The Final Battle of Lycundar''s Arena II


    Earlier, a fleeing Haldrych had stumbled from the passage and emerged into what he could only describe as hell. A cacophony of wails, roars, shouts and screams assaulted his ears, oveying the bem within.


    Before him writhed a chaotic scene of bronze, flesh and death. The seats of the arena burst with ck robed cultists struggling against berserk beasts. Werewolves leapt among them, pulling down the half-starved, panicked creatures and tearing them open with fang and w.


    Yet, there were but few pack-brothers to y the beasts, and the acolytes proved poor resistance against their fury. The stands flowed crimson with the blood of the fallen, like a river of death rushing into the after-world. Dozens of ck robed bodies floated in that current,ying in pools of their own gore and exposed viscera.


    The smell hit the terrified poet in a wave - a rusty tang of bloodbined with the stench of filth released from the dying. No epic battle-poem mentioned such foul smells, and he was overwhelmed, violently doubling over at the stench and sight of entrails steaming in the cold air.


    Below, the sea of cultists faced a ragged band of fighters; it took the young poet a few breaths to realize that thetter were the cults captives. Though outnumbered at least ten to one, they were better armed and armoured than the acolytes, and dealt terrible losses.


    <em>Groaaaar!</em>


    Nearby was another sight that defied Haldrychs understanding: Milos grappled on the sand with his own sabre-toothed tiger, battling to subdue the beast while it sought to skewer his skull with its massive fangs. Its ws tore into the Sacred Alphas body again and again, ripping his clothing to tatters, but his wounds knitted shut with a terrifying swiftness.


    Deep trenches nearly shearing his body in twain closed into unmarred flesh in heartbeats. Though he was in human form, his eyes burned with the feral savagery of the wolf, yet his conflict with the cat seemed aimed at merely pinning his pet and not ying it.


    But why was it attacking its master?


    And why was it free?


    <em>Crack!</em>


    Stone crumbled from elsewhere in the arena. Haldrych whirled, gaping at the ck furred form of Berard crushing a support that braced the statue of Lycundar. Then a sight more personal to Haldrych caught his eye, making the warrior-poet gasp in dread.


    The thief.


    The rat-woman thief charged across the arena toward Berard - free, armoured and vengeful. In her hand gleamed a familiar silver sword.


    A silver sword that <em>he</em> deserved.


    With a sh of insight as rare to Haldrych Ameldan as the most precious of ck opals, he reasoned out what had urred. He had sent the beast after the thief. She had somehow ovee it, brought the tiger to her side, and - having regained her weapon from its corpse - led the ves into full revolt. A fear greater than he had ever experienced clutched his heart, for no matter how this battle yed out, his fate would be bleak.


    If the ves were victorious? The thief and captives would take their vengeance upon him and no doubt steal the Eye of Radiin. If the cult were victorious? Even if none learned that it was he who - through no fault of his own - had reunited the rat with her de, it would not be long until me fell to him. Hisst mistake had led to his proud steed being ughtered and eaten like amon goat. What would they do to him <em>now</em>?


    He also could not ignore that a third, even grimmer fatey somewhere in the tunnels. He nced into the darkness at his back; the red-eyed demon would have finished Adelmar and be seeking <em>him</em> by now.


    Adelmarhis oldest friend.


    A bitterness welled up in the young patriarch.


    This was all <em>Adelmars </em>fault! Not his! He had done <em>nothing</em> to deserve this! If that dead fool had not convinced him to y his mother, he would know nothing of shapeshifting thieves, crimson gazing fiends, and fanatical wolf-men! He would be safe in his manor,posing an ode with a cup of hot wine carried to his room just as he had always ordered. What a fine thing life had been before Adelmar had <em>convinced</em> him <em>against his will</em> to ruin it! He could have remained infort and found another way to achieve glory with his poetry! Yes, it was true! Of all the victims in this tragedy, there was none greater than Haldrych Ameldan!


    Yet, convincing any victors of this <em>truest of facts</em> would likely prove futile and <em>very </em>fatal.


    He needed to make good his escape.


    The path to the front passage of the mountain was blocked by rioting ves; he would need somewhere to hide for now. Somewhere he would be overlooked and safe until the battle was won and the mountain abandoned.


    His eyes came to a certain passage on the opposite side of the arena. There! That led to the private balcony where he and Adelmar had conspired shortly after Marctinus fate. That ce was hardly used, ording to his now deceased friend, and no doubt he could wait out all of this unjustness there in safety. The only trouble was that Berard and the thief - locked in battle - stood between him and the passage.


    He slid the Eye of Radiin beneath his robe, pulled his cowl low to obscure his identity, and began to rush toward his salvation. The din of battle faded behind him and though he half-feared that some cultist would mark his retreat, no outcry was raised. He at least had to thank their foes for keeping them upied. His luck seemed to hold ahead as well. Berard and the thief were utterly focused on attempting to murder each other, and his rush toward them remained unnoticed.


    <em>Crack!</em>


    Berard struck the thief and sent her sprawling to the stone while another escapee stabbed the werewolf in the nk. Good! He bore down on them now, rushing through the aisle above their struggle.


    He would easily slip past and-


    Shit! Rat look out!


    The little man spotted him as the Rat dragged herself to her feet. Quick as a striking cobra, she whirled on him. The beautiful silver sword he had coveted cut a blurring silver arc through the air. He screamed. Desperately twisting his body, he felt the buffet of the thin de striking his robe.


