The blunted blade

"Fuck." He whispered to himself while he looked from the left of the crowd to the right, they were all cheering and yelling. He looked across the arena while hearing the gate he had come through slowly closing behind him. Maybe its not too late to run for it he thought but how far would he really get and once the enforcers had caught up to him they would probably force him back into the arena without the rounded shield and sword he held in his hands.

Now that he was facing the imminent possibility of a painful death he began to reconsider the logic behind the choice of risking his life for some gold that would enable a few extra days of drunken stupor at the tavern.

He stared towards the gate on the other side of the arena and wondered what type of creature he would have to face, if he was lucky then they would underestimate his ability and perhaps simply send a goblin his way. He had made a name for himself in the town already as a drunk so he couldn't imagine the overseer of arena battles to waste too much effort on his behalf.

The trumpet signaling the start of battle sounded and slowly the noise of the crowd fell silent as the announcer began his speech.

"Today!" He was a fat short man in colorful clothing with a large moustache that pointed far left and right. "For our first battle!" He sure was taking his time to announce things, must be one of those types that loves his job. "We will have this brave man by the name of Leod..."

Leod started daydreaming about what he would do after he won the battle, the gold once he survived would be enough to go to one of the better taverns, where the serving maidens actually seemed less like men in dresses and like actual women.

By the time Leod stopped floating in his fantasy he realised the announcer had stopped talking and the gate on the other side was slowly opening. The crowd was still silent, what had the announcer said wondered Leod, normally the crowd would be back to its usual yelling and cheering.

As a roar echoed out of the opening gate, Leod knew exactly what had made that sound. "Fuck me with a trident, that rat fuck overseer." Of course the idea of fighting in the arena hadn't come to him through his own mind but through the alluring whispers of a certain bastard who held the title overseer of the arena. "Oh its so easy, you go into the arena and you simply slay a dumb beast in exchange for fame and gold." Leod mimicked the overseer's voice with an extended pronounciation on the word easy.

It stepped out through the gate and it snarled as saliva dripped out of the hinges of its large mouth.

"A nightmare beast, of course." Leod said to himself while he looked quickly up at the crowd, scanning for that rat bastard who had pitted him against death itself. Leod knew that scumbag had to be up there somewhere in the crowd but even if he found him he wouldn't be able to do anything now. He held the shield near to him and the sword pointed towards his enemy.

The nightmare beast resembled a dog in its structure but had the size of a carriage, its paws had claws that would either impale Leod or tear open his gut with minimal effort. Its mouth stretched far from one side to the other of its face with jagged teeth exposed. Its tail was as thick as Leod and twice as long, wifting in the air. Its fur was dark as night and almost as dark as the heart of Leod when people in his homeland had called him the walking graveyard.

The beast lowered its pose and its tail wifted from one side of the ground to the other, making a hard thick noise bounce off the walls surrounding it and Leod, suddenly the noise stopped and the beast had begun to sprint towards Leod with its terrifying mouth open, saliva flew backwards out of its mouth and bloodlust shined from its grey empty eyes.