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Conning the Arena

Chapter 6

for GlynWolf

by Draconicon

What passed for morning came with a squeeze and a slow ejection that was becoming ever-more familiar. Olag rode it out of the goo pit, grunting as he was pushed head-first from the slime and allowed to rest on the edge of the black ooze. He gritted his teeth as he felt the slow exit of the tubes in his ass and cock, and tried not to think about how gaping either one of those could be if that had been anything more solid or more firm in either of those holes.

When he eventually got out of there, he planned on making someone pay for that fucking bed. There was so much that it made him compromise on, so many arguments that he had to have with that fucking voice in the back of his head, that he honestly wasn't sure how far would be too far when it came to giving the inventor a beat-down. He even debated not talking to his boss about it, not wanting him to think that it'd be a good little invention to pass on to the fucking tigress. Knowing the mouse, he was half-sure that the boss would see it as an investment, something perfect for keeping some of their prisoners in a less static stasis.

Hell, he'd probably be right, but Olag doubted that he'd rest well with one of those on the ship. He wouldn't rest well with one of those in the same mile radius as himself.

As the black ooze drained through his fur and back into the basin, the other fighters emerged as well. Shelly was already showing most of herself a few spots down, carefully looking anywhere but at him. Olag looked down at her ass and grinned to himself, already looking forward to when he'd have the chance to get that as a payment. Mouth had been decent enough, but he wanted to see how good the rest of her body felt. And see how she'd react to getting that big thing down there.

But that was a secondary concern. He panned his gaze around the rest of the room. The barracks was filled with quite a few different fighters, and one pair in particular concerned him.

Verk and his unnamed giraffe partner on the other side of the room were already all but free of their pits, standing with one leg extended as it oozed off their last limb. The giraffe had offered him the chance to fuck Verk the rat if he helped them get free of the dark rings, and he imagined that the offer was still standing.

And that was part of the problem.

Olag rubbed his chin, thinking it through. They, ostensibly, had a route up to the surface. He didn't know how far the dark rings were from the upper world, but if they were far enough down that the stuff up there was called 'the surface', then that meant that they had a long way to go just to get their heads above ground again. That might be doable on his own, if he could get the route out of them, but that wasn't the big problem.

That, it turned out, was the fact that they were looking to break out, and if they did that before he was ready to make a move on his own, that would make his job ten times harder. They didn't look like they had the skills or equipment to make it out on their own, but with Verk's pissy nature and the way that the giraffe had been talking the day before, he imagined that they were getting desperate enough to try making a play on their own. That would probably get them killed, and more to the point, steal what little info he could get out of them. And make security tighter, too, which he did not want to deal with if he didn't have to.

Unfortunately, that meant that they had leverage, and he hated that.

The ooze finally let his legs loose, and he walked across the room. All eyes were on him after his fight with Griggs yesterday and after beating a few of the other fighters in the shower. They knew what he could do now, and that terrified some of them.

Verk and the giraffe looked up as he approached. The rat growled, hunching his shoulders, while the giraffe arched an eyebrow.

"Yes?" the giraffe asked .

"Let's talk."

"Not exactly private."

"Not exactly a lot to say," Olag said, sliding between them and leaning his back against the wall. He deliberately banged into it harder than he needed to, and felt the walls give slightly. Not quite dented, but enough to send a good vibration through. Might jostle a few mics and make them a little less functional. "But ya wanted my help."

"...Maybe."

"I want a name."

"Mine, I assume?"

"Uh-huh."

"Pirn."

"Pirn. Gotcha. And...I wanna know what the fuck you're doing here."

"..."

"I got a right to know something, at least. Ain't helping a couple of fuckers that ain't got a good reason for getting the fuck out."

"Wanting to avoid getting ripped apart any further isn't a good reason?" Pirn shook his head. "I assumed you were something of a mercenary, but that seems inordinately harsh."

"Ya might say that. Or ya might say that I don't want to let a rapist or a murderer get back to the surface."

"...A point..."

"...Came in dark, didn't ya?" Olag asked.

