At daybreak, Ryan was awakened by loud banging on his door.
As soon as he opened it, Scarlet's furry head poked through, holding a wooden tray with steaming roasted meat.
The gorilla didn't speak, just snorted as he slammed the tray onto the table before turning to leave. After two steps, he glanced back and jerked his head, signaling Ryan to follow.
Ryan rubbed his stomach, the fullness from last night hadn't completely faded.
He jumped out of bed, looking at the steaming meat on the tray, feeling that flicker of hope for the future rekindle.
Maybe Golden Lion was going to teach him how to control his abilities? Or show him around the floating island?
He quickly finished breakfast and followed Scarlet through the castle corridors. The further they went, the stronger the scent of blood in the air became, accompanied by faint growls of beasts.
A sense of unease gradually grew in Ryan's heart until he was led into a massive circular arena.
The center featured hard black stone flooring surrounded by high spectator stands. Golden Lion sat in the front row, swirling a wine glass, while Indigo stood beside him making wet, sputtering noises like muffled farts.
From behind the iron gate across the arena came heavy scratching sounds and roars filled with such violence and madness that Ryan's Scales instinctively tightened.
"Awake?" Golden Lion glanced at him, his tone as casual as discussing the weather. "Since you're full, time for some exercise."
As he spoke, the iron gate opposite slammed open and two bizarre-looking beasts charged out.
They appeared to be hybrids of lions and bats, bodies covered in dark gray Scales, wings spanning five meters wide, with sharp fangs stained dark red with blood.
"Wh-what's this for?" Ryan's voice trembled, his Dragon Pupils wide open.
Golden Lion took a sip of wine without looking up. "Fight them."
Ryan's mind went blank, as if struck by a heavy hammer.
Fight them? With his newly hatched dragon abilities?
Golden Lion set down his glass, his lips curling. "Survive, and you stay. Die, and you become animal feed."
At these words, the Scales on the back of Ryan's neck stood straight up.
He finally realized how foolish he'd been yesterday! What kind of person was Golden Lion? A pirate!
What kindness could exist in a pirate's world? It was all survival of the fittest! Learning skills? They were just treating him as entertainment, testing whether he could survive this ordeal!
"What? Scared?" Golden Lion's voice dripped with mockery. "If you don't even have this much courage, you might as well die here and save me the food."
The Bat Lions let out deafening roars, foul saliva dripping onto the black stone floor and corroding small pits. They arched their backs, wings beating to create whirlwinds, clearly having marked Ryan as prey.
Ryan's heart pounded wildly, blood rushing to his head. He suddenly arched his body, his tail sweeping across the ground and sending stones flying. Though his dragon roar still carried a youthful tone, the determination behind it was real.
Fear was one thing, but dying here would be too unjust.
To hell with learning skills! To hell with fantasies! Pirates were pirates, not a single good one among them!
No use thinking now - he had to fight for his life!
Ryan let out a low growl and charged toward the two monsters.
When the Bat Lion's wings swept toward him with a foul-smelling gust of wind, Ryan had no time to think of any moves—his mind held only one word: dodge.
Instinctively, he rolled to the side, the hard black stone floor scraping painfully against his Scales.
No sooner had he dodged the first one than the other lunged at him, jaws wide and fangs bared. Ryan whipped his tail fiercely, the pale yellow Tail Fin smacking hard against the creature's snout.
The monster roared in pain, but the sting only fueled its ferocity. With a flap of its wings, it pinned Ryan to the ground.
Riiip—
Sharp claws dug straight into the Scales on Ryan's back. Pink Dragon Scales flew up like shattered glass, and blood instantly gushed out, staining the stone beneath him crimson.
The pain made Ryan's vision blur. A choked whimper escaped his Dragon Throat, but his survival instinct kept him from collapsing—he opened his jaws and bit down wildly on the Bat Lion's foreleg.
Crack!
His teeth ached from the impact against the Scales, but he refused to let go, tearing at the flesh like a cornered wild dog.
Enraged by the pain, the monster slammed its other paw into Ryan's face, sending him tumbling across the ground. Bloody foam and shattered teeth spilled from his mouth.
Before he could even get up, the first Bat Lion pounced, sinking its teeth into his hind leg.
"Aaaah—!"
Excruciating pain shot up his leg and into his skull. Ryan felt as if his leg were about to be torn clean off.
Frantically, he clawed at the monster's eyes with his front paws, leaving bloody gashes across its face. But the creature only bit down harder, its fangs nearly piercing bone.
