Uncouth Heroism
Carefully walking through a sea of squirming bodies, twenty-seven Awakened circled the terrible beast.
Isaac, tall and broad-shouldered with a thick mustache and dual swords, glared at the monster.
Lily, a young girl too green to be here; with blonde pig-tails stained in blood, nervously watched the beast.
Church, a man in his early thirties who took it upon himself to craft homemade cigarettes in a foreign world; with sandy stubble and thick eye-brows, he too observed cautiously.
In addition to our familiar three, the Peruvian man and the Chinese woman were still standing. Skyler circled the arena as well along with a few more men and women, Sherry included, a teenager from Olive's group.
While the Awakened surrounded the dark lion, the drumming in the audience slowed. At the same time, the beast in question glared at the small figures that surrounded it.
The lion was wounded.
Blood constantly fell from the beast's mouth. It oozed out of its ears and discolored its luxurious coat.
'We need a plan,' Church reiterated in his mind.
He scanned their surroundings.
'There are too many unconscious on the ground. . .'
'We have to somehow minimize its movements. . .'
'But how?'
The giant beast, tired of waiting, rushed towards its nearest prey.
The targeted man clapped his palms together and rotated his hands. Sliding his fingers down, he hooked them together and muttered something incomprehensible.
Instantly, a flash of green light sparked from between the man's fingers and moments later, a swarm of beatles erupted out from inside the man's clothes. The crimson red beatles scurried across the ground and piled on top of one another until a wall of thrashing cretin stood before the man.
The lion slashed at the bug wall, obliterating hundreds of miniscule lives in under a second.
Behind the bug wall though, the man had vanished.
Suddenly, the Peruvian man appeared beside the head of the great beast.
His dark knuckles glowed violet with energy. Spreading his legs and tightening his core, the Peruvian man released a perfect punch into the lion's jaw.
The lion stumbled backwards from the blow. At the same time, the violet energy that bloomed from the Peruvian man's Ability transferred to the lion's fur.
The violet energy sank into the beast's flesh and numbed that side of its head as moments later, the right side of the lion's mouth drooped open unnaturally.
Then, appearing next at the lion's hind leg, Isaac dug his blades into the beast's achilles. Lacking the strength to cleave through the beast's bones in earnest however, Isaac's swords remained caught in the lion's tendon.
While the lion recovered from its concussion, Isaac poured his mana into his swords and pushed against the beast's tendon. His swords ignited with light and a loud sizzle spread throughout the arena – the energy in Isaac's swords was cauterizing the lion's flesh.
Before the lion could kick Isaac away, Isaac prayed to God before repeating the name of his Ability in his head – fully activating it.
'Wave Slash!' Isaac screamed.
The energy built up in his swords exploded out. . . or at least it tried to.
Due to being caught between the lion's flesh, the arc or wave of energy had no place to travel. As a result, as if a bomb went off, an explosion of cyan light severed the foot of the monstrous being and propelled Isaac back!
Isaac flew across the arena and crash landed into the unconscious bodies of the unawakened. Looking up, Isaac found the hilts of his swords in his hands, but the blades no longer remained – shattered by the explosion itself.
Across the arena's grounds, the bloodied beast wobbled from left to right as a torrent of pain erupted up its hind leg.
Alongside the beast's tantalizing wail, a river of blood flowed freely from its hind leg and pooled on the coliseum's floor.
The monstrous lion, now nearing death, summoned a large amount of energy in its throat. Stretching its maw wide and inhaling egregiously, a visible hurricane of energy began to warp the space around the beast's jaw.
A ball of ferocious energy gathered in the lion's mouth. Pulsating at capacity, the lion suddenly dove towards the ground.
Slamming its head into the coliseum floor, the lion's upper torso vanished beneath the stone.
Releasing the bomb underground, the floor of the arena shattered in an instant. A loud boom shook the coliseum and stunned the audience watching.
The drumming ceased to beat.
The floor caved in and all the survivors, conscious and unconscious, plummeted down into the massive hole created by the beast's bomb.
Large obelisks of stone tumbled down with them, crushing many of the unconscious and burying them beneath the rubble.
The beast meanwhile, with its head poking through the cloud of dust, appeared heavily injured and wary to continue.
Unfortunately, due to horrible luck or maybe just terrible coincidence, not many Awakened remained who could deliver a finishing blow.
Isaac's swords were shattered and even if they weren't, he was out of mana.
Mostly everyone, in fact, was out of mana.
Skyler, Church, the Peruvian man, all of them were completely spent of mana and exhausted by the sheer caliber of this engagement.
Lily and Sherry, two Awakened whose Abilities made no headlines in this fight and although full of mana, were physically drained and exhausted by the constant onslaught of stress and focus needed to survive the beast's attacks.
Mental exhaustion weighed equally heavy on everyone present.
The dust settled and vision returned to the arena. In the corner of the crater, collapsed and trapped by a boulder, Isaac struggled to remain conscious. Blood dripped from his chin onto his hairy chest. Breathing slowly and with his head down, Isaac was completely unaware of the beast approaching him.
The beast widened its maw. Rows of sharp teeth flickered underneath the torch's light while drool dripped from the beast's bloodied gums.
"ISAAC!!" Lily screamed as she struggled to push an avalanche of stones off of herself.
