FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Ah, and here is ch 14 of Shadow of a Freelancer. This one should be fun to read and at the end you will get to see what a certain character looks like that has been mentioned throughout this entire series. Yes this chapter is a little fast paced but it has 15 pages with nearly 7000 words on it so it won't be a quick read. Please, vote and comment, also ask me questions if anything is confusing you in the story, if so I'd like to fix that.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

December 16, 2337 - Mors Mortis Arena

Two days ago Shadow was brought into one of the Arena's holding cells. He was placed in a small; two by three, cell like hundreds of others in this holding area. It prevented anyone from killing each other while at the same time confined them and made them antsy to get out and move.

They were constantly told that they were going to die, one way...or another, they would die. By the time the day they were scheduled to fight, there was around a hundred and fifty people crammed into the holding area. Then the day they were to fight arrived and they were let out of the small cells.

*******

It was around nine o'clock in the morning when the fighting started. Shadow, along with the hundred or so other combatants were released into the Arena; an oval shaped space with hill like area's made of dirt and rock, which could fit ten football fields within its walls. The first of the stands where the populace of Mors Mortis sat was fifty feet off the ground, with a thirty foot wall of glass to separate the seats from the Arena itself. There were two spots on either side of the Arena that held openings; of which cat-walks would be extended from, that would allow combatants to head out onto a platform fifty feet above the Arena floor where one on one fights would take place.

The Arena was; at first, separated into five sections for each of the five large housing cells that all the fresh combatants were kept in. One cell was released at a time and the combatants all faced each other. Littered around the grounds were dozens of bladed weapons; knives, swords, spears, axes and pole weapons. The Arena was designed for close quarters combat with bladed or blunted weapons like the coliseum back on Earth and the combatants were to fight like its Gladiators.

The battle was a bloody one and limbs and guts were spread across the ground and the air smelled of blood. The battle lasted till there were ten standing; Shadow obviously amongst them. It only took half an hour for that battle to end. As with the following three battles for the other three cells. Then it came down to one on one matches, and of the first twenty five matches; most of which lasted around ten to fifteen minutes each, Shadow would be fighting in the last match.

These matches however; took place on the platform that was raised fifty feet off the Arena floor, with only drop off edges. The ground below the platform had spike traps that would shoot up if someone fell to the ground below, thus if the fall didn't kill the combatant then the spikes would.

***********************

Mors Mortis Arena: Battle Platform (2:57 PM)

"And now, for the final combatant verses combatant fight for the day! Inmate 321190 verses inmate 113298." The guard who was the announcer, announced over the speakers in the Arena.

Two large and wide cat-walks were extended to the platform. Shadow was being led to the platform from the west side, while another person was being led from the east side. Both Shadow and this other person were restrained to keep the guards safe; though that didn't stop the other person from ramming his shoulder into the guard that was leading him, causing him to topple over and fall to his death; which only caused the crowd to cheer. The other guards wouldn't do anything to him right now, because he already had a fifty/fifty chance of dying.

This person charged onto the platform, he was rather large and muscular; about three fourths the size of Henrik, and even though the restraints were made from carbon steel he managed to break them with pure strength. Afterwards he raised his arms above his head and let out a roar; trying to intimidate Shadow and to show he was a beast of a man.

Shadow just continued walking towards the platform, and when he and the guard were at the edge the guard undid his restraints and made a hasty retreat. Shadow looked at and examined his opponent while he did the same.

This man started laughing then "This fight is already over!" he yelled.

After the announcer was sure they were ready he yelled "Fight!" and the large man sprinted towards Shadow.

Shadow watched as the man sprinted to him; without a worry in the world. He looked over his shoulder, smiled and turned back to watch as the man closed in. When the man was a few feet from Shadow, Shadow jumped to his left as the man flew by him. He stopped and charged again; trying to get a hold of Shadow.

Shadow jumped back, then to the right, back again, then to the left again. Each time avoiding the man and getting closer to the edge of the platform. With one last charge, the man followed Shadow; already running out of energy. This time Shadow jumped to his right but the man saw what Shadow was doing and stopped before he ran off the edge.

"I see what you're doing, nice try!" The man said.

"Oh you do, do you?" Shadow said as he charged the man.

