The mass of animals I was walking in couldn't really be considered a 'crowd', not in the human sense, anyway. Humans tended to move together in rather the same manner as sheep.

  There were no sheep here.

  These beasts did not move in any sort of uniform way. A bunch were meandering with me on the slanted hallway up to the arena level. Some had stopped and were sniffing random corners or butts, and some were literally walking in circles.

  There were even a couple squabbles picking up momentum in the hallway, which surprised me. I don't know why. Humans can barely behave in a civilized manner, yet somehow I thought beasts that could talk would be more inclined to use their words than claws and teeth.

  They were still beasts.

  Most of them anyway. The turtle (tortoise?) that scooted past me on two legs was faster than any turtle should be able to move. He pointed two finger guns at me and said, "Hey, you go girl! Thanks for the release!" and then sprinted away.

  Behind me in the cage warehouse, Scorpius was still bellowing. I have to say the sound of his frustration gave me the warm and fuzzies. Like I would actually let that asshole out. Bastard tried to sting me when we were just having a conversation. He can eat a cactus.

  I saw the potato troll dude. He was making a beeline for the kitchens with a surprising number of other beasts. I expected most to head for the arena. Instead, they scattered, with the biggest groups heading to the kitchens or climbing up into the stands. A decent number did go the arena. Which was good, because if they didn't I was going to have problems.

  I headed straight to the Gracious Lady statue at the end of the arena to check it out. I wanted to do a little shopping for a new power after I was done with the statue, so no dilly dallying for me.

  Visually, there was no change. It was the likeness of the Flower Empress, smiling with her hand outstretched and a collar in her palm. Her other hand had the carved stone likeness of the crystal rod, and she wore the coat and boots, flower necklace, rings, a jeweled circlet, and snake bracers. All the regalia pieces I'd seen in the Palace, except for the sword.

  I did not like this statue. It really gave me the heebie-jeebies. I decided that the only way I'd try to use it to help Seth was if there was absolutely nothing else we could do. Actually, could I even put a collar on Seth? As amusing as the thought was, that would sever our bond and I did not want that. I wanted to keep my pet wizard.

  Nah, there had to be something here I could work with. I paced around the statue, looking for sigils, runes, instruction manuals, on/off switches, anything I could find. I needed to understand this thing if I wanted to use it to help Seth. Also, I needed to be confident that using this wouldn't be worse than the predicament he was already in. The closest thing I could claim as a discovery was what looked like a slot for the regalia sword.

  "Oh!" a wheezing chitter sounded behind me. "Make," wheeze, "way!"

  I turned around and saw what I at first thought was a beaver, but then I wasn't sure. Wombat maybe? Something brown, fuzzy, and rotund with small ears. It was very bloody.

  Of course you make way for someone bleeding all over the floor. "Oh, I'm sorry. Do you need help?"

  "Gracious Lady," the beast sighed and touched the statue.

  Right! The statue could heal. I quickly focused on my whiskers. There was a movement of power from the statue, through the collar on the beast's neck, and into the beast. My whiskers sensed a bunch of aspect changes and some really rapid fluctuations. In an instant the beast was healed up, as good as new. Then there was a flow of power back into the statue.

  That worked differently from my and Seth's amulets. A different spell? It actually felt like multiple spells and I was intrigued. What was that reversal at the end? Payment?

  "Thank you, Gracious Lady," the beast said. It looked at me and cocked its head.

  By the way it tensed, it was considering attacking me.

  "You should head back down to the arena. If you try to fight here, you might break the statue," I said. I also raised a paw and flexed my claws.

  The beast snorted. "You should come down. We don't often get the opportunity to pick our opponents. There are plenty of weaklings there right now looking to get stronger. With your claws you'd rip right through them."

  "I'm good right now. Maybe I'll fight the winners in a little bit."

  "Suit yourself." The beast waddled back into the arena.

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  Beyond the wombat-beaver, I took in the mayhem being wreaked in the arena. While most of the beasts that lingered here had climbed up into the stands to howl and cat call, a decent number went into the arena. When the humans were here to guide the beasts, they squared off one on one, with relatively even matches.

  What was going on right now was a free for all battle royale.

  Cranky apples, there were statues in the arena already. For a moment I wondered if letting the beasts out was a bad idea.

  Well, of course it was a bad idea. I knew that. I came here intending to see something like this. I knew if I wanted a reading on the statue, I had to see it in use. Things just got a little, well, a lot more violent faster than I expected. On the other paw, everyone in the arena had chosen to be there. Plenty were sitting out.

  And no one was dying. They just became statues for a hot minute. Week. Or something.

  The wombat-beaver was right, a couple of stronger beasts were ripping through the weaker ones. Another beast was turned to stone and I felt a little thrum from the statue. Fascinated, I kept watching, and paying attention to the statue as the battle raged.

  I focused very hard on sensing exactly what was happening with the statue as the collars turned the critically injured to stone. My whiskers were getting quite the workout. I could sense fluctuations, rising and lowering mana levels, and there were aspect changes going on too, though I couldn't follow exactly what they were. If I could cast Detect Mana, I'd probably be getting a lot more information, but right now my whiskers were telling me a pretty broad story anyway.

