Jaz cried out when a man next to her, not much older than she was, was hit in the chest by a fireball. He fell back screaming like a banshee. She jumped away, falling onto her butt as she gawked at him. His clothes were melted to his torso and the skin was burnt off like candle wax. He held his burnt flesh, and it was then Jaz saw the enormous hole in his body; his intestines, stomach and liver burnt away; his spine was visible, charcoal black and smoking. She sagged over her bent knees, clutching her stomach as the unbearable stench made her retch.
He was gasping as his hands scrambled around his stomach, as if trying to hold himself together. More skin slid away like red-hot melted cheese from his touch. And then he held up his burnt hands screaming because he'd rubbed away the flesh and muscle from them, leaving nothing but charred bone. Then he gurgled as he choked on his own blood, unable to breathe.
Jaz sprang to her feet, holding her hand to her mouth. Her eyes widened to saucers when she saw the fireball hurtling towards her. Before she was a human barbecue, someone knocked her down from behind and the fireball flew past her, hitting the wall.
She swung round to find Fraya again. She should have shoved Fraya into the path of a fireball but the horror of what she'd seen stupefied her. She peered down at the dying man and saw he was no longer moving. The foul stench and smoke in the air made her cough and her eyes burn.
“Go!” Fraya bellowed, shoving her up.
Jaz jumped to her feet, avoiding the charred bodies, dodging the one-on-one combats still going on despite the raging fireballs shooting out. She wanted to scream at them to get out of there, but she needed them to be distracted because she knew at least half of them would try and stop her. Fraya was the first to try as she yelled at Jaz to come back, before Jaz pulled open the enormous bolt on the door of the cage and jumped in.
Just in time to catch Beast Kain slicing Nik across the torso.
Nik was doubled over, clutching his chest, his body bloody and shaking. He breathing was so weak he sounded like a man on the brink of death.
The stench of vomit and his appearance was overpowering, stars clouded her vision for a moment.
She ran forward, forgetting Beast Kain, his sharp claws, the fact he could kill her in one blow, and sprang in front of Nik, shielding him as Beast Kain jumped forward. Beast Kain skidded on his hind legs. He looked at Jaz and his jaws contorted into a menacing grin; a growl rose from deep within his chest.
Jaz flinched back, her arms out to protect Nik as she shouted loud enough that anyone in the arena could hear, “Pack Leader Kain has poisoned my Pack Leader and I demand a re-match!” Her voice echoed throughout the arena like she was hooked to a microphone.
There was a moment of hush as the crowd settled down. The fireballs had stopped and the glass wall was lowered halfway. Bodies were left on the sand and most of the fighters had dispersed back into the crowd. Only Alf, Fraya and four others she didn't know stood by the cage, trying to shield themselves there.
The wispy-haired judge's speaking authority was taken over by a ginger-bearded man in his mid-forties. He leaned into his microphone, his hands clasped in front of him. “You have proof he has been poisoned?”
“Test his blood!” she called back.
“The fight cannot be postponed.”
“Why the hell not?! It already has been!” she screeched.
Nik collapsed onto the floor and she knelt down beside him, panic suffocating her senses. She rested her hand on his shoulder on a spot that wasn't drenched in his blood. “It's okay,” she whispered but he didn't respond. She bit her lip, her eyes darted to her side, mindful of Kain at her back.
She stood. “He cannot fight!” she shouted across the arena, her voice carried to every corner. “Use your eyes and you can see that for yourself!” she barked, holding her hand out towards him.
The ginger-haired judge thought for a moment. “Then, while you're so conveniently in there, because of your disruption of this fight, the least you can do is fight in his stead.”
“No!” Alf bellowed.
The judge didn't look his way.
“What?” Jaz croaked. She saw Nik stir. He mumbled something. She locked eyes on the judge.
The judge beamed, his orange beard suddenly not giving him the funny, clown-at-the-children's-party appearance she'd imagined at first. “In Nik's condition, and your obvious inferiority, the two of you just about even out the playing field.”
The door of the cage was bolted shut mechanically and Alf smacked his shoulder into it as he tried to break in. He pounded his fist against it then stretched his arm through the bars roaring her name. His voice was then drowned out by the frenzied, bloodthirsty crowd.
And then the fight began.
Jaz had a moment to whip round before Beast Kain threw her across the cage. Her back smacked into the metal bars and she fell to the floor. She forgot the pain in her spine at the sight of the Beast looming over Nik.