The guy didn't expect this from Shadow and tried to quickly get out of the way, but he was already worn out. Shadow easily ran up to and kicked the man in the chest; causing him to stumble back a few feet before ran behind him and attempted to trip him. He wasn't even using his abilities, he was moving normally and managed to trip the man.

Though he was now on his back, the man quickly grabbed Shadow by his leg and laughed "Now I got you!"

Shadow didn't even respond with words but with his fist. His right leg had been grabbed, even though his left leg was closer to the guy on the ground, so he easily started punching the guy in his face over and over again until blood was pouring out of his nose and mouth. Now the populace of Mors Mortis was cheering Shadow on.

Shadow then stomped down on the man's arm with his left foot and heard the crack of the bone as it shattered. The man was gurgling his own blood and started coughing as the blood entered his lungs. Shadow then stomped on the man's head several times. After that the man weakly reached out and tried to grab Shadow's other leg. Shadow picked him up by the throat, slowly walked the few feet to the edge of the platform and threw him off it.

The crowds cheered as the man fell through the air to his death. Shadow hated the fact that, when his adrenalin kicked in, he could witness things as if time slowed down. What only took a few seconds seemed to last a few minutes to Shadow. He watched as the man fell, his arms waving in the air; desperately trying to grab hold of something...anything, to save his life.

Shadow was able to fully witness as the first of the spikes entered into the man as he fell onto them. He was able to see the exact moment the pain registered in the man's head and showed on his face before he died. The spikes tore through his torso, arms, legs, and one entered through the back of his head and exited out of his mouth. The spikes were now coated with the crimson black color of blood, and his blood started pool around him.

Shadow sighed and started to head towards the cat-walk that was being re-extended to the platform.

******************

Mors Mortis Arena: Special

After his battle was over, there were now only twenty five combatants left. There was to be one more battle, and for this battle a special arena was needed. Everyone new to Mors Mortis; including Shadow, were amazed at what happened next. The Arena floor split and opened up; causing the dirt and everything on it to fall. What emerged next was like a maze, with a large open area in the middle.

Yet the walls of the maze were all of different heights, some passageways were completely covered while others were open. The entire area was uneven and there were even different floors. In all, there were two floors; covered, that rose up in different areas, while there was another that went down under the main floor; which was the main part of the maze because it stretched from one end to the other of the Arena. Each person would have to navigate through each floor and find their way to the center.

All the walls were made out of large stone like the pyramids of ancient Egypt were. In fact when the Arena finished rising, the large open area opened up and a small pyramid like structure rose from it. On the top of the structure and in the center of the top were twenty five weapons...all guns. This confused the combatants, but it was soon explained to them as they were placed into their starting positions, which were far apart from one another.

"You twenty five are now being issued a knife to start with. There are guns in the middle of the maze. You are to reach the guns as fast as you can before you are hunted down and killed. You will not be fighting each other...rather; you will be fighting creatures from a far off world. They are deadly fast and agile, their only purpose is to kill and eat.

"The objective here is to see who is strong and smart enough to survive this onslaught and come out alive. There are multiple floors that you will have to go through...I'll give you a hint, the only way to access that...pyramid, is through the bottom floor. You'll have to get to the top from the inside. If you survive you will then be considered a full combatant and have postponed your death sentence...for now." One of the guards told them before they were sent to their start points.

Shadow was placed in one of the corners; all the walls around him were made of the same stone and looked alike. His grip on the blade they gave him tightened as he waited for everyone to get into position. He was a little worried about what he'd be facing in here, but he figured it be easy to deal with. Either way he would soon find out.

****************

Mors Mortis Arena: Special (3:19 PM)

One minute, one minute longer and the event would start. Everyone was in position and waited for the buzzer to sound when it was time to move. The seconds seemed to drag on until the buzzer buzzed and everyone ventured into the maze.

Some ran, others walked but both kept running into dead ends. Shadow was cautiously walking while keeping his head and ears on a swivel. He was mainly waiting for what they would have to fight. After a few minutes of navigating through the maze, another buzzer went off.

"Now the battle starts, you are no longer alone." The person said over the speakers as the lights were dimmed slightly.

