Red the Paladin vs The Coliseum (Patreon)

When she heard about the sort of things going on in Ghelt, Red had to investigate. If the rumors were true, Red couldn’t stand to let such a bloodthirsty kingdom go on. She only heard confirmation of the stories as she talked to passerby; a queen who came into power behind her dead husband had called for warriors, beasts and monsters to be gathered in the old coliseum. Gold and blood flowed under her rule while slaves traded hands, whether to maintain the arena itself or as fodder for the fights. Red was powerful, but she was wise enough to know she couldn't simply fight her way through a royal army to demand the wicked queen step down. This would require some care and delicacy.

She reached the kingdom of Ghelt with its high walls by the sea. Large ships were docked by the shores, and she saw some carrying caged lions or bound slaves. Red found the sight disgusting, but kept it to little more than a scowl as she rode on towards the gates. Several vendors sold food, trinkets or sweets to passerby. Some seemed to be wealthy travelers while a number of frowning scoundrels (such as the man with the iron spike for one hand and the other with the eyepatch and hooded cloak) leered at her as she passed. One such man (a burly tattooed brute) approached her as she neared the gates, but he'd barely opened his nearly toothless mouth when a woman's voice cut in.

"You there! Yes! You on the horse with your tits out! Right here, please!" Red looked towards the gates to see a woman in a red robe and a silvery tiara rushing towards her. She was slim and clearly a scholar of some sort: she was out of breath by the time she reached Red, but the tattooed man stepped back reluctantly. Red leaned patiently on her saddle as the woman caught her breath. She had rich brown hair like healthy tree bark, and her robe was snugly fit so that her heavy breathing made some hanging breasts bounce. She had fair skin that shone with the sweat of her short sprint.

"Welcome..." She took a wheezing breath, thumping her chest with her fist before she seemed to calm back down. "Welcome to Ghelt. Home of the finest coliseum in the next seven countries. Looking to sign up for the fights?" The woman gave her a winning smile. It was lovely and genuine, but practiced and needy.

"As a matter of fact I am," Red said calmly, smiling as she folded her powerful arms under her impressive chest. The robed woman watched both at work with interest.

"Perfect! I am Alara, a royal scribe and overseer of the great Ghelt coliseum. I can show you to the registry. Right this way! In fact, can I take your horse?"

Red nodded as she stepped off, taking her few possessions off with her. "Just be careful with her. She was a gift."

"And a lovely breed too. Come then! This way!" Alara led her to a stable and then through the bustling crowd inside. Scarred iants of men and scrawny assassin types rubbed shoulders with well-dressed folk, shuffling about to make bets or watch over things. Even among such odd sorts, more than a few heads turned at the topless and muscular redhead walking among them. Some recognized her, while some simply wanted to look at the strange beauty as she made her mark in the thick tome of fighters on record.

"So tell me," Red said as they finally got away from the main crowd and she was made official. "Now that I'm on your record, what do you get out of this?"

Alara shrugged, making her robe and breasts bounce. "A commission. I'll be your handler and messenger while you're here for a small portion of anything you'd make in the arena."

"Good," Red said as she flexed her arms. "I'm looking for slaves."

"Well we've got plenty of those around. Past the fighter quarters, there's whole cells of them."

"I have no gold," Red reminded her. "But I am looking to free as many as I can. How many can I free in one fight?"

Alara stared at her as if Red had just asked if she could fight the moon in her next match. She finally blinked as if she woke from a spell and rubbed her face. "Sorry, you want to FREE slaves? Like, get them out of here?" Red stared back at her with her expression serious as stone. "Great!" Alara broke into a smile. "They're just going to work them to death or feed them to lions. Less gold for you to handle that way. Cut out the middle man. Now it's going to depend on how many you fight against, or how big you think-"

"I'll make it simple for you," Red said with a smirk. "How many and how big can you get?"

Alara paused again before she gave a much smaller, less certain smile. "I think I'm going to like you. You're going to be interesting... while you last." She made no effort to hide the later part of her statement, but Red remained undaunted.

