Fimzi got up and said "I guess I'll go." I shrugged and we went back up. Normally, you only had a single round every so often, but every fresh meat goes through a large guantlet. We would be going against a chimera. A typical specimen has the hindquarters of a large goat, the forequarters of a lion, and the leathery wings of a dragon, along with the heads of all three of those creatures. The monster likes to surprise its victims, swooping down from the sky and engulfing prey with its fiery breath before landing. A chimera combines the worst aspects of its three parts. Its dragon head drives it to raid, plunder, and accumulate a great hoard. Its leonine nature compels it to hunt and kill powerful creatures that threaten its territory. Its goat head grants it a vicious, stubborn streak that compels it to fight to the death. It would certainly be a tough opponent. The monster often toys with its prey, breaking off an attack prematurely and leaving a creature wounded and terrified before returning to finish it off. The risk of death was very high. I was going to need to make sure we did not get killed off.
Having us brought out first was a given. We bowed and saluted again to the royal box. It was then that we waited for the chimera to be brought up from the basement. At the 5 minute mark, we heard the roaring get nearer to us and the crowd cheered. Fimzi and Nuzri were trembling in fear. I looked at them and said "We can win. We just need to be careful." That was when it was brought onto the field. It looked just as terrifying as you would expect it to look. "How are we going to kill a beast like that!? It's a monster!" Nuzri demanded, looking at me. "Keep out of the way of the dragon head. That is the one that spits fire." I reminded them. We had our work cut out for us. It is not easy fighting the monsters. We had to dodge and weave around the arena because it could fly to break up our formations. We had spears, and that was able to chip at the creature's health. Fimzi and Nuzri were run ragged from the chimera. It took over an hour to kill that thing. When we finished with it, we were all in the critical health range. We limped and stumbled back into our cell. We then got to purr for a bit.
Chonmo and Anda were up next. The dogkin that they were up against looked rough and big. I hoped that they would be alright. The other slaves looked at us even more than they did before. It was because of what we did. The pits were going to know our names now. Surviving the first fight as a fresh meat was one thing, winning was another. Doing it all over again in the same day was beyond what most could do. We needed to make sure that we stuck together. At the end of the match, all 4 of them came back. They were all worse for wear and covered in wounds. Some of the pit staff began to attend to the dogkin. They were veterans and got the priority. Chonmo had a large gash diagonally across the side of his body. Anda had a deep one across his chest. With the purring, the worst of the wounds were able to start closing. Their lives might have been in danger if they did not have that. As the day came to a close, they were finally given medical attention. They were definitely going to have some scars on their bodies as a result. That was fine as long as they were capable to fight on.