And right after the man said that, everyone heard multiple strange...hisses or roars. They couldn't quite tell what it sounded like; only that whatever made the sounds were beasts of some kind. It wasn't soon after that, that someone was killed.

The screams of pain and agony reached Shadow first; he was the closest to whoever got killed. Then after the screams died, the roar of the creature came next and Shadow; with his sensitive hearing, heard what sounded like someone getting impaled, then getting ripped apart. He wasn't sure if they were torn to shreds or not, but he definitely heard the spray of blood hitting the stone walls.

Shadow didn't like this at all, the stone walls seemed to bounce the sounds off of them and made Shadow start to second guess where things were coming from. He cautiously walked forward and turned the corner. It didn't end yet so he figured he was heading the right way. Every so often he would hear the roars of the creatures as they hunted the combatants down.

Shadow came to a fork in his path; he decided to go left and followed the path. The fur on the back of his neck started to stand on end the more he went down this path. He noticed a couple times that there were motion activated cameras watching him from the walls; to let the crowds see how he was doing, but otherwise didn't pay much attention to them.

A couple times he heard what sounding like claws scraping against stone, and then he heard the same sound as something moved coming from behind him, when he turned to see what was there, he saw nothing but his shadow. Shadow kept the blade he had at the ready as he continued down the hall. After a few more corners he found a dead end.

"Crap, now I have to backtrack." Shadow said as he turned around and started walking back.

He looked up at one of the cameras as he drew close to it. It was watching him then when he started passing it, it quickly snapped to look behind him. Suddenly a chill ran down his spine and he had a very unnerving feeling. He quickly jumped forward and turned his head to look behind him. Just as he looked after he jumped, a large scythe shaped claw swung through the air and imbedded itself into the stone wall; if Shadow hadn't jumped forward that claw would have found a new home in the side of his head.

Shadow hit the ground and rolled; then quickly shot up and brought the knife he had up and went into a defensive stance. There in front of him; partially hanging off the wall with a single foot on the ground was one of the creatures that were released with them. Pulling the claw it used to try and kill Shadow out of the wall.

**********

This creature apparently stood on two legs; due to the way its legs and body was shaped, and had two arms with claws that looked like scythes but also resembled a praying mantis' arms. Its head was similar to reptiles and sat close to the torso; with a small neck yet was able to turn its head in 120 degree angles in either direction. Yet the head seemed to be on upside down compared to most creatures, its upper jaw held no eyes but the nostrils and the lower jaw held everything else. On both sides of the lower jaw were two eyes, and directly in the middle was a fifth eye that was a little larger than the rest.

It had digigrade legs and stood on them like a person yet more like an animal and it even had a second set of arms; of which held hand like claws that could grip things instead of just slash or stab with that it also used to steady itself on the ground. It had three claw-like fingers; two that paralleled each other and a third that acted like a thumb that when gripped around something would go between the other two fingers like a clamp, on the hands on the second set of arms.

Spikes seemed to grow out of the shoulders, just below the elbows on the forearm of both arms, and a few smaller spikes on its back. It had an exoskeleton and carapace that protected it. What completed its body was its tail that seemed to have a sharp serrated edge on the top and underside of it but its tail tip was rounded with no point. The creature was brownish in color; black in some spots, and stood around five and a half feet tall; if it stood straight up otherwise it stood around three feet with the hunch, its eyes were as black as oil and reflected no light at all.

***********

Shadow quickly examined this creature as it did the same to him, the first thing Shadow noticed other than its appearance was the crimson liquid dripping from its blade like claws and body. He didn't get to study it much longer before it let out one of those hiss like roars and quickly crawled along the wall and charged him.

Shadow waited until it was in striking range then swung the knife to try and impale the creatures head. Just before the knife would have made contact, the creature used its second set of arms and pushed itself back; causing the blade to miss. It then reached out and grabbed Shadow by his arm and flung him into the opposite wall. One could easily hear the smack as he hit the wall.

Thankfully he didn't let go of the blade and was back up on his feet in no time flat. The creature was now standing in his path; blocking him from continuing on. Shadow then yelled at the creature before it started charging him, it tackled him. As it tackled him he jammed the knife through its carapace and exoskeleton. They fell to the floor with the beast letting out a distressed roar before Shadow pushed it up and kicked it off of him.

