The Lost Chronicles Of Pangea: Apocalypse

The Arena 4

David was really going out of his mind, because with every step he took, the injured frost wolf took three more closer to him, and he was running for a dead end. And because the wolf was wounded, every other person was trying to keep his distance, except for Lilith who was screaming a bunch of words he could not make sense of at the moment, he was very much on his own.

In a twisted kind of way, he could feel the excitement of the crowd as his death drew closer, he knew they were all up on their feet in delirious anticipation about how gory his dismembering would be. Not to seem rude, but those bunch of assholes were making him angry, very angry.

In a moment of pure bravery, or stupidity, which ever way you chose to look at it, David turned around, and flung the shield in his hand like a discuss towards the wolf. By a stroke of sheer luck, or maybe it was David’s marksman abilities under display again, the shield went straight for the uninjured eye of the wolf.

“Rooaarrr!!!”

This time however the wolf was not just roaring, it was also whining from the pain. The shield did not deliver the same amount of damage the spear gave, so the wolf still had its right eye, but anybody who has been hit in the eye before knew that it stung like a b***h.

David took the opportunity given to him, as he turned and ran straight for the stumbling wolf. Careful to not get any of its blood on his body, David gave it a glancing cut on the joints of its front paw. He was not strong enough to cut off the paw completely like that poor unfortunate soul of a fighter whose name he couldn’t recall………oh wait a minute. David realized he never did knew the guys name in the first place, well whatever, he was already dead and no body will be having a need of his name now.

As David ran towards the hind quarters of the wolf, he also hacked at its hind legs with all of his pitiful strength. He was not as strong as the rest of them, but he could cut just deep enough to make a difference.

The wolf stumbled again, and turned it’s snapping jaws towards David, but Lilith already had an idea of what was going on, as she moved to completely cut through the right hind leg of the wolf. She moved so fast and so gracefully that David almost forgot she only had a single arm. She moved back with swift steps to avoid the gushing flow of blood from the missing limb of the wolf.

The wolf snapped its jaws after turning it’s body in degrees David did not think the wolf was flexible enough for. But that distraction was all David needed to hack through its other hind leg, with his short sword going so deep it met bone. With a grating sound, David pulled his gladius out of the wound, and ran all the way to the other end of the arena to stand together with Lilith and the other fighters.

The wolf could not chase after them as it was practically crippled, and delivering an extra attack with the pool of blood currently surrounding the wolf would have been nothing but suicide. But things never work out as expected.

The wolf was missing two of its limbs, so by default it was probably supposed to bleed to death. However after a significant amount of blood loss, all of its wounds froze shut, and the blood that pooled on the ground rapidly began to freeze and crystallize like a lake in winter, or an ice rink.

David turned to Lilith, and she looked at him while inclining her head towards the wolf. David shook his head as if to tell her no, but she opens her eyes wide and gestured with her head while throwing him the spear he previously used to blind the wolf’s right eye. He did not need her to say anything, as he had a general idea of what she wanted him to do.

David had an accuracy that even he himself was just beginning to realize was terrifying. I mean he couldn’t hit the wings off a fly from twenty paces away, but he was good enough that he would give most service men a run for their money. At the moment the only choice he had was to charge at that wolf again, or Lilith would probably rip his arm off later, either here or in the underworld.

David shook his head and charged straight for the monster that was quite literally on its last legs. When he was close enough, David threw the spear straight for its face, but the wolf seemed to have learnt its lessons, as it inclined its head a bit and the spear flew past, but not before it tore open the skin at the top of its eyelids. So which meant even though it dodged having its eyes completely blinded, the blood from the wound would still make it a little harder to see than normal.

The wolf roared in outrage and bent its head down as it awkwardly charged at them. David and Lilith were not the only ones attacking as the other fighters were moving with them. The sudden change of tactics by the wolf caught every body by surprise, and left them little time to prepare for it.

David felt Lilith kick his feet from under him as they slid under the gaping maw of the wolf as it barreled past them. As they slid underneath the wolf, Lilith raised her gladius up and let the wolfs own speed carry it past them, while tearing open its stomach.

