Inferno dropped back down to four paws and prowled closer and closer to the fire-breather. This was her last fight of the day, and then she could rest and heal her injuries she had gotten from her earlier fights.

The look in Ember’s eyes was of pure panic, and once he figured out that he couldn’t burn the Hellhound, he tried swiping at her, first with his claws and then with his tail. With the swipe of the dragon’s claws, Inferno just rolled out of the way, easily avoiding being shredded by the powerful sharp claws of the serpentine creature.

When the thick-scaled tail, barbed with razor-sharp spikes came flying at her, low enough that she couldn’t duck or roll out of the way, Inferno shadow-blinked away, using the fact that the dragon had crept the the edge of the arena when trying to escape from Inferno, making the wall cast a shadow over him.

She used that, and his own shadow, against him. And it would be his final mistake against her.

Landing on top of his head, Inferno dug her curved claws in the cracks between the thick plates that covered his body, trying to keep herself steady as Ember bucked and thrashed around, trying to throw the hound off.

Keeping low so that she had better balance, Inferno waited until the weight of her large Hellhond form caused his head to dip toward the ground. Ember, having already used most of his energy in trying to dislodge her from his head, didn’t have enough in him to keep his head up. It crashed into the ground, causing a billow of dust to fly into the air.

Inferno scored her claws down his neck, tearing away some of the dragon’s plated armor and causing him bellow in pain, shaking the whole arena. His throat was too wide for her to clamp her jaws around, so she kept Ember pinned to the floor, squirming and withering to get out of her hold, while she tried to figure out just how to kill him.

The serpantine fire-breather went limp underneath her, and her eyes shone with fierce, savage victory. Just before she was about to hit her final blow on him, the announcer said, “Ah, seems like Ember here had a sponsor! Sorry Inferno, you can’t kill him!” Growling angerly, she didn’t let the dragon go, even as the guards came out to drag her opponent away to whatever sponsor he had so they could treat him.

“Inferno.” A sharp, deep voice cut through the roar in the crowd, and her head jerked up to meet the steel gaze of her handler, who was glaring at her from the tunnels. “Release him.”

Inferno had given up on trying to sleep with the ruckus outside the great steel doors separating her from the arena. She cursed her cage placement as she couldn’t see the fight going on outside those doors, but just heard roars and thuds and cheers.

Most likely a troll or something large along those lines. Inferno mused, knowing the sounds that they made. She had fought quite a few in her many, many years of fighting in the rink. She sat up, growling lightly as a twing of pain ran up her back leg. Seems like the dragon had managed to nick her somewhere after all. She could tell it wasn’t bad, but it was going to be quite the annoyance if she didn’t get it fixed.

The only good thing she got out of fighting in the arena was reputation, yes, but also direct and immediate medical attention is she ever found herself in a situation in which she needed it. The humans always kept a small pile of bandages smeared with salves in the corner of the cages for the inhabitant to use on small or minor injuries.

Shifting into her humanoid form, Inferno made her way to the front left corner where they were placed and grabbed some. Rather than wrapping her nicked leg, she took a bit of the salce that was on the bandage and rubbed it into the wound, narrowing her eyes at the uncomfortable feeling and temperature of the salve. But it worked, and soon Inferno could move her leg without feeling that annoying twing of pain.

She was about to shift back into her preferred form when she heard the steel doors that led into the rink swing open, and three voices ring out in smug victory. She moved forward to see what the new contestions that had won their fight against the troll or whatever it was walk through the tunnels. Her chains and other restrainments janggled and chinked together, causing a small amount of noise.

She never got see many of the other fights, either being in the arena fighting her own fights or in the cage, healing and recovering. She looked outside her cage, and saw four males, all in humanoid forms, walking down the tunnel. Three of them were joking and shoving each other around, while the forth hung back slightly.

As the male moved closer to her, entering the shadows that were casted by the large cages surrounding them. She could see him more clearly, noticing his curling light brown hair like that of the feathers of a robin, with undertones of red. His eyes looked like the water of a lake, a glassy green-gray, with small freckles under his eyes and crossed the rest of his face. He had to be around her age, maybe slightly older.

As he approached her, Inferno jerked back, letting out a low growl from the back of her throat, her crimson eyes flaring. The chains chafed at her skin, but she didn’t care. At that point, she was used to it. Backing up so that more space was put between the two of them, Inferno held the male’s gaze, unflinching and tense.

She stayed silent as the male continued to stare at him, her eyes flicking toward the three other people who had drifted further down the hall, wondering if they were going to come back when they realized the other member of their group was left behind.

Inferno shrank back even further, beginning to panic a bit. She didn’t know if the male was staying behind to kill a future opponent. She clutched at the freezing cold muzzle that was covering her nose and mouth, the cold temperature making it hard for her to breath.