It quickly attacked him again with its hand claws but that was when Shadow dodged then grabbed its left arm and proceeded to bend it in the opposite direction it was supposed to bend at and snapped it at the elbow. Then continuing on Shadow flattened it out against the underside of the arm and brought the arm up and snapped it before impaling it onto one of the spikes on its back. It let out another roar just before Shadow grabbed its head safely and snapped its neck, and then to make sure it was dead he yanked the knife out of its side and with both hands stabbed it through the head.

"Well, I guess these are somewhat smart and fast." Shadow said as he picked himself up and off the thing, then sniffed a couple times "Good god!" he thin smelled that it was coming from the blood that had gotten onto the shirt he was wearing.

The moment the creature died, it let out a certain chemical into its blood that would attract other creatures like itself to this spot; to not only consume it but also kill whoever killed it. Lucky for Shadow that the shirt he wore was thick and he wore an undershirt so none of the blood got onto his fur, he took the orange shirt off; leaving only the white undershirt, and threw it on the creature before continuing down the path.

*********************

Shadow was hurrying down the path; retracing his steps to the fork in the path back several passages ago. He heard more screams as someone else met their death at the claws of the creatures. He quickly got back to the fork and went down the opposite path. He made a left, a right, another right and when he came to another fork in the path he collided with another one of the combatants.

Both quickly got to their feet and looked at each other. Shadow noticed that this guy had lots of the creature's blood on him and he reeked of that smell. He also noticed that the man looked a little bit older than himself. Also he noticed he was very muscular and also lean. The man also took note of Shadow and the fact that he had removed his over shirt and asked, "Why'd you take the shirt off?"

Shadow looked at him, his face in slight disgust at the smell that emanated from the man and said "Because unlike you I can smell what their blood smells like and I nearly gagged. My shirt had a large splotch of their blood on it."

"So that's why you have that look on your face...I'm guessing that way is the way you started from?" the man asked.

Shadow looked back that direction and nodded then asked the same thing of him. He nodded as well and then said "I guess it'd be safer to move as a pair then alone."

"After facing one of those things...I'd have to agree with you." Shadow said

"Ok then, let's get moving." He said and they both went in the only direction left to them, "I'm Ray by the way." He added as they carefully walked down the path.

"Rrahkarr...I take it you're not a fur hater." Shadow said as he peeked around a corner.

"Nope I have, had...lots of friends who were furs." Ray said as they moved around the corner.

They moved in silence for a while until Shadow noticed they were nearing the area that held the area with the second level. They decided to make turns to head towards it; thinking that it was the way they needed to head.

Before they had been moved into position; and while the maze was being razed, Shadow took notice that both places that held a second floor had two paths that led into them. He figured that everyone would have to go through them to make it to the center.

After a few more turns they made it to a large stone doorway that led into the building. They looked at it and heard a roar come from inside, then looked at each other.

"You first." Ray said and chuckled.

"Oh gee, thanks." Shadow said and went into a defensive stance with his knife at the ready, as he slowly entered the building.

It was quite dark inside, though Shadow's eyes adjusted fairly quickly. Ray's eyes on the other hand took more time to adjust so he followed Shadow's lead; thanks only to the fact the clothing they wore was brightly colored...and the white shirt Shadow had on helped him see where he was.

"It looks like its large rooms from here to the other side." Shadow said after looking through the next doorway.

"Good, that means there's only one way to go." Ray said as Shadow walked into the next room.

They followed the path until they came to a stairwell leading up to the next floor. When they reached the top they heard another roar, only a lot closer followed by someone yelling. The yelling was coming from in front of them, they also heard someone running. They quickly; yet quietly, went up to one of the corners with their knives at the ready.

Another one of the combatants; small and thin, probably in his teens but possibly in his twenties, sprinted past the corner and as he turned to head down the hall that Shadow and Ray had come from he slammed into Ray; knocking them both flat onto the ground. Then another one of those creatures came around, only it was crawling across the ceiling and took a slash at Shadow.

Shadow dodged; barely, and grabbed the creatures arm then pulled it down off the ceiling and swung it into the wall next to him. The wall crumbled and it went through it and fell to the floor below them. Shadow looked through the hole he made with it and noticed it crawl into another stairwell, one that led down.

