As soon as the announcer like voice stopped talking the skeleton started walking towards me, thankfully it was slow and gave me enough time to collect myself and pull out my axe. I know that in a life or death fight a few seconds would mean just that but it seemed dungeon didn’t want a quick kill.

  If I remember right, fights like this are meant to be a spectator sport and the more harrowing the fight, the better the crowd feels.

  I had my pets wait and move to the sides so that I could have the skeletons sole focus and waited until it raised its sword over its skull before I lunged forward and swung up towards the connective bone between the arm and body. I knew this was a risk as it put me in the danger zone but it panned out thankfully and I was able to break it’s arm off and sword arm clattered to the ground.

  Suddenly I was distracted by a loud roaring of a crowd and applause that was just enough to give the skeleton time to shield slam into me and send me stumbling backwards but Shadow appeared and helped me back up to my feet, He turned and snarled before opening his mouth and shot out a blast of air that slammed into it. That seemed to be all it took as like a stack of cards on a windy day it collapsed to the ground.

  “Look at that ladies and Gentleman! The Farmer’s pet Beast has vanquished the scary skeleton! Applause for the victors as they rest and relax before they face their next challenge~~!”

  That voice echoes around again but this time it wasn’t rattling and from what it sounded like, I was correct when I thought that this all was more like I was being spectated by an audience in gladiator type fights. Which means that the fights will only get harder from here….. Dammit.

  I quickly looked over myself and moved my body around a bit to do a mental body check after that shield slam but everything felt fine, maybe a little sore around the stomach where the shield made contact but nothing life threatening. I opened the portal and pulled out some food for the pets but was suddenly shocked in fear as a bulbous plant head emerged from the portal.

  “Foo~~d… Please~~~~” It spoke in a garbled voice as a vine shot out of the portal and raced along the ground until it came to the bone pile. The vine split into multiple tendril like arms and wrapped around the biggest bone pieces before dragging them back through the portal.

  “Thank…. You….” It seemed to sigh in satisfaction before the head went back through and I closed the portal as a shiver of disgust? Fear? Both? Ran up my spine.

  “I really need to see just what those things are doing in there soon…. But either way, guys are you ready? I can feel something heavy in the air and my guts telling me our ‘rest’ is over.” Rhonda Kwehed as she stamped the ground and Boney sitting on top of her clacked his bony wings against his body in confirmation. I looked down at Shadow and he just ruffed at me and nodded.

  “Good, HEY ANNOUNCER! WE’RE READY FOR THE NEXT CHALLENGE!”

  “And We are back ladies and gentleman! Let’s hear for… The Farmer!!! In today’s challenge they will be pitted against a dangerous opponent every would be adventurer comes across. This group of dastardly creatures are known to live near roads and attack and plunder poor innocent merchants as they travel. Give a round of applause for… THE BANDITS!!!”

  6 magic circles appeared on the opposite side of the room and a concentration of a blue mist was drawn into the circles. The mist soon took on the appearance of humanoid like silhouettes before condensing even more, soon tan skin began to emerge that was covered in dirty black cloth and each one was holding either an axe or a sword. Each bandit stood at an easy 6 ft. and was covered in athletic muscle and held a look in their eyes that screamed greed and bloodlust.

  “Looks like we have been given another chance boys.” One of the bandits stepped forward and said, he then looked towards the sky and raised his sword and yelled which then prompted the rest of the bandits to do the same.

  These were not just some dungeon mob… These were sentient humans… Just what is this place?

  “Now that everyone is ready, LET THE FIGHT BEGIN!”

  “AHHHHH” the bandits yelled as they all ran towards us. Rhonda and Shadow ran to the sides in order to pincer while Boney had leapt off and stayed near my side. His blueish ghost flame filled eyes turned to a sickly green flame as he opened his beak and with a fwoosh, out came a wave of greenish flame towards the enemy. It looked like a pulsing living flame, but it wasn’t very strong as the bandit leader easily swiped downwards and from just the air pressure that followed, the wave of flamed was dispersed.

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  “Nice try Boney, do it one more time if you can.” I instructed as I held my axe at the ready. I seen as Rhonda and Shadow had already engaged and with a flying kick from Rhonda, she sent one of the other bandits flipping through the air as she blindsided him. The bandit slammed into a pillar with a sickening thud and red liquid splashed across the white marble floor as he sunk down to the ground. Shadow on the other hand lunged at another bandit and after using his huge cutter claw to practically shear off one of the guys arms, he latched onto the bandits throat and ripped it out.