The slight twitch of shock on Verk's face was enough to make up for the lack of emotion on Pirn's, and in all fairness, that total lack of reaction on the giraffe's face was its own sort of answer. So, they'd come in without any back-up, without anyone knowing what they were doing. Probably some sort of personal op to find out what was going on in the dark rings when they lost someone of their own, and it got out of hand. Well, that was something. That was something, indeed.

He glanced down at Verk. The fact that Pirn had offered his 'partner' as a sexual favor without even thinking about it suggested a hell of a story there, but it was something that he'd have to get into later. He had no idea how much time he had, and he didn't know what they said was going to get picked up by Malfust and the other shit-stains running the whole operation. Olag crossed his arms.

"I'll look at helping ya."

Pirn sagged slightly in relief, but Olag held up a finger.

"Conditional. Ya do it my way."

"We -"

"No." The bear chuckled. "My way, or no way. I got some experience with this, and I ain't letting ya fuck it up for me."

"...Deal."

"Good."

That was easier than he expected, but Olag had no doubt that they were already thinking that he wouldn't push that much. Probably thought that they could think circles around him. They might even be right. But they probably didn't know how stubborn he was, nor how hard he could push them back if it came right down to that. He was ready to hold the line as hard as he needed to, and he'd make them go along with his plans if they tried to fuck him over.

"Glad we got an understanding. We'll talk price in the showers."

"You -"

"I got a price in mind, Pirn. Ya better hope ya can pay it."

The intercom buzzed, and all heads turned to the announcement wall. A tournament screen popped up, and Olag wasn't surprised in the slightest to find his name on the list. After yesterday, Malfust had made it damn clear that the next few days would be testing him again and again.

He didn't recognize the opponent he'd been given, though. The name 'Kisho' meant nothing, considering that he hadn't talked to anyone else in the barracks for more than a few seconds or a few blows at a time, but the screen named him as an electric eel, and there were none of those in the barracks.

That had to mean that he was in one of the other barracks, possibly an upper-tier fighter. Hell, as he looked at the brackets, he could see at least five other fighters on the listings that were not in this room. So, six out of the twenty-four different fighters were going to be from a different room, and possibly a different tier. They really were intent on making him show a bit more of what he could do. Malfust was looking to either figure him out or break him down.

And then he would be taken apart and figured out, probably. He shook his head. This just got interesting.

"Looks like you're fighting again," Pirn said.

"Not the first round," Olag said, shrugging.

"You don't care? Or are you that confident?"

"I still got a lotta tricks up my sleeve. But I got a few things to get done before my round. So, excuse me."

He pushed between them, even as Verk snarled wordlessly at his departure. If Pirn thought that the bear was going to stick his dick in that little ball of crazy, he had another thing coming. There were things that he would fuck, and there were things that he would slam to the ground and put in their place, but there was a certain point where even he didn't want to put his dick at risk. Shoving it down the throat of some little shit with that many teeth and who had that much of an anger problem was pretty much the line.

Shelly deliberately ignored him as he made his way to her pit, and she looked anywhere but at him. He'd have thought that the beating he'd given a few fighters in the shower for her sake would have gotten something of an appreciation out of her, but there was something else going on. Not something that he liked, either. She didn't say anything when he came to a halt behind her, so he started the conversation.

"I need info."

"Yeah? Planning on fucking me again after?"

"Hey. I didn't make the offer, ya know."

"No, but you sure as hell loved taking it."

"Ain't gonna deny that." Olag looked at the screen. "Who's this Kisho fuck, anyway?"

"Someone that..." She sighed. "Look...can we renegotiate this?"

"Depends. What do ya got for me?"

It was a risky business, he knew. Someone with info had leverage, but she was also just weak enough in the room that there was a little bit that he could push back. She needed someone like him, someone that could keep the other fighters in line and keep them from ganging up on her and taking what they want. Malfust and the others sure as hell didn't care about keeping order in the barracks. They didn't do anything to stop him, and from the sounds of it, they hadn't slowed Dillinger or Griggs down, either. Both of those pricks had done what they wanted to the brown-furred mouse.

Much as she could use him, though, he needed that intel. Every little tidbit he got meant that he could hide what he could do that much better. Knowing a weak spot meant that he could go hard for a few seconds and just look like some mountain of muscle that could take a beating rather than what he really was. The longer that he could keep that up, the better.

