Prologue: The king of the arena

The acrid smell of the sandy soil of the arena entered his nostrils, making them quiver slightly. There wasn't only the smell of sand, but also the sweat and blood left over from other clashes, many of them days or even weeks old. This gave him an adrenaline rush; after a year, the tension and the feeling of sinking his teeth into a new opponent had become almost a pleasure for him.

Misune walked him to the gate and then stood in a corner, awaiting his return when the fight was over. She didn't even wait for Haku to order it: they had performed those actions so many times that by now the slave already knew what to do. The dragon didn't care what she did: the important thing was that she didn't get in the way making things more complicated for him.

Haku looked over the bars of the gate. The arena was full as usual, and the little man who still hadn't found out his name in all that time was already announcing what was going to happen that day. Haku listened to the roar of applause, the cheers of the audience, the boos and the shouts; by now, they had become a pleasant sound to his ears.

Finally, the gate opened. The bars moved upward, as they had every day for a year. The same rhythmic, one-way motion, never changing, and the same sound of metal rubbing against stone. Not a single variation.

Haku came out, showing himself to the whole arena. His coming was greeted with cheers and cheers. He smiled; he knew that those applauses were for him, they were the testimony of the admiration that those people felt towards him. While the approval of the newcomers meant little to him, it was still refreshing to know that there were so many of them who loved to watch him fight. They cheered him as they would a great hero or a great general, or even a king. Well, not that there was much wrong with that... he was a king in a certain way.

The arena was his kingdom, the gladiators and the slaves were his subjects, and everyone obeyed his will. It was he the one who dictated the law and his every word became a rule. All those who had dared to challenge his dominance had long been in his stomach. He was the undisputed king of the arena, the only truly dominant predator of that place.

A king captive in his own kingdom. There was something ironic and funny about it all. Haku almost grinned thinking about it.

"Here he is! The ruler of the arena!" the little man screamed. He, too, had recognized his position of dominance. "The one you've all been waiting for! Undefeated in over three hundred and fifty fights! Winner over the..."

Haku remained impassive as the little man listed all the titles he had earned over the years. He thought with satisfaction that he was right: he had really remained undefeated, even if he wasn't referring to physical fights. He looked up and saw the real enemy he had defeated every day for an entire year. King Marcus sat on his bench like every day, his eyes fixed on him, curious and amused at the same time, as if he was already anticipating the trick that Haku would pull off this time. For an entire year, Haku kept his secrets such. And even today, the king would get nothing from him.

The dragon snorted. The battle between him and the king was now a practice for him. Every day the king would come up with something new for him, and every day Haku could find a way to win. Ironically the king had done him a favor, helping him build a huge reputation both inside and outside the arena. Even though the gladiators and slaves couldn't see the fights, they had heard much gossip from the guards, and even the most reluctant understood that they shouldn't mess with the dragon.

Haku averted his gaze from the king, pointing it instead to the other side of the arena, where he knew his new opponent would emerge. The little man kept listing his qualities for nearly seven minutes, then he finally stopped wasting his time and pointed to the other side of the arena. "And now, let the challenger enter!"

The gate opened and something huge came out. A hissing, stretched, furious, and surely deadly creature. The beast writhed on itself, trying desperately to charge, but the collar prevented it.

It was a wyrm. A horrible creature resembling a gigantic snake almost eighteen meters long. Its back was studded with two rows of sharp spines, and its tail branched into two tips that wriggled like hideous crawling worms. The beast's head was very similar to that of a dragon, but the tip of the muzzle was more reminiscent of a bird's beak. It had two large horns like Haku's, albeit much less conspicuous, and at the base of its neck protruded six bone spikes that if they hit a human being would go through them as if they were made of butter. Like Haku, the wyrm was completely covered in hard, tough scales, but they weren't silvery, but green, and faded from darker shades on its belly to lighter ones on its back.

Haku frowned slightly. The wyrm was certainly not an opponent to be taken lightly. He had grown over the year, and was now much bigger than when he'd gotten here, but the wyrm was still nearly twice as long as he was. Its serpentine body also made it dangerous, because it could wrap itself around his body and crush him. And since its head was similar to a dragon's, it was likely that the pressure its jaws could exert was also similar, thus making even its bite a lethal weapon. All of this without even calculating its mana.

But despite the difficult challenge ahead of him, Haku wasn't scared at all. Indeed, he would have been disappointed if the fight had been too easy; he had expectations and wanted them to be respected. He was used to complicated fights in which he had to use all his skills to survive, so he certainly wouldn't let the wyrm scare him. He knew he had one huge advantage over it: he was a rational creature, that snakelike creature wasn't. And intelligence beat the murderous fury of an abused beast.

As usual, the little man withdrew, leaving the arena to the two challengers. There was a moment of absolute silence, where even the wind stopped blowing, in which the two challengers looked into each other's eyes. Then the king announced: "Let them fight!"

