War God for Hire- Gladiator by David Burke (books under 200 pages .TXT) 📕

Kyle could feel his body already starting to heal itself, but then there was a sound like a thunderclap overhead.

His vision was fuzzy, so it was hard to say for sure, but it seemed like some of the mages above had fallen and the dome over the top was gone. When he looked for where Lash was, he saw a great hole in space torn open in the center of the arena and nightmarish creatures poured out of it.

First lizard men with black and green scales came rushing out in two columns. Their bodies were all jagged edges, with spikey shoulders, elbows, and legs bent back on themselves. He almost couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Behind them came a monstrosity that crawled out and then stood up on three long legs. Its body looked like an orb that was ten feet across with eight tentacles waving around on the top of the boney sphere. Its front was entirely filled with a single large eye and a maw filled with razor sharp teeth.

It cried out in a deep guttural voice, “Kill them, my children. Sow the seeds of chaos.”

Chapter 28 - Interruption

Kyle saw the monstrosity, and something stirred within him. He felt a deep-seated hatred, more raw than anything he had ever felt. It was as though the very sight of this creature that he had never seen before caused him to feel such anger. A single word entered his head, “Aekor.” Part of him realized that it must be related to Krig, but he also realized he didn’t have time to get caught up thinking about that.

His hands were still healing as he lay slumped against the wall in a mound of the broken earth that had made up his earthen armor. His back hurt, but thankfully the armor skill had absorbed a good deal of the impact. Kyle looked out over the arena and saw more than a hundred of the lizard creatures all running out of the rift. Groups of them were charging for the seats.

As he looked closer, he realized that the lizard creatures didn’t actually have heads but a singular tentacle-like stalk rising up from where their neck would have been. The creatures moved with an ominous silence. They were all covered in scales and were armed with jagged sawtooth swords.

The audience began to scream and stampede out. Guards came running out of the tunnels to engage the monsters but there was only a couple dozen of the defenders. Three mages from the top level of the coliseum jumped into the air and were descending on currents of air. Everywhere he looked, there were so many moving parts. Chaos was the name of the game.

A quick glance at the section where the nobles were revealed a more organized retreat as their bodyguards began pushing the rest of the crowd out of the way to allow their patrons to escape. It was just more proof of how despicable the nobles were but, again, nothing that he needed to focus on.

Hilde’s voice came through in his head, “Those creatures are called glytharen. They were exceedingly rare above ground before the cataclysm. Careful with them. Each is proficient in a single type of essence and can project it out of their tentacles.”

Kyle asked, “What about the giant eyeball on legs?”

“I don’t really know. I think I read some legends about creatures like that but don’t remember the source. I do know that I’ve never seen or talked to anyone about such a monster,” Hilde replied.

“I’m going to go make sure that the other fighters are safe. I don’t really care about any of these people here other than them and, of course, Nyda. Oh, and I guess Saber is okay too.”

“Are your hands up to it?”

“All my bones seem to be healed, so time to get at it,” Kyle said as he started to run for one of the tunnels. The other fighters and slaves were probably down below.

Behind him he heard, “Where are you going?”

Lash was there. In one hand, she had her whip, and in her other a gladius. Kyle just looked at her and said, “I’m not here to save these people.”

“Neither am I, but how can you leave before our fight is over? Don’t you even know anything about who you are pretending to be?” Her rage was evident on her face.

Stopping to answer Lash left Kyle out in the middle of the arena instead of slumped against the wall. That got him the attention of the glytharen. Four of them came running at him. Lash struck with her whip and tripped up the first of the monsters. Then she slid forward and chopped through the arm of one of the others. From there she was locked into a sword battle with two of the monsters. They moved fast, but not nearly as well as her. Still, there were two of them.

The one that she had disarmed was on the ground with green blood gushing out of its severed arm. Its stalk stiffened and a small eyeball extended from the end of the tentacle. A green blast of energy shot out and struck Lash, sending her flying backwards. The one that she had tripped up managed to make it back to its feet and now she was being rushed by three of them.

Kyle acted without hesitation. It felt natural to go to her aid, so he charged right at them. Weaponless, the only real tactic that he had was to tackle them. Shoulder down, he bore into the first of the creatures and pushed it into the second, sending them both sprawling to the ground. His forward moment sent him into the final monster.

It turned to face him but because it had been running, that caused it to stumble. The monster turned, trying to swing its sword, but missed. Meanwhile, Kyle slammed his head down into a headbutt. The fin blade along the top of his helm cut deeply into its tentacle