Chapter 15 · Bound to the Executioner: Leveling Up With My Enemy - Chapter 15: Blood in the Pit

"Get your hands off me, you oversized freak!"

I didn't even have time to breathe before a hand the size of a dinner plate slammed into my chest, pinning me against the jagged stone wall of the pit. The air left my lungs in a pathetic wheeze. Above me, the gladiator loomed—nine feet of mutated muscle, grey-veined skin, and eyes that looked like boiled eggs. He smelled like raw sewage and old blood.

"Soren!" I screamed, my voice cracking. "A little help here? Or are you just enjoying the view?"

Soren was ten feet away, leaning against a rusted iron pillar with his arms crossed. He looked bored, but I could see the vein in his neck pulsing. He wasn't moving. Not a muscle.

"You're a combat medic, Vesp," Soren said, his voice smooth and infuriatingly calm. "Combat implies fighting. I believe you're currently doing the 'being crushed' part of the equation."

"I have zero mana!" I shrieked, clawing at the gladiator's wrist. His skin felt like sandpaper. "The system is lagging, my reserves are empty, and I'm about two seconds away from becoming a human pancake!"

The gladiator let out a wet, guttural growl and tightened his grip.