fanqie novel
Chapter 103
Chapter 103
The rest of the rogues quivered by the door.
Daran was the first to step into the area and Janet followed right behind him.
They looked around.
This entire space was like a titan of antiquity.
Its towering stone walls, weathered by wind and rain, stood almost ten stories high. Within the vast arena, tiers of stone seats encircled the battleground, which had sandy ground with dried blood on it. Tons of relentless battles must have happened here before.
Above, the open sky stretched like a canvas, with a bright full moon shining right in the middle of the night sky.
“Look to the stands!” Janet whispered to Daran.
They raised their heads and looked up.
High up in the stands, hidden in the shadow of the stone wall, sat many audiences. Janet couldn’t see their faces clearly from this distance even with her perfect vision. “What the fuck!” Glen snapped, “Are they here to see us fight?”
“This is a Coliseum. It is designed to entertain the nobles,” Kass sighed.
“These fucking barbarians are not nobles! And I definitely don’t want to fucking entertain them like some pets that they own!”
“I agree with Kass,” Jared said sullenly. “I don’t like the feeling of this either.”
Janet understood why they were both frustrated.
Everyone here either Gammas or Alphas, people highly respected in their own packs. It was already a great shame for them to try to fit into their enemy’s crowd, let along entertaining those people.
A huge humiliation, indeed.
“But think how far we have come!” Janet kept her voice down and said, “We are just a step away from the Grace Ruin and the Rogue King. If we back down from this now, we will return empty handed, with no clue about our biggest enemy. Is that truly what you want?”
Glen and Jared exchanged a sullen look.
“Alpha Daran, what about you?” Glen asked, “Are you OK with this?”
Daran raised an eyebrow.
He brought his hands together and cracked his knuckles.
“Between a little sacrifice and victory?” he said in an off-handed voice, “I always choose the later.”
Just then, a clattering noise came from behind their backs.
They jerked around to look.
The four iron gates located at the four directions of this arena opened up abruptly.
They heard the growling of hungry beasts. From those shadowy gates, a crowd of
ན་བ་y ད་““ས”�་ཚ�་AII� པ ས�ས་པ་ས
z& LHA,-、, HA༧vy b”,*
wild animals were released. From a rough count, there were at least dozens.
“F-Fuck!” a rogue cried in horror, “Bears! And lions! Holy shit!”
All the rogues were terrified. Even though they were werewolves themselves, they still couldn’t compete with that many beasts.
Yet Janet’s group was not afraid at all.
“Beasts? Really?” Jared rolled his eyes, “God, looks like we are really gladiators in this scenario.”
“We have practiced this before, right Gamma Janet?” Kass looked at Janet with a
smile.
Janet nodded.
The first jointed competition that they had in Riverside Pack was hunting for wild animals. Due to Baron’s set up, Janet even encountered some variant bears.
This was just old trick all over again.
Against the background noise of animal’s roars, Jared raised his voice and said, “Want to make this more interesting, Alpha Daran?”
“What do you propose?”
“How about we don’t shift and see which one of us can take down the most beasts?”
“Sounds interesting.”
Daran curved his lips into a faint smile.
“But you are going to lose.”
They dashed at those wild animals together, with Kass and Glen following right behind their back.
The fight had begun. The sound of people screaming, animal growling, bodies being smashed against the ground and flesh being teared apart echoed across the space.
Janet knew that they could pass this test easily. So she was not in a rush to participate in that chaos.
She temporarily stepped aside and looked up at the stands one more time.
There was somebody sitting in the middle of the stands.
That spot had the perfect view overlooking the entire arena. And all the seats around that spot were all empty. It almost looked like that nobody dared to seat next to that certain person.
Janet narrowed her eyes.
Could that person be the Rogue King?
She wanted to get a better view of that person. But she couldn’t, not from this distance and plus the shadows.
Yet her gut told her that this was the one that they had been looking for.