"Alright. You're announced in one minute. Could you at LEAST take a shield?" Alara cringed as she looked at Red. She was standing in the hall ready to enter the battle arena, still wearing nothing but her pants, boots and the sheathe with her sword in it. There was a lot of money on the newcomer and her ridiculous match.

"I would sooner die," Red said sternly, gripping her sword's handle tightly enough that her muscles bulged.

"Well lucky for you," Alara huffed a little. "Cuz that's a great way to do it. Just remember, there's not rules besides interference from the outside, so... if you're dying, at least last long enough to get out of the arena. We can patch up a lot of things."

"Trust me. I've had worse," Red assured her as the barred gates started to rise.

"For our next fighter, we bring you another exotic foreign warrior! The woman of legend! The topless crusader! Let's hear it for Red the Paladin!" A booming voice announced her as she stepped onto the sand of the arena floor. The expected crowd of fans cheered as the famous warrior appeared before them. Red humbly ignored the praises and shouts as she eyed the regal woman in black sitting on a stone balcony high above the audience. She watched with a listless look of amusement on her face as she leaned on one hand, her finery hanging loosely off her body to show flashes of her queenly curves. A man with a megaphone on a much lower but still raised platform fired up the crowd with a simple wooden cone to amplify his voice.

"Will the fiery beauty become the first to defeat... The Gauntlet?!" the announcer went on, which sparked some more shouts and ominous stomps from the crowd. Alara had given Red the basic idea, since this challenge was always shifting slightly. She would be facing three fights against man, beast and monster, though exactly what that meant varied from one match to another.

Several more creaking gates opened as her first round began. Five men bearing armor with maces and blades came out from the various portals as they advanced on Red. "It looks like bad news for the challenger, because she's up against the Blood Brothers! Bloodthirsty veterans of the ring, each of them! Will she be able to survive?!"

While the announcer was still winding up the crowd, Red was already charging the farthest enemy to her right. She wasn't about to let them surround her, so while they moved to follow the athletic woman's rush she had already swung with a ear-splitting battle cry at the one with the shield and mace. Her foe got his shield up in time to prevent the blade from burying in his chest, but the might behind the muscular redhead's blow knocked him flat on his ass. He was still trying to rebuild his defenses when Red simply smashed the sole of her boot into his face. Blood and teeth flew as his head snapped back and hit the ground, knocked out cold.

"One down already! No way she can keep that up!" the announcer declared. Whether he believed it or not, the crowd was quickly starting to turn in her favor. The rest of the downed mans' teammates moved in on her, but she swept a huge arc with her sword. It didn't strike any of them, but it caught the inside of one of their swords and sent it flying from his hands. That one quickly decided he didn't want to risk being in her reach without his blade and backed off from the rest.

One of them feinted an attack while his partner went in with his sword, but Red saw through their ruse. She moved in past the thrusting arm and smashed a backhand with her sword hand into the attacking man's face. He went down in a heap by his fallen comrade, but Red didn't hesitate to whirl around and slice off the hand of his teammate coming at her with a dagger. The spray of blood painted her freckled chest, connecting some of the dots as the man howled and fell to his knees.

The last armed Blood Brother lunged with a barbed pike, finally making some headway against the barbaric woman's defenses. Red pivoted as she swept her sword into the weapon, knocking it aside. The extra spikes on the base of the spearhead still left a few deep scratches on her right breast, but she couldn't afford to delay with checking on it. She grabbed her sword in both hands and slashed again before the pikeman could regroup.

Her powerful swing cleaved the weapon in half, but the man who had abandoned his blade suddenly leapt onto Red's back. He clawed at the blood-red hair while he tried to bring his arm around her throat, but Red caught him by the wrist before he could do much damage and wrenched the arm away.

