Inside the walls of the resto-bar the 'Beefy Beef', the clients waited impatiently for the battle between Victor the Undefeated and Dante Shimizu, leader of The Elementals to begin. They both were getting prepared for the fight, Victor was cracking many of the bones in his body, mainly his knuckles and neck, while Dante stretched his muscles, the nerves were clear as crystal in his face and the sweat running down his face didn't go under the radar for anyone who looked at him.
Elene looked at her man, a gaze of preoccupation in her face, she began biting her nails because of the nerves. Terrac and Raphael weren't any less worried than Elene, but they were more calm about it, limiting themselves to look at their leader with nervous glances.
Not too far from The Elementals, the squad of Ascalon, Lyle, Mistia and Stella, standing next to each other in that order, looked at the two fighters in the ring. Ascalon didn't seem too worried about how the fight would go, he was already making himself an idea on how things would turn out. And because of that he removed his chestplate and shoulder pads.
"Lyle, I'm gonna need you to watch these over for me, you heard the referee, no armors, and no weapons" He said as he leaned his axe to his companion.
Lyle was put off a bit by Ascalon's request, the blonde had been too focused on Dante and Victor that he hadn't noticed his friend removing his armor and putting it in the ground next to Lyle..
"Do you really think this is going to be quick?" Lyle questioned.
"I don't believe it, I know it" Ascalon replied without a trace of presumption in his words.
The swordsman looked at Ascalon a bit in disbelief as he grabbed his axe, surprising him a bit, it was heavier than he thought.
Mistia had her look all around the resto-bar, people in conflict, food and drinks scattered over all surfaces, disorder and loud noises. This place was a mess, all these people, the scum of society, the kind that no one would miss if one day they all just died and that more than sure some of them deserve a slow and painful demise. The woman noticed that she was getting lost in thought and gave herself a little slap in the face to snap herself back into reality.
"What are you thinking about, Mistia?" Mistia said in her mind as she tried to look at something else.
In this case, that something else was her partner standing to her left, Stella, who had her eyes fixated on the well defined body of Victor, she was biting her lower lip, her face was reddened and her eyes expelled an unmistakable lust.
"If I had to make a bet I'd bet by how long his dick is" The healer said, thinking out loud.
Mistia stared at her with noticeable discomfort before deciding to stare at Lyle, who was just looking at the two fighters without being weird or making her have disturbing thoughts, although Mistia couldn't deny that overall she did like to look at him. She thinks he's pretty.
The final bets were being taken by Diane Roughtalon who continued to write down each of them and changed the odds of each bet on the board next to her. Once she had finished writing down the final bet, the odds in the board were the following:
1 out of 6 people bet that Dante would get one shotted by Victor
1 out of 9 people bet that Victor will win during the first 30 seconds of the fight.
1 out of 2 people bet that Dante is going to last a minute against Victor.
1 out of 9 people bet that Dante will last 2 minutes against Victor.
1 out of 12 people bet that Dante is going to be able to stand against Victor for three minutes.
1 out of 36 people bet that the fight could last 4 minutes.
Absolutely no one bet that the fight could extend to 5 minutes.
No one even contemplated the possibility that Victor could lose this encounter.
"Aaaaaand, I believe those were all the bets, can you confirm cus?" Trent, using his amplifying hand, questioned, pointing at his cousin.
Diane gave her cousin back a smile and a thumbs up in signal that all bets had been taken.
"Magnificent!" The referee exclaimed.
Trent approaches a very nervous Dante and puts the amplifier hand near his mouth.
"So, no one believes you stand a chance to beat Victor, anything to say about it?" Trent asked Dante.
"Well, no one here seems to know me" Dante takes a deep breath "But I'll show them what I'm made of".
"That's a lot of confidence I hadn't seen for a while around here, it's a nice change. Too bad it won't last long" The referee declared mockingly.
The leader of The Elementals seemed a bit annoyed by the referee.
"Before starting, remember that the fight will last until one of the two is knocked out or gives up! And I'd also like to remember to our great audience that any time bets get invalidated if the fight results in a one hit knockout! Alright? We don't wanna repeat the incident from last month!" The referee clarified as he approached one of the borders of the ring.