"Crap, there's a sublevel under the main floor." Shadow said as Ray and the other guy got up.

"Are you two heading this way too?" The man asked.

"No we're coming from that way." Ray said.

"Well I came from the other way." The man said.

"I guess that means we have to go down." Shadow said and jumped through the hole in the wall.

Both Ray and the new guy ran up to the hole and looked through it as Shadow landed neatly on the ground then stood up in a defensive stance with the knife in front of him and yelled "Come on down!"

Ray and the new guy looked at each other, then; without a second thought, Ray jumped through the hole and rolled when he hit the ground. After hesitating the new guy shook his head; thinking this was a bad idea, then climbed into the hole and then lowered himself down slowly. By the time the guy got down to the ground Shadow had half a mind to gut the asshole and leave him there as bait.

"Three years later." Shadow said coldly; referring to how slow the guy was moving, "Come on, it's going to be harder from here on out."

"Not to mention we know one of those things is close by." Ray said as Shadow slowly went down the stairs. "So what's your name?" Ray asked the new guy.

"Alfonso." He replied.

"Alfonso? What kind of name is that?" Shadow asked as he navigated down the stairs with the other two behind him.

"Italian actually." Alfonso said.

"Saying your entire name would take too long, mind if we call you Al?" Ray asked.

"Not at all." Al replied.

"Quite." Shadow said as they reached the bottom of the stairs...all they saw was darkness. Quite suddenly they were all spooked as static was heard from an intercom that activated next to them.

"Almost done I see, well it wouldn't be too much fun if you couldn't see in the dark now would it. You will find strap on shoulder mounted flashlights next to you on your left." Someone said from the intercom before it fell silent again.

They found the flashlights and strapped them on. There was also something else with them that seemed to go around ones head, like a headband but it had a little motion activated camera of sorts on the side. After Shadow put that on and turned his head, the light too turned in the direction his head turned.

"Well that's convenient." Shadow said as he tested it out.

"Let's get moving...I don't want to be standing around for one of those things to get me." Ray said as he took the lead.

Not even before they made it to the first corner in the underground area, a new kind of roar emanated from deep within the maze. They all stopped and looked at each other.

"What the hell was that?" Al asked; fear in his voice.

Shadow was on edge as he said "I don't know...but it sounded bigger."

"Bigger!? You have to be kidding."

"Does it matter? We'll be facing it one way or another." Shadow said as he continued past Ray

***************

They moved cautiously through the maze. Even though they had the flashlights, they were at an immense disadvantage. Little did they know, the creatures could see body heat thanks to the massive eye at the front of their heads.

Shadow was leading them through the maze, thanks to his senses he had a better shot at guessing which direction to take. Every so often he would feel a slight breeze where the air flowed through the underground maze. It was thanks to that breeze they hadn't run into a dead end yet. Though their luck was about to run out.

Shadow stopped as soon as heard one of the creatures moving ahead of them. He shined his light directly ahead of them and there was a three way fork in the path, one leading right, one left and one leading straight; of which one of the creatures was standing in. They all brought their knives up; Shadow and Ray being the only one to know how to be deadly proficient with them.

The creature took a few steps towards and was standing directly in the middle of the large crossroad path. It was about to charge just as they felt a rumbling coming from somewhere, in less than a second the creature was pinned to the wall by a very large creature.

***********

This new creature stood like a true humanoid; completely on its feet and straight up. It had two arms with five claw-like fingers on the hands, its head resembled a human head other then the fact that the head was twice the size and the mouth could dislocate and open like a snakes. It had three eyes, two in the spot that a person's eyes would be and a third in the middle of its forehead. Though instead of being black and having the lack of true intelligence, its eyes had actual irises that were gold in color and the part of the eye that usually is white was black. You could easily see a mind that could take apart a situation and find the best way to advance behind its eyes.

Where the first creature was brown and black this thing was grey, or maybe a light shade of purple; it was hard for them to tell with the flashlights. It stood around eight feet tall and it too had digigrade legs with sharp claws on the toes. Thought where the first looked like it could crawl on any surface this one looked like it could only walk or run on the ground.

