The man grew bigger, his muscles pumped up like balloons, his fur stood on end, and his expression was now that of a hurt predator, ready to fight till the end.
The gladiator crawled away; he knew what was about to happen.
But running was pointless.
The beastman jumped onto the gladiator.
The axe of the executioner rose and fell.
Above them, a rune shattered; the fight was over.
The man who was parted in two immediately mended together.
But Ghorhaln was not done.
His axe fell again and again.
The air was filled with red mist.
The masses were still loud, some cheering at the spectacle, only a few screaming in terror at the brutal murder before them.
I backed away from my gate.
The man would not mend together again.
His remains lay on the arena sand in small pieces.
My breath went flat and swift, my heart almost beating out of my chest.
He had slaughtered his enemy without flinching.
Thessa had told me that this had happened before.
But the only man who had ever left the arena as a murderer was Ghorhaln.
And we would have to sneak by his chambers.
Just in this second, a noise behind me tore me from my thoughts.
Thessa stood in the doorframe, her helmet tucked under her arm.
"Are you ready?"
Neither of us was sure where the gladiator entrance from the upper kingdom was, but Thessa assured me that she had a vague idea.
After the first minutes, a dark silhouette blocked the weak runelight before us.
Someone small stood in the corridor only a couple of steps ahead.
Was it the man who had led us to our chambers earlier?
I quickly tried to think of an explanation for our escape.
"Where are you two going, hmm?"
It wasn't the man.
It was a young voice.
The figure stepped forward, and light fell on his face.
It was the boy that I had fought in the arena.
His helmet was also gone now, revealing long blond hair framing a cheeky face with a wide grin.
"You got me pretty good in there.
My name is Hyphael. But you can call me Phil."
"I'm Somnius, sorry again...for the arena thing."
"Thessa or Thess. You are a godsprout too?"
He mustered Thessa for a few seconds, but before he could answer, our conversation was interrupted by the approaching noise of steps somewhere behind us on the floor.
A recognizing frown flashed over Phil's face.
"It's the instructor. We have to leave."
He quickly hurried down the hallway, Thessa and I close behind.
A quick left turn, and he pulled us into a bigger, dark room.
Two heavy doors silently slid back into place, hiding us from the searching instructor.
There were no lights in the room; everything was wrapped in total darkness.
We walked another few meters and stopped.
As our steps faded away, we heard a new noise: rhythmic, slow breathing.
It came from the back of the room.
Something was in the darkness with us.
Something big.
I had a vague idea what that could be, and from the terror on the others' faces, they had the same idea.
The thing lying in the back of the room was him.
I was able to clearly feel it.
The slumbering mind in the back of the cave.
What was a lot worse, I could also feel how the slumber got more and more shallow every second.
We only had a few seconds before he would awake.
He was a Beastman, so he could probably hear and smell a lot better than us.
The steps outside had already started to move away again.
We only had to silently open the door and...
'Where the hell is the door!?"
I stumbled to the back wall and started to feel around for the wooden doors.
Thessa produced a low hissing sound; she had found them.
Just in time, as I could feel the beastman waking up behind us in just this moment.
A sniffing sound echoed through the darkness.
He knew something was off.
Heavy dragging steps now replaced the sniffing.
He was coming.
Thessa ripped open the doors; the three of us started sprinting as fast as we could.
We turned left, heavy steps that had drastically picked up in pace now not too far behind us.
We rushed through the tunnels, the rune's lights flashing by us.
A wall. We turned left again, and there it was—the door outside.
This one must lead to the upper district.
Thessa pulled on the door.
It didn't open.
We were stuck.