The hunter bands filed back through the gate and into the underground storage room. Kilna tribe was up to compete first and Sacram was due to go second, so Alden and the band elected to go up top and watch Kilna take on the first fight of the trials.

The noise of the crowd was deafening as Alden stepped out from another tunnel and into the competitor’s seating area. Animal hide awnings held up on wooden poles shaded the audience, but the heat still made Alden’s skin bead with perspiration. The stench of sweaty bodies and roasted meat filled the air.

The stadium seating went right up to the top of the wall to allow everyone a clear view. Down in the pit, the Kilna team was waiting behind the hunter’s gate to take the field. The closed beast gate gave no sign what Duarth’s band would be facing.

“Attention! Attention please!”

Alden looked around until he saw a man in his late twenties standing on a wooden platform overlooking the pit. He had dark skin and a thick dome of frizzy black hair around his head. His outfit was a bright red tunic with gold flowers embroidered into it, short golden wool pants which cut off at the knees, and leather sandals. The garish man stood beside one of two chairs that flanked a table on the platform, waving a large pink conch shell.

In the chair beside the dark-skinned speaker sat one of the foxlike Siki. Alden guessed from all the jewelry and hair bows that the Siki was female. Her fur was the usual snowy white with black patches, but she had dyed blue swirls and designs in her fur. These dye patterns included large, exaggerated blue eyelashes colored into the white fur around her eyes.

“Hello, everyone!” called the garish man. “Are we ready for some excitement?”

The crowd roared.

“I thought so!” the dark-skinned man said. “It’s great fun to watch a well-executed hunt. And sometimes it’s entertaining to watch one go terribly wrong. Am I right?”

The crowd cheered even louder with approval.

Jincra leaned over to Alden. “I have heard of that device he is holding. It is a shell imbued with a wind spirit which scatters the sound across the air over a large distance, so you can hear him speaking as if he stands beside you. Fascinating!”

The human announcer hopped onto the sturdy pine table. “Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Ahken, and this gorgeous Siki to my left is Moxi. The action we’re about to witness will be intense, folks. For those of you with poor eyesight, and for when the action gets too crazy to follow, me and my partner here will be narrating and offering our expert hunting commentary! We are both practiced hunters ourselves and we know what to look for, so you won’t miss a beat.”

The crowd thundered, and the seating under Alden shook with the stamping of feet.

Moxi hopped up onto the table beside Ahken. The Siki left her conch shell on the table as she climbed up Ahken’s body to stand on his shoulder and speak through his shell in her high, squeaky voice. “Well hello there, people of Veruscia! Try to keep your eyes on the competitors and not on me, if you can!” She put her paws on her hips and wiggled them suggestively.

The crowd broke into laughter and cheers of approval.

Moxi hopped down and resumed her seat, and Ahken did the same.

“All right,” Ahken exclaimed. “Time to get the show started. Up first is Kilna tribe. Let them hear you, Ceralahn City!”

The hunter’s gate ground open and the Kilna hunters strode out to riotous applause. Duarth walked at the head of the group. Each Kilna hunter wore a red tunic and black pants under a black leather breastplate, vambraces, and greaves.

The Kilna hunters ignored the audience and quickly assumed their places in the arena.

A large red-bearded man with a massive bone shield and axe took point in their formation.

Duarth with his greatsword and a bald man with two huge axes adopted flanking positions just behind the red-bearded hunter.

A young blonde woman with long, streaming hair stood behind Duarth and the bald man. She held a long spear with a curved blade. Alden thought there was something strange about the spear shaft, but he couldn’t figure out what it was.

Another woman, this one with brown hair wound up into a bun and a bow in her hands, stood behind the blonde woman, apart from the diamond formation.

Ahken spoke up as Kilna was taking their positions about one-third of the way into the arena. “Look that perfectly executed formation! It’s the classic diamond, favored by most veteran hunting groups. The registration staff was especially confused about that bow and arrow, because all the beasts in this competition are guaranteed to be large. However, Kilna hasn’t held onto their title for five cycles by playing the fools. No doubt they’ve got a trick up their sleeves.”

Rumbling vibrations emanated from the other side of the arena as the metal-laced bone chains holding the beast gate retracted into the stone wall. Enormous rib bones lifted up and hung suspended like fangs over the open mouth of the dark tunnel.

The entire audience, Alden included, leaned forward in anticipation.

Glittering gold and blue scales sparkled in the sunlight. Spiky antlers scraped the top of the tunnel lip. Thick coils kicked up clouds of billowing dust. Hundreds of feet of rippling, scaly skin surged forward as a petal snake slithered into the arena.

Alden glanced around at his friends.

As ever, Grath’s face was set in stone.

The three younger hunters had their eyes opened wide in surprise, and Braden’s mouth gaped in shock.

“This is fortunate,” Alden told his three friends. “Grath and I have some experience with petal snakes, and you all saw the fight at our gate, so we can get an accurate assessment of Kilna tribe’s abilities. Watch their techniques and see what you can learn.”

Each of the youths nodded at their leader and leaned in with narrowed eyes.

Before the glittering snake could finish coiling up, Kilna tribe launched into action. The shield bearer up front charged forward, and the two men flanking him followed. The blonde woman stalked after them, but the archer did not move.