Shelly didn't answer. Olag waited, knowing he was testing his luck.

"...I got something on Kisho. But I want to know you're not going to fuck me over."

"I ain't done anything that ya didn't want," he said.

"You fucked my throat."

"Ya offered yourself. I just took it. Now -"

"Do you know what you're doing?"

"...Why don't ya tell me?"

Shelly looked around the room, and for the first time, he saw a hint of fear mingling with the usual anger and disdain that she seemed to feel for everyone else in the room. Something had changed, then. Something had her doubting the deal.

"Hey." He grabbed her shoulder, pulling her around to face him. "Ya know I'm good for this."

"Hmmph."

"What's going on?"

"...Nothing."

"Something sure as fuck is."

"Nothing. You want to know about Kisho?"

"...Yeah, but -"

"He's an upper-tier fighter. One level higher than us, but still high-up in that."

"How many levels are there?" Olag asked, nodding at the board. "Looks like there's at least -"

The polar bear fell silent as the barrack doors slid open. Armored guards stepped inside, pointing to two of the other fighters. Verk and a possum were snagged by the pair of them and dragged out of the room. One match before his. Not a lot of time.

When the doors slammed shut again, he leaned in to the mouse again.

"There's at least six that ain't in here. They all from the same level?"

After a moment's hesitation, Shelly glanced back at the board. He saw her eyes flicking around, so she was actually reading it, not just wasting time. A few seconds later, she hissed.

"Most of 'em, but there's one on the opposite side from three levels up."

"And how many total?"

"Six. We're second-lowest - fuck if I get why - and if you get to the top, there's rumors that you might be picked as staff, someone that'll work down here and get extra privileges."

"Probably a lie."

"Probably," she agreed. "But that kangaroo's from the second to highest level, so they're slamming some heavy hitters in this tournament. He's getting to the top for sure if someone doesn't sabotage him."

Problems on problems. Olag doubted that he could believably fuck up enough to lose without actually getting sent to the infirmary. Not without showing off more than he should to keep his secrets. Hell, one of them might decide to return the fucking favor that he gave Griggs and fuck him up if he lost in the middle of the arena, and considering how much he hated the goo every night sliding in where it didn't belong, he sure as hell wasn't going to let someone fuck him like that.

But what were his choices, really?

The bear rubbed the back of his head. Shelly smirked.

"Not so easy, is it?"

"I'll figure it out."

"Yeah, right. Bullshit. You're completely lost now, aren't you?"

"Ya wanna shine a little light on this situation, then? Not like ya ain't the walking encyclopedia here. Oh, wait, ya are."

"..."

"So, ya want my help, or not?"

"...Kisho's got two main augments. He's got an amp in his tail that boosts his electric transmission abilities, upping the voltage, and he's got a pair of shock absorbers in his arms to make any hits he takes not do as much."

"Got it."

That didn't sound too bad. A little e-stim might be good for the heart, as a matter of fact. He hadn't tried that for a while, and it would be fun to see how much he could take.

They didn't have to wait long for Verk's match to be done. The rat came back, and the possum did not. There were scratches across the rat's face, and he clearly looked like someone that had been through hell, but he looked proud enough. He smirked at the bear as he walked in, snarling enough to show a missing tooth and a few lines of blood coming down his chin and jawline.

Definitely crazy. Definitely not sticking it in that.

"You." One of the guards pointed at him. "Get your ass over here."

"I'll get my dick over there, too," Olag said as he stepped away from the mouse. "Ain't getting my ass, shiny boys."

They didn't respond to that. He wondered if they were annoyed or just a little shocked that he was still standing up to them. Either way, it worked as he walked between them and entered the hallway. He submitted to being led through the facility, but he was never going to let them make the mistake that he was just going to go along with them. He had a rep to keep.

The arena was different this time. Whether it was a new one or the last one had been changed since his previous match, he didn't know, but this one had more 'terrain' to it. The hexagon-shaped ring stretched out for nearly fifty feet in diameter, giving them a great deal of room to maneuver, but the ground had been altered. There were two ponds on the east and west sides of the arena, with the water able to splash out from what he could see. The tiled ground - hexes that were just over a foot in diameter themselves - was smooth and easily slicked, from what he could feel underfoot. Several were piled up, creating barriers that were anywhere from ankle-height to waist-height, which meant that there'd be some serious effort needed to keep track of where all the little obstacles were as they moved from one side of the arena to the other.