  The bloody spectacle was met with roaring applause and hollers of excitement from the invisible crowd. But the Bandit leader just growled in anger as he tightened his grip on his sword and lunged at me as he once again swiped and dispersed Boneys flames.

  “I will kill you and devour your flesh!” His voice lowered until it become deep and demonic while his skin turned gray and cracked, from his shoulders erupted 2 vestigial wings that looked ripped and broken and his body grew up to 3 meters with sickening crunches and breaks. The other two remaining bandits did the same but their forms just turned into malnourished looking grey zombies.

  “OOPS, Did I forget to mention these bandits are from the infernal realms? My bad.” The announcer said with a chuckle and the invisible audience erupted in laughter. This time though when the laughter ended I started to see a faint outline of bluish ethereal like silhouettes of people in the rows of seats above us.

  “I thought this dungeon was ANGELIC!” I yelled but I couldn’t get a good look as I jumped back out of the way of a sword slash aimed at my neck. Boney jumped up into the demons face and spewed out green flames which distracted the demon long enough for me to take a swing and with a gut churning squelch, my axe bit into its arm but did not go in too deep before the demon roared in pain and jumped back as it’s broken wings flapped as if to start flying. My axe was still lodged in its arm when it landed but it quickly ripped It out and the flesh started to close together.

  The demon looked up at me and smiled as it cracked its neck and rolled its shoulders. “It’s gonna take a lot more than a normal axe like that to take me down boy.”

  My eyes opened wide as his arm was fully healed and my brain started scrambling for a way to fight back if my axe wasn’t going to work. I wasn’t used to using my internal energy or magic enough to try and use it outside my body and all I have left is…… Wait… I looked at Boney and got an idea before looking at how the others were doing.

  Rhonda and Shadow both were distracting the zombie bandits with Rhonda tossing her opponent around and Shadow cutting his opponents legs off before a hyena like laugh came out his mouth.

  “RHONDA, SHADOW, FINISH YOUR FIGHTS AND HELP ME!” I picked up Boney and ran towards the Demon as I focused on my inner energy that I kept flowing through my body and pushed it out of my hands and into Boney. Almost instantly Boney’s blue flames inside his skeleton grew brighter and covered his entire body, now instead of bones encasing the flame, it was the opposite.

  “Boney, use your flames again!” I pointed him towards the demon and boney opened his beak where all the flames seemed to flow towards and concentrate. Boney let loose a loud Kweh as a beam of blue flames flew towards the demon. Despite him swinging his sword to dissipate the flames like he did before, this time the flames wrapped around the sword and seemed to crawl along the blade until it reached the demon’s body, where it then spread like a blanket to cover him completely. The demon screamed in agony as smoke rose into the air while he tried to roll around on the ground to put it out.

  I looked down at Boney and smiled. “After this we really need to figure out just what you can do buddy.”

  Boney kwehed up at me but it was a weak and tired sounding one. I placed him down on the ground near a pillar to rest while I turned back to the still burning demon, To its credit, its vitality was amazing as it was still alive, but its screams had died out and the rolling was slowing down until eventually it stopped rolling and just laid there. By now the smell of burning flesh was thick in the air but it smelled like a combination of smoke and rotten eggs, I had to cover my nose to help breathe a bit better.

  “Boney can you do something about that fire? It’s making this whole place stink bad.” Boney just shook his head weakly.

  “It’s fine buddy, I get it so just keep resting.” I ran over and picked up my axe only to see that the other two bandits were already dead as well.

  “Let’s Gooooo! Ladies and gentlemen give a round of applause for the Farmer and his pets on their amazing victory!” A roar of applause and shouts of encouragement came from the now ghostly looking audience. I could see individual faces and clothes on the people but they all seemed to come from different eras. Like I saw Victorian era dresses next to what looked like somebody with an 80’s hairdo, The one that caught most of my attention was the now visible announcer that had the appearance of a game show host, complete with suit and mic.

  “As a reward for winning their second fight, they deserve a bit more than a slight break.” The announcer waved his hand and suddenly the smoke filled room cleared along with the bodies and gore. What took its place was tables of food and drinks and what looked like a bed off in a darkish corner. Shadow and Rhonda ran to the food tables and started devouring while I helped Boney over to the table and he started pecking at some bones.

  I walked over and laid down on the bed and the fatigue of the last two fights started to cloud my brain and my eyes started to feel heavier and heavier.

  “Let’s leave the contestant to sleep for a bit while we go enjoy some more entertainment over there.” The audience started to disappear but not before I heard a whisper. “I hear the team with the fire wielding berserker and the healing archer are about to face the champion, I hope they give us a better showing that the last team.”

  That was the last thing I heard before sleep fully took over. Well shit…..