Amidst a city, the form of a slim, 5 foot tall woman appears on the sidewalk of a 2 lane road. The woman’s body grows into an 8 foot tall woman with large muscles and a ripped physique. Her feminine features are present, but not to an exaggerated, sexually distracting degree. She is not wearing any clothes and she doesn’t feel any concern to find some. Instead of clothes, red tattoos cover roughly half her body while the words “Wrath is Amusing”, and “Chaos is Serene” adorning each of her shoulders. She looks over her impressive body and quickly becomes accustomed to her capabilities and senses. While she looks around this new and unknown environment, she hears something a block away.

Reaching the source, she comes upon a large circular structure reminiscent of a modern stadium, but smaller in scale. At what looks to be the main entrance stands two large doors with intricate designs that evoke thoughts of pain and glory. Finding the entrance unlocked she pulls one door open with much less effort than she expected. Bringing a curious, yet cautious attitude in with her she sees more designs along the walls and ceiling of the well lit hallway ahead of her. Past the hallway she arrives in what looks to be the main lobby. The room has a very gothic, yet ancient Greek aesthetic with small high tech devices carefully hidden among the elaborate furniture. Emotional shouts, screams, and many destructive sounds can be heard coming from a grated door at the far end of the lobby. Being intrigued by the sounds of combat she calls out “Hello … Hello … is anyone there?” and walks up to the door. After a few seconds of perceptivity no alerted or caring presence is found.

Envoke reaches toward the door, confident that there are no traps awaiting her. Safe to her confident grasp Envoke opens the grated door. She proceeds through the now open doorway into the hall beyond. Once inside, a very apparent sign indicating how to get to the arena is on the wall. Examining the beautiful marble walls as she proceeds to the stairs, she begins to wonder what lies ahead in the arena.

The marble interior continues down the stairway. As she walks down the immaculate stairs, she is surprised by the stark difference between the beautiful interior and the loud clash of physical might and emotional fire ahead.

At the bottom of the stairs is a large room filled with several marble benches and about a dozen fighters awaiting their turn in the arena. Upon entering the waiting room she is immediately greeted by a plethora of odd smells and wandering eyes staring at her. Checking out the dozen or so competitors she is surprised by the variety of awaiting challengers. Most of the challengers looking like some sort of buff, hairy orangutan-human hybrid with different levels of muscularity and build. Then there are some that look like giants of lore, golems ranging from flesh to stone, and even metal. And at the other end of the proverbial spectrum there are thinner, more grotesque beings with a variety of appendages and translucent skin shinning in the extravagantly lit room. The architecture is much simpler in the waiting room; there are no designs to speak of, just lots of lighting pieces and sparsely placed benches for furniture. To her surprise, the entryway leading to the arena is open and there are no visible guards preventing the challengers from getting to the arena before they are called. Happily acknowledging this sense of respect for combat from the challengers, she decides to do a little mental preparation.

Envoke finds some empty space to sit down, but a stone golem blocks her path. They stare each other down face to face for a few seconds until finally, the stone golem eventually backs away from the intensity of Envoke’s presence. Envoke gets comfortable in her meditation pose while she centers her state of being.

Shortly after psyching herself up a large stone challenger returns from the arena covered with evidence of the Champion’s power. Cracks and puncture wounds are strewn about the stone challenger’s body like holes in a fresh piece of Swiss cheese. Mildly concerned, she estimates that the Champion is using some sort of sharp, probably bladed weapon. She remains unafraid of her next opponent. In fact, the impressive damage is more intriguing than anything else.

As the large stone challenger sits down to rest, Envoke hears her name called to be the next challenger. Responding to the call, she walks to the arena’s entrance focused, while concern and thrill simultaneously race through her. Seeing the large glass bubble containing the simple, flat arena floor; Envoke studies the environment and prepares a battle plan. Once in the arena the audience and the Champion become immediately visible. The large audience resembles an army of peasants as they shout and scream at the combatants in the arena. Then there’s the Champion, a roughly 8’ tall walking wall of muscle and metal. It’s beaten metal armor protecting the several hundred pounds of muscle lying within. Most prominent though is the equally large pole axe the Champion is wielding. The thought, “Death awaits.” echoes through her mind. He stares directly at Envoke with a bloodthirsty grin shining across his face as he grips and re-grips his weapon eagerly.

Unafraid and ready to fight, Envoke faces her back to the Champion in order to provoke him into attacking. “Death awaits.”, Envoke proclaims in whispers, bringing thought to life. She figures that she can catch the Champion by surprise by making herself appear vulnerable. The audience watches from their comfortable seats with anticipation. “Who will become the victor of this bout?” they wonder. Most expect the Champion to win because he always has. In fact, most of the audience would be displeased with this fight if the Champion lost. The magnificent murderer of metal and flesh radiates his anticipation as a bloodthirsty grin reveals his desire to kill Envoke. Envoke shows no fear as the audience’s gaze scours Envoke’s body for any sign of weakness. What will Envoke do? Without a doubt, someone in the arena is going to die.

Appearing defensive or shy toward the Champion’s body language, Envoke keeps her back facing the Champion. Instead of cowering though, Envoke stands confident and stalwart. She turns her head over her right shoulder and gives the Champion a vigilant indirect stare. She does this with the expectation that the Champion will take the initiative to die first to her prepared counter blow. The Champion reacts to Envoke turning her back to him by immediately running toward her as quickly as he can. He readies his axe as he charges toward her. The Champion decides that he will cut her down with a powerful slash that he knows will do the job in one shot. He fills himself with confidence as he approaches the best distance for using his killing blow.

The Champion is milliseconds away from being at the optimal range for his deadly attack. An attack that has proven to be very effective and efficient at killing, time and time again. Many from the audience assume that the Champion will once again be victorious, and that this new challenger is just another training dummy waiting to be dismantled. Death can become anyone if they let it in.

The Champion immediately swings his poleaxe downs at Envoke in expectation of another quick and decisive kill. Envoke foresaw his attack even before she turned her back to him. As the blade approaches Envoke’s head, she quickly sidesteps the blade and him. As she arrives at his side she goes for more style points by chopping through the pole of the poleaxe to craft a makeshift hilt for her use. She instantly grabs the makeshift axe with her opposite hand, then with a quick twirl of her body slams the axe into and through his neck in one expedited clean shot. The dismantled Champion’s body falls to the ground like a spent bullet casing, while Envoke stands over his broken corpse. “I’ve had better.”, she says with a grin of satisfaction disguised in disappointment.

The crowd chants, “KILL!” repeatedly as the reinforced glass bubble containing the arena starts heating up. Envoke realizes that the energy being generated by the glass bubble is reaching extreme temperatures. In realizing that the arena is turning into an incinerator, Envoke runs back into and through the waiting room to escape the trap and get out of the stadium.

According to the rules of the arena; if a Champion dies, then the victor must take its place as Champion. Even though Envoke loves the thrill of combat, becoming the next metal-mangled murderer was definitely not her cup of tea. After escaping from the stadium, Envoke finds a little shack atop a 5-story building a block or so away to hide in. She plans to spy on any pursuers from the stadium.

To be continued …