The holding cells beneath the Colosseum smelled of old blood, salt water, and rust.
Yuto, Ayase, Kurenai, and Shion were shoved into a damp, stone room. The heavy iron gate slammed shut behind them, locking them in absolute darkness save for a flickering mana-torch on the wall.
"Great. Fantastic," Shion complained, hovering above the wet stone floor to keep her boots clean. "I was summoned by the strongest man in the lower Tower, and my first day is spent in prison."
"Quiet, demon," Ayase scolded gently. "Kurosawa-dono is meditating on his battle strategy. Do not disturb his focus."
Yuto was currently sitting cross-legged on the floor, doing complex math in his head to figure out exactly how many Coliseum Tokens he needed to hoard to reach a 200% multiplier.
"You lot are awfully loud for dead meat."
The voice came from the shadows in the corner of the cell.
A figure dropped down from a rusted pipe near the ceiling, landing with silent, predatory grace. It was a girl, roughly Yuto's age, wearing battered bronze gladiator armor that exposed her scarred midriff. Iridescent sapphire scales framed her cheekbones and shoulders, marking her as a Mer-Tribe native. Her hair was a fierce, fiery crimson, tied back in a messy braid, and she held twin curved water-blades that glowed with a lethal, icy blue light.
She looked at Yuto's party and scoffed.
"An Oni in a water-dungeon? A samurai who looks afraid to get her silk dirty? A crying bat-girl?" She pointed one of her curved blades at Yuto. "And a scrawny human whose mana feels completely dormant. Senator Cassius really is just throwing garbage into the arena to feed the beasts today."
"I am Isabella," she declared, her eyes flashing fiercely. "I've survived sixty rounds in this hellhole. When the floodgates open, stay out of my way. If you trip me, I'll cut your hamstrings myself."
Kurenai's eye twitched. "You got a lot of nerve, fish-stick. Alpha, can I smash her?"
"No," Yuto said, standing up and brushing the dirt off his pants. He looked Isabella up and down. Her stats were impressive—fast, aggressive, and highly optimized for aquatic combat. But there was something else. A heavy, dark chain made of pure system-code was wrapped around her neck, invisible to anyone without a Transcendent-tier eye.
A slave seal.
"You didn't volunteer for the arena," Yuto observed calmly. "You're a prisoner, just like us."
Isabella flinched, her fiery demeanor cracking for a fraction of a second before she scowled, stepping uncomfortably close to Yuto.
"Mind your business, surface-rat," she hissed, her face inches from his. "I fight because if I don't, my little brother in the slums doesn't get his ration of clean water. So don't play psychologist with me. I strike fast, I claim my rewards instantly, and I survive. That's the only rule here."
[System Prompt: Ideological Clash Detected. Opponent: Isabella. Aggressive Tension rising...]
Yuto swallowed hard. The scent of sea salt and adrenaline rolling off her was intoxicating, and her aggressive proximity was setting off warning bells in his Vault.
She claims everything instantly. She is the literal antithesis of my entire build, Yuto realized, sweating slightly.
Before Isabella could threaten him again, a massive horn echoed through the dungeon. The stone floor beneath them began to rumble violently.
"The floodgates," Isabella warned, spinning around and readying her twin blades. "Get to high ground, idiots! The water is coming!"
The iron gate of their cell lifted, not to a hallway, but to the massive, open-air Colosseum floor. The roaring cheers of thousands of wealthy nobles echoed from the stands above. And rushing into the arena from the sea walls was a tidal wave of foaming green water, carrying shadows that clicked and chattered with massive, razor-sharp pincers.
[Event Triggered: Wave 1 - The Abyssal Crawlers.]
"Don't die on me in the first ten seconds, human!" Isabella yelled, diving straight into the rushing water with terrifying speed.
Yuto didn't dive. He casually stepped out into the knee-deep water, ignoring the massive, armored crab-monsters surging toward him. He just stared at the glowing gold Coliseum Tokens floating above their heads.
"Let's get rich," Yuto whispered.