“I hunt and kill monsters, a mercenary for hire… that was until my only way of tracking the buggers died. Now i can just kill… fight monsters… Time to be a gladiator i guess. Maybe some jobs on the side too”
A tale too often told in the Bastion arenas - a monster hunter, whose monster companion was taken from them, forced to resort to fighting in the Arena to make a living. Storm Viper (often known simply as Viper) was one such - a monster hunter with a cruel streak but a reputation for reliability, and then a frequent fixture in the minor league gladiator matches in the arena. His brief gladiatorial career was distinguished firstly by him surviving (unlike most gladiators), and secondly by the severe injuries sustained by his opponents - many young trainers, hopeful of reaching the main leagues within a season or two, were set back significantly after a fight against Viper.
Viper's big break came when he was hired by Cart to attend the conference as her bodyguard. There, he met others who helped him get involved in the defence of the city against the monster swarm sent by Earth Shakes (also known as Renege), and managed to get his next fight billed on the main Arena lists, rather than the small leagues. This fight was important to him personally - B-Lizzard had killed Viper's tracking monster on a previous trip to the wastelands before its capture, and its trainer, Hunch, was Viper's former business partner now turned bitter rival. But the reason the fight is remembered in the history of Bastion was that it was the final fight under the auspices of the Network, before its complete collapse and the rise of AMBER and UMBC.
Fight Ring to Phenomenon: A Cultural History of the Arena, by Coral
The monster pens are a hive of activity, with Maintenance Branch staffers calling out orders, trainers trying to make sure that their monsters are going to be safe during the transfer, and Finance Branch tagging a value onto everything they can, to try and secure a sale before the grand prizes need to be paid. This means that noone is really paying attention, or trying to stop Viper as he moves through the pens. No-one questions why a gladiator with no monster is there, while the Grand Championship takes place outside the city walls.
Waiting for a quiet moment, Storm Viper darts into a side passage, and sneaks up to a specific pen - large, rimed with ice, and with a hefty price tag applied by Maintenance Branch. There is a rumbling growl as the monster within catches his scent - B-Lizzard, a legend among some monster hunters for being tough and hard to catch, now owned by Hunch, Viper's soft hearted rival. Several tons of insult added to the injury of the death of Viper's own monster.
And it seems B-Lizzard remembers too - the creature stirs, catches sight of Viper, and charges without hesitation. As it does so, a shower of icy spines arcs up from its back to smash against the ceiling. It stops short, bashing against the bars of the pens, as Viper watches, considering. B-Lizzard inhales deeply, and lets out a freezing wave which ices up the hallway outside the pens - but Viper has already moved to the side, noting how the breath leaves a thick layer of ice everywhere it touches.
A few notes scratched out later, and his last few Riel paid to a backalley archeotech salesperson for some heaters in his armour, and Viper is ready for the last official fight of the Ultimate Monster Battle Arena