Imogyeran’s small body suddenly starts convulsing and spasming before dislocating its shoulder joints and toppling over on all fours. The twitching head calms down and the pure gaze of red rubies seems like being drowned under a frozen river, both dim and absentminded.

His teeth start opening up a slight amount and there is a bit of saliva forming inside while the boy’s breathing becomes slightly rougher.

Kasim is incapable of accurately determining his opponent’s current state and instead focuses on standing back up and assuming a defensive stance to cope with the new situation.

His attention is mainly focused on the ground, which was previously deformed without him noticing and led to the current situation. Imogyeran’s new attitude is only a secondary point of concern for the still inexperienced warrior.

This leaves Imogyeran with ample amount of time to acclimate properly with ‘Donmir’.

The partial possession: Imogyeran came up with this method of spirit-channeling after being forcefully possessed by ‘Mabo’ He utilized the gap between his arrival in the Medalia region and today’s tournament.

<>

The boy’s declaration seems like a shout and a roar while he starts moving on his feet and hands imitating a beast’s movements. Every area touched by his limbs is slowly being covered by a thin layer of ice as the temperature around slowly starts falling down:

Imogyeran starts his dashing attack with a downwards-scratch from his right hand aiming high.

His lower half is positioned perpendicular to the motion of his hand and his knees are bent in a crouching position.

Kasim dodges by twisting his head along with the scratch while slightly weaving back.

He does not bother to move his feet and keeps himself firmly on this spot

*Krrrak*

Suddenly Kasim’s face is twisted into the opposite direction, fresh claw marks adorning his young face.

The pain momentarily overwhelms the boy and brings his movements to a short halt.

Imogyeran uses this moment to reach out and try to bite into his unguarded stomach area.

Kasim comes back to his senses and tries to push him away using the edge of his sword as leverage.

*AHHRRGH!*

*Drip**Drip*

The blink of a moment later, a deep groove is etched into the boy’s unarmed arm’s shoulder, blood smoothly dripping from Imogyeran’s ruby-red mouth.

Kasim in shock instinctively swings his sword downward.

Be it coincidence or skill, his strike possesses the perfect form that a strike may have, aiming at Imogyeran’s head.

This notion seems like a minor instance in the eyes of both contestants but the very act of executing the perfect strike has a profound impact on Kasim’s body and mind.

Both for the duration of this fight as well as the boy’s future as a swordsman, this single moment will shape the man known as Kasim Rojora.

It seems like the strike splits the boy’s skull into two but the image of the boy fizzles away into a haze of water-bubbles leaving behind a new face, only a finger’s length removed from the illusion being turned into reality.

Both parties take some time to recollect themselves by widening the distance between themselves and their rival.

The crowd as well as Kasim himself are astonished at the development that is unfolding before their eyes while Kasanova is overcome with a white rage and tries to rush to the ring in a fury, only to be held back by Kassandra, who is able to quell his anger for the time being.

Meanwhile the outsiders are looking at the devilish boy with eyes of disgust and disdain, as if watching something dirty.

The act of biting into your opponent is something unheard of and too demeaning for a human

to be doing. As such it is highly frowned upon by the well-off audience for this match.

Though their gazes might also contain fear of this unknown being or repulsion at its carnal attitude of expressing primal violence, only they themselves will know what it truly is that they feel at this very moment.

Kasim is mostly astonished because of the type of attacks he has suffered just now. Unlike the spectators, who are concentrated on the fight’s etiquette and general development, he is the one experiencing this gap between his perceived opponent and the real one.

Kasim is analyzing Imogyeran’s current state calmly while taking care of not creating a gap for him to abuse.

He touches his bleeding face with his left hand and feels the curvature of the slashes on his face while holding back the urge to cry from the pain.

Do Not Show Weakness! ...Not Even To Yourself!

Opposite to him, Imogyeran seems to start twitching again. He can’t tell what is going on but Kasim decides to take this as recuperation time instead of attacking immediately.

Outside the ring, Kasanova slightly calms down at the sight of his calm and collected son.

Do Not Show Weakness!

He can see Kasim diligently expressing this motto, that has been ingrained into him. Even under a tremendously disadvantageous situation, his son is able to remain calm and to react appropriately.

From the beginning of the tournament, Kasanova’s aim has always been for his son to prove himself to the audience as the successor of his family.

As long as this goal could be fulfilled the actual outcome would not matter. Kasanova is well aware of the peaks of this world and he isn’t arrogant enough to put an unreasonable task such as a guaranteed win against this thing on his son’s shoulders.

At this moment, Kasanova decides to forgive the beast’s display of primal violence and his lack of etiquette.