"Oh, and there goes the eldest Brother Isaac from behind! Some brutal strategy that just might turn the tables on the paladin!" the announcer shouted as cheers and boos rained down from the crowd. Red had her hands full getting her latest attacker off, so the pikeman took the remains of his spear and swung it like a bat into her abdomen. Red let out a pained grunt, but she could only afford a quick swipe of her sword towards him. The spear-wielding brother darted around it and smashed her with his makeshift staff again, this time across her broad chest. This got a more pained grunt from Red, but she remained standing strong as her hard pectorals and full breasts absorbed the blow.

The pikeman seemed intent on beating down the mountain of a woman when Red slammed several hard elbows back into his face. She felt blood run down her arm before he finally released her and fell to the ground. The pikeman froze in mid-swing as Red's full attention moved to him and him alone.  He tried one more swing for her head, but Red caught it in midair with one thick hand. She pulled it hard enough to make him stumble towards her, swinging her head low enough to smash him between the eyes with a headbutt. His light helmet went flying off his head as he collapsed to the ground among his comrades. Red was sweating with her muscles and breasts bouncing from her heavy breaths, but she was largely unharmed beyond the few bleeding scratches on her chest.

"Incredible! Five on one and the paladin is still standing! She's past the first step of the gauntlet, but can she handle the next challenge? Here comes the beast!"

Red heard a bone-jarring roar before she heard the gates opening again. Red had traveled far in her adventures and woken up in many countries before this one. She vaguely recalled seeing a gorilla in her travels, but they had both given each other a wide berth. With no means of avoiding each other, the big black ape thundered into the arena. It reared up to his hind legs and bellowed again as it beat its chest, standing almost a foot taller than the impressively built Red. Red was still a couple dozen feet away, but she thumped her fist on her naked breast and bellowed right back at it.

Both Red and the ape charged in, but Red sidestepped and swept her sword across its chest and arm. Crimson splashed out from its leathery skin and dark fur, but it buried its fist into the ground and turned in a sharp arc. a ham-sized fist barely missed Red's head, but she could feel its power by how it moved the air and batted her braid hard enough to whip across her shoulder blades.

Red knew better than to let the gorilla get its paws on her, holding her sword high and ready to strike. "Forgive me, fellow warrior, but I think you won't listen to kind words right now," Red said with panting breath. The ape snorted with its thick nostrils, stomping and tossing up the sand in a territorial frenzy. Red went in for a fierce thrust of her sword for its heart, but the great beast jerked unexpectedly. The tip of her blade buried deep in its gray chest, sinking in several inches but kept well away from its heart. The gorilla hardly faltered before it smashed one of its long arms across the side of Red's face, knocking her silly.

The crowd get a devastated groan as the heroine fell too the sand. She saw more blood trickle from the side of her head and hit the sand as she reeled from the devastating blow. She didn't have the time to spare as the ape palmed the back of her head and lifted her off the ground, feeling its rough and powerful fingers squeezing her skull. Red let out a howl of rage as much as pain, brought bitterly back to full consciousness by the pain that ran through her skull and spine.

Red had no doubt it would have crushed her skull with enough time, but she turned and slammed her boot into the great beast's face. It stumbled as it lost its grip, stepping back as Red landed back on her feet. Her weapon was still buried deep in its muscled chest, leaving the sweating and bleeding beauty unarmed.

The gorilla had its own ideas anyway. It grabbed one of the downed bodies of the Blood Brothers and hurled him like a projectile. Red just managed to roll out of the way before she went rushing towards it once again. She ducked between its arms and grabbed her sword's handle, twisting and pulling but unable to make it budge. The gorilla opened its maw to take a bite out of her face when she shoved her hand into its snout, forcing its head back up as she struggled to hold back its jaws. Red's sweaty muscles swelled and her head spun with the herculean effort, but the blade wouldn't budge.

The beast finally escaped when her sweaty hands lost their grip. The gorilla buried its large teeth into Red's forearm as the warrior grit her teeth, but finally let out a loud scream. The crowd cheered on the bloodshed as Red finally decided that if the sword wouldn't come out, it would go deeper. She let it go to punch the ape in the eye, jarring it loose with a wet, bloody-lipped grunt. Red ignored the swelling and bleeding bite marks in her arm as she stepped back, just to brace her bootheel and launch herself forward again. She kicked high and right into the butt of her sword's handle, plunging it all the way out the creature's back with a meaty squelch. The gorilla gave one last, puzzled gurgle as its blood and guts fell onto the sand, Red stepping back just before it collapsed.