His opponent, shifting from foot to foot at the other side of the arena, looked confident enough. The electric eel was a deep blue-green in color, with a fin along his back that went from just under the back of his skull down his spine to the tip of his tail. The slender male was almost too skinny, and Olag wondered if he'd be able to get a grip around the skinny fighter with just one hand. It looked just barely possible.

Yet, he refused to just dismiss him. There was the sort of slime-shimmer that he'd seen on other eels all along this Kisho guy, and that was before they even got around to the electric-eel problem. Any kind of grapple could turn into a full-on shock session, and if the asshole was smart, he could time it to any blows that Olag sent his way. The whole thing could become a battle of attrition where Olag got his share of pain both from throwing punches and getting hit.

He grinned. He liked the fight puzzle.

"Begin."

There was no formality this time, just the pair of them getting thrown in at the deep end right off the bat. Olag felt the shimmer of the cold inside him, the wintery voice whispering to him what they should do, but he pushed it down. That would be telling secrets.

Olag braced himself, and Kisho did the same. Probably had seen the last match and didn't want to get close right off the bat. That meant that he had time.

Glancing around the arena, Olag wondered if his potential buyer was in the stands. There were a few folks that looked better off than the others. A poodle in one box, a hyena in another, a well-to-do chubby dragoness in another. Quite a few different people, and all of them stinking of money.

They probably weren't the ones looking at him, though. They all seemed more interested in -

He heard the squeak of slime on tile just in time and threw himself sideways. The eel slid by, all but skating on the tiles. A normal fighter would have overbalanced with that move, but Kisho just kept moving, skating on smooth feet along the tiles right up to the wall before kicking off it and coming right back at him.

Time to take a hit. Olag met the eel with a punch, catching the other man's fist in his own -

"NNNNGH!"

The blast of electricity up his arm left his fingers numb, but he didn't let go. He spun in place, throwing his opponent against one of the walls. Kisho hit hard, and the eel gasped from the impact, air knocked out of his lungs.

Olag could have followed that up, but he hesitated. He looked down at his hand, saw a few black marks along his fingers, and knew that the shock had hit harder than he'd anticipated. But something...something was wrong. The asshole had shock absorbing implants, something that should have softened that blow to nothing. Either he'd surprised the eel and thrown him around before he could activate the implants -

Or Shelly lied to me.

And if the mouse had lied to him, then this match had just gotten a hell of a lot more complicated.

Kisho was back on his feet before the bear could take advantage of the eel being stunned, and he was on the move again. Fast, flicking motions carried the eel out of easy reach, and Olag was already trying to figure out what else might be in play.

It could be an amp upping the shocks, or some sort of slime thing that made him slicker, getting rid of the friction and giving him this sort of movement. Or it might just be exceptional biology. There was no telling what was a natural ability for the eel and what had been given to him and therefore could be taken away. Without that knowledge, he didn't know how hard he could punch without risking something, either his own secrets or the eel's body.

Much as he didn't want to admit it, he might be in trouble. The enemy had the advantage of mobility, and had a great deal more firepower than Olag had expected. He was pretty sure that he still had the edge in who could take more pain, but that didn't matter if he couldn't deliver enough when it was his turn.

Kisho shifted course, tail dipping into one of the ponds. He flicked it up and out, sending a wave of water from one of the ponds over the floor. Olag gritted his teeth.

"Oh, you fucker..."

There was nothing but a smile in response. The eel knew what he was doing, alright. Soak the floor, keep it slippery and, worse, conductive. Soak enough of the arena, and the bear would be limited to a very small segment while the eel could dart in and out at will, hitting him and pulling back before Olag could do anything else. Even grappling risked being zapped harder than he already had been.

Which meant that he was going to have to tank a few things and hope to end this fast. He just hoped that he was right about the shock absorbers not being there. If he could be right about that, then he could end this in two hits. He just had to land them.

