Finding out your town’s new battle-bot arena is actually a gate for releasing an ancient demon is enough to turn anyone off sports.

“We have to stop the battle-bot tournament,” I said. “We have to tell someone.”

“Who is going to believe us, Fizz?” Aleetha said.

“We could try Detective Hordish again,” Tank said. “I saw the police earlier outside the stadium entrance.”

“Where are they now? The police could stop the tournament,” Aleetha said. She rolled up the map and history-book page and tucked them into the folds of her wizard’s robe. “It’s a long shot, but it could work.”

It was a really long shot. Hordish thought we were behind the Codex hoaxes. Now we had to convince him to shut down the biggest event in the city’s newest stadium to stop the Codex.

“Let’s find our old friend Detective Hordish,” I said.

Tank led the way through the crowd. We hadn’t gotten very far when the speakers around the stadium buzzed to life.

“Attention, battle-bot fans! Find your seats. The action is about to begin!”

A horde of monsters hurried to their seats. Trolls, goblins and ogres all moved in the same direction. Unfortunately, it was the opposite of the way we were heading. We pushed against the crowd, but we didn’t get far. We were like three haggle fish swimming upstream.

“We’ll never find Hordish in time!” Aleetha shouted over the pre-battle noise.

She was right. In the crush of monsters, we would never find the detective or any other Slick City police officer. All I could see were eager battle-bot fans making their way to their seats. And one lone goblin on the edge of the crowd, quietly moving along the wall and away from the battle-bot arena.

The mayor’s assistant had tried to warn Mayor Grimlock about the stadium. Did he know about the flowstone underneath the playing field? Maybe if we showed Rufus the map, he could convince the mayor to stop the tournament in time. The chance of that happening was fatter than the mayor himself, but with no cops around, it was all we had.

“Change of plan,” I shouted.

We got to the edge of the crowd just as Rufus slipped through a door labeled Employees Only. I pushed my way to the door, with Aleetha and Tank at my tail. It was unlocked. Finally, a little luck to go with my long shots and fat chances.

We slipped through the door. A narrow passage led up to the top of the stadium. There was no sign of Rufus.

Halfway up the stairs, the wall gave way to a large window overlooking the battle-bot arena below.

The first battle was already underway. The Rawlins Reaper faced off against a battle bot with a snake’s head and metal fangs. It looked like it could be a fair fight, except Rizzo’s bot moved like a ramped-up zip beetle. Snake Head could hardly keep up with the Reaper’s movements. My scales bristled at the sight of the cheating kobold.

“Easy, Fizz,” Tank said, trying to pull me away from the window. “We’ll deal with Rizzo another day.”

“Right now, we have a demon to stop,” Aleetha said.

The crowd below us cheered. Rizzo’s Reaper had Snake Head on its back. It looked like the fight was over for the snake bot. Before Rizzo could deliver the final blow, the lights went out. The entire stadium was plunged into darkness.

The jumbo screen hanging over the middle of the arena lit up the darkness. The purple glow from the screen cast eerie shadows across the confused monsters in their seats. My anger at Rizzo vanished when the face of the Codex appeared on the screen.

“Greetings, Slick City!” the Codex’s voice boomed over the stadium’s speakers. “Mayor Grimlock, I warned you not to open this stadium.”

“Oh no,” Tank said. “We’re too late.”

All around the stadium, the monsters were stunned into silence.

“You have had plenty of time to listen to me, Slick City!”

My ears perked up when the Codex spoke. His words blasted through the stadium speakers, but they also came from somewhere close by.

Without a word, I moved silently along the narrow corridor. Tank and Aleetha followed. Together, we quietly climbed another set of stairs and came to the end of the corridor.