Chapter 4: Kill or be Killed?

Jack ran.

For about twenty strides before reaching the area's rim; a dead end. The ground tremored beneath his feet. "Thump. Thump." Hooves pounding on the sand, a pulsing beat with a fastening tempo.

The beast approached.

Jack's sweaty palms dragged down the arena's walls, and he breathed in a heavy sigh. Was his second life going to end so soon?

A mulch of emotions flittered through his subconscious, and within that single second of eternity; fear of death, confusion, panic and despair plagued him, only to melt away under the sunlight of a single and potent thought. 'At least, I can fight back!'

A sense of liberation shook through Jack's being and possessed him. What did it matter if he died? Life had passed him by once already. It had beaten him down, and then slowly suffocated him till he was too weak to fight. To breathe. There had been nothing he could do about it, no path of recourse. But right now...

A wide grin cracked out upon Jack's face, it was forceful; exaggerated, almost malevolent.

Oh, it was all so very real. His heart was pounding, adrenaline rushing through his veins, and even more so the faint thrum of magic. Alive. He felt. Alive! Jack had been dead long before illness had claimed the final beat of his heart; he had been nought but a soulless shell. But at this very moment, he felt truly awake.

"Thump. Thump!" The beat reached its crescendo, and without turning, Jack pushed off the arena's wall diving to one side.

"BOOM!"

The Minotaur crashed into the sandstone concrete, its violent charge coming to an abrupt stop, and Jack scrambled to his feet, squinting to see through the plumes of sand that had arisen from the impact.

A moment passed, and the sand cascaded down; settling, and revealing an interesting sight.

"Hahaha!" Jack bellowed out heartily. Not only had the beast slammed its horns directly into the arena's walls, enmeshing them, temporarily trapping the creature, but a hairline crack could be seen weaving and webbing an almost decorative pattern down said horns.

Jack lunged at the beast. Now was his chance, perhaps the only chance he was going to get.

He had no weapons on hand, he certainly wasn't going to be able to punch his way through the minotaur's thick hide, and magic was... unreliable, risky. Jack just didn't have a good gauge on his limits, and he was fairly sure minotaurs had some form of resistance to magic anyway.

That left Jack with only a few options, and so he quickly decided on the one he found most likely to succeed. No matter how big and hulking a monstrosity the minotaur was it still had a weakness shared by most creatures; its eyes.

While the beast tried to pull its horns free, mid lunge, Jack leaned down and grabbed a handful of sand, an additional layer of insurance, before jumping, clambering up the minotaur's arched back and plopping himself down on its shoulders.

Without an ounce of hesitation, Jack speared sand into the minotaur's eyes; there was a minute resistance before the gelatinous shells gave way and Jack replaced their natural fluids with a handful of coarse scraping sand.

For a moment the minotaur stood still in sheer shock, but that moment was brief, and it soon let out an ear-piercing screech reminiscent of a pig's squeal, before violently bucking and jerking beneath Jack, simultaneously throwing him off and shattering its own horns.

The beast clutched at its head, screaming and swaying back and forth in outright agony, meanwhile, Jack's landing had been cushioned by the arena's sandy floor, and although he was slightly winded he remained for the most part unharmed.

While Jack got to his feet, the minotaur lay hunched over clutching its head under the dual torment of its now hollow eye sockets and missing horns. Jack felt a wave of nausea hit his stomach, but he forced it down. It was kill or be killed, reality... no, Boethiah wasn't so forgiving as to give him a merciful resolution, this was a battle to the death.

Jack walked over to the arena's wall. There laid the sharp fragments of the minotaur's horns, and knowing he would need something to finish the fight, he grabbed one of the larger pieces and walked back towards the cowering creature. His steps were light, the sand dampening any residual sound as he approached and placed the makeshift blade at its throat.

The minotaur tensed, stilted and quiet; sensing the end. And with all the strength Jack's small arms could muster, he pierced through the hide laden neck and severed its jugular, dying the sand red...

The crowd above roared.