A familiar scene unfolds in the underground arena today — a splitting the gladiators of Munera’s dungeon into two familiar factions: Team Fire and Team Water. Both of them, made up entirely of volunteer participants this time around, are gearing up for a new contest that involves procuring a gem embedded deep within the body of a towering, violent golem that thunders around the arena in the middle of a clearing that is surrounded by dense, green foliage. The roaring of the crowd is almost enough to overpower the ear numbing quakes each of its steps creates as the titan reaches almost fully to the underground ceiling.

 

 

Today's arena is a lush jungle, formed deep in the underground through Munera's almost seemingly omnipotent will. Tall trees tower high above, their leafless branches reaching out like skeletal fingers towards the dark ceiling above. Dense thickets crafted from clusters of brambles, and colorful, lush jungle foliage rise up on either side, enclosing the battlefield within their suffocating embrace and allowing only a few, select pathways through the arena for most. Vines dangle down like serpents frozen mid-slither, their tips glowing eerily under torchlight while dew-like droplets trickle down onto the cold stone floor below — some of them, some might even swear, are moving on their own. In the darker corners, patches of luminescent fungus are sprawled across sections and give off an otherworldly glow, illuminating the darkness beneath parts of the thick canopy.

 

The air is absolutely drenched with a heavy mist, making the air suffocatingly uncomfortable to breathe. Water wicks onto everyone’s faces and bodies.

 

As the colossal stone gates rumble open, both teams march into the arena in unsynchronized strides, diverging in two directions from the entrance. The atmosphere is thick with palpable tension, both in the viewing seats as well as within the teams themselves. A lot is riding on today’s game. Many champions are close to their hundred points, and they want the win so that they can escape today. As for the spectators, well, the betting pool is escalating wildly, and there is a lot of money riding on today’s game for a lot of people.

 

Between the opposing factions silently groans the monstrous golem, its deep, tonal, mouthless, and wordless voice shaking the arena. It is a hulking mass of animated rock — carved, ornate stones from the dilapidated ruins inside the jungle — crudely shaped into a humanoid form that towers above all else in this colossal battle pit. It is covered in old scars across its stony exterior. Vines of the jungle and plant matter grow all over its body, offering climbing utility but also housing for a few very bitey spiders and snakes. The large gem embedded within its stone chest pulsates in multicolored hues - illuminating the massive figure.

 

As both teams position themselves for this impending encounter. There’s an unsettling lull before what promises to be another savage spectacle.

 

Munera watches them eagerly, looking at their faces. Good. They’re all tense and serious. It’s had the good fortune that everyone who played in any of its games has been in it to win it. Although the threat of death for disobeyment does go a long way to aiding their motivations, it assumes.

 

So many will leave today, no matter which team wins. It is very sad. Munera watches them all as they diverge to their starting points.

 

It truly wishes that its plan to filter out the pure and the dedicated — those who want to fight for the sake of the fight — will finally bear some fruit. It’s all fine and good now if they want to fight for their own lives, for wealth, for glory, but it has yet to see proof of a single soul, a single person, who will fight and continue to fight just for the sake of the challenge of the battle, of the competition itself.

 

It can’t help but wonder if there is even one among them all?

 

…Maybe…

 

It will find out soon.

 

Trumpets begin to blare all around the arena. A piercing light radiates from a gem embedded deep within the giant golem’s rocky chest. The gem pulsates rhythmically as if mimicking a heartbeat, casting long, eerie shadows that sway in perfect sync with its rhythm out over the vividly green jungle, creating a spectral vapor of sorts. The crowd screams, their roar shaking the dungeon.

 

It begins.

 

As the battle cry resonates within the stone confinements of the arena, both teams launch into action, breaking into several groups and pressing down the many roads, their forms blurring under torchlight as they traverse through the dense foliage teeming with smaller golems, destroying them on their way to the main prize.

 

Team Fire moves with a relentless ferocity matching their namesake. Humans and orcs charge ahead, leaving trails of broken, fractured rock in their wake. The close combatants hammer through clusters of smaller golems, clashing against animated rocks with thunderous impacts.

