Depthless Hunger

Chapter 43: The Monster Pit

"You came after all." The old man scratched at the scar across his scalp. "When you said a month, I figured you would run off."

"Why run off?" Kai pretended that he couldn't feel the monster warping the world from across the pit and just smiled. "All I've gotten from you is promises about how dangerous this creature is supposed to be."

"Oh, trust me, you'll get the challenge you want. But we can't start with that, and you agreed to participate in the entire event."

"Then can you explain the exact rules? I don't like how everyone seems to understand these underground events except me."

"What do you think this is, the Hunter Trials?" The old man snorted and then jerked his chin toward the audience surrounding the pit. "The only rules are that we draw things out, get the people to make a lot of bets. I'd prefer it if I didn't lose any hunters or monsters, since it really costs to replace them, but since the people like to see some blood..."

Other than showing him where to sit, the old man didn't give him any further information. It looked like he had a wide group of fighters, only some of them officially hunters. They all sat together on a lower ledge opposite the crowd, where it was only a short jump down to the bottom of the pit.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" The person calling out wasn't the old owner, but instead a handsome man in a golden tunic. "We have for you today another showcase of skill and savagery! Do you dare witness the wrath of the Frontier? Will you cheer for our brave hunters? Who will triumph, and who will fall in the pit?"

He went on, clearly intending to hype up the audience, but Kai stopped listening. The only relevant question for him was how the real monetary goal of the event would affect the challenges he faced. Judging from what the old man had said, he wanted to hook the audience and drain their money by giving them a show.

As the event finally started, a few of the weaker hunters were sent down into the pit. They had Power in the high single digits, but less training than he'd had when he entered the Hunter Trials. So, even though the twisted dogs they faced were among the weakest of monsters, they struggled to win. That might have been the point, given how the crowds cheered.

Kai had to suppress his instinct to jump in and finish things. These weren't fools, just citizens trying to make the best of what they had. He kept himself in place with the thought that this was at least a safer environment for them to gain combat experience than out in the wastelands.

Vendors were beginning to distribute food and alcohol. One walked through the hunters' section and Kai almost took some bread before realizing he'd need to pay exorbitant prices. So that was another way to drain the money of the audience. He didn't understand why people this poor were willing to pay extra for bread when they could bake better in the slums.

There didn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to the events, other than the handsome man always trying to make them sound more exciting than they actually were. Kai was inclined to ignore him, but ended up watching more closely. He noticed that the announcer occasionally looked to the scarred old man, who gave subtle hand signals, and then smoothly switched what he was saying.

Before he could watch too long, Kai was suddenly pushed toward the pit. The announcer wasn't talking about him, but apparently he had been signaled in some way. When Kai hopped down to the bottom, he realized that he had been sent alone.

Instead of focusing on the crazed crowds all around him, Kai just tested the ground with his boots and looked for any obstacles that weren't obvious from above. Nothing remarkable, just a few rough patches and a jagged outcropping that blocked off part of the pit from the rest. As the others began to winch open the gate that held the monstrous dogs, Kai flexed his gauntlets and then held his bow in position.

It looked like they were releasing half a dozen dogs against him alone. That suggested that the old man wanted something fundamentally different from this fight. The best strategy would be to shoot each monster as it came out of the gate, but Kai had a feeling no one else would be happy with that.

Instead, he let them emerge and begin moving as a pack around him. Kai waited until they were just about to charge, then loosed his first arrow directly into the leader, scattering them.

The rest of the fight was all show and no strategy. He spun with unnecessary flourishes to hit random dogs with arrows while letting the others get close to him. Given how much more powerful he was than at the beginning of the Hunter Trials, he wasn't even in any danger. When there were only two left, he shot one while letting the other ambush him from behind, then turned at the very last second and killed it with a punch to the chest that sent its body flying across the pit.

All around him, the crowds were cheering. The old man looked less sour than usual, which was probably good. But as he climbed back up the side to the hunter area, Kai noticed something strange.

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One of the women sitting in the better section of the audience struck him as familiar. He didn't know her name, but he was certain that he'd seen her either at the Hunters Guild or the upper city, possibly both. She had a full Class and a Power of over 60, so she was likely a member of one of the clans. Perhaps these fights weren't so illegal after all, or perhaps something else was going on. Maybe if he had a fancy clan's social etiquette training, he'd know the answer.

After his fight, things actually got more interesting. Apparently the early stages had been to rile up the crowd and establish that monsters could be a threat before revealing the more dangerous, and likely more costly, beasts. The beasts and fighters received individual introductions now and Kai watched raptly.

