Chapter Thirty The Big Show #2
But this was not just any fight.
This was the arena where lives were ended, where survival was everything, and where trust was the only weapon more powerful than the blade.
Nox would not fail her. Not for anything.
Adan's lips curled into a faint, savage grin as her gaze flicked towards the high balconies. Darius had made a mistake when he thought he could break Adan. He'd underestimated her, underestimated both of them.
Nox was already in motion, his body a blur of strength and speed. A spear already in hand before locking eyes with the first gladiator who dared to approach.
Adan didn't hesitate. Her own opponent, painted in gold, stepped into the ring like he'd already won. She welcomed the arrogance. It made him slow.
He rushed her with a double-edged blade, but Adan pivoted, letting his momentum carry him past her. She sliced a dagger across his side—splitting him wide. His dropped like a ton of bricks.
The crowd screamed for blood. They wanted carnage, betrayal, the lovers turned enemies.
Behind her, Nox drove a spear in the head of a man painted blue, snarling down at him.
A cry had Adan whipping her head around to spot the gold covered female with fire red hair charging for her.
Adan barely had time to shift her stance, raising her blade just in time to meet the slash of the red-haired woman's. Sparks flew as steel met steel, the impact reverberating up her arm. The gold-painted female didn't pause—she was fast, wild, her strikes fuelled by desperation rather than skill.
Adan danced backward, letting the fury of the woman's blows rain down, parrying each one with precision.
Blood sprayed as her arm caught a shallow cut, but she didn't flinch.
She stepped inside the next strike, elbowed the woman in the throat, and slammed her dagger to the hilt into her jaw.
The woman dropped to a knee, gasping. Adan hesitated only a fraction of a second before ripping her knife free and the gold woman dropped into a pool of her own blood.
Across the ring, Nox turned just in time to see the black-painted male flanking Adan from behind.
"Behind you!" Nox's voice ripped through the chaos. Nox moved, his spear shooting through the air. It landed square in the man's back.
The blue and white females had dropped in the chaos, and only the black female and white male are left.
The chaos thinned, but the tension sharpened.
Adan's chest rose and fell in short bursts, her bloodied blade still clenched in her hand. The crowd's roar pulsed like a living thing, feeding off every drop of blood spilled in the sand, every heartbeat stretched too long. It was bloodlust, pure and unrelenting.
Only two others remained now.
The female painted in black stood at the far edge of the arena, dark eyes calculating. Her paint was streaked with blood—some of it hers, most of it not. She held twin daggers with the comfort of someone born to them, her posture low and fluid like a predator waiting for her moment.
The male painted in white hovered near her but didn't seem bound to her by any loyalty. He was breathing hard, his shoulder slashed open and leaking red through the pale fabric of his tunic. His eyes kept flicking between Adan and Nox, and the girl near him.
No alliances. No friends. Just survival.
Nox made his way toward Adan, keeping the other two fighters in front of them, never giving them their backs.
He pulled the spear from the males back and moved beside her until their arms touched.
She didn't need to look at him to know he was watching everything—calculating every movement, every breath.
"The white one's bleeding out," he said quietly. "The black one's waiting to see who takes the next swing."
A sudden hush fell over the crowd like someone had pulled the air out of the arena.
The gate at the far end opened.
Adan and Nox tensed.
A horn blared, deep and slow. A sound that didn't mean victory.
It meant escalation.
The crowd roared again—this time louder. Frenzied.
The sand opened up at their feet. Adan and Nox dodged and rolled to stop from being swallowed up. Adan managed to grab a dagger off the dead female nearby before her body slipped into the hole below.
The crowd went wild when two massive chimeras burst free on chains from the holes, and Adan shuffled back on her hands.
Shock laced her face as she took in the creature.
These chimeras were forced to stay in animal form.
The long forced shift had made them insane, she could see it in their eyes.
Their eyes glowing orange and fur like scorched coal, stalked into the arena.
Their teeth dripped with anticipation, their leashes trailing behind them.
The chimera snarled—sound tearing from their throats like metal against bone. One locked its glowing orange eyes on Adan, the other on Nox, but their madness had no reason, no direction. They were a weapon sharpened only for destruction.
