Chapter 8

Book1 - Chapter 8: Despairing Challenge

Within the city, there was a building whose shape was so familiar to something in Leylin's memory he almost thought that he had gone back to his previous world.

"This..." He took a step back and gulped.

"Haha! You can feel the stench of death? They say Heracles was an interesting guy, he came up with the concept who knows how many years ago, he called the first challengers of the Arena gladiators and called himself Spartan when hosting the Bestiarii. It's said that when someone survived the challenge they would be received with cheers and groups of women wanting to take them to bed, while the men would sing a song he composed which called the winner blood of Spartacus in the language those magi use to cast spells."

Leylin was stunned by what he said to the point of stopping on his tracks... this place... could this guy called Heracles be someone from Earth!? He couldn't help but feel slightly ashamed at that moment. This guy was probably a mad man obsessed with greek heroes.

"Come, don't just stand there," George called when he noticed that Leylin had stopped.

After walking through the entrance, the first thing they noticed was the cheers of the crowd sitting at the stands surrounding the arena, after going through outposts filled with knights, they eventually arrived at the place where the battles were taking place.

The arena was at the center of the coliseum, its walls were surrounded by spikes covered in flames that were probably used to stop the beasts from escaping, due to how big the arena was, everyone could see the battle without problems from the stands.

"That looks like something that can definitely kill us." Leaning at the guard rail surrounding the boundary between the stand and the arena, Leylin whispered as his eyes narrowed.

The flower-like monster stood tall, its head being 3 meters above the ground. Two Knights covered in wounds and punctured pieces of armors were struggling at the edge of the arena, their swords waving left and right to cut through the unending wave of vines covered in thorns that were created one after the other by the plant.

The creature itself wasn't that strong, nor could it be considered really dangerous, being unable to move, it would only be dangerous if used in an arena, or if someone was stupid enough to approach it in the wild.

After all, this flower's only advantage was apparently its endless tendrils.

He and George watched for a moment, they didn't know for how long those two had been fighting, but it was clear what the result would be.

At some point, one of the knights lost its focus and was surprised by a tentacle that grabbed his leg, the thorns slashing the armor as if it was made of paper and sliced away skin and flesh, making the man desperately cry in agony as his blood splattered over the ground.

The crowd's excitement went through the roof when the first casualty came.

"Carlos!" Despite the cries of despair and sadness from the woman that had just lost her partner in the fight. Only cheers of excitement and thrill came from the crowd, one could even feel the blood lust in the air.

"Hahaha!"

"This! That's why I came today!"

"Hehe! Where's the fella who bet with me, I want my money now you prick!"

"Haha! More!"

"More! More! More! More!" The crowd clapped wanting to see more blood, and the flower-like monster, as if influenced by the cheering audience, launched all of its tendrils at the same time and quickly overwhelmed the female knight, however, it didn't kill her immediately, it first tortured her by piercing parts of her body and crushing her bones.

"Agggghh!" She cried in helplessness. "Help! Please!"

Before she could continue, the monster lifted her above it, and... dropped her in its mouth, the sound of all her bones crushing was the only thing that could be heard after. And soon after the crowd stood with flushed faces, they were extremely satisfied.

Under the continuous sound of claps, from a tower next to the arena a plump man wearing a purple suit with a tie stood up from the throne where he sat and stopped in front of the guard rails.

"Everyone, how was the first spectacle of the day? Are you satisfied!?" He shouted with vigor, his voice carrying with it a strange charm that aroused the public, which soon after erupted with cries of cheers and excitement.

Seeing the powerful response of his clients a wicked smile grew on his face. "Hahaha! I'm happy that I was able to serve you!"

Bowing, he then stood straight and pointed towards Leylin and George while both were still stunned by the gory sight that had just happened before them. The bags full of fat on the man's body were shaking as he announced happily the next competitor of the arena. "Next, we have challengers of the Hastilude from the southern border of our empire! Give our bumpkins a round of applause! Show them the warmth from the capital! And the last cheers of support they will hear in their lives!"

"Woohoo!" The crowd cheered, and with it, some women even lifted their shirts showing their breasts with big smiles on their faces.

"Handsomes! Win this fight and we will give you a warm surprise!"

"If you kill the beast I'll want a baby with you!"

George had a big smile on his face hearing the women crying their support with sex as an incentive, meanwhile, Leylin could only frown slightly and shake his head.

"Haha! C'mon, Leylin, you're too conservative, not even my gramps would be so dull with women like you, it'll be just some fun after the challenge, you don't have to be so serious about relationships." George patted the cold Leylin on the shoulder.

