The deafening roar of a bloodthirsty arena shook the earth, dragging me kicking and screaming back to consciousness.
"Grr...!! Come on!!"
A deep, gravelly baritone echoed through the dust. Above it, the crowd shrieked for blood.
I tried to sit up, but a white-hot spike of agony pierced my chest. A broken rib. Definitely a broken rib. I groaned, reeling backward as my eyes snapped open.
"Haa! You live, Torug!" a voice boomed from above. "Get up! For we shall finish this!"
The crowd went wild, chanting names that sounded like grinding stones.
"Great chieftain!"
"Olog the Great!"
I coughed, phlegm tasting like copper. "Grr... What is this!?" I tried to protest, but the words choked in my throat.
A massive, corded green arm was hoisting me to my feet. I looked up, and my breath caught. Surrounding the pit were rows of hulking, green-skinned brutes, their lower canines protruding like wicked daggers. In the center of the ring stood a towering behemoth of an orc, basking in their cheers.
"ORC!?" I gasped.
Except it didn't sound like me. The voice that left my mouth was a guttural, unnatural rumble that vibrated in my chest.
Before I could process the monstrous voice, a heavy hand shoved me forward. My perspective was entirely warped. The ground seemed further away. My limbs felt heavy, packed with dense, terrifying muscle.
When did I get this tall? Transmigration?!
WAM!
A fist like a boulder crashed into my jaw.
"Where are you looking, Glob!?" my opponent sneered.
The force sent me flying backward through the dirt. I hit the ground with a sickening thud, the wind completely knocked out of my lungs.
"Too weak!" Olog circled me, a condescending smirk stretching across his brutal, green face.
My mind raced. What kind of nightmare is this? A trial by combat? I didn't know the rules, and I didn't have time to learn.
Suddenly, the arena walls breached. An orc scout came sprinting into the compound, his lungs bursting.
"Humans! Human warriors! They come! Strong!"
Olog stopped, looking away from me toward the horizon. He let out a deafening war cry that rattled my teeth. "ROOOOAR!!! Brothers, we fight!"
The clan answered in a unified, terrifying howl. But the battle came to them before they could even draw their axes.
Shui! Shui! Sou! Sou!
A volley of black-feathered arrows rained from the sky, piercing leather and flesh. The arena erupted into chaos.
BOOOM!
A massive fireball collided with the earth right between Olog and me. The blast wave tore through the dirt, obliterating the wooden barricades and sending a concussive shockwave through my skull.
A high-pitched, maddening ringing filled my ears. My vision blurred into a murky haze. The world spun, tilted, and went dark.
When the fog in my mind finally began to clear, the ringing gave way to the sounds of brutal, chaotic warfare. I held my head in my hands, a sharp pain blossoming near my temple. I must have cracked my skull against a stone when the fireball hit.
As my sight sharpened, the horror of the scene laid itself bare.
Hundreds of humans in polished armor and orcs clad in crude, patchwork iron were locked in a meat grinder. It was a barbaric slaughterhouse.
This is insane, I thought, staring at my hands. They were huge, green, and covered in thick, sticky blood. I was just heading out for drinks. How am I here?
The realization hit me like cold water. The original owner of this body, Torug, he must have died the moment Olog knocked him out. I had slipped into a corpse. May his soul rest in peace, I thought bitterly.
I staggered, trying to find my footing amidst the blood-soaked mud.
"DIE, ORC FILTH!"
A human warrior in silver plate armor charged out of the smoke, screaming a battle cry. He swung a heavy spiked mace directly at my skull.
As the silver armor caught the sunlight, the reflection triggered a sudden, violent memory—blinding car headlights flashing before my eyes.
DONG!
The mace clipped the side of my head. My skull recoiled backward, the pain snapping me entirely out of my daze. Before the human could recover for a second swing, my new body acted on pure, primal reflex.
I threw a desperate, massive counter-punch.
CRUNCH.
My green fist caved the human's chest plate inward like tin foil. The soldier's eyes went wide with pure, unadulterated shock. He dropped his mace, gasping for air that his collapsed lungs could no longer hold, and fell heavily into the dirt.
I stared down at my knuckles, the chaotic war fading into the background as one single, terrifying truth finally pierced through the fog.
I died in my world.