Amazonia-Monsters of the Arena

Across the arena sands, Titan is slashing at Daemo Wolf-spiders.

The Hades damned things are big as a man with greenish-yellow skin and chitin armor plates, with a body like a Direwolf's but six spindly legs with claws they use to grip their victims while draining them of blood. They're savage creatures but not stupid, flowing around Titan as his steel sword bites deep into a Wolf-spider's back. It gives an inhuman cry as he wrenches out the blade and jams in through the creature's skull. It dissolves into yellowish-green goo which disappears into the sands as Titan swings his sword in an arc, ready to defend himself against the monsters that should be mobbing him about now.

Hades' hairy armpits, they're moving past him and streaming towards us, at least a dozen of them. Titan takes a step to go after them, but a shadow in the Hades gate catches his eye and he turns back as they scuttle towards us. The leading edge's close, ready to attack... wait, what are they doing? The Wolf-spiders have stopped, as if they're waiting for the rest of their group to catch up before they attack. "Az," Dancer... Io, says behind me in a worried voice, "they've never acted like this before."

"A Daemo sorceress controls them," Ghostfox says as she hovers overhead. "At a guess, they will focus on Lord Paulus until he is dead, then try to escape."

"Over my dead body," Troll snarls... Cotus, his name's Cotus. He whips his black Artifact Greatsword over his head as he shouts, "Come and fight me you demons."

The last one joins the pack and they rush us. Ghostfox swoops past my head, flinging sand at their faces as she flits up and down their line, and several stop, rubbing at their eyes with the joint of their forelegs. One is crouching the way they do before they leap leap into the air. "Ghostfox," I yell, "behind you." She whips her head back as a Wolf-spider leaps into the air.

A grey oval doorway forms in the air before her; she swoops through it, and the doorway vanishes a moment before the Wolf-spider can grab her. It falls head first into the sand as two Wolf-spiders rush us.

We stand fast until the first creature's almost on top of us. Then I leap forward, the blade's red runes flashing as the sword shears through the creature's legs. It pitches forward into the sand and Dancer stabs it in the belly, the monster screaming once and dissolving as the next one leaps for his throat.

He spins away; heart of Hades, he's never moved like that before, the spear knocking several legs out from under as it goes past. It staggers, and Dancer stabs it through the abdomen, pinning it in place. I'm already moving, swinging the blade down onto the chitinous plates covering its head and deep into its skull. This one dissolves as well and I raise my sword as it bubbles and melts away into the sand.

Nomad... the twins, are carving up a Wolf-spider, fighting as if they're one person, while across the arena Titan's fighting something big and tentacled, though most of it seems to remaining inside the chamber. Cotus is wrestling with another, his sword stabbing the creature one handed, while his other's grabbed the plate on the back of its head to keep it from driving its fangs into his throat. The rest of the Wolf-spiders are attacking the guards, while Ragnar snarls as he fights the ones trying to slip past and attack Dominus.

"I'll help Cotus," I yell at Io as I take off running. "Keep the rest off Dominus."

"On it," he yells back and starts running as a Wolf-spider tears out a guard's throat.

My attention focused on Cotus, I reach the Wolf-spider and swing, shearing through one leg, then the other as I plant my feet and reverse my swing. It staggers, pushing away from Troll, who rolls and takes his sword in both hands as he gets to his feet.

Something slams into my back, knocking me face first off my feet as fangs gash at my back. They scrape off the Artifact plates as I fall, instinctively rolling onto my back with one hand on my sword. The creature hisses and leaps for my throat.

My sword flicks up and the Wolf-spider impales itself onto the blade as its jaws close on my armored forearm. It bucks, trying to bite through Artifact as I release the hilt with my other hand and jam my fingers into its eye. It shrieks and lets go, then pushes off me, my hand barely grabbing the sword's hilt before it's carried away. Its wound makes a sucking sound until the monster's free of the blade, and as I roll to my knees, it crouches as if ready to leap.

It doesn't see Troll behind it. He swings, his blade crunching through chitin as it shrieks one last time and dissolves into slime. I take a moment to catch my breath as Troll... Cotus, grins.

Then a grey oval forms in front of me and Ghostfox flings herself into my arms. She's moving incredibly fast and knocks us both over, despite her lightness, as a ghostly grey, hairless bird-like creature the size of a warhorse, and wings... breath of Cerberus, they've got to be twenty feet long, swoops over us and disappears. "What in Hades' name was that?"

"Shadow Raptor," she gasps, trembling in my arms. One wing's been shredded, likely by that Shadow creature's claws, and she grimaces in pain as her pale wings are reabsorbed into her body, which returns to normal. "I was hiding in the Shadowlands because I didn't think I'd be any use in the fight, but then the Shadow Raptor found me. Please don't make me go back there."

I give her a smile as I scan the battlefield. "I don't think you'll have to."

All the guards are down, either dead or wounded, but only two Wolf-spiders remain. Io's got one pinned as the Twins descend upon the other, Cotus running over to help Io make the kill. Across the arena, the large tentacled creature's blocking the opening of the Hades gate with its body, its remaining tentacles feebly twitching while Titan fights with another creature across its body. Dominus is on his feet with a guardsman's sword in each hand. There's a cut on his forehead dripping blood down his cheek, while more blood's soaked the side of his tunic, but at least he's alive.

He raises a sword in my direction and I return the salute, then pull Ghostfox up with me as I rise. "Once the last two are dead," I yell, "join me at the Hades gate so we can finish this."

Ragnar reaches the Wolf-spider before Cotus and chops off its head with a blow from his axe. "Hold on a moment and Dominus and I will join you."

I shake my head. "Remain in front of the Eagle gate in case something slips past us. With luck, it'll be wounded, and out of breath from running towards you over sand."

He raises his sword and turns around as Dominus calls out, "All of you are free and I am no longer a lord. Call me Paulus."

Paulus. Strange to think of him as anything except Dominus, yet I like the way his real name rolls off my tongue. "Paulus, let Ragnar take the lead should you be attacked."

Bitter humor touches his face as he calls back, "Yes, Domina."

The rest of my Wardogs join me, and we take off at a steady jog towards the Hades gate. Movement catches my eye as one of Cotus' side plates swings back and forth, holding on by a rivet. "Cotus, are you hurt?"

"I was, but not anymore. Hey," Cotus raising his voice, "anyone else starting to think of himself as the creature tattooed on his back?"

Io replies, "I thought it was just me."

"Us too," the twins reply in unison.

"I'm trying to hold onto Ghostfox," the Daemo says, nude and not ashamed of it, "but Fox is winning." The grimace on her face says she's still in pain, but she's toughing through it and keeping up, which is more that I'd expected. Her comment 'Fox is winning' isn't. Later, I'll start thinking about what these tattoos are doing to the others, and to me. Maybe a lot later after a couple flagons of wine.

We reach Titan, standing with his sword raised but no longer fighting. "The Daemo monsters are retreating into the chamber," he says as I stop beside him. "Now that you are here, let me get rid of this," Titan driving his blade into a half-shut eye, "so we can goad them into attacking." The creature blocking the gate dissolves, and we form a semi-circle with our weapons raised, around the shadowed opening as greenish-yellow tentacles slither out and wrap themselves around the rusty bars.

They slam the gate shut which locks with a metallic clang. "What in Hades' name-"

"The Eagle gate," Ghostfox cries out behind me. "It opens."