The concrete tunnel floor was littered with polished white bones illuminated by harsh LED light. Wisps of sand blew around the space, leftovers from all of Danny’s spells. The horde of zombies had finally been dealt with.
Fighter stood grinning at Danny. Glowing orange liquid spilt down its face from its mouth, like a drool. Its orange eyes followed Danny, not letting a single one of his actions escape its gaze. It was studying him, trying to work out how he was doing what he was with their abundant mana.
Danny was confident it wouldn’t be able to copy him just by watching, but it was still uncomfortable. It was one of the few edges he had left over the super powerful creature, that and his mind.
Now that the rabble was cleared the two of them stood across from each other. Danny’s spells had cleared a space free of bones, creating a faux ring that contained the two of them. The kind of environment Danny thrived in. The harsh downlights reminded him of his first fight, where he was shocked by the bright lights as he entered the ring. They had shone so brightly that he couldn’t see the world beyond the ring. It was similar now. The sea of polished bones reflected the light, making it appear as if there was no world beyond their arena.
Fighter began a slow stalk toward him. Danny took a moment to calm his breath, focusing on keeping it steady. He knew this was going to be a tough fight. He wasn’t completely prepared yet, he had to buy more time. Danny knew that if he took a direct hit it would break bones, but he had very limited choice.
He spared some of his concentration to try an idea that sprung to mind. His body was brimming with mana, everything as reinforced as he thought he could manage without destroying things. What if he reinforced himself externally? Danny summoned plates of sand, hardened into dense stone, around his forearms. They were clunky and he had to actively manipulate them to stay attached to his arms, but they might provide some extra protection. He then did the same for other parts of his body, like his thighs, shins, and torso.
Danny then walked toward Fighter, taking the fight to it. He felt that his mobility was slightly restricted by his makeshift armour, but its weightiness reassured him. Danny would be on the defensive but he couldn’t afford to simply shell up and take a beating.
The super zombie growled at him and broke into a charge. Danny stayed silent but matched its movement. In the brief moment before they collided Danny dropped to a knee and shot a double-leg takedown. Fighter’s wild arms swiped futilely through the air where Danny had been a second before. Danny couldn’t give the monster a chance to grab him, so he took advantage of its confusion to complete the takedown. He hoisted the creature's legs out from under it and used his head to topple it over.
It might have been stronger than him, but technique could do a lot of heavy lifting in closing that gap. Fighter snarled as it smashed into the ground. Danny didn’t follow it, having learnt from his mistake against the demon. This monster wasn’t a man and wouldn’t fight like one. Danny pressed a knee into its torso and hammered a furious blow down into its face. He charged his fist with one of the spells he recently created.
The blow mangled the face of Fighter, causing it to cry out in pain. It swiped an arm at him but Danny had pulled back and gotten to his feet. That was how Danny needed to fight this fight, quickly and evasively. He needed to capitalise on his technique advantage.
Fighter went to scramble up to its feet, but as it did so Danny closed the distance again. He slammed his doubly reinforced shin into its head. The force sent it tumbling and a dull ache through Danny’s leg.
“Tough son of a gun,” Danny spat. He raced forward, not giving the creature enough time to safely get to its feet. Danny focused on keeping it immobile, kicking its legs or arms out from under it whenever it tried to get up. Whenever he could he’d try to attack the head, but the damage was insubstantial. Danny almost felt like it hurt him more to kick it than it hurt Fighter to be kicked.
Damage like this wasn’t how Danny was going to win the fight. They both knew it. Fighter grew increasingly frustrated as time went on though, rationality leaking from its brain faster than the corrupting fluid that coursed its veins. Eventually, it gave up on getting up and simply crawled toward Danny.
Danny smashed a knee into its head as it scurried toward him and immediately knew he had made a grave mistake. The blow barely moved Fighter and it latched onto the offending limb with glee. The monster now had its hands on Danny. In a fit of anger, it roared and lifted Danny into the air as it stood.
Danny tried his best to sprawl out and recover his leg from its grasp, but it was like a vice. Fighter’s grip was like that of steel, unmoving. Danny was sent high into the air before Fighter tugged violently on his leg and he was sent crashing into the floor. Danny’s head spun. He had been hit thousands of times, but nothing compared to the force of the slam he just experienced. Before Danny had a chance to gather his wits, Fighter was on top of him. The monster tore at his body, trying its best to rip him apart. Its hands were like clamps that tore against his flesh.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Danny let out a pained scream as a chunk of his arm was ripped from him. Fighter let out a gleeful cry as it took its pound of flesh and brought it to its gaping maw. Danny did his best to stay collected and took advantage of the opening. He swept the creature over, coming on top of it. Fighter, having no understanding of how their positions had just reversed looked confused. Danny grabbed its leg by the ankle and slammed his elbow into the side of its knee.
