Chapter 19
The guard hauled me out of the pit, my body stiff from the hard floor and freezing air of the night.
“Hope you two are in fighting condition, because the preliminaries are starting here soon!” A guard joked, taking joy in our suffering.
“Yeah yeah,” I groan as I stand up, stretching with a hiss of pain.
Reinhardt hadn’t faired much better, her armor may of kept her warmer, but it definitely didn’t help with comfort.
“Move it, assholes,” another guard said as he began to roughly push us. “Don’t make us drag you there.”
We allowed ourselves to be led down the winding hallway, towards the sounds of a cheering crowd.
It didn’t take long till we were pushed into a large cage with others.
I frowned as I looked around, not recognizing anyone. Then my stomach growled angrily, clearly upset that I missed breakfast.
As if drawn by the sound of my growling stomach, Remi slithered through the crowd and appeared before me. She reached into her pouch and pulled out a large tray of sandwiches.
“You are a life saver!” I said in glee, getting a happy ruffle of neck feathers from Remi. I grabbed one and devoured it without a thought. But as I grabbed the second one, I sighed.
I grabbed half of them and turned to Reinhardt. “Here, you need to eat.”
She smirked at me as she took them, “I thought you wanted nothing to do with me?”
I just rolled my eyes and went back to eating my sandwiches. Remi eyed Reinhardt with disdain.
“She’s with me now,” I said reluctantly, causing Remi to frown and furrow her brow. She then drew a picture of me and Reinhardt standing side by side, arm and leg over each other’s neck and cheering, a heart was drawn around us with the words ‘friends now?’ above it.
“Looks like it,” was my response as I finished the food and took the water she offered next, chugging half of it and giving the rest to the Orc behind me.
Remi didn’t look happy with this development, but didn’t write anything else. She did however pull out a metal helmet of sorts and presented it to me.
“Oh, thank you, Remi,” I said as I took it and placed it on my head, surprised it actually fit. It covered the top of my head and most of my lower neck, perfect. I buckled the strap under my chin.
“I must warn you two,” Reinhardt said from behind me. “There are rumors of a few wealthy elites that will be observing the tournament this time around. So people are going to be fighting a lot harder than usual. Don’t underestimate anyone out there.”
“Got it,” I say, observing those around us more closely now. “What should I do during this free for all?”
“Survive till the buzzer and then see if you made enough points to qualify a position on the leaderboard,” Reinhardt replied, followed by Remi giving me finger guns.
“Easy.” So survive till the buzzer, then hope I make it on the leaderboard? Simple.
“When they release us, follow me, I know the spot for the perfect weapons,” she said, slamming her fist together.
It wasn’t long after that when the announcer began to speak into his mic.
“Alright, are you all ready to watch some carnage!? A melee of epic proportions!?” He yelled into the mic, the crowd responded like they were blood thirsty animals. “Our brave warriors are about to face off against one another for a chance to enter the Grand Tournament of Ultimate Authority! The winner earns the right to face our beloved leader himself; Leem the Undying!”
The crowd got even louder somehow.
“The melee last till the buzzer! The contestants will slug it out till then to earn points! You earn more points for killing your opponent, and only half if you KO them! All weapons are permitted, and there are no rules!”
With one last roar from the crowd, he screamed into the mic, “Let the death and carnage begin!”
The gates flew open and the crowd around us surged forward.
Reinhardt took the lead and ran through the crowd, zig zagging as she went. I had a little trouble keeping up, with everyone else being taller than me and not wanting to take to the air for fear of drawing attention to myself this early.
Remi suddenly scooped me up and expertly slithered her way through the crowd till we caught up to Reinhardt.
She placed me down as the Orc grabbed a sword for herself and then tossed me a set of talons that seemed to be able to fit on my hooves.
“Happy birthday, use them to shred some assholes,” she laughed as she spun around and cut down a creature that was trying to sneak up on her.
Wasting no time, I put on the talons, thankful they attached correctly.
Remi grabbed two curved blades from the wall and twirled them happily.
The three of us began to walk towards the middle, trying to get away from most of the fighting that was taking place near the walls covered in weapons. We walked in a circle, watching those around us.
Luckily, most were too busy with their own fights to pay us any attention, but I still had to remove a leg from someone who got too close.
Remi grabbed her chalkboard with her tail and pointed it at me. It simply read ‘points!’. She then immediately shot away and slid into a group battle. Her blades easily sliced through anyone unfortunate enough to be near her.
When she’d finished, she hopped back to us, leaving eight dead behind her.
“You really do like to fight,” I chuckle, getting an enthusiastic nod from her.
“Heads up,” Reinhardt warned as three Minotaur’s charged towards us, all three wearing similar armor.
As they neared us, it turned into a blood bath, their body parts flying high as the three of us went on a rampage. Once we finished we all looked at each other, surprised.
