Chapter Fifteen: The Children Part Four

The Arbiter’s words ring clearly through my head and in makeshift barrier arena. I would be lying If I said I wasn’t a little intimidated by him, but it’s not like I would, or could, cheat and put the feelings to rest.

I lower my center of gravity and an assume a stance while watching my opponent the mysterious girl, Cain.

Rashid called her and her father Blooded, which apparently conquered the world in the past… Who would have thought I would be fighting a Blooded so soon? That seems like some end boss shit, but looking at her... she’s not all that impressive from a combat standpoint. Her stance is lazy, loose and looks to be easily broken, she’s shaking and seems to be mumbling under her breath nervously and quickly, and overall she doesn’t exude a bit of confidence about her.

But that all changes in a second as she then speaks with confidence and done away with her mumblings saying “Hey! Uummm….”

Only to then loses it all and start talking to herself again saying. “What was his name again?”

She.. she forgot my name… it’s been less than five minutes. Her father is right she’s an idiot!

“Dammit Cain, what is his name?” She says frustrated at herself while tugging her hair.

I give her a withering look and she shrinks back under it, I open my mouth to talk but she shoots up and says “I got it! It’s Aaa. Aaatt….. Atttl…. Atllll….”

I wave my hand at her and nod at the simpleton to let her know she’s on the right track.

“.. No wait I think has an S in it! Right?!” I facepalm as she asks me excitedly.. There’s no way she’s real right? I give a look at her father and he just gives me a knowing nod. Rashid though is giving mix signals and looks like a mix of wanting to laugh and wanting me to kill her.

“Oh! Now I got it! It’s Applus!” I facepalm hard enough for the air to shriek, and she jumps back in fright.

I suppress a growl and decide to just let her say her piece before I start.

“Go on.”

“O-okkk, I just wanted to say that maybe you should drop out. I don’t want to hurt you-”

“The fuck did you just say you cheeky little cunt?” I say with a growling laugh.

She almost yelps but stands strong and says “That, maybe you should drop out Assl- Eaaakkggg” I don’t let her finish, the moment cursed word began coming out of her mouth things had been set motion that could no longer be stopped. In this case, that would be my fist hitting her jaw and her being sent flying upwards till she hit the ceiling with a resounding smack.

She seems to be stuck on the ceiling for a moment before she.. She kinda just peels off and falls to the ground with another resounding but fleshy smack to the floor. In the unmoving pile that is her body she doesn’t breath, but I guess she doesn’t need to with her lack of breathing from earlier or move with a small pool of black blood forming around her, but despite that and the incapacitating blow that I gave her I suspect she’ll get back up, otherwise I’m probably a murderer again, -er, oh no for the first time! Oh, and I guess I’ll be a little disappointed.

After a moment, my patience is rewarded and she rises shakily, then proceeds to spit out a couple dark gobs of blood and what looks like teeth or bone. I let her go on till she looks ready to fight, and she has raged in her eyes as I make eye contact and say “What was that about me getting hurt by you?” She makes growls with disdain at that,

and I decide to push further. “Ready to start for real?” Summoning my Aura around me again in a display of power and to let her know I’m ready to play for keeps.

She stares with strength and fury in her eyes but nods her head. She assumes a stance, crouching while sliding a leg behind herself and keeping one bent in front of her and bring up her fists to guard then tenses before launching herself at me crossing the distance in a matter of moments and swings her fist at the side of my jaw, but I dodge by a hair and grab her arm as it passes by me.

Grabbing her arm I bring my knee up towards it, but Cains senses the danger and swings her body into me and letting her shoulder take the blow in a beautifully, horrific crunch and she screams shrilly, but stays strong and uses the momentum to wrap her soft legs around my neck.

She hooks her legs together around my neck and puts crushing force on my neck as though trying to decapitate me with them. Huh, there could be worse ways to go than being smothered by a woman’s thighs, but that day is not today, I focus my Aura around my neck building my defenses up and keeping her from taking me out.

She keeps squeezing putting immense pressure on my Aura and I have to keep condensing it and drawing on my image to keep her from shattering it. But I reach a leeway point and find I can no longer feel the pressure on my neck, but I know she’s still trying to strangle me. She’s given me an opening as she futilely squeezes me, and I make sure to abuse it as I grab her arms and then swing her into the ground with air tearing force and hear a deathly, and audible cracking as she hits the floor beneath her, with what I can only imagine as hearing is her bones cracking and straining to keep themselves from breaking, but ultimately failing.

I stare down at her face with pure malevolence and prepare to do it again, but then I notice that her face is puckering, and dodge back as another glob of blood goes whizzing past my face. I don’t give her a chance to spit and lift her up and slam her back down.

She hits the floor on her back with a loud gasp, and I’m forced to let go of her due to the force, but I don’t give her any relief and start raining down punches on her form. But to my surprise, before I land any she manages to duck, dodge and weave out of my blows and rolls backward bends her arms and tenses them and then with explosive force sends a double kick at my stomach and flips back up.

