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Chapter 4 - The arena

When he awoke, he found himself bound. He was trapped in a metal cage. He looked around the cage. It was dark inside the room, with only a few flickering amber torches illuminating his gaze. But he could make out various beasts around him, much larger and vicious looking than any he had seen in the forest. He could also see many other beings all around him outside of the cage using his left eye, its all-encompassing gaze able to peer through the darkness and make out the life force of all in the room. He could see many other cages similar to his own, and they all contained humanoids or beasts. However, none of the cages possessed two being in a cage together. The humanoids and beasts were all separated by bars between them.

The room itself was warm. Very warm. Each body in the cages produced heat - and the room was not ventilated. And the beast's fur was suffocating, like a binding.

The beast began to panic. He was unfamiliar with such an environment, and the darkness surrounded him not like a blanket of security that the darkness in the cave had offered - but as a blanket of despair and blindness.

The beast did not fall asleep that night. His mind was awry. Why was the world all of a sudden so horrible? The forest he had lived in was not. And there was so much of that forest for all to live in. Why would someone want to put him here? He did not understand the hatred of others nor why he had lost in his attack. His mind was still as innocent as a child, and his views were underdeveloped. Despite his barbaric actions, he could not look upon the world with certainty yet.

After a long time, the beast observed a group of men walking towards him behind the stone wall of his room. They hooked his cage up with contraptions of metal and began to drag it through the chamber. It made a horrible screeching noise, as the metal was dragged along the brick. The men who dragged him lacked clothes, and were large and scarred - their bodies sculpted and rough.

Then, the men stopped, and as gates opened, light flowing freely once again onto the beast's body, so did the cage. The gridded wall was unlocked on hinges, and it slammed onto the gravel. The beast took a step out. Noise filled his ears. All around him were humans, yelling phrases and words he did not understand. They sat upon stands of sand brick, wore colourful clothing, and excitedly gazed upon the beast. A man who stood upon a stand taller than the other humans yelled out again in a language that the Beast did not understand - chanting and riling up the crowd. The gates opposite him, similar to the ones that had opened for him just a few seconds earlier, opened up, revealing an animal in the cage.

The animal was bipedal, similar to a human. But its skin was marred with fur, and it was much larger than the human. It was not larger than the beast, though. The creature charged forward, crawling on its arms with startling speed. But the Beast was not fooled by such speed. He could predict it with ease with his eyes. He swiftly moved away from the creature's charge. And while it had not lost momentum, he brought his foot up, his shin smashing into the side of its head. And the creature fell, its skull crushed. The crowd roared.

The beast, as he always did with his kills - he could not let a meal go to waste after all, knelt beside the creature and began to feast on it. The sound of the crowd was much too quiet to dilute the creature's taste, even as they got louder as he ate. It was not enough for him not to savour the taste on his tongue. His kill. His win.

The loud man on the taller platform continued to speak loudly. And the Beast did not get to finish feasting as he felt something pierce his back, and he fell unconscious. 

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