The first round ends./part.2

'Ben...!?' David's mind spins around his head in circles.

'What are the chances?' David chuckles to himself in disbelief.

[What do you think? He set it up to be like this.]

'...'

'...Bastard!' David's face contorts in anger.

[...]

'How are we supposed to find each other anyways.'

[There is a map that works exactly like in the first game.] The voice explains.

'Well, let's do as it would like... For now.'

David quickly moves towards the other dot, and Ben does the same.

After a few minutes they face each other.

''David...!''

''Ben...''

They look at each other for a few seconds in silence.

''To think that it would end up like this...'' Ben says with a solemn expression.

''...''

David's expression darkens and he takes Alvida's mace out of his inventory.

Ben's face turns serious.

''So that's how it's going to be...''

David takes a leap towards Ben and swings his mace.

*Smash!*

The mace hits the ground with immense force, causing David's arms to go a little numb.

'Nothing?'

He looks around and sees no one.

'The hell?'

He takes a look at the map.

'...He's gone!?'

'...!'

He moves his head to the right.

*Pling!*

A bullet scratches the side of David's helmet.

'Sneaky...'

David runs towards the location the bullet came from and swings his mace once again.

*Smash!*

'Nothing again huh...'

He ducks down and another bullet flies over his head.

''Hey Ben!'' He yells out.

''Neither of us are gonna die here! Just so you know!''

''...''

'...!'

*Pling!*

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

'How naive can you be!?' Ben asks himself.

'Do you even now what's happening right now? It's do or die.' Ben thinks before firing off another bullet.

*Pling...*

'Damn! How does he keep dodging?'

[He seems to have some sort of ability that allows him to either sense danger or... See the future.] His voice concludes.

'...Let's hope it's the first one...'

*Pang!*

'I have to find some way to hit him...'

He stops shooting for a bit and moves closer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

'What is he doing?' David thinks to himself.

'He hasn't tried to shoot me for a while now...'

He looks around and then looks at the map.

'Still nothing...'

'...'

'Well, he has to do something at some point!' He thinks to himself and stops trying to find him.

*Cock!*

'!'

David hears the sound of a gun cocking right next to his head.

*Pow!*

He slants his head, causing the bullet to ricochet off of his helmet, while swinging the mace towards the source of the sound.

*Fwoosh!*

'Still nothing...'

'Goddamn! He's fast!' Ben thinks to himself, sweat pouring down his face.

'How much time do I have left?'

[20 minutes.] The voice answers.

'...'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The fight continues in a similar fashion for about fifteen more minutes.

[He can't have much time left.] David's voice concludes.

David looks at the map and sees Ben's dot once again. He looks to where the dot is and sees Ben standing there, holding his gun.

David stops for a second before running towards him.

'...What's his plan?'

*Pow!*

David swiftly dodges the bullet that is coming for him and starts running towards the shooter.

'No matter what it is...'

*Swish!*

'...I'll push through!'

David throws the mace at Ben, who dodges it, before taking out Mizaki's fighting stick.

As David moves closer, Ben runs off into the forest.

David runs after.

After running for a couple of seconds Ben stops and turns around.

David keeps running, relentlessly.

*Beep!*

'...!'

[Too late!]

*Boom!*

An explosion goes off under David's feet, causing him to fly up into the air.

*Swish!*

Ben comes flying from above, towards him, aiming a weird looking spear at David's heart.

'...'

David remains calm and looks into Ben's eyes.

*Fwoosh!*

*Grab!*

Before the spear can make contact David grabs the spear behind the tip with an iron grip, not allowing it to move even an inch further.

''...!'' Ben's eyes widen in surprise.

'What the hell!?'

As they fall towards the ground David moves his other hand to grab Ben's arm.

'!'

Ben let's go of the spear with lighting speed and uses David's body as a platform to jump to a nearby tree.

*Crash!*

''M-Monster...''

[He truly possesses a monstrous strength...] Ben's voice praises.

Ben looks down to where David fell and only sees a cloud of smoke.

'Smoke bomb? ' He thinks to himself, before pulling a grenade out of his inventory.

He looks at the map to find David's location and throws the grenade.

The grenade flies through the air and Ben follows it with his eyes.

*Fwoosh!*

'!!!'

A giant pillar appears out of the smoke, aimed towards him.

'Fast!'

The grenade gets caught on pillar as it flies towards Ben. He tries to move out of it's way but it caught him of guard and he doesn't react fast enough.

*Smash!*

''Geh!''

His body gets trapped on the side of the pillar as it flies through the air.

While it flies, David runs after it with Mizaki's stick, hoping to land the finishing blow on Ben once it lands.

He's barely able to catch up before it gets close to landing.

'Maybe i threw it a bit too hard...' He thinks to himself.

He runs to the front of it and prepares to hit Ben before he can run away again.

'...!?'

As he looks at the front of the pillar he sees nothing.

