The day is finally upon us... After so much anticipation, the first fight between the Crocodile and Bear...
Place your bets with the clerks and find your seats.
Here we are, at the opening match of the blog collosseum fights. The crowds have swelled the city, eager to get a glimpse of the match. The animals, their handlers and trainers have all made temporary residences within the collosseum grounds. Outside the collosseum, a mish-mash of locals, and tourists ebb and flow about the streets and thoroughfares. Streetcart vendors line the middle of many roads, selling their wares of produce, pottery and even jugs of ales. There are exotic animals, and other strange goods from all around the empire being sold as well. Ticket-scalpers call out to the throngs of people rushing into the gates,
Pickpockets and cutpurses are out in number preying on the event goers. The city guard have been dispatched in full force. Punishments given will be severe and permanently scarring.
Most of the patrons of the games have found their seats. Aristocrats, notable nobles, key merchants and influential people all have special boxes to view the games in. The general public scurries and fights each other for close seats, but even the back row offers a good view of the arena.
There is a buzz of excitement, and the crowds cheer as trumpets blare within the collosseum. It is time for the fight.
The crowds cheer as the agitated crocodile and the angered bear emerge from their gates.
Both animals head straight for each other. Could these beasts know of the anticipated bloodshed the crowd awaits?
The crocodile is first to rush into the fight. It leaps forward hoping to catch the bear in it's jaws which are like a steel trap. There are excited whoops and hollers from the crowd.
But the crocodile misses it's first attack, giving the bear an ample moment to swipe downward with its' mighty paw, knocking the crocodile even closer to the dirt.
But the crocodile isn't so easily cast aside as a competitor, it makes a sharp movement of it's long jaws and gets the bear's leg caught in its' gaping maw.
The crocodile shakes its' head while its' razor sharp teeth lock into place. The bear wails on the crocodile in a futile effort to break free. Something else breaks:
Bones are torn from tendons, flesh from bone, and the lower half of the bear's leg comes off. The bear is momentarily stunned from the shock of losing a limb, and the crocodile appears appeased with its' meal. The bear falls over clawing at its' wound. The crowd goes absolutely wild at the scene of carnage and gore. Several people are calling for the croc to finish the job.
The crocodile walks away from the confrontation, leaving the bear to bleed to death.
But the crocodile does not know the layout of the arena, for it is just a simple beast. It steps onto a pressure plate which causes an unsettling mechanical clank.
In an instant, several iron spikes shoot upwards out of a plate. Bones crack, blood sprays and flesh is ripped and torn. The crocodile is finished.
A team of priests and mage healers rush out onto the arena, to collect the scarcely surviving fighter. Half of the crowd is angry and the other half is excited at their winnings.
The first fight is over. The bear emerges victorious but horribly disfigured. Mage healers will attempt to graft an artificial limb on the bear so that it is ready for it's next fight. For now, it has time to heal until the semi-final fights.
In a few days, the collosseum will be packed again for another event, a Shark versus a Lion.
