The dirt was cold. Even though there seemed to have been a battle happening atop it. It felt like a nice place to fall asleep, regardless of location. In the near distance, I could hear faint cries and cheering in the background from a mixture of people…
"Is that Ryo? Why is he running toward me so slowly? And that young girl with the blonde hair… why was she crying?" I said to myself under my breath.
At this time, I felt like I was in a white room, and a silhouette of a male figure stood in front of me. It was just me on the ground and him standing a few feet away. Even though I could not see his face, I knew who it was all too well.
Really, kid? That's all it's gonna take to do you in? I thought I trained you better than that. Come on… You look so pathetic… the male said, laughing toward the end. He sounded like he was in his early forties, but still sounded young and full of life. I could feel the warmth of his presence and his words.
"Asura?"
Get up. It's not over. Your friends need you. You can't save anyone lying down there, you damn brat…
I grunted tiredly in response.
Get up, kid. His final words.
At this time, the white room began to fade, and where I had been lying started to look familiar.
Why am I even lying here? Oh yeah… I somehow got hit hard enough, apparently. Damn, I remember. I need to get up. I need to get up now. I thought as my black fingernails dug into the dirt, and I pushed my staggered body off the ground.
Barely conscious, I stood up again. My eyes blurred as I surveyed the area around me. I was surrounded by the slender one with Captain Friera's Clay magic, the four arms with the unnamed Silver Sharks Captain's Landmine magic, and the big one in front of me with the previous Arcane King's Pain magic. One powerful enough to inflict my own strength onto me, which was ironically the only way to hurt me.
Muffled out, I heard Terek's paper-ripping voice shrieking through, "If you come any closer, Ryoku, I will smash him down again!"
Ryo stopped in his tracks with his huge claymore faced in our direction. He ground his teeth at Terek's words.
I stopped bleeding from my mouth but had dried blood on my chin and half my face semi-transformed, fanged teeth still baring from the left side of my face.
"You should give it up, 'Captain'. Just admit I'm stronger than you… If you do, I might just let you live," Terek said, sounding like he was trying to convince himself more than he was trying to convince me.
Battered and heavy-headed, I replied, "If you give a child a gun, is the child strong?"
"Are you calling me a child!?" he snarled then calmed himself, snarking as he said, "Well, no matter… when the gun is held to your head, you are still at the mercy of the one who holds the trigger."
"Then pull the trigger," I said, looking like death.
Terek, offended and feeling threatened by my words, held out his hand with wrath in his eyes. Right then, the golem in front of me raised its huge fist and held it there…
"What are you waiting for, 'strong man'? Do it," I taunted.
He clicked his tongue, and I sensed his hidden emotion without even looking. I sensed the sweat on the side of his face. Heard the hesitancy in his voice. Hurried breathing. Slow rising heartbeat…
"I thought so…" I said with a whispered confidence.
I looked at the big one, as it stood in place with its heavy arm over me—still waiting to strike. Pain magic. An annoying ability that allowed the user to take the pain it received and share it back onto the one who dealt the damage, healing itself in the process and doubling its power back onto its oppressor. I knew the pain I felt seemed familiar. It was my very own punch, doubled in power and strength. I guessed I was not completely invulnerable to all things. My one ironic weakness was my very own attacks.
It didn't seem Terek had caught on to that, though. For all he knew, it was just a powerful strike, but he did not know the science behind it.
It had also seemed that the magic ability this one had was incomplete. I'm sure the last Arcane King who had this power could do much, much more with his magic. Perhaps the original mana and ability were too much for this puppet to handle, so he tried to compensate for that with its size—but it still wasn't enough. It appeared to be a one-trick pony. Which meant…
"You need me to hit it again, don't you?" I said, finally looking at him and gesturing to the big figure in front of me.
Terek sneered. "I need you to die!"
Battle again. The four arms raced to me, running its hands over the ground as it swerved around, its hand skidding and setting off explosions like splashed water. Through the smoke and fire, the slender one dashed in. Its two swords extended, wrapping around me and making a shell until I was completely covered within it—hardening like a cocoon.
From inside now, I heard beeping. Multiple bombs planted within the clay shell. The explosions set off with me inside it. A muffled boom sounded from the outside of my sealed clay cocoon, the ground cracking from underneath. The slender one's swords unwrapped, and the smoke seeped out from the explosion within.
Through the smoke, nothing could be seen for a moment. But as it faded, my silhouette came into view. I stood there looking up, arms hanging at my sides, the smoke clearing even more. My pants were in tatters, my right leg from the knee down exposed, barefoot. But my skin, if darkness could shine, was covered now in that same black coating all over my entire body. Fanged teeth wrapped around my head, the ends of them almost touching my ear as it displayed an eerie-looking smile across my face—sinister, like that of a demon's. My left eye shone red, and the only part of me that still looked human was my right eye, as that part of my face remained untouched by the black coating. My hair was a mess, fluttering with the dust breeze.
"What in the Keeper's name is it going to take to finally fucking kill you?!" Terek yelled, frustration overtaking him.
