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Death and Discontent
updated 10 years, 6 months ago
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Sarion took his spear with a calm hand from the warlock, his favored weapon only being permitted to him for fights. He barely even considered his opponent until he tried to speak. The boy in front of him reeked of nervous fear. He was a small thing with ridiculous lion ears sticking up from his head. Not that Sarion could really say anything. His appearance was anything but normal or appealing.
Once the warlocks had removed themselves to a safe distance away the fight was to begin. The lion boy didn’t seem overeager to move, so Sarion was forced to make the first move. It was nothing elaborate, just a simple forward lunge, leading with his spear to test his range. His opponent at least had enough sense to jump out of the way, but he fumbled his next move. The boy pounced at Sarion like a cat. the only problem was he wasn’t a cat. Maybe something had gone wrong when he tried to shift, the demon couldn’t be sure. He knew almost nothing about how shifters worked. He threw up the haft of his spear to catch the boy’s waist as he flew at him. The boy wasn’t big enough to knock Sarion over alone, but combined with improper footing they both toppled to the dirt.
Sarion was the first to recover from the fall, but he was unable to use his spear. It was trapped between their bodies and otherwise completely useless. Instead, he went thrust his head forward as hard as he could. The hard spikes of his head drove into the shifter’s skull with enough force to crack the bone. Blood leaked down onto his face and into his mouth. Sarion’s stomach twisted, but not in disgust. The thought conscious part of his mind was absent as the blood filled him with sudden, fierce hunger.
The next thing Sarion knew he was being dragged away from the dead shifter boy, part of his lion ears still caught between his teeth. His collar was buzzing with magical energy, filling him with pain and weakness. The warlocks chained him back up in his cell, but it wouldn’t have mattered if they did. They already sapped too much much of his energy for him to even stand on his own had he the desire to fight them. Somewhere in the back of his mind he registered what he did was wrong and what the warlocks were doing was wrong too. It was only there for a moment though, before it was lost to the dark spaces of his mind.
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the wolf looked around wareily and bedded down at the end of the alley, camoflodgeing herself with garbage*
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It seemed Tiancai was unable to latch an opponent. Any who even tried pushing forward must have been restrained by their owners to see the dragonkin die the most horrible of deaths. Truly despicable…
Raising her sword, Tiancai waited for the monster the warlocks would bring out…And upon seeing it, Tiancai was terrified. It was not a lion, or even something more advanced. It was…A thing. It couldn’t be described any other way. It was not a natural thing in any sense. None of the fighters have ever seen it, as the gates had always shut tight, a dome forming over the arena to prevent anybody not in the stands from watching the carnage of the Thing. A reputation to not leave a single bone or drop of blood when its prey was finished…The fighters were merely food for it.
It was not what any being could think of shinfting into. Scales, feathers, fur, fins, claws flesh, even tentacles…It seemed to have it all, all bundled into one horrific creature.
For someone who always acted so haughty, and never experienced a loss hard enough to where she lost her dignity…She was terrified. Beyond that, she was more than terrified. She was petrified, horrified, among so many other things.
To show just how strong this beast truly was, they actually allowed the Strangers to fight at their full power, disabling the sealing collars. In this case, not only were strength suppressants put in place, but they even let her scales fully grow out, just for this fight.
She had to get out of here, or – Somehow – Win.
Looking at the creature…It looked artificially made. Someone had stitched together the remains of fallen Strangers past…
The dome closed, the lights turning on just before. The creature lunged that instant with a speed something its size had no right to, its large mouth about to devour Tiancai whole.
Most matches would have been over for them that instant, but Tiancai saw it coming. Falling to her back and raising her sword, the force of the beast knocking her sword away, but not before its jaw was smashed. It was half-rotten anyway.
The people gasped. Nobody had been able to even lay a finger on the beast, and Tiancai managed to break its jaw – The primary method of attack? Must have been luck.
The creature was confused. It couldn’t see below itself.
This creature is a lot more stupid than I thought.
Delivering a solid punch to its dragon-scale underside, and quickly crawling out, Tiancai took her foothold at the other side of the arena.
The people were outraged. This must have been rigged!
Another lunge, much faster, actually made contact. Crushing her right leg, if she didn’t jump when she did, she would have been destroyed. The beast reeled back, dazed from its harder-than-usual impact. That gave enough time for Tiancai to dig her hands into the wall and climb along the edge, as fast as she could, running like a three-legged lizard to her sword. Picking it up in time, the beast lunged once more. She jumped higher, using her sword as a pole vault, over the beast’s head. Sliding to a halt, it leaped up, smashing Tiancai into the ground with a tentacle. Unfortunately, its momentum was too great, and it smashed head-first into the Dome, falling to the ground with a sickening thud. Its neck was snapped and broken, leaving it basically dead.