The dark lion wrapped its lips around Isaac's bruised body, but before it could take his life, a rusted chain crashed against the beast's head and wrapped around its neck!
The silver chain, thick and rusted, tightened around the beast's throat. It scorched through the lion's mane and sizzled against its skin.
Emerging from the rubble, Admiral Adams held his arm forward, an orange chain bound tightly around his wrist.
"Now dissolve. . ." The Admiral spoke absent-mindedly, "into nothingness!"
The orange chain that choked the lion continued to radiate energy. A soft glow coated the chain as the Admiral poured his mana into it. Smoke rose from the beast's neck all while decomposed flesh dropped from it.
The lion's flesh bloated and warped. Decomposing before the audience's eyes, its flesh separated from its body, falling to the ground rotten and disfigured. The chain continued to constrict around the beast's neck until eventually, the chain beheaded the beast.
The monstrous lion's head toppled to the ground and rolled beside Isaac. Meanwhile, its behemoth corpse crashed onto the rubble around causing a dust cloud to rise and fill the hole the survivors were trapped in.
[World Boss Defeated]
[Calculating Score. . .]
[Reconnecting Gate. . .]
[Time Remaining: 16 Minutes]
The volley of notifications simultaneously appeared within all the minds of the still-standing survivors.
"Sixteen minutes. . ." The Admiral muttered aloud.
Then, coughing interrupted his thoughts and drew his attention.
In the corner of the pit, a woman coughed up bile and dry heaved on the floor.
The Admiral's Ability is that of decomposition, after all.
His chain actively rotted the lion's flesh and turned it to mush. In doing so, a foul stench permeated the air and forced itself into the lungs of his comrades.
At the same time, the green men who filled the coliseum's seats held their gaze on the crater inside the arena. The dust cloud slowly dispersed, revealing a beheaded beast alongside the tired figures of its conquerors.
The King of the brutes stood from his throne of bones and rushed to the railing of his stage. He slammed his arms onto the stone and furiously stared at the still breathing challengers.
His voice rumbling the air, the Orc King roared.
The audience stood from their seats and raced down the coliseum's steps. Trampling upon one another, the brutes leaped into the destroyed arena and charged towards the crater in its center.
Wielding their great swords, war hammers, and pollaxes, the brutes swarmed the crater and plummeted into the rubble.
The Admiral whipped his chain around, smashing its bladed-tip into the bellies of the approaching warriors. Unable to bind them though, the Admiral's rusted chain became nothing more than that: a sturdy chain.
Although clearly powerful, the Admiral's Ability is hindered by the need to constantly touch his opponents – to literally have them bound in chains.
With so many adversaries charging towards him, the Admiral had no time to focus on individuals!
And with his mana rapidly depleting, the Admiral struggled against his fate to single handedly repel the incoming slaughter.
But his uncouth heroism could only hold for so long.
Then, behind the swarming brutes, three familiar figures emerged.
Olive, Leon, and Cain appeared in the coliseum.
Their eyes widened upon arriving. From the army of oversized men to the scene of Admiral Adams standing atop collapsed stone – a rusted chain bound to his forearm that seemed almost alive as it spiraled around him and lashed out at the incoming brutes – the trio simply couldn't believe their eyes.
Seconds after arriving, the bombardment of notifications assaulted their minds.
"Interesting. . ." Cain mumbled.
Without further ado, Leon summoned his golden sand and doused himself in the glowing substance. Levitating above the air, Leon soared above the heads of the brutes and dove into the crater!
"Hey Cain?" Olive spoke casually.
"Yeah?"
"Kill them all."
"Well, alright then." Cain bared his fangs.
He lowered his center of gravity and pushed off the ground. His right arm instantly molded into a katana and black electricity started to dance across the blade's edge.
Slashing before him, an arc of black lightning exploded forth!
The arc of corruption cut into the army of brutes – severing at the waist all who stood in front of Cain's line of sight.
Cain swung his sword in perfect harmony. He danced between the charging Orcs and cut along their tendons. Wherever he passed, Orcs fell.
Cain dove into his Spirit Sea and gathered his energy. Circulating it through his body, he felt warmth spread across his chest and enhance his capabilities. He stopped and a current of wind slammed into the Orcs around him, pushing them back and interrupting their charge.
Cain dug his sword into the chest of an Orc before it could react. In the meantime, his left hand cut through the air and tightened around the throat of another Orc. Tensing his fingers, the Orc's neck crumbled underneath Cain's grip to the point where all Cain could feel was the monster's bones.
He flung the Orc's body to the side, sending it crashing into another stampede of brutes. Black electricity coated his fingernail as Cain aimed his finger towards the head of an Orc. Flicking his finger, a bullet of black lightning screeched across the air and detonated the skull of an Orc!
The Orc's brain matter scattered across the air like a popped pinata and rained down on the bare-chested Orcs around.
Tired of pursuing his prey, Cain's arm returned to normal as he gazed coldly at the still swarming Orcs around him. Raising his fingers, it took Cain merely a second to aim his guns.
He pulled his middle fingers back and directed his Spirit.
Like a marksman, Cain released a spread of |Corrupt Bullets| into the mayhem. Each of his bolts of corruption tore through the skull of an Orc, decimating their numbers in droves.
In a matter of minutes, the heads of all the Orcs popped, brutally signifying the beginning of the end here.