The final hour of waiting was agonizing. The shadows in the alley had deepened, offering good concealment, but the noise of the Central Timber Yard was beginning to thin out as the laborers packed up their tools. Meko leaned against the cool brick wall, his gaze fixed on the main thoroughfare, ticking off the minutes until the deadline.
Doren, completely drained from his sleepless night, accompanied by his terrifying nightmare, and the stress of the jewel transaction, had finally succumbed to exhaustion. He was slumped on an overturned wooden crate, his head resting awkwardly on his chest, utterly oblivious. Anya sat next to him, her posture rigid, one hand resting protectively near the drawstring pouch containing the gold that Doren held protectively.
Meko strained his ears, listening past the immediate chaos for any sound of wind or the subtle footsteps that would herald Katarina's return.
Just then, a pair of Limka citizens walked past the mouth of the alley, their voices raised slightly over the distant grinding of the sawmills. They were two older men, likely low-level clerks or tradesmen, dressed slightly better than the laborers.
"Are you going to the arena tonight?" one man asked the other, his voice laced with hopeful anticipation.
"No, I couldn't get enough coin," the second man replied, his tone bitter with disappointment. "Wife took every spare coon we had. Said some 'I need to get tunics for the kids'."
"That's a shame," the first man said, pausing right beside the alley entrance to adjust his bag. "They have a new one. I overheard the foreman talking about it. Said she's a small, fast one. Real piece of work, real pretty too. They call them the 'swift catches.' Supposed to be quite a show before they feed her to the Stonscur."
The two men chuckled darkly and continued down the street, their voices fading into the general noise.
Meko went instantly rigid. The word "swift" hit him hard, bringing to mind Katarina's agility. The mention of the Stonscur and the phrase "feed her" instantly snapped Meko's attention away from the Sunless Order and toward a more immediate, horrifying local threat.
He exchanged a quick, wide-eyed look with Anya. Katarina had been captured by something far worse than the sunless. At that moment, it was the only thing that mattered.
Doren remained slumped on the crate, deep in sleep, unaware of the terrifying information that had just passed right by his ear.
Anya's eyes were wide and frantic, reflecting the lurid details of the conversation they had just overheard. The words the men spoke was a spike of icy fear in her chest. She leaned toward Meko, her voice dropping to a coarse, terrified whisper.
"You don't think... you don't think Katarina was caught, do you, Meko?"
Meko didn't answer right away. His gaze was fixed on the empty street where the two citizens had walked, his expression tight, trying to reconcile the cold logic of the Sunless Order pursuit with the brutal randomness of a local slave ring. He was already past the two-hour mark. Katarina was officially late.
"I... I don't know, Anya," Meko admitted, the tension in his jaw making his voice gravelly. He was usually the rock, the unflappable strategist, but the thought of Katarina being dragged into a fight with creatures that could easily kill her rattled him. "We expected the Order…. This sounds like... local filth. It's disorganized, it's brute force, and it's worse."
He ran a hand over his face, shaking his head slightly. "Dammit. If she ran into trouble, her Air element would have made her look fast and desirable. It would have drawn their attention, exactly the way those fools described 'a swift catch.' They wouldn't have known what she was, only that she moved quickly."
Meko lowered his voice to a near-silent hiss, his anxiety showing for the first time. "The Archive district was compromised by those cloaked figures, but whoever captured Katarina wouldn't care about a paper trail. They'd just care about the alleyways. And if she had got into a struggle, she's our Air element. She can't fight brute strength up close."
He looked at Doren, still asleep, and back at Anya. "We planned for an easy mission. Not a rescue mission in a beast pit. If they have her, they are moving fast, and they will be heavily armed. We have to assume the worst."
Anya gently nudged Doren with her foot, instantly pulling him from his deep, exhausted sleep. "Doren, wake up. Now."
Doren blinked, disoriented, staring blankly at the dark wall of the alley. "What? What is it? Did Katarina—"
"No," Anya cut him off, her voice low and tight. She stood, scanning the alley entrance. "Katarina should've been here by now. We just overheard a couple of people talking about an arena."