“I think we’re all too alike in ruthlessness,” I say, getting a nod from both of them.
“I for one love our newfound sisterhood,” Reinhardt said, slugging Remi in the shoulder. She frowned at first, but then smiled as she slammed her fist back into Reinhardt’s shoulder plate. “What should we call ourselves?”
“Not now,” I replied, seeing Moxxi not too far away dodging around a large beast. “Follow me.”
I galloped through the battling crowd, cutting down anyone who attempted to get in my way. They all seemed to underestimate the tiny pony, which was clearly a terrible idea.
The large beast swung again for Moxxi, but she agilely dodged it. Before it could attack again, I slammed into its back, going absolutely insane with my hoof claws; cutting away at the back of its neck and head.
As it dropped dead, Moxxi laughed up at me, “Scamp! I see the Hole didn’t break you!”
I slide off the large beast and landed before her, “nah it was a pleasant retreat from my cell.”
“Love the sarcasm,” she replied as she twirled her sword in her hand. “Say, mind letting me ride you into battle? It’ll be so freaking cool!”
“No,” I said simply, looking around.
“You say that now, the idea just hasn’t settled yet,” she replied with a sly smile. I just roll my eyes.
Remi and Reinhardt arrived, covered in just as much blood as I was.
Behind them, I saw Drake strolling up to a behemoth of a troll.
As I started to move towards him, Moxxi reached out and stopped me, looking at the same thing I was.
“Leave him be, he does this every tournament,” she said in an amused tone.
Drake walked up behind the troll behemoth and yelled something to him. It turned to him and without warning punched him with its oversized fist. Drake flew back and landed on the ground, he then began to wither around in clearly fake agony as he dramatically ‘died’.
“That’s how he avoids all this,” Moxxi laughed.
“Uh-Huh,” I said in an amused tone. I had to admit, he was dedicated to the act. He laid on his back and held a black rose between his hands.
Before we could say anything else, flames swept over the crowd to our left, the screams of many burning creatures filled the air.
“Shit, someone unlocked the flame shit!” Moxxi yelped as she and Remi took off in the opposite direction.
Reinhardt and I looked at each other and nodded, and took off after them. No way I’m facing someone with a flamethrower!
It was that moment I saw Doc leaned over a wounded dog man, wrapping a bandage around a bloody wound.
The creature with the flamethrower looked his way, and began to reach into a pouch. He pulled out a small device and pulled a pin, tossing it towards Doc and the wounded dog man.
Without even realizing it, I was already galloping to intercept.
“Scamp?!” Doc yelled in surprise as he saw me coming.
I didn’t acknowledge him as I jumped into the air, using my wings to spin my body, and kicked the grenade with my back hoof, sending it back the way it came.
Then, as if to spite my good deed, the grenade exploded when it was still within range of me. A wall of flames slammed into my left side and the shockwave sent me spinning through the air.
I felt myself slam into the ground, rolling roughly a few feet. I coughed hard as I felt an intense burning sensation all over the left side of my face and body.
My left eye was obscured as I struggled to stand, looking towards the creature wielding the flamethrower.
He looked overjoyed, till he suddenly exploded as someone shot his tanks. Screaming, he ran around on fire till someone shot him again, dropping him.
Doc was suddenly at my side and trying to push me down, “stay down, girl! You are severely wounded!”
“I’ve had worse,” I say, followed by coughing violently. Is that cooking flesh I smell? I can’t tell if that’s me or the other guy.
“I severely doubt that!” He retorted as he pulled something sour smelling from his pouch and sprayed it on me, causing the burning to intensify. The next thing he did was rub some kind of salve on my wounds, which seemed to reduce the burning to an acceptable amount of pain.
“That helmet seems to have saved your head and hair from the flames,” he said, then in a softer tone, “you should have let me die, getting between us like that was stupid.”
“I’ve been doing that lately,” I replied in a smart ass tone, going to rub my left eye free of whatever was obstructing it.
“Don’t touch it,” he snapped as he grabbed my hoof.
“Whoa, shit, Scamp,” Moxxi said with a grimace as she and the others approached, watching the fighting around us.
“That is going to be an amazing scar,” Reinhardt commented with a forced smile.
“What’s over my eye?” I asked, annoyance clear in my voice.
“Well, to put it nicely,” Moxxi began awkwardly.
“How’d she lose her eye?!” I heard Beans exclaim from my left side, sounding like he was dragging something.
My eye widened as what he said hit me like a freight train.
“Uh…” Moxxi said as she sheepishly stepped out of my view
“How bad,” I ask calmly.
“I’ll be blunt,” Doc said slowly. “It’s still there, but you’ll never see out of it again.”
