The ostrich seemed surprised by his mounting. It briskly lurched forward when The Master tapped it with his heels. Then the ostrich hurtled straight towards the mutants. A wolf mutant drew a dagger, grinning devilishly. But, before The Master or the wolf mutant could do anything, the ostrich pecked at the wolf mutant to get some of that sweet, sweet gelatin. "Agh! Stop that!" roared the wolf mutant as he was assaulted by the ostrich. The polar bear mutant smacked at the ostrich with his club. It struck the ostrich's side, and it yelped and dashed towards the door. It seemed that The Master had escaped from the five mutants! And then is forehead slammed against the ceiling and he was flung, semiconscious, from the ostrich. Too dazed to stand, The Master laid on his back as the mutants approached him... the last thing he heard was... sirens? Shouting in Arabic? Growls of pain? Gunfire? His vision blurred, he he quickly passed out.

The Master awoke on a cot. There was shouting outside. It was dark. He was inside of a jail cell, and there were several other jail cells around him. But most of the doors, his included, were wide open. It didn't seem like any of them were even capable of fully shutting.

The walls were old and tattered. He seemed free to go outside, but could likely only go so far. A look outside of the window revealed a large fence and some guards. There also seemed to be a large crowd of people underneath of him, but he would have to go downstairs in order to investigate.

As The Master was losing consciousness he mumbled:"Ostrich..not magical..fucking..kid"
Waking up in a cell, all alone, he felt lonely. He needed some company, preferably a sexy female cat mutant. He needed to make some friends, all his life he had been lonely, it was time for change! With these thoughts in mind he ventured outside his cell. First he checked some others cells to see if they were empty and if so then he would go downstairs from where the voices and noise came from. If he only had been more friendly towards the mutants then maybe they would've become friends BUT NOO he had to run and ruin the golden chance...

The cells were empty, so The Master went outside. A swarm of people were standing around a corpse on the ground, patting a bloody-knuckled man on the back. Most of the men wore tattered clothing and were covered in filth. The Master noticed that the tiger, polar bear, and one of the wolf mutants from earlier were straggling towards the back of the crowd. The polar bear saw The Master and grimaced at him, but didn't approach him. Suddenly, there was a high pitched whistling noise, and everyone turned to a man standing on balcony on the second floor of the building. Only he wasn't a man. He was an ogre. He had green skin with red rings around his arms and a red tattoo on his neck. He was a tad pudgy, but not fat. He must have been nine feet high. He was guarded by two scar covered men and two goblins that were chatting to each other quietly. A quick glance around revealed that these weren't the only odd creature in here. The Master was able to count three dwarves, two more mutants (salamander and giraffe), and a cyborg. There was also a strange man with night black skin and glowing green eyes.

A man roughly the same height as The Master, but skinnier approached him. He was wearing shorts and a baseball cap.

The ogre began to speak, "It seems that Eli has won." The crowd of fifty roared. "Eli, you get his belongings," he nodded to one of the men who left to retrieve said belongings.

"I pronounce Nate nameless. Eli, will you take his title?"

"What titles?" said Eli sarcastically in a deep voice. It was hard too see Eli through the crowd, but The Master could tell he was definitely a black skinned human. A few men around Eli laughed.

"Good point. When you leave, his home is yours," now the ogre was sarcastic. Eli and several of the other men snickered and laughed. Everyone dispersed slowly. The skinny man with the baseball cap leaned into The Master's ear and whispered, "Welcome to the Rock, minnow," he said. "Everyone's favorite prison, led by the lovable 'Knife Teeth.'"

He spat and gestured to the twisted corpse on the ground. A few men had already torn off one of the arms for food. Nobody else seemed desperate enough for food.

Well, he was definitely done trying to navigate through this with logic. It seemed the God of this world was completely oblivious to the laws of nature and common sense. As the saying goes "If you live with the wolves, pretend to be one". Even that would be hard because he was The Master Hunter not a lowly dog. He had literally cut an wolf, stuffed it's corpse while cooking and then eating the meat all the while drinking a glass of its blood as it was said that it would improve his hunter skills. All it did was make him throw up and start a new hobby.

So many new characters, so many possibilities, so many dangers. Well at least he was hitting it off with the Bear Guard. That, being 100℅ obvious just from the look of pure friendliness the bear gave him when they made eye contact, or maybe it was just the leftover jello from his jello pool adventure blocking the bear's face on his goggles. Swiftly cleaning it up, just then a dark fellow prisoner male approached him with conversation.

"He must certainly love the show. Having his own personal Colosseum...an arena with fights to the death performed for the viewers pleasure"-he clarified as maybe they didn't have the same name for it in this world.

"Anyway, you can call me The Master and what better way to make a new friend then in the aftermath of a bloody murder"-he said while extending his hand. Finally, his first real friend since ever!

