Credible

Spoiler:

The man felt his breath coming more heavily than previously, the exhaustion of two consecutive battles getting slightly to him. He, even after slaying the bears, continued to move lightly, almost as if prowling about in small concentric circles. His sword waved lightly back and forth as if he held a conductor’s baton and was leading a very subtle and quiet orchestral piece. This juxtaposed quite strangely with the blaring noise of the mircophoned man as he shouted about the fierceness of their newest competitor. It had been some time since a warrior had gotten to the third round of the animal trials.

A creaking chain began to rattle, though this one was not the one from which the lions and bears had emerged. Instead this one was off to the man’s left, the now gaping black hole standing within the western wall of stone which ringed the man’s current reign. He fixed his eyes upon the emerging creature which he had been tasked to slay and, as he watched, a massive, gray leg emerged from the shadows followed by the lumbering body of a floppy eared elephant in elegant bronze armor and sporting a small carriage upon the top where sat a rider and man with a bow.

The warrior’s eyes narrowed.

The ravings of the untamed masses grew even louder as the elephant began to storm forward, though neither them nor the announcer seemed to care for the humans who rode upon the back of the hulking creature. The warrior's eyes hardly ever moved from the canopy in question, awaiting when that unoccupied man began to take up his arms and fire down upon the unarmored challenger. It hardly seemed fair but, then again, he was a gladiator sent to fight, kill, and preferably die in the name of entertainment for these wealthy showgoers.

The man who sat upon the front of the liter had a long, shining golden whip which he used to lightly tap the animal in various locations, clearly sending instructions for as to how much speed to gain and in what direction to charge. Judging by the current acceleration the man was commanding the lumbering monster to gain as much speed as fast as possible and to charge complete forward and trample the poor man who stood against them. The decorative armor had a set of spikes all about it and the man was currently hard pressed as to how he was going to slay this massive beast.

The gray legs strode towards the man who hesitated almost without the ability to be perceived at yet the sharp hawk like eyes of the man conducting the announcements managed to notice the moment of weakness and began loudly speaking of it. Fortunately for the young warrior he had no time for such attention to be squandered upon the crowd when his life hung in the balance.

Judging from the angle, the cruel beast could not see much directly below it, though dodging beneath seemed exceedingly unsafe judging but the amount of space that its tread occupied. That is, its moving feet covered almost all of the space beneath it leaving almost no possibility for the man to roll or tuck into. He would have to go around or, perhaps, above. However, the time of decision had come upon him now and, tensing up, he bolted off, having finalized his choice in a calculated prayer to spare his life.

His speed took the crowd by surprise once again, their collective gasp and oohs and ahs shrieking into the air once more. It appeared that the animal trainers had not been viewing the previous fights for they, too, seemed shocked by the sudden burst of speed which sent what would have been their trampled prey rolling to sweet safety. His double roll brought him into a low crouch in a simple cloud of dust, a few angry red scratches covering if bare torso. No matter, for a few scratches were happily accepted over being flattened into a fine paste of flesh and marrow.

The beast went running by much like an angry bull in a matador’s arena, the thing whirling and circling to maintain speed and move for another charge. He needed to quickly decide the best course of attack but was coming up short. He could easily tire out the beast as it stampeded around but, as he had this thought, a glint of sunlight shining from the tip of an arrow grabbed his attention up on the riding basked of the elephant and the man instantly sprinted into action, tailing the lumbering demon as it kicked up sand like a ship kicking up a wake.

The first bolt was launched at the running warrior with a swift thwack as the twin snapped the air and fired the shot forward. The man continued to run, his gait utterly unaltered and his arm moved up in an almost delicate arc, the blade catching the tip of the arrow with an almost surreal grace as the shot was quickly and simply flicked away from his person and sent shattering to the ground near him. He continued onward unfazed at least visibly though the sting of such a deflection would surely wear upon him, especially as he had more trials yet to come.

Another arrow was quickly loosed upon his person but a quick and simple zag allowed him to avoid the hit as he continued to move towards the beast. The monster was beginning to round and face him but as he moved forward he also circled in an attempt to remain near the rear of the creature such that it could not see him and the rider would have difficulty looking back at him while controlling the lumbering fool. The bowman was periodically communicating with the controller but this distracted him from continually firing arrows and thus granted the challenger a bit of respite.

When the beast had rounded only a flitting shape of the man’s vanishing profile would be seen by its wide set eyes. He continued now in a dead rounded sprint to pursue the monster and found himself swiftly just at its rump which poised him ready for his next and finally maneuver. He sprinted forward near the monstrosity which loomed before him and then leapt up with all his might, propelling his body straight up into the air and entering a final forward twirl as if sumersaulting in mid air. He landed upon the rump of the creature with sure feet and launched himself forwards immediately

A single arrow had been knocked and pulled but at such close ranges firing it would prove intensely impractical. A quick flash of his sword sliced the wooden contraption in two, sending the string flailing an the arrow tumbling harmlessly to the ground. The next flourish rent the man’s throat and sent a flowering of blood across both men’s chests. The gladiator never ceased his moving and continued lightly on, stepping around the corpse even as it fell, shifting away from the direcion in which it crashed down before tumbling from the side of the beast it had ridden. Now only the rider and his mount remained.

A few more steps and the man fell upon the rider who, turning, threw up his arm in an attempt to protect his vitals, his soft neck and stomach and ribs. Alas, it did him no good and a simple thrust pierced his neck and sent him sprawling forward, he tumbling backwards down over the face of the mount he whipped and rode. Now all that remained was the stampeding monstrosity which, without its master, had finished turning and was now charging angrily forward at a battlefield filled only with the steaming flesh of the dead beasts of the arena.

The warrior standing upon the woven floor along the gray flesh relaxed for but a moment, drawing deep breath and attempting to calm himself. He needed only wait until the beast rammed into the side of the arena or realized where it was headed and halted itself. Neither occurred, however, and instead the elephant tried to stop itself but, in its huge amount of inertia, it collapsed when it tried to turn away from the wall, the remaining momentum casing it to slide over to the wall, its legs ruined from the sudden change and heavy impact with the ground. The next challenge was now upon them.