  There was a lot of mana moving in and out, but the longer I sat here, the more convinced I became that the statue was draining the beasts. While I could sense a good portion going back to the winners, not all of it was. Just like a pyramid scheme, the statue got the most.

  One of the few groups that were teaming up brought a member up for healing. This was a pair of monkeys, and they left fully healed. Only the social type animals were doing that. The singles had to struggle to get up to the statue on their own.

  Like the wombat-beaver, who came back up for healing, dripping blood just like last time. "Gracious Lady," it wheezed, and touched the statue.

  It didn't heal fully this time. What the wombat-beaver got was probably about a half to a third of what it got last time. The beast just sighed, still scratched and bruised, and hauled itself back into the mayhem.

  The cut of mana the statue took wasn't diminished at all.

  After watching the mayhem for a bit, I turned and studied the statue.

  The healing that the statue did was so much faster than what our amulets could do. I was kinda envious. Was there some way for me to do what the statue did? Could I steal its abilities like I could a beast's power?

  I knew I should spend a few more moments thinking about 'should I' but I was far too interested in 'could I'. Eh, I'll try taking what I think is the most harmful ability to the beasts here. Which happened to be the one I wanted for helping Seth anyway.

  I put a paw on the statue and focused on taking the mana drain. After a few seconds, I didn't feel any change. When I'd taken from the rabbit, a shiver had passed from the rabbit and through me when I successfully took the power.

  Both times I'd taken a power, I'd actually injured the beast I took the power from. The chicken less so than the rabbit, but still. Maybe I needed to cut the statue? I supposed I could try it.

  I put my paw on the foot of the statue and flexed my claws. And for the first time, they didn't cut stone. I dug in and pulled, and my claws did nothing to it. My claws could not damage the statue. That had a whole bunch of implications I could think about later. Anyway. New tactic.

  Maybe I'm not thinking of taking the right thing.

  I focused on the constant ambient drain it was doing. I would prefer to do the one that happened after a heal, but no beast was here for healing at the moment. No shiver indicated a movement of ability.

  Could the power the statue used be more complex? Was it not just taking power, but doing something with it? Of course the statue was doing some complex shit. I sat back and studied the statue some more, feeling as hard as I could with my whiskers. Could I try to take everything the statue was doing at once?

  Nope, nope, I'm an idiot for even thinking that. First off, I did not want all the statue's powers. It would fuck with my pet wizard, and I did not want to be the de facto master of a zoo's worth of beasts. Not only that, but whatever compulsion thing happened there that kept the beasts in their cages was an ick that I wasn't touching. Taking stuff or powers was fine, that other thing wasn't.

  Come to think of it, I didn't think Seth and my familiar bond had the obedience thing attached. Thank you Isolde and your bargain basement rituals. I am certainly not the obedient type.

  But who controlled the statue? Was it one of the deer skull guys, like Darryl? Was it anyone who was touching the statue? Was there another control object? Something like the collars, but there was only one?

  There was no way for me to know just by looking. That was fine. While I wasn't going to stay long tonight, as I didn't want Seth to catch me out, I was pretty sure I could arrange to be back here another day before Darryl left and I could watch him do whatever it was then.

  I'd have to be present when they were doing their thing, and I needed to not get caught doing it. To do that, I needed a concealment power.

  Welp, we were at the power supermarket. I already knew none of the beasts in the arena had something I could use, so I scanned the audience instead.

  What kind of critter would have concealment powers? Owls were really good at camouflage. Chameleons, too.

  The gate to the arena started to shut suddenly. I stood up and stepped closer to get a look at what just happened and who was shutting it. Then a foot kicked me in the butt so hard it launched me all the way to the center of the arena.

  I twisted in midair and got my feet under me. Up next to the statue was Scorpius, one foot still stuck out. I landed lightly on my feet.

  Bastard was smiling at me, a scary, ugly smile with lots of teeth.

  "If you're going to do a Battle Royale, do it right!" Scorpius roared. "Only one victor can leave the arena!"

  "I'm not in this!" I shouted back. "I'm not wearing a collar!"

  "Then maybe you shouldn't have left me in that cage!" Scorpius roared back.

  The gate clicked shut and a red field surrounded the edges of the arena. I'd seen the same effect in school, when Mighty Mick was doing his battle training. You couldn't leave until there was a winner.

  One of the monkeys called up, "The cub doesn't have a collar. If she loses, she'll die."

  Scorpius's smile widened. "Then don't lose."

  Magic school student with a stolen wind talent, partner to Mau.

  Isekai'd cat burglar now magic beast, partner to Seth.

  Professor of Ritual Geometry and performer of black market familiar rituals. Runs a side hustle buying and selling magic beasts. Not a very willing professor.

  Enthusiastic professor of Combat Class. Has unorthodox teaching methods, and picks favorite students. Also spotted teaching beasts to fight and wearing a deer skull mask.

  A manticore with an active scorpion tail and bad attitude.

  A person wearing a mask made of a stylized deer skull, working for or in charge of the familiar battle arena.