DEATH ARENA - 19

NOMSA

The Planet of Chirwa can be described as a desert wasteland filled with nothing but vermilion mire upon vermilion mire. How it is able to sustain living creatures is all due to the fact that underneath all this red dirt are hidden springs of water so we verbatim come from the marl.

Chirwa is ruled over by Empress Matawandi who hosts the Cyclical Death Games at her Royal Palace in Nambao the Capital.

What are the Cyclical Death Games you ask? Well, Chirwans are naturally violent creatures who verbatim become non compos mentis if they do not curb their blood lust. In order to keep us under control, a millennia ago, one of the Great Emperors of Chirwa introduced with verve what is known as the Cyclical Death Games where Gladiators from all over Chirwa come to combat until there is only one Gladiator left standing or more realistically left alive.

This happens in two stages, the first stage is for novice Gladiators to make a name for themselves. The second stage is for all the top Gladiators of each Death Arena to compete to see who the top Gladiator of Chirwa is. This stage is where the most macabre terminating take place because no top Gladiator wants to suffer the shame of being defeated and returning back to their Death Arena, for they would much rather die than suffer such a discomfiture.

The thing is, no one expected there to be such a positive response from the inhabitants of Chirwa that too many Chirwans wanted to become Gladiators and this led to the introduction of Death Arenas all over Chirwa.

These Death Arenas filtered out all the weaklings and only the best of the best could compete in the Cyclical Death Games.

Every cycle, Death Arena Masters and Mistresses travel all over Chirwa in search of the next great Gladiator and hopefully persuade them into fighting for their Death Arenas and that is where I come in.

When I participated in the preliminary rounds I only had one Death Arena in mind, Death Arena - 19 ruled over by Mistress Muleya as she is one of the few female Chirwans who participate in this male dominated sport.

That is not the only reason why I wanted to fight for Death Arena - 19, the top Gladiator of all of Chirwa just happens to fight for her and if not there then where else?

Her name is Koma and her weapons of choice are blood vermilion twin axes while mine is a sepia katana. Her movements are always so meticulous that it always seems as though she is performing a dance rather than fighting so if I am to grow as a Gladiator I want to do that in the same place as the top Gladiator of Chirwa.

Each Death Arena looks exactly the same, as they are all dome shaped with the main Arena where the combats take place barricaded with black titanium rods to keep the spectators safe.

There are however distinguishing factors that separate ordinary Chirwans from Gladiators since we all have different shades of caramel skin, pallid hair of different lengths, pallid eyes, dark lapis lazuli horns sprouting from the sides of our temples that slightly curve upwards towards their tips and lastly a dark lapis lazuli tail with flaxen dots in haphazard patterns.

Gladiators on the other hand wear black soma suits made of dragon lamina and giant sable wings genetically attached to their backs that is their distinguishing factor from the rest of the Chirwans.

Back when we were not terminating each other for sport, Chirwans hunted dragons but soon enough their numbers dwindled and dragon hunting became illegal once again stirring us in the line of terminating each other for sport.

"So are you just going to stand there all day or are you going to come in?" An old male Chirwan questions me with a smug look on his profile as he stands in front of the back entrance of Death Arena - 19.