Ahken’s voice filled Alden’s ears. “Kilna is exploding into action! Looks like they’ve decided to play aggressively. That’s Kevna the Guardian up front, also known as the Boulder, followed by the Slayers Duarth and Sedrit. Yes folks, that’s Duarth, the Burning Hand himself, son of our Imperator. No Veruscian is above risking their life for the good of our nation.”

Moxi squeaked over the cheers of the crowd, “And that’s Seerna, the Vixen of Kilna, bringing up the rear of their formation! She’s the one to watch. She is one tricky vixen!”

The petal snake shifted back and forth, clearly alarmed by the screaming above the lip of the pit. Alden judged that the beast was larger than the snake he’d faced at Sacram’s gates.

The Guardian, Kevna the Boulder, wasted no time. He rushed in and bashed the snake’s coils with his thick shield to get its attention, then drove his axe down into the monster’s scales. The blade bit deep, and crimson blood splattered across the dusty arena floor.

“First blood, folks!” Ahken shouted.

The Siki judges in the government box chattered excitedly and made notes with chalk on thin slabs of slate.

Duarth and Sedrit rushed in at sharp angles to pincer the snake on either side. Sedrit flew into a whirlwind as he twirled his enormous axes. His dual blades sliced through scales and cut into the flesh beneath. The snake lashed back and forth to escape, but Duarth leaped in and slashed at the creature’s face. The blow caught the snake’s antler and sheered straight through the bony protrusion.

The serpent staggered and flopped to one side before recovering. Shimmering coils rippled through hot sand as the beast slithered fast toward the wall of the pit. At the wall, the snake turned to face the hunter band. Its vertical pupils flickered about, seeking an escape route, but the Kilna band was already closing in.

Kevna the red-bearded Guardian got right up in the snake’s face. Alden caught a sparkle of green light as Kevna activated his spirit power, and his bone shield began to shimmer with bright light.

The serpent stared into the light and wove its head back and forth as if mesmerized, then lunged directly at the shield with fangs extended.

Kevna bashed the snake’s striking head with his shield. His precise timing maximized the impact. The petal snake’s fangs shattered into fragments that flew all over the arena floor, and blood poured from the mighty serpent’s mouth.

“That’s what we’re here to see!” Moxi yelled.

The crowed screamed their agreement.

As the dazed petal snake shook its head back and forth to clear it, Alden spotted movement behind the huge creature.

Moxi bounced up and down in her chair. “The Vixen of Kilna is making her move!”

The blonde huntress crept up behind the stunned snake until she reached the lashing tail. With a twist of her hands, the huntress’ spear shaft hinged in half in the middle so that the curved edge of the long blade was facing the thick wooden shaft, two equal halves connected on a swinging joint. Seerna held the back of the blade in one hand and the outside of the shaft in the other. In one smooth motion, the Vixen of Kilna closed the weapon on the end of the snake’s tail, severing the last three feet.

The snake screamed. Its bloodshot eyes bulged as it rounded on Seerna.

The blonde huntress struck a defiant pose and kicked the severed tail end.

The petal snake lunged at Seerna, but she didn’t dodge out of the way.

Just before the snake was about to connect, there was a blur of motion. Blood sprayed from the snake’s right eye, where a feathered shaft had suddenly sprouted. Across the arena, Filna the archer drew another arrow from her quiver.

The snake flinched and lost track of Seerna, but continued through with its lunge.

Seerna stepped to the striking snake’s blindside, allowing its massive head to pass inches from her body. She bashed the side of the beast’s head with the shaft of her folded spear.

With a boom which shook the arena, the snake’s head crashed against the side of the pit and scraped a gash into the stone. The snake pulled away, leaving blood and scales smeared along the wall.

Ahken leaned forward. “Now we know what the bow and arrow was for. What a great shot by Filna, from all the way across the arena! They’ll be calling her Longshot Filna before the day is through.”

Moxi bounced on the table with the conch shell clutched in her paw. “See what I told you? Tricky vixen! Don’t take your eyes off that Kilna Trickster for a second!”

The Siki judges in the government box chattered excitedly as they made notes on their slate tablets.

Duarth bolted past Seerna with his greatsword held high. The carved bone blade glowed a vivid orange as if on fire. Duarth sliced into the stunned snake’s neck at the base of the skull. Heated bone hissed as it parted flesh and decapitated the snake.

The smell of cooked meat wafted up to the crowd, who cheered. Several audience members around Alden called over walking vendors to buy their grilled meats.

The snake’s headless body quivered in the dust of the arena.

The Kilna band stayed well clear of the snapping, severed head. The five hunters retreated across the arena to the hunter’s gate, where they resumed their diamond formation.

Ahken shouted into his conch shell, “It’s a perfect hunt, folks! We’ll have to see what the judges think, but from up here, I didn’t see a single mistake. Did you, Moxi?”

“Not one!” the flamboyant Siki squeaked. “Flawless execution! Every band member was involved, none took injuries, and they maintained complete control of the beast. And what a time score! That’s got to be some kind of record!”

Alden realized he was clenching his fists, and he forced himself to relax. Kilna had easily overwhelmed the beast that had taken his tribe a grueling effort to defeat. For the first time, the young leader began to doubt his band’s chances of winning.

No, he thought. Sacram’s survival depends on us winning this tournament. We can’t lose. We’ll just have to be better than Kilna.

Alden turned to Braden, who was seated next to him. The two friends made eye contact, and Alden saw the same determination burning in Braden’s eyes.

“Up next,” squeaked Moxi, “Sacram tribe!”