My gladiator contestant for the tournament over at the Dwarf Fortress subreddit, Ulm the Olm man! Olm men are about half the size of a grown adult human.
A little backstory why he's in the tournament here.
Ulm lives in the dark underground caves with his tribesmen. He isn’t one of the fighters in the group; he barely fights at all. However, combat is unavoidable in the underground. Mostly he helps out with carrying around things and doing menial chores around the camp.
The only thing going for him is his unusually keen sense of avoiding danger. More than a few times has his senses helped him dodge a strike in the last second so he could run away to safety deep under water, up the walls, or hidden in a small hole.
Living underground, Ulm occasionally see one of the surface dwellers walking around the caverns.
One day Ulm hears a scream. Carefully getting closer, Ulm spots a creature being chased by a giant cave toad.
That’s … a dwarf, was it? Ulm ponders to himself from the safety behind a large mushroom. The dwarf struggles to run away, his right leg bloodied from the battle. In a last ditched attempt, the dwarf throws his copper spear at the toad and hits it in the back leg. A croaklike roar erupts from the toad as it pauses to tear out the spear. The dwarf takes this opportunity to run as fast as he can with the toad still following him. Off into the distance they disappear, towards the staircase Ulm has heard will go for the surface. Some time passes before Ulm comes out from his hiding spot. He picks up the bloodied spear.
The dwarf probably got away, so he would surely appreciate It if I brought it back for him, Ulm thinks. He examines the weapon.
It’s a nice spear, unlike the wooden ones we have. He takes a few practice stabs with it as he giggles, imitating what the spearmen in his tribe would do.
Ulm follows the path towards the staircase and eventually finds it, a construction made by the surface dwellers a long time ago. Ensuring there’s no beast in the vicinity, Ulm ascends the staircase thinking how happy the dwarf will be when he returns the spear. After many, many steps he finally reaches the bright surface.
At the surface next to the entrance sits a band of dwarves. One of them notices Ulm and yells. The whole group stands up with their weapons ready. Ulm flinches.
Eep! Have to explain! Ulm quickly thinks. He’s not used to the surface dwellers’ languages, but he remembers a few words from his elders which, supposedly, is the way to converse with dwarves.
“Um, f-fight for Armok? Glory?” Ulm stutters in broken dwarfish.
The dwarven party glares at the meek little Olm man in front of them, unsure what the creature is up to. Then one of the dwarves snaps his fingers and says something which Ulm doesn’t understand. The rest of the group then relaxes and chuckles as they holster their weapons. Apparently, they were just about to pack up and offers Ulm to join them. Ulm guesses that if anyone would know where a dwarf is, it would be another dwarf, so he follows them.
Some time passes when they finally reach a large city. So many different creatures here! Ulm feels slightly overwhelmed at the sheer variety of creatures around him as he clutches the copper spear. His group holds him close as to not lose sight of the small Olm man. Eventually they reach an incredibly large building which they all enter. The group talks to a human wearing glasses and points at Ulm. Ulm can feel himself getting appraised as the human scans him from top to tail end. A nod and the group pats Ulm on the back, still saying things he doesn’t understand. Except for “Armok” and “glory”. Ulm isn’t sure what’s going on, but he follows the human deeper into the building. He worriedly looks back at the party which brought him here and they all wave at him.
Ulm enters a large room filled with a vast number of different creatures, many of them armed with weapons. What worries him even more is that each and every one of them sends a shiver down his spine the same way as when he spots a terrifying beast down in the caverns. He turns around and walks back the same way he came, but then the human stops him and redirects the tiny Olm man back into the room. Ulm reluctantly follows, the stare of each contestant stabbing him. A small stool is offered. He sits down, alone despite the company around him.
“I just wanted to return the spear…” Ulm mumbles quietly to himself as he clutches the copper spear in his hands.
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