A Warrior's Redemption (The Warrior Kind)

It was the festival of the moon goddess, which was the patron god of the city of Carsea. Games of extravagant proportions had been planned for the festival. All six of the Zoarinian governors of the Rings of Hath were going to be in attendance.

This was a rare occasion, within the empire and it would require only the finest in amusement offerings. Our handlers taunted us in glee over the special ordeal that would be faced by us fighters in the arena the next day. The spectacle was supposedly to be well beyond the usual by all accounts. The fighters from the city of Rauin were to be the first to face this new height in crowd amusement offerings.

The night passed, as all nights did before a fight, it either went by to quickly or passed by to slowly. It had been raining softly, as I had looked through the bars of the door that opened out into the great arena.

The fighters from Rauin numbering a little over forty in number, stood expectantly in the middle of the arena as rain dripped off their helmets making moisture trails down their armor clad bodies. The rain would have normally put a damper on the crowd's mood, but not today. They had been promised something special today and they were eager for it to begin.

The noise of the crowd was suddenly drowned out by the enraged, crazed screams of an animal I had only heard of, but never seen before then. The big doors at the other end of the arena had been shoved open suddenly and three large bull elephants, from the southern lands of Kharta rushed into the arena. Angered and driven mad with rage, by their handlers who had poked at them with spears they looked around feverishly in search of something to take their rageful aggression out on. Unfortunately the only prey available was the men of Rauin.

Grimly, I had watched as each man was chased down, by the enraged beasts one after the other. The elephant's were inconsolable with rage and wanted to kill anything that walked on two legs, because of their mistreatment by their handlers. I had continued to watch the spectacle even as the other fighters with me had turned away from the horror of it knowing that soon enough it would be them out there.

Some fighters were crushed under the heavy feet of the beasts, while others were caught by the swinging tusks and thrown across the arena to crash with deadening force into the high walls of the arena. The men of Rauin were soon trodden down to a bloody pulp. Unsated in their bloodlust the crowd had cried out all the more for even more of this new level of violent entertainment. Which I would make them regret, because in their thirst to see our blood spilled I had seen the greatest opportunity for a mass escape that had ever presented itself before to us, not to mention the perfect diversion that would be needed to successfully escape.