 

A chime rings through the air as the first point is tallied, as a man from Team Fire holds a small gem in the air, pulled from a destroyed golem that had been overwhelmed by several fighters at once.

 

Their victory is short-lived as they are all vaporized on the spot.

 

Above them hovers an ambush team of tiny fairies from Team Water, weaving intricate patterns mid-air as they rain down a barrage of a mixture of spells on unsuspecting foes, still within their own lines. Before they can be taken down, they quickly shoot back toward Team Water’s side, weaving around and past the giant golem as a counter-barrage of spells is shot their way — explosions ringing off the side of the giant’s body.

 

A team of elven archers from Team Fire, agile and swift, take a secret side-route by running over the ruins of the walls that cut through the jungle rather than staying down on the paths. They dart around using the surrounding terrain to their advantage - their glowing arrows finding targets among advancing opponents from Team Water, drawing not first blood but significantly damaging their support line in the back with a few well placed shots until protective barriers and shields are raised.

 

In contrast, Team Water advances still, with all of their melee team still alive, but slower now as they adapt to a low-healing situation. With their priests and druids down, they can only push slowly onward, against opponents that are easy to pick out. Humans and orcs from both teams rush head-on into skirmishes - magic-infused weapons slashing and smashing against equivalent onslaughts; sparks erupting at every contact point while sizzles fill the air amidst roars of combatants entangled in intense duels; wild golems charge through the lines of both, throwing the preoccupied duelists around into the forest like ragdolls, many of them breaking their bodies against strong trees or falling into pits of vipers.

 

The elven archers from Team Fire leap between thickets, raining down a volley of projectiles towards Team Water's ranks while simultaneously engaging smaller golems to keep paths clear for advancing teammates. Their normal arrows do little against the stone monsters, but with some help from a friendly caster down below, they augment their shots with explosive magical energy, blasting the crystals straight out of the bodies of the smaller creatures, allowing the fairies of their team to dive into the mass of golems and swoop them up without having to engage unimportant targets. Chimes erupt from both sides as gems are collected one after the other.

 

It’s anarchy.

 

Munera watches gleefully from above as both teams, cutting through the jungle, begin to encroach on the center of the arena.

 

In the shadow of the colossal golem, a fierce skirmish unravels. Several combatants from both teams roar out of their sides of the jungle and converge at its base, their individual clashes beneath its lumbering feet fusing into a larger battle under the pulsating light of the gem embedded within the beast's chest above their heads. The giant ideally wanders around, inadvertently stepping on someone now and then. Like ants swarming a colossal titan, they scramble up the jagged surface of the golem. Orcs and humans grapple onto protruding stones driven by brute force while nimble elves find footholds where none seem to exist, rapidly ascending this animated mountain. Fairies hover around, providing aerial support or casting defensive spells against opponents who are trying to shoot down the climbing members of their respective teams.

 

Amidst the frenzied climb, fights break out between Team Fire and Team Water members - tiny battles blossoming on this vertical battlefield, on tight, moving ledges that span out of the side of the giant’s body. Swords clash against axes in devastating impacts that send sparks flying or result in sudden eruptions of magic, the shockwaves sending both duelists flying off to their deaths more often than not, the voice of the crowd droning like the buzz of a thrilled swarm, giving all the stones within the arena a constant, never-ending vibration. Arrows whiz past heads while spells ricochet off the rocky exterior with brilliant flashes akin to a miniature fireworks display on a giant effigy.

 

But their struggles are abruptly cut short by an enraged swing of the giant golem’s arm — like an avalanche hurtling down a mountainside — sweeping away clusters of climbers in one fell swoop, as it finally gives its first reaction to their provocations. Their forms are thrown back amidst bouts of flame, with bodies — some pre-crushed, others not — crashing onto the floor or getting tangled within foliage as they are sent flying. The monster's other hand crashes down to the ground next with terrifying speed, pulverizing those unfortunate enough to be caught under it into wet dust. The ground beneath trembles from the brutal quake, shaking the rare few loose climbers still clinging onto the golem’s stony surface and stirring panic amongst the warriors still rushing towards this behemoth.

