"So how long have you decided to be a girl?" I asked, trying to ease the tension before the fight.

No, I was not accusing her of being transgender. Trust me, this kind of talk was common in Staraid. They were humanoid with reptilian characteristics. Maybe if the dinosaurs hadn't gone extinct because of the asteroids and evolved—they would have been similar to the mortals around me right now.

Like the komodo dragon, or the clown fish—these mortals can change their gender. They were not recognized as having any gender when they were young. After that, they had to choose. Usually the mortals involve psychologists to determine their sex preferences. But in reality, their parents are more often decisive.

"It's been about seven years, how about you?" She said as she fastened the safety straps around her waist and shoulders. She was preparing her weapon. It was similar to the harpoon thrower used to hunt whales.

We were allowed to use heavy weapons such as chainsaws or axes capable of conducting electricity. Weapons such as laser guns or anything that fires bullets are not permitted. They wanted to make this fight last as long as possible. The more tormented the monsters, the more blood they get and the happier the Celestials are.

That was what they thought. In fact the Celestials didn't care about the show at all.

I was just making small talk. I was not interested in her life. Seduce her? No, she was not my type. She had scales and teeth like a shark. I could not get aroused by it. After all, even if she was human, maybe I would never try to date her. We Celestials cannot reproduce and have low sexual desire.

The sight I saw made me a little sick. They all should be educated people with advanced civilizations. But the audience seemed to return back to the nature of their ancient ancestors. They were wild and out of control. They were carnivores who were easily swayed by the smell of blood.

The Staraid mortals seemed to fool themselves by trying to look civilized. Yet, the tens of thousands of years of civilization had little success in restraining their beast instincts. They screamed like the devil. Adrenaline overcame them. Veins bulge at their temples. The mortals laughed out loud, unhesitatingly showing their fearsome fangs.

Staraid mortals are actually a feared fighter. But the existence of the Celestials on their planet had forced its leaders to change the character of their people. They train staraid mortals to be more educated and temper their savagery. They tried to show the Celestials that their planet was comfortable to live in.

Again, we Celestials did not care about that.

I watched one by one the monsters being slaughtered. Blood flooded the blue grass beneath their feet. Did I say I was fed up? Yes, but not from seeing the carcasses of defeated monsters.

I was sick of watching this fight. Those monsters had been poisoned before. They were already weak when they entered the ring. Then the Staraid mortals acted as if they were doing something heroic and dangerous.

Indeed, even though it was dying—the monster was still savage and deadly. But the game could be more exciting than this. Moreover, the Staraid mortals wielding weapons looked fake to me. 

Bang!

The sixth monster entered the field. Its legs were chained and he was confined in a steel trellis. I could smell its breath even from the balcony which was quite high. His eyes were three and each one flashed red. He was now snorting loudly trying to release his anger.

I frowned.

That one wasn't poisoned, he was healthy and extraordinarily strong. Something might have happened in their cage before. Was someone trying to sabotage this fight? It's just a circus, a show that should be quite dangerous but not deadly.

Should I care and warn them? Or just sitting here and hoping to see something exciting?

Unfortunately I had lived longer as a human than a Celestial. Plus I died as a soldier. My heroic soul struggles, I can't help but care. Especially since it was our team's turn now. Even if it was only been a few hours of knowing each other—I hope my team members won't be the first mortals to be killed today.

"We have to go down now, take it easy. We just need to hurt them as badly as we can. The monsters have been controlled. There's never been a mortal victim in the last five years!" The mortal girl I was talking to said.

Yes, you will probably be the first. Someone was trying to sabotage this fight. The committee had tried to make it look real by not making the monsters look too weak. Still, even though no mortal died—there were broken bones, severed noses or temporary paralysis.

Me and the three members of my team started to step onto the field which still smelled fishy. The slain monsters had been removed leaving only a pool of blood mixed with thick mucus. We all wear non-slip shoes to prevent slipping. 

The cheers were loud again. We get paid for this. Apart from me who only served as bait—the rest of my team were real athletes. Including the fat captain. He was carrying a club-like object with pointed irons on its surface.

The monster was still snorting in anger as it waited for its cage to be opened.

"You guys better run," I said.

"What does it mean?"

"That monster is not controlled, it will finish us off as soon as its cage is opened," I informed again.

"No, I've been doing this every year. They'll go berserk as soon as they get off their chains. But it won't be long.  The first thing you should do is run as fast as you can while we kill him. It's their instinct as wild animals, they hunt." The fat man disagreed.

The cage was open. I just looked at it and kept quiet. His claws that seemed to be plated with titanium were the first things to appear. Then I saw a wolf-like creature with white fur. It may be as big as an African elephant. He had horns similar to those of a narwhal whale on his head and three big eyes that blinked fiercely at us.

Unexpectedly, he didn't attack right away. I looked at his feet. There's some kind of bracelet with the encryption tied there. After clearly seeing his form, I also accessed the data in my immortal brain. Then I discovered a fact that worried me.

Species name

Garuru

age

newborn

Origin

2355xxx Planet

Strength level

Dwarf Star

Someone must really want this planet destroyed. They presented a monster with the power of a dwarf star in this stadium full of spectators.

While I was busy analyzing, I heard enthusiastic moans and shouts from the audience. Then I noticed a pool of blood on my leg and looked at my left arm.

I don't know when the monster did it. But it reminded me of my last moments on Earth. The hand from my new body was cut off and spurted fresh blood with a pungent smell. This was not my real body, so I didn't feel any pain. But they all saw me. I couldn't grow an arm in front of them. So I took the rope and tied it to stop the bleeding.

I saw my team members flinched and glared at me. They were scared, I clearly felt it.

"Take another weapon! The strongest weapon you have!" I shouted.

This one monster, not drugged. He could also make the Staraid planet turn into biscuit crumbs if he wanted to. In this universe, not only Celestials were born from the energy residue of galaxy formation. But there were also some other beings (not all) that also worshiped as gods. Including this animal in front of me which now seems to be chewing my arm. Unfortunately, he definitely wouldn't be full enough with just that.