Black Mane

Isaac, Church, and Lily entered the Gate's portal one after the other.

Butterflies invaded their stomachs.

Ringing drowned their senses.

Sudden pressure assaulted their bodies, but before any of them received a chance to study the strange sensation, it was already over.

As though he never went through a portal at all, Church continued his stride and stepped onto foreign ground.

It was hard like stone, probably was stone, but before Church could inspect his surroundings – an untamed applause struck his ears and shook his flesh. Feeling the vibrations travel through his body, Church searched for the source of the oddly familiar noise.

When he raised his head, however, Church found that the noise he was hearing was coming from all around him.

Standing in the center of a coliseum, a packed arena of bulging, muscular men roared at the sight of new challengers. Tattoos littered their bodies and vibrant armors with comically large weapons accompanied the ferocious audience.

Worst of all, and what made Church's heart sink, was the brutes skin color – jaded green.

With black eyes and tusks protruding from their underbites, the massive green men filled the coliseum's seats and pounded their feet against the coliseum grounds in unison. From this, a heavy repetition of drums further sent the green brutes into frenzy.

"Dear God. . . ." Isaac's voice sounded like a whisper underneath the crazed applause of their audience.

It was at this time, while militiamen were appearing all around them, that a notification struck their Status'.

[World Challenged]

[Calculating Exploration Rate]

[World Exploration Rate: 16%]

[Calculating Challenge Time]

[Challenge Time: 392 Days • 18 Hours • 22 Minutes]

Isaac, Church, and the rest of the still arriving people stared at their Status screen in bewilderment.

The Status was recording the time? And what is the Exploration Rate? Well, Church could obviously decipher what it meant, but why was it important? Before he could ponder the matter any further, at the opposite end of the coliseum, iron gates began to rise into gray colored stone that constructed the coliseum.

The coliseum, likely constructed of basalt, was dark gray in color and decorated with hundreds of blood-red flags. The flags draped over the walls encasing the arena and fluttered high-above as they had been attached to ropes that soared across the skies of the coliseum.

The flags each depicted a different beast in black: wolves, bears, wasps and a giant toad. Four distinct flags painted the coliseum's interior along with a plethora of raging torches.

The ground beneath them, although made of the same gray stone, had long been dyed dark brown by the decomposing of flesh and blood. Patches of hair littered the coliseum's floor too as torn off chunks of skin were embedded in the stone.

Just before the iron gates finished rising, Admiral Adams appeared out of thin air – his breath already ragged and his clothes disheveled.

"Someone!" The Admiral shouted, "Report!"

"Yes sir! The Status. . . ."

Before the Admiral could collect his thoughts, however, the roaring of the crowd quieted and the sound of the rising gates screeched in completion.

A brute, appearing to be the King of the burly green men due to his silver crown and onyx fur cape, climbed to a stage prepared above the arena. His black eyes glared down at the human challengers before he redirected his gaze towards the open passageway leading into the arena.

The brute King raised his veiny forearm towards the passageway. He closed his eyes and concentrated. Moments later, a golden ring adorned on one of his raised fingers began exuding scarlet light.

In a foreign language, a language plagued with pleghm and grunts, the brute King roared above the howling of his underlings.

The scarlet glow strengthened its presence and drowned the arena below. At the end of the brute King's words, an overwhelming terror erupted from within the passageway.

The coliseum walls shook.

In response, the drumming of the audience resumed and tension flooded the coliseum's gates.

Within the darkness of the passageway, two explosive orange eyes appeared from the darkness.

"Shields to the front!" The Admiral bellowed.

His words unknowingly provoked the beast draped in shadow.

Before the shield-men could shuffle to the front, a monstrous lion charged out of the coliseum's passageway. With dark brown fur, a black mane, and orange eyes – the beast appeared larger than any creature found on Earth.

The dark lion tore across the coliseum's grounds and bulldozed into the unorganized militia. Within seconds, countless lives were erased from the records of history.

After trampling the men to death, the lion raised its paw into the air and extended its claws. Holding its position, the lion's white claws started to mutate and darken. Green and purple splotches of color coated the lion's claws.

Completely covered, the lion struck the earth and upon impact, the floor of the coliseum warped and wobbled like puddy. Seconds later, the front-line of the militia sunk into the stone ground.

Caught in its trap, the lion lunged forward to devour its prey, but before it could sink its teeth into the shield-men, a blue arc of energy slammed into the lion's shoulder.

Pushed back, the lion glared in the direction of its attacker and released a brain curdling roar.

The unawakened halted. Their heads pounded from the inside out and they found it unbearably difficult to continue standing.

"Over here, kitty! Come here kitty, kitty, kitty!" Church's voice echoed inside of the coliseum.

Distracted once again, the monstrous lion searched for the source of the taunting voice.

Instead, another slash of energy flew across the arena and slammed into the beast's same shoulder! This time, a drop of blood ran down the lion's thick coat of fur.

"Draw!" The Admiral's voice traveled far, "Fire!"