The joint, though reinforced by an ungodly amount of mana, was still a human joint which was only supposed to move a certain way. Danny’s spell-backed strike blew the joint to smithereens. Fighter screamed in agony, forgetting its meal.
Danny took a second to inspect his arm. He saw that the missing chunk was bleeding orange fluid, just the same as the zombies. He ignored that aspect and focused on the wound itself, he saw that it was visibly healing. The missing chunk of muscle hindered the function of his arm. He shook his head and focused on Fighter, who was still screaming. The creature’s inhuman eyes were filled with hatred as it tried to force itself back onto its feet. It couldn’t.
The destroyed knee was unable to bear the weight of Fighter and it collapsed. As it did, Danny caught its head with his shin, smashing the Fighter across the floor. Fighter hobbled up onto its one functional leg and gingerly put weight onto its destroyed joint. It was already healing.
Danny took the second of distraction to focus most of his attention on the work he was doing beneath their makeshift ring. It was almost done. He just needed to last a little longer and he would stand a chance at actually winning this thing. Fighter, unknowing of his machinations, charged at Danny again.
Danny summoned a small block of stone in front of its foot just as it reached him, causing it to stumble. Danny caught its chin with his fist and an explosion of his mana sent orange blood and teeth shooting out of Fighter’s mouth as its head snapped upward. Danny followed up with a crushing hook that destroyed the eye socket of the monster. Before it could regain its wits, Danny hit it with the Jon Jones Special, a devastating kick to the freshly healed knee. The joint buckled under the strike, collapsing Fighter to the ground.
Danny drew back, not following up on his strikes. He watched as the monster simply healed as it dragged itself back up. It had stopped screaming now, instead, it stared at Danny. Malice, hatred, and hunger laced its gaze. Danny backed up, luring it toward a certain spot in the ring. He was almost done.
Fighter raced toward Danny again. Danny tried to catch its foot for a second time, but it was prepared. Just before it reached him it leapt, diving at him. Danny caught it with another uppercut, but he didn’t have enough force to change its trajectory. Fighter crashed into him, sending them both toppling to the ground in a heap. Danny tried to take advantage of the scramble to escape its clutches, but Fighter latched onto him and wasn’t letting go. Its vice-like hands tore into Danny, ripping flesh from his arms and torso. The armour he had constructed had stopped Fighter briefly, but it had been quickly peeled off of him. Danny tried to construct more, but the pain of being torn apart made casting any form of spell nigh impossible.
Danny could only summon massive torrents of mana and sand to try and force the monster off him, any amount of intricacy was a forgone conclusion. Fighter was unmoved by his efforts, it locked its legs against his torso and continued to tear into him. Its flesh was shredded and bled, but it remained resolute in its attack.
Danny’s arms were quickly torn apart, his healing speed was no match for the rate he was losing flesh. It was a pain unlike anything he had ever felt before, his mind was completely unable to focus. Any thoughts of a plan had flown from his mind all he desperately wanted was for the pain to end. Fighter did not care for his wishes though, tearing into his torso, and breaking bones with ease.
Amidst the sea of pain, Danny felt his mind begin to waver and grow dark. Oh. Danny realised he had been here before, more than once now. A sense of tranquillity washed over him. I’ve been here before. I’m dying. What had he really expected? He knew that Fighter outmatched him in almost every regard. He knew that entering the tunnels was suicidal at best. What had he hoped for? Why had he come here? Did he want to die?
Wanting answers from Tamm felt so silly now. Surely that had not been enough to motivate him to head toward certain death? Danny wanted to believe he was smarter than that. So, why was he here? Danny’s eyes weakly looked up at the monster gleefully tearing into him. Why? Why had he come here?
Something ruptured inside Danny. Something hidden deep within him. It burst forth with a primal fury, it tore around his body and flooded his mind. Feelings of strength, of fury, and of carnal violence filled him. A beastly roar tore itself out of his damaged throat. The faint image of a scaled leviathan materialised in his mind for the briefest of moments before disappearing.
Danny found the strength within him to trap the arm of Fighter and roll to his side, sweeping the monster for the second time. Now on top, Danny channelled every ounce of mana he could muster and smashed his forehead into the face of the monster. The resulting explosion shook the tunnels around them and reduced Fighter’s face to pulp.