Adnirr'ach's exquisite hearing perked at the sound for the gladiatorial combat to begin. Slowly standing up, the large, muscular warrior whose agility was, in fact, was much more potent than many thought, put on his black tower-helmet.
Another Imperial soldier, a sergeant from the looks of him, stood in front of the small group of motley-clad gladiators. "For your round, prisoners, you will be fighting against a group of veteran arena combatants known as The Wolves of Bruma. These men indeed wear ice wolf skins over them while they fight, and use Skyforge steel battleaxes and greatswords. You will fight to the death. Last ones standing win 10 septims. The one with the most kills, wins another 10. May Akatosh watch over you." With the gruff introduction, the grizzled sergeant stood aside and opened the gate.
Wonderful, I'm in front, Adnirr'ach mused with some delight. He must have worked up more pent-up energy than he had previously thought. As the gates opened, the prisoners around the large vampire gasped. Adnirr'ach could only chuckle. What stood before them, were ten giant warriors clad in the exact design that the Imperial soldier had described. "Looks like we got our work cut out for us, eh friend?" Leandros, the enslaved Imperial that Adnirr'ach had come to amiable terms with earlier. "Just follow my lead, and you will be fine. I intend to get this over with quickly, and visit the brothels later, for you know the old saying, 'A fluff after a fight, always feels right'," Adnirr'ach replied to the man. "My gratefulness for your concern, vampire, but I do have some experience in the art of war," said Leandros with a chuckle.
With that, the Imperials signaled for the battle to begin.
Wasting no time, Adnirr'ach charged out to meet his opponents with speed that did not seem to match his large frame. Dodging a slow, clumsy swing of a greatsword, Adnirr'ach grabbed the mans wrists with his hands and, with a loud crack, broke both of them, forcing the wolf-clad warrior to drop his weapon. Following up with a one-two to the man's face, Adnirr'ach bent down and scooped up the fallen sword, immediately cleaving the screaming man nearly in two. Turning to his left side at the sight of movement, the millennium-old vampire parried the swipe of a battleaxe. Catching the weapon on his own sword hilt, Adnirr'ach let go one of his hands from his sword and grabbed the hilt of the now-nervous warrior's weapon, tearing it from the man's grasp. Leandros saw this, and, after roundhousing his clumsy opponent in the face, moved through the throngs of prisoners - who, for the most part, were being torn to shreds - and veteran gladiators, moving close to the large vampire. Adnirr'ach saw this and quickly tossed the weapon Leandros' way, who caught it, spinning it around him to chop into the gut of a gladiator who thought he saw an opening.
Adnirr'ach turned back to deal with his man, who had produced two large maces from his belt. This seemed to bolster the man's confidence, and Adnirr'ach purposely let the man get a swing through, hitting the vampire's greyish chest with a meaty thhwack. Stunned that Adnirr'ach merely shrugged what would have been a mortal wound off with no more than a slightly pained grunt, the gladiator started to back away. Adnirr'ach would have none of that. Charging forward, he saw on his left another of the Wolves of Bruma try to flank him in a pathetic attempt to help his comrade. Easily ducking under the slow chop of the axe, Adnirr'ach stabbed his weapon forward, gutting the man. Pulling out his blade, he advanced on his target. All of a sudden, he found himself surrounded by five more of the Wolves, and only saw himself and Leandros, along with an Altmer using twin swords, to be alive in his group. "Comrades, form up on me!" shouted Adnirr'ach. As they did so, the vampire suddenly and brutally finished off the gloating gladiator in front of him with a fast decapitation. Picking up the man's shield, he used more of his innate ancient vampire strength to hoist the shield on his left arm, wielding the greatsword in his right hand alone. He took three of the Wolves on at once, parrying all three of the gladiator's swords in quick succession, and shield bashed one in the neck, mortally wounding him and dropping him to the sand, bleeding from the trachea. This distracted the other two momentarily, leaving the agile vampire to bifurcate one of the armor-less veteran gladiators. This snapped the last man to attention, who also happened to be the last of their opponents, as Leandros and the duel-wielding Altmer had both finished off their opponents.
As this realization came to pass, the man dropped his weapon and fell to the ground on his knees, pleading, "Please, you have won this! I submit to you, dark knight! MERCY!" Adnirr'ach gave the man a cold look, and glanced up to the audience, who were chanting as one for the man's brutal execution.
Throwing down his shield and sword, Adnirr'ach yelled with fervor in a booming voice which silenced the crowd. "You have witnessed more senseless slaughter and gore than many would see in a lifetime, yet you beg me to give you more by executing yet another soul. I ask you, wealthy patricians of this oh, so great city...tell me, are you NOT satisfied?? ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!" Adnirr'ach screamed with desperation and pure, unadulterated anger. With a final, near primal snarl, he stood in front of the gladiator, who would surely be executed anyways. Turing the man so the whole crowd could see, Adnirr'ach dug his naturally sharp vampiric nails, and tore the screaming man's throat out. With that, he kicked the gushing-blood body down to the already bloodsoaked sands of the arena, and calmly but angrily walked out back to the holding area, Leandros and the Altmer following suit.
The crowd continued to cheer.