Trent jumped out the ring as Dante and Victor located themselves on opposites of the ring, doing the final stretches.
"Well, ladies and gentlemen! The next match is about to begin between Victor Roughtalon the Undefeated and Dante, leader of… of…!" Trent exclaimed, failing to introduce both fighters.
"Eh. Doesn't matter, he'll just get pummelled like everyone else. LET THE FIGHT BEGIN!" Trent declared, causing an eruption of excitement from the audience.
As soon as Trent finished talking, Dante took his battle stance, embedding his hands with water as he focused his gaze on his opponent. Victor just stared at him with his menacing and imposing look, the champion didn't even bother to get into a fight stance against Dante.
"You can do it babe! I trust in you!" Elene screamed, her voice barely noticeable in between the noise the clients of the resto-bar were already making.
"If you win… I… I will give you lots of kisses and hugs… and if you lose… well… if you lose too, but please be careful!" Elene continued throwing cheers at her boyfriend.
Terrac and Raphael were also giving cheers to their leader, although they weren't being near as lousy as Elene was. As for the squad, Stella continued to perv on Victor while Mistia stared at Lyle who, despite being focused on the fight about to take place, gave some little glances at Mistia from time to time, and finally Ascalon was already stretching, after Dante he was up next.
On top of the ring, Dante moved slowly, trying to find an opening to attack his opponent, who was just standing there, menacingly. The leader of The Elementals had his sight fixated on his foe, his thoughts focused solely on how to beat him. Despite his seemingly lack of preoccupation for his opponent, Victor's eyes never drifted away even for a second from Dante.
After a few seconds of just staring, Dante approached Victor with a surprising speed and began to throw water punches at him with great precision and swiftness. However, these attacks represented no challenge for the undefeated who managed to block each and every single attack that Dante tried to land on him.
Dante tried to take Victor off guard with a low kick but the champion dodged it with a little jump. Dante quickly recovered and tried to begin his series of punches again but this time instead of blocking, Victor would grab his fist midair.
"What?" Dante was in disbelief, his face filled with fear.
With a malicious grin, Victor lowers his free hand and quickly throws a punch towards Dante's chin, striking a powerful uppercut that would make Dante be sent flying out of the ring, falling right in front of his team.
"DANTE!" Elene screamed as she took her lover's unconscious body in her arms.
Terrac and Raphael looked at their leader's state, he had been knocked out with a single hit, his jaw had been broken and some of his teeth were missing. Elene held him tight.
Trent jumped into the ring and walked across to check on Dante.
"Well, I would say that I wasn't expecting that but mom didn't raise a liar" He exclaimed with sarcasm.
"YOU BETTER GIVE HIM THAT STUPID POTION OR I'LL ROAST YOU FROM THE INSIDE TO THE OUTSIDE!!!!" Elene yelled at the referee as she summoned a fireball with her left hand as she held Dante with her right hand.
"Alright, alright miss, there is no need for you to get desperate! Gods…" Trent sighed as he threw the healing potion to Dante, restoring his jaw and his teeth, but he was still unconscious.
Elene hugged him tight as she kissed his forehead. Raphael patted her head in form of comfort while Terrac stared at Victor with an angered gaze while the champion had a mockery grin.
"That's a one hit K.O, ladies and gentlemen! So if you betted on that, go take your money!" Trent exclaimed as he pointed at the betting board.
Those who were lucky to bet correctly, went to the betting board to get their money from Diane. Those who weren't that lucky mostly regretted their decision, a minority didn't care that much and the one who exaggerates their reaction never misses, getting calmed down by one of Trent's spicy potions.
"That guy is really powerful!" Lyle exclaimed, astonished by Victor's victory.
"Well, gotta give him some credit" Ascalon said as he stretched "He lasted longer than I thought he would"
"And you're going next" Lyle stated.
"Yes, it's my turn" Ascalon said calmly.
"Ascalon, try to last a bit more so I can see more of that hot muscular man in action" Stella said, disgusting Mistia.