“Look on the bright side,” Moxxi said as she stepped back into view. “You don’t have to fight in the tournament anymore.”
“And you also get an eye patch,” Reinhardt added, getting a glare from me.
I grunted as I stood up, ignoring Doc’s protest. “I’m fine, you all need to focus on the fight around us.” At their unsure looks, I stomped my hoof, “come on, people! Go get ‘em!”
“You got it,” Reinhardt said with a grin as she spun in her armor and stomped towards the nearest melee, twirling her sword as she went.
Beans made a few clicking sounds as he hauled Drake up next to me, with him still playing dead.
“Beans and Moxxie,” I say loudly as I hiss in pain, pointing my charred prosthetic at them, “take up a position on either side of Doc, let him tend to any of the wounded he wants.”
They looked at each other, then nodded back at me.
“Drake,” I looked at him as he laid there, still holding the flower. He let his forked tongue roll out of his mouth, attempting to look more dead. “Never mind.”
Remi looked at me with a worried expression.
I nod to her, “you can stay with me, cover my left.”
She gave me a determined nod as she crouched down and eyed everyone around us.
“And you’re going to sit down,” Doc said as he gently tried to push me back down.
“Doc,” I replied, giving him a stern look, “go help others. You can focus on me once this is over.”
He frowned down at me, but relented as he moved on to others. Beans and Moxxi followed him, watching out for him.
“Good,” I muttered as I glanced around, taking in the chaos around me. Taking a step caused me to hiss again as I felt the skin on my left side ripple with pain.
“Fuck this,” I said through gritted teeth.
I just want to lay down now, sleep through this shitty pain. My entire left side of my vision was now gone permanently, and there wasn’t anything I could do about it now.
No good deed goes unpunished, huh?
A slender creature moved towards me, but was instantly cut down by Remi.
I limped along, watching the others perform the task I’d assigned them.
Reinhardt seemed to be enjoying herself as she worked her way through groups of creatures, sending limbs and bodies flying in her rampage.
Remi hovered over me as she fended off anyone who drew to close.
Then someone charged us and tackled her, tumbling away from me. I frowned as I saw another lizard-like creature beeline for me.
As he neared, I flare my wings, which caused an intense ripping pain to shoot through my body, and jumped over him as he lunged for me. I landed right behind him and twisted around, slicing through his legs with my hoof talons. He screamed in pain as he fell down on his new stumps.
Before I could recover, another lion based creature took a swipe at me. I barely blocked it with my prosthetic leg, which groaned under the weight of the impact. I then slammed my hoof into the underside of his chin, the talons embedded all the way to the base.
He went limp as I threw him to the side.
From in front of me, a six armed creature cut down its opponent and turned to face me, a wide smile on its face.
Awesome, just awesome.
As I prepared to engage it as it ran towards me, Remi came out of nowhere and wrapped her body around the strange creature. She squeezed hard as it fought, then began to hack away at its neck with her blade, brutally decapitating it.
She smiles at me as she throws the head away into the fighting around us.
I blink at her, then chuckle, despite the pain.
A loud buzzer went off, causing all of the fighting to come to a grinding halt.
“There you have it, folks! The preliminaries have closed, and what a show it was! More violent and bloody than we’re used to!”
The crowd cheered loudly, shouting random names.
I swear I heard a few sporadic ‘Stumpy!’ mixed in among the roaring crowd.
“The judges will now tally the points! Standby for your leaderboard!”
“That was quick thinking you did back there,” Doc said as he ran back to me, the giant yeti looking my injuries over with a concerned look on his face.
“Those were some good kills too,” Reinhardt complemented, wiping blood from her face. “Horrifically wounded and still fighting. I chose my new best friend wisely.”
Moxxi stepped up to me, leaning in to look at my left side more closely, “just fuck, you really got messed up.”
“She saved me,” Doc said, a bit of guilt in his voice. “She stopped that thermal grenade from killing me and a person I was helping.”
I held up a hoof, silencing him, “don’t worry about it. I just did what I had to do, don’t beat yourself up about it.”
Drake sat up finally and looked at me, recoiling in horror. “I heard what you all were saying, but she looks way worse than I imagined!”
“Welcome back to the realm of the living,” I said sarcastically to him.
“Thank you, Scamp,” Beans said as he rubbed his mandibles together. “For saving Doc and helping us keep it together.”
I started to reply, but the announcer’s voice boomed through the stadium.
“The results are in! And are they surprising!”
A massive leaderboard appeared above us, listing everyone who would be advancing to the tournament.
Remi and Reinhardt were there, obviously. Luckily the rest of the team weren’t up there… except…
“Scamp’s advancing!?” They all exclaimed in shock, turning to look at me.
I stood there dumbfounded. With a deep sigh, I looked skyward at the giant leaderboard.
“Ah horseapples.”