The Gathering

Chapter Thirty

Chris POV

In the morning, we were awoken once again and allowed into the common space inbetween all of our cages. Slowly, I walked to Adrian and hugged her. "You ready?" I whispered. 

Adrian held the hug longer than necessary, but she nodded as she detached. I could see tears forming in the corner of her eyes and she truly was scared now. I had to admit, I was a little scared too. I think anybody would be scared in our place.

"So what's the plan?" Westley asked, joining the two of us. 

"Pray to the gods that everything that was there yesterday still is and that these guys are a lot dumber than they seem" I said, not entire joking. We really didnt have much a plan, but we had to do something.

As we returned to each other and wished luck to each, the doors opened and we were all herded into the next room. In there the weapons and armor for all of todays battles were set against the far wall. Thankfully, just what we needed was set right on top, just waiting for us to pick it up.

Adrian hastily began to construct the bomb while the rest of us suited ourselves with gear to fight. We would have to fight for at least a little time, and I wanted to make sure all six of us would make it through this.

Westley and I fit the armor to each other, steel cold on our bare skin. I picked a long broadsword from the rack and Westley chose two daggers.Once we were all ready, we stood in front of the metal doors awaiting its opening and the beginning of our fight. We could hear the rumbling of the crowd and their loud raucous cheers as Wick got them ready for all of todays events. 

When the door opened, the eight of us poured out, cheereed on by wishes of good luck by those who knew our plans. We stood in a wide and expanive circular arena that was cut into the ground with the audience sitting above us. Wick sat in an encased booth to our right and watched amused as we took in our surroundings and the dangers that we were about to face. 

The layout itself was deadly, with two narrow bridges that spanned the two sides of the arena over a rushing river. There was a land bridge in the middle but it was only wide enough for two people to cross at a time. There were sharp rocks along the river bed on either side of the earth bridge that poked the surface of the roaring water, so if we fell we were certainly dead. The bridges were anything but safe as i noticed they shook with the gust that the roaring crowd made. The one advantage of this arena was that we only had to survive for a short while so if we cut the bridges we should easily be able to fend off whatever attackers Wick sends at us on the earth bridge.

When my eyes finally made it to the door that our opposers would be coming out of, I had to say I was epecting a group of Hephaestus' best children, but only a single man emerged, but what a man he was. He stood as tall as the door from where he came, and wore nothing but the stains of oil upon his cargo pants, showing off his bronze, sculpted chest and bulging arms. He wore a long brown mechanical looking sword at his hip and already wielded a broadaxe in his hands, that stood as tall as him. His sword and broadaxe,though, weren't his only weapons I now noticed. Coming to settle on his shoulder was a large, beatifully plumed, phoenix and a mechanical russell terrier rested at his feet.

"This is my champion Dunstan. Dunstan, these eight have come here to benefit in the thrill of the fight, and I thought it would be best for them to get theor first impression from you. For now, we will fight until one of you is dead, or you eight manage to kill Dunstan. Although I highly doubt that possibilty" Wick announced.

Dunstan bellowed heartily and deeply, his laugh reverberating around the entire arena, "Yes i would enjoy breaking in these newbies. I think this will be quite a treat". I have to say, I was fairly frightened by his demeaning manner, but I hoped our plan worked out and none of us had to die here. 

"Without further ado, let today's events begin!" Wick yelled to the sky, causing an uproar of the gathered crowd.