Guild Wars_ Edge of Destiny - J. Robert King [48]
“And second, we have the grawl Moropik!”
A gray-skinned gorilla-man bounded out of the dark corridor, lifted its furred face toward the crowd, and roared between widespread fangs.
“And last but not least, welcome the ettin Krog-Gork.”
The spectators roared loudest of all for this lumbering brute, with its two heads and witless cries.
Eir, Snaff, and Garm sat back down.
“All right,” Eir said soberly, “maybe there are no warriors here.”
“You think?” Zojja shot back.
“Let the battle begin!” cried the announcer. His hands moved in elaborate gestures, drawing the amplification spell from his own throat and sending it down upon the gladiators.
Mjordhein plodded forward and bellowed, “For Ulgoth the Mighty! We will reap you like grain!”
“Yeah,” the charr grumbled under his breath, though the amplification spell shared his response with everyone. A wave of amusement swept through the crowd. Rytlock looked up and bellowed, “And we’ll eat you like meat!”
The stands erupted.
The centaur drew forth a quarterstaff fitted with a scythe, the grawl lifted a mace encrusted with obsidian shards, and the ettin raised a club the size of a horse’s leg.
Edge of Steel stood ready with flaming sword and war hammer and stilettos.
The centaur broke into a gallop, leading the monsters across the arena sands. “Come along, two-legs! The centaurs are taking back what is ours!”
Logan also charged, shouting, “All that is yours is death!”
The man and the centaur came together. Mjordhein swung his bladed quarterstaff to cut Logan’s legs out from under him, but Logan leaped. The scythe cut through air instead of flesh. Logan planted his foot on the centaur’s steely hand and kicked his other foot into the creature’s jaw. The centaur reeled as Logan flipped over and landed in the sand.
Mjordhein’s eyes went red, and he dropped his massive horns and charged.
This time, Logan didn’t dodge, instead bringing his war hammer down between the horns and atop the centaur’s skull.
Mjordhein posted his legs, wobbled slowly on them, pitched backward, and crashed to the ground.
The crowd roared. Chirurgeons rushed out to aid the fallen centaur.
Meanwhile, the grawl turned toward Rytlock and charged: “For the Great One!” It swung its obsidian-bladed club at him.
The charr bounded in, flaming sword sliding along one edge of the club and shearing away the stones there. When the grawl swung a counterstrike, Rytlock raked away the other side of the club.
The grawl staggered back, staring in amazement at his toothless weapon. He should have been staring in amazement at Rytlock, however, who swiped his fiery sword beneath the gorilla-man’s face, setting his beard on fire. Hooting and wailing, the grawl bounded away.
Rytlock grinned at the stands. “Fricasseed—charr style.”
The crowd ate it up.
Chirurgeons rushed out to aid the grawl, and one shouted, “Unnecessary brutality!”
“Unnecessary brutality?” Rytlock roared, wheeling about. “I like the sound of that!”
Laughter welled through the arena.
Of the Killers, only the ettin remained. It trained one head on Rytlock and the other on Logan.
“Where’s Caithe?” whispered Rytlock, though everyone in the arena heard.
“I don’t know,” Logan whispered back. “Statistically, this one should be hers.”
“Well, let’s do this.”
The charr and the man charged side by side toward the great monster. Logan swung his hammer at the beast’s left leg, but its arm smashed him back. Rytlock met a similar fate on the right side, hurled back twenty paces. Both charr and man tumbled in the dust as the ettin rushed to finish them off. Horned feet pounded up to crush their heads—
But then the ettin staggered to a stop. Its knees buckled, and it plunged forward.
“Look out!” Logan shouted, rolling away.
Rytlock tumbled in the other direction.
As the ettin struck ground, its hunched back revealed a slender sylvari in black leather. She jumped free.
More chirurgeons arrived