Chapter title goes here moron

A.K.A Chapter 18

Jeck put down his middle finger. “There’s a sniper on top of the observatory deck, be careful. Those bullets aren’t affected by the slow field.”

Quake nodded in affirmation, then turned to face the horde of various creatures that were now bearing down on them from the building rooftops.

Experimentally, he reached out with his mind, and briefly rubbed against the members of the horde. He mentally recoiled as a strong presence gave him the mind equivalent of an atomic wedgie. Someone strong was guarding their thoughts, holding them tightly within their own.

He leapt up, shredding through some of the more eager ones before blocking a punch that sent him through an empty window, which saw some of the creatures try to barrel through it, only to get stuck on the frame.

Jeck snickered to himself as he snapped someone’s neck. Quake would be fine on his o-

He ducked another sniper shot.

‘Would you just fuck off already?’

He thrust his palm forward. Brilliant white light shot out of his hand with enough power to level the city.

‘Which would be fine and dandy, if only it weren’t moving at a snail’s pace! Seriously, I’ve seen old ladies run faster than that.’ He whined to his unfortunate listener.

“Would you stop complaining? It’s getting old.”

Jeck huffed, parrying a knife strike with his bone hand then slicing with his palm-rods.

“I don’t see you doing anything.”

“That’s because you’re not looking closely enough.”

Puzzled, he focused harder on his sight.

He could see the entire city like this, the sniper lining up a shot.

‘Not at me, Julius and Kurok should be together so it’s Quake.’

The small, four-armed man wearing ripped pants and a vest watching over the whole thing.

‘He’s the leader, gotta keep an eye on him.’

Tracing over the city, he sensed someone’s life energy fade away, nowhere near the vicinity of the other three.

He looked at it. One of the people was attacking his own allies, swinging madly as the others tried to restrain him.

‘Mind control, nice work.’

‘Mmm barely, it’s only because I’m piggybacking off your [Stealth]. I tried it on four arms over there, but as soon as he realized his movements weren’t his own, he did some kind of mental flare that forced me out of his domain.’ He sounded disappointed at that, but it quickly turned to satisfaction.

‘But he can’t keep me out of the rest of them.’

“That’s the spirit!” Jeck laughed as he made his way to the outskirts of the town. Now that he wasn’t rushing someone or fighting, he was making quick progress.

***

Kurok pulled off the deep green cufflinks on his suit and pulled up his blazers sleeves, then rolled up his shirt sleeves. He took a deep drag from his joint, letting the smoke he blew suffuse the area.

Just a precaution.

“Looks like we’re on our own.”

Julius looked like he was in heaven as he tore through enemy after enemy.

“Oh well, more for me!” He proclaimed.

Kurok sighed but smiled at the same time. He really wasn’t expecting any other answer, and he was really hoping these guys weren’t expecting him to be an easier target.

He was the arena’s previous champion, after all.

***

Before Julius took over, he was undefeated, with an unparalleled win streak via direct TKOs. He even smoked throughout his matches. But as the years went by, something about it just became boring, routine. Win after win, match after match, it had lost its appeal. He stopped paying attention to the rankings and the sports analysis. Maybe if they surprised him, they could get the drop on him?

By the end of it all, he was just waiting for someone talented enough to pass the torch to.

Enter Julius Leopold, rising rookie and winner of every one of his fights by TKO, something not seen until Kurok’s second season.

At first Kurok thought this was just going to be more of the same. Another rookie gets everyone’s hopes up, only to be ruthlessly crushed by him.

Those thoughts were hammered out of his mind when Julius’ giant fist slammed into him with the force of an atom bomb.

Kurok was confused, but kept his wits about him. His little trick didn’t seem to be working, and he couldn’t figure out why until he caught a glimpse of Julius’ eyes over his glasses.

He’s blind, he thought. Better switch it up a little.

It didn’t help, the hallucinations caused by Kurok’s joint claimed many foes, it did not claim Julius. The blind fighter was used to underhand maneuvers and stayed cool.

In the end, it came down to a simple fist fight, who could hit the other the hardest. Though Julius won in the end, it was a hard-fought battle. Two fighters, rising star vs undefeated champion, winner takes all?

The crowd went crazy.

The critics went cuckoo.

Kuroks heart began to beat with excitement once more.

‘This is who I’ve been waiting for!’ He thought to himself.

