40: Horrors of the Arena

I awoke before dawn, and the few streaks of light that illuminated the clouds in the sky were barely enough to see by, but I wanted to be fully awake when I approached the ruins. A small breakfast was all I could bear to eat partly because of the shooting pains in my leg. It kept me from moving around too much, but I stood and surveyed the ruins. It was mostly a shadow in the darkness, but I could make out the general shape and size of it.

The sun finally rose enough to illuminate the area, and I could see some humanoid figures beginning to move around, though whether they were my “friend” or something more dangerous I could not tell. I edged closer towards the shapes and saw that they were not who I was looking for. Their sickly green skin and sloping shoulders revealed their inhuman nature, and it wasn’t hard to hear their guttural language from a fair distance away.

Goblins have a tendency to hang around caves and ruins, so it wasn’t entirely surprising to see them here. Nevertheless, I was a bit aggravated. If they had killed my “friend” I would be in a difficult spot. I snuck a bit closer and summoned a scamp to deal with the emaciated brutes, and soon I was walking freely about the outside of the ruins. There was no sign of anyone, and the sun was blazing its way towards it apogee. I sighed and sat down in some tall grass near the rotten door leading into the depths of the ruins. I pulled the ring from the depths of my robes and examined it. There was nothing very special about it, other than the little sphere of glass that protruded from its center. I spun it around in my hands for a while and even put it on a few times, but nothing happened.

“Hey,” I sent a message deep into the Dark One’s mind, “What do you make of this ring?” He was quiet for a moment, and then the staff glowed gently.

“As far as I can tell, it is completely normal,” his mind mused quietly, “There is no magical radiation emanating from it, and it isn’t of any special value.” He paused, but I could tell he was thinking deeply by the colors of the staff.

“What if,” I began cautiously as the idea formed in my mind, “the ring only works in certain areas or that it reveals only one specific thing?”

“Perhaps… that would be very hard to detect.” I could tell it wasn’t something he had thought of, and I smiled. I then slipped the ring onto my finger and started looking around. I saw absolutely nothing, but then I stood up and began to search more thoroughly. I found nothing on the outside of the ruins, and began to doubt my hypothesis. Reluctantly, I decided to enter the ruins and see what I could find inside. As I approached the door, however, it glowed faintly. I held the ring closer to the door, and the glow focused and concentrated into a string of words.

The Arena beckons. It read, we shall meet there in four hours. Wear the ring. I wondered whether this message could be old, but then the four hours changed to three hours and fifty-nine minutes. I immediately set off for the Imperial city. I didn’t want to walk all the way around to the bridge to the city, as that would take far too long, and I might be late. Instead, I decided to cross the river at a shallow spot near the ruins. I kept out of the water as best as I could, trying to hop from stone to stone across. A few slaughterfish eyed me hungrily from their watery home, and I didn’t feel like getting my feet wet or nibbled on. I made it across unharmed and unmoistened, and climbed the steep hill towards the Imperial City. The closest entrance was via the bridge from the Imperial Prison, and when I reached the huge walls of the prison I was reminded of my recent incarceration there. I put up my hood and avoided the prying eyes of the guards, just in case they might try to drag me back to that dank cell, even though I had in some ways been pardoned by the late Emperor.

The bridge connected directly to the market district, and I was soon surrounded by a large group of people frantically trying to get the best prices in the city. Obviously now was not the time to shop. Strangely, the shoppers were mostly concentrated around a single shop in the district, something called “The Copious Coinpurse.” I thought little of this, and instead pushed through the crowd towards the center of the city. Green Emperor Way was beautiful and quiet. Whether the stillness was for the many graves that ringed the area, or whether it was for the Imperial Palace. A guard in ceremonial armor passed by and told me to be respectful. I nodded and proceeded towards the Arena District. I still had a few hours before I was to meet… whoever it was that had left me the message, but I decided I could find out what this whole Arena thing was about.

The Arena District was in stark contrast to the Emperor’s way. The giant coliseum dominated the center of the district, and from it I could hear screams of combat and collective cheers from the audience. I pushed past the group of people clamoring to bet on fights and into the coliseum itself. I found my way to a balcony overlooking the sandy pit where the fights took place. A group of people were still down in the pit cleaning up after the last fight, although I use “cleaning” lightly. They were simply raking the sand and pouring more sand over the bloody stains. A few were scrubbing the metal grate in the center of the pit with what looked like hunks of sandstone attached to thick broom handles. I took a seat and awaited the next fight.

Eventually, the cleaners ran out of the pit and a booming voice filled the Arena. “Welcome,” it said, “to the ARENA!” A collective yell rose up from the crowd. The announcer waited for them to quiet down before continuing: “We have a special treat for you today! From the blue team: Three grizzled combatants, each skilled in their own art of combat.” The announcer let the chants of “BLUE! BLUE! BLUE!” die out before announcing the yellow team’s gladiator. “From the Yellow team, we have an up and coming Gladiator. He has specifically requested this 3 versus 1 battle, but how will he survive? We shall see! LOWER THE GATES!” The steel bars dropped away from where the gladiators were standing. Immediately a blast of lighting shot towards the Yellow team Khajiit. He dodged nimbly and ran towards the Blue team. He ran so fast that sand shot into the air behind him. One of the Blue team members (A Nord who was obviously skilled in close quarters combat) let out a battle cry, raised his massive sword and charged. The Khajiit literally launched himself at the Nord, catching him off guard and knocking the massive warrior to the ground. The Khajiit cut his prey’s throat in one swift movement and jumped away towards the other two combatants, who had spread out and were attacking from a distance, one with magic and the other with a bow. The Yellow gladiator dodged both attacks with lighting fast movements, and was soon upon the archer. This time the maddened Khajiit ripped the throat out of his victim with his teeth. There was a shocked gasp and then a cheer from the crowd as the Khajiit flipped away from the gurgling woman. The final Blue team member screamed and began backing away while lightning crackled from his fingertips. The Khajiit advanced much more slowly this time, toying with his prey. It was almost sickening to watch. He flipped and rolled away from the frantic blasts of lightning that arced from the Blue mage’s fingers. Eventually the bursts became feeble, and then stopped. The mage had run out of magicka! The Khajiit grinned horribly and sheathed his blade. He flipped out his retractable claws and advanced toward the doomed mage. The screams were silenced quickly, as the razor sharp claws ripped through the man’s throat. There was a delay, and then the crowd began cheering louder than ever. I looked around at all the cheering people, sickened at their barbaric behavior.

The Khajiit returned to the twitching body of the Nord man whose throat he had slit and made a complicated gesture over him. A red glow washed over the Nord and he jerked. I recognized the spell effects. The Khajiit had sucked the last bits of life out of the body and restored himself. He then walked into the middle of the arena and sent a blast of green energy into the air, which I recognized from the door of the ruins. I held the ring out towards the cloud of energy and it was sucked into the globe of glass. It glowed faintly, and then faded. I looked down at the Khajiit, who was staring at me and grinning. No one else seemed to have noticed anything unusual, but I pocketed the ring and slipped out of the coliseum, disgusted at the whole affair. I didn’t know what was worse, to see that horrible spectacle, or to have to meet the creature who had caused it…