The Hunter on Arena Read Online Free Page B

into a deep and bottomless sleep.
    It seemed to him that he dreamed, but it was an odd dream, like nothing he had ever experienced before. Itseemed that he was floating bodiless, hovering just below the rough ceiling of the cave, looking down on himself as he slept.
     As he watched, the walls seemed to open behind his somnolent body and a host of monsters crept forth. He counted sixteen in
     all, each more hideous than the last. The wolfthing and crested lizard were there as well.
    Strangely, there was no feeling of danger, rather, one of gentle concern, almost pity. He knew in some vague way that his
     amorphous self had no way of communicating with his slumbering body, to warn it of danger, to urge it to waken, but somehow,
     there was no feeling of need. As he watched, the creatures lifted his unresisting form between them and carried it away. As
     they vanished, his vision dimmed and he knew no more.

4

    Consciousness returned with a sudden, swift rush. Braldt found that he was being carried down a long, brightly lit corridor constructed of the same smooth, shiny, metallic
     substance as the room he had first entered in this gauntlet of dangers. He studied his captors from beneath his lids while
     still feigning sleep. He could feel a number of hands or paws supporting his body, yet he could see only the two creatures
     who carried his legs; he dared not open his eyes further for he did not wish to reveal that he had wakened.
    Neither of those who gripped his legs were human. The thing on the left was squat and blocky with rough, warty skin the color
     of ochre mud. Its head sat on its broad, muscular shoulders like a boulder. It had a brief, sloping forehead, tiny, round
     eyes, and no chin to speak of. The entire front of its face was squeezed into a snout that ended in soft, flexible flanges
     of flesh that probed the air restlessly. The pig-like creature wore two broad, leather straps crisscrossed over its chest
     and shoulders, and narrow, leather bands held a variety of swords and knives which glinted sharply under the bright lights.
     The handles were smooth and well worn with use. The creature wore nothing on its ruddy body other than asmall, leather loincloth, and its rust-colored flesh rippled with the play of muscles beneath the thick, lumpy skin.
    The creature to its right was little better. This was another lizard-type being, but shorter and tougher looking than Braldt’s
     first opponent. This one was dark brown in color; the horny, segmented plates that defined its various body parts were burnished
     a deep mahogany as though the creature spent hours oiling and polishing itself. Its head was broad and flat, its eyes placed
     on either side of the flat muzzle and hooded by layers of armored scales. The scaly muzzle was edged with sharp, triangular
     fangs both top and bottom, and the jaws were held slightly agape, revealing a slit tongue that flickered in and out with every
     breath. Its back was covered with the same heavy, ridged scales and bore a complex pattern ranging from a delicate shade of
     cream to darkest brown. The mottled complexity of the shadowy pattern deceived the eye and Braldt guessed that it was designed
     as protective camouflage for the creature’s natural habitat. It wore no clothing, and so far as Braldt could see, carried
     no weapon. But its digits, all eight of them, were tipped with long, curved, sharp claws that could rip a man from chin to
     belly as easily as it might gut a fish. Further, the top of its flat head, the length of its spine and broad tail, the crest
     of its shoulders, and the backs of its hands all bore a prominent ridge of sharp spikes as sharp and dangerous as any knife.
     The creature had no need for armament, its body provided all it would ever require.
    Braldt could not see who belonged to any of the other hands that gripped him, but from the murmur ofvoices around him, he knew that his initial count of sixteen was not far from the mark.
    The voices told