Vincent, a bit bruised, looked confidently at his opponent, Hulkan, and smiled back. “I’m sure you’d love to show me how strong you are, but I don’t really think you are.”

As he said this, he let himself sink even deeper into his mind.

“Haha, even a dying dog still has some bark,” Hulkan retorted. “Let’s see if one more shot will put you down.”

With that, Hulkan immediately started to speedily glide towards Vincent. A bit of dust was being kicked up from his shoes slightly dragging on the ground. Using what time he had left before Hulkan was on him, Vincent continued to empty himself, now to the point where he could see his own breath.

The moment Hulkan was within 3 feet of him, Vincent unleashed a void out in front of him, 6 feet in diameter. He hoped that Hulkan would get caught up in it, just like he planned

Once he released the void, he prepared for Hulkan to charge him again, or best case scenario, for him to already be on the ground in pain. Unfortunately, the reality of the situation was neither of those—he didn’t see him at all.

Vincent didn’t even have time to think about it, because he felt a pounding sensation course through his head. He was then knocked straight to the ground. He quickly got to his feet and saw that Hulkan was standing right behind him.

Shit, I didn’t think he’d actually be able to dodge it, he thought.

“What’s wrong, boy, didn’t think I was quick enough?” Hulkan replied with a shit-eating grin.

Vincent said nothing.

Hulkan continued his trash talk. “You’re a little tougher than I thought, but don’t think that gives you any better of a chance of beating me, ‘cause you have none.”

“Yeah right, I’m—” But before Vincent could finish his reply, he felt the front of his shirt pulled forward, towards Hulkan, with him included.

Hulkan then stepped away, causing Vincent to continue to be pulled forward towards the wall. There was no way to stop the inevitable from happening, so Vincent just prepared for impact, and impact he did. His entire front side of his body smacked against the wall, causing it to slightly crack.

Pulling himself from the slight indentation he made, he felt his whole torso ache with pain. When he was able to clear the dust from his eyes, Vincent saw that Hulkan was once again parading around the arena, riling up the crowd, and proclaiming how amazing he is.

That was it, he had enough. Whatever it was that was pulling him around like a ragdoll—whether it was an Apparition, someone invisible, or something else—Vincent was getting tired of it.

If they want to just yank my clothes around so much, let’s see how they like this, Vincent proudly thought.

Without a second to waste, he ripped off every article of clothing he had on, leaving him completely and utterly naked. He didn’t care, nor did he have the time to care. All that mattered was that they were off.

The crowd all gasped at the same time, and murmurs started to snake their way around the stands. With a curious look, Hulkan followed the now perplexed crowd’s eyes back to the source of the confusion. The moment his eyes found Vincent, a look of ghastly horror, confusion, and shock.

“Hey, asshat!” Vincent called out. “It’s gonna be real hard to yank my clothes around if there’s nothing to grab!” And with that, Vincent decided that it was finally time to go on the offensive. He took off at a dead sprint towards the bewildered Hulkan.

It took no time at all for Vincent to reach him, and before he could even react, Vincent threw a starbreaker right in his face. Hulkan tumbled for a number of yards before coming to a stop.

God, that felt good, Vincent thought, flexing his muscles, cathartically. Oh shit, I gotta finish the fight.

He then ran as fast as he could over to Hulkan, who was still lying on the ground. He jumped in the air and prepared to launch the final starbreaker at Hulkan. Just as Vincent was coming down, Hulkan’s eye shot open and he swiftly, while still on his back, drifted away from the oncoming attack. Not only did he avoid the attack, but he floated all the way to the center of the arena.

Vincent’s attack missed, and instead broke and dented the floor in a spherical pattern. Looking back up, Vincent saw that Hulkan was back on his feet...kind of. He was still hovering a bit, but the confidant demeanor that he had for the fight was gone, and was replaced by a sweating, intimated one.

“What’s wrong?” Vincent sarcastically probed. “I thought you liked being in melee? Why’d you go all the way over there?”

Hulkan was breathing hard and fast. His hands were on his chest and face as he wiped the blood away. His left eye was already starting to swell shut.

“That’s a nice little trick you got there,” Hulkan replied, huffing and puffing. “I can tell,” gasp, “that you’re really only good at melee fighting, and I’m not up for that right now. So why don’t we take that off the menu?”

Raising his hands slightly higher, he began to float up in the sky. After about 20 feet he stopped and just hovered. “Let’s see how you deal with this, bare boy.” He then stuck his hand out in Vincent’s general direction.

“Oh don’t worry,” Vincent replied, “I can get to you perfectly fine—” Before he could finish his retort, he felt some cloth wrap around his neck, like a scarf, and then sharply tighten. It was choking him.

He looked down and saw the piece of fabric that was around his neck and it looked familiar. It only took a second to realize that it belonged to the shirt he just recently tore up. The squeezing sensation and the lack of oxygen caused him to fall to one knee. He then just looked up at the floating enemy.

“I can do this all day,” Hulk replied, his arms outstretched like a mad puppeteer, “but it seems like you can only do this for a few more seconds.”

He hated to admit it, but Hulkan was right. Vincent knew that he was suffocating, and it was happening fast. At best, he only had 30 seconds or so. His mind began to race and panic. He desperately clawed at the cloth that was choking him, but he couldn’t find a way to fight against it.

No matter how hard he pulled, whatever force was pulling it tight was too great. Not to mention, with every struggle, blood flowed faster and faster to his muscles, causing him to lose oxygen that much faster. And because of that, the numbness started to set in as the world became darker.

In that darkness, Vincent felt a kind of comfort. The numbness felt relieving, and the whole world finally felt familiar to him. As it all started to fade away, strangely, he began to calm down. All thoughts ceased to flow through his rapidly firing mind. Slowly, like a drain being released, his head began to empty. In that emptiness, he finally felt free.

With no thought behind it, purely on instinct, Vincent calmly picked a piece of rubble that was on the floor. He knew exactly how to get out of this. His body got even colder and he took aim.

He looked up at his target with his deadened eyes, and took aim. While still kneeling on the ground, he wound back his arm and began to throw the stone. Just as it left his fingertips, he created a void at the end of his hand, propelling the stone even faster.

The piece of rubble rocketed through the air, eventually colliding with Hulkan, hitting him square on the forehead. Like a helpless bird that was shot by a seasoned hunter, Hulkan plummeted towards the ground. He landed with a thud and did not move an inch. He was defeated.

With the cloth that had been strangling him now limply laying across his neck, Vincent stood up and raised a fist in the air, and shouted with joy. The crowd, in response, roared back even louder. Although his body was still frigid and numb, he couldn’t help but feel the warmth of victory.

For a solid 20 seconds or so, he just stood proudly in the middle of the arena. He then decided to strut back to his cell and take a nap—he was exhausted. As the doors opened, he noticed that the guards gave him a confused look as he walked past them. He didn’t think anything of it and just continued to walk in strides.

When he finally got back to his cell, he saw that it was empty and borderline lightless. The cell door opened and he gladly walked on through. With his muscles aching and his body crying for rest, he slumped down and immediately found himself in the darkness of unconsciousness, still completely naked.