In the end, the most important thing is not the outcome of one’s action but the way one looks while fulfilling them.

Weakness is in itself a Weakness!

The credo behind the Rojora-family is not truly a mantra for their mental fortitude.

Weakness and Image.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

In the end…

“In the end it’s nothing more than black and white. Not everything needs to be so complicated, you know?”

[“Well it was going well up to there but then I lost control. I told you about ‘Mabo’ before right? You see…”]

But the situation, both the present one as well as the future, are very different from his current interpretation.

*Gasp* *Gasp* *CRACK*

Kasim is still unperturbed by the audience’s reaction and focuses on analyzing his opponent’s abilities. Luckily or unfortunately for him, by putting up too cautious of an attitude he grants the young boy another opportunity of change.

*CRRACK**CRACK**Bent*

*Stretch*

<>

A weird cackling escapes Imogyeran’s mouth creating a sinister taste in his opponent’s mouth.

For the first time in a while Kasim decides to look directly into the eyes of his opponent:

A ruby submerged into the deepest chasms of water and ice, that was his impression after the partial possession.

The water has become tainted by a murky gray; the temperature has fallen even further and inside the ruby itself, there was a flaw emerging to its surface like a festering wound bubbling up into one’s consciousness.

A smile that contained an innocent but primal aura has been contaminated with a lecherous feeling making goosebumps trace up Kasim’s limbs and back.

A slow stream of drool oozing out of the now pale lips, mixed into it is a slight tint of bloody red.

The boy’s already pale skin turned a shade paler.

The arms that were pulled to the ground in a 4-footed posture have been raised up and twisted unnaturally, showing blue and violet marks running through them all the way through his neck. The fingers are grotesquely protruding in different directions, a decent amount of them showing signs of fractures and deformations from unnatural strain on them.

The back is slightly hunched back and shows a bad posture both socially as well as practically.

The legs are still covered with his brown oversize pants and are thus veiled from the spectator’s eyes but through some of the larger holes in the fabric, one can see the same markings that cover his arms and part of his neck.

Its feet are still rooted to the ground, the left foot being twisted into a strange direction.

The entire attire in combination with its weird act make Kasim uncomfortable at best and absolutely horrified at worst.

The boy has always had a distinct fear of the Undead and their kin. On the top of that list are the so called blood-ghouls, he has read about in a children’s folktale.

Some of the people, that died with dark regrets in their heart would become reanimated and possessed by evil spirits feasting on the darkness in their heart. Their skin would pale and their blood would rot. The Human’s hair would slowly discolor and fall out. Human limbs would start protruding in unnatural directions and their intellect would diminish to nothing.

Most concerning and most frightful however was a single aspect of this story:

By inflicting a flesh-wound of any kind on a human’s body, their own flesh and blood would become contaminated by a curse eventually turning themselves into ghouls as well.

Ever since learning about that story, Kasim has developed a severe trauma that haunts him to this day. And today that trauma is about to resurface in a never before seen magnitude at the sight of this newly transmuted being seemingly coming straight of his nightmares to haunt him.

<>

The new being makes noises as if not being used to the aspect of human lips before and violently shakes from one position to another. Their mouth makes grotesque alien sounds all throughout.

Kasim’s entire body is paralyzed with fear. He is unable to comprehend the words uttered in any meaningful way and just stands there listening to the being’s words.

The crowd is instinctively reeling back from repulsiveness and disgust, Kasanova is disgusted but relatively calm in front of this change in appearance.

<>

After acclimating with the new body it’s voice trailed over into Estican and most importantly physical language.

<>

With every crack in its voice a violent tremor flows through its body making uncomfortable creaking sounds like the sound of many rusty gears being forcefully turned against each other.

<>

Before the mysterious ‘Mabo’ can continue its proclamation of a show, one of its arms raises up to slap it in the face against its own will.

Nobody understands the current situation and realistically almost none of the people in the stands even make an effort to do so.

Kassandra is befuddled in the corner rather than being scared while Kasanova’s face in the back visibly relaxes with each passing moment.

The veteran makes an effort to hide his expression and tries to get his son’s attention through loud acclamation and subtle gesturing.

But nothing he does is able to go through to Kasim’s ears in his current state. The boy simply continues to stare at the monstrous behavior enfolding before him while steadily retreating.

<<##!$!?$§##>>

‘Mabo’ possessing Imogyeran, ‘Donmir’ protecting him and Imogyeran himself are fighting for control over Imog’s body while continuously shouting out a jumble of words creating a cacophony of sounds in the spirit’s languages, much like the scream of an underwater predator trying to intimidate its prey.

