The group of Vajizk and Sathogs strode toward us. Well, the Vajizk strode, the Sathogs were a little more cautious. They circled us again, but this time all eyes were on me.

  The Vajizk held up the bronze rod and swept the red crystal tip at each of us, like a warning, as if he was saying, ‘try anything and you’ll get the rod’. The Sathogs snatched up our spears, including Erro’s broken shaft, before they dragged the bloody and broken corpses of the jolaks off to the side. The Vajizk’s yellow, reptilian eyes never left me as he kept the bronze rod pointed in my direction.

  Once the jolak bodies were out of the way, the Vajizk pointed a clawed finger at me and then at the ground. The Sathogs led the others away, and the rod-wielding Vajizk followed them soon after. Dacrah glanced back at me as he limped toward the cell where we were kept. I nodded to him and gave a little wave to let him know I would be OK.

  I just wished I believed it myself.

  After I was left to stand alone in the middle of the arena, I looked up at the audience. The humans were shouting something, though I couldn’t quite make out what they were saying. The Sathogs seemed pensive and antsy, like a child who can’t wait to open presents on Christmas morning. The Vajizk just sat there stoically.

  I looked up at the box seats with the three noble Vajizk on their iron thrones. They weren’t whispering to each other anymore. Their eyes were set intently on me. I searched the stands but couldn’t find any sign of Inda. I just hoped she was safe and out of sight.

  Another Vajizk, also carrying a red crystal-tipped rod, emerged from one of the open holes in the arena wall followed by a human who carried a trident made of bronze. The metal glinted in the orange sun as the human tried to keep up with the Vajizk’s long strides. When they got about ten feet away, the Vajizk stopped and pointed his rod at me while the human stepped closer to present the trident.

  I took it and looked it over. The two outer forks of the trident were longer than the inner tine and had barbs that pointed inward. The weapon was heavier than I expected, with a shaft that seemed too long for a human to wield effectively. No wonder the slave struggled to carry it across the arena.

  The human was a man, but he looked different from the other humans I had seen so far. He was a little shorter and less muscular. His skin tone looked East Asian, but his hair was blonde like mine. He wore the same style of silken sash as the Vajizk, though it was obvious his wasn’t as nice.

  “What’s this for?” I asked.

  The human slave didn’t respond. He averted his eyes and subtly shook his head as if he was forbidden to speak. The Vajizk said nothing. He just kept his eyes on me until the slave had walked away. After they had both exited the arena floor, one of the other cells opened up and the crowd erupted in the loudest cheer I’ve ever heard.

  And a new horror slithered out.

  If the noble Vajizk were more human than snake, then this new variation was more snake than human with a massively long serpentine body. His emerald-green scales gleamed under the orange sun. His arms were the only thing about it that was like a human, but each one was as big as my leg.

  In one hand he held a round bronze shield, and his other hand held a sword with a bronze handle and a curved iron blade, which I would have required two hands to wield. But the snake-like Vajizk carried the sword and shield easily. That’s when I realized why the trident they gave me was so big and heavy. It was meant to be used by a creature like that.

  The audience chanted a word over and over. I didn’t understand what it meant, but I assumed it was the creature’s name.

  “Zusz! Zusz! Zusz! Zusz!”

  My heart raced as I watched his snake-like head and eyes focus on me as he slithered across the sand, clearing the distance far too quickly for my liking. He seemed to get bigger and bigger as he approached.

  Zusz stopped a safe distance away and looked me up and down, sizing me up. I saw scars across his head and missing scales around his arms. Battle scars. I’m sure Zusz wasn’t impressed with my smooth skin as it gave away my inexperience in the arena.

  If reptiles can sneer, then that’s what he did to me before looking up at the box seats behind me. The crowd grew quiet. Everyone, including myself, looked up at the noble Vajizk sitting up there. It was like a championship boxing match, and the promoters wanted to build up tension for the audience.

  When the crowned Vajizk raised his hand, the battle began.

  I whirled back to face Zusz, pointing my trident at him. In a show of strength, he lunged across the distance and bashed his shield into me. The force easily knocked my trident aside, slammed into my chest, and knocked me into the air. I landed hard in the sand, and by the time I lifted my head, I was halfway across the arena.

  He didn’t hurt me. He was just sending a message: I’m not some jolak you can kick around.

  The crowd went wild as I got back onto my feet. I don’t know if they were happy that I got knocked down a couple of pegs or just that the fight wasn’t over before it really got started. Either way, I wasn’t going to underestimate him again. I got ready and kept my trident pointed at him.

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  He lunged at me again, his long snake-like tail launching his shield at me. But this time, he had to cover more distance. That gave me more time to react, and I leaped to the side. But not far enough.

  He slammed his shield into me again, knocking me away. Though my body bounced off the solid wall of the arena, the blow didn’t hurt anything but my pride. I showed off by flipping up onto my feet and getting ready again.

  Zusz rushed forward, his body swaying hypnotically as he slithered. He raised his sword to strike down at me. I rolled away and stepped back. No bodyslam this time. The crowd cheered with each rush and dodge. He twisted his body around and swept the curved blade of his sword at me. I didn’t jump this time. I simply side-stepped and flicked the blade aside with my trident. I was learning his speed, though I wasn’t able to do much with that knowledge yet.

