CHAPTER 184: UNDERGROUND ARENA II

Kael

At first, I thought I had imagined it, but the stone began to glow faintly beneath my fingertips. It was faint at first, with lines of light spreading out like veins, with a soft blue light emanating from where my palms were still connected to the wall.

The glow grew brighter, spreading outward like water soaking into cloth. It raced along the walls, up toward the ceiling, down toward the floor, spilling across the tunnel until it filled the space.

Within seconds, the entire tunnel was illuminated in brilliant blue light and then—

A blinding flash exploded before my eyes, blasting directly into my face.

The force of it threw me backwards. I flew through the air and slammed into the opposite wall, the impact knocking all the air from my lungs. I slid down to the ground, gasping, my eyes squeezed shut against the overwhelming brightness.

For a second, I thought I’d gone blind. But when I finally managed to open them, the tunnel was gone.

Everything had changed.

I wasn’t in the tunnel anymore.

I was standing in the middle of a massive underground space—an arena. The ceiling was high above me, supported by thick stone pillars. Torches burned in wall sconces, casting flickering shadows. And there were people everywhere. Hundreds of them. Maybe thousands.

The place was filled with loud cheers, screams and the clang of weapons. The air reeked of sweat, blood and smoke. I stumbled to my feet, spinning around in confusion.

That was when I noticed people were thronging towards me in large numbers. I tried to move past them, maybe to the wall so that they wouldn’t stampede me, but they walked past me like I wasn’t there. Through me, in some cases.

Their clothes were different, as if they had taken their dressing inspiration from a thousand-year-old book. Most of them were dressed in rags and fine silks alike.

This isn’t real, I thought. This is a vision like before.

Suddenly, someone bumped into me, knocking the air out of my lungs as I fell to the ground again. I grabbed my stomach, sputtering for air as I turned to look at my assailant. All I could see was someone dressed in some cloak that covered their face.

The figure stared at me for what seemed like a few seconds before turning and blending with the crowd. I sat there perplexed, wondering if I was seeing right. That person, right now dressed in black, was real, just like me. I’d felt the impact from him.

Was there someone else here with me?

Pondering, I slowly rose to my feet, with shaky legs. The people were all moving in one direction, their voices filled with excitement and eagerness. I decided to follow them.

I followed the flow of the crowd through a stone archway that opened into a vast underground arena.

The space opened up to what looked like a stadium with chairs lined up so high that my neck hurt just from looking at the top. In the middle of this stadium-like setup, instead of a pitch, was a large pool of dark water.

And in the centre of the dark water was a giant cage suspended above it. The cage was made of iron bars, suspended in the air by thick chains. The cage swayed slightly on its chains, the water below it still and black as oil.

Inside the cage were two people. A woman and a man..

One of them looked bigger and muscular. She was flexing her arms and pacing like a beast waiting to pounce. The other man was slumped in the corner, clearly exhausted. From where I stood, I took in the appearance of the man, taking in his short hair, muscular build and how his body was covered in dirt and blood.

This looked like I’d gone back two decades into the werewolf world, and as far as I know, they never allowed sparring between a man and a woman. Besides, from the setup, this must be a fighting arena.

As I moved closer, pushing through the crowd of spectators who couldn’t see me, I realised the person I thought was a man was actually a woman.

Her hair had been chopped short and uneven, like someone had just grabbed a knife and hacked it off. Her face was bruised and swollen, one eye nearly shut. Her lips were split and bleeding, dried blood crusting at the corners of her mouth. Her hands were wrapped in dirty cloth—makeshift bandages that were soaked through with blood. She’d obviously been trying to stop the bleeding from her palms.

She pressed her hand against her abdomen as if she was trying to hold herself, but when I looked closer, I could see a slight bump, peeking out from the rags she had on.

She was pregnant.

I felt anger surge through me and unconsciously leapt forward. Were these people sane at all? How could they put a pregnant woman in a fighting ring? But as I took the first step, the woman looked up and our eyes met.

I staggered back, nearly falling as my breath caught in my throat.

It was her. The woman from my dreams. The one I’d been seeing for months.

My throat tightened. "No..."

For a heartbeat, it was like the noise around us vanished. The crowd, the water, everything, and it was just me and her.

But that was impossible. This was a vision of the past. This had already happened, years ago.

How could she see me?

I tore my eyes away from her, trying to make sense of what I was seeing. I looked around the arena properly for the first time.

This was an illegal fighting ring, no doubt. I know because I’d grown up in places like this and moved from one pack to another, fighting in underground tunnels like this because at some point, the fighting rings got banned.

According to the history book that Rhett had read to me one night, the council of Alphas had come together several years ago to decide to abolish fighting rings. At first, it had just been a form of entertainment for young werewolves who just had their wolves.

An opportunity to showcase your talent from countless hours in the training arena. It was to celebrate mastery at its peak, and Gammas used such occasions to recruit warriors. It had rules, and one of them was to never fight to the death.

But like all things, some Alphas started getting greedy. People were beginning to fill up fighting arenas, travelling from far and wide to witness the birth of champions. Most Alphas began to monetise it.

They stopped abiding by the rules and started getting people to bet on fights to the death.

Business began to boom, Omega children, homeless children, rogue babies became the opponents in fighting rings. Despite the council’s repeated efforts to clamp down on the menace, it seemed as though the threat continued to grow.

Even to this day, there have been several illegal underground fighting rings.

Why was this vision trying to show me an ongoing operation in full swing?

I looked up toward the highest seats, where the biggest money always sat. A group of people in expensive clothes lounged there, talking and laughing.

I moved closer, my heart pounding.

And I recognised them.

Headmistress Vale, looking younger but still as bored and commanding. Terry Thatcher, Rhett’s father, was barely more than a teenager. Silas Greye—Charis’s mother, Eva’s husband. Henry Winters, whom I was currently acting like his second son.

They were all here. All young, maybe my age or a little older. All were watching the cage with bright, excited eyes. Each of them was at least my age now, except Vale, who seemed more mature. But here they weren’t teachers or Alphas yet, they were spectators.

At that moment, a burly man stepped into the centre of the arena floor. He raised his hands, and the crowd quieted.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" he bellowed, his voice carrying through the space. "Tonight’s main event! In the cage, we have our reigning champion—the Bloodborn Wolf!"

He pointed to the pregnant woman still slumped in the corner.

The crowd roared, some hooted at her, and some even threw coins into the cage at her.

"And challenging her," the announcer continued, "we have a newcomer, captured three moons ago, but has proven herself to be a great fighter. She defeated all the reigning champions across all the packs of the south and has now journeyed to Ravenspire, hoping to defeat our reigning champion. Do you think she can do it?"

The crowd booed, but the muscular woman at the other end flexed her muscles, showing off. She was huge, easily twice the size of the woman in the corner.

The crowd laughed cruelly. A few people booed.

"If you haven’t placed your bets yet," the announcer shouted, "you have five minutes before the fight begins! Five minutes to decide who lives and who dies!"

The crowd surged forward toward betting stations I hadn’t noticed before.

And then, like someone had snapped their fingers, the vision ended.

I was back in the dark tunnel, lying on cold stone, gasping for breath.