Chapter 45: Arena 2
The chariot withdrew from the arena. No one came to collect the body of the dead archer. Listening to the crowd shouting in unison, Friedlier knew that the battle here was far from over.
Before Friedlier could breathe and settle down, in the audience's exclamations, he heard a roar from the other end of the arena, a roar that only beasts possess.
Friedlier couldn't tell what kind of animal was making the loud roar. He had never seen a lion or a tiger in Facton, but he had heard the howling of a wolf and a bear, and the only thing he could tell was that the beast was not small, at least it was no less than a frosty snow bear.
As the audience held their breath, the arena gradually fell silent. Friedlier tentatively looked in the direction of the roar, but the dense stone monuments obscured his vision, and he couldn't see anything.
He turned to listen, and first he heard the sound of a chain being dragged, which seemed to be very heavy, rubbing against the ground. The sound first reverberated down the towering auditorium, and then, the sound of chains mopping the floor suddenly turned, and it approached the stele forest again.
With the sound of iron chains slowly approaching the stele forest, the other captives also leaned on the steles in panic, and they looked around in a panic, all of them nervously holding wooden shields and waiting for the unknown monster to approach.
Friedlier crouched under a large stone monument, keenly observing the situation in the distance and listening attentively to the sound of the chains. But just as the voice reached the edge of the stele forest, Friedlier noticed that the voice disappeared in an instant.
He listened with bated breath, and there was no sound in the entire arena except for the occasional whistling and cacophony of spectators.
After a moment's hesitation, Friedreel saw the friendly Oriental slowly moving towards him, and Friedlier knew that he was coming to fight with him, so he made an observant gesture at him. The oriental man nodded in understanding, and continued to move slowly, eventually taking a stand opposite Friedreel, who then made a gesture back to Friedreel, indicating that he was watching behind him.
Friedlier didn't understand why the sound of the chain-dragging footsteps had suddenly disappeared, and after a suffocating silence, he moved slowly, trying to change his current perspective. Between the staggered gaps in the steles, Friedlier saw the auditorium in the distance.
A flash of inspiration flashed in his mind, and he immediately looked at the audience in the auditorium. After observing, he was surprised to find that the direction of the audience's eyes was actually slightly higher behind his side. Riverred Lytton took a cool breath, he felt a chill run down his spine and knew something was wrong.
Friedlier turned at once, and was about to make an urgent gesture to the Oriental man to pay attention to the top of the stele. But before he could wave his hand, he saw a dark shadow quickly pass from the top of the stone tablet on one side.
With a dull sound, he saw the passing black shadow come to a halt at the top of a tall stone monument not far away.
Looking up, Friedlier was shocked to find that it was a huge ape with gray fur all over its body!
The moment Friedlier saw the great ape, he finally knew why there was a sound of chains before, and why the sound of chains suddenly disappeared after that. It turned out that the two long arms of the giant ape were firmly attached to two thick iron chains. The two heavy chains had been hanging on the ground before, so there was a drag and friction sound. Right now, the iron chain was tightly wrapped around his arms by this intelligent monster, and without the interference of the iron chain and the sound, the giant ape could quietly climb to the top of the monument and attack secretly. It shouldn't have been the first time it had hunted inside this arena, Friedreer realized.
At this time, the giant ape crouched on the top of the tall stone tablet, and it silently locked its eyes on the body of the captive under the stone tablet, and it stared at the captive and slowly stood up.
Before Friedlier could warn the captive in a panic, the great ape roared and jumped down from the top of the monument. It struck the unsuspecting poor captive with a broken head and neck, and a cloud of blood splattered on the stone tablet.
Having to get out of here, Friedlier marveled at the great ape's immense power and realized that there was almost no chance of victory against the creature in this environment and equipment.
He rushed out of the stele forest first, including the Dongfang people in front of him, and several prisoners who reacted quickly also escaped from the stele forest immediately.
The group ran to the open field outside the stele forest, and Friedlier reflexively looked back through the gap between the steles, and the giant ape dodged through the steles, and it only took a short time to catch up with a captive who was running quickly to escape for his life.
With a scream, the giant ape tore off one of the prey's arms, and the arm was thrown into the audience with the blood spilled. There was an exclamation in the audience.
Friedlier walked through the clearing, and he stood still behind the high wall under the auditorium. He nervously looked around, and he realized that there were four remaining captives besides himself. They were the Oriental, a dark-skinned Nanlu man, a one-eyed dragon who looked like a Saigu people, and a man with dull skin and a thick beard who didn't know who it was. And behind them is also the high wall where the auditorium is located.
In this situation, Friedlier was at a loss, and before he could draw closer to the others, he saw the oriental man suddenly running along the chariot track to one end.
Friedreel saw him running with all his might towards the place where the body of the archer of Atholl was located, and Friedreel realized that there was also a bow that the archer had dropped when he had fallen and a few arrows that had fallen when the chariot swung.