The eel charged him again. Olag planted his feet and waited, and -

A subtle shift in his opponent's footing was all the warning he got. It was all he needed.

The bear jumped at the same time the eel did. A move that was supposed to clear his head and put Kisho behind him ended up sending the slippery asshole right into his arms. The bear grinned, the eel yelped, and then they hit the ground.

Eel first, of course. Olag liked a cushion.

The stomp seared his soles with a blast of electricity, and he growled as he dropped to punch the eel in the face. The slime, however, tripped him up, and he barely landed a glancing blow, hitting the floor more than his opponent. Kisho slithered out of his grip, sliding and rolling back to the wet floor tiles.

"Slippery little shit," Olag grunted.

"Ha...ha..."

The eel was panting at least, and the way that the slippery little fucker was holding his face, the blow clearly hurt even with just a glancing hit. He didn't have the staying power to fight for long or for hard, the bear realized. He broke someone down with his superior speed and the shock in addition to each physical blow. And if he was that much of a glass cannon, then there was still a chance.

Probably has a strength augmentation, then. Something to make it possible to keep going when there's not quite enough slipperiness to break someone's grip. Can't completely stop friction, which means he has to have the muscle to make up the difference.

And that was something that he could play with. He grinned, cracking his knuckles. Kisho flinched, and the crowd, Olag realized, had gone quiet.

They knew that they were about to get a show.

"So, Sparky. Ya plan on zapping me the minute I cross the floor, huh?"

"...Perhaps."

"Well, ain't a bad idea. But...heh...ya ain't the only one that can play with the arena."

"You are not augmented with shock resistance. Nor with -"

"Ain't talking about that."

Edging around the water-logged bits of the arena, Olag stopped at one of the waist-high hexagon piles. He rested one hand on it, gave it a jiggle, and found that it was lodged pretty securely in place. He knew that it would take a serious impact to actually jostle it, more than would be accomplished by throwing someone against it. That said, it should be within parameters that Malfust had already determined were part and parcel to him.

Could freeze it.

No.

Makes it easier.

They don't know about that.

We can be fast.

Shut up.

The damn voice was as loud as ever, but he was not letting it out here. He had come this far. If he had to let it out at some future match, he wanted it to at least be one where he could capitalize on it. Let it loose so that he could break out while everyone was shocked and awed at what had happened. That, at least, would mean something. For now, he'd stick to brute force.

With a grunt, he yanked the waist-high hexagon pillar to the side. Metal cracked and screeched as it came apart, and he slammed it down. A sparking pile of wires and metal shards were all that was left where the pillar had once stood.

Kisho and the crowd stared. Olag, on the other hand, picked up the pillar and carried it with him.

"Yeah, that water. That's great for keeping me outta there. But this?" He slapped the pillar. "This shit feels like it ain't all metal. Probably just the core. Outside? Outside, that's shock-absorbing shit. And I'll bet ya money that it ain't conductive."

"It is too short to use as a bridge."

"Yeah, yeah it is. But I ain't using it for that."

Chuckling, he backed up a few steps, then charged straight ahead. Just as he was about to hit the water tiles, he threw the pillar ahead of him, and used it as a surfboard.

The entire crowd was on their feet, and the eel was too stunned to react in time. Olag grinned as he all but flew across the arena, the raw strength of his throw and the wet surface meaning that there was an actual chance to clear the distance. As the pillar slowed, the eel lifted his hands, but the bear had already taken that next leap, flying through the air right at his opponent.

They made contact, and it was pain. The electricity Kisho channeled through every connected part of their bodies, plus in arcs that wrapped around him like painful fingers of fire, was enough to have the bear roaring. It zapped and screamed through his muscles, and before they could lose the ability to actually work properly, he squeezed them tight around the electric asshole.

Every shock after that pulled them tighter, and tighter, and while it made his heart race, while he roared in his own pain, he could feel the eel giving out beneath his arms. One second, two, three, four, the surging electricity getting stronger and stronger, his muscles feeling like they were on fire -

And then it was done.

Olag panted, gritting his teeth through the aftershocks of the eel's electrical attack. The slender fighter had gone completely limp in his arms, barely breathing. He could feel shattered bits of bone under his arms, and he knew that he'd squeezed the eel's ribs to the point of shattering in at least a few places.

