Shiro’s head was focused, broken only by brief flashes of cheering and roaring around him. He was strong and he won almost all of his fights. The crowd loves to hate him and their jeers were a form of their delight to watch him take on creature after creature. He kept this quietly at the back of his head as he assessed this hulking giant of a creature pushing itself up from the rocks he had fallen into.

For a brief moment, he heard a voice in his head. He recognised it and he looked to the sidelines. He searched for a moment before his eyes locked into Matt’s wide golden eyes. His heart lurched and his stomach dropped. He couldn’t stop, he wouldn’t stop now. He had to at least damage everything that came his way because Matt couldn’t take on these creatures himself.

Matt was a tactician, he fought effectively by defending himself endlessly until the enemy wore themselves out. For a while, this had fascinated Shiro until the day Zarkon changed the game. He brought in his biggest and bulkiest monsters from the depths to face Matt and the other poor creatures that he had summoned. Shiro had seen the panic setting into the eyes of the mermaids and he had locked into Matt’s eyes. Within them he saw the child that Matt really was, the boy shivering in front of a beast. Shiro had earned his reputation that day as he shoved Matt out of the way, deliberately injuring him to disqualify him from the fight. He roared in feigned bloodthirst and took on all of the enemies that Zarkon threw at him that day. He had lost his tail in that fight, but it was worth it to know that Matt was safe.

Once again his determination set in and he finished the creature in front of him with a hard blow to the head. It didn’t get up again. Shiro faced the next creature in line darkly and sneered at it, puffing out his chest to pretend that he wasn’t scared. He was met by jeers and roars as usual and he took on the next creature.

They kept coming. Shiro fought them, creature after creature he fought to survive. Fists, tail, teeth, he used them all. His vision was blurring and his gills screamed as they worked. He couldn’t stop though. He couldn’t stop until Matt and the others were safe.