The impact broke many of Tiancai’s bones, but somehow, she still managed to twist herself in a way that let herself live, and have a functioning arm. The dome opened, as did the gates keeping the Fighters from seeing any fights with the Beast.
Tiancai slowly raised herself. The sealers were re-enacted that moment, causing her great pain. She had to endure, however. Looking to the crowd with a smirk – Not much else, for she felt the ears of those people who enjoyed death did not deserve to be graced with her presence. Using her sword like a cane, digging it into the ground and dragging herself, the warlocks were too busy trying to figure out what went wrong.
Tiancai dragged herself to her cage, and, dragging herself to and onto the bed, she fell asleep.
I can’t believe I managed to survive that…
That fight should earn her keep for more than enough time for her to be healed.
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Mathew looked away from the battle going on in the area. He stared at all the people shouting at him. Matt began to feel uncomfortable, everyone was staring at him. Normally he loved the attention, but no in this way. His superhuman hearing couldn’t help but pick up a familiar voice. It was the voice of the stunning princess. Her cruel ways had amused Matt, and the thought of her noticing him made Matt feel uneasy and sick. A feeling Mathew hadn’t felt in centuries. He walked over towards her as she began to turn away and walk back to her seat. But, to his surprise, one of the princess’s toys had walked up to him. Mathew studied the oddity closely, he wasn’t quite sure what he was, but the small doll like boy could get him close to the princess. The boy stood in front of Matt. “What do you want?” Mathew asked in an angered voice. Although his unusually cold personality was scaring the boy, he had to get to the princess somehow.
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Water, she decided, water couldn’t hurt. She had some spare coins, anyway. She stumbled down the stairs, oh god why am I so weak?, to the vendor stand, and acquired some. She stood by the stall, drinking and paying more attention to the crowd than to the battles.
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(Sorry, sorry. I meant to post sooner but I got busy. To compensate I’ll post again relatively soon.)
Auralyn half-heartedly watched the battles, forcing herself to go in a daze of a day dream; just as she did in the days of her homeless wandering. Even the shaking of the kids hardly fazed her, leaving her body limp enough that it would be more natural and not odd for her to appear stiff to them. Death and more death… She nearly cringed when she saw those two lion shifters killed with ease, by the hands (paws? claws?) of a snow leopard and a demon it seems, but it turned out to be only internally. Were these matches really that enriching to humans?
Everything around her was a low key drone, like being perpetually submerged in water, and eventually she was prodded enough to slowly refocus back to reality. The kids seemed particularly interested with the next match and wanted the she-wolf to draw her own attention as well. She brought her dulled indigo eyes to the arena they were pointing at, and already the light returned to the lupine orbs. It was that dragon girl again, and her opponent was… was…
Just what was… that…?
She couldn’t even explain what she saw. It was just… a thing. A monstrous, disgusting thing; an Eldritch Abomination.
Auralyn was enticed enough to watch this match, for whatever reason she wasn’t so sure. From all the mumbling, this thing is supposed to be nigh impossible to beat. Already she can hear the banter of fresh bet polls increasing for how long this girl will last. What compelled her to take note of this woman? Did she want to witness her death? No, she wanted to witness her success.
The battle followed through after intense fortification of the single arena. It seemed that whatever restrictions that held her down were lifted, seeing her more draconian form. She was lithe and nimble, and she had made her first move that landed a clean hit. The crowd around her went nuts, her ear twitching to ignore them. The battle carried on almost decisively but she always found a way to remain at the advantage, revealing the now mixed feelings of the other spectators.
After a miscalculated counter, the creature had fell to its death, leaving the woman as the victor. Clearly she looked badly wounded, but the expression she wore, that smirk… The she-wolf couldn’t help but smirk with her. The two kids roared in great elation of her victory, practically jumping up and down and ruffling up her coat. The aristocratic crowd around her mumbled and the bets were being paid off, but her smile remained splayed on her face.
Just as the tattered warrior was removed from the arena, Auralyn noticed her master eying her from the edge of her vision, perking herself to peel her attention away. She tilted her head curiously, silent nods and signs that she developed to both communicate and… please… her superiors. There was that dark glint in his eyes again, and already her gut churned. “So, lassy, you seem quite inclined in that match, hmm? What, are you finally interested in participating?” He gave a hearty chuckle as the she-wolf was clearly dumbfounded, nearly squirming under her pelt.
