“Rule three; survive.”
Nervous laughter, which showed there were rookies amongst them. Fighters who didn’t have the experience of what they were about to suffer.
Augustine’s smile was predatory, the double door unlocking behind him with a loud click. It swept open with a dramatic creak, the arena grounds just behind. There was no roar of the crowd, no cheering or applause as the fifteen of them stepped onto the sands, the grains stained red. Their audience wasn’t the same as the cages, or any other fights Kace had fought. They were reserved, the tiered seating separating the simply wealthy from the ludicrously rich.
It wasn’t what he remembered, the thunder of the crowd another sense that overstimulated a child. Eyes prickled his skin, their appraisals unapologetic as people sat open in the stalls, protected by a metal mesh. Higher above were the separate executive suites, the privacy glass protecting those hidden inside. He found Riley and Xander quickly, their glass remaining transparent as they both sat in expensive suits with a glass of amber liquid set on the table between them.
‘You look good in a monkey suit,’Kace shot to Xee, unable to control his smirk.
Xander’s expression remained the same, but his voice was grumpy when he replied.‘Fuck off and concentrate on the fight.’
‘Pull on my power if you need to balance your beast.’Riley’s upper lip quipped, which meant Xander had added him to their mental connection.‘Stick to the plan.’
‘Which means don’t die,’Xander added.‘For some reason Kyra has a soft spot for you and your death would really put a downer on my sex life.’
Kace didn’t bother with a snarky reply, needing to concentrate on his opponents. Augustine’s voice rumbled around the arena, his words similar to the opening ceremony. It wasn’t until there were a few gasps that he finally listened.
“Fifteen fighters, and only ten will walk out alive. Let round one of the games begin!”
The fighters looked between one another, naturally separating into their own spaces as two beeps blurted above them all, distinctive and spaced a few seconds apart.
The ground rumbled beneath their feet, the sands jumping from the intense vibration as the grains began to split. Kace counted two podiums raising from the floor, ascending at different speeds as the fighters scrambled to get there first. One of the podiums shot up, revealing a long sword, the pommel a bold gold. The lone woman won, surprisingly fast as she wrapped her hand around the blade and pointed it towards her closest opponent.
“Back off!” she growled, shuffling until her back almost pressed against the metal mesh that surrounded them. A spark as her skin connected, her hand opening to release the sword which was quickly grabbed by someone else.
Kace remained where he was, watching the chaos around him as the fighters panicked. Both podiums began to descend as one, opening up the arena once more with no obstructions.
“No one explained this was to the death!” a voice screeched beside him. Kace turned to find a man, young, crouching in the corner. His chest was bare, body rippling with muscles too big for his frame. Scales covered the left side, blue and green pearlescent that glittered beneath the lights. He hadn’t had scales earlier, which meant magic and glamour was being absorbed, or at least muted.
Kace tried to call to his arcane, his chi strangled as he failed to even light a spark with his fingers. It wasn’t surprising, and nothing to worry about just yet. He never used his magic in the cages, and only barely when fighting Shadow-Veyn. He had always preferred the physical rather than the arcane that was amplified through the glyphs tattooed across his body. Glyphs he hoped were still working, otherwise everything was about to get a lot more interesting.
A flash of steel, the Fae with the scales screeching as a blade soared across the arena to slice into his chest. The momentum knocked him off his feet, his back connecting with the mesh. Electricity immediately stiffened his body, and Kace said nothing as the man who had killed him reached for the blade, grinning. The electricity shot into his palm before he even touched the metal, causing a high-pitched squeak to escape as he jumped back.
It left only one weapon at play, and four more deaths to go.
Two beeps, again the same distinctive sound that was high-pitched enough he felt it in his back teeth. This time he was ready for it, the ground rumbling as two more podiums began to rise, different from the ones before.
Kace shot off towards the closest, skidding to the edge just as a short dagger appeared inside.
“That’s mine,” a voice growled, a heavy body barrelling into his side with enough force to knock him away, allowing someone else to swipe the dagger from the podium. Kace turned, shoving the man to the sands as he jumped back up, barely missing the sharp edge of a blade. One of the benefits of already having fought in the Pits was Kace knew how to steady himself in sand, spreading his legs to better take his weight. His body was prepared, muscles reacting instinctively to keep him steady.
Many of the fighters didn’t have the stability, their swings missing as they struggled with each individual grain moving beneath their feet. It gave him a little advantage, but not for long.
Kace dodged the fist that appeared, reaching up to grab the extended arm and pulling the fighter with their own momentum. It caused them to stumble, barrelling into someone else who was sneaking up behind.
Three more high-pitched beeps.
Three more podiums began to rise, their weapons quickly snapped up.
Blood soaked into the sands, and Kace wasn’t sure how many had fallen. He took a second to sweep his gaze across the arena, blocking out the audience. Excluding the knife stuck in the barrier there were six weapons, and twelve fighters left.
If there was hesitation about the games before, they were long gone. Not when survival was the most basic instinct.
Kace spotted the lone woman fighter in the corner, a headless body at her feet. She had managed to obtain another sword, using it to keep everyone back while two others approached her with malevolent grins. It was the bleach blond and matching dark, their brown eyes now circled in red, and Kace’s beast roused enough inside his mind to growl. He knew they weren’t Daemons, his beast unable to sense anything from them before, but now they were something other. Something he couldn’t identify.
A sharp pain across his chest. The leather he wore parting with ease along with his own flesh. He had been distracted, slower to react and it had cost him.
“Imagine Cillian killing the infamous Red,” a man snarled, slicing out with his sword once more. “Cillian would be the winner.”
