Viktor

The event happened years ago, but both men still remembered.

And most likely will remember.

The event that changed their very nature.

Both men watched as the stadium was quickly filled with participants.

Both watching but neither paying attention.

As they watched people slaughter each other, their minds remained thinking about that day.

…………………….

Dante got into gear quickly and surely.

Everyone around him a blur of white, as Dante quietly put on his white boots.

Every single participant wore white, as was the custom in the Colosseum. It made Dante dislike the color. It was a quiet and constant reminder that, here, you are darkened by the blood you spill. At the end of the tournament, many individuals were left without even a single inch of their clothing with white.

He thought about Seph as he got ready.

If he won, maybe he could have her.

After all, one of the prizes was a title.

That made him think of his competition.

Almost every single fighter in the Colosseum was a Hunter.

Orpheus, like any other Hunter that owns land, for the most part, does not like other Hunters. However, with a tip from Jack, he learned one important detail.

With enough oppression, you can overrule any creature’s distinctive nature. That’s how he kept so many Hunters in the Colosseum.

Dante was being offered a method to escape the madness.

And he was going to take it.

As Dante got ready, he saw a girl with brown hair and glasses approaching him.

"Ness" Dante called out.

Ness was a Hunter that hated fighting. Her love for books and studying made her one of the strangest Hunters known to Dante. She explained to him once that, "there is the smell of adventure, excitement, and fun in books”.

Dante still thought she was weird.

But what he found even stranger was the fact that a peace-loving bookworm had survived so long in the colosseum. She was always spared by the others all this time. Whenever Dante asked her, she would just shrug it off and claim that she was too cute to be killed.

“But the fact that you never get thumbs down is even stranger,” she once said.

It was rare for a bishop to give judgment. They only did it when fighters pissed them off beforehand or they did something the bishops didn’t like. Dante constantly did things they did not like.

He would always win the first round, no matter whom he fought, and would give up instantly on the second one. Of course, it pissed off the bishops. They were here to see blood, not a quitter. Yet they never passed judgment on him. Even if he always managed to piss them off.

Ness laid down in one of the nearby hammocks as Dante kept getting ready. After she was nestled in and was reading a book, she finally talked to him.

“Are you going to quit after the first round again?” she asked.

“No,” said Dante.

“What?”

“I’m not going to quit after the first round,” said Dante.

“You being for real?”

“Yes”

“I guess the prize this time is really good”

“It’s too good to pass up”

“I want to feel like lightning itself”

“I want to become a paladin,” said Dante.

“What?”

This time, Ness got up from her hammock to look at Dante properly.

“You want to help the asshole that got us here in the first place? The same man that has oppressed us for years? The man who gave us these?” said Ness as she reminded Dante of their scars.

“Yes,” he said.

Ness didn’t say anything to that at all. Instead, she laid down on the hammock once again.

“Then win,” she said.

It was then that Ness was called. It seemed like she was going to be first.

“Good luck,” said Dante.

“Winners don’t need luck,” said Ness.

Dante smiled.

And Ness went out to fight.

……………………………………….

The stadium had been going wild for a while.

They had seen a Hunter use blood as a weapon and a Hunter that could move the earth they stood on. They also saw many bloody fistfights and a lot of good fighters.

But none of them expected what came next.

Ness got the champion of the arena.

Normally, the champion of the arena would fight last, but this tournament had people coming from the outside. So, in the spirit of fairness, they made the selection completely random.

So, Viktor, the champion, was forced to participate in the first rounds, and Ness was the one that had to deal with him.

The man with a thick accent and no hair whatsoever. He was built like a truck, with muscles rippling through the white cotton shirt he wore.

But that didn't scare Ness at all.

She decided she had to make the first move and went for a kick to the face.

But the man didn’t even budge.

He grabbed Ness’ leg and threw her to the ground. As she tried to recover, and the crowd screamed in excitement, the man broke Ness’ arm.