"Thud, thud, thud..."
Heavy footsteps approached from the distance, and the old wooden door was shoved open with a creak.
Long-unseen sunlight spilled into the room through the doorway. At the sound, the person nearest the door recoiled like a bird startled by a bowstring, desperately trying to retreat into the dark room. Those behind him refused to let him, shoving and jostling until they cut off his escape.
A tall figure abruptly appeared outside the door. The room's long-stagnant air struck him in the face, and he wrinkled his brow in disgust. "Someone, come out. General Armand is in high spirits today and wants to choose a sturdy human from among you for a match. Whoever wins will be richly rewarded."
The humans cowering in their shells could not actually understand what this towering beastman was saying, but the name "Armand" alone made them tremble. No wonder: General Armand had carved something called fear into every one of their hearts with more than a dozen bloody examples.
Whenever this beastman appeared, whoever was taken away never returned. Once, through their only barred window, barely half a palm wide, they had seen someone who had left being carried away, his body mangled beyond recognition. Where he was dumped afterward was already beyond their concern.
A trace of mockery flashed through Anton's eyes as he watched them shrink back and push one another forward. If he had not feared delaying the general's business, he would have enjoyed watching these humans turn on each other. He covered his nose. A terrible stench had just filled the room: the man pushed to the floor, terrified of the death he would likely face next, had soiled his trousers. The air was already stagnant, and the twenty or thirty people packed inside all looked at