Chapter 282: Chapter 253 – Aquatic Arena

"One of the main attractions of the southern region of the Kingdom Down Under is the underwater aquatic colosseum. Built in the deepest layer of the city, the venue housed extreme prizefighting events, where one's life was at stake, with honor and princely sums up for grabs.

 

The fighters were pitted one on one against aquatic monsters in a timed match, where the match was declared a draw should the time run out. More often than not, the fighter either won by killing the beast, or was driven off by the beast instead. Some unfortunate souls found their end in the beast's maw as well from time to time.

 

Since the creatures used in these deathmatches were dangerous aquatic monsters prone to attacking fishermen to begin with, not even the local druids protested these deathmatches.

 

For most of the locals, they simply considered it a beneficial and profitable way to make use of pests. For daredevils like me… the arena was a dream come true." - Florian Dana'errh, veteran prizefighter of the Aquatic Arena.

Cal wasn't exactly the fondest of the idea of fighting animals and monsters as a form of entertainment, especially with lives on the line. On the other hand, she also felt that such events provided a convenient place for her students to train in a relatively controlled environment.

 

After they arrived, she told her students to rest and relax for the next two days, and to avoid strenuous activities. The next scheduled event in the arena was three days from their arrival, and she wanted her students to be prepared for it.

 

They spent those days on the beach most of the time - some of the balconies had paths that led down to sandy beaches further away - as they relaxed and enjoyed themselves.

 

As expected of a seaside town, the local cuisine was rich with seafood of all sorts. Cal even had a feast prepared the night before the event as she briefed her students on what she had in mind for their training.

 

To their credit, all three of her students were positively eager for the challenge. The last time they fought in the water was during the trip when Cal brought them to Al-Shan during Xain's wedding. They were eager to test how much they had improved compared to then.

 

This time, there would be no water archmage to ensure their safety, nor groups of mermen to drive the prey to them. Yet at the same time, Cal felt that her students were by now at least capable of surviving even against such ferocious beasts in their watery homes.

 

They went to the arena's registry early in the morning, and found that there was plenty of room for the deathmatches. There had been a dearth of participants of late, after a recent string of bad luck saw several famed prizefighters lose their lives in battle.

 

Most of those who chose to participate had chosen wild beasts as their opponents, rather than the more dangerous monsters. Cal's students were a godsend for the arena, as they were having a headache about how they only had one monster deathmatch lined up for that night's events.

 

The man in charge of the registry quickly handled the paperwork and before long, Cal's three students were signed up for the night's matches. They were made to sign documents and waivers, which stated that they had signed up for the fight of their own free will, fully aware of the risks to life and limb, and absolved the arena of all responsibilities should they perish in combat within its confines.

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Then they were given a catalog of the available monsters at the time. The fighters were always allowed to choose the monster they would face against, so as to prevent gross mismatches. Should a fighter be foolish enough to pick a beast they were unable to handle, that was entirely their fault.

 

Cal brought the rest of the group to the arena that evening to watch and support her students. The arena was crowded to the brim, as it had been a while since they held an event with four monster deathmatches at once. Ever since the latest string of fatal incidents, the arena had held one such deathmatch per event at most, with some nights utterly lacking of them.

 

The arena structure itself was built like a multi-tiered colosseum, with a quarter of its lowest seats underwater. They were arranged surrounding a massive cage, easily a hundred meters to each side, that was fully submerged underwater. The gaps between the cage's bars were too small for the beasts inside to escape outside, but large enough for the fighters to do so in an emergency.

 

Opening fights pitted fighters against wild beasts. Prizefighters fought against sharks and crocodiles. Most won their matches without much issue, while roughly one third of their number lost or drew instead.

 

Most of them favored long spears and harpoons, which made sense given the underwater venue of the battle. Some favored daggers, and daringly struck from close to the beasts, which elicited more excitement from the crowd.

 

Finally, after a couple of hours, it was time for the main events. The first match was a local fighter, a young female merfolk whose features suggested some aquatic therian lineage, with her dorsal fin and tail. She held a wicked harpoon longer than she was tall in her hand as she swam into the cage to the cheers of the spectators.

 

Then from a pathway connected to the cage, came her opponent. The monster chosen by the young merfolk was a massive eel roughly twenty meters long, as thick around as a wine barrel. It had a mouth full of sharp teeth and looked menacing.

 

Almost immediately, the eel snapped at the young woman, and some in the crowd screamed in fear and surprise as a second set of jaws emerged from its throat and barely missed the merfolk fighter. In turn she scored a long cut along the eel's side with her harpoon.

 

The fight that followed was swift and brutal. The young mermaid clearly had no desire to stretch out the thirty minutes of time she had, and harried the eel aggressively. She paid for it as the eel's jaws scored cuts and gouged her flesh when she was a touch too slow to evade, yet she fought on.

 

Cal recognized that the mermaid had used water magic to press against her wounds and prevented herself from bleeding out, as finally, she managed to drive her harpoon through one of the beast's eyes and into its brain.

 

It was a blow that nearly ended in mutual destruction, as the eel's own last strike tore a chunk off the side of the mermaid's abdomen. Yet she was hale enough to raise her arm in victory as the spectators cheered, and swam out from the cage under her own power.

 

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