He ended up losing in the end, a fierce final fight, one for the ages. It would go down in Dello-Whorls history as one of the most exciting fights in history. People talked about it for months afterwards.

But he wasn’t satisfied.

Kuvotians tend to be greedy by nature, and though Kurok was regarded as something of an anomaly, merely content with good food and a nice smoke, deep down there was something he just could not ignore. A deep, genetic desire, one that told him that he wasn’t finished here.

Done with fighting, but not content to merely fade away into obscurity, he used his connections to bully his way into becoming Julius’ manager, and trainer.

***

‘Time flies, huh?’ He thought to himself.

A green firefly creature dive-bombed onto his head, only to aim about a meter to the right and smash it’s face against the asphalt. He kicked it into its friend, then boxed around a few other fighters. Other creatures stumbled around drunkenly with red eyes, covering their ears from fake screams and trying not to vomit at the taste of crap in their mouths.

They were doing well against the mob, but it wouldn’t last. They rallied around an alien, a tall fellow, made of pure white, floating body parts with an indented ball for a head – sort of like a golf ball.

They quickly began using tactics, attacking two at a time, sneak attacks, the works.

Split-body engaged Julius in melee, fighting like a boxer and actually seemed to hold his own, though it was clear that Julius was the superior fighter in all regards.

More bodies began to separate the two, and Kurok could only watch in horror as aliens began dog-piling Julius. Latching onto massive arms and tree-trunk legs, the added weight did nothing, but they severely hampered his movements. Split-body’s parts began to float around Julius, looking for opportunities to strike. Every-time the blind man would grab an attacking limb, two more would strike from opposite angles.

Julius was nothing if not tough though. He ate every blow like it was cereal for breakfast, until his opponent got lucky.

One powerful strike to the temple, the same temple that received Jecks roundhouse combo earlier that day, and he dropped like a stone.

“Julius!” Kurok cried in alarm, fending off the mob as best he could.

Split-body turned at his shout. “Julius? You mean this isn’t Jeck?” He said, walking over to Kurok.

His minions gave him a wide berth as he approached.

“It’s not, you have the wrong guy, just leave him alone.”

Split-body’s body language became more animated. Sensing an opportunity to hurt someone, the whole reason he joined Kaz’buls crew in the first place (Well, that, and the murder charges on his home planet.) he stalked forward menacingly.

“Leave him alone? Or what, I’m gonna regret it?”

Kurok put his fists up in response.

“Yeah, you will.”

Split-body felt very excited at what was about to happen.

“No, I don’t think I will.” He stated simply, then struck.

Kurok, to his credit, managed to block or divert the first few strikes, but Split-bodies left hand sucker-punched him in the kidney.

Bile rose into his throat as Split-body took advantage of him dropping to the ground to hammer his foot into his ribcage.

Split-body smiled, leaning over the dirty Kuvotian in front of him. The pink man raised a trembling hand toward him, then dropped it in exertion, staring at the ground. The suit was ripped in several places, and covered in mud and blood, and various other bodily fluids.

He laughed in his face. “Were you trying to use your power on me? That’s not gonna work now that I know how it works. I don’t need to breath!” He got up closer to Kuroks face. “Now tell me, you still think I’m going to regret what I’m about to do with your corpse?”

Kuroks shoulders shuddered as he took in great deep breathes, that transitioned to chuckling, to full-blown cackling.

He wiped a tear from his eye.

“Do I think you’re gonna regret it? I don’t think, I know you will.”

He looked up and Split-body stared at his single eye, wide open with anticipation.

“Isn’t that right, Julius!?”

“Nyahahaha!”

Split-body stared in horror as the behemoth he managed to knockout earlier pulled himself to his feet.

The blind man cracked his neck and stared directly at Split-body.

He pulled off his glasses.

His eyes were no longer that milky white that indicated his lack of vision.

They were red and bloodshot.

“Hey asshole!”

Julius flexed his hands.

“I didn’t hear no bell.”

Julius was blind.

Julius couldn’t see.

That didn’t mean that his eyes didn’t receive stimuli, they just didn’t process it correctly, leaving his vision lightless.

Unless someone were to brute-force the process.

Which is exactly what Kurok did.

Julius couldn’t see.

Julius was blind.

Julius was also currently high off his ass, hallucinating exactly what was happening in front of him in real-time, thanks to Kuroks fine control over his ability. Effectively livestreaming reality directly to his brain. It wasn’t really seeing, but it was as good a substitute you could find.

