1 The arena

I am ghoul last of my kind, well last of the sane, I am different from my kind I was the only one immune to the disease that caused us to devolve into mindless murder machines that only know voilence. I was young when it happened, we were working for a rich family helping to build some walls to keep intruders out, my parents were acting strange, twitching, drooling, then growling, soon after that they ran towards the family which once they got to then... I rather not say what I saw all I can say is they died painfully, seeing this a ran into the forest where I lived alone for many years. I was eventually captured and brought to a arena to fight for the amusement of others. I befriended a orc named tusk, he was big with scares around his body with one of his two tusk missing,his hair reached his neck it was black in color and very dry looking, we shared a cell together, he would tell me stories of his previous fights and taught me to fight as he prefer using his fist and showed me how to properly take advantage of my claws, he gave me hope telling me to look for the light in any situation and to never give up. We would fight together when the chance was given but alot of the time we fought alone. Time was drawing for me to be put on the platform and raised into the arena unsure what would be awaiting me, I be lieing if I didn't say I was nervous, you never know what or who you would be fighting. I remember when I first got here I was thrown in with a pack of the infected ghouls we were gonna be the opening show for the champion to kill. I knew it was either kill him or let him kill me there would be no sparing, the sunlight hurt my eyes at first as our platform was raised and the door on our cage was unlocked and then I saw him his armor made of silver with a golden loin in the middle of his chest, his hair was long and white reaching to the middle of his back, he was alittle taller than other humans, he held a giant sword which was sat tip first into the ground as he basked in the cheers of the crowd, he laughed as he looked at us saying "is this all you have for the champion" his tone was beyond cocky and smug, it pissed me off somewhat hearing it. The tension was rising as the other ghouls rammed into the cage door wanting to rip him apart and eat him but the platform wasn't fully up, he picked up his blade using both hands readying himself as the platform finished and the ghouls rushed at him there were 10 including me, the first 3 were cleaved in half from one swing blood splatting onto his armor as there intestines were flung onto each other, one leaped at him attempting to grapple him but was met with his hand around his throat, the ghoul clawed at his arm but the armor was to thick for his claws. He threw the ghoul to the ground before it could collect itself he slammed his foot down on its skull the weight of the armor combined with his strength caved in the its skull killing it, I was slowly moving to get behind him as he began showing off taking his time to kill the others throwing them, pinning them under his foot. I waited for my time as he seemed to forget about me thinking he already had killed me, the crowd thought it was part of his show so no one said yelled anything. He threw the last one to the ground raising his blade into the air and slamming it down into the ghouls chest, I took my chance in what seemed like a instant I grabbed his hair pulling his head back then slamming my claws into his throat. I watched his eyes widen as he tried to grab my hands but to no use as his blood slowly ran down his body, my claws ran along the whole of his windpipe, his body slowly weakened as I felt his windpipe trying to draw in air. I decided to end this now in a brutal fashion, I ripped half of his throat out starting from his windpipe. The crowd went silent as his body laid lifeless on the ground with me holding half of his throat looking at them with a expression that was blank, what did they expect me to do. I was soon rushed by men with spears forcing me into the cage as it lowered again, hours past as they talked about what to do with me, I sat my back against the cage watching the rats run by before the leader of the arena approached my case taking note of my lack of aggression. "so your the one that killed my champion, am I correct?" I only looked up staring into his eyes which showed no compassion, he was a fat glutton with a short beard, bright cloths and a pouch of gold to his side, "I see you understand me or atleast acknowledge I'm talking to you" he smiled with his yellow teeth "I'll tell you what give me a good show and make me good money and I'll treat you good, as a show of good faith I'll give you a cell with another fighter so you don't get lonely" he looked at a guard that was nearby, he opened my cage as more arrived to escort me to the cell with tusk, I didn't fight as I was outnumbered and to weak to take them all on and live. "this is tusk your new cell mate, tusk