A series of close combat initiated between the slender one and the four arms as I sauntered toward Terek, my movements drawn out and exaggerated. Continued attacks of both explosions and metal clashing sparked the surrounding area, flashing like fireworks in every direction. The Clay magic no longer had any effect; it could not even bind me. It seemed like I had become resistant to every and all attacks. This was the feeling of omnipotence.
I reeled in my right fist next to me, walking still, and flashed in a blink at an intense speed, disappearing almost completely from the naked eye. The big one was in the way, in front of Terek once more. The speed I took, so fast that only a blur could be seen of me at best. Time slowed, and like a meteor, my body burned a hole through its heavy golem armor with the sheer speed of my dash. My fist still to my side, having not even thrown it yet.
Its ability activated but did no damage. It was as if it could not even comprehend the pain it received and, therefore, could not accurately share it back to me.
With speed continuing to accelerate, my body shifted, gliding on my side over the ground as I hit resistance through the air. The back of my fist skidded on the ground, sparking, as it continued its tunneled destination to Terek's face.
Time slowed again, my body shifted upright finally. My fist, a matter of seconds away from Terek's nose. His eyes still looked beyond my fist. He had not yet comprehended that I was already there, inches away, about to do him in. In those few seconds, I calmed the reel in my arm to lessen the damage I was about to inflict—holding back just enough not to kill him. This amount should do.
BANG!!
My fist connected and the sound echoed, breaking his nose on immediate impact. His face rippled, and his eyes shot to the back of his head. His hair flew forward, and the rat tail on the right side of his head undid itself as his head led the rest of his body in a backward flipping motion. I halted my advance, leaving a trail of sparks from my feet, and froze in place with my right fist forward and eyes focused ahead. Terek continued to flip backward, mid-air, in the same place. He flipped at least ten times, slowing down each time until his toes touched the ground, gently stopping his motion. From there, he fell to his knees and sat upright, face up, eyes white, and out cold.
The three mechas I had fought on my here ceased operation and fell to the ground one by one. The crowd could not believe what they had seen, their reactions frozen, barely comprehending what they had just witnessed.
Ryo's eyes flashed with a combination of relief and astonishment, and the young blonde girl teared up with joy.
The arena and bleachers were so silent in those few seconds that I could hear a drop of water. It was the longest twenty seconds of our lives.
Then, after building up excitement, Ryo shouted, "HELL YEAH! YOU DID IT, GREED! YOU WON! YOU FUCKING WON!"
The adrenaline in me slowly started to leave, and the black coating that covered me faded just as slowly. I stood up straight and dropped my arms as they hung to my side, falling behind me. My face up to the ceiling, taking my time to face Ryo with a forced half smile across my face, eyes closed in a cheerful manner. "Language…" I said, mocking his prudeness from earlier.
The crowd erupted, and the whole place became a zoo. The audience of fakes fought amongst themselves as some cheered for me and others booed and threw garbage my way. But then, as the roaring continued…
BOOM!!!
An explosion from the bleachers, and another, and then another, sounded off.
BOOM!! BOOM!!! BOOM!!!
From all around the arena, fakes scattered, and the whole place began to crumble. The floating pedestals around the arena lost control due to falling debris and crumbling walls. The DJ, MC, and others who occupied it jumped off before they crashed into each other and fell onto the battlefield. The fakes in the audience scattered all the while.
I gestured to Ryo and rushed to the young girl, swooping her legs up and carrying her. She gasped as I did and she blushed when she realized she was in my arms.
It seemed we didn't have time to celebrate this win. Our objective now was to get out.
***
In another section of the crumbling underground club, a shadowy male figure from the balcony gave a faint smile before standing up and exiting from the place where he had spectated the battle. As he left, the balcony crumbled behind him.
He then made his way through the hallway, where the rumbling and panic could be heard just on the other side, muffled screams and panic sounding off every second. When he made it a good distance, he held his hand to a random part of a wall, and it opened to a secret passageway.
Walking through it and down the stairs, he passed through a labyrinth of small hallways and tunnels until he reached a grand hallway underground—the rumbling sounds still following. Small crumbs of the walls and ceilings dropped as he made his way onto the wide-open grand hallway he found himself in. Then, from behind him where he entered…
Snap…
A male in Black Wolves attire appeared, switching places with a spec of crumbled dirt that fell from the ceiling. He wore a white billed cap with a black fur hood hanging over it casually. His left hand was in his jacket pocket while his right fixed his round glasses back onto the arch of his nose. Displaying his tatted middle finger and black painted nails as he did so—glasses reflecting off light, hiding his gray-blue eyes behind them. The tips of his hair were iced white as it gradually faded into black from within his white billed cap. And a double-hilted long sword rested strapped over behind him.
"Finally caught up to you, Captain Syemore of the Blue Phoenixes… or should I say, traitor," he said.
When the shadowy male figure turned around to face him, his familiar face greeted him with his own welcome,
"Ah, Vice Captain Code of the Black Wolves. What an unfortunate surprise."