"Don't worry, I'm going to" Ascalon replied.
As rewards from the bets finished getting reclaimed, Ascalon was already getting into the ring, receiving a good luck cheer from Lyle and Mistia. The axeman, without axe nor armor, found himself on top of the ring, serene.
"It seems that we have our next participant impatient for getting his ass kicked!" Trent exclaimed as he watched Ascalon get into the ring.
Ascalon ignored Trent's words and looked at Victor, who didn't seem as pretentious as he did with Dante.
"I wasn't expecting you to be able to recognize my power" Ascalon said, looking Victor in the eyes.
"You give off a different vibe, you're a true warrior, I can tell by just looking at you" Victor declared.
Both fighters stared at each other, noticing the tension, Trent began to speak up so this fight could begin as soon as possible.
"Alright, ladies and gentlemen! You know how the deal is, make your bets on how long you believe this unfortunate idiot will last before Victor inevitably mops the floor with him!" The referee exclaimed.
Although, when looking at his brother, Trent noticed something he had never seen on him before, at least not that he can remember, uncertainty. He was shocked just by the mere fact that Victor was feeling any doubt, he then looked at Ascalon.
Trent was no fighter and could not tell anything special about the man who was about to fight Victor, but to put him nervous, he sure must have something. This was going to be interesting.
The fighters waited, staring at each other while at the betting board, Diane wrote down all bets being made by the clients of the 'Beefy Beef', surprisingly, the bets reflected more hope from the clients on Ascalon than the one they had for Dante.
No bets were made for 'One-hit K.O' nor '30 seconds', some betted for '1 minute', most of the bets were almost equally spread across the '2 minutes', '3 minutes' and '4 minutes' options, a few even had gone a bit bolder and decided to bet for '5 minutes', but even if some contemplated the possibility, no one ended up betting for 'Victor losses', it never happened, there had been other occasions where it seemed possible but at the end, Victor always wins.
"Alright, it seems like all bets have been made, everything in order Diane?" Trent asked, looking at his cousin.
The woman finished counting the gold coins and gave her cousin a thumbs up. Trent jumps out of the ring as Victor and Ascalon walk to opposite sides of it.
"Alright then, LET THE FIGHT BEGIN!" The referee exclaimed.
As soon as Trent finished talking, the crowd began cheering and Victor lunged against Ascalon, The undefeated's first attack got easily dodged by Ascalon who jumped to the opposite corner of the ring, surprising Victor with his speed.
The volley of blows from Victor continued, each time he tried to hit Ascalon, the axeman would dodge and move far from Victor. While the undefeated continued to try and hit Ascalon, he noticed something on his face, he was trying to figure something out but he couldn't tell what exactly it was.
"Are you gonna fight or are you just gonna run away?" Victor asked, getting exasperated by Ascalon's constant dodges.
The rest of the squad looked at the fight with attention, Lyle wondered what could Ascalon have in mind, he was more of a direct fighter, limiting himself to dodge this much wasn't proper of him, even if Victor was strong, he expected Ascalon to prefer blocking his attacks rather than evade them. Similar to Victor, Lyle could notice that Ascalon was thinking of something, he wondered what it could be, and so did Mistia, who stared at her companion in the ring with curiosity. Stella remained lost in her lustful thoughts as she watched the fight.
As for The Elementals, Elene continued to hold an unconscious Dante in her arms, she had kneeled on the ground and put his head on her lap for him to be more comfortable, but aside from taking care of her boyfriend, she also paid attention to the fight happening before her, if Victor was gonna get beaten, she didn't wanna miss it.
Raphael stared with intrigue at the fight, Ascalon was certainly more skilled than his leader was and the electric swordsman wanted to see what he could do, and finally, Terrac was completely focused on watching every movement of Victor, if Ascalon loses, which seemed unlikely, it would be his turn to fight against Victor and wanted to study his movements.
The crowd was getting impatient, they wanted to see more action, one of them wanted to throw a glass into the battlefield, but Diane noticed and pulled off some of Trent's spicy potions she had in a bag and threw it at him, causing him to fall to the ground, screaming because of the burn.