She thought about shifting and going at that person directly. But with the distance between them, he would probably get away before she even got to the stands.
No.
Now was still not a good time.
The noises gradually quieted down. Blood and torn body parts were lying
everywhere on the ground. All beasts were slaughtered, mostly by Daran and the others.
Two rogues died in the process. There would be a lot more lost lives if it weren’t for their group.
Jared wiped the hot blood off his face and laughed, “That was fun! So now what? Have we passed the test already?”
Janet shook her head slowly, “I don’t think it is that simple.”
Just then, a lone applause came from the stands, catching all their attention.
“Impressive.”
A woman’s voice echoed in the night sky.
“You just broke the record.”
“It is a woman!” Kass said urgently in a low voice, “Is that the Rogue King?”
“It could also be his puppet,” Daran said. Exclusive © content by N(ô)ve/l/Drama.Org.
Janet searched for the woman who just spoke among the audiences but failed. She couldn’t be sure if she was the person sitting in the middle.
“Now for the second round-
||
The woman snapped her fingers. Torches suddenly lit up around the arena, illuminating the entire space.
“-battle until there are only 5 of you left.”
Janet looked around.
Fifteen people came into the arena and two just died in the first round.
There were now thirteen people present.
“5! That is exactly the size of our group!” Kass looked to Janet and Daran, “What should we do?”
Jared seemed reluctant, “Are we really going to kill civilians?”
“These are not civilians.”
Daran said coldly. The fire light casted a beautiful glow over his handsome profile.
“Those are rogues. Our enemy.”
Just then, a roar came from behind their backs. A rogue shifted into wolf and howled
to the full moon. The next second, he came at Jared at full speed!
“Looks like if you don’t kill them, they will kill you!”
Janet cried loudly and stopped a rogue who tried to sneak up behind her back.
“Strike back!”
The arena lapsed into a complete chaos, with them fighting against the rogues and the rogues battling among themselves
Most rogues had shifted.
Janet could very well handle them in her human form. But she still decided to shift just to be safe.
She called to her wolf internally and prepared to shift.
Yet the strangest thing happened, something that never happened in her entire life.
Her wolf didn’t answer.
She was stuck in her human form.
A freezing chill was sent down Janet’s spine as she stood on her spot stiffly,
What just happened?
That couldn’t be right… Why couldn’t she shift?!
She was so shocked that she didn’t even notice a rogue coming at her. It was Daran who noticed the danger and rushed to her rescue,
“Focus, Janet!”
Daran snapped and broke the rogue’s neck.
“What are you doing just standing there?”
Janet looked up at him, her voice slightly shaking, “I-I can’t shift! Daran, what is going on here?”
A furrow appeared between Daran’s brows.
After a small pause, his face turned cold, “Me neither.”
“What the fuck happened?!”
Daran clenched his jaw and said, “I don’t know. Stay close to me for now.”
It didn’t take long before they cleared out the arena. The rogues pretty much took care of themselves. And the rest who dared to challenge the group all died in their hands.
Yet they were facing a bigger crisis now.
“Daran! Janet!”
Jared rushed over with his entire body covered in blood.
“I can’t shift! And neither could Glen!” he said urgently. “Can you?”
Janet shook her head.
Kass came back to them as well. He was the only one in this group who could shift into his wolf.
“Is there some sorts of taboo on werewolves?” Janet asked Kass.
Kass shifted back into human. He looked anxious as well, “Not that I have heard of. This is so weird!”
“Don’t worry. We can handle this,” Daran said.
His voice was so calm and steady that it cooled everyone down immediately.
And they heard the woman’s voice again.
“Very good.”
She said in a booming voice in the distance.
Janet glared at that direction, her heart full of rage, “Are we done here?”
“Not yet.”
The woman giggled pleasantly, “It is very rare to see people take this test as a group.
Most rogues are loners.”
“What is your point exactly?!”
The woman’s voice turned cold:
“Now for the final round…Kill a friend. To prove that you are really one of us.”