I barely manage to block her kick, but the force from it rides through my whole body and sends me staggering back while rattling my internals. I taste a little bit of blood in my mouth and spit out at her. It hits her on her cheek, but instead of disgust she smiles and licks it off. Eww…. and kinda hot?

I can’t help but smile though, finally an opponent on my level. So I get back into a stance, widening my feet and raising my fists and ignore the pain in my gut, like I usually do, and then rush her it’s time I end this.

Cain ducks to the side as I charge at her and whips her leg at my head as I passed by, but I weave under her leg and turn unleashing my leg at her own, the clash of power in between us sending the air screeching away in fear of our strength. But it doesn’t last long, and despite her power in her small frame she couldn’t overpower me and is forced back with a visceral sounding shattering coming from her leg, she is sent stumbling back uneasily. With tight, and shrill gasps coming out when she put weight on the damaged leg.

A slight pride and energy forms inside of me at the sight of her being on the losing end of the fight and I continue my pursuit on her while she’s weak, and launch a series of full body, rapid and powerful blows at her, that break the already ripped and torn air around us.

I launch my first one while twisting my feet, waist, and shoulders to draw as much power from my body as possible to hit her dead in between her breast at the solar plexus with a bone shattering crunch resounding through the air. Her eyes go wide with pain and fear, her face contorts with agony, and her lips open into a pained and deep gasp, as I force all the air out of her.

I follow up with a twist of my heels and torque my body again and launch my fist deep into her right side and hits her liver dead on with hurricane force. Blood sprays out of her mouth like a fountain, she can’t even scream.

Beginning with the next one punch I can’t help but yell “Ora Ora Ora!” As I send a series of fast and brutal jabs at her whole body not holding a thing back, ripping and tearing her skin off as I land more and more blows on her that snap and tear bone after the skin. Then when I begin to let her off I sweep her legs off the floor and she’s laying in the air horizontal for a moment, giving me the perfect opportunity to finish her off.

While she’s still in the air I build up power in my arm and layer my Aura around it for more power without sacrificing my speed and increasing my defense, and then launch my final blow at her. Hitting her jaw dead on, there’s no sound and no need for it as I can feel as her jaw one moment and then another I can’t. And she flies back to the barrier and the sound choose to return at that moment with an ear tearing scream that roars through the arena, and then followed by Cain’s limp body hitting the barrier with a loud, messy, and wet smack.

I take a moment to look at my hands, wondering why I couldn’t feel her jaw with that final blow. And for a sparse moment, I fear that I broke my hand with that final blow, but I test my fingers and find they're alright, nothing broken. Huh, so what happens then?

I walk over to Cain to see the damage I did and what’s left of her after my onslaught. I’m not gonna lie, even I’m fairly surprised by the damage I did to her body too. Her body is practically ripped to pieces due to my assault. With bones sticking out of her skin in the place that don't have bones, and bones missing from places that should be boned. Her flesh is nothing but gashes and some areas are just missing. Then I find why I couldn’t find feel her jaw after hitting her, It’s.. it’s just … gone. I had hit her so hard that it just imploded all over her face like some sort of fucked up tomato.

Her face, rather than the delicate beauty it once had, is now a gruesome mix of black, red, and white. Bone scraps all over her, and nothing is not covered by blood, she is not recognizable by any means. I feel a little sad honestly, I took it a little too far this time. It’s one thing to beat someone, it’s another to have imploded their face…. We'll live and learn, sucks though that I killed her don’t find many people my age and on my level. So I turn on my heels and go over to Arbiter. Huh, hope-killing her doesn’t mean Lod wins, I mean the Arbiter did say it was to a knockout…. Hmm, he didn’t say I couldn’t kill her.

With my long stride, I reach him quickly and look at him, who looks back at me with confusion. “What? Let down the barrier.”

“Huh? What is it do you concede or something,” He says confused and looks over to Rashid who's looking at me with amusement. “I didn’t think you trained quitter?” He said with amusement at Rashid.

Rashid just laughs.

Huh, what’s going on?

I look over at Lod who’s just staring behind me, not giving me a lick of attention. Then I hear a guttural gargle behind me. I turn and look with shock at what’s behind me.

Cain had somehow gotten up, but no that’s not what’s bothering me I’ve seen men get up from worse. No, it’s that she’s healing, the broken bones I gave her, the tears, rips, and gashes, the gone jaw… their all repairing. Bones are sliding out and new ones are made and reattach under the skin, pushing things that pushed in out, and flesh is mending. Her jaw came back and then I notice her gargle something again and I listen closely. She says something again and comes out a little more clear. And finally I make it out, and she lifts her head to make eye contact with me.

“I’m not done yet.” She says through the blood pouring out of her mouth.

A fierce grin finds its place on my face in my confusion. Then a thought tumbles through my head, that I can’t help but say, one that I heard from my father so often “Oooh, this makes things so much more interesting.”