  But I was getting better, and Zusz knew it.

  He grew cautious. He slithered around me, drawing a wide circle in the sand. He was smart too, keeping his round, bronze shield facing me the whole time. The shield was big enough to protect his torso, which was just the area that seemed more human around his arms. His viper head and slitted eyes watched me over the ring of metal. There was no way I could get a kill shot.

  But the shield didn’t protect the long snake tail that trailed behind him.

  I faked a stab at his head, which tricked him into raising his shield to protect it. But in his moment of blindness, I turned the trident down and stabbed into his scaly hide. As the forks of the trident pierced into the meat and muscle of his tail, I felt the prongs dig into the hard earth under the sand.

  Zusz whipped around and swung his sword at me. I had to release the shaft of my weapon to leap back, or he would have cut me in half.

  I wasn’t sure who tricked who. He had a trident sticking out of his tail, but now I was unarmed. I jumped away as he lunged at me again. He swung his sword at me again, but his strike fell far short. Blood stained his green scales where the trident had nailed him to one spot. Now it was my time to sneer at him.

  I circled around Zusz, keeping his shield side to me. I was looking for an opening, though I didn’t know what I could do with it considering I had no weapon to use to attack him. As I stayed out of his reach, Zusz stole a glance at the trident. I knew he wanted to pull it out so he could use his superior speed to get at me.

  But here’s something I learned in my herpetology class in college. Snakes can’t back up. They can only slither straight ahead or turn. So if he wanted to pull it out, then he’d have to turn around to slither back, which would expose his back to me. And he’d have to either release his shield or his sword just to grip the trident to pull it out.

  For the moment, we were stuck in a standoff.

  I could hear the crowd getting just as frustrated as Zusz. They came to see a fight, not watch some little human dance out of reach of their champion fighter. Just as I was wondering what the noble Vajizk would do in case of a stalemate, I saw something across the arena.

  During the first fight, I threw a stone spear at a jolak that was chasing Tilk. My aim was way off, and it went wide, missing the beast completely. It was still lying on the arena floor. The Sathogs must have overlooked it when they took our weapons before escorting Dacrah and the others off the field. I came up with a plan. A stupid plan, but that’s all I had.

  I charged right for Zusz.

  He had been so desperate to slice me with his sword that he had stretched his body as far as it could go. I ran right past his torso, so close that I could smell the coppery blood oozing out of his wounded tail. Then he did what I had been hoping for. He swung his sword across, aiming right for my head to decapitate me. I dove forward and slid as if I were going for home plate.

  It was the most desperate slide I’ve ever pulled off, and I doubt Zusz had ever seen anything like it. My arms were straight out, my head up, and I shut my eyes to keep the sand out. As soon as I felt myself start to slow down, I curled up in a ball so momentum would roll me to my feet and kept running.

  My legs burned under me as I made the fastest sprint of my life. I knew it would take less than a second for him to realize what I was doing. I could hear the whish of the sand behind me as he slithered to catch me before the trident pinning his tail to the ground stopped him. The crowd cheered again, though I’m sure it was to urge Zusz on to kill me before I got away.

  And he almost did.

  I felt the sting of his blade when it cut across the flesh of my back just before I got out of his reach. I cried out as I scrambled for the stone spear and turned to face him. I’ve never seen a snake look shocked before. I’m not even certain they are capable of the emotion, but Zusz’s eyes widened just for a moment.

  I ran at him again. I carried the spear as if I were going to make another attack to his face. Perhaps he thought I was going to fake him out again, but this time he didn’t raise his shield. That was fine with me because I wasn’t going to stab him with it. I was going to throw it.

  I stopped short and hurled the spear as hard as I could. It came at him too fast for him to react and hit with too much force. It pierced through the meat of his lower jaw and into his skull, and it didn’t stop until the stone point jutted out the top of his head.

  But he wasn’t dead yet.

  Snakes don’t have much of a brain, and they can still lash out even if you shoot them in the head. Apparently, Zusz’s anatomy was pretty close. His torso whipped around, and his arms flailed, slashing wildly in a desperate attempt to kill me or anything else that got close to him.

  He finally got himself together enough to drop his sword and shield. He clutched at the shaft of the spear and tried to pull it out of his skull. I lunged forward and snatched up his sword. I moved in, spun around, and hacked at his torso with all my strength.

  The sharp blade cut deep into his flesh. Emerald green scales flew from his skin, and red blood sprayed out of his gaping wound. The blade stopped when I hit bone deep inside his body. I must have cut into his spinal cord because everything below the wound instantly went limp. Without his tail to hold him up, his torso fell to the ground, and he clutched at the sand with clawed hands.

  Though I doubt he would have shown me the same mercy, I didn’t enjoy seeing him suffer. With a quick downward cut, I separated his viper head from his human-like shoulders.

  With the fight over, I dropped the sword and panted to catch my breath. The crowd chanted a new word.

  Victor!