this is....huh never got a name for you" he looked puzzled before saying "I guess we'll call you ghoul until I think of something better or you show us something" I walked to the opposite side of the cell as they locked the door behind me. We only stared at each other unsure of the other before tusk said is a rough sounding voice "you talk?" I responded "I can I just choose not to often" his face was shocked as he didn't know my kind could talk, he was off put by my deep nearly demonic sounding voice "that's some voice you got there buddy" tusk said "yeah I get that alot part of the reason I don't talk much" I responded. Tusk looked at be, his body relaxed some "so what's the other?" reason he asked with a slight chuckle, I responded "eh don't feel like talking much as there's nothing to really say" I shrugged as I said it. We sat there for a moment both of us lowering are guard of the other. "what is this place?" I asked, "a arena where we are forced to fight for the enjoyment of those bastards" tusk responded, he added after a pause "I have been here for what feels like years, it's hard to track any form of time here" we sat in silence for a few minutes neither was sure what to say to the other. Tusk broke the silence "your different from what I have seen of your kind" I waited a few seconds before saying "I guess I'm immune to whatever happened to my kind, I'm not sure if I should consider it a curse or blessing" tusk looked at him with a confused face "why a curse shouldn't you be happy that your immune to it" I sighed remembering what happened to my family "from what I lost and the life it gave me I wonder if I should be great full, I'm only looked at as a monster not like before where we were viewed as equals" tusk looked at the ground taking it in "I know how you feel, us orcs after what happened to your kind were put into enslavement or killed as they didn't want to risk us turning into what your kind turned into". There was a feeling of guilt inside me "I'm sorry for what happened" tusk responded with confusion in his voice "why are you sorry for something out of your control, look I don't blame you for something you couldn't control that no one knew about until it was to late, I don't blame you for that, most of my tribe didn't" I looked up at him "tribe, I thought you said orcs were killed or captured?". Tusk chuckled "not all orc's were captured you just got to know where to hide and how to use interesting tactics". I took in what he said as we both heard the sound of guards coming, they stoped infront of our cell "hey you two are up" he said his voice was course as they opened the cage us getting up walking with the guards two infront two behind us with spears pointed at our backs. We reached a platform one of the guards pulled a lever and we began raising to the arena I looked at tusk uncertain about how to feel, he looked back at me reassuring "don't worry we'll be fine I have fought alot and judging by the fact your alive, I got your back if you have mine buddy". As the platform got closer to the surface we could hear the crowd cheering quite at first getting louder the further up we went. I could see the sunlight against one of the walls and that's when we heard screaming with the sound of flesh ripping, my breathing became heavy as I could feel the fear rising but I forced it down, fear will only get me killed. Once we could see what was causing the screaming, it was a big creature covered in fur that color was a mix of white and grey, it stood on two legs that looked like big muscular dog legs, it's upper half looked like that of a man with what I made out to be scars around it's upper half specifically on the back and sides, the arms were big with blood stains on its claws and fur around it's hands, the head was that of a wolf with big sharp fangs blood dripping off it's mouth as it was eating one of the slaves that was sent to fight it with more dead around it, my heart was beating fast as I saw out the corner of my eye tusk readying himself taking deep breaths before it noticed us, once it did it let out a loud roar trying to intimated us, I stepped back but tusk stood strong as it rushed towards us, tusk ran to meet it the two clashing into each other.They both grabbed onto each other trying to overpower the other, tush had his hands near it's collar bone to keep it from biting him as it snapped his mouth at him. I watched in a trace like state but I snapped out of it running to help tusk slashing it's side with my claws as I ran to get behind it to start clawing it's back, it couldn't attack me without tusk being able to slam it to the ground letting out a growl in pain but tusk lost his trip and was shoved to the ground by it, in a near instant it slammed the back of it's hand into my face sending me to the ground my back facing it. I tried to turn to face it but only got to my side before it was ontop of me going to bite down on my neck but I moved my arm to intercept it, the