 

A trumpet blazes.

 

All dead contestants are resurrected.

 

The next thirty seconds begin.

 

And Munera watches with joy, only a little curious as to why the Hero and the Demon-Queen didn’t show up today. Oh well, it’s nice to have a ‘normal’ game now and then too.

 

---

 

“FOOL!” hisses the Demon-Queen, her mocking tone cascading around the room, its echo carrying on like the ten-thousand voices of a swarm. “You, as always, have never stood a chance against my endless power,” she replies, a clear smugness present in her voice. “I do not have a five.”

 

Pravyen rolls his eyes, pulling a card. “I killed you, remember?” asks the hero.

 

“Do you have a seven?” she asks. “Or are you a coward?”

 

— Pravyen slaps a card with a seven on it down onto the table. She sneers in glee, a long, sharp set of fingers placing her own seven down on top of it and sliding the two to the side. “I feel very alive for someone you 'killed', boy,” she replies. “Do you have a three?”

 

“I do not,” replies Pravyen.

 

“LIES!” shouts the Demon-Queen, her fists slamming against the table, its weight only not buckling because of the metal reinforced legs. But it does sag more than before now.

 

“Nope,” replies Pravyen, nudging the deck her way. She glares at him, sitting back down and drawing a card now that it’s his turn. “This is a temporary circumstance,” he explains, looking at her. “Like so many things in life are,” says the hero. “Four.”

 

“SCHEMER!” shouts the Demon-Queen, enraged as she lays down another card that Pravyen takes, combining it with his own to set aside.

 

“You’re just a sore loser,” replies Pravyen. “Always have been. Always will be.”

 

— The table flips, the bolts that bound it to the stone floors ripping free as the Demon-Queen throws it across the room, the deck of cards flying. “I WILL DEVOUR YOUR BONES!” she yells.

 

Pravyen stares blankly, looking at his hand, and then pulls out a card, holding it up to her. “Do you have a one? Drama queen.”

 

“What did you call me, wretch?!”

 

“Called you a drama queen,” replies Pravyen, shaking the card in her face as she leans down over him. “Answer the question.”

 

“The game has ended, as has your life,” she says, rearing herself to lunge at him.

 

Pravyen shrugs, shaking his head and sighing. “Guess that means you lose then,” he remarks. “If you’re forfeiting.”

 

“I DID NO SUCH THING!”

 

“Hmm…” replies the man, looking around the room at the scattered cards.

 

She hisses, realizing that if she doesn’t continue the game, she will have lost by virtue of simply being too angry to play on further. The Demon-Queen sits down on the floor, crosses her legs, and picks up her cards to look at them. “I do not have a one,” she replies in a buzzing, chittering voice.

 

“This makes me nostalgic,” remarks Pravyen, picking up a random card from the floor. “It’s just like how we were back then.”

 

“I am nostalgic for nothing!” she snaps at him. “You ruined my greater ambitions, and your eyes will feed the scarabs for a century more after I pluck them from your broken skull!”

 

He shakes his head. “You wanted to destroy the world, drama queen,” replies Pravyen. “Told you not to, but you didn’t listen.”

 

“YOU ARE NOT MY MASTER!” she replies. “I ALONE AM THE DEMON-QUEEN, RIGHTFUL REAGENT OF THE WORLD ITSELF!” she shouts, holding her chest forward proudly. “If I choose to destroy what is mine, that is my choice alone to make.”

 

“Sure, sure. It’s your turn, you know?” he asks, nodding to the cards.

 

She blinks, looking back down at her hand. “Oh, yes.” She looks up at him. “But do not besmirch my royal title.”

 

He nods. “Oh, sorry, Diva-Queen.”

 

— She screams, throwing her cards into the air and lunging at him, the two of them destroying half of the quarters in their tousle before Munera catches on and has to intervene in annoyance, pulling itself away from the fight.