It too had a tail that was very long and prehensile, though at the end it split into three separate tail tips that each had spikes on the inner sides of them. The way the tail was, it made it seem like it could grab things and kill them with the spikes in them...as demonstrated when it brought its tail up and did just that to the other creature before ripping it in half after stabbing its razor sharp claws into its chest.

************

"What the fuck!" Al yelled as part of the first creature nearly hit them all.

They quickly glanced down at the part of the creature that was thrown at their feet then shot they looks back at this new creature. Their lights were shining on it and it was staring them down. Apparently it knew that it had less of a chance surviving fighting all three of them right here and now and retreated down the way the one creature was blocking.

After a moment Shadow quickly moved ahead to where he was standing in the middle of the four way choice. He felt the small breeze coming from behind him and heading down the path the larger creature came from. He then pointed down that way and said "It's that way...you guys take point, I'll cover the rear."

Ray and Al hurried past Shadow as he made sure the creature didn't charge them. After they past him, he followed. They had been running down this path now for a few minutes; making constant right turns. Shadow figured the path turned every time it would intersect with itself, maybe at the end would be the center of maze. He only hoped it was, but when they got to the end of the path they entered a room with another staircase leading down.

"Fuck me!" Ray said.

"Another staircase? When is this going to end?" Al said.

"When we reach the end or you're dead." Shadow said and pushed past them and went down the stairs.

Ray and Al stood there looking at each other for a few seconds when Shadow yelled up "You coming or are you going to wait for that thing to show up?" not a second later did they hear another roar; different from before which meant it was from that new one.

They quickly ran down the stairs and caught up with Shadow. They started walking, and continued walking. There were no turns, no bends in the path. It kept going straight. After a minute or so of walking they could see light from the room up ahead.

"Hey I think that's the end." Al said.

"If anything that's the way into that pyramid like structure. We're almost there." Shadow said when they heard growling coming from behind them.

Shadow was the first to act and brought up his knife just in time to block the claws of the thing that killed the one creature. He kicked back when it brought its other hand up to slash him. It stood straight up and opened its mouth wide before letting loose a bloodcurdling roar.

"Shit guys...I don't think it's going to run this time." Shadow said as he stared the creature down.

"What are we going to do?" Al asked in fear.

"You two run, I'll catch up." Shadow said.

They stood there for a moment staring at him, wondering if he was crazy or stupid. They quickly took off as the creature took a step towards them. Shadow stood his ground; with his knife at the ready. He noticed that it was studying him, watching every move he made. Shadow smiled and mentally said "I knew I'd have some fun".

It attacked him a few times; testing his responses, though Shadow didn't use any of his abilities because he knew this thing was smart. Shadow was slowly backing up the entire time; the creature noticed this and decided it knew how he would attack so it charged him.

Now that it would not be able to stop, Shadow used his speed and avoided the creatures tackle, then its attempt at taking his head off as it swung its arm towards him. After he ducked and dodged the swing, he used his knife and quickly sliced at its mid section; he noticed right away that it had no defensive hide or carapace like the others, which did make it faster.

After slicing its mid section open, he went to stab it in the back but it used its tail to attack him. Shadow barely dodged it just in time to get hit in the chest and have the wind knocked out of him as it swung its arm at him. The hit also tossed him back towards the room that Ray and Al ran for. He slid a few feet before he started to get up; but the creature was faster then he thought and it was already at him and about to stab its claws into him.

He rolled to the side as quick as he could and the creatures hand stabbed into the stone floor. Shadow then used that and with all the strength he could, slammed his elbow into its arm and broke its arm. He hit it with such force that the bone ripped through on the other side and caused its blood to spill out, also causing the creature to howl out in pain.

Shadow then brought up his foot and placed it on its chest as fast as he could and kicked it back. Shadow hopped back up and picked up the knife he dropped before the creature could react. When it stood back up, it did something surprising. It grabbed the part of its arm that was below the break and ripped that part of its arm off then threw it at Shadow before charging again.

Shadow dodged the limb that was thrown at him but never once took his eyes off the creature. It swung its arm towards him; since the other arm wasn't there he dodged it then easily brought the knife up and stabbed the creature through its jaw and into its brain. Shadow waited a few seconds before he tried to remove the knife...it was stuck.

"Shit" Shadow said as he tugged on it.