'What the hell!? The pressure should have kept him on there! How did he get off!?'

He turns his head towards the map to see where Ben went.

*Chop!*

''GH!''

David feels a pain in his stomach and looks down.

He sees the blade of a large axe, sitting comfortably in in the middle of his spine.

'Oh shit, That's not supposed to be there.' He thinks to himself.

'!!!'

He can fell the object being pulled out so he swiftly flexes his muscles and crushes the axe between his stomach and back muscles. A bit of blood pours out of his mouth.

Ben puts his foot on David's back and tries to pull it out with all his force.

*Swish!*

David's hand immediately wraps itself around Ben's ankle and holds on tight.

''Shit!'' Ben yells out.

'I got you now!'

*Crush!*

''GAAAAH!''

*Snap!*

Ben's shinbone snaps and he let's go of the axe in pain. David takes advantage and turns around, preparing to knock Ben out.

*Bzzt!*

Before David can fully turn around Ben has turned into a spark of lightning, escaping from his grasp.

'Huh!?'

Before he has any time to react two hands are wrapped around his throat.

He looks up and sees Ben's face, pouring sweat.

''Goro Goro No Mi: Shock release!''

*Bzzzzt!*

A steady stream of electricity moves into David's body, causing all of his muscles to spasm and contract while melting his internal organs slowly.

*Crackle!*

*Pop!*

Ben lift David up into the air, continuing to press down on his neck harder and harder.

David almost loses consciousness but pushes through the pain and struggles to put both of his hands on Ben's forearms.

They stare into each others eyes with great focus.

David's body heats up and he feels the feeling that he felt earlier in the day. He pushes it up to his hands.

Ben's arms start glowing. and he loses all feeling in them. He let's go of David and tries to pull his hands away. He meets no resistance as he jumps back.

'What the hell just happened!?' He thinks to himself.

He looks over at David and sees that he is holding something.

''A-Are those my arms...?''

David looks back at him with an apologetic look.

Ben sees him holding what looks like the end half of both of his arms. They slowly turn into light and disappear into David's chest.

Ben looks down at his arms in disbelief and finds nothing left below his elbows. The open wound pisses blood, but Ben feels no pain.

'W-What the hell...?'

[Ben!]

*Thunk!*

''Gek!''

David's fist hits Ben's stomach with great force. Ben keels over and sees the spike of a dark, metal knee flying towards his face. The spike avoids him and he is hit with David's thigh, knocking him out cold.

*Sigh...*

David lets out a sigh before stumbling down to all fours next to Ben's body.

''Hurk!'' He pukes up some blood and looks over to Benjamin.

He bandages up Ben's stumps and stops their bleeding. He then puts some seastone shackles on what's left of Ben's arms an sits him up by a tree and gets ready to fix his own problems.

After about thirty minutes he gets the axe out of him without also spilling out his guts.

He sits down next to Ben, panting and sweating and looks at him with a determined expression.

'What are you looking at David?' A familiar voice booms into his head.

'!?'

'Hahahaha! How exciting is this?'

He looks over to his side and sees the head of a small figure smiling back at him. As he looks into the creatures eyes a primal feeling of fear overwhelms his senses.

'I'm very excited about you David! Did you know that?'

''...I didn't know a freak like you could feel something at all.'' David answers with a wry smile, trying to hold back his fear.

'...'

'Hahahaha! What a brave little toy I have!' the creature laughs to itself in amusement.

'How fun it will be to break you! I can't wait! Hahahahaha!'

''Stop laughing you disgusting little bug.''

The creature looks at him, the smile now gone.

[D-David...!]

He can feel the voice in his soul, shaking.

''You bastard! How dare you do this to all of us!?'' David yells out, his face contorted in anger.

The creature gives no response. The stare at each other for a few seconds in silence.

''I'm ending this. Right here, right now.'' David says, his face now clear of any sign of anger.

He pulls the old dragon's hatred out of his inventory.

[H-Hey! Are you stupid!?] The voice screams out at him in pure confusion.

The creature looks back at David and starts laughing hysterically.

'Hahahaahaha! Seriously?' The creature garbs it's stomach and falls over on the ground, laughing.

'All like ''I'm ending this. Right here, right now.''...Pffft.' The creature lays on the ground, crying laughing.

*Fwoosh!*

David brings the halberd down full force, towards the creatures neck.

.

.

.

'...Huh?'

[Y-You seriously tried to do it huh... Why the hell did i partner with this idiot...?]

He looks around and sees the creature still rolling around on the floor and Ben sitting next to him.

'...What the hell just happened!?'

He tries to once again to pull a weapon out of his inventory but finds that there is nothing there.

He looks back in confusion and reaches his hands in to try and find something.

'...?'

As he is searching he sees something weird about his hand and looks at it closer.

His eyes jump out of his head.

'...W-What the hell!?'

There is no skin.