He could hear the crowd, louder in person then any aborbed memories would have told him. The volume of noise had been so intense that Aegir could feel vibrations in the stone beneath him. It had been hours since he had arrived here, his nodes scattered throughout various arenas to project his illusions even further then the sole arena he himself could influence.

But for most of his existence he had avoided other entities, save for humans, now he saw them coming and going from the arena. Some victors, some defeated though he may have watched their matches and analyzed their abilities if he had not been busy preparing for his match.

He had it easy on Shokushu these past few years with the inhibitors and thus this venue appealed to him. It was the fact that victory was not automatically guaranteed though years of easy prey did spoil him.

However, given his unique talents it had been determined that he himself would not be fighting in the arena but rather he would use a proxy. No one wished to see a being easily dominated with mental control, that was bad for business on most occassions save for a few of the maintenee bouts were mismatched opponents were slated to loose for the entertainment of the crowd.

But now he drudged up information on Xavier from the minds of other gladiators and past opponents to get a better feel of the situation so he could make an informed decision as to which proxy, and what personality he was going to use.

He debated for a moment, thinking that a more magically inclined being might suffice but rejected that for his first choice, it's weaker body type against a cyborg would not do so he wound up choosing Caan. Caan was a best that he had dominated in the past, a savage brute with considerable endurance that he felt was a better choice.

Now he did not have Caan with him per sae but his illusion would act like the template. He would control it like Caan and thus limit himself to what the biped had been capable of.

"Five minutes ..." the alien said as it poked it's head into the room. Aegir nodded and mentally commanded the pup at his side to follow him as he slithered towards the entrance to the arena where the latest mess was being cleaned up ...