Chapter 67: Pit of fire

I could feel the heat of the rising flames as I got closer to the pit of fire, and everyone in the village found a place to stand around the arena. I followed Grimwore to the edge where another large orc was standing. "This is your opponent. Rornar. He is one of our greatest warriors." I looked at the large being, stunned. He was the same height as Grimwore but he was twice his size in muscle alone. 

The teeth that stuck out of his mouth from his bottom jaw were so big that they could be considered tusks, and he had a snarl on his face as he looked down at me. "Prepare to be crushed, tiny human. I'll show everyone here that no one but an orc is worthy of Raknorah." I returned his glare and Grimwore seemed to enjoy our instant rivalry. "Now, since I want this fight to last more than two seconds, I will provide you both with weapons." Someone then came up next to us and handed me and Rornar wooden poles with large rocks tied tightly to both ends. 

It was heavier than I expected, but I could still hold it up with one hand. Rornar scoffed at me one more time before walking to the other side of the fire pit. May then came up next to me with worry in her tone. "He's really big..." I shrugged. "I'll be fine. I always am." I turned to her but she still carried fear in her eyes. "Be careful, okay?" I paused from seeing her worry and nodded as I walked past her and to the opposite side of the arena than Rornar. 

I stepped to the edge and jumped onto the nearest platform. Thankfully, the pedestals were big enough for an orc to stand on so I had room to fall or catch myself if I needed to. Rornar stepped onto a platform as well across from me, and he cracked his neck as he turned it, sharply. Grimwore then moved to stand in front of a chair made by the formed lava rock of the wall and raised his hands to gain the attention of the crowd. "Welcome all to the first trial of Raknorah! This fight will end either if one of them dies, gets knocked out, or if the human can last ten minutes in the ring against Rornar! Let the fight begin!" 

The crowd cheered in response, and Grimwore sat down on the throne of rock. I could feel the heat of the fire pit below me through my bare feet, and flames shot up randomly between each pillar of rock. I tried to think of how I could survive with no sword or armor against a monster like Rornar. 'I think the main thing here is to make sure I don't get hit.' I thought. Rornar then roared loudly and charged at me. I quickly jumped onto another platform but he continued to chase me. 

I jumped between pedestals as fast as I could without falling into the chasm of flames below us and Rornar became even angrier. "A man doesn't run away!" I stopped myself before the edge of the rock and jumped as I turned around to hit him in the face with the stone of my weapon. He stumbled back a little from the hit but quickly recovered with an increase of rage. "Cheap shot!"

I continued to avoid him and at one point I noticed that Theodius had appeared in another chair beside Grimwore. He waved to me once he saw that I noticed him and continued snacking on a bag of sweets. I rolled my eyes but became angry once he grabbed May's arm as she stood next to him and pulled her onto his lap. "Ah!" He shouted to me as he held his arm around her waist. "You're doing great!" 

I couldn't believe how angry I got whenever he did things like that now, but I didn't care and knew that I was going to smack the hell out of him if I made it out of this alive. After too long of dodging, I had put Rornar on his last nerve. This time he moved too fast to dodge and punched me hard in the stomach.

I coughed up blood as an automatic response and flew back to the very last stone from being hit with so much force. May called my name and I barely grabbed the edge of the platform before falling to my death. I then used my weapon to pull me back over the top, but Rornar didn't allow me to stand up before grabbing me by the neck. He lifted me off of my feet and laughed as I struggled. 

He was too strong to move and I couldn't stop him from turning around and hitting me hard in the face with the end of his weapon. I went flying again and I couldn't ignore the feeling of my body being engulfed in pain. I tried to grab another pedestal before I plummeted into the flames, but my grip was weak and I slipped. The crowd gasped as they saw me disappear into the fire, and May screamed at the sight. 

Rornar then laughed. "Only two hits. How pathetic." A silence passed through the cave for a moment until someone suddenly shouted from the crowd and pointed into the pit. "Wait! Look there!" Everyone turned to look where they were pointing and they froze as they saw me still alive hanging onto the pole of the pedestal below the arena. The fire was relentlessly devouring me and burning my skin, but I continued to hold on and used my weapon to start to climb back up. 

I had to clench my jaw to stop myself from screaming from the pain and I was sweating floods from the heat, but I soon was able to grab the top of the platform and pull myself up. I got to my feet shakily and patted the fire out from my loincloth. My face was bloody, my stomach was bruised, and I was now covered from head to toe in burns and sweat, but that didn't stop me from glaring at Rornar who was now just as paralyzed in shock as the crowd. "...What are you?"

I breathed heavily for a few seconds before slowly raising my weapon toward him. "Hah, I'm relentless as fuck. That's what I am." I tried to think of what I was going to do next since I knew I wasn't going to be as fast to dodge his attacks anymore. I happened to catch a glance of a stalactite hanging above Rornar from the ceiling of the cave. An idea came to me from seeing it and I then threw my weapon straight at it as hard as I could.

Rornar gave me a weird look after he saw my weapon fall back down into the pit. "What was that? Your vision must be blurry from the sweat because that shot sucked! Ha!" I smirked at how clueless he was. "Did it?" A loud crack then echoed through the cave and Rornar looked up to see the stalactite hurtling towards him. He gasped and dodged enough so that the impact didn't hit his head, but it put a gash in his arm and destroyed the platform he was standing on. "Ahh!!"

By now the crowd was going crazy and Rornar managed to jump onto another platform before the other one crumbled. He held his arm in pain and I didn't waste any time and ran at him with my fist raised. Before he could react I gave him the hardest uppercut I have ever punched before, and in the next second he slammed down against the platform, knocked out cold.