The Crystal Swordsman: Alfheim's Awakening

Texas Red

We made our way over the giant round building and slowly entered inside of its vast open gates. Upon reaching its interior, we were met with a large colosseum surrounding what looked to be a massive dome cage. Kureha and I began to look around at the cheering crowds among the stands when were suddenly met with a spook. Latching onto the cage was a yellow and purple scaled Wyvern that tried desperately to bite at us thru the small gaps. The two of us stepped back hastily as a large door opened behind it.

"It's time to release our most prized cage shredder, a fan favourite among the Salamander race! He had an old name but now, we just call him Big Red!" The announcer shouted.

Slowly emerging from the shadowy doorway was a large red dragon with a forcefully armoured face and spines that had been damaged during previous battles. It let out a hiss as it snarled towards the smaller, weaker Wyvern.

"Due to the obvious size difference, this should be a quick one!" The announcer spoke as the two dragons roared for intimidation.

The Wyvern, being a more aggressive type of dragon, flew angrily towards the larger one resulting in its immediate demise. The red dragon chomped upon the little ones neck and shook its corpse side to side until it burst into shards. The cheering crowds sent a chill up my spine as they chanted for the request of more slaughter. My empathy poured out of me like a faucet and I couldn't bare to watch the cruelty any longer. In that moment, I spotted Eugene up in the royal viewing area laughing up a storm at the presentation before him. I scoffed and turned to a few stairs that lead to the seating areas that surrounded us. I huffed angrily and took the first step forward.

"I'm putting a stop to this." I growled as I went on my way.

"Wait! K!" Kureha chased after me.

I stormed around the cage wall with only one goal in my sights.

"I don't think this is a good idea, K. If a conflict arises, you won't be able to fight back. You're in another territory, remember?" Kureha tried to warn me by displaying what she had learned thus far.

"I don't care. I'd rather die for what I believe in than let this savagery continue." I barked without stopping.

"They'll just use you as an example. Trust me on this, K. You can't win here." Kureha grabbed my shoulder.

"I don't want to win. I want to make a difference." I aggressively pulled away which resulted in me crashing into someone ahead of me.

I stumbled into them but grabbed onto the persons shoulders to keep us both balanced and upright. When I looked up to apologize, my gaze met a shockingly familiar face.

"Oh, hey! Sup, K? Didn't expect to see you around here. How's it going, man?" Klein smirked and happily patted my shoulder.

"Klein?? What in Alfheim are you doing here?" I wondered.

"What do you mean? I'm a Salamander, these are my people! That, and I'm watching these crazy dragon fights go down. Pretty cool, right?" Klein nudged me as he swapped the attention to the cage.

"Not to me. I cannot support such barbarism. I seek to put a stop to this malicious display." I told him.

"Huh? Malicious display? But they're just dragons. They're not re-" I grabbed his collar before he could utter his next word.