A CROWN OF DIAMONDS AND DEATH

6. A Game of Survivial

"You nearly knocked that thing off its hinges."

At the sound of Sweet T's voice, Rebel immediately paused her training. She steadied the punching bag, ripped off her workout gloves, and took a swig from her water bottle.

After a few chugs of water, she went over to her promoter. "What do you have for me?" She peered down at the paper that Sweet T had in his hands. It was a map of the prison's stadium where fights took place. On the right-hand side, there were also new rules and regulations in place. To say that there were more than a few modifications than she expected would be an understatement.

For starters, usually, no weapons would be allowed in the fight. It was strictly body contact fighting.

You could use any type of MMA style. Although, if an opponent tapped out, the fight automatically concluded, and the winner was announced.

If the KO'ed fighter had previous winnings, all of their winnings were transferred to the victor.

As for the stadium itself, it had seen better days, and could surely use some touch-ups, but it did its job. Cameras were covering all angles of the arena. If you dropped more gold pieces than the 50,0000 dubualts entrance fee, you got seated in the high boxes.

There was an all-access bar on the side, plush seating, and servers passing with snacks. Some of the men and women from the pleasure houses in the downtown part of the city also frequented the rows, hoping to offer an elite "a good time" later that night for a hefty fee. Dealers from the city gangs were also known to be present amongst the audience at fights to sell their products.

All of it was seedy business, but the fights guaranteed big profits for the prison. Friday nights were fight nights in which the downtown section of the capital city of Sangrea let loose.

But all of these new terms for the upcoming fight were mind-blowing.

"Weapons are allowed but won't be given before the fight. Plus, they're updating the stadium, rearranging the arena into a new configuration, new seats, and 360-degree camera coverage of the arena, and creating an artificial forest based on the Elmhurst Woods's design." Rebel glanced over her shoulder at her promoter, confused by all the sudden changes. "I don't understand."

"Well, you'll be fighting Emmett in a fake forest, right?"

There was a lull in the conversation before she uttered a hesitant, "Right."

"And if weapons are allowed. Then they'll let you use the forest's environment to craft a spear and other primitive tools." Rebel's eyebrows drew together, still lost.

Sweet T sighed softly. "Essentially, they are setting aside the opening twenty minutes of the match for you two to make your weapons. After that, safety is officially called off, and you guys are permitted to hunt one another down." The promoter's lips drew into a grim line before adding, in glum tones, "What they want to see is you guys fighting for survival until one eventually falls." His voice broke on the final word of the sentence, looking down at his heel digging into the pavement ground.

So it would be to the death. They wanted her and Emmett to fight to the death. Sangrea's upper class was tired of the more tamed prison matches where one prisoner walked away a winner and the other a loser who was knocked out at worst. Now, they wanted to see blood spilled.

"Seems like they want to replicate the Hunger Games. They couldn't even be original," she said with a dry scoff.

Sweet T didn't say anything in response but nodded his head.

To be fair, surprisingly, Sangrea's noble class had treated the lower class humans and supernaturals better in the past year.

This was in part due to the continent's new king. King Salvatore Mercier had rallied for peace between the humans and supernaturals and among the different class levels. He didn't want any brawls on the streets, didn't want break-ins or militant attacks. Salvatore wanted solidarity and hoped his reign would be able to create a new continent, especially the capital city of Sangrea. He envisioned a kingdom built on trust, unity, and pride. He wanted to re-invent a continent that had wanted to tear itself apart and didn't mind taking the reins to lead the change unlike the former king, King Cyrus who allowed the continent to descend to chaos.