The Black Knight and Draven clashed in the middle. When their fists made contact, it produced a powerful shock wave that caused the Clown's cage to tremble vigorously. Draven stood still, but the Black Knight went back several steps. His hands shivered after the clash. To him, it felt like he hit a brick wall. If he hadn't worn the metal gloves, he didn't doubt the force would have broken his knuckles.
"Why do you insist on saving this piece of scum?" Draven growled.
"Hey, I am right here. That hurts my feelings," said the Clown, pursing his lips together.
Draven completely ignored the Clown and focused on the Black Knight.
"He will put innocent lives at risk as long as he lives," Draven tried to put some sense into the thick skull of the Black Knight.
"You cannot play judge, jury, and executioner," The Black Knight cracked his knuckles. No matter what, The Black Knight wouldn't take a life with his hands. If he had done that, everything his parents stood for would have been in vain. After all, if he killed a murderer, the number of murders in Etheria would remain the same. The justice system might be corrupt and slow, but it was far better than taking a life.
"If he's the Clown, you…" Draven looked at the Clown for a moment before turning his gaze back at the Black Knight.
"You're the entire circus," Draven dashed at the Black Knight, intending to break him before reaching the Clown. As long as the Black Knight was there to protect these villains, they would always come back to destroy innocent lives. In a sense, the Black Knight was a blight Draven should get rid of. Deep down, Draven even questioned himself whether the Black Knight was genuinely innocent or just as guilty as the supervillains.
The Clown burst into mad laughter seeing his arch nemesis and a murdering maniac who killed a valuable asset fighting to the death, atleast one of them would kill the other. Knowing the Black Knight, the Clown trusted the Black Knight to put an end to Draven's murdering spree. However, suppose The Black Knight failed to apprehend Draven by any chance, the Black Knight would die in Draven's hands. In that case, the Clown planned to kill Draven and take over the kingdom. Without the Black Knight and Draven, there would be no one to stop him.
On the ground, Draven and The Black Knight pushed themselves to the limit. The Black Knight blocked a couple of punches but after taking the berserker pill, Draven's moves became so fast as the Black Knight failed to block all the punches. Each time, Draven's fist connected with the Black Knight's head, the brutes let out a thunderous roar.
"Argh," The Black Knight growled in pain as Draven grabbed his hand and punched him in the chest. The force of the punch almost pushed the Black Knight to the ground. But luckily, he was able to headbutt Draven using all his strength. Unfortunately, it was the Black Knight who got knocked back when he head-butted Drave. It felt like he had hit a brick wall with his head.
"Ooooh…that must have hurt," The Clown commented as Draven spartan kicked the Black Knight in the chest. Quickly, Draven opened his wings and flapped with enough force to push the Black Knight further back. At this point, the Black Knight was just eight meters away from the container meant to trap Draven.
The Black Knight gritted his teeth to fight the pain. The battle became tougher after the killer took the pill. But no matter how hard the battle, he couldn't afford to lose to the killer. A small mistake, and the killer would try to kill the Clown. Which would result in the death of all the hostages around him. The Black Knight didn't care about what the killer would do to him. Instead. He worried about the lives of innocent people around him.
"If you had killed him when you had the chance, this wouldn't have happened," Draven coldly said to the Black Knight. But, because the Black Knight was his role model once, Draven wanted him to see the reality.
"How many innocent lives have you put at risk and indirectly killed by not putting down who deserves to be put down?" Draven asked, walking towards the Black Knight.
"You are not talking to me. You're talking to yourself. You're trying to convince yourself that what you're doing is the right thing. Everyone deserves a second chance, even you," The Black Knight said.
"How many chances have you given to him?" Draven pointed at the Clown.
The Black Knight didn't answer but waited for Draven to take another step. When he did, the Black Knight threw a shuriken equipped with explosive powder at Draven. To everyone's surprise, the shuriken stopped in mid-air a few meters away from Draven and flew backward. Since the news reporters hadn't covered what happened in the asylum, the Black Knight didn't know Draven had killed General Iron Bender. Otherwise, The Black Knight would have come prepared to face Draven's metal manipulating power.
Boom!
