Chapter 3 - A villain

The stone door was massive, created specifically for any type of racer that might need to enter the stadium. Carved into the stone beside the doorway was a depiction of a man on the back of tiger, holding a one-handed axe.

  Diargo glanced back at his friend who was muttering something under his breath about the history of the architecture. "are you gonna get over here and show your ID or should I just talk to them myself," Diargo asked.

Valor stopped talking to himself to look at his friend with a puzzled expression. "you can't talk."

Diargo rolled his eyes and snorted at his human friend. "exactly my point."

Throwing his hands up, Valor walked over to the door, "alright alright, I'm coming, geez." After a brief moment of silence Valor cleared his throat and said, "so how do you open this thing anyway".

Diargo shrugged his heavy shoulders, "I figured I could always smash my way through it".

Ignoring the monkey's unhelpful comment, Valor ran his hands along the grooves in the door, inspecting each notch. After another five minutes of peering and prodding, Valor looked at Diargo, who was waiting with raised eyebrows.

"yeah it's not a door", Valor stood there in silence with his lips pressed together staring at his friend.

Diargo gave his head a quick shake, "I'm sorry that's it? It's just not a door"

Valor put his hands on his hips and gazed thoughtfully at the engraved rock face, "Yeah, I mean, I think these engravings are just decorative, there's no way of actually- "

Diargo interrupted Valor's explanation with a snort, and started to charge the wall, "I'm smashing it."

Leaping in front of his friend, Valor frantically waved his arms, "No what are you crazy, we can't just smash through!" Diargo slammed to halt, inches in front of Valor and let out an impatient bark. Valor continued, "Besides if it actually isn't a door, you were about to run headfirst into a mountain."

Diargo rolled his eyes, "It's a door".

"That's even worse," Valor shouted, "imagine if you actually smashed down that door, that's not how it works!"

"I'm about to kill 4 or 5 people in three days which is fine, but smashing a door in isn't?" Diargo flicked Valor in the head, who glared at him and rubbed his forehead.

"I don't make the rules, stonehead!" valor said through gritted teeth.

As Valor wound up to hit Diargo back, the two of them were interrupted by a deep voice behind them, "Step aside child".

Valor whipped around to correct whoever was addressing him like that and came face to face with the largest man he had ever seen. The figure stood at an imposing seven, maybe eight feet tall, he was white, expect for muscle laden arms that were completely black from ink. He had practically no hair left on his head and was missing an eye. Valor swallowed and tried to fight the panic waves that he was inevitably releasing to Diargo, who started a rumble deep in chest. He had to keep his composure unless he wanted to trigger Diargo's hostile and protective nature.

"I'm 18." Valor's panic subsided rapidly, and he gave his head a quick shake to clear it. His composure usually was not shaken so easily. "I'm here for the qualifiers, actually".

The man threw his head back and let out a maniacal laugh, another bout of nervousness washed over Valor, and he silently cursed himself for being intimidated. "I didn't realize we had another one this quarter." The giant man walked closer to Valor and stared at him with his single eye, "You ready to die kid?"

Valor felt his stomach turned to stone, the strange panic was threatening to overwhelm him, and to make matters worse, he could sense Diargo's nervous energy. Valor tried to access his galden but found it dull and far away, as though some force was blocking him off it. Diargo's primal instincts kicked and he shoved Valor aside and roared at the giant. Sending a blast of hot hair and spit into the man's face. Without flinching, the man reached up to touch the four-inch fang that was only a couple feet away from his throat. He gave the ape a toothy grin.

"Boy you are an impeccable creature, I'll tell you what, after I break your rider's spine, you can be MY racer." The man gave Diargo and Valor another wide smile "It's going to be really fun beating you guys, I can already tell."

With a condescending pat on the side of Diargo's face, the behemoth pushed his way past the stunned ape. As the man got to the wall, he placed his hand onto a carved depiction of a disk and pushed. The carving seemed to retract into the wall until there was a loud click, and the giant gate started to slowly swing open. Diargo and Valor watched silently as the man whistled and beckoned for something in the desert. A couple seconds later, a massive boar came charging around a particularly large rocky outcrop. The boar trotted past Diargo and Valor, and the two could see the eyes of the pig rolling nervously. As the massive stone doors finally came to a halt, the man climbed on to his mount who squealed slightly in defiance, before a heavy hand struck it into silence. As he guided the boar into the now cavernous opening, the man started to sing in a loud off tune voice, "We race, we race, in the devils chase…" His voice still echoing of the interior walls, could be heard for another five minutes as the pair stood outside, still discussing their previous interaction.

"Diargo, how-" Valor started to say.

His friend cut him off, "It was galden, he was using it to intimidate us."

Valor looked at his friend in surprise. "Galden? But how, no human should be able to control it like that. You remember what my dad said."

"Your dad said that ALL living creatures have galden flowing through them, just that they couldn't control it. And besides, YOU can control it, what's stopping other people from being able to as well."

Valor wiped the sweat that was now dripping off of his brow, whether it was from the heat or his previous encounter, he couldn't tell.

"Diargo, don't you think it's weird I couldn't sense his galden? I tried to probe his heart, but I couldn't even connect with my lifeblood." Valor ran a hand through his sweaty hair, he could feel a headache coming in. "I shouldn't even have needed to probe him, power strong enough to intimidate you would have been giving off unmistakeable signals".

Diargo looked thoughtfully at his friend and slowly took a couple steps towards him. "when he was talking to you, I could feel his galden creep into my head like fog. And then I couldn't sense anything at all. The only reason I even stepped in to confront him was because of some animal instinct." Diargo stared into the palm of his massive hand, and then squeezed it. "For a second, I didn't feel you or my galden, it was almost as if I was – "

"Disconnected?" Valor cut in.

The monkey curled his lip back in distaste and nodded. The two of them made eye contact, and Diargo could see a fresh panic in Valor's eyes.

"Valor, why do I sense a different kind of fear from you."

Valor swallowed and looked into the dark tunnel that the giant rode into. "Because buddy, this time it's real."