As the Orientals picked up the fallen bows and arrows from the ground, the furious Ape with its arms in chains stepped out of the stele forest, its hands stained with blood, glaring at the captives.
Friedlier raised his wooden shield, and he had intended to beckon the others to come closer together to form a shield formation. But after Friedlier yelled at the others, he realized that no one understood what he meant, and no one understood his Featon language. The other three simply stood aside along the wall under the auditorium, holding their wooden shields.
With a roar of rage, the great ape scurried towards them, first rushing straight for Friedrear.
Friedlier saw that the great ape was running very fast, and he knew that if he turned and fled, it would soon be able to catch up with him. When the time comes, if he is caught by the great ape, or if he is struck in the back, he will be like the captive who escaped from the stele forest, and he will surely die. Thinking of this, Friedlier firmly raised his shield in one hand and clenched his short sword in the other. He took a deep breath, ready to find the great ape's flaws and deliver a fatal blow to the chest as soon as it rushed up to attack him.
The giant ape came in the blink of an eye, and he roared wildly. As it quickly approached Friedley, it jerked its fists up. Friedlier was on the stake, and he raised his shield as best he could, hoping to dodge or fend off its crazy blow first. Just as the giant ape's fists hit him, Friedlier suddenly saw an arrow whizzing, and with a "poof", the arrow blade sank into the waist of the giant ape.
The giant ape roared in surprise, and it staggered to the side.
Friedlier knew that the arrow had been fired by an Oriental man who had gone to pick up a bow and arrow. He didn't have time to think about it, he wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to attack the stumbling giant ape, but he didn't want the giant ape to only stumble after being hit by an arrow.
Before Friedlier raised his short sword and stabbed at it, it immediately roared and reflexively attacked again, Friedlier couldn't dodge, so he had to raise his shield to block, and the giant ape's punch hit Friedlier's shield.
The shield was shattered by the powerful blow of the great ape, and Friedlier's arm holding the shield immediately felt a sharp pain. He was instantly knocked down and slid to the side by the sheer force of force, and as he gritted his teeth and quickly struggled to get up as quickly as possible, he felt that the little arm with which he was holding the shield was completely powerless.
A broken bone pierced out of his arm, exposing the skin, and his shield-wielding arm was broken as it fended off the ape's blow.
After knocking Friedreel aside, the Great Ape did not immediately deliver the next fatal blow to Friedreel, but turned to the Orientals who were shooting at him, and ran towards it with a howl.
The one-eyed Céigu people rushed to pick Friedlier up. When Friedlier got up, he saw that the great ape had been shot by the Oriental man when he had rushed to him, and the Oriental had hit it directly in the crotch.
The great ape immediately fell to the ground in pain, and it rolled frantically on the ground. Seeing this, the Cégus immediately snatched his short sword from Friedlier's hand, and he quickly slashed at the fallen giant ape with the short sword.
The Saigu people were the first to slash at the giant ape that was rolling wildly on the ground, and the arrow cut through the back of the giant ape. But just as he was about to slash a second sword, the great ape suddenly writhed from the ground. The giant ape parried the Séigu slash with its chained arm, and it howled and threw a punch that struck the Seigu in the chest, sending the Seigu people flying away. Friedlier saw that the Saigu people didn't even have time to scream, and they were bleeding from their mouths and lying motionless on the ground.
The Oriental took advantage of this opportunity to shoot another arrow at the Great Ape, and the arrow entered the Great Ape's chest, but the Great Ape, who had now fallen into complete madness, seemed to no longer care about the arrow wound, and it rushed forward, grabbing the Oriental who had retreated in panic. Before he could struggle, the great ape raised his diminutive arms above his head and threw him hard against the high wall under the audience. The Oriental man slammed into the hard stone wall and fell back to the ground, face down, motionless.
Watching the great ape kill two people in a row, and howl after the last fleeing captive, Friedlier felt more despair than ever. Now that he could no longer use the bow and arrow dropped by the Orientals, he hung his broken arm in pain, walked to the corpse of the Saigu people, and stretched out his other hand to pick up the short sword that fell on the ground.
As he grasped the dagger, Friedlier saw that the great ape had caught up with the last captive and stomped him on the soles of his feet.
The bloody scenes made the audience in the arena cheer excitedly. Friedlier stood still, looking resentfully and helplessly at the audience.
Looking at the excited faces in the audience, he turned to feel humiliation and despair. When his gaze swept over another audience, he suddenly saw that there was a quiet blonde girl sitting in the audience. Looking at the little girl, Friedlier couldn't help but think of Siberis.
When Friedley's lovely appearance, pure smile, and clear eyes came to Friedley's mind, he felt an indescribable peace. Friedlier's gaze wandered, he looked at the dead people around him, and then at the captives who had been trampled into flesh in the distance, and he felt a sense of relief when he was still nervous.