Luckily for them, the wolf was moving really fast, so there was no blood spilt on them as it went on to impale two other fighters on its horn like ears. And from the look of things, the two people now hanging from the wolf’s ears and dripping their blood all over its head, were team mates.

With those guys dead, it brought the number of fighters down to twelve. But that number changed, as the wolf tripped over its missing limbs, and its huge body fell on three more fighters effectively crushing them beneath its massive weight.

After that happened the spectating crowd went wild as they screamed with wild abandon. They were enjoying this, even now it was hard for David to reconcile such a scene. He knew Pangea had the city of games, where massive coliseums hosted both virtual and real life gladiatorial events, that saw people dead. But the c*****e was not like this, there was a certain refinement to those fights, but this…….this was inhumane.

David felt Lilith get up to her feet and run towards the wolf with a spear in hand. David had no idea where she got that spear from, but he was not bothered about the intricacies of weapons appearing in the hands, sorry, hand of Lilith. She ran and scaled the body of the wolf, then when she reached its ribcage, she jumped high into the air, achieving a startling height of ten feet. As she came down from her jump, she angled the spear in her hand as she used the momentum from her fall to add more power to the spear.

She came down hard on the wolfs body, driving all six feet of the spear into its body and nailing it to the stone platform. The wolf let out a mournful howl as it trashed erratically. Its thrashing dislodged the spear from the platform, but it was still stuck in its body. The wolf shakily got up, but it was quite obvious to everyone that the beast was done.

The spear could be seen sticking out from both ends of its body, and for some reason the wound was not being frozen over. The wolf swayed a bit, the spear had gone through its heart, and it was just a matter of time before it fell down dead. In a final act of defiance, the wolf lunged.

But this time it was not at the fighters in the arena, but at the people who were spectating. As the wolf made its flight, there were screams and mad scrambles as they all tried to get away, but just before the wolf could land on his preys, a big yellow dome made of multiple spell circles and formations came alive. It prevented the wolf from touching the spectators, and immediately it came in contact with the barrier, massive earth spikes shot out from the formation to impale the wolf.

A few seconds later the earth spikes retracted, and the barrier disappeared. As for the wolf, it was deader than dead, and no amount of magic or science was bringing it back. The whole arena was covered with silence, the sudden turn of events had shocked everyone here.

David did not know who among the spectators started it, but someone started to clap, and soon they were all cheering and screaming their heads off. It seemed they were all back to their normal, insane self’s. The cheering was irritating, and with the lull in the battle David’s migraine showed up again and he had to fall to his knees to deal with the pain. For a while everything was spinning, and he could feel blood dripping from his nose.

He felt a hand on his shoulder, he did not need to look up to know that it was Lilith standing beside him. Her presence there helped him a little as he was able to fight through the pain and pressure to get some semblance of control over himself.

“Keep it together David, this fight isn’t over yet.”

He knew she was right, after all didn’t the rules say only one team will survive. He got himself back to an upright position and shakily walked to where his shield was dropped. The final spear among the pair that had helped them take the wolf down was also clutched in his hand. Lilith was standing beside him with her shield on hand, and her gladius strapped to her back. David also had his gladius on his back, this time he was fighting humans, and even though it was very different from the giant wolf they just had to fight, it did not mean it was any easier.

“Ladies and gentlemen…….my word, I mean come on! Who’s loving this action!”

And the crowd went wild. It was at that moment, that David felt actual hate for the first time in both his lives. Their smiles, their happiness, and the fact that they all drew pleasure from his suffering. Every single part of him, the very fiber of his being hated them all to the very core. And both David of earth and David of Pangea agreed wholeheartedly that this people all deserve the worst deaths possible, and he would very much like to be their judge, jury, and executioner.

At that moment, his hatred was the balance he was so desperately searching for. His two minds were not one, but they both would happily see rivers of blood flow from the veins of all this bastards. This time there was no pain, just hate. That emotion consumed him and gave him a clarity he had never experienced since he came here. It gave him strength, it gave him hope. And because of his hatred he was going to fight, and he was going to win. And after that, he was going to kill them all, painfully.