Doren scrambled off the crate, the mention of the word snapping his mind back to reality. "Arena? What arena?"
"They have a new fighter," Anya explained, her voice thick with worry. "They called her a 'swift catch' and said they were going to feed her to the Stonscur bear for tonight's show."
A cold dread settled over Doren, the memory of his dream of his friends' brutal deaths resurfacing instantly. "You don't think..."
"Unfortunately, we do, Doren," Anya interrupted.
Meko, who had been listening intently, stepped forward. "We can't be sure, but it's the only lead we have, and we're out of time. If she's there, it's our best bet."
Doren's fist clenched around the gold pouch in his pocket. "We have to find her." He said with his jaw tight.
"Then we act like spectators," Meko stated, his composure returning as he shifted into action mode. He looked out of the alley mouth. "I saw another group talking about the arena earlier, heading toward the entertainment district. We'll follow them. They won't look twice at three dirty laborers trying to catch a cheap fight."
Anya nodded, relief warring with terror that they finally had a direction.
"Let's move," Meko ordered, pushing Doren and Anya out of the alley. "Blend in, stick close, and don't look back."
They slipped out of the confines of the Central Timber Yard, falling into the wake of the next group of citizens who looked like they were heading toward a night of bloody entertainment.
—-
Katarina stumbled on the rough-packed dirt, her eyes squinting against the overwhelming, lurid red light that bathed the arena. The roar of the bloodthirsty crowd, hundreds of voices amplified by the cavernous space, was deafening, a wave of noise and anticipation. She was the spectacle.
Her chains, heavy and unforgiving, tugged at her wrists and ankles. She looked frantically for an exit, but the high, rough stone walls of the arena offered no easy escape.
Then, the focus of the crowd's roar became clear.
Directly in front of her, the ground began to tremble. A massive, circular section of the arena floor groaned and started to ascend from the depths below, driven by hidden machinery.
A giant creature, easily fifteen feet tall, rose slowly into view. It was a terrifying, muscular mountain of a beast, its powerful limbs thick and heavy. The creature was encased in a network of hundreds of thick, dark chains that crisscrossed its massive body, binding its rage and making its movements a struggle. Its eyes were not naturally brown or black, but glowed with a feral, intense red anger, matching the oppressive light of the arena.
Its body was covered in natural stone armor, with plates of thick, segmented rock that protected its hide, making it a living fortress. Its front paws, where claws should have been, were bludgeons encased in jagged, granite-like stones, ready to crush. Its mouth was open in a silent, savage roar, revealing rows of thick, barbed teeth designed to latch and rip away its prey.
The sight was instant horror. While Katarina had never encountered one in person in the deep north, she had heard the fearful legends of the forest laborers.
She knew exactly what it was. It was a Stonscur Bear, a creature of immense, chaotic power and brutal ferocity, likely maddened and enraged for the exact purpose of this evening's bloody entertainment. The massive beast shuddered, straining against its shackles, its red eyes locked directly onto the small, bound figure of Katarina standing alone in the arena. The crowd went into a fever pitch, cheering for the girl to be ripped to pieces in front of their very eyes. The show had begun.
Just as the enormous Stonscur Bear began to strain against the hundreds of links binding its massive, stone-armored body, a new sound cut through the deafening roar of the crowd. It was the sharp clang of metal on stone.
With a sudden, startling snap, the heavy chains that shackled the beast's limbs to the pit floor broke free. The creature was unleashed. Its remaining chains crashed onto the dirt arena floor below it, the sound echoing throughout the arena.
Simultaneously, the shackles binding Katarina's own wrists and ankles also fell away. The realization hit her instantly. They weren't fighting for her survival, they were fighting for the crowd's entertainment. They hadn't neutralized her element with the enclosure, but they had merely contained her, allowing the chains to suppress her power. Now that she was free to fight, they were letting her have a chance. It was a brutal, agonizingly small one.
