily turned to the side, narrowly avoiding the frog's huge body.

Zhan was a pro though, he would never just stay on the defensive. As he twisted his body, he also swung around with the spear and slashed at the frog's thick hide. He felt a strange level of resistance as the blade connected, but he just tensed his muscles tightly and forced his way through.

"GREEEEEE!" The frog let out a piercing shriek. Zhan's attack completely cut through its body, the frog rolled multiples times across the ground, coating its slimy body in dirt. It thrashed about on its back for just a second, but this second was critical.

Zhan jumped on top of the frog and used his downwards momentum to thrust his spear into its chest.

CHI!

He again met some resistance, but its stomach was weaker than its side. Zhan quickly pulled the spear out and struck down again, but suddenly found that he was in the air!

The frog actually inhaled rapidly, before suddenly inflating its body and throwing Zhan upwards!

He watched as the amphibious monster struggled to return to its feet. If it returned to its feet, it would be much more difficult to penetrate the thick hide. Also, Zhan was pretty high up, he would be stalled for a moment after he landed…

Thinking all of this, Zhan decided to take a risk. He raised his arm up high, making many people in the audience gasp as they speculated his next move.

Whoosh!

As expected, he threw the spear downwards, completely throwing his body off balance in the air. The spear shot downwards, then stabbed into the frog just before it got onto its feet.

"GREEEEE! GREEEEEEE! GREEE! Greee!…Greee…gree…"

The spear pierced into the side of its underbelly and cut straight through, stabbing out from the other side and nailing the frog into the ground. It struggled intensely, but this struggle only resulted in further injury. Zhan hit the ground with a hard thump and groaned slightly, but he quickly got to his feet and jumped back.

He stared at the frog, but it stopped moving. He was extremely cautious, thinking that perhaps it was just playing dead, but then three minutes passed by and nothing happened.

Seeing that Zhan was unwilling to approach the dead frog, the old syndicate leader rolled his eyes and nudged the announcer.

"Just call it there."

The announcer nodded, then made the declaration.

"And the winner is, Martial God! He has done it again, this time even besting this monster of an enemy! After seeing that last match, it makes you wonder who the monster really is…"

Zhan glared up at the area where he knew the announcer was, making the person flinch. The old man besides him just laughed.

Ten members of the syndicate cautiously walked out into the arena. They didn't want to approach the frog, but they had no choice. After one guy kicked it a few times and it didn't move, another person gained some courage and tried to pull Zhan's spear out. Unfortunately for the now embarrassed man, it was jammed in too thoroughly, he was unable to retrieve the weapon from the frog's corpse.

Zhan sighed and pulled it out himself. The syndicate dragged the corpse away, before a new cage was rolled out.

Unlike the first cage, it was easy to identify the contents of this cage even without seeing in.

"Awoooh!"

"Growl…"

"AWOO! WOOF! AWOO…"

Before long, the next battle began.

The audience watched in rapt attention as Zhan was quickly surrounded by three canine beasts. That last match against the frog was brief, but it was exhilarating and many people would be watching it on playback repeatedly tonight.

Those who already knew of Zhan's reputation were again impressed by his might, whilst those newbies in the crowd were stunned senseless. They had already watched two other competitors fight before Zhan, so they had a general understanding of how humans matched up against these mutated beasts…on seeing such a huge frog, it was clear that the previous two fighters would have died quickly.

Their opponents weren't nearly as intimidating, yet their injuries were severe, the first gladiator was even in critical condition right now.

Zhan though…

Looking at him now, glaring back at the three wolves with palpable killing intent, he didn't look injured at all!

Truthfully, Zhan had injured his ankle from the fall after the frog threw him into the air, but his vitality allowed him to recover within the three minutes he stalled for and the minute break between rounds.

"Grrr!" One wolf growled out as it leapt towards Zhan. This was the most ordinary of the mutts, it resembled a wild wolf, though its golden eyes shone with a much brighter lustre and its silver fur was stunning under the arena lights. It was the size that truly set it apart though, this wolf was easily twice to three times the size of any wild wolf!

Zhan suddenly turned, bringing his spear with him, slashing at the wolf's head in mid air. His spear collided against the wolf's open jaw, cutting through its mouth and-

CLANG!

The sound of metal on metal rang out, making Zhan blink in surprise. His spear stopped moving, so he pulled it out and stepped away. Before he could think about the wolf's weirdly strong head, the second was upon him.

The second wolf was smaller than the first, but its eyes were more red and crazed…and it had six legs, like an insect. It looked a bit disgusting and Zhan was forced to duck down as he couldn't turn towards it in time. The wolf shot over his head, but its claw scratched the back of his neck. He pulled down further, but a chuck of flesh was ripped out and a searing pain shot through his body.

No time to think about it, the third wolf was here! Zhan was already keeping an eye on this one, because it was actually another three headed wolf! He hadn't seen a three headed wolf on television so they couldn't be that common…this almost felt like fate!

Zhan was truly a genius level fighter, he learned from his last battle against this type of beast and applied his new understanding. Perhaps he was paying this wolf more attention than last time because he already knew that it was strong, but his attack this time was also far more precise.

CHI CHI CHI!

From his ducked down position, Zhan swept his spear upwards and diagonally to the side, slicing through the three throats in one swing!

He wasn't sure if it was dead, but didn't have time to check. The other two wolves were now attacking from either side!

Wolves naturally hunted in packs and often coordinated attacks like this. These wolves were far more aggressive than normal animals though, they didn't retreat even after getting badly injured.

Zhan and the two wolves went back and forth for multiple exchanged strikes. Zhan was finally bitten on the arm by the first wolf, but he used this opportunity of distraction to stab at the insect-like second wolf!

PUCHI!

His spear stabbed into its throat, the main weak spot on these beasts that Zhan discovered from the three headed wolf he fought previously. The first wolf seemed surprised and loosened its grip on his arm. Zhan used this instant to pull back, then swept up with the spear, slicing through its throat. A gurgling sound came from the dying wolf and its eyes widened as its body hit the floor.

Zhan was panting for breath, but he didn't stop. He turned and stumbled towards the three headed wolf, then stabbed down firmly into the third neck. He only broke the third neck, he didn't slit it properly, so the third wolf was unconscious, but barely still alive.

After each of these three kills, an unnoticeable white light travelled from the wolves' corpses into Zhan's body.

He used his spear to support his body after returning to his start position, then briefly looked through his status panel as the third and final cage was brought out. He now had 2.4 unspent life-points, a sizeable amount, but expected given that he had killed 4 fairly powerful beasts.

Now, before the third match began, Zhan had only one thought on his mind: how should he enhance his strength this time?