A volley of arrows arced in the sky above the coliseum before crashing back down to earth.

The lion, quick on its toes, jumped away from the incoming arrows and bolted towards the group of archers behind the Admiral. The beast leaped above Admiral Adams and, with its behemoth paws, slammed into the solid stone floor, cracking the stone, but also extinguishing the lives of many women.

Underneath its paws, organs popped and bones shattered. Blood exploded from beneath the beast and splattered across the faces of the remaining archers.

As a result, some of them helplessly dropped their bows and succumbed to their fear. Their legs wobbled before they collapsed to the ground, a puddle of blood made from their comrades awaiting their folly.

But while some of the archers surrendered, even more of them raged.

A black girl with box-braids tied behind her head ignored the gore around her and pulled a dagger from her waist. Rushing towards the paw of the beast, she pushed her legs with all her might and thrust her dagger into the lion's wrist.

Blood squirted on the girl's face, but she swallowed her puke and clenched her teeth.

"NOT TODAY YOU MONSTER FUCK!" The girl roared in protest.

Meanwhile, gathered behind the lion, a few of the combative Awakened assembled.

Isaac charged his swords, a Peruvian man gathered energy in his fists, and a Chinese woman's veins began to bulge and darken.

The lion lifted its paw and swatted the black girl across the arena. Her body slammed against the coliseum walls and stuck there — her splattered blood sticking her to the wall — before she peeled off and collapsed to the ground.

Then, Isaac and the other Awakened released their charged Abilities. A myriad of colors and techniques crashed into the lion's behind and thankfully, blood oozed from the fresh wound.

In response, the lion spread its paws across the coliseum grounds and tilted its neck. Gathering energy in its throat, the lion released a roar akin to a sonic boom.

Before the waves of sound could mutilate anyone, however, another sonic boom exploded from just beneath the lion's torso and contested the lion's attack!

"AAAHHHHH!!!!" Skyler screamed at the top of her lungs.

While the other Awakened attacked the beast's rear, she sprinted underneath the monster's legs and readied her attack.

Noticing that the lion was charging something of its own, Skyler waited for the most opportune time to disrupt whatever the foul beast had prepared.

The two sonic waves clashed between the lion's innards, rupturing the beast's intestines and rattling its insides. Unexpectedly hurt, the lion coughed up a mouthful of blood and shifted its gaze towards the ant beneath it.

The lion's claws mutated again and dove into the arena grounds. Outside of everyone's expectations, the lion's ginormous body sank into the stone floor like it was diving into water.

Stunned at the unforeseen variable, the remaining survivors tensed in harrowing anticipation.

Nobody moved.

Nobody spoke.

Even the drumming of the brutes above softened, further adding to the intensity of the spectacle.

Seconds passed and then finally, a member of the militia broke.

"W-Where is it?!"

A maw filled with teeth, large enough to swallow multiple men whole, suddenly replaced the stone underneath the beckoning man's feet.

A loud bite snapped the man in two and before his legless torso could hit the ground, the lion disappeared back into the sea of stone.

Now even more petrified, the survivors found it increasingly difficult to remain still.

Do they have to remain still? Or must they only remain quiet?

They didn't know, but they sure as hell weren't gonna be the one to find out.

A shield-man, standing amidst his brothers in arms, grit his teeth due to the burning sensation of his forearms. His muscles screamed in exhaustion, his biceps started to cramp, and he could feel his sweat bead down his forehead before ultimately disrupting his vision.

The man was terrified and nauseous, barely holding himself together.

His arms weakly dipped, his strength rapidly diminished.

His shield hit the ground resulting in a pin-drop's 'snap' that gently echoed off the wall's of the coliseum.

Eyes widening in horror, the ground beneath the man's feet warped into the bottomless stomach of the dark beast.

"NOOO!!" The man screamed while eaten alive.

With the lion's jaw exposed to the air, Church rushed across the arena with a bundle of bones in his arms. Snapping the bones in half, a viscous smoke emitted into the coliseum.

Black and unheavenly, the dark smoke reeked of ill intentions.

Before the lion's jaw slammed shut, Church tossed the broken bones into the lion's gullet.

Then, the lion swallowed the man whole and retreated underneath the stone.

"Five. Four. Three. . . ." Church mumbled under his breath.

"One!"

The ground of the coliseum shook. A loud bang, although muffled, traveled through the ears of all present. Within moments, the center of the arena shattered and an eruption of ebony smoke burst into the sky.

Following the explosion, another ear-piercing wail ruptured the ear-drums of all the unawakened present.

Blood seeped from their ears moments before the unawakened crumbled to the ground, clutching in agony their throbbing heads.

With only the Awakened left standing, the monstrous lion emerged from a crack in the stone and stepped out of the smoke — ready for the next round.

///LostNoteFound///

Thanks to hooverfh, DevilGod_of_Chaos, and Romance_guy for the power stones!!! Incredibly pog of you and very cash-money if I say so myself :D