HoloPirates: A Tale of Adventure

Motivation

Honestly, as that door opened, I expected to see the rather normal sight of a lavish casino, even if it was made out of wood underwater, but I didn't expect anything of what I saw. For one, I never expected the cavern to be so massive. It was an absolutely enormous chamber, spanning at least a mile in every direction, and what got my attention next was the bones. The entire place was built into the skull and ribs of some massive, long dead creature. The shell looked almost like a goat skull, having long, curving horns that twisted backwards on its skull, just like a ram's. It had three eyes on each side of the skull, with the one at the back being much, much larger than the others, and all of them glowed with the lights of the sprawling casinos. But, that was nearly nothing compared to the things jaw. Massive teeth donned the jaw, looking like something out of a horror movie. Each tooth was at least five or six hundred feet tall, being more flat near the back and a whole lot sharper near the front.
And that wasn't even covering the extent of the casino. It wasn't even a single casino. This place was like if you rolled MonteCarlo, New York City, and Las Vegas all into one, all in the bones of a Leviathan. The casinos sprawled all throughout the cavern, and instead of being just one casino like I thought, there were thousands and thousands of buildings, from simple houses to gigantic arenas, and near everything in between.
"Holy shit!!" I said, marveling at the size of the cavern. "It's enormous!!"
As I was marveling at the size of all of it, Gura came right up next to me, still leaning on her trident.
"We can do whatever we want here, Micheal." She said. "You can fight, drink, smoke, gamble, hell you can sell your soul if you want."
I stood there, contemplating her words, and a massive cheer erupted from the ribs of the creature.
"Most of your friends are down here, in the various casinos, but one of them is in our biggest Arena, if you want to go and see them."
"Wait a minute, who?"
"I think her name was Botan. The lion lady."
"She's....here?" I asked, finding it a little bit hard to believe. "Botan, in a casino?"
"No no no, she isn't a fan of gambling apparently, but when we told her about the Battle Dome, she said that she needed to sharpen her senses, or something like that."
"Huh. Is that the cheering over there?" I asked, pointing at the gigantic rib cage.
"Yeah, actually, wanna head over?" She asked. "There's some seahorses that we can rent to get around town, unless you wanna walk!"
"Walk? In this suit? I'd rather die." I laughed, soothing out the wrinkles that had cropped up in my suit. "Let's get a seahorse."

* * * * * * * * * *

As soon as I dismounted the seahorse, I found myself marveling at the Battle Dome. It was this gigantic stone building, nestled in between two of the ribs, and on the very top of it, there was a gigantic dome of glass, gleaming in the lights of the cavern.
"So, what exactly is this?" I asked.
"Its where a lot of either top warriors, celebrities, or mercenaries go to fight in a gigantic rumble for sport. Its really popular down here."
"Ohhh, thats why she wanted to do it." I said. "Botan was raised a warrior for some tribe that we came across."
"Oh she was?"
"Yeah, thats why she has such good skills. She grew up as a warrior."
"Oh, then she'll probably trash whoever's in there." She said. "Come on! Let's get some good seats!!"
She grabbed my hand, and off we ran, straight past the stables and seahorse tie ups, and we merged with the crowd that was filing into the Battle Dome. So many of the Atlanteans were cheering and yelling on the inside, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw two small kids helping an elderly Atlantean put on a set of really old looking battle armor, having tons of markings and unknown words all over it.
"Is that a contestant over there?" I asked. "The old guy?"
"Of course not, Micheal." She said. "He's a retired soldier. This sport is pretty popular for them."
The little boys cheered about something, then ushered the old man through the entrance to the Battle Dome, which we were getting really close to. Gura kept her grip on my hand as we entered into the Battle Dome, and she pulled me past the ticket counters and food vendors, who were catering to all of the hungry patrons.
"Jeez Gura!!" I said as she finally let go of my arm. "Do you have to pull me everywhere?"
"Yeah, 'cause you'll get caught up on the food and toys."
"What, am I six?" I said. "You're the kid here!"
"Yeah yeah yeah, whatever." She scoffed. "Botan is right down here if you want to give her a pep talk."
"Aye, lets go see her."
She opened one of the steel doors, and, on the inside, there was Botan, sharpening the spear that she's had for God knows how long. She still wore that special ops uniform, but this time, she had a black jacket on, and the jacket had multiple knives and spikes that were strapped to it. She turned as the door opened, and a smile grew across her face as she laid eyes on the both of us. Both of her ears twitched as she put the spear down, and she walked straight up to me, put out her arms, and wrapped me up in a big hug, which surprised me.
"Uhhh, Botan?" I said as she finally let go of me. "What was that?"
"Just in case I die out there!"
"Jeez, thats so morbid!"
"Oh Micheal, I'll be fine. I heard that people bet on this thing all the time, so feel free to place a nice bet on me, okay?"
"Got it." I said. "Don't lose and make me waste all my money."
"Then don't bet all your money in the first place!" She said, sticking her tongue out. "I'll hang these guys out to dry, don't worry Micheal."
"Aye, I'm sure." I said. "Just hope that one of them doesn't pull what I did on you."
"Which was what? Cry like a baby so that I stop for a second?"
"Oh you're so annoying!!!" I whined, smacking her in the shoulder. "I didn't cry through the entire fight, and I beat you fair and square!"
"Yeah, yeah, I got it." She said. "Fair and square. Alright, I'm gonna finish getting ready. Place that bet for me?'
"Aye. Fight good."
Before I could turn and leave, she grabbed me and wrapped me in another hug, surprising me yet again. This time, however, I lightly placed my hands on her stomach and pushed her off of me as my head felt foggy yet again.
"Don't...uh.." I said, my brain feeling a little bit foggy. "Don't do that."
She gave me a worried look, but I turned out of the room, cutting off whatever Botan was going to say to me, and, almost without thinking, I grabbed Gura's hand and led the both of us right out of the room, shutting the steel door behind us.