The Stonscur Bear let out another ferocious, ground shaking roar, the sound similar to a shockwave. Its red eyes, fixed on the small figure of the girl, were pure, murderous rage. It dropped its heavy body low and charged.
The ground below the creature shook violently as it stomped through the dirt-covered arena. Katarina reacted instinctively. Survival demanded speed, and speed was her advantage.
She dropped her hand low, not to the dirt, but angled it directly toward the arena floor. She focused her element into a controlled, powerful upward thrust. With a silent whoosh, the air beneath her compressed and exploded.
She launched herself over ten feet into the air. She sailed straight over the massive, charging form of the Stonscur Bear, the beast's immense, stone-clad bulk passing directly beneath her with a terrifying rush of momentum.
The Stonscur Bear, maddened and unable to stop its colossal body, continued its headlong dash toward the wall of the stadium. It crashed into the stone foundation with a sound like a small earthquake. The devastating, bone-jarring impact sent ripples of sound through the entire arena and left immediate, visible cracks in the ancient stone. Dust and debris rained down from the ceiling.
The creature didn't immediately turn its attention back to Katarina. Instead, fueled by pure, unbridled rage at its confinement and the pain of the impact, the Stonscur Bear stood up on its hind legs, rising to its full fifteen-foot height. It let out a devastating, enraged bellow and used one of its gigantic, stone-armored front paws to swat violently at the watchers in the first row of the stadium.
The sheer size of the beast meant its paw came terrifyingly close to the stands. Spectators in the front rows screamed and scrambled backward in a panicked frenzy, desperate to escape the immediate, crushing threat. The Stonscur Bear's rage was aimed at everything and everyone around it.
Katarina hovered for a moment in the air, watching the chaos she had caused, realizing the devastating power of her opponent. The beast was turning, its red eyes seeking her again.
Katarina utilized her mastery over her element to gently touch down on the dirt floor, her landing quiet and graceful despite the arena's chaos. She watched the Stonscur Bear turn, its massive, stone-clad form recovering instantly from the wall impact, its red eyes still blazing with murderous fury.
The creature didn't hesitate and it charged again. A monster with a terrifying amount of muscle and rock. The ground beneath its heavy stomps shook the arena floor.
This time, Katarina stood her ground. She waited until the monster was mere feet away, its immense momentum and bulk already committed to the attack. Just as the beast was about to crush her, she channeled her elemental power into a decisive, concentrated move.
She swung both her arms in a sharp, coordinated motion to her right side. A focused, pressurized wall of air slammed into the Stonscur Bear's exposed flank.
The attack hit the beast like an invisible battering ram. Despite its tremendous weight, the sudden, sideways force was too great for its momentum to counteract. The Stonscur Bear was lifted slightly off the ground and thrown into a violent, uncontrolled roll. Its huge, armored body tumbled end-over-end in a cloud of dust and debris, a pathetic, temporary defeat that sent the crowd into a confused roar.
Katarina used the critical seconds the bear was rolling to move, putting distance between herself and the point where the enraged creature would eventually recover.
Katarina didn't stop to enjoy the small victory. She kept her feet moving, circling the stunned Stonscur Bear while simultaneously scanning the rough stone walls of the arena. She knew instinctively that repeating the attack would only momentarily delay the creature. Its natural stone armor made it too resilient to be defeated by blunt, external force from her element. She needed a decisive plan.
Her eyes settled on the section of the wall where the Stonscur Bear had crashed moments ago. The impact had left deep, spider-webbing cracks in the foundation.
That was it. The creature's own brute force had weakened its prison. If she could force the immense weight of the creature into that compromised section again, she might be able to make the wall topple onto the beast, crushing it or at least pinning it beneath the rubble.
She immediately broke into a full sprint toward the damaged section of the wall. Just as she committed to the plan, the Stonscur Bear picked itself up from its clumsy roll, roaring its renewed, furious intent. Seeing her running, the creature lowered its massive head and charged directly at her.