"Hey, Rrahkarr! Come on, these stairs lead to the top." Ray yelled down the hall once he saw that Shadow was victorious.

Shadow sprinted down the hall and met up with them in that room. Ray said "Damn I thought you were a goner."

"Yeah, I'd get that a lot if people knew what I did." Shadow said when they heard running coming from another path that was to their left.

They looked down that path and saw another three lights heading towards them. The combatants were running at full speed and saw the three of them up ahead. One of them yelled "Run, we're being follo..." just before five long claws erupted from his chest as he was killed and dragged back down the path.

The other two made it just in time for another one of them to be killed by another creature like the one Shadow had just killed. Shadow, Ray, Al and the other guy ran up the stairs as fast as they could, with Shadow and the new guy bringing up the rear. That's when they all heard gunfire coming from outside. They just made it to the top when the new guy was ripped in half by another one of those human like creatures before being fed upon.

The first thing the three of them noticed was several dead bodies of the creatures, the human like ones and the other ones. There were four other combatants up there firing weapons at the creatures as they ran up to and grabbed a gun. Shadow noticed a picture by each gun, which meant they could only grab one gun each and only the one that had their picture by it.

He noticed a green light by Ray and Al's pictures and his own as well as three other pictures. There was only one more green light and the rest were red; meaning they had been killed. Just as Shadow picked up the gun that had his picture by it one of the animal like creatures lunged at him. He saw it coming and was about to try and dodge when it's entire left side was blown away as Ray fired at it.

"Got to be quicker then that!" he yelled and fired at another creature.

Shadow nodded and quickly looked at the weapon he picked up; it was an old solid round gun from the twenty first century. Thanks to his knowledge of weapons he knew right away it was the XM-8 Automatic rifle variant with a one hundred round drum magazine attached. He noticed that everyone's gun was a variant of the XM-8, even though the gun was discontinued in the early twenty first century.

"You have to be fucking kidding! That damned fur is here." One of the other three people said and aimed his gun at Shadow. "Damned if I'm going to let him live." He added as he took a pot shot at Shadow. Shadow was hit in the shoulder once because the moment the man fired at him; one of the animal like creatures sprung from where it was hiding and took his head off.

"Fuck" Shadow yelled as he dropped to his knee.

He put his paw to where he was hit and grunted as pain shot up from it. When he brought his paw back it was covered in blood. He fought back the pain and lifted the gun and looked for a target. He fired once it was in his line of sight.

*****************

Mors Mortis Arena - Special (4:22 PM)

Shadow, Ray and Alfonso were the only three to make it through alive. The other two that were atop the pyramid like structure were brutally slain and left blood trails from where they were dragged off to. The three of them watched each other's backs and finally killed the last of the creatures that were put into the maze with them.

When the fighting was done, the guns and knives were transported out of their possession and they were teleported to a room where sentry mech's restrained them. Once restrained, Henrik and Johan entered the room along with several guards and one other person.

This person had platinum blond hair, blue eyes, had a lean build and stood around five foot seven inches tall. He seemed to be around thirty or so years old and wore large square glasses. He was wearing a suit similar to Johan but the authority that seemed to move with him was awe inspiring. One thing that told Shadow that this man was a major player here was the way Johan acted around him.

"Sir don't get to close to them, they've proved they are battle hardened fighters to survive those things you let us use in the last battle." Johan said.

"This man is the one who brought those creatures?" Shadow thought to himself.

"Yes Johan, I knew that Rrahkarr here would survive, but these other two are a little surprise though." This man said.

"You knew sir?" Johan asked.

"Yes...I knew he'd survive, he's special...just like those other two you have here." he said as he stepped closer to Shadow.

"The other two sir?" Henrik asked.

"Those other two wolves Henrik." The man said in a pleasant tone of voice.

"Oh, the McBride brothers you mean." Henrik said, which started making Shadow's memory kick in.

"McBride brothers? They couldn't be...could they?" Shadow thought.

"Yes. After all, Rrahkarr here is related to them. It's why he can do things like them." This man informed them all; Shadow included, as he walked up to Shadow.

"Mr. Territh please don't get to close to him." Johan said to Shadow's surprise.

"Territh? Patrick Territh?" Shadow asked.

"Yes, it's about time we met face to face don't you think." He said and smiled.