The gate groaned open with a tallic shriek.
Smoke hissed out as Nikolai stepped into the Red Fox Arena, shirtless now, body marked with fresh wounds and old scars. The crowd above roared, feet stamping against the upper rails. A blood chant began, rhythmic and low.
"Nik-o-lai... Nik-o-lai..."
The energy in the Arena was explosive from the mont the pair ca into the cage.
From the smoke erged Jessie, nearly eight feet tall, rippling with crimson muscles, twin horns jutting from his brow. Black war paint streaked across his bare chest. He slamd his war hamr into the ground, sending a shockwave through the sand.
Beside him waddled Neville, bloated like a corpse filled with gas. Stitches lined his arms, and iron hooks dragged behind him on chains. His eyes glowed yellow beneath a butcher’s mask.
Nikolai watched them quietly, trying to gauge their strength, but the growing ache in his stomach and chest from the female tiger’s claws spread from his stomach to his chest.
And then raised a hand and beckoned.
"Co on then, you freaks."
Jessie, offended by the insult, bellowed and charged, the floor trembling beneath his steps. With a hamr lifted, he dropped it towards Nikolai’s skull.
Crack!
Nikolai spun to the right, just barely avoiding the blow as the hamr slamd into the Arena, exploding dirt in all directions.
Neville swung his chains.
Clank! Clink!
Nikolai ducked one hook, then sidestepped the second and rushed forward, driving his fist into Neville’s oversized gut. It sank into the flesh like punching into a soft jelly.
Neville laughed.
"You punch like a bitch, pretty boy."
The undead monster twisted his torso unnaturally and backhanded Nikolai across the face. Nikolai skidded across the sand, tasting blood.
Jessie was already there—bringing his hamr down again.
BOOM.
Nikolai blocked it with crossed arms, but the impact rattled his bones and dropped him to one knee. A burning heat spread through his chest as he gasped for air, and his ribs scread.
’That tiger bitch... I still can’t regenerate well.’
Ignoring Nikolai’s anger, Neville’s hook flung at his head. Nikolai pulled his chest back before the fat monster yanked it back, wrapping the hook around Nikolai’s ankle.
Then pulled.
Nikolai fell back and smashed into the cage, sharp barbed wire tearing into his flesh... "What the fuck?! It’s silver!" He grunted as his wounds sizzled. Desperately, he caught himself mid-air, twisting to slam both feet into Neville’s face as Neville dragged him in.
Crack!
The Butcher’s mask split down the centre, revealing Neville’s deford face full of scars, patches of different flesh and stitches.
Jessie didn’t give Nikolai ti to recover, hook still impaling his flesh, Jessie roared with hamr raised high.
You bastards!
Nikolai rolled sideways, grabbed a clump of sand, and threw it into Jessie’s eyes. The giant reeled, blind for a second. Nikolai pushed off the ground and rushed forward—driving a brutal uppercut into Jessie’s chin. Bone crunched like stale crackers.
The Oni hybrid staggered.
For just a mont, he managed to disorientate both enemies and gained a mont to breathe, tearing the bloody hook from his calf and tossing it back at Neville’s face.
The ti lasted just enough to get free, until the chains rattled once again, and a mont later, hooks whistled through the air.
The second wave was coming.
***
Nikolai’s body swayed through the air; he ducked the first chain on total instinct. Then, with a glint in his eyes, he lunged forward and caught the second before it managed to reach maximum montum.
The iron tore open his palm, but he grabbed it tight and clenched his teeth.
With a violent twist of his arm, he jerked Neville forward, right into the rising knee of his counterattack.
Nikolai jumped at the impact of their bodies.
CRACK!
Neville’s nose shattered on hit, his teeth cracked as he let out a distorted wheeze, gut folding over the impact like kneaded dough. Nikolai yanked the chain, spinning the fat monster around like a lever and hurled the massive undead towards Jessie.
How do you like your fat friend now!?
BOOM!
The two collided, iron and flesh, hamr and bulk, before crashing into the Arena’s sharp barbed wire with a crunch of silver, steel and bone.
However, Nikolai didn’t stop moving.
His breath burned with the sweet flavour of blood, his abdon throbbed as the wounds tore further, but the opening was there.
Finish one of them and cripple the other!
He sprinted across the sand, leaping onto Neville’s back as the behemoth tried to stand. With a hard twist of the chain still wrapped around his arm, he pulled it across Neville’s throat and yanked.
"GRAARGHH—!"
Neville clawed at his neck in total panic and tried to knock Nikolai off with wild elbows.