sharp pain I felt as it tried to tear into my arm tusk put it in a choke hold trying to pull it off but it's grip was to strong. I slammed one of my claws into it's eye, forcing it to let go of my arm as tusk and it fell back tusk keeping it in a head lock as it clawed and slammed it's elbows into him, I jumped ontop of it and start to deliver a flurry of blows onto the creature beating it while tusk kept it's head pinned choking it, after a minute it stoped moving and struggling. Me and tusk had cuts on us from it as we were taken back to our cell, taking deep breaths of relief that we had won "thanks for saving me" I said to tusk looking up at the ceiling "eh don't mention it I had no plans on leaving you for dead if I could do something, you didn't.do to bad for your second fight against something smarter than a bag of rocks" tusk laughed at the end of what he said as trays of food were slid into the cell, the food didn't look good but I liked meat and we both ate talking to each other, cracking jokes and tusk giving me a few pointers on how to better refine my fighting "look later after we get some time to heal I'll show you a few things I know" he said "I would appreciate that tusk" I responded. The night came quickly as we talked about our life's and what things were like before what happened to my kind, our friendship began that day and only grew to the point we viewed each other as family and he had taught me to alternate between punching and clawing and to aim for other areas of the body instead of just vital points as not to be predictable against smarter opponents. Time had passed and we had become crowd favorites and after our last fight tusk shared his plan on how we were going to escape from this place and get to his village, he had been planning this for years but needed someone else to make sure he could pull this off and that someone was me. The plan was when we were being transported to our next fight we would take on the guards, they're would be less as the leader of this thought we had began to like the fighting and the crowd adoring us. The time had come and we were ready, the guards showed up there were only three and we got up and as we walked tusk gave me a nod and we sprung into action, tusk grabbed the one infront of us and turned grabbing the other twos spears breaking off the heads before they could react to tusk, they back off going for they're swords while tusk choked out the first guard as I slammed my claws into the other twos throats as they had drawn they're swords, I watched the life's in they're eyes drain as they slowly went limp, I wasn't sure if they died from suffocation or from shock but they were dead as I heard a loud snap, tusk had broken the other guard neck. We made our way back grabbing the guard keys and letting the other prisoners out, with they prisoners we all made a break for the gate which had began to close, they figured out we were trying to escape and intended to trap and either recapture us or kill us. Me and tusk were leading the group and as the gate nearly shut we both grabbed it and slowly lifted it up for the others to escape, the gate was heavy as it was large and made of iron, we also had to be careful as the large spikes at the bottom would easily peirce our skin if we slipped up, we were sweating so much I thought we lose our grip and be cut in half or crushed. The last prisoners got out and we position our selfs on the other side, letting go and began running away as guards rushed to the gate, we only made it 6 feet before tusk had been shot in the back of the knee with a arrow and fell. I heard this and was left with the decision, leave tusk for dead or help him, tusk yelled to me "go one of us should make it out. I'll only slow you down!" I wasn't gonna let him die here, he didn't deserve this kind of death and he saved my life in the arena so I rushed picking him up and putting his over my back running into the forest as the fired at us but the trees gave us cover. "why did you come back to save me you could of been killed." I replied "I could save the same as you saved me in the arena, I atleast owed you this also you know the way to your tribe and I'm not lazy to hunt it down on my own, and I grew to like your company" he smiled with a chuckle "not sure on the last part of that but thanks for that, knew there was something more about you then you led on". "and that would be?" I qestoind "you have a good heart" he said "what makes you think I'm good?" I asked in reply to hearing this "you could of left me for dead I even gave you permission to, yet you came back and are currently carrying me to safety." he said pating my head "don't get soft on me now" we both laughed as we made our way to tusk tribe, he knew the way and gave me direction to said tribe knowing we would get spotted by a scout party and be safe once this happened, It's weird I never thought I would have a friend as a ghoul, the feeling is nice and I hope to make more.