"So, care to show the new guy around? Add some life advice while you're at it."

William fell on the ground (gracefully), he wasn't hurt but the purple mists were getting closer. "I'm fine Jesper, you... go... ahead..." said William as he started to lose consciousness. He tried his best to stay awake but the mist proved too powerful, he spent his last conscious moment cursing his curiosity before fading into darkness. "Sonovabitch...."

The man wearing the baseball cap nodded. "Two or three years ago, this was a regular prison. But then the rioting got so bad, the guards gave up. Maintained the perimeter, added additional magic proof protective measures, and let ol', Knife Teeth, the ogre and leader of the rioting, take charge. He communicates to the outside world, has the only cell phone, etc. He makes sure we're fed and allows us to settle all of or disputes in a fight to death in the arena or "Coliseum," if you're inclined to call it that.

When you and those four mutants were thrown in here, I thought you were as good as dead since you were brought in unconscious. But the Dark One- Wyatt- told everyone to back off," he nodded towards the strange man with glowing green eyes. "That one wolf guy didn't make it. Bled out from some ostrich pecks or something. Anyways, if you wanna stay alive, follow three simple rules. Don't piss of Knife Teeth and his pals, don't run towards the gate, and if you're going to fight, fight with someone you'll win against with permission from Knife Teeth. Because if Knife Teeth finds out you killed someone without going through his weird ogre fighting ceremony, you're as good as dead, tadpole."

The wolf, tiger, and polar bear mutants began to approach The Master angrily as the baseball capped man spoke.

"By the way, name's Marcus."

"Nice to meet you Mar.."-he paused a little as he saw the mutants approaching menacingly-"cus"-he finished-"has any of that trio over there performed the challenging ritual?"- The Master added while nodding towards the angry trio.

His adrenaline suddenly pumping, he was hella scared. Fuck the friend making bullshit, have you ever heard of a Sociopath wanting friends for the sake of friendship? He needed to leave, NOW. First of all, was this rule even real? It could be some made up shit to make the new guy easy prey. Suddenly he became panicked as he realized, all what he had gone through crashed on him. On the outside though he didn't show it, no shaking whatsoever, not even breathing for that matter. A forced instinctive breath slapped him back to reality.

Taking a deep breath like the monk training he had done taught him, his mind calmed down. Now he was fully aware of his surroundings and also scanned for possible escape ways, within the prison of course. He was fully prepared for what was to come, everything was dangerous, even Marcus from whom he was especially cautious now.

@xChrome Sorry for the delayed response

William woke up inside of a small cage. However, the cage seemed large to him because he had magically shrunk, somehow. Debra was the same size as him, and curled up in a ball, horrified. Six dragons were dead on the ground, and Ronald's corpse was among them. An apologetic Larry was standing among them. Both of his hands were claws now. The two black and white dragon twins with no wings remained as well.

"Hello," said Larry. "First of all, I wasn't prepared for the dragons to get out of hand. The goal was for them to open the cage and see that we had outsmarted them, prove a point. But the gun made them jumpy. I refused to let you die just because of my arrogance. So I fought to protect you, a task only my closest friends were willing to join me in," he nodded towards the two black dragons with white stripes, who smiled happily.

"I'm sorry but I wasn't able to save Ronald. @DriveEMOut Jesper, at least I think that's his name, fled. He's probably in pursuit of Emily and Eddy. The two of them were abducted and taken to Dragon Country. Tell me, William, how did you get here? You're clearly not from the dungeon, I can smell it. Who have you met so far?"

@Bishop I'll get to you ASAP

Marcus turned around. "Oh, those mutants that came in with you? No, no. They haven't. Probably not even sure how to do it... say, why are they coming over here? Woah, they seem pissed, tadpole..."

The Master looked for escape routes. He could run back up the stairs or hide in the crowd to avoid the trio, and he could probably bust out of the prison if he wanted to. The main gate would require too much force to break down, but he remembered seeing a grated window that seemed pretty old. Perhaps he could bust that down. But then there were the guards at the perimeter, who would probably shoot him if he tried to run. Plus, he was able to hear the sound of engines in the distance meaning that they likely had a jeep or some other vehicle (or vehicles) patrolling the perimeter.

The three mutants were closing in. He could either make a break for it, or see if the fighting rules were true.

He had a medium mastery of over 100 fighting styles. Time for all that training to pay off! He cracked his neck, then his knuckles and took a "relaxed position." He would counter their attack by using a surprise move that took advantage of the opponent's size, the bigger the better. And he waited, patiently, like The Master that he was...
Turning to Marcus he asked:"Is there any rule against cheap shots?"

"Look, tadpole, as long as you're in the ring-" Marcus was interrupted as the mutant polar tiger grasped his throat and picked him up.

"Why don't you step aside?" suggested the mutant tiger.