Across the pit, the white male bolted, and the second chimera lunged and snapping its lion's head.
Adan thought that the male had dodged the animal's maw, when its snake tale shot out and sunk in his fangs.
The crunch could be heard of the screaming of the crowd.
The chimera shook its snake-tail loose, the body landing with a heavy thud in the blood-streaked sand.
And above them, Darius sat in his gilded box, a cruel smile playing across his mouth, wine in hand, watching the chaos unfold like it was a puppet show made for his pleasure.
Adan's fingers curled tighter around her blade.
The creature nearest her—its lion's head dripping saliva, its goat-head snarling in frustration—dragged its chains across the ground, gouging long lines into the sand.
The black-painted female, clever as ever, was keeping low, moving sideways, putting distance between herself and the chimera that had just killed her would-be partner.
Beside her, Nox shifted his stance, spear angled low. "We keep it between us," he muttered, reading her tension. "Split its attention."
"And then what?" she whispered back, blade flashing with sweat and blood. "We kill it while it tries to decide which one of us it wants to eat first?"
A humorless grin ghosted across his face. "Exactly."
The first chimera snarled, chain clattering as it lunged again—this time for Nox. He dove sideways, rolling through the dust, and came up fast, slashing the spear across the beast's flank. It screamed, staggering sideways as its wings—too twisted and malformed to lift it—flared wide in rage.
Adan took the opening. She launched herself forward, ducked beneath the goat's horned head, and drove her blade into the lion's throat. It didn't kill it—not fully—but it hurt. The chimera roared and reared, claws raking the earth, throwing her backward with one sweep of its paw.
Pain exploded in her ribs, but she kept her grip on the dagger.
Across the arena, the second chimera had turned its attention to the black-painted woman.
Nox didn't hesitate. He threw his spear with all the force in his body—and the point struck true.
Straight through the goat's eye.
The chimera dropped, writhing, chains rattling as it began to die.
One down.
Adan panted as Nox helped her up, both of them turning as the woman screamed, impaled by goat-heads horns.
The scream pierced the arena like a blade through silence.
Adan's bloodied hands clenched as she watched the black-painted woman lifted off her feet, impaled through the abdomen on the chimera's horns.
Her body writhed, her daggers slipping from her fingers and clattering to the sand.
For a heartbeat, she held on—eyes wide, mouth gasping—but the beast shook her like a rag doll.
Then it flung her.
She hit the ground in a heap, unmoving.
The crowd erupted, wild and thunderous, as if the violence were wine to their thirst, their euphoria a storm of stomping feet and howling praise. Above it all, Darius leaned forward, his grin carved deep and pleased, eyes gleaming with a sadist's delight.
Adan's stomach twisted, but there was no time to mourn.
The final chimera turned back to them.
Its lion-head bled from the throat, frothing at the mouth, and its massive body heaved with fury. One eye was clouded with pain, the other locked on Adan and Nox.
Nox stepped in front of her. "We finish this."
Adan spat blood from her mouth, stepped to his side. "Together."
The chimera roared and charged, chains flaring out behind it like a hellhound unbound. Nox dove left, Adan right—splitting its attention again. The beast pivoted toward her this time, claws carving deep ruts in the sand, too fast for something so massive.
Adan dropped low, sliding beneath its body as it lunged, slicing deep along its underbelly as she passed. Blood poured like a storm, red and steaming.
The chimera collapsed with a quake that silenced even the crowd for half a breath.
Dust settled.
Blood soaked the sand.
Adan met Nox's eyes across the stillness, both of them heaving, shaking—but alive.
The only ones left.
The silence didn't last.
The crowd exploded into cheers, deafening now, stamping, screaming, demanding. Not for blood. Not now.
For victors.
Above them, Darius stood, his hands raised to quiet the people, his gaze fixed on Adan and Nox.
His smile was slow. Cold. Calculating.
His arm outstretched in a fist, and his thumb extended.
Live! Live! Live! The mob cried, forcing Darius's hand.
Darius's smile didn't falter, even as his eyes narrowed slightly, annoyed that the choice was no longer solely his to make. His outstretched fist hovered for a breath, then—
His thumb turned upward.
A thunderous roar tore from the crowd.