Some of the monsters were ones he'd only read about, never seen in person. There was a creature that looked like an oblong blob, silly-looking until its mouth opened and extended half-way along its body. He knew from reading that they were ambush predators who usually lived in the water, so it was at a serious disadvantage in the pit. It still nearly bit one fighter in half and had to be pushed back by the others.

Most of these fights had about even odds, or so Kai judged. That made sense, if their goal was to earn money from bets. He did his best to both analyze the monsters and work on his spiritual sense for their strength. Mostly alpha ranks, with a few betas. Meanwhile, he noticed that every time the human side lost, the monsters were driven back into their tunnels instead of killed. No doubt the owner protecting his investment in the creatures. He might even feed the beasts or otherwise help them heal, which seemed perverse.

A few people were seriously injured and Kai again had to restrain his impulses. It all seemed to be under control... at least until they brought out the plant.

He was actually a bit puzzled when several workers pulled out a clay pot, the sort of thing a wealthy clan member might use to grow flowers. But instead of anything beautiful, only a twisted lump of thorns grew within. As they set it down in the center of the pit, he realized that metal wire pinned a number of vines into the irregular shape.

Remembering the dryad, Kai did his best to examine the plant with his senses. Judging monsters was still difficult, but at least he was starting to get a coherent impression of symbols instead of abstract mana. So it couldn't be a mana-bearing plant, it really was a monster of some kind.

From a distance the workers undid a twist in the wire. As it fell away, the thorny vines began to writhe, tearing free of the binding wires and twisting in all directions. Some plunged into the ground around the pot while others rose into the air, poking in all directions as if expecting an attack.

That was when things started to go wrong. Several hunters were called down to hack at the plant, trying to sever the vines that stretched toward them. They judged the maximum distance the monstrous plant could threaten, leaving them free to slowly cut it apart. The audience seemed to find that more amusing than Kai did, but even that cautious strategy left several hunters bleeding from thorny strikes. The match began to stretch on, since every time someone tried to push in further, they received multiple superficial injuries.

Then the plant tipped itself over. Its vines burst out further than they had before, lashing into one side of the circle. One woman was caught across the face and thrown back, while a man was caught by a vine and pulled in. He screamed in agony as the vines began punching into his body over and over.

For once the crowds went silent, experiencing monsters as horror rather than entertainment. Even the announcer failed to continue speaking. Kai decided that it was time to take a hand.

He first shot an arrow into the heart of the plant, which seemed to have no effect. Instead, Kai drew the sword at his side. It might be ordinary Goralian steel, but it would have a lot of force behind it.

Leaping from the upper level, Kai came down on the plant with the broadest swing he could. His blow cleaved straight through multiple vines, cutting them off from the hunters they were threatening. The severed ends flailed as if in pain while other vines plunged toward them. Even before his feet hit the ground, Kai was forced to fight a desperate defense on multiple fronts.

Kai only managed to sever a few vines before others wrapped around his sword and tugged it from his hands. Well, two could play that game. He reached out and grasped the vines with his gauntlets, then tugged with his full strength.

The pot flew through the air and smashed against the side of the pit with a loud crash. The vines went slack, but Kai treated the creature as a monster, not a plant. After gripping the vine at two points, he again exerted himself and jerked the entire formation into the air over his head.

When the central bulb of the monstrous plant hit the stone, it broke apart with a loud squelch. This time, it really did go slack. As the crowds around the pit cheered, Kai examined his gauntlets and wondered if he could have managed without them. The Irunian steel was unscratched, but he had felt the points press against his hands.

As far as he could judge, the threat from the monster was less that it was immensely powerful in terms of mana and more that it had so many limbs. Perhaps his F-rank Physique would have been able to resist the thorns, but he was still glad he had used his gauntlets.

Workers took away the fallen vines and Kai wondered if they would be planted to be regrown. If only he had been a Flamecaster, he would have incinerated the entire thing. That monster had killed a man, but as the workers took away his body, the crowd seemed to forget. All they let him do was retrieve his arrow.

Kai started to return to the hunter area, only for the old man to catch his eye and then shake his head.

"You've seen a terrible beast, ladies and gentlemen, but worse still lurks within!" The announcer boomed over the crowd so loudly that Kai wondered if he had a Class for it. "This young man has more than proved himself, but even his strength will be challenged. For we have a special treat for you... an Isulfr, a monster born in the midst of an incursion. The speed of a serpent, the jaws of a wolf, the monster that is said to swallow the light... the Isulfr rises!"

From the other side of the pit, metal screeched as the bars slowly rose and the world began to shiver.