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Sile's heart could be heard beating loudly as the ground started to dissolve until it was gone, causing the two to plummet to the second floor of the arena.

If the initial being landed on was bad; that was peaches and cream in comparison to falling a near-story and landing once again nearly under the creature. Except that his saving grace this time was that he'd managed to extract himself free of the creature's horns. But that still left the landing--and he hit hard.

When he regained consciousness, it was hard to tell where he was and he had a headache reminiscent of hangovers in times past. He squinted into the darkness, wishing he had a lantern or some sort of light...

Sile hit the ground close by with a snap, dead. But it seemed only moments later it stirred awake, healed aside from the sore which still had an arrow inside. ''Urrgh.....Where...?'' It sneered, looki blindly around. It sniffed the air, before it sensed Sterling and tensed up. Torches ignited on their own to reveal the dustied room, the air thick and filled with dull fog from earlier rain.

Sterling groaned. "C-can you not lean against my leg?" If it wasn't broken before, it definitely was now; his ankle at least. He tried to scramble out from under the creature before he realized it was alive. Wait. Hadn't it been dead?

He froze and looked at Silenia. The silent curse he mouthed could be seen thanks to the sudden flare of the torches, which made him wince and blink the spots out of his eyes. He was so dead.

Sile hissed, getting off of him carefully, still missing it's bandages. ''Death is only a burden that has trapped me here endlesssy. A burden that has meant that my true death ceases to exist. I die, only to be resurrected with the last object to hit me. That being the arrow. What is your purpose to dare disturb me, foolish human?''

Sterling grimaced as his leg was jostled and then finally the creature was off him. He could see the arrow still embedded in the creature's wound...so he took some comfort from that. But not too much. It was still alive after all.

"If you must know," his voice was pained, "I was planning to kill you so I could claim the reward and the glory of slaying a creature that had killed so many others before it. ...but I guess now I know why they failed. If you can't die--it doesn't matter how many they send after you..."

He trailed off as he looked down at his leg. It looked fine. Gingerly he felt his way down the thigh, past the knee, to the ankle--where it was definitely broken. "And of course," he said once he'd gotten over the pain, "now that I'm stuck down in a darkened crevasse with the same creature I just tried to kill...my chances of survival have dramatically dropped."

''Unless you allow me to tend to your injury.'' It hissed coldly, bleeding eyes causing blood to run down it's toothed maw. ''Those that tried to kill me before you only failed because they landed on spikes after I kicked them. You, however...Are odd. You missed the spikes fully and hit the ground feet away from wher they were positioned. You are also ridicously squeamish over my slime. Yet you are a hunter? Liar.''

Sterling scowled. "Luck that you landed on me, or luck that I collapsed where I did--neither is exactly a boon to me. And yes, I am a Hunter. Been a Hunter for the last twenty-four years. And I don't do ooze or slime. Vampires disintegrate, burst into flame, or are a bloody mess. Werewolves--same difference. You're the first creature I've come across that oozes--and frankly, I'm not eager to repeat the process." Disgust was clear in his tone.

His next statement was a bit off the wall, though could be chalked up to the pain in his leg. "Look, if you're going to eat me...can you eat me the traditional way by digesting me through your front half?"

Sile walks over silently, then somehow managed to put his injured leg into a cast with ease then 'looked' at him with it's soulless eyes. ''Thats because my kind were only born in nightmares. We existed on fear, and digust. We thrived on striking cold fear into our foes, to make them quiver in their boots. We would haunt their dreams. Most of my kind moved on after fighting..But I was the first to relize my curse.'' It sneered, claw clenched. ''A curse that lured you here.''

Sterling grimaced when ooze encased his broken ankle and then hardened to form a cast. The pain eased a little now that the injury was stable. He looked up at the nightmarish creature.

"So in other words you were created to be destroyed?" He didn't deny the whole fear/squeamish factor, figuring that her curse of being revived would have nullified his denial anyway. "How many of you were there?"

''There were thousands of us. Those that died were honored, for they stayed dead. But I relized soon enough that I was cursed after falling 89ft to the ground. I died, the awoke to find myself on the ground.''

Sterling shuddered, unable to suppress the idea of there being thousands of Silenia's type. "Well, I'm sorry for your curse. Maybe there's a way to get out of it." He paused, scarcely believing what he was saying. Was he really trying to help this monster, responsible for human deaths, to regain its mortality?

"Uh, thanks for the cast, I think." He wasn't sure if it was a cast, or if it was also meant to further incapacitate him from running away. Well, he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. "There's nothing bad down here in the second level of the arena, is there? For that matter, why are you in an arena? Who put you here?"

''I was sent here to challenge fighters, to quench their thirst for the adrenaline in their veins. They existed to kill me, and were quick to find out that I could not die. I gouged eyes out, so I would neve see their shredded up bodies ever again. My eyes bleed, but they have no sight. I can only hear and touch things, and taste.'' They inquired.

''The danger here is, however, the chained shut cage that holds the second monster.''

"Another monster? Is it anything like you?" He grimaced as he pulled himself to his feet and stood with his weight heavily resting on his good leg. Yeah, this wasn't good.

"I should have brought back-up." He muttered, though he never had before. "As for your eyes, it's still impressive that you can win against so many hunters, especially blind."

''My other senses grew sharp over the years, and has allowed me to easily detect where a hunter is. The second monster is a humanoid creature with blades on it's body. It killed thousands before they put it to sleep, where it's been ever since that day it killed the king.''

"Oh good, blades I can handle." He pulled open his trench coat to rearrange his stakes so that they protected his ribs from cuts and slashes.

"Anything else I should know about it? Is it still asleep? Can we sneak past it or maybe ambush it?" For that matter, why not just lock Silenia in the cage with the monster. Surely even her ability to resurrect would hit a limit if she was chopped into tiny pieces.

''As far as I know the fiend is still in the cage. It's a human that was tested on to become the strongest fighter. But over time it went berzerk..'' As it rubbed the gashes on it's side, cringing. ''Went mad, on a rampage.''

"Aw crap." Humans always made the worst targets. Vampires were no exception--they were one reason he'd turned from werewolf hunting. "Why do I insist on cleaning up everyone else's messes?"

He wished he had his sword now though he was short a leg for using it properly. Daggers might work best. Scratch that; where was his crossbow when he needed it?

"I don't suppose you know where I could find some weapons, other than say, a dagger or wooden stake?"

''There is a weapons shack near the second monster, but it has been in a rough state fro rains. This place is weird; Floors can dissolve away. Even fog seems to annoy my sense of direction. The shack is made of wood, but it wouldn't take much to crumble it.''

"How appealing," Sterling grunted. "I don't need anything fancy; something long, preferably sharp or pointed, and gives me a longer reach than just my arms will do fine."

He'd had worse odds before. Or at least thought he had. Surely this was no different than battling a Master Vampire with a handful of stakes? Except that, oh yeah, he could be killed by being diced into human-flavored chunks of meat.

"Why would anyone create such a thing, anyway?" Sterling muttered, not really expecting an answer.