The next morning was not a cheery one for Kaz. Awakened by the grinding of the gates opening to his cell. He quickly rose to his feet and watched as the bound warriors walked into the room. looking around they smiled as their gaze stopped on him. "Looks like it's time for your initiation lizard." He did not like the sound of that. Usually, initiations involved dealing with something they perceive as too much for the fighter. Perhaps he will get lucky and they will underestimate him. Although given his size they just might give him something too hard to face in his current state.
"Hurry up and get over here we don't have all day." The first warrior said as he gave Kaz a very irritated look. Deciding it would be best not to overthink things he did as he was told. The last thing he wanted was to be beaten or whipped for disobeying the rules. That would only weaken him and cause him to lose the valuable strength he would need for the future.
Walking up to them Kaz looked down avoiding eye contact knowing that could potentially piss them off. He followed them to what looked like a small room filled with weapons and armor. All kinds of gear seemed to fill this room from top to bottom. The warriors laughed at him as he stared at all the gear. "You can only bring one item into the arena at your current rank. Pick wisely for it may be the last choice you make."
Kaz quickly scanned the room as he walked around looking for anything that could give him an edge over his opponent. Not knowing who that was exactly made it a lot harder. Should he go with something like a spear to stay out of range of the enemy or should he go with a bow to stay even further from the fight? He still had good Dexterity that he could use to dodge and shoot so maybe that was a good idea. Ideas swirled around his head for a few minutes and the warriors began to get bored with his indecisiveness. "Hurry up and pick something or we will make you go out there empty-handed..."
"Fuck it." He whispered to himself as he grabbed a short sword. It was what he was most familiar with and he did have more skill with it than any other weapon here. He decided to avoid grabbing armor since he knew he would need something to kill his opponent with. He could of used his claws perhaps but he wanted to make sure what he had could pierce the skin of anything he gets in contact with.
Picking up the short sword Kaz checked its balance and found that it was actually better quality than he was expecting. "It would appear they don't skimp out on the gear at least," Kaz said once again to himself. The warriors went towards a door on the other end and opened it. The door opened to a smaller, dark room with a door on the other side.
"Get in here and wait for the other doors to open. When they do prepare yourself. It won't be easy. I'd wish you luck but honestly, I kinda wanna see you die." the other warrior laughed as Kaz entered the room. They closed the door and it became pitch black in there save for the light from the bottom and tops of the door peeking through. Kaz wanted to switch to night vision to see what was in here but decided it would be best not to have to spend extra time switching back to day vision when the doors opened. He was not sure how much time he would have to get out of whatever was going to be thrown at him.
Time passed slowly in the dark. Kaz's eyes constantly wanted to adjust to dark vision but he focused hard enough to keep them from doing so. The wait was agonizing and his nerves were getting close to being fried. After what seemed like an eternity he began to hear something on the other side of the door. It sounded like the cheering of a crowd of people. Someone was talking but he could not make out what they were saying. They were definitely female and the voice sounded familiar. It was most likely the woman who bought him. She must be the one who is in control of the arena. He knew her cute and kind demeanor was a facade.
The crowds cheering became louder and louder until the sound of a gong was struck which silenced the roaring crowd. The doors began to slowly open as light poured into Kaz's room. His eyes were blinded for a split moment as he adjusted to the new light but not nearly as bad as they would have had he switched to dark vision. He blinked a few times and looked across the arena to see what his opponent was. Standing before him was a young rat boy holding a dagger. His frame showed that he was severely malnourished as if he were just picked off the street. Fear danced in the boy's eyes as he slowly walked into the arena stumbling almost to the ground.
Kaz walked forward with confidence trying to look intimidating. The crowd saw him and started howling with excitement. Kaz was very confused if this was his initiation shouldn't they have given him someone who wasn't already on the brink of death? The boy noticed him and began to shake uncontrollably. Kaz felt a bit sad for the boy knowing that he was going to lose to him. Wondering just what kind of match this was Kaz waited for instructions or a start signal. He did not want to rush into things just in case it was a trick.
Relish, the woman who bought Kaz was standing at the top of the arena near the front. A ball of magic in front of her. It seemed to amplify her voice as she began speaking. "We will now begin the tag team survival match. It will be the Kobold and the Urchin surviving against the odds. Remember folks in a tag team battle if one person dies the others life is forfeit. So place your bets and let the games begin!"
The doors on the left and right side open and on both sides appear hungry lions baring their fangs at the two potential sources of food.