CLANG CLANGCLANG

I woke to the sounds of multiple cages opening. I opened my eyes and looked around, only to see a multitude of portals open in front of the cage entrances while the flying disk monsters unlocked the cages.

"What is happening?" I questioned as I stood to my feet. I approached the wall and poked my snout through the bars.

"Mission." One of the dragon monsters gruffly answered just before it disappeared through a black portal.

"HOSSSSSSHIRYU! Sssssstop asssssssking questionssssss!" Nageneral's voice yelled at me. I removed my muzzle from the bars and looked toward the commander monster as she stood in the center of the room.

I blinked and opened my mouth, then closed it as she hissed and glared at me. Instead, I focused on the deep knowledge of missions.

If my basic understanding was correct, a mission was when Master sent a monster to places outside the fortress. Often, it was to serve as a distraction while sneakier monsters infiltrated somewhere or to destroy something or fight our enemies, the Stellan race. I could not remember why Master had such a vendetta against the species, but I figured asking the question was a bad idea.

I excitedly looked to my door as the lock to my cage opened, but frowned in disappointment as a pair of dees calmly entered my enclosure. One held a bowl full of food held high above its head, while the other had a syringe. 

I want to go on missions. My ears lowered in a pout as the dee placed the food next to me. Why am I not going on a mission?

Soon, the temptation of food overrode my desire to go on a mission; I began to devour the meaty rice and vegetable mixture.

I ate in peace for a little while, then blinked as I felt the dee gently stroked my arm. I looked to the small creature, then was taken aback that he looked a bit shorter than the last night. Its touch still felt nice, so I decided I was wrong about their change in height and calmly returned to my meal.

I froze as something grabbed the back of my neck, quickly followed by a prick. Shortly afterward, a burning pain erupted from the spot and spread throughout my entire body. The agony became so intense that I could no longer eat. My muscles screamed; my mind became overwhelmed with the pain to the point I could no longer make comprehensible thoughts.

The first dee, the one on the bottom of a two-dee tower, took a nervous step back as I growled and tensed in pain. I could not react as the two dees comically fell onto their backs on the sawdust floor. I managed to watch the two out of the corner of my eye as they barely avoided accidentally impaling themselves with the dropped needle.

One of the dees rolled back to its feet and slowly approached me as I remained frozen in pain. His eyes shone with a strange emotion my deep memories failed to recognize. It hesitated, then reached out and gently stroked my face.

It felt so wonderful as the pain slowly began to subside. After a few moments, I sighed in relief as the soft rumbling emerged deep inside my throat once again. I have no idea what the sound is, but it makes me feel strange. Like how I feel when I please Master, but somehow better.

"DEESSSSSSS! YOU ARE NOT HERE TO PET THE MONSTERSSSSSS!" Nageneral hissed furiously in the direction of my cage. "Feed, adminisssssster the sssssserum, and leave." Her glare almost seemed to have the power to induce paralysis.

The short orange and beige beings frantically fled out of my cage as the warrior snake monster approached. She scowled at me, "Finish your food. When you finish, you go to your next training session."

I obeyed and resumed eating my food and stopped when the bowl was empty. I didn't feel stuffed, but I felt content.

Just after I finished licking my lips, a yellow beam froze me in place and lifted me off of the ground. I didn't bother to resist this time, as there was no real reason too. I was never going to free myself from the robot's beam.

Except for its constant hum and the occasional buzz, the flying, bowl-shaped being silently carried me down the metal hallways.

As I looked around the halls, I realized something. Cages and training rooms inside are much better than outside; who wants to be out there all the time? It's dark, cold, and wet.

The robot opened a door, then carried me into the unfamiliar room and uncaringly dropped be just inside the door. "BZZZT EVALUATION DAY," it uncaringly slammed the door in my face.

I blinked and shook myself as I stood, then looked around the dark hallway. I guess there is only one way to go. I faced away from the door, then defended deeper down the slightly sloped pathway.

The long path seemed to go on forever, and I felt like I spent half of the day traversing the straight hall. As I walked, I remembered what the robot meant by evaluation day. If the deep knowledge was correct, then today I would be given a task to determine what skills I had and how useful I would be to Master in his plans and be rewarded based on my performance.

I am going to do good, for Master. 

Suddenly, I ran into a dead end in the narrow hallway; something clicked behind me. Strange. I paused, then tried to back away from the wall in front of me, only to discover that a line of bars now blocked my escape.

What is going on? In the darkness, I had no answers. My deep knowledge had no information to offer me on the circumstance.

BANG! I nearly fell as the floor suddenly moved and began to ascend, but I quickly steadied myself as a light appeared above me. The thick smell of raw meat entered my nose. Meat. My tail wagged as I fidgeted in pure excitement at the smell of my current favorite thing.

I lifted my nose and eagerly sniffed the air from the increasingly large slot. Soon, I could see into the large room as the floor continued to rise.

The circular room had high walls with a black ring near the ceiling while the rest of the walls and the floor were white with brown and red splatters. The arena, as my deep knowledge explained, was mostly empty, but I became excited as I noticed the other cage on the opposite side of the large space.

A sack-like monster similar to ones in the training room from my first day stood in the arena, but it was several sacks in multiple sizes sewn together to create a strange upright shape. Somehow, I could still smell the meat inside of it, but that only made me more excited. I was not even intimidated by the shiny metal things on the ends of its arms.