"And another kill for the red warrior!" the announcer boomed. Red winced a bit as her aching head rang from the loud voices. Her forearm throbbed from the deep bite, bleeding badly  over her thigh. The blood speckled her skin as she grabbed one of the Blood Brothers (one that she had spared, having left them alive before the ape entered the arena). She tore off a hunk of his tabard and wrapped a messy and hasty bandage over her arm as the crowd chanted her name.

"She has beaten the brothers! She slew Mandu the great ape! Now for her final battle of the day! Release the monster!"

While she had seen many things, this one was new. She was familiar with crabs, of course, having spent some time at sea slaying and capturing pirates (she still remembered her time with Captain Scarlet quite fondly). This one was so big that it was nearly as tall as the stadium's walls. Easily ten feet high, the scuttling creature with its thick, armored claws was forced out by some guards with spears before its gate was slammed shut.

"Gods and goddesses of battle," Red sighed. "I shall never eat another crab if I survive this." She took a deep breath as she readied her sword and charged in. The creature was huge and sluggish to move, but it snapped at her quickly with one of its great pincers. Red slid under its claws and jabbed her blade into one of the angular joints of its many legs. It emitted a watery hiss as it staggered but stayed standing. Its faltering was enough that Red could thrust her sword up into its underbelly... just to find it clanking off with no affect. Even her well-forged steel didn't penetrate its shell.

Its point-tipped legs rose and stomped as it skittered around, Red dodging frantically one way an another. She landed a few more chops to the meaty joints, but with its size and armor she wasn't doing any significant damage. She tried to dart behind it, but the monstrous crab suddenly scrambled to one side and snatched her up in her claws.

Red grabbed and pushed at the giant creature's claws, finding its rough-edged pincer too strong. Even her bulging biceps couldn't free her from the perilous spot as he crushing pincers clamped around her midsection. She screamed as she was pinched between the massive scissors, making her breasts swell with pressure and the air from her screams. She pounded and smashed it with her sword and fist to no avail, its ridged claws starting to punch small holes through her skin. She grit her teeth until tears and drool ran from the redheaded warrior's face, her face red with pain and exhaustion. Her wounds started bleeding freshly as the pressure made her head throb. With little other hope, she rammed the tip of her sword between its claws, hoping to pry her way to freedom while its beady eyes watched with with emotionless interest.

Whether it hurt the beast or it simply got bored of her squirming, it eased up its clamping just enough to lift and smash her into the ground. Red screamed with pain as the impact rocked her body, irritating her wounds as sand splashed over them from the impact. Red clawed at the ground in hopes of holding herself down or crawling away, but it naturally gave way between her fingertips. It was good fortune that buried amongst the tossed up sand she found the upper half of the Blood Brother's spear.

The crab had hefted her back into the air with ease by the time she fully realized what she had found. It started to squeeze her again, Red hoping that it would at least hold her steady as she took aim and chucked the shortened spear. It was just like when Captain Scarlet had taught her to throw a harpoon, or her foster father showing her to throw a javelin. The weight wasn't perfect, but her aim was as it pierced the orb at the end of one of its eye stalks.

With a deep, frothing screech, the crab dropped her and flailed its claws around witlessly. The monster stomped and stumbled, half-blind as Red paused to wretch and suck in her first proper breath in a while. It was agony, but she still bolstered herself with that breath and sprinted to the nearest of the bodies of her beaten foes. She grabbed her sword in one hand and the heavy mace from one of the bested Brothers before turning back on the crab.