Was he mad? She asked herself that question so many times during her enslavement, she was almost begging for someone to agree with her at this point.
The two kids looked up at their father with a mix of curiosity and wist. “Lynnie fighting; that would be really cool to see her out there and ripping a new one, like how she does with her chew toys!” the boy admitted, but his smile sort of faded as his younger sister picked up. “Yeah… if she went down there, she wouldn’t be able to play with us anymore.” They huddled a little closer, gently stroking her pelt and giving him “that” face that only young ones can pull off, it seems.
He drooped his eyes, then responded with another albeit lighter chuckle. “Oho, just curious, my sweets. She’s quite lucky to have children like you around.” There was a certain lilt in his tone that rubbed Auralyn the wrong way, something she learned quite well to pick up. He then dug into his pockets and pulled out some loose change. “Hm, speaking of which, why don’t you run off to the stand and get some snacks. That would cheer you up, yes?.” He then glanced back at the she-wolf as the kids took the money and skipped along to get ahead, his eyes masked by his glinted glasses as he leaned. “You know your job, dog. Keep with my little Matthew and Marissa safe, or you will end up in those cages at the arena. I assure you.”
She narrowed her eyes to piercing indigo slits, flicking her ears. She abruptly got up on her paws and pivoted right around, her tail level and stiff. She could never show direct signs of aggression, but the humans were too dense to understand deeper animal communication. It was to signal the preparation to attack, a threat sign. That was all she could really do. She padded up to the two kids, who were bouncing up and down. She gave them a quick nudge to show she was ready to follow them, and they grabbed the two leashes- designed to both keep her in check and the kids close- and continued on their way to the stand.
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It would be a while before Tiancai will be able to do much of anything besides talk and eat within her chamber. This, with her high vulnerability to cabin fever, was indeed a terrible thing for her. She despised having nothing to do but sit around. She needed some form of activity to keep her occupied, yet being a Stranger, albeit one of the fan favorites in the arena – Especially after that last fight – would prove that such an activity would have been difficult to achieve, even without her useless legs. She almost hoped somebody would borrow her as a pet for a while – At least she would have something to do. Of course…After that show, she was certain to get a master that would treat her well.
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Fear flickered in Toby’s eyes for a moment before they returned to their usual unfocused, half lifeless state as he smiled, tilting his head cutely. He couldn’t afford to forget how breakable he really was, but he also couldn’t afford to show weakness like that. “are you a vampire then? I’ve never seen one up close.” The shorter stranger leaned up on tiptoe to brush the hair from Matthew’s eyes for a closer look, he was free to act as forward as he wanted when the princess couldn’t see. Anastasia was back in her section and nearly breaking, or perhaps actually breaking, Oliver’s neck as she bounced up and down watching the fight, still tearing happily at the candy apple with her small dainty teeth. Toby couldn’t understand her yelling since her mouth was full and she was several yards away, but if Milo and Oliver’s facial expressions were anything to go by, it was probably pretty unladylike. By now the warlocks had hurried over to their fallen creation, and the dome was receeding. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve just received word that the arena will be closing early this afternoon for… maintenance.” The announcer said pleasantly. Certainly it would take some time to remove that rotting flesh. Though the princess seemed very dissappointed and ordered the warlocks to make them continue the show, they ignored her.
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A young, scrawny male now stood in the far corner of the Arena, being there all this time, but stayed quiet through it all. He heard the announcer, announce that the Arena would be closed early which worried him. He got worried over anything these days. The scrawny and small male looked at the messy arena and felt his body warm up from the other ones presence forming in his mind. “You promised..”Casper small voice rung out as he saw a few people stand up from the stands and walk past him, not giving him a second glance.
“I didn’t promise a thing, I want to fight in the next battle would of done it this time if you didn’t hold back” The other one spoke sending chills down his spine; he was very afraid of the other one inside him, he hated him really, he wouldn’t let him live life like he wanted to, he had to come in and always mess things up. Casper shifted uncomfortably, the flooring under him being cold on his bare feet.
“You’ll get us killed, I wouldn’t been able to take down any of them..”Casper whispered slowly walking down the last row of the Arena, looking in at the entire wreckage. He shivered slightly and just imagined himself being one of the bodies being drug away. He shook his head and tugged at his sleeves, the wind blowing and knotting his hair up worse than it was.