His 5-year old body crunches together and is torn into multiple directions while blood is oozing out of his reddening eyes, which subtly flicker in different shades of blue and gray.

Nobody knows what is being said, the picture continues to last for a moment and then another before eventually blurring again.

*Freeze*

Imog’s body starts freezing to a halt. His posture is crooked like a worn-down tree-branch and his eyes are still glossed over.

*Push* *Run* *Woosh*

Suddenly the creature takes control again and the being formerly known as Imogyeran Ashenwald goes for a reckless head-on assault. ‘Mabo’ breaks down into a combination of a 2-legged and a 4-legged sprint looking as if being created straight from a child’s darkest nightmare. While running the spirit builds up a wavefront of icy wind that quickly accumulates into a wall of frost bulldozing its way to Kasim Rojora, the enemy!

<>

It lets out a sound resembling the bellows of a drunken person losing their sanity to despair, lunatic and evil.

Kasim, the boy, wants nothing more than to run away but his feet are frozen solid to the ground, not from a physical phenomenon but simply due to a paralyzing despair known as Horror.

The young child barely manages to sink to their knees and bring up their hands in a protective position; the most natural defensive stance: the fetal position!

*Waaaft*

like a breeze intensifying to a cold sting a frosty glaze layers atop of the frightened child’s body coloring its skin blue.

*PUNCH**PUNCH**KICK**SMACK*

Attacks begin raining upon the defenseless sack of horror as ‘Mabo’ clenches ‘his’ fists and pummels onto the front guard with rough and sadistic violence. There is no technique. There is no grace. And there most certainly is no heart.

<>

The sounds were not said in human language but anybody watching could tell. This was a pure form of sadistic laughter taking joy from beating down a defenseless being in the cruelest method possible.

Originally, such behavior would be sanctioned immediately by the guards of the festival but this specific case came this unexpected that the guards themselves were unable to react and simply let the stage play happen without interfering, a gaping mouth wide open, wide eyes staring in horror and disgust as much so as everybody else.

Kasanova is about to step on top of the platform to save his son from this situation but he is stopped.

<>

When he steps onto the edge of the arena, he was supposed to find his son defending himself from a rabid beast but that is not what his eyes show the nobleman.

<>

What he sees is not his son. He doesn’t know what he sees but the sight before him drains away any power his body was preparing to conjure forward.

The maniac laughter grows louder and louder before suddenly disappearing.

The ambiance is liberated from the cacophony of thumping fists and thundering kicks.

The creature, now unknown whether to be ‘Mabo’ or Imogyeran, retreats again, their face half in a psychopath smile, hands and skin bloodied with another human’s blood.

It takes a step back and another step. Step by step, quickly but also cautiously it retreats to a safe distance away from the crying child around the center of the ring.

*SMASH!*

Suddenly it starts going on its knees and smashing its head against the outer edge of the arena. A metallic thumping resounds.

*SMASH!!* *SMASH!!!*

Again and again, the sound repeats itself, it grows stronger and repeats itself faster.

Blood is splashing out from the creature’s forehead and there is a slight crunching undertone indicating an increasing fracture of the child’s skull growing worse with each swing of its head.

Just at the peak of Confusion and Fright of the Medalian crowd a deafening scream erupts out of The boy’s mouth.

<>

It is not a roar or a shriek of fear, this cry is purely a cry of pain showing how much anguish the boy is in right now.

The cry does not abate for a few seconds but when it does, everything has gone silent.

In the ear-numbing silence Imogyeran Ashenwald’s body stands up, its eyes completely drowned in blood, a vein seeming to have popped behind the retinas, and it starts heading towards the now almost unconscious boy again.

*Step* *Step*

While everyone is still shocked and too petrified to move, Kassandra has silently climbed the stage and traces Imogyeran’s movements, ready to strike at the slightest overstepping of boundaries.

But there is no overstepping anymore. He simply walks up to the wreck of a boy lying on the ground, picks it up and gently carries it off the edge of the arena.

There is no announcement for victory as he silently walks off the stage and there is no applause. Only deathly silence and a sick cold enveloping everything.

After this incident, any and all other participants in his group forfeit and Imogyeran is crowned the winner of this match by default.

The rest of the tournament is suspended and all other brackets earn a consolation fee for participating. Nobody is happy, everybody silently prepares for departure not wanting to think about today for the rest of their lives.

A few hours later, barely on the same day, Imogyeran is then visited by the pair of Kasim and Kassandra, who want to talk with him.

[“I still haven’t forgiven them for what they said to me in that moment. Actually, I kind of hate them a bit for that.”]