"You son of a bitch!" shouted the mutant wolf. "It's your fault that my brothers are dead! I'll rip you to shreds!"

The mutant wolf roared and hurtled towards The Master, who was more than ready. Suddenly, the sound of a gun firing rang out and a bullet landed in between The Master and the mutant wolf. The mutant wolf backed up, snarling. The tiger mutant dropped Marcus.

Knife Teeth was standing with a revolver pointed at the wolf mutant. "If you want to fight," he said, "take the red knife and carve your name over the bed of the person you want to sort things out with."

The wolf, annoyed, quickly jogged away. A few moments later, he emerged up on the stage, grasped a knife and vanished. Knife Teeth followed him. A minute later, the wolf mutant returned to the tiger and polar bear mutant who nodded and walked away.

Knife Teeth reemerged. "It is done. The two will fight at noon tomorrow. It will be a fight to the death. No weapons. Only fist and claw. You can not refuse, tadpole."

Knife Teeth and his guards opened a door behind them and went into a room soundlessly. A few people murmured. Marcus rubbed his neck. "Well, those are basically the rules. No weapons. Fight to the death. All that fun stuff. Say, do you have any-" Marcus was interrupted by a figure.

"Marcus," it was the Dark One, "let us be."

Marcus nodded vigorously, readjusted his baseball cap, and left.

The Dark One's skin was somewhere between pitch black and a dark, swirling purple. His eyes glowed mystifyingly. "I work with Knife Teeth. In case of death, I'll need your name, list of belongings, and other titles. Also, relatives, things like that."

He leaned towards The Master, "They'll ask for your real name. I suggest you not announce yourself as 'The Master.' Or else they'll default to tadpole. Also, you have a visitor, so please come with me."

The Dark One approached the gate, which opened, and gestured for The Master to follow him. The Master could see two armed guards and another figure near the fence.

@SpookySquid It's all good, I'm kinda busy at the moment too so my replies are gonna be slow

As William regained his consciousness, he noticed that everything was relatively bigger than before, it took him a moment before he realised that he's now shrunken and trapped in a cage. He saw a bunch of dead dragons and Ronald's body among them, but more importantly Larry and the other two dragons were alive and don't seem to pose a threat at the moment.

"I appreciate your kind gesture Larry," said William sarcastically, "but I don't see why you have to shrink me and place me in this cage!" William was angry and exhausted, he expected the scientists to be able to help Emily, but instead all his companions are now gone and he's shrunken and trapped here. "Sorry Larry, I didn't mean to shout. Clearly we don't want to hurt each other, how about you let us out and we'll talk? I don't feel comfortable inside this cage."

@xChrome I understand

Larry opened the cage, "Sorry, I wanted to give you a moment to collect yourself."

One of the black and white dragons placed his hand on William's head and William returned to normal size in a few seconds. After he was back to normal size, the black and white dragons were shorter than him.

"We have another dragon outside digging a grave for the dead dragons and Ronald. So tell me, what happened? Surely you're being hunted by some gangs. Before I was captured, there was news of 7 outsiders. A girl named Sandra, a boy named Eddy, a thief named Jesper, a former summoner named William, another boy named @Oliver Felix... erm... I didn't receive the exact name of the others, but I do know they went by 'Dark Horse' and 'The Master.' Surely you're being hunted. How have you survived so long?"

Wait a second.. he was gonna cut his bed, so where the fuck was he gonna sleep? The Master just hoped the guy didn't cut too deep so at least he could turn the bed over and use the other side. WAIT, what the fuck was he thinking? HE COULD DIE tomorrow, slash could, he WILL DIE tomorrow. For all his training on fighting the wolves and besting humans he never learned to fight wolfpeople. He had to get the hell out of here ASAP. And as an answer from the heavens he got notified that he had a visitor. Wherever he would be taken would be a lot better then an independent prison. Independent prison...

He proceeded to follow the dark guy to meet the visitor. This could be his only chance of getting outta here. He had to play his cards right, which he didn't have any but at least he had to pretend to have cards.

Noticing the wolf watching him angrily, he gave him a long .I. with his middle finger.

"Yeah, it's fine, thanks for keeping me alive and returning me back to normal." said William after returning to his original size. It was kinda surreal for William as one moment the dragons were bigger than him like those in myths, the next they're half his height again. He then looked back at Debra who was still lying on the floor of the cage, "Hey Debra is it? We're gonna be alright, the dragons here don't mean any harm. How are you holding up? How about you come out and we can return you to your normal size."

While waiting for a response from Debra, William turned back to Larry, "Well to put it simply, Jesper, Sandra, Eddy and I were supposedly summoned here for reasons unknown to us, we've never heard of the others though. And you're right, we're being hunted, one of them goes by the name of Ancient Root Clan, perhaps you've heard of them? I have no idea how we managed to survive for so long, we've barely eaten or drank anything!"

