The Bravos arrive at a stonework arena

The day moved on into evening as the Bravos made their way east, eventually crossing the great chasm that ran through the city when they didn't see anything even vaguely resembling an arena. Sundown came early in a city entrenched in the side of a canyon. The walls would quickly start to block out the sun, and as the evening steadily approached, the busy city fell quiet.

"Where could they even be hiding all those people?" Robin wondered aloud. They hadn't seen any mass exodus from the city or anything like that. Perhaps the traffic had just flowed outward until the city was empty?

"They must be in their homes." Fuu said. They had been walking for some time now, occasionally happening across a merchant clearing up his stall or some less muscular looking lizardfolk out on walks.

"Do we even know it this damn arena exists?" Liv said. "That thing didn't even seem like it spoke a lick of common. What if they lied to us, so they could keep us in the city longer? I wouldn't put it past those bastards to try and trick us into-"

"Do you hear that?" Emmaline asked, cutting off Liv's rant rather deliberately. Off in the distance ahead of them, the four women could hear a faint cheering sound. It grew to a crescendo, then suddenly died down. "That must be it!"

The group hurried off, following Emmaline's lead as she darted down the empty streets, but there was no grand Colosseum structure or even any buildings that looked suitably sized for combat. "There!" Emmaline finally said and turned straight for the cave wall. Set into it were a series of superimposed stone doors, each one larger than the last. Flickering firelight could be seen through the windows and cracks, and as they drew closer another round of cheers rang out from inside.

"This has to be it!" Emmaline said. She pushed against the smallest set of doors and, after some effort managed to **** them open. Immediately the cacophony of crowded excitement tripled in intensity. Hissing words in a language none of the could understand bounced out onto the open street.

The four walked inside to find themselves walking up a set of stairs onto a raised platform that looked out over a massive circular stone ring. Every side was marked by seating full of spectators, mostly Lizardfolk, but Liv's sharp eyes picked out the flesh tones of what must have been other humans or elves. The place they had walked out into was higher than the rest of the seating, an elevated platform of sorts designed to look out over all the rest of the ring, and seated on a large throne-like seat just a meter away from them was a Lizardfolk man in full body-paint and wearing an elaborate feathery headdress.

"Ahh, new guests!" he grinned as he took in their sudden appearance, his voice much less heavily accented than the other lizardfolk they had spoken to. "Have you come to take part in our games? To prove yourselves against the terrors of the arena?! Or... simply to watch." From the energy in his voice and the excited animation of his face, Emmaline guessed he was some sort of MC or commentator. She had known several back at the circus, albeit none quite as scaly.

As he waited for their answer, a sudden shriek echoed from the ground below as a sparsely armored lizardfolk warrior drove his trident deep into the underbelly of some sort of massive drake-like creature. The crowd erupted into applause and the announcer turned back to the action, suddenly speaking in a voice like thunder. "Zzip'stek has struck a fatal blow! This may finally be the turn our young warrior has been searching for! Will it be enough to fell the beast?!"

The draconic monster, let out another dying wail as the Zzip'stek twisted his weapon inside its body, dropping it to the side with a victorious yell and pumping his spear up in the air in victory "He's done it! Zzip'stek has slain the beast!" The arena erupted into cheers once more, as the announcer turned back to face the Bravos. "Looks like I might have an open spot in a few minutes if one of you is up for it now. Slaves only need to win a couple to get those pesky collars taken off" smile still spread wide across his face, he met Liv's natural glare and winked.