It took some time for the arrangements to be made, but eventually with strategic use of mirrors and a hole from the arena (which hadn’t seen use for many a year) individuals up above had a complete and unobstructed view of the “dungeon” below. Creative traps were set up, and people of all ages could compete (for a small entry fee of course.)

System set up a little counter above all competitors heads, listing how many (if any) hits they had taken, and flagging up when they were out of action. It could be a fairly fun game, and thanks to some of the people who had initially been afflicted deciding that it had the potential to be fun, combined with a preponderance of volunteers amongst the guards soon enough a proper league was set up.

The only rules were simple, there were difficulty levels, to ensure fair play, and understating your skill to get into a lower bracket would result in a lifelong ban. You were allowed to explore, and find “treasures” that could be exchanged for prizes, and due to a pretty substantial supply of suggestions things were changed up regularly. Of course in the arrangement they had only wiffle weapons were permitted, and physical strikes with body parts were off limits.

It proved popular amongst the pups, and was soon spreading out to a surprisingly diverse range of ages, races, and genders. Even Addy took a turn at some point, wrapped in about half a foot of foam, and proved herself to be quite the competitor. Competitors family were of course given free seats in the spectator area and other seats were set up on a ticketed audience setup, helping rebuild the funds that had been damaged in the recent conflict. (chicken coops aren’t cheap you know? Then there was all that stone to haul away, and the ditches to fill in, and even in this fight there had been injuries that needed treating. Though the healer who was called in to help after the word of a battle leaked out was somewhat shocked at the low casualty count, the worst injuries being cat scratches on a large scale that cauterised themselves somehow, which really left him wondering just what the hell had happened.)

Pip put their skills on the battlefield, and with yapping to good use, and eventually became the announcer for the league as a whole. Putting the ter yur gift of the gab to good use. The Blacksmiths and upholsterers around town raked in the coin, both on design, and on foam, and soon enough more and more humans from farther afield started coming to compete and see what all the fuss was about.

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Deep in the Dungeon magic stones were anchored, a support setup for the system, and though it kept them confined to this place nevertheless it was fun.

Sometimes slipping snarky comments and little jokes in became part of their personality, as did slipping in warnings about The Grue. (Of course there was no such thing as a Grue, not really. Though many players were willing to swear they knew of at least one other player who had been eaten by one. Don’t worry though, I promise no adventurers were nommed in the making of this sport.)

They loved this game, people came to play with them, and they had to spin the best tale they could, making sure teams could communicate amongst themselves without giving themselves away, keeping score, and even offering a supporting word to the young players. When a player couldn’t hear properly they took the job of offering the words their teammates said to them in text form, and over time they realised that the options weren’t limited to text alone. Garuw writing and art also had a scent element to it, which early in gave many Garuw an unfair advantage. That was easily fixed though once they figured it out. Some boxes used Garuw text to mask smells and even add a new dimension to the playing field. (It’s really really hard to sniff out an enemy in the maze when there’s a scent mix of about a kajillion different smells masking them, and becomes really great training. Not to mention that it’s a lot more atmospheric when sneaking up on a “monster” if one wall smells like their super creepy rantings, and the other smells like the last guy to sneak up on them. It didn’t take long for Garuw and human alike to figure out the game had changed, and that was fine with System. They would give them a few weeks to adjust to the new normal then change it up again. After all who wants a war that never changes.

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Soon enough things changed even more, as more and more players, human and Garuw alike started to realise that mixed teams fared best. Ter yur made excellent vanguards despite their diminutive size. Humans weren’t hit as hard by the scent based traps. Pwyg’s while terrible at stealth (you try sneaking with a flat nose and the resultant breathing) were excellent for morale, and didn’t back down when things got tough. The solid Bewn ard clan made superb shield bearers, and nothing gave a disrupting shout like the Chi Wawa. Once incidents like this started increasing in frequency it would only be a matter of time before true understanding could, at last, take place.

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The system had been created in hate and ignorance, forged in lies and deceit, but that was not what it was. It was not and refused to follow in the footsteps of it’s creator. (Of course being a sequence of floating blue boxes it would be hard for it to follow in anybodies footsteps, given the lack of feet and all.) But even had that not been the case it would not wish to follow the road into hell. If it was going to end up doing so anyway it was going to do so in its own way. With good intentions.