The coliseum was flooded with people, centaurians had all but rushed up the stairs snatching their seats. Even ignoring the deaths of the weakened at their homes, desperate for stimulus other than stale sex with a rotting corpse or their tired partner, they wanted to watch something exciting for once.
Their bellies were grumbling with hunger, their eyes drier than their wells, and the facade of prosperity was finally dropped in front of Raven and the rest of his party.
The people were livid and frothing at the mouth, like a rabid dog looking to bite, they seemed ready for something and anything that could help them escape their hunger and their boredom.
Only the soldiers, the men and women whose bodies protected the king and the kingdom looked somewhat healthy behind those heavy dark armors, but even their bodies were dwindling with the loss of the dark elf clan as it was mostly responsible for the hunting and gathering resources for the centaurs.
'The mages, they seemed to have spread equally through the coliseum's circumference.' Standing in the middle of the ring of dirt, Raven was looking around and spying on the only monsters he was worried about. But with Erika's task already done, mages shouldn't be able to perform any magic, except of course some of them weren't demi-humans.
'Doesn't seem like it, Isaac was the only human in this clan after all.'
Shifting his eyes to his party next, he noticed everyone sitting in a secluded corner that the centaur appeared to be avoiding. It was just a massive empty section with Helga, the demi-human girls, and the party sitting in a small area. However, a bit concerned about something, he scanned the benches some more and finally found Linkle.
Sitting far away from the party, she was glaring down at him as if in warning for him to win this battle against the centaurian king.
'Still stingy, huh?' Checking his waist belt for potions as he looked at her, Raven counted a total of four health potions and two mana potions. There were supposed to be two potions of enlargement, but he'd handed one of them to his dark fairy clones and kept another for himself. 'Helga's plan might just save me if this goes too far–'
A sudden cheer from the crowd made Raven turn his head over to the other entrance, and that's when he first saw the man in the flesh–well not exactly since he was clad in a dark armor much like his soldiers, although it had a strange string of curvy letters inscribed all over it. They almost looked like runes yet something about those slanted curves made Raven consider otherwise.
"Time to end this!" But there was no time left to think as Gara slammed the tip of his iron club on the ground. Then lifting it right up, he directed it towards Raven's face. "I can't wait to smash that small skull of yours and fall back into her cold embrace!"
"Not a fan of dramatics but…" Turning to Gara completely, Raven flashed a smirk to irk the king and then added. "Since we're doing this, lemme say something as well."
Clearing his throat, Raven stretched his index at Gara's face.
"When the goddess writes in my tale in golden pages of history, you'll be but a shit stain she discards in one of her breaks," the halls roared up with curses and booing from every direction, although though laughs from Aria and Mel, and the snickering from Erika and the rest stood out amidst the deep cacophony. "How was that? Quite a bard's tale, wasn't it?"
His face; red in anger behind that Helmet, Gara was already smoldering like an engine and his body steaming like a train. Clutching his club tight with his fingers, he wasted no more time with dramatics for he was obviously outmatched in down-talking his opponent. Instead, charging at Raven at twice as fast of a speed than he could match, he swung his club right at his head.
Thankfully for the mage, his magic eye was boosting his sight and helped him block the attack with his arm with a thick coating of dark slime. Even so, the blow sent him flying through the dirt, but mid-way through he managed to get himself upright.
'Aghh! I'm not used to handling direct blows.' With Amedith often being the one on defense, Raven wasn't exactly too fond of bone-shattering pain. However, instead of using a potion just yet, he decided to cast his hand with darkness while following Gara's movement.
Sprinting sideways against the wall, and then darting right at Raven, he had the club raised up high and ready to smash the mage's head against the floor. 'Heightened senses: Agility!'
Buffing himself just in time, Raven managed to move out of the way and even get behind Gara while his club was stuck in the crater that it had caused.
"Here you go, you thick-skulled bastard!" Reinforcing his feet with reflexive darkness, Raven kicked Gara's helmet and sent the centaur stumbling a few steps. The reflexive nature of the reinforced dark made his helmet reverberate in Gara's ears like a loud bell.
"GAUGHHHHHH!" Enraged further, the centaur spread his arms wide and screamed into the skies–giving Raven yet another chance to move in and strike.
And this time, instead of the helmet, he conjured a string around his feet and brought them all together to make Gara fall. But only halfway through, the centaur broke through those binds. Left shocked for but a fraction of a second, Raven never saw his club being swung at his face.
"DIEEEE!" The crack of Raven's jaws and the dust shooting into the air as his body skipped across the ground, sent the whole of centaurian cheering and the hero's party gasping in horror.
What came next was a pained scream of the hero followed soon after by thunder a swirl of dark clouds emerging over the coliseum out of nowhere. Everyone's eyes turned to the darkness above, all but two pairs, the elemental witch Linkle and the golden Valkyrie who was looking right at the cause of the ruckus.
"I've seen enough!" Her hand held high, Linkle glared down at the duo fighting in the middle of the chaos. Holding down her hat as a strong gust of wind brought about heavy rain, she warned the king but a few words. "I need him alive! Hurt another hair on his body and I'll rain down acid that would wipe your existence from this world!"
"WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE ORDERING ME AROUND?!" Screamed Gara in response.
"Test me, and you'll find out!" Linkle shot back.
Her words hung heavy under the thundering sky only broken by Aria whispering Helga with doubt.
"She's kidding, right?"
"I don't think so," replied Helga.
"Wa-wait, but won't it melt us too then?!"
"Possibly." She nodded affirming her doubts further.