The hand gripping the hilt of the sword suddenly loosened, and Friedlier didn't want to put up fearless resistance any longer. He had been tortured for all this time and was weakened, and now that he had broken another arm, he knew that he would not be able to defeat such a monster with only a short sword. He took a deep breath and looked down at the ground.
As the great ape grinned slowly towards him, Friedlier felt an unprecedented indifference, and he suddenly felt that this moment of waiting for death was sacred. He gazed at the ground covered with yellow dust, and he picked up his dagger and drew a picture on the ground with the edge of his arrow.
As he sketched the shape of the serpent and its eyes, he felt as if he saw his dead father in the pattern, and the dead Tallegalil, Eoliel, and Tyril, and the dead warriors.
Perhaps it was time to answer the call of his ancestors, and he thought it was time for him to reunite with his departed relatives and friends. He should join them in the footsteps of his fathers and board a war ship and sail into the endless sea, where there is no other shore.
After painting his family's mark, an Ouroboros, on the ground, Friedlier calmly dropped the dagger in his hand. Watching the great ape draw closer, Friedlier ripped off the rough cloak of his captive, and he didn't want to accept death with such shame.
The great ape remained unrelenting in the face of Friedreel, who was no longer armed, and raised its thick arms not far in front of Friedreel. It approached, and just as its raised arm was about to fall above Friedlier's head, a puff of yellow smoke rose from the ground.
Friedlier instinctively took a step back from the sudden smoke under his feet, and this step back allowed him to dodge the great ape's blow to the head. But Friedlier immediately smelled the strong, pungent smell of yellow smoke as well. The smell made him immediately sooze and burst into tears.
Just as Friedlier subconsciously leaned over to cover his mouth and nose, trying to avoid the dense yellow smoke, he saw that the giant ape was also dancing and crazy from the smoke.
At this moment, Friedriehl's heart suddenly tightened, although he didn't know where the smoke came from, but he saw a glimmer of life at this time. He no longer hesitated, he immediately felt the dagger at his feet, and stabbed at the crazy giant ape with the intense smoke.
The thick smoke caused the ape to cry and startle and frightened, and after receiving another sword from Friedrie, it began to swing its fists indiscriminately into the fog around it. After the short sword was shot, Friedlier didn't have time to look at the giant ape again, so he leaned over and covered his nose and closed his eyes and ran to the side.
As Friedlier struggled to dodge the smoke, he realized that the choking yellow smoke wasn't just rising from beneath his feet. In the arena seats, there were also many places that were shrouded in smoke. He saw that as the yellow smoke continued to rise in the auditorium, the spectators who were strongly stimulated by the smoke began to crowd and flee, and the panicked people trampled on each other, and the entire arena was suddenly plunged into deadly chaos.
Friedlier didn't have time to observe the situation in the audience too much, for he was afraid that the great ape would seek out of the smoke. He carried his broken arm and ran all the way to the stele forest again.
As he walked through the stele forest, Fridlier heard more noises in the arena, not only in panic, but also in the midst of more cries of battle and the clashing of weapons.
He looked up through the gap between the steles and looked up high in the auditorium, where some of the Galan-looking civilians suddenly attacked the Asol soldiers who had come to maintain order, and they stabbed the Asol soldiers armed with spears and scimitars with short weapons that they had obtained out of nowhere. Friedlier realized that the arena was now mired in a premeditated riot.
As the smoke cleared and faded, the wounded great ape roared bitterly and continued to search for Friedlier. It climbed up a tall stele again, trying to find Friedlier hiding in the forest.
The moment Friedlier saw the giant ape climb the stele, he quickly hid behind the shelter of a stele. He steadied his breath, hoping that the wounded giant ape would collapse from blood loss.
However, the vitality of the giant ape is strong, and it endures the pain on its body, and still keeps walking and jumping on the top of the stone tablet. It's not as athletic as it used to be, but it's still a hunter here.
Fridlier leaned reflexively against the other side of the stele as he glanced again at the chaotic audience. This casual glance made him confused and surprised.
Because he saw two men dressed in Azorean costumes wave at him, and then they quickly lowered a rope down the high wall of the auditorium.
Seeing a rope suddenly thrown from the audience, Friedlier suddenly had a strong desire to survive, and he didn't have time to think about it, even if he used all his strength to run towards the rope.
As Friedlier grabbed the rope with one hand, he looked back to see the great ape rushing towards him. Friedlear was struggling with an injured arm and couldn't hold on to the rope to climb up, when the rope suddenly began to pull upwards rapidly. He looked up and saw that the two men who had dropped the rope were working together to try to pull Friedlier up.
The great ape roared and jumped as hard as it reached the high wall of the auditorium, but it was too late to catch Friedlier's curled leg.
Friedlier was helped across the wall of the auditorium, and before he could come back to his senses and see the faces of the two men who had rescued him, he was quickly helped by the two men and ran towards an exit in the arena.