It was still squealing like an angry kettle, snapping blindly when Red rushed in and bashed it in what would have been one of its knees. A brittle crunch sounded as the mace proved to be much better, splitting the limb right in half. Red had recalled the last time she had resorted to eating a whole crab, and that a hammer or a rock would split the shell much easier than a blade. Or in this case, a mace. The creature nearly fell from its sudden lack of limb, but its adaptability didn't hold for long. Red went on a rampage, stabbing and smashing its legs out from under it with her dual weapons.

At last the sea monster crumbled to the ground. Its lack of operating legs gave out as another of its limbs spat out its oily juices. It snapped a claw at her, just for Red to parry with her sword. The claw stole her weapon, but she gave a final, powerful roar as she gripped the mace with both hands and smashed its last eyestalk to a pulp along with its brain. It gave some more short gurgling noises, but they seemed to be from it leaking rather than snarling.

Sticky, bloody, and feeling ready to pass out, Red dropped her mace. The crowd was stunned before they rallied into cheers and chants. Without the strength left for proper words or even thinking straight, Red just gave a single, sharp shout that rang out over the hundreds of fans. She spared a quick glare at the smirking queen before she marched promptly back out of the opening gates.

"Whoa! Whoa, easy, girl!" Alana stepped into her path, but walked backward when Red didn't stop. "Where are you going? That was amazing!"

"There are many people here," Red said curtly. She hated to be so impolite to her helpful hostess for hire, but she was feeling short on time and blood. "I free who I can, then rest and heal to reach more."

"Well no need to rush it! You just beat The Gauntlet! You could buy your own gladiator with that much gold. Even a hundred cheap ones..." Alana tried to ease the riled redhead, but she ended up resting a hand on her breast. Red stopped only out of courtesy rather than trampling over her slender manager, and it was only then that she saw how bad off she was. The cuts weren't deep from the claws, but they left huge ugly bruises on her ribs and lower breasts. Stopping made her head spin as the adrenaline finally faltered.

"Take it easy, Red. We'll get you back out there. Just give me a second." Alana started to run her hand over Red's chest, caressing around her nipple down her aching sides. Red sighed and leaned back against the wall in exhaustion as she rubbed the wounds and bruises, feeling some relief from them after a few seconds. Even as her fingers stroked over the edges of her bite wound, the swelling eased and they started to close over.

"You know magic then," Red observed. Her eyes fluttered from the gentle touch and the warmth of her healing magic. "Fast-working, too. The priests would take hours at least to handle this much damage."

"Yes, well," Alana said with a dismissive bob of her head. "Learned from some of the best. Ghelt used to be rather famous for teaching magic before this bloodsport nonsense made it rather insignificant."

"The queen?" Red asked grimly.

"Yes," Alana answered simply. "There's always rumors what happened to the previous king. He was wise and decent, but didn't last long after his marriage. Any accusers ended up in the old arena, and then she started to use it for sport. Now it's blood and violence every day like it's dinner." The mage/bookie smirked a little. "We just used to be better than that, I thought. But I'm not the type who'd be able to stand up to the queen with my measly magic."

"Not alone, you mean?" Her manager looked up and caught Red's serious gaze that turned into a slight smirk. "I plan to make the queen see justice by one means or another. Can I expect your help?"

"Absolutely," Alana answered promptly. "What's the plan?"

"Go and free as many lives as you can with my winnings. Then set me up another match so I can continue the good fight."

"It'd take you a lifetime," Alana said with a frown.

"Then it will be a life well spent freeing the innocent."

"Not what I meant. I mean there's an easier way about all this. The queen's the head of all this, but she has her arms. There's a champion here... big, dark woman they've been calling the Black Ghost. Undefeated in her entire time we've been going, and only the stupid or the unlucky end up fighting her. But she's been crowned the champion by the queen herself. If you overthrew her, I'm sure you'd have the same honor of meeting our questionable queen up close and personal."

Red chuckled as she pushed herself up from the wall. Her muscles ached, and she was exhausted and hungry, but at least her wounds were closed and bruises faded. "Then I think I'm feeling rather unlucky and stupid," the topless heroine said with all confidence.