On top of the ring, Victor looked at Ascalon with an annoyed expression, waiting for an answer.
"Sorry for that, I was thinking about something and I'm bad at multi-tasking, but now I'm all in to fight" Ascalon said, getting into a fighting stance.
Victor once again attacked Ascalon, this time around, instead of dodging, he was blocking the champion's punches with a noticeable ease, he could read each and every single of his movements. Between one of Victor's attacks, Ascalon found an opening and threw a punch to Victor's face, causing him to flinch.
Ascalon stood still as Victor recovered from the hit, the champion looked at the floor when he noticed blood in there, fresh blood, he guided his right hand to his nose and when he looked at his hand once again and noticed his bandages drenched with blood, his blood.
Blood spilled from his nose, Victor was surprised, not only him but so were Trent and the clients of the Beefy Beef. The champion could not remember the last time someone had made him bleed, he couldn't help but smile, as much as this guy had been annoying him, it was nice to have someone who could actually put up a fight for once.
The undefeated continued his onslaught of punches against Ascalon, who continued to block each punch thrown at him. Ascalon finds another opening and hits Victor on the stomach, causing him to spit some blood over him.
Victor decided to take some steps back, he needed to think better of his next movement, he smiled, it seemed like he was going to have to use his all. Ascalon stood still, waiting for Victor's next movement.
A sudden burst of heat could be felt inside the Beefy Beef, some of the clients seemed to know what was about to happen while most of them seemed confused. And then, a fiery aura surrounded Victor, covering his fists and feet in magical flames.
"I must congratulate you, no one has pushed me to these limits in a good while" Victor said staring intensely at Ascalon.
Ascalon didn't seem very impressed by Victor's full power, instead he turned back to look at his companions, more specifically Lyle, who seemed very impressed by Victor's power. He then turned back to look at Victor. Ascalon had a plan, and he was about to put it into action.
"Is that all you've got?" Ascalon said with a smug smile.
"Huh?!" Victor exclaimed, visibly annoyed. "What did you just ask?"
"I asked if that's all you've got, you imbecile, didn't you hear me or is your enormous ego blocking anything that isn't a praise towards you?" Ascalon replied with surprising hostility.
The public was surprised by Ascalon's attitude towards Victor, how could someone even dare to talk to Victor the Undefeated like that?
Trent and Diane seemed noticeably worried, they knew very well their relative's temper and if Ascalon didn't apologize for his harsh words, things would get really bad.
"What the hell is that idiot saying?" Lyle questioned in disbelief of his friend's words.
Lyle couldn't understand what Ascalon's great idea was, did he want to provoke him to have a proper challenge or was it something else? Ascalon can be very rude but most of the time that is because of his horrible social skills, but this was completely intentional, as he wondered what went through his friend's head. Next to Lyle, Mistia stood speechless, equally confused and curious about Ascalon's intentions.
"Come on pussy, or are you afraid of me?" Ascalon asked, challenging.
Victor's patience had disappeared and lunged to attack his foe again, his attacks had become faster, stronger and more brutal than before. This time around, Victor actually managed to land a bunch of hits on Ascalon, although he was still blocking many of them.
They fought all across the ring, Victor relentlessly throwing punches that either landed on Ascalon that didn't seem to damage him that much or got blocked. And while the fight continued, Ascalon continued insulting Victor.
"I have seen better moves from a grandmother"
"Don't use those light feather punches on me, I can take much more"
"I thought you had begun fighting seriously, why did you lie?"
Each word that came out of the axeman's mouth just angered the champion more and more. At one point, Victor managed to land a hit right in Ascalon's face, managing to make him bleed and throwing him to the ground, but at the moment his fist impacted against his opponent, Victor noticed something weird, it felt, like he had purposefully lowered his defenses for that punch in specific.
Ascalon stood up, he cleans the blood from his broken lip with his hand and looks at Victor with a smug grin. The champion is confused, he couldn't understand what was going on with his foe, why let himself get injured on purpose?
And what happened next, took everyone off guard.
"I give up" Ascalon said, maintaining his smug smile.