    Yet no pain followed.


    And then he had passed them.


    Awash with relief and the rush of survival, sensation faded away as he sprinted more desperately than he ever had in his life. The pain in his lungs and legs subsided. The sting of exertion in his belly vanished and even the heat of wet sweat drenching his side disappeared.


    Slipping past the sliding statue of Lycundar, Haldrych dove into the passage that marked his salvation. Sobbing with relief, he rushed into the tunnel as though all the hounds of hell sought his throat. And so, before the moon could even change its position in the sky, the great warrior-poet had fled two battles in a single night.


    In this flight, he did not notice what dripped from his soaking robe in his wake.


    Wurhi brandished her de, ignoring the unnamed fleeing cultist.


    Berard swept his weapon about him, driving Merrick back, and the threebatants paused, measuring each other.


    They tensed for terrible violence.


    <em>Boom!</em>


    The statue of Lycundar ended its measured descent, catching securely on the reinforced brackets lining the arena wall. In its wake yawned a chasm in the arenas side that opened upon a stone staircase reaching deep into the mountains heart. The stairs were vast, far toorge simply for man or even an ogre to mount, and Wurhi could hear waters muffled roar from the opening. It seemed the colossal steps were carved from a wall that adjoined the underground river which flowed freely beneath the arena floor. From within the cavern that yawned ahead of the stair emanated a powerful musk, one she had never smelt before, but one that made her instincts <em>scream</em>.


    As though in response, a roar shook the arena, far louder than even that of the tiger.


    <em>Boom! Boom! Boom!</em>


    <em>Some </em>truly mammoth form of life moved through the dark beneath the mountain. Berard gave a snort and retreated, leaping past the stunned Merrick and loping through the seats away from the chasm.


    <em>Thm. Thm. Thm.</em>


    <em></em>What sounded to be hooves ground against stone as a creature ascended the steps. The ground shuddered as though cringing from every colossal footfall, and the din of battle grew muted as warriors turned toward the sound of thunder stalking the earth.


    Rat.Raaaaat! Merrick backed away, his face pale and jaw clenched. If the big wolfs running then maybe we should too!


    If his words did not convince her-


    <em>Brooooooooooaar!</em>


    -then the bellow that followed did.


    The Rat and the Hawk sprinted away as thunderous footfalls grew upon stone steps. The ground shook. Titanic breathing filled their ears. The hairs on her neck and back stood up, but she risked a backward nce.


    Wurhi nearly stumbled at what she saw.


    What emerged from below was a barbaric hulk of a titan; a creature whose utter purpose was to rend all life asunder. It was another mockery of humanity akin to the ogres of the Forest of Giants, but with a brutish, ruddy face far craggier. Tusks jutted from a bottom jaw that consumed most of its head and a waterfall of stringy spittle poured from the sides of rubbery lips.


    It drenched a mountainous chest and the wooly fur of two ponderous, goat-like legs that ended in dense, ebony hooves. A single horn rose from the top of its bald, misshapen skull that could have served as the deformed mast of a ship. Gargantuan in stature and dripping cruelty, it red at the world from a single, alien eye that swallowed most of its brow.


    With a roar, it raised its weapon with an arm that could have strangled a whale.


    Wurhi blinked in disbelief.


    A tree.


    It clutched a vast, dead oak in a brutal grip. The branches had been torn free, but the roots remained as though they were the spikes on a titanic mace.


    What <em>now</em>?! Merricks voice was shrill.


    Even if Wurhi could speak, she had no name to put to this one-eyed giant, except to call it a <em>tower.</em> Never in her life had she witnessed a living creature sorge - perhaps a full <em>ten </em>times her height and bearing the bulk of four Mabatian war elephants.


    <em>Boom. </em>


    It stepped down into the arena, and its footfall killed the battle before it. ves and cultists felt both weapons and jaws hang as the titan swept them all with its evil gaze. The panicked beasts took one frightened look at the creature and quit the arena, tearing their way through the cultists ranks as they fled into the passages. Even the sabre-toothed tiger had broken off its contest with its master, snarling at the titan in anger and trepidation.


    <em>Cyclops!</em> Gannicus shrill voice cried from among the escapees. Run! Run for your lives!


    Stop them! Milos roared, his wounds healing quickly beneath his shredded robe. Block the exits, Lycundars children! He stepped forward and addressed the cyclops. My pet! Strike our enemies! Feast!


    His voice was the crack of a whip over the one-eyed giants back, and the creature stiffened at its sound. Even as werewolves and acolytes spread over the arena, the cyclops broad nostrils red wider and its lips trembled over protruding fangs.


    <em>BANG! SCRRR! BANG! SCRRRR! BANG! SCRRRRRRR!</em>


    <em></em>The titan shook and pawed the earth with one broad, cloven hoof. A cloud of sand swept into the air as though caught in a desert gale. It roared a syble in a grindingnguage of which Wurhi had no knowledge.


    It lowered itself.


    Gave one final snort.


    And charged with titanic oaken cudgel held high.


    <em>BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!</em>


    <em></em>The mountain shook. The escapees shrieked and tried to flee.


    Milos roared in triumph and the cult roared with him.


    Lycundars image watched them all. In the moonlight, its snarls seemed silent howls of victory.