The heartless chain bit deep into the stitched at of its master.
He staggered, trying to stop the tal from tearing into his throat, pulling apart the stitches keeping his head fixed. Neville crashed backwards into the sharp blades once again, his black, disgusting blood bubbling in the sand, while Nikolai grabbed both ends of the chain like a jockey.
The crowd’s screams grew louder, whether Nikolai or the twins won. NOBODY CARED!
It was a frenzy.
Blood poured from Neville’s crooked mouth, his fat fingers trembled and began to weaken.
His arms dropped, dangling idly, and Nikolai moved closer, leaning in.
"Too much weight, not enough brains."
With a brutal wrench, he snapped the chain back. A burst of red mist exploded from Neville’s throat. The hook pierced into the base of his neck—if he were alive, it might be a severed artery, but for a zombie... it tore the entire thing off.
Thud.
Neville collapsed like a collapsed slab of at, twitching once. Then went still.
Silence.
Then the Arena shook.
But only for a few monts... they gasped before the announcer spoke.
Jessie stood a few feet away, hamr gripped so tight that blood poured down the handle. He finally managed to tear himself from the barbed wire. Back torn and sliced apart like Swiss cheese.
His brother didn’t move.
His wild eyes fixed on the corpse, it was strange... how could an undead die?
Then he focused on Nikolai.
Then back to the corpse.
"...You killed him," Jessie muttered. His voice lost the crowd-pleasing growl.
The Arena pulsed with a bizarre mix of cheers and silence, as if playing along with the slowing heartbeat of Neville and the racing thump of Jessie.
He stepped forward.
"NEVILLE!!"
The scream that tore out of him wasn’t natural—it was pure rage. His muscles bulged grotesquely, veins swelling beneath crimson skin. The hamr shuddered in his grip, then ignited with black fla, its runes flaring alive for the first ti.
"You think you’ve won, you fucking bastard!?"
Nikolai staggered back, one eye narrowing. He’d taken out the slower and dumb looking one and forgotten that even monsters have emotions.
Now this was a problem.
Jessie was grief-stricken.
Enraged...
Monsters beca stronger when filled with intense emotions.
The Oni’s form swelled further, shoulders cracking as bones shifted. Horns curved longer. His skin pulsed, redder than ever, steaming now in the cold night air of the Arena.
"I’LL CRUSH YOU INTO BLOOD PASTE!"
He slamd the hamr into the sand coating the Arena, the force created a massive explosion of dirt and dust to erupt outward. It forced Nikolai to cover his face to avoid damage.
Then Jessie charged like a bull, his hamr crashing into his unguarded ribs.
The force sent Nikolai flying. He tumbled twice, smashing his head against the solid floor before slamming into the cage wall, tearing his side, cheek and back apart. Coughing up blood as his ribs scread in protest, Nikolai tried to stand.
’That hamr absorbed the recoil... increasing the speed of his second hit! He’s not holding back anymore.’
Jessie beca a wild and desperate animal.
Faster.
Crazed.
Madness in every footstep.
Nikolai barely rolled aside as the hamr tore through the steel wall, ripping tal like wet paper.
"RAAGH—YOU TOOK MY BROTHER!!"
Another swing—he ducked, but the shockwave alone tossed him back across the sand like a broken toy.
He coughed again, blood streaking his chin.
It was different now.
No strategy.
No coordination.
Just wrath.
And in that... maybe he could create an opening.
He smiled, blood in his teeth.
"Co on, big guy," he whispered. "I’ll be kind and let you reunite with your fat brother."
Jessie howled with a raw, broken sound, no, it was more like noise now.
He flung himself at Nikolai, without care, the walls tearing him apart slowly, each blow bringing equal damage.
Eyes glowing with murderous intent, he gripped his bloody red hamr.
Nikolai didn’t flinch; instead, he watched and assessed the Oni’s speed and current strength while counting in his head.
’NOW!’
Jessie swung his hamr, a high arc as if to take Nikolai’s head clean off, with the howl of the wind. Nikolai ducked low, rolling across the floor and using his feet, he pushed off the floor like a rocket and drove his elbow into Jessie’s armpit.
Crunch!
The blow separated the Oni’s arm and his shoulder.
Without pausing.
Nikolai spun behind him, seized the Oni’s horn, and yanked his head down as his knee rocketed up.
CRACK.
Blood sprayed across the sand.
Jessie collapsed to one knee, dazed.
"You can go after him now," Nikolai said coldly, raising his fist again, knuckles trembling.
"Hell’s just a breath away."
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