He dropped Kisho to the floor, taking a step back. His chest and arms were blackened from the heat and a few surface-level burns. Yeah. Yeah, that fucking hurt.

One level up...one level up, and there's that much of a difference. What the fuck does the guy three levels up have over me?

Despite the pain, Olag grinned at the thought. The idea alone was enough to have him all but drooling in anticipation.

Shaking his head, he turned back to the door he'd entered through. Now that the fight was done, there were words to be had back at the barracks. Shelly had lied to him; there'd never been a shock absorber in that asshole's body, and there might not have been an amp for his electrical power, either. That might have been just a well-trained biological function. If anything, that asshole had been augmented for greater slime and strength, and Olag had felt the latter when he was squeezing the eel. If it hadn't been for the electricity making him squeeze harder, Kisho might have been able to fight his way out of his grip.

She lied to him. Shelly had to answer for that.

However, instead of the doors out opening, part of the arena wall opened to reveal stairs going up. No less than a dozen guards poured through, and they were different to the standard soldiers that he had seen moving through the dark rings. These were not armored in such thick, chunky style, but rather in skintight rubber of some sort, with faces that were completely covered and featureless. Circuit-lines went through the armor, glowing a dull silver over the black of their clothing.

And they were armed, both with weapons built into the arms of their suits and with various weapons that hung from their belts. No less than a half-dozen weapons on each of them, ranging from small-arms to explosives to melee weapons. He knew an honor guard when he saw one, and he knew that this was meant to be an invitation up to his potential buyer.

Not what he wanted to do after fighting so hard, but at least he'd get a face to put to the offer. Olag arched an eyebrow, gesturing at the stairs, and one of the faceless soldiers nodded.

"Well, fine, if ya fucking say so."

The bear walked out of the arena, aware of so many eyes on him. He normally would have flexed and shown off a bit. Hell, he might have turned and given them a dick-shot just for the hell of it, but the electrical burns up and down his front meant that he was far more sore than he'd normally be after a match. It wasn't enough to take him down, but he was feeling it. The temptation to let that other thing forward, to let it have a voice and a bit of support right then, was actually fucking tempting.

But he kept it back. For now, for just a bit longer. It wasn't time just yet.

The guards led him through a series of hallways that he barely understood before leading him to the doors to a viewing box. Four took position at the door, holding what served as their eyes on him, while two stood just behind him. The remaining six filtered into the other room, standing at either side of a high-backed chair that looked down at the arena the bear had just vacated.

"So, guessing I'm talking to the guy interested in buying me?" Olag said.

"Mmm, quite so, quite so."

"Any chance I can see your face?"

"Oh, knowing you, you'd much prefer to be fucking it. I'm a little disappointed. I was curious to see how you'd treat that eel after beating him."

"I got enough estim off that asshole to get a hundred guys off. Ya want him fucked, ya put an offer out to see it done," Olag said, shaking his head.

"Mmm, so noted. Perhaps I'll throw a bounty down on your next fight."

"Ya still ain't letting me see your face."

"Oh, yes, yes, you wanted to see that? Well, I can oblige. I want to see you up close, too."

The chair turned, and Olag was surprised that it wasn't some scheming dragon, or some low-down rat, or that high and mighty poodle that he had noticed.

Instead, the chatter-box was a Golden Retriever, immaculately made up with a white and gold suit and a perfectly coiffed fur coat. He smiled with that sort of blandly-endearing smile that the breed always had, and yet, he sat in a way that made him look like some sort of super-villain.

As he stood there, being stared at and all but eaten with the dog's eyes, he wondered just what kind of fucked-up buyer he'd attracted. The retriever smiled.

"Come in. Come in. I want to get a closer look at you. After all, if I buy you...well, there's modifications that will have to be made, obviously, but let's see what you look like...unspoiled."

The End

Summary: Olag heads into an arena with a greater threat on the horizon. He also wonders just what his potential buyer might be like.

Tags: No Sex, Nudity, Male Nudity, Eel, Polar Bear, Casual Sex Stuff, Ooze, Slime, Electricity, Fight, Pain, Arena, Conning the Arena, Series, Fighting,