Both snapped instantly. Haku charged with full speed and the wyrm did the same. As soon as they were close enough, the wyrm lunged at Haku in an attempt to wrap its coils around him, but the dragon was faster and easily dodged the blow, then biting its neck, at a point away from the bone spikes. It wasn't a bite intended to hurt: he just wanted to test his opponent's resistance. The wyrm's scales were extremely hard, but they cracked one after another under the dragon's powerful bite, which however was unable to break the underlying bones. The wyrm hissed in pain and tried to wrap itself around Haku, but he let go and retreated. As he imagined, he couldn't finish the fight quickly. If he could continuously exert the force of his jaws on his opponent, then sooner or later he would have succeeded in breaking its bones; but this was doable with a creature with legs, which couldn't make too absurd movements, not with a serpentine beast like the wyrm. Haku couldn't stay too close to his opponent, or its coils would wrap around him and imprison him.

He had to limit himself to quick and precise shots. Injure and retreat immediately. Unlike the wyrm, he had the advantage of having legs. And he already knew where to strike to immediately remove a weapon from his opponent: with a jump, he cleared the distance between them and threw a claw on the wyrm's head, hitting the lower jaw in full. With a crunch, the mandible broke off and fell to the ground, leaving the wyrm with only its upper jaw. The beast let out a furious snort, but now it didn't even have a tongue anymore, so it couldn't even have the satisfaction of hissing in anger.

Haku however wasn't going to wait for her to recover; it attacked again, but this time aimed at the forked tail. It was only then that he noticed that there were two very small stingers on it, most likely poisonous. It too was a weapon. With a single swipe of his claws, he inflicted a deep wound at the base of the tail. The wyrm turned on him furiously, but Haku was too fast. Remarkable as the wyrm's speed was, it couldn't beat the extraordinary muscles and well-proportioned body of a dragon. Haku circled around, drawing the beast's attention elsewhere, and then attacked again at the same spot and struck the wound again, deepening it.

The wyrm was now not only furious, but also frightened. Suddenly its stingers turned black and cold, as if they were chunks of ice, and from them exploded a cascade of dark, oily liquid that dissolved into air as soon as it hit the ground. Haku managed to get away in time, but some of the liquid hit his right paw, burning it and penetrating his skin.

Suddenly, weakness flooded her body. Evidently, the wyrm's venom must have contained some kind of narcoleptic substance that entered the bloodstream the instant it made contact with the skin. Haku staggered as the world around him began to spin and blur.

The wyrm, seeing him weakened, didn't hesitate to attack him. But the wyrm didn't know that Haku wasn't bothered by the poison. He'd faced much worse poisons in the past year, and he even survived a hydra's one. He knew the wyrm's venom wouldn't be enough to kill him or even knock him unconscious. It was confusing, but not that much. On the contrary, he knew exactly how to act.

As soon as the wyrm was close enough, it rolled onto its side to try to wrap its coils around it; that's when Haku lifted his paw and touched its body. In an instant, half of the wyrm's body was covered in ice. The beast couldn't know that Haku knew how to manipulate runes.

In a year, he had had to use more and more difficult tricks to avoid the king's gaze. This time Haku had engraved a very small freeze rune, so small as to be almost invisible, under one of his nails.

Taking advantage of the fact that the wyrm was immobilized, Haku struck the wound on the tail several times, until he managed to sever it cleanly. The wyrm's eyes widened in fear and anger as it saw its most important weapon snatched away.

Now the wyrm no longer had its bite and sting, and since it was immobilized it could no longer constrict it; by now, Haku was dealing with his last defense, namely the bone spikes on its neck. But in reality, there was no need: with a quick leap, he deluded the wyrm of wanting to attack him, and in fact the snake moved its bone tips to defend itself, but Haku changed direction at the last moment and instead bit the part of the neck directly under the thorns. In that position, the wyrm couldn't strike him with its bone spikes.

Now, Haku just had to use all his strength. He exerted immense pressure, splitting the scales and penetrating the flesh. The wyrm thrashed furiously, but there was no way to free itself. Finally, with a sharp crack, the bones gave way and the wyrm's body snapped in two. The head fell to the ground and gave a few spasms, then it didn't move anymore.

Haku placed a paw over his opponent's corpse, then he raised his neck to the sky and roared. The audience clapped and cheered him, as they always had for years. "That's right! The dragon remains champion! The ruler of the arena continues to hold his title!" the little man screamed.

Haku ignored him. He looked up at the king and smiled, in a clearly provocative attitude. Marcus returned that look and narrowed his eyes, as if he were promising him that tomorrow he would prepare something better. Haku smiled even more as if inviting him to do so, then he took the wyrm's severed tail and moved away from the corpse.

Haku walked towards the gate, exiting the arena accompanied by thunderous applause from the audience. The fight was over and there was no longer any reason for his presence. The king of the arena could go to rest.