It has a sword and shield. My deep knowledge immediately gave me dangers to watch for and countermeasures to use against them. I don't care if it has a weapon; I am going to kill and eat it.

"Hoshiryu, kill," Master's voice filled the entire space as the doors to both cages dropped into the floor.

I knew my orders, and I did not plan to disappoint. I immediately ran out of the cage and summoned my magical armor while my opponent slowly stepped out of its now-open enclosure and raised its weapon. With my eyes set on my enemy, nothing was going to stop me.

The distance between us swiftly diminished as I sprinted towards my stationary enemy. My mind dwelled on one word: Kill kill kill..... 

As I neared, the scent of meat strengthened. I could also weakly sense a tiny bit of magic inside the being, and both would soon be mine. The magic and meat are practically already mine. I just have to take them.

My instincts and deep knowledge began to overtake my actions and thoughts, so I relied solely on them as I swiped my claws across the shield, then dodged the shining sword blade as it tried to slice my body in half.

I retaliated by using the brief opening to rake my claws across its sword arm, then backed away to put more distance between us before it moved again. It held its sword out in front of it, unaffected by my attempts to cut off its arm, even though I could see the stuffing leak out from the arm. This sack enemy is stronger than the other sacks I destroyed, but that does not matter.

The being lunged at me with its sword pointed at me in an attempt to pierce my armor. However, I managed to dive out of the way, though I barely felt the tip of the sword momentarily touch my armor. Thankfully, the contact was so minimal it did not damage my armor. I need to be more careful if I am going to impress Master.

While the sac raised its sword, I lunged at its back and sank my teeth and claws into the seams. They tore under my weight as the figure toppled forward after it retrieved its sword.

With my prey pinned, I tore into the sacks that made up its body and tried to get to the delicious meat I knew layer just beneath the surface. The tough fabric felt coarse against my tongue and mouth almost to the point of unpleasantness, but I knew the prize at the end would be worth the effort. Also, though I felt stronger, the material seemed to resist my efforts much better than the near-identical objects I swiftly tore apart a few days ago.

I winced as a wildly flailed sword hit my armor. Thankfully the magical barrier held, but I felt the magic drain a bit from the use. The barely-noticeable knick reformed almost as fast as the sword passed through it. 

Pathetic. I mentally cursed as I released and jumped off the brown cotton-filled sack as it once again tried to hit me with its weapon. I was foolish to let my guard down.

My opponent held its metal shield between us as it stood. Even with little white balls of fiber falling out of its arm and back, it could stand and fight.

So could I.

I lowered my body in preparation for a pounce as my enemy stared at me with its faceless head, its sword and shield ready.

It foolishly made the first move, and I moved out of his path while swung my tail at its feet, knocking the animated opponent back to the ground.

I thought that would be my victory. However, instead of falling flat, the being rolled off of its shield and flipped back onto its feet. In a split second after the unforeseen movement, it spun towards me with its sword extended.

In my shock, I failed to react in time to dodge the attempted strike.

CLANG. Crack.

The blade slammed into my armor right next to my neck.

Pain blossomed from the area and spread around the cracks. Thankfully, much of the damage was on my pride and the store of available magic. The gold spots that shimmered across my armor grew and multiplied. Thankfully, the pain I associated with magical deficiency did not arrive, but I decided if I made any more mistakes, I could arrive at that point.

I cannot let that happen again. I quickly ran and added distance between us as the side of my neck burned. Thankfully, the sharpened metal stick had not pierced but only painfully cracked my mystical armor.

I took deep breathes as the pain slowly subsided as the cracks healed themselves, though I had to keep moving. Despite my efforts to separate us, the living amalgamation of sacks was still trying to slice me with its weapon. I have to stop running. Master despises cowards.

I slid to a stop and spun back around to face my opponent. I will win this. I gathered magical energy and fired it like a magic breath weapon towards the approaching animated sack.

The magical energy ripped a hole in its shield and sword arm to the point only a few mere threads held the appendage to the rest of its body. Not much longer, I promised myself, but I could feel the magical weariness begin to set in. I can't stop until I win. I will only grow stronger if I win. Losers get nothing.

I dodged another one of the sack's attempts to land a blow, then grabbed its metal shield in my mouth and tore it and what remained of the arm away from the rest of its textile body.

Both of us staggered slightly, but we recovered at the same time. Movement caught the corner of my eye, so I used the shield to block another attempted sword slice, then used the sheet of metal to push the now off-balance thing onto its back.

Now is my chance. I whipped my head to the side and threw the metal as far as I could, then pounced and landed on top of the fallen animated sacks. I pinned its remaining arm to the ground with a paw.

With a greedy grin, I grabbed the pouch that served as the head and tore it off at the seams. And with that, the animated enemy became lifeless.

However, I did not stop my shredding and tore mouthfuls of disgusting filling from the cloth containers. Soon, I found exactly what I was looking for: food. It did not smell as fresh as some of the other pieces I have received, but that did not stop me. I greedily ate the bite-sized portion, then became excited as I still smelled more from within the depths of the cloth.

As I continued to shred the defeated attacker's body in my search for food, Master's monotone voice rose over the speakers for the first time since the match began. "Well done, Hoshiryu. You are a fine addition to the army."