The mountain of a man looked around curiously, taking advantage of the enemy’s shock to soak in the scenery. He may not have agreed with using powers to restore your sight, but it wasn’t an arena match, so he was fine with it, for now.

He rolled his neck around in a semi-circle, left and right. Satisfying cricks in each shoulder gave a small amount of relief. A loud crash caught his attention and he looked up at a newly formed hole a few stories up in one of the buildings. A body was flying through it and crashed onto the wall of the building opposite it.

Then another one followed suit.

Then three more.

Lastly, Quake hurled himself out and used his tail drill to eviscerate all of them at once, new corpses exploding in a shower of gore that rained over the street. Iron claws penetrated and anchored him to the wall. He looked down at them and waved, then mentally chastised himself as he remembered Julius was blind.

He then opened his mouth in surprise as Julius waved back.

They stared at each other for a second, both surprised, for different reasons. Quake shrugged and decided probably wasn’t important, and vanished in a blur of speed, no longer slowed by the rules of engagement.

Split-body stared at him in horror, slowly realizing what was happening. The bigger man was now dusting himself off, looking no worse for wear than when they started fighting.

“What do we do now?” A small yellow alien asked, looking at Split-body for direction.

Doing as he had done for most of his life, he channeled whatever emotion he didn’t like feeling into anger.

“Get him!” He roared furiously. Multitudes of aliens ran forward, aiming to flank him and bombard him from all sides.

Julius waded into the sea of bodies, parting them like Moses, then like the second angel, turning them red with blood.

Not content to watch his comrades get slaughtered, Split-body launched himself forward, separating his body and limbs into a whirlwind of blows that rained down ineffectually on Julius’ body.

Weathering the storm, Julius felt a blow and, no longer put off by the lack of limbs to grab, he reached out and grabbed the offending hand. Taking the index finger and middle finger into each hand, he pulled and ripped the white extremity straight down the middle.

Split-body screamed in pain and furiously redoubled his attack, sloppier now due to a mixture of pain, rage and fear. His sloppiness would be his downfall, as he maneuvered his torso just a fraction too close to Julius back. Catching sight of its reflection in the shards that littered the ground, he whirled around and, quick as a whip, slammed both palms into it. Sensitive fingertips felt the twin thumps of his hearts and, instead of ripping and shredding like he had been doing, simply made a fist. Split-bodies flesh was no match for the raw power of the champion, and folded around his fingers like play-dough.

Split-bodies bulbous head dropped to the ground, bouncing slightly as it rolled to a stop next Kuroks foot, which was crushing the skull of the insect alien from earlier.

The pink man took a long deep drag of his joint, then looked upwards a sighed a long, weary sigh. Small clouds of smoke whirled into the air, where it was whisked away by the wind.

“You look like shit.” Julius remarked bluntly, pacing over to where his friend stood. Not a sentence he thought he’d be saying when he woke up that morning.

“Feel like it too.” Kurok agreed, placing a hand on his stinging shoulder. “I need to get back into shape.”

“Why don’t you train with me then? I’ll whip you into shape.” Julius offered enthusiastically.

Kurok made a face.

“I said I wanted to get into shape, not an early grave.”

The two laughed and fell into companionable silence, that was only broken by the metallic ting of a bullet falling onto the asphalt as it came to a dead stop at the edge of Julius’ melee field.

Years of friendship prepared them, in one smooth motion Kurok picked up the headless corpse of the dragonfly alien and tossed it to Julius, who had just tee’d up Split-bodies head. A pink middle finger was levelled at the observatory deck as the human squared his feet, pulled back his arms, and swung the corpse at the decapitated head. It made a dull thunk as it flew into the air.

“Haha, another miss, you twat!” Screamer mocked Long-shot for what must have been the tenth time that day.

“Shut up, this doesn’t normally happen.” Long-shot spat out with flushed cheeks, not looking over at the green skinned alien.

A brief whistling sound filled the air, and the two watched as white, round object the size of a football flew through the air. It arced lazily over the observatory railing, before slowly descending onto deck. It rolled to a stop just before Screamer’s foot, where blood slowly started leaking onto his bare toes.

Julius and Kurok sniggered as they stalked off through the bloody streets, a muffled “EWWWW!” come from up high.