"Shut up! I'm a man of principles, how could I accept a woman like that? No matter what, I will never date someone like them." He shook his head and after slapping away his hand he directly jumped at the arena after noticing that the flower monster was dragged away to one of the cages.

"Ahhh, this leylin is like an old grandma waiting for the fabled prince! At this rate, he will die a virgin." Shaking his head, George followed after him with a dejected smile.

"Hahaha! Our challengers are eager to meet their creators, what do you say? Should we make their wish come true?"

"YES!!!" The crowd cried and with a smile, the plump man nodded.

"Let the show begin!" He pointed his staff towards one of the gates, from it came energy hands as dark as the night, they moved extremely fast towards the gate and lifted it without any trouble, letting the Devil Bear inside free! "Behold! A spawn of hell, one of the children of Lillith brought back to our world by our awesome and powerful Magi in ancient times, the Devil Bear!"

Cheers erupted and with it the roars of the beast that rushed from within its cage. The description perfectly matched what they read in the book, but it had to be said that some details weren't mentioned. Such as the beast's mouth with three rows of sharp teeth that seemed capable of opening towards four different directions like an alien of sorts or the Devil Bear's smooth skin of the same color of iron.

If it wasn't for the countless veins popping up all around its body it would be easy to mistake this creature of black eyes and red pupils for a robot!

"George! Be careful!"

"Don't worry, let's kill this beast and get done with it, I'm itching to taste the body of those girls!"

George's shout full of confidence filled the crowd with excitement, especially the girls that were eyeing his muscles.

Shaking his head, Leylin drew his sword and slowly walked away with slow and vigorous steps. George did the same, they planned to force the creature to focus on just one of them, while the other attacked from behind and looked for weaknesses.

Tired of waiting, the Devil Bear roared and hit the ground with its paws, bloodlust flashed in its eyes, and the creature hushed towards Leylin.

"Now! I'll keep the beasts' attention, don't let the claws from the centipede part of its body touch you!"

"Roger!"

Leylin's eyes became sharp like the edge of his sword, the first strike came like a bullet from above. He slashed against the claw while pulling to the right, following this came the sound of metal colliding with metal.

It's no wonder the knights had trouble killing this monster! Stepping away with agility he could still feel his arm shaking with the pressure that downed upon his arm at that moment.

George made use of the opportunity and also tried to attack the monster from its back while Leylin parried some attacks and tried to dodge others.

No matter how much their swords collided with the Devil Bear's skin, only sparks were left behind to prove that they had indeed attacked the beast that fully ignored their attempts at hurting it.

"Damn it!" George cried in helplessness. "Leylin, I can't damage it from behind, did you manage to even scratch it from where you are?"

"No!" Leylin lowered his head barely avoiding the claws of the Devil Bear. "It's skin is too hard!"

"Hahaha! It's despair time, boys!"

"Mwahahaha! Those guys are too lame!"

"Boo! Die already, this is too boring!"

The situation wasn't any good, and the cries of the crowd made it even worse.

Shaking his head, Leylin was about to parry another attack but the Devil Bear suddenly turned its back towards him and spun in a circle, before he could react, the Bear's paws grasped tightly on the ground making cracks spread. At that moment, it jumped from the ground and used its body like a whip.

"Leylin, careful!" Before George's warning could reach him, Leylin was flung back by dozen of meters, only stopping after his shoulder pierced through one of the spikes protruding from the walls of the arena!

"Agh!"

This bastard! Closing one of his eyes, he coughed a mouthful of blood and almost lost his consciousness right there. A horrible burning sensation came from his back and his shoulder felt like it was being pierced by countless needles.

Fuck! This isn't going as planned. George grabbed his sword and jumped towards the bear face that was too busy looking at Leylin to notice him approaching. Before the Devil Bear could even cry in anger, a sword came piercing through the air penetrated its eye, making it cry in pain and stand on its back paws.

"Aaaaah!" George who forgot to let go of the sword was flung so high on the sky that when he stopped he had already fallen on one of the stands, right on top of some of the people cursing them loudly.

"Fuck!"

"What the hell!? How did this guy leave the Arena like that?!

"Bastard! Not only did you abandon your partner, but you are also trying to take out your frustration on others!"

At that moment, the creature's roar became different, the air became heavy and it struck Leylin that he had read about this! "Berserk!"

The creature turned towards him, blood flowed out from its eye continuously where the sword struck, he could tell that at this moment, it had lost all rationality!

For the first time in his life... Leylin felt despair in his heart. "This... No! I can't die here!"