Note: His name was engraved ABOVE the bed. On the wall. FYI

The wolf snarled at The Master as he left. The Master was led to the fence, but it was hard to see the hooded figure on the other side. The hooded figure nodded at the guards, and they left, giving The Dark One, The Master, and the hooded figure their privacy. The hooded man removed his hood and The Master immediately recognized him.

It was That Boy, from earlier. He was frowning at The Master, as the rainfall increased. The raindrops that covered his face gave him a reflective glow of sorts.

"I'm guessing you want to get out of here," said That Boy. "Unfortunately, we can't provide... too much aid. However, we will do what we can on one condition. You escape, but you do it with The Dark One and the cyborg. You will need to work with Lilly, but her escape is not required. When you find Lilly, tell here 'Go Booze.' Also, if you want her location, ask the Salamander. Understand?"

-------------------------------------------------

"Ah, we'll grab you a snack from upstairs. The Ancient Roots Clan, eh? I have some... erm... sad news, if you've associated with Sandra, which I assumed you hadn't. But now that I know... uh..." Larry scratched his ear. It transformed into a larger, scaled, white version.

"You two, why don't you go with Debra and get some snacks?"

Debra was shakily led upstairs with the other two dragons, sobbing quietly. "I'll be alright," she managed, "I just need a minute."

Larry and William remained alone in the room.

"I'm sorry, William. I only recently learned this from the dragon that's currently graves, my brother, Todd. He's the size of a hand, and scouts around. Erm..."

Larry was definitely struggling to get the news out. Finally he collected himself, "First of all, Jeffery, Jared's brother, was found dead... crushed by an elevator, I believe. And Sandra... she was beaten by Jared. He almost killed her. That Boy tried to save her, but... she's in a coma. Has been for several hours. She's... she's not waking up any time soon. I'm sorry."

He was clearly surprised to see who the visitor to was. Well as clearly as someone can show under all that cover. This little fucker, the damn brat who told him to ride an Ostrich and he like the full he was went through with it. Lesson learned, no matter in what world you're in, ostrich riding is a bad idea.

Now he was telling him to do something else, another thing surely doomed to fail but oh well, he would try anything to get out before the fight.
"Crystal"- he responded and with that he left That Boy after hearing if he had anything else he wanted to say. So he just has to find the Salamander, ask him/her/ it about the location of Lily and tell her to "Go Booze".
...
...
...
He sweared to God if this was one of those Reality Shows he would sue the shit out of everyone till they were begging for bread on the streets. What if after telling the code to Lily, instead of helping she just killed him on the spot, or better yet, snitch him to the leader or something. With a sigh he turned to the Dark One:"So, know where I can find the Salamander?"

William felt uneasy at the way Larry spoke and his stomach churned upon hearing what he said. "Screw Jeffery, he tried to kill us! And I can't believe Jared did that to Sandra! She's just a kid for god's sake!" William took a moment to calm himself down and continued talking, "Anyways who's That Boy? I'm glad Sandra is still alive at least, but right now I think it's best I get Jesper, Emily and Eddie back before we plan anything else. Can you help me with that?" William wasn't expecting Larry to help in all honesty, but right now he's the only person or being he can depend on, it's worth a shot.

"I'll keep in touch," and with that, That Boy soundlessly walked away. He seemed upset about something unrelated to The Master's dilemma.

Dark One nodded. "He's somewhere in the prison. He has the corner cell," he pointed into the general direction. "I'm certain that he was talking about the salamander mutant, Pedro. You may go on your own or with somebody else, but I have other business to attend to." He briskly walked into the prison. The rain began to die down.

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"Jared is a monster. It's as simple as that. He has an illusion of the way the world should work, and does anything he can to make that world possible," explained Larry. "Ah, you haven't met 'That Boy.' He's the one that gave Jesper the unicycle. He also has a quarter of your book, if I understand correctly. Wonderfully hard book to find, I might add. Summoning is fairly uncommon in the dungeon and in the AlterWorld, but a book with that much detail is... priceless. Unfortunately, I don't know much about That Boy, and I probably know him better than most that are alive. I don't even know his real name."

Larry paused and thought, and then some food was brought to William, including Debbie Cakes and potato chips. "I'll have to make a plan with retrieving Jesper, Eddy, and Emily. In the meantime, do you have any other questions for me?"

Okay then. Time to go looking for Salamander. And if he spotted Marcus on the way he would also ask him for some direction. But before that...
Heading towards the wolf who challenged him he addressed him saying:"You know, for all its worth, I'm really sorry for what happened to your friend. Such a waste."-and as he turned to leave he added:"The mutt would've made such a nice pelt, a big waste indeed."
All the time he had his guard up ready to dodge. He just hoped the bait would work and the wolf got shot before they had to fight.