They were now locked in a terrifying race. Katarina was running to reach the weakened wall, and the Stonscur Bear was charging after her. Both were hurtling in the exact same direction, Katarina serving as the horrifying bait to draw the colossal creature toward the flaw in the arena's defenses. The crowd screamed, sensing the dramatic climax.
Katarina ran with blinding speed, the heavy stomps of the Stonscur Bear pounding the dirt just feet behind her. As she neared the severely cracked section of the arena wall, her eyes flicked upward toward the screaming, frenzied crowd lining the immediate edge of the stands. They were too close, too invested in the spectacle to realize the danger.
"Move! Get away from the edge!" she yelled, her voice barely a whisper against the crowd's roar, simultaneously sweeping her hands in a frantic motion, trying to physically encourage them to scatter. The massive creature's heat radiated on her back. She could practically feel its barbed teeth snapping behind her.
Reaching the cracked wall, Katarina didn't slow. She focused her Air element to deliver a precise, sharp boost beneath her feet. This propelled her upwards, allowing her to sprint vertically up the rough stone surface for several feet.
She used the wall as a ramp, and as she reached the peak of her ascent, she executed a perfect, acrobatic flip. She drove her feet hard against the stone just above the beast's head, giving herself a final powerful kick off. This action achieved two goals. It reversed her momentum and gave the Stonscur Bear no time to stop its charge.
The massive creature, following its prey relentlessly, smashed into the weakened wall again. The impact was catastrophic. The entire arena rocked violently, and a deafening, grinding CRACK split the air.
Katarina landed several feet behind the stunned creature, breathing hard. Dust and debris rained down from the shattered stone work, but the wall, though clearly on the brink of collapse, hadn't quite toppled onto the creature. The rubble merely covered the Stonscur Bear, rather than crushing it. The creature was temporarily stunned, but still standing, still lethal.
She had weakened the wall, but she needed one more, decisive blow to bring it down.
"Come on..." Katarina whispered in a voice tight with fear, frustration warring with the need for survival. The wall hadn't collapsed, and the Stonscur Bear was already stirring in the debris. She needed a new plan, immediately.
She took off, sprinting across the packed dirt in the opposite direction. Her eyes searched the roofline high above the roaring crowd. Up there, she spotted an opening. It was a wide hole in the ceiling that brought down a column of the moonlight of the night.
The sight of the moon was a jarring reminder. Katarina had been trapped for so long and had been fighting for her life with such absolute focus that she had completely forgotten she needed to rendezvous with her companions. The sun had set hours ago. Her friends were long gone, or worse, they were waiting in danger. And the critical information she had been sent to get was still locked away in the Archives.
The Stonscur Bear let out a frustrated, guttural bellow and was on her heels once more, its momentum quickly gaining. Katarina made a desperate, high-risk decision. Using the momentum of her sprint, she shot herself into the air with a powerful boost, simultaneously firing a strong gust of air in the opposite direction to slow the beast's charge.
She then focused every ounce of her concentration. She started performing the incredibly demanding feat of stepping through the air, forming momentary, invisible platforms of compressed air beneath her feet to aid her ascent. She climbed rapidly, a silhouette against the moonlight, leaving the arena floor and the maddened creature far below.
She was nearly at the top of the arena, mere feet from the moonlight streaming through the roof opening, when a sudden, unseen blow struck her.
It felt like running into a wall of solid glass. An invisible, crushing force slammed into her. The pain was immediate and shocking, and the blow shattered her elemental concentration instantly. The carefully constructed air-platforms beneath her feet vanished.
With a gasping cry, Katarina lost all control of her element. She began plummeting back down into the depths of the stadium, falling straight toward the enraged Stonscur Bear that was waiting for her on the dirt floor below.
Katarina tumbled through the air. The beast, seeing its prey falling directly into its lap, let out a triumphant, guttural roar, its massive, barbed jaws snapping open in anticipation.
Then, a voice, familiar, sharp, and frantic, split through the roar of the crowd and the sound of the wind rushing past her ears: "Go get her, Meko!"