He soon walked to the other side of the arena, his feet getting cut on some broken glass but the pain was numb by now. He saw many interesting people just today but none of them would speak to him, he knew it already, he was just to weird. He sighed softly and sat on one of the empty benches and stared out at the arena, his eyes seeming to turn into glass as he stared, really at nothing.
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Selena’s ears shot upright as the sound of footsteps approaching reached her. Fear shone in her eyes as she whirled to face the direction they were coming from. “Xie, get out of here-the Warlocks are coming this way!”
Quickly, she returned to the center of her cage, adopting her usual kneeling position on the floor as she did. She had no way of knowing if he had managed to get away in time, because at that moment, the men came into view, glaring at her as they approached. “Your skills are needed, cat. Get up, and follow us, or face the consequences.”
Knowing better than to refuse, Selena did as she was told, waiting until after they had opened her cage to approach the gate-if she hadn’t, they would have shocked her through her collar in order to keep her back, and she had no wish to feel that pain. The last time had been… Don’t think about the werewolf, Selena. It was three winters ago. But why do they want me in particular? And which skill is it that they want me to use…?
Her curiosity was answered minutes later when she was thrown into a room with an actual bed in it, and lying on it was the dragonkin woman she had seen earlier. Just before the door slammed shut, one of the Warlocks snarled at her. “Heal her, quickly. We have a buyer for her, and he wants her in perfect condition. Your healing ability has been unlocked for this task, and you will have to work fast. Understand?”
“Yes, my Lord.” Selena lowered her head in deference as the door slammed shut, the key turning loudly in the lock behind her. She sighed in relief, then turned to the female on the bed with a small smile. She could see that her leg had been completely crushed, but she couldn’t see any other injuries. “Is there anywhere else you’ve been hurt…? I’ll need to know before I start healing your leg.” Standing, she cautiously made her way over, not knowing how the other female would react to her presence.
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Mathew flashed his fangs at Toby, and The boy jumped back startled. “I am a vampire,” Matt said in a low voice, “was that all you wanted then?” Mathew shuck his head to move his hair back in his face. He figured scaring the boy into getting him close to Anna wouldn’t be the greatest plan, but it could work. Plus, with the arena closing early for maintenance, Mathew could try to win her over by continuing the cruel battles. As much as he hated them he knew, from his constant stalking, that the princess would do anything to continue watching these battles. So, with the scaring Toby plan in motion, Matt crouched down and got as close as he could to the boy. “I’m a busy man,” Mathew said softly as he let his fangs drop down once more, “so it’d be in your best intrest if you let me know now what you want with me asides from asking if I was in fact a vampire. Because, I know how this little government works, if the princess had you come check me out she must want something more with me. Am I right?”
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At the warlocks coming, Xie nodded a quick farewell to Selena, then darted, swiftly and quietly, out of the abandoned cage, and back up to the stands. Perhaps it was good he left then, he had talked too much about matters that spurred feelings within him. He sighs as he sits back in his seat. He knew he’d get caught someday, if he kept going down, but he couldn’t stay away, that was the only place that meant anything to him anymore.
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Toby frowned. There was something weird about this man, beyond just the fangs and assumed blood sucking. He already distrusted him. “What would the princess want with a creep like y- mmpph!” One of the royal guards had snapped his gloved hand over the boy’s mouth, giving the vampire an apologetic smile. “Sorry about that. Girls don’t like to share their toys, toys don’t like to share their girls.” The man chuckled. “Her highness wishes to speak to you. Perhaps later this evening?” Toby pushed the hand away to cut in with disbelief “what?! You’re inviting HIM to the castle?!!” The warlock impatiently grabbed him by the neck and muttered ‘inanimati’. A flash of light echoed in the doll’s eyes and he went limp as the man continued nonchalantly, barely catching Toby before he hit the ground. “It’s up to you of course. I’ll tell the watchmen to let you pass.” With that, the guard threw Toby over his shoulder and followed the princess and her other escorts out of the arena. She was still complaining about the early cancellation, and continued to do so even as she was helped into the carriage.
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((Guys, to make things easier, this is going to go down in sections. The next one is up, it’s set all over the city so just try to use it for both plot and character development. Feel free to finish up whatever you’re doing either here or there. I dunno. I’m new here too))
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//I’ll finish up with Selena here.//
“Most of my bones have been shattered, unfortunately. If it weren’t for the hardened scales, I would have been squashed like an insect. However, there doesn’t seem to be anything lethal…” Tiancai sighed. Well, at least she had a better chance of survival if she takes this route, even if it was bound to be boring, and end up put under a cruel master.
“Just heal everything that seems bruised, at the very least.”