As if growing bored, the two monsters began dragging Ryan in opposite directions, threatening to tear him in half. The wound on his back ripped wider, blood streaming down the stone crevices and pooling into small rivulets on the ground.
Ryan's consciousness began to drift, his strength draining away. Still, he stubbornly held on to one monster's ear, even as its claws dug deep into his belly.
Up in the stands, Golden Lion sipped from his wineglass, his brow furrowing as he watched the blood-soaked young dragon in the arena.
"Tch. Pathetically weak," he muttered, taking another sip. His gaze swept over the shattered Dragon Scales covering Ryan's body—the Scales were riddled with fine cracks, some even peeling away from the flesh. "Even his Dragon Scales are this brittle. Far cry from Kaido. Back when he tangled with that giant serpent, his Scales were tough enough to withstand venomous fangs. Not like this little worm—a couple of swipes from a Bat Lion and he's already falling apart."
Just then, the Bat Lion's fangs hovered inches from Ryan's throat. Suddenly, Ryan could hear the sound of his own blood dripping—drip, drip—hitting the black stone floor like a death knell.
The searing pain grew hazy, his mind consumed by a burning blankness.
He saw his own blood spreading across the ground, saw the monster biting his hind leg flicking its tail, and saw Golden Lion's cold, detached eyes from the stands.
"Fuck you…" Ryan snarled, the sound more a ragged cry than a dragon's roar—whether aimed at the monsters or his own naivety, he didn't know.
The next second, he felt the forgotten chill in his belly explode—not like the gentle warmth from before, but like a red-hot branding iron rushing through his blood vessels toward his limbs.
His peach-colored scales bristled with a faint golden glow at the edges, and even his claws grew sharper.
The pinned front paw broke free—not to scratch, but to stab directly into the Bat Lion's eye. His nails dug deep into the eyeball, splattering foul-smelling fluid all over his face.
The monster let out a piercing shriek, released its grip on his hind leg, and scrambled backward frantically.
Dragging his seemingly broken hind leg, Ryan lunged like a rabid dog, clamping his jaws firmly around the bleeding neck of the creature.
This time, he didn't bite the scales but targeted the soft flesh between the joints, his teeth drilling in like nails.
Another Bat Lion charged from the side, its wings whipping toward his head with a gust of wind. Without a second thought, Ryan's tail lashed out like a whip.
Crack!
His pale yellow tail fin actually sent the monster stumbling mid-air.
Seizing the moment, he exerted all his strength and ripped a chunk of flesh clean off the first Bat Lion's neck! Blood sprayed all over him as the creature collapsed, its four legs still twitching.
The remaining Bat Lion was thoroughly enraged. It opened its jaws wide and lunged for his lower back. Ryan could feel the excruciating pain of his flesh being torn open, yet he seemed numb to it. Instead, fueled by the agony, he spun around and charged headlong into the creature's gaping maw.
Not with his head—but with his shoulder, driven by a desperate, all-or-nothing ferocity.
The two collided and tumbled into a pool of blood.
Ryan ended up on top, ignoring the claws tearing at his belly as he relentlessly attacked with his teeth—biting the nose, the ears, the paws—anywhere he could sink his teeth into, he bit with deadly intent.
He tasted his own blood and the blood of his foe. In that metallic sweetness, he somehow found a hint of what it meant to survive.
Finally, he clamped his jaws around the monster's throat and held on—until its struggles weakened, until its wings stopped flapping, until the blood beneath him grew cold.
Ryan released his grip, his mouth filled with bloody foam.
He tried to push himself up with his paws, but his legs gave way, and he collapsed heavily onto the corpses. The wound on his back was deep enough to reveal bone, the flesh on his belly torn open, his hind leg nearly immobile—there wasn't a single part of him left unscathed.
But he wasn't dead.
He lifted his head and looked toward the stands.
The Golden Lion had risen at some point, his wine glass empty, a faint, inscrutable smile playing on his lips.
"Hah, finally starting to look like a beast," Golden Lion's voice held a note of approval, yet carried a cruel edge. "Much better than the spineless creature you were before."
Ryan had no strength left to roar or curse. He lay between the two corpses, gasping for breath, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
Did it hurt? It hurt enough to kill him.
Was he afraid? Just moments ago, he was certain he would die.
But now, as he stared at the two corpses—each far larger than him—a sudden thought struck him: It feels good to be alive.