Childhood Trauma

"No, I haven't, it was just pretty obvious what you were going to do."

His smirk returns, "Well you got the super easy one. You have yet to get anything else right though."

Half listening to him, I thought about our upcoming battle.

From various anime, I knew that this was going to be a really hard fight.

But, if I beat him, I would clear whatever was blocking me from mediating, which blocks me from trying to get some abilities from the Iris.

"Alright, how are we going to fight?" I ask thinking that I'm just going to be at a disadvantage anyway since he clearly understands whatever this place is while I still have unanswered questions.

"You remember how to use this?" He asks as a katana in its saya materializes in his hand which he tosses to me.

I catch it and start testing it out, liking the weight and feel of it.

I did remember how to use it but with my current arsenal of weapons against the omnics, it was better to not use it. Unlike Genji and Mamoru, I couldn't enhance the blade with whatever energy they used and easily slice through anything.

"There's so much you don't know about our abilities. You have no idea what we're capable of. Oh, you'll need this too." He materializes a HK P301 and tosses that at me too.

"Let me guess, you're about to show me?" I ask skeptically.

"Well yes, but first, let me set the scene."

The office starts to melt and the darkness folds from around us. I watch as the area flattens around us as great stone walls rise from the abyss in a circle. The void above us spits out a black sun, much like a solar eclipse that shines light on the walls to reveal its a colosseum.

Cheering starts, as I take a closer look at the crowd to see everyone is me. Shaking my head in disbelief I turn back to Evil Shawn to find that he's no longer in the arena with me.

I look up to see him in an extravagant area of the stands, on a throne with huge crown. Around him was multiple copies of the woman i had on my body pillow, making me jealous.

"I thought we were going to fight?" I shout at him.

The crowd starts laughing along with him, then he raises a hand silencing them.

"So ready for your beating, are you? No, you will have some challenges to face before you fight me. Think of it as a warmup." He calls back down.

"I don't have time for your games. Bring your bitch ass down and fight me."

The crowd gasps at my foul language but Evil Shawn laughs it off.

"Behold, the Shawn Rose!" He addresses the crowd, and they start to boo.

I try to ignore their booing, but it ticks me off a bit. 'Why are they on his side? What did I do to them?'

"Now behold, our challenger!"

The gates to my left start to rise and a lone tall figure walks out the darkness which brings out bad memories when I recognize him.

An alien strides into the arena with powerful hind legs that had two toes covered in a burgundy armor with an energy pistol on his hip. His clawed hand reaches down and grabs a disk that powers up to reveal the dreaded energy sword. He looks up as his mouth opens, his jaw extends to the side revealing rows of mandibles as he roars.

I was staring at a Sangheili Zealot from Halo, who was my opponent.

I could remember in my younger days, when I first started playing video games, the one enemy I couldn't beat as a kid was the elite holding the energy sword in Halo.

Evil Shawn, you just made this personal.

I don't bother saying anything else, while I assume an offensive stance, getting lower, while my right-hand hovers over the katana and my left hand goes in front of me.

The crowd starts cheering as they see me accept the challenge.

"Fight or die well!" Evil Shawn shouts, and the Zealot immediately turns invisible.

From what I knew about the Covenant weaponry, the camouflage was supposed to draw power from their shield reserves.

It wouldn't be able to indefinitely stay invisible and I could capitalize on the elite when it revealed itself.

I also doubted that I could block the energy sword's attack with my katana, so I needed to be careful.

With the crowd cheering, I couldn't hear its movements towards me. The ground we were on didn't betray its movements either as this wasn't sand. So, the only thing I could do was wait.

With my pride on the line, my urge to win against my childhood oppressor grew to unimaginable proportions.

I focused on not only anything in front of me, but any movements behind me as the crowds cheering slowed.

Then, I heard it, the soft humming that I was looking for.

I jump to the left, as the energy sword stabs through where my chest once was.

While in the air, I turn, firing on the Zealot.

His shield blocks the fire from my bullets but as I fire the last shot in the clip, I watch as his shield powers down and he comes out of invisibility.

Knowing that I can't allow him time to replenish the energy for his shield, I press my advantage.

Landing, I immediately start dashing towards him while keeping my low approach.

With his other hand, he draws his energy pistol and takes aim at me.

My energy within me speeds up, as I enter the Galvanic state and dedicate my entire focus on the Zealot before me.

A shot of red energy comes out of the pistol and flies towards me, but its projectile speed is super slow for me as I easily jump out of the way of its trajectory.

The Zealot's surprise isn't long as if rapidly fires six more shots. Two where I currently am and four blocking my path if I dodge to either direction.

My hand cackles with electricity as a ball of lightning the size of a ping pong ball forms from my own bioelectricity.

I dodge to the right, into one of the laser blasts as I toss my lightning ball out in front of me into the oncoming projectile.

When they connect, they explode into a cloud of smoke, as sparks fly off in all directions from within it.

The Zealot lowers his pistol, distracted by the explosion as it tries to identify if I survived or not.

I emerge from the cloud, closing the distance between the two of us as it raises its energy sword to slash down at me.

The Zealots movements are too slow for me as I easily sidestep to the left its attack and my right hand quickly comes up.

The energy sword and the Zealots arm falls to the ground, as it stumbles back roaring in pain.

Pressing my advantage, I push forward.

In desperation, the Zealot raises its pistol and fires a shot. My head cocks to the left as its laser passes right past it and I can feel the heat from it.

As the Zealot continues to backtrack, I approach as it aims its pistol at me and fires again.

I duck another shot aimed at my head again and it tries to readjust its aim to my new location, but I pop up swing my blade in front of me.

The Zealots movements freeze, as I push its body back, catching its dismembered head as the body falls to the ground.

With pride, at conquering something that terrorized my childhood, I hold the head up to a quiet crowd.

After a couple of seconds, the crowd erupts into cheers.

Turning to the Evil Shawn, who is still smirking, I say. "Next?"