The shuriken exploded when it hit the Black Knight, blocking his sight with the dark smoke. The Black Knight's battle instincts kicked as he tried to dash away. However, his armor suddenly tightened, crushing his body.
"What?" The Black Knight tried to move his arms vigorously, only to fail.
"Is the blacky in trouble?" When the Clown saw The Black Knight shaking his body without moving his arms, he felt something was amiss. He even stood up from his chair to see what was happening to The Black Knight. Draven walked towards the Black Knight and put his hand on the Black Knight's shoulder.
"I am going to kill him and," Draven slightly squeezed the Black Knight's shoulder, crushing the shoulder plates.
"You can't do anything," Draven whispered into the Black Knight's ears.
"No. If you kill him, you will end up killing everyone around us," The Black Knight panicked.
"Only the Clown and his brutes," Draven snickered before kicking the Black Knight in the chest once again. This time, the Black Knight stumbled backward until he fell into the container.
"Hey, that's cheating!" The Clown screamed from his box. He quickly took the cube from his chair.
"That container was meant for you!" The Clown yelled at Draven. He was about to press the red button when he saw Draven raising his hand at him.
Suddenly, the Clown felt the box tremble. Although it was made of glass, the corners were made of metal railings. So Draven just pressed the metal railings together until the glass started to crack. The Clown was startled, but even then, he didn't fail to grin. A few seconds passed by as the cracks appeared faster, creating a slow creaking noise.
Chill!
Suddenly, the glass box shattered completely, resulting in the Clown falling down to the arena where Draven and the Black Knight fought a few moments ago.
"ARGH!" The Clown groaned.
"BOSS!"
"SHIT!"
"BOSS!"
The brutes who saw Draven walking towards the Clown frantically shook the fence before them. They also shouted as loud as possible, hoping it would save their boss from the killer. To be honest, the Clown didn't think the killer could defeat the Black Knight. Over the years, the Black Knight had defeated so many villains who were so much stronger than him. But the Black Knight always emerged victorious through his tactics and experience. As a matter of fact, the Black Knight had the chance to defeat Draven before Draven absorbed General iron Bender's soul. With Draven's metal manipulation power, he was at the next level, where The Black Knight had no chance whatsoever to defeat him.
"Come here," The Clown managed to pick up the cube quickly.
"NOW THEY DIE!" Seeing the Clown was about to press the button, the brutes roared. Since the hostages were unconscious, they were oblivious to what was happening around them.
Beep!
"NO!" The Black Knight shouted from the metal container. Yet not a single peep escaped the container.
The Clown devilishly grinned ear to ear before pressing the red button. The spectators who saw the clown through holographic images outside closed their eyes as soon as the Clown pressed the button. They thought the hostages would be dropped into the acidic liquid below them. But, contrary to their expectation, nothing happened.
"Huh?" The CLown pressed the button again and again under the cold gaze of Draven.
"Work, you stupid piece of shit!' The Clown cursed the cube while repeatedly pressing the button.
Bang!
Draven kicked the Clown in the head with just enough force to break a couple of teeth. He bent down and picked the Clown by his collar.
"Don't waste any time. Kill him!" Margoth growled. Villains like The Clown would have multiple escape strategies. So Margoth urged Draven to kill the Clown before the creepy clown escaped his hold.
Pulch!
"NO!" The Black Knight shouted again, seeing Draven plunging his sword deep into the Clown's gut.
"HEHEHEHE!" Unlike one would expect, the CLown burst into mad laughter.
Draven stabbed the Clown again and again and again until a white light appeared in the Clown's mouth.
[Absorbing the Clown's soul…]
The brutes shuddered as their shouts died down, looking at the white smoke floating from the Clown's mouth to Draven's mouth.
[Soul Absorption finished…]
[100 Soul Energy has been absorbed from the Clown]
When Draven dropped the Clown's body, the body was mummified and withered. However, except for the brutes and the Black Knight, the people outside didn't see Draven absorbing the Clown's soul thanks to Sarah interfering with the etherian energy transmission. Instead, Sarah only let the people see Draven submerging the Clown's withered body into the green acid after teleporting to the other side of the glass wall.
After finally needing the